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Robert Durst’s Jewish background

Jewish real estate scion Robert Durst, the subject of a recent HBO documentary miniseries, is currently awaiting extradition to Los Angeles after being arrested by the FBI in a New Orleans hotel Sunday evening, March 15. FBI officials say they have new evidence linking Durst to the 2000 killing of his friend Susan Berman in her Hollywood Hills home.
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March 16, 2015

Jewish real estate scion Robert Durst, the subject of a recent HBO documentary miniseries, is currently awaiting extradition to Los Angeles after being arrested by the FBI in a New Orleans hotel Sunday evening, March 15. FBI officials say they have new evidence linking Durst to the 2000 killing of his friend Susan Berman in her Hollywood Hills home.

Durst is the son of Seymour Durst, a estate investor, and Bernice Herstein. He grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y., one of four siblings. Durst's grandfather, Joseph Durst, immigrated to America as a penniless Jewish immigrant tailor from Austria-Hungary, then went on to become a prosperous real estate manager and developer, starting in 1915 what eventually became the Durst Organization.

Robert Durst was once considered a possible successor to his father at the Durst Organization, a firm that now reportedly owns billions of dollars worth of property across midtown Manhattan, Robert Durst’s relationship with his family began to deteriorate in the early 1990s, after his brother Douglas was chosen to lead the organization following their father’s retirement.

Though the 71 year-old Durst waved his right to an extradition hearing Monday morning, March 16, his return to Los Angeles was delayed as local prosecutors considered filing charges against him, possibly in connection with marijuana police say he had in his possession at the time of his arrest, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In the final episode of “The Jinx,” the HBO documentary directed by Andrew Jarecki, Durst appears to walk into a bathroom during an interview and confess to the crime while talking to himself, apparently unaware that the microphone he was wearing was still recording.

“What the hell did I do,” Durst whispered. “Killed them all, of course.”

Jarecki acknowledged in interviews with various media outlets on Monday that he had been in communication with law enforcement for two years while working on “The Jinx,” though he denied having any knowledge or role in the timing of the arrest, which took place just hours before the final episode of the miniseries aired on television. The Los Angeles Police Department said Monday that there was no connection between the show’s finale and the decision to arrest, according to Times.

Durst has been a suspect or person of interest in three separate deaths, beginning with his former wife, Kathleen “Kathie” McCormack Durst, in 1982. Though police questioned Robert Durst during their investigation of Kathie Durst’s disappearance, he was never charged. Though Kathie Durst’s body was never found, she was declared dead in 2001.

In 2000, soon after New York State Police reopened the case into Kathie Durst’s disappearance, Robert Durst’s longtime friend Susan Berman was found shot execution-style in her Benedict Canyon home.

New York prosecutor Jeanine Pirro said Berman had been on a list of witnesses she wished to interview as part of her renewed investigation of Kathie Durst’s disappearance, fueling public suspicion that knowledge of Kathie’s death may have led to her own murder. Police again questioned Robert Durst but did not press charges.

Berman and Durst first met in the 1960s while they were both students at UCLA. An author and journalist, Berman was the daughter of Las Vegas organized crime figure David “Davie the Jew” Berman, who died during surgery in 1957, when Susan was still a child. Susan Berman eventually wrote a memoir, “Easy Street,” recounting her life as the daughter of mob royalty in Minneapolis and Las Vegas.

Less than a year after Berman’s death, Durst was arrested in Galveston, Texas after his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, was found dismembered and floating in the Galveston Bay. Durst had moved to Texas to avoid media attention as result of the Berman death, his lawyers said at the time.

Durst claimed self-defense to a charge of murder, though he admitted during the trial to dismembering and dumping Black’s body. A jury ultimately acquitted Durst of murder, but he received a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to jumping bond and tampering with evidence.

Over the years, Durst has had various other run-ins with the law.

Robert Durst sued the Durst family trusts and its trustees, though the case was settled in 2006 when the he agreed to give up his interest in the family fortune in exchange for a $65 million payout. He has long been estranged from his family, various members of which have, at different times, filed restraining orders against him.

Durst’s lawyer, Chip Lewis, told the Times that he does not expect Durst to be extradited to Los Angeles today. 

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