The Millionaire who almost got away with murder

Robert Durst

If you haven’t seen the news recently then you might not know that the well-known businessman from New York was found guilty of murder.

Robert Durst has been suspected of killing his ex-wife, his best friend, and a previous neighbor of his. To escape police for over a decade, he dressed like a woman and changed his name. Now he is finally getting the justice he deserves.

Here are the facts of his case.

Images of Robert Durst during his 2021 trial.

Early life

Robert Allen Durst was born on April 12th, 1943. He was born into a wealthy Jewish family that owned a real estate company in New York. His father, Seymour Durst, was an infamous man and married to Bernice Herstein. Together they had a total of four children and lived a life of luxury.

When Durst was seven years old, his mother died after falling off a roof. Durst claimed that his father walked him to a window just before she fell, witnessing her death. However, in an interview in 2015, his brother claimed that Durst never saw his mother die. His brother, Douglas, hated him. The two were put in counseling as children for their intense sibling rivalry.

During that time, a psychiatrist reported that he had “personality decomposition and possibly even schizophrenia”.

While Durst was considered to be a loner and kind of odd, he was still successful. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and played on a college varsity lacrosse team. He was a business manager of a student newspaper called “The Brown and White” and eventually enrolled in a doctoral program with the University of California but withdrew sometime after. It was at this college that Durst met his best friend, Susan Berman. After dropping out, he moved back to New York and became a real estate developer for Durst Organization.

What happened to Kathleen Durst?

Durst met Kathleen when she was working as a dental hygienist. After just two dates, he invited her to share a living space with him in Vermont. They met towards the end of 1971 and they moved in together early in 1972. Due to pressure he received from his father, Durst decided to move them back to New York with Kathleen and they were married…