Robert Durst Couldn't Elude Death

 For years he eluded justice, but in the end, Robert Durst couldn't elude death.  After years and years of health problems, including cancer, the multimillionaire convicted killer and one-time fugitive from justice finally died, age 78, in prison.  He had recently been charged in the disappearance and presumed murder of his first wife, Kathie McCormack Durst, back in 1982.  She had been a medical student set to graduate and become a pediatrician, but Durst  was mad she wanted a life independent of him, and he wasn't going to let her fulfill her dreams.  Her remains were never found.  With his death, it is likely they will never be found.

Susan Berman, a mobster's daughter who was a writer, was a longtime friend of Durst's and she was said to have had information about Kathie's disappearance she was going to go to authorities with.  Durst got wind of it, and he killed her in 2000 execution style.  Shortly thereafter, while he was on the run, he went to Galveston, Texas.  He rented a room at a dilapidated rooming house where he crossdressed and called himself a woman's name, using the name of a classmate who had never been anywhere near Galveston. Shortly after arriving, he got into an altercation with a fellow boarder, Morris Black, and killed him.  He dismembered Black and dumped his remains in Galveston Bay.  Durst was arrested for the killing and was tried, but because the defense made sure there were only two avenues for the jury to take--murder one or aquittal--they felt that had no choice but to acquit given the head was never found.  Durst's defense was he killed Black in self-defense and panicked, thus explaining the dismemberment.  There was no way the jury could determine premeditation, so they were forced to acquit.

During this time, Durst remarried, but a 2015 documentary, The Jinx, put him right back in the news and in the court system for murder when he admitted on camera he had "killed them all," meaning of course, his first wife Kathie, Susan Berman, and Morris Black.  This plus some handwriting evidence caused L.A. prosecutors to charge Durst with the death of Susan Berman.  By this time Durst was practically on death's door, but he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.  Recently he was charged in connection with Kathie's disappearance, but it was clear he was never going to go to trial.

Snip from the Daily Mail:

Durst, born on April 12, 1943, was the eldest son of a prominent New York real estate dynasty. His grandfather, the family patriarch, Joseph Durst, was a tailor from Poland who immigrated to New Yok in 1902 with $3 sewn into his lapel.

...

Robert Durst's childhood was marred by tragedy when he witnessed his mother, Bernice, commit suicide by jumping off the roof of their family home. (Family members would later claim that it was an accident and dispute that Robert was anywhere present at the time). 

Robert's relationship with his brother, Douglas, only 18 months apart, was perennially fraught. 

As children, they underwent counseling for a violent sibling rivaling that often ended in physical fights. 

A psychiatrist's report in 1953 diagnosed 10-year-old Robert with 'personality decomposition and possibly even schizophrenia.' 

Needess to say "Bobby," as he was known,  was very screwed up. No wonder he was heavily into drugs by the time he met Kathie.

Oh, this is the kicker:

An appeal had been filed for Durst, but his death now vacates his conviction, Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told The News. “If a criminal defendant dies before he can exhaust all appeals, the conviction is negated... The doctrine comes from common law and has been criticized by victims of crime, so some states have abandoned it. It remains the rule in California, though.”

link