Durst has long been suspected of the murder of at least three people, but has never been found guilty of any crime.
The Jinx examines the case against him. It has been airing on Sunday nights for the past five weeks in the US (it will be shown in Australia later this year.)
Inch by inch and bit by bit, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, has been making the case that Durst – whose family owns half of Manhattan, including the rights to manage the Freedom Tower, which replaced the Twin Towers – has for four decades been getting away with murder.
He has interviewed anyone who ever had anything to do with Durst. The evidence he uncovered – evidence that police missed – has been startling.
And now, in the most extraordinary development to date, police have swooped. Durst was arrested in New Orleans on Saturday night, and charged with one murder.
The arrest came just hours before The Jinx finale was due to be shown.
Durst is a suspect in at least three murders, including that of his first wife, Kathie, who disappeared after the couple had an argument. Her body has never been found.
In 2004, he faced trial for the murder of a friend, Morris Black, whose body was found chopped up in bags, in a river.
Durst admitted to chopping up the body but says he killed Morris in self-defence. He was acquitted at trial.
Durst is also a suspect in the murder of another friend, Susan Berman, who was shot in the head at her home in California in 2000.
Mafia princess Susan Berman was the victim of a mysterious murder in her LA home in 2000.
The makers of The Jinx have been able to place Durst in California on the day that Berman was killed. Their investigation has also focused on a letter the killer sent to LA police at the time.
The ‘did-he, didn’t he?’ of the first few weeks has slowly given way to the idea that Durst has a case to answer.
Director Andrew Jarecki attends the HBO docu-series premiere of The Jinx in NYC in January.
Jarecki has been fascinated by Durst for years. In 2010, he made a drama based on the case, which starred Ryan Gosling. It flopped, but Durst himself got in touch and – amazingly – agreed to be interviewed about the crimes he’s accused of committing.
The result was The Jinx.
The scenes in which Durst talks to himself, apparently unaware that the microphone pinned to his lapel is still on, are compelling.
In the finale, Durst says: “What did I do? Killed them all, of course.”
Whether that – a remark made when Durst apparently did not know that he was wearing a live microphone – amounts to a confession is something a jury will now decide.
