Property heir Robert Durst harboured a deadly secret for over half his lifetime - one that only emerged after he committed a crucial error whilst participating in a documentary.
When his wife Kathie disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1982 aged 29, he denied any involvement and she was later pronounced legally dead.
However, the erratic tycoon, who pursued legal action against his brother for a £50million portion of the family fortune, remained under a cloud of suspicion as a possible murderer.
He had previously been acquitted of killing a neighbour and lived a turbulent life, cutting contact with relatives and repeatedly entering and exiting detention.
Then in 2000, Durst's close friend Susan Berman, a crime author, was found shot in the back of the head at her Los Angeles home.
Police only discovered the body after receiving an anonymous note stating there was a "cadaver" at 1527 Benedict Canyon in 'Beverley' Hills, a misspelling of Beverly.
Once more, Durst maintained his innocence but his involvement in the real-life documentary 'The Jinx' in 2015 changed everything, reports the Mirror.
The programme's team discovered a letter written by Durst to Susan in March 1998, in which he'd also misspelt Beverly as Beverley. When presented with this evidence, he retreated to the bathroom, seemingly unaware his microphone remained active.
He was overheard mumbling to himself: "There it is... I'm caught," before continuing: "What a disaster. What the hell did I do? ...Killed them all, of course."
As Berman's father had connections to organised crime, her death was originally probed as a mob-related hit, but bank statements showed Durst had transferred her £36,000 ($50,000), suggesting she may have been poised to testify against him.
Durst was seized for Berman's murder in 2015, just as the documentary's concluding instalment aired, which examined his turbulent existence.
He'd been on the run for months, disguising himself as a mute woman in Texas, and was arrested after stealing a chicken sandwich whilst carrying thousands of pounds in banknotes.
His lawyers claimed the audio had been doctored, but the revelation reignited attention in the unsolved cases linked to him.
During the hearing, prosecutors maintained Berman had planned to reveal to police that she'd assisted Durst in covering up the 1982 death of his wife Kathie McCormack.
Throughout the trial, he endured various health complications, including contracting Covid-19, and regularly turned up in a wheelchair.
He was handed a life term for her slaying in September 2021 and, just a month later, prosecutors filed charges against him for Kathie's murder too.
Kathleen Durst's family members stated at the time: "Not a single day goes by that we do not think about our beautiful, smart, and kind sister, Kathleen.
"Today, more than ever before, it is clear that she was murdered by Robert Durst in Westchester County, New York on January 31, 1982. The evidence is overwhelming.
"Although Durst has now been rightly convicted of killing Susan Berman, who helped him conceal the truth about Kathie's death, the McCormack family is still waiting for justice. Kathie is still waiting for justice."
In 'The Jinx', Durst maintained his disguise as a mute woman - which involved shaving off his hair and wearing a wig - was to "avoid media attention" surrounding the renewed investigation into his wife's disappearance. Blood traces in his flat led to his arrest, though he was acquitted on self-defence grounds.
Black's head was never recovered, and prosecutors claimed Durst dismembered his body and disposed of the remains in Galveston Bay, where his torso and severed limbs were found.
Durst came from privileged origins as the son of New York property magnate Seymour Durst and brother of commercial developer Douglas Durst.
His wealth was estimated at $65m (£47m). The property empire possesses an extensive portfolio including New York's One World Trade Centre.
Nevertheless, he became estranged from his family after his brother was chosen over him to run the family business. The killer's last mugshot, taken three weeks before he died of cardiac arrest in January 2022, depicts him breathing with the assistance of a tube.
Previously, his legal team had tried to postpone proceedings citing health complications including chest pains, respiratory problems, discomfort from a catheter and urinary tract infections linked to bladder cancer.
He contracted Covid-19 shortly after receiving his sentence and needed hospital treatment. His solicitor Chip Lewis stated the death resulted from natural causes stemming from multiple health conditions.
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