The Jinx: How HBO Solved a Decades-Old Murder
Andrew Jarecki's documentary series captured a real estate heir's confession on a hot microphone, unraveling three suspicious deaths
Robert Durst's life reads like a crime novel—except it's real. The wealthy New York real estate heir became the central figure in HBO's landmark documentary series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, which premiered in 2015 and produced extraordinary results: a conviction for murder and answers to questions that had haunted investigators for decades.
Directed and produced by Andrew Jarecki alongside Marc Smerling, the series emerged from nearly a decade of meticulous research. Drawing on police files, witness interviews, never-before-seen footage, private prison recordings, and thousands of pages of previously hidden documents, the filmmakers constructed a narrative that would ultimately help solve a cold case.
Three deaths formed the investigation's core. The first was Kathleen "Kathie" Durst, Robert's wife and a medical student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who vanished in 1982. Her disappearance remained officially unsolved, though Durst was long suspected. Three decades later, investigators would revisit this case with fresh evidence.
The second death involved Susan Berman, a family friend and writer, who was murdered in her California home in 2000 in an execution-style killing. After her death, an anonymous "cadaver note" arrived at police with her address—written in distinctive block lettering with a telltale misspelling: "Beverley Hills."
The third case centered on Morris Black, Durst's neighbor in Galveston, Texas, whom he killed and dismembered in 2001. Durst confessed to the dismemberment but claimed self-defense; a jury acquitted him.
What transformed the documentary from compelling television into an investigative turning point came during Season 1's fifth episode. Sareb Kaufman, Berman's stepson, provided filmmakers with an envelope Durst had sent to Berman in March 1999. When compared to the anonymous cadaver note, the match was striking: identical handwriting and the same "Beverley Hills" misspelling in block lettering. The filmmakers placed the envelopes in a safety deposit box and secured a second interview with Durst.
