Robert Durst jurors watch clips from The Jinx as his murder trial begins
It's not often that a DVD commentary comes up in a murder trial, but it just did in Robert Durst's.
Durst, the real estate heir who was the subject of the HBO documentary series The Jinx, is on trial for allegedly killing his friend Susan Berman in 2000. Prosecutors allege Durst killed Berman because of what she knew about his alleged murder of his wife, Kathleen Durst, who disappeared in 1982 and whose body wasn't found. Durst hasn't been charged with his wife's murder, which he denies, and he's pleaded not guilty to killing Berman.
Famously, Durst in The Jinx's final scene is heard muttering under his breath that he "killed them all." In the final episode, he's also confronted with the apparent similarities between his handwriting and a note delivered to police with the location of Berman's body and the word "cadaver." He denied writing the note in The Jinx, but his lawyers have since said that he actually did write it.
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As Durst's trial began Wednesday, jurors were shown clips from The Jinx, including the infamous "killed them all" scene, The Guardian reports. They also reportedly watched clips from the 2010 movie All Good Things, in which Ryan Gosling plays a character inspired by Durst. In fact, prosecutors showed jurors part of a DVD commentary Durst himself recorded for the movie, in which he says, regarding a scene in which Gosling's character's wife climbs out a window to escape him while he's terrorizing her, "This is more or less accurate," The Associated Press reports.
Prosecutor John Lewin in his opening statement directly accused Durst of killing his wife, prompting objections from Durst's defense, the AP reports. Lewin also told jurors that Berman "knew her killer and ... she freely and voluntarily let the killer into her house," CNN reports. Per CNN, the trial may last several months.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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