What would you do if one of your close friends was at risk of being charged with murder? Would you be willing to testify against him, or to lie by omission? Would you help him flee justice, or would you force him to submit to it? Fortunately, these dilemmas do not occur to most mortals. Yet for decades, in the United States, some close to billionaire Robert Durst experienced it first-hand. Many, lured by money and driven by fear, chose to be loyal to him. Before changing his mind, caught up in the law… and television.
Between 2013 and 2015, Robert Durst participated in the filming of a documentary about his life. Frail, lost in a large armchair facing the camera, he talks about his difficult family history, the succession to his father’s real estate magnate. The real subject, however, is elsewhere: Andrew Jarecki, multi-awarded director, is interested in the disappearances of Kathleen McCormack, Durst’s ex-wife, in 1982, of Susan Berman, his best friend, in 2000, and finally of Morris Black, his neighbor, a year later. In his sixth and final episode, the heir admitted, through a microphone left on while he went to the bathroom: “I killed them all, of course.” When America discovered this confession off-camera in March 2015, the billionaire had already been arrested by the authorities. He was attempting to flee the country, realizing the extent of the evidence against him in the documentary.
More than a news item
Nine years later, part 2 of The Jinx goes behind the scenes of this arrest, the trial for the murder of Susan Berman – the only one for which he will be tried – and his conviction. At first glance, all suspense seems to have been exhausted. After all, a Los Angeles court did sentence Durst on October 14, 2021 to life without parole. He himself died in prison three months later. But that’s without counting on the mastery of the genre of true crime by Andrew Jarecki. It is also a poor measure of the impact that the first part of the documentary had on the American psyche – and whose second season takes pleasure in revealing its creation.
Deeper than the simple narration of a news item, The Jinx knew, from its release, how to question questions of power and influence. On Durst’s entourage, first. On the judicial system, then, when his first trial, in 2003, for the murder of his dismembered neighbor ended in an acquittal. Its second part underlines the feeling of omnipotence which invaded its subject. And he wonders, tirelessly: how on earth could Durst, alleged author of three murders, take part in such a documentary?
The HBO team has also created a fascinating dive into the world of a family that is as rich as it is dysfunctional. Jesse Armstrong, creator of the excellent series Succession – also broadcast on the channel – regularly cites the documentary among its strongest influences to give birth to the Roys, cruel billionaires, who tear each other apart for their father’s empire. In the series, one of the characters is linked to a homicide that could send him to prison. The shadow of this act hovers over long episodes, before evaporating. Intoxicated by his own power, the character takes more and more risks, forgetting all caution. Like a certain Robert Durst?
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