Robert Alan Durst (April 12, 1943 – January 10, 2022) was an American real estate heir and convicted murderer. The eldest son of New York City real estate magnate Seymour Durst, he garnered attention as a suspect in the unsolved 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack; the 2000 murder of his longtime friend, Susan Berman; and the 2001 killing of his neighbor, Morris Black.

Acquitted of murdering Black in 2003, Durst did not face further legal action until his participation in the 2015 documentary miniseries The Jinx led to him being charged with Berman's murder. Durst was convicted of the murder in 2021 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. He was charged with McCormack's murder shortly after his sentencing, but died in 2022 before a trial could begin.

Early life

Robert Durst was born in New York City on April 12, 1943, and grew up in Scarsdale, New York. He was the eldest son of real estate magnate Seymour Durst and his wife, Bernice Herstein. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Durst, originally a Jewish tailor from Austria-Hungary, immigrated to the United States in 1902 and eventually became a real estate manager and developer, founding the Durst Organization in 1927. Robert's three younger siblings were Douglas, Tommy, and Wendy Durst.

When Robert was seven, his mother died by suicide by jumping from the roof of the family's Scarsdale home.