The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst

Meet the heir to the billion-dollar Durst real estate empire, and the man suspected to be at the centre of three unsolved murders that took place over three decades.

In this 2015 six-part docuseries, we learn about the discovery of a dismembered body in Texas in 2001, and its suspected link to Durst; the fact that Durst’s wife Kathie disappeared without trace in 1982; and that one of his closest friends was shot dead in her home before police could question her about Kathie’s disappearance in 2000.

In 2010, director Andrew Jarecki released the feature film All Good Things, starring Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, about the relationship between Robert and Kathie Durst, and the events in the lead up to her disappearance. Two years later, Durst contact Jarecki for an interview, and so began a decade-long investigation by the filmmaker into all the cases linked to Durst.

The Emmy-winning docuseries reveals never before-seen footage, police case files and extensive, exclusive interviews with Durst himself, who has, so far, evaded conviction for any of the crimes.

RogerEbert.com says, “The Jinx fascinates”, and NPR calls it “the ultimate in reality television… But Andrew Jarecki accomplished even more… He created a new version of true-crime television, exploring an unresolved case in a series centered on interviews with the eccentric, self-destructive prime suspect.”

(Durst’s murder trial is set to resume in May 2021 after having been delayed for a year due to the Covid pandemic.)