He captured the nation with words that he did not think anyone could hear.
“What did I do?” said Robert Durst to an empty room, his microphone still live. “Killed them all, of course.”
Viewers of HBO’s The Jinx, a miniseries about Durst, who had been linked to the murders of three people, had already been hooked before the last few minutes of the finale that shocked all. For the million that watched that night to see the confession, and the countless more who watched after to catch up with what had sent their friends abuzz, it seemed that the case had closed. Durst had admitted, in supposed honestly considering that he believed he was in private, that he had murdered not just his first wife, but also Susan Berman his spokesperson, and his neighbor as well.
As it turns out, not everyone thinks the story is so closed after all. Or, at least, there’s someone else’s story to tell.
A made-for-TV movie chronicling the point of view of Kathie Durst, Robert Durst’s first wife, is set to be in production by Lifetime, Variety reports. Kathie Durst had disappeared in 1982, and it was suspected that her husband, who had been known to be “troubled,” was likely her killer. Robert had been, of course, been sentenced to seven years and one month in prison for a weapons charge, rather than the murder of his late wife.
While the movie will more likely be fiction-based-on-a-true-story rather than a straight documentary like The Jinx had been, as Kathie Durst could not presently give Lifetime her own story as Robert had for HBO, it will likely pull largely a lot of background from The Jinx as well as court documents.
The movie will also likely run with the assumption that Robert Durst killed Kathie Durst, which technically he had confessed to on television. The issue with such an admission, however, is that in his older and somewhat confused state, it is possible that Robert Durst convinced himself that he had killed his wife, rather than him actually have done it. While Durst had been extradited to Los Angeles for the second murder of Susan Berman in December of last year, the case is still out.
Mostly, Lifetime will be using a book encompassing a study on what had happened to Kathie Durst called A Deadly Secret: The Bizarre and Chilling Story of Robert Durst by Matt Birkbeck.
The script of the movie will be written by Bettina Gilois, who is the writer behind award-nominated Bessie. The movie will be produced by Linda Berman, Lincoln Square, A+E Studios, and Lifetime.