Just one day before the finale of “The Jinx” aired back in March 2015, Durst was arrested for the 2000 murder of his friend, Susan Berman. It’s one of the few true crime documentaries that led to a real-life conviction, with creator Andrew Jarecki and his team uncovering evidence that implicated Durst in the killing. However, this timeline has been a source of confusion — after all, the clip of Durst saying that he “killed them all, of course” wasn’t shown until the very last scene of the finale. So, why did the police arrest him beforehand?
The first chapter of Season 2 of “The Jinx” solves this mystery, explaining that an investigation had been unfolding behind the scenes — long before Durst’s infamous confession was unleashed to the world.
In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter about the timeline of events, Jarecki said, “Of course it was going to be confusing to people. Nobody was going to understand. “People were asking, ‘When did you give this evidence to the police?’ I think people were assuming that there was some plot where we had sat on the evidence in order to make this show a bigger deal.”
This wasn’t the case, as is revealed in the premiere of Season 2. A title card shown early on in the episode states: “In 2013, The Jinx filmmakers shared the evidence they had discovered with law enforcement. As a result, the LAPD renewed their investigation into the murder of Bob’s friend Susan Berman.”
Durst was a suspect in three killings: the unsolved 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen “Kathie” McCormack; the 2000 murder of his friend, Berman; and the 2001 case of his neighbor, Morris Black. But LA District Attorney John Lewin explains in Episode 1 that, when the case was reopened, they had only one route to go down. The killing of Black was ruled as self-defense and was acquitted in the ‘00s, and there wasn’t enough evidence regarding Kathie’s disappearance.
“The one to look at is the Susan Berman case,” says Lewin.
Through 21 hours of interviews with Durst, Jarecki was able to uncover a file of evidence suggesting that the real estate heir was the culprit in Berman’s murder. Although the filmmakers handed this over to the authorities back in 2013, Durst didn’t know how he was going to be portrayed in “The Jinx” until it started airing.
Related: In the Season 2 premiere, Charles Bagli, who covered the case for The New York Times, explains that Durst would watch each episode of Season 1 as it aired from his Houston home and then call him. He didn’t think much of it until Episode 5, when they began comparing a letter written by Durst with a note penned by Berman’s killer. “When Bob saw his letter on the TV he got very nervous,” says Bagli. “This seems to be proof positive that he killed Susan. That is evidence.”
The reporter noticed “a change in Bob”; he was “clearly now worried.” After this episode aired, Durst went on the run with a stash of cash, a fake ID, and a mask, seemingly intending to flee to Cuba. However, the authorities caught up with him, tracking him down at a hotel in New Orleans.
In an ironic twist of fate, the moment they apprehended Durst just happened to be the night before The Jinx finale aired in March 2015 — the finale that featured his “killed them all” confession.
The Jinx Season 2 Episode 1 is on HBO Max now, while new episodes drop Sundays at 7pm PT/10pm ET on HBO and HBO Max until the finale on May 26.
