Robert Durst's murder trial begins in Los Angeles
Real estate mogul Robert Durst, subject of the HBO documentary 'The Jinx,' is accused of shooting his longtime friend Susan Berman 15 years ago.
On day seven of Robert Durst's contentious murder trial, the real estate scion detailed his alleged affair with Prudence Farrow, the sister of Mia Farrow and subject of the Beatles' song "Dear Prudence."
Durst, 78, is on trial for the murder of his friend, Susan Berman, who was found dead from a gunshot wound in her Los Angeles apartment in December 2000.
Prosecutors allege that Durst killed Berman because she was about to speak with authorities about the disappearance of Kathie Durst, the defendant's former wife who vanished in 1982.
New York real estate scion Robert Durst, 78, answers questions from defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, left, while testifying in his murder trial at the Inglewood Courthouse on Monday, Aug. 9, 2021, in Inglewood, Calif. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool)
Durst said in court Thursday that he had been seeing Prudence and wanted to pursue a relationship with her in December 1981, but his wife, who disappeared a month later in January 1982, was not okay with it.
"You wanted to pursue a relationship with Prudence by your own statement. Kathy did not want you to pursue a relationship with Prudence, and I’m asking you how did that get resolved?" Deputy District Attorney John Lewin asked.
"Kathy disappeared," Durst responded.
"Yes, that is how it got resolved, isn’t it? … That is how it got resolved, Mr. Durst, isn’t it?" Lewin asked.
"Yes," Durst said.
The multimillionaire went on to say that he dated Prudence both before Kathy disappeared and after she went missing.
Farrow could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.
3/3/1966- New York, NY: Prudence Farrow, daughter of Maureen O'Sullivan, close-ups at Playbills Restaurant. (Bettmann / Contributor/ Getty Images)
ROBERT DURST TESTIFIES ABOUT LAST WEEKEND HE SAW WIFE KATHIE BEFORE SHE VANISHED
While Durst is on trial for the murder of Berman in 2000, much of the testimony so far has been about the disappearance of his wife, who he denies killing and whose disappearance he has never faced any charges for.
"Mr. Durst, did you kill your wife, Kathy, and then take the earrings off of her body and put them back in Riverside Drive so you have them?" Lewin asked Durst.
"Thinking about that makes my skin crawl," Durst responded. "The answer is no. I did not kill my wife. I did not take her earrings."
Durst has used a number of aliases over the years. Prosecutors allege that he also killed a neighbor, Morris Black, in Galveston, Texas, in 2001 when Black found out his true identity.
A Texas jury acquitted Durst in 2003 after he testified that he shot Black during a struggle for a gun, but Durst was ultimately convicted of destroying evidence for dismembering Black's body and throwing it in the Galveston Bay.
Prosecutors share photo of Robert Durst (left), Susan Berman (middle) and Kathie Durst (right) at Robert Durst's Aug. 11 murder trial. (Fox News)
Durst has been in custody for Berman's killing since 2015, when he was arrested in New Orleans on the eve of the finale of "The Jinx," an HBO documentary about him in which Durst made multiple conflicting statements.
HBO producers confronted Durst about the cadaver note that was sent to Los Angeles police after Berman was killed, which just said "CADAVER" in large block letters with Berman's address. Durst long denied sending the letter, but HBO got a copy of a different note that Durst had written Berman in 1999 that had identical handwriting and also misspelled "Beverly" as "Beverley."
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After confronting Berman with the evidence, he was caught on a hot mic in the bathroom saying, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."
The defense claimed that the documentary was manipulated, but they conceded that Durst did write the cadaver note.
Durst is due back in court on Monday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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