The series was directed by Jarecki, who had previously directed the feature fictional film All Good Things (2010), which was inspired by Durst's biography.[4] Durst had professed admiration for the film, All Good Things and telephoned Jarecki, after its release, offering to be interviewed (this conversation was recorded and incorporated into the documentary). Durst sat with Jarecki for more than 20 hours, over several years, despite having never previously cooperated with any journalist.
The Jinx gained widespread exposure, when Durst was arrested on first-degree murder charges for the death of his friend, Susan Berman, the day before its finale aired.[5]
In November 2023, HBO announced The Jinx – Part Two, a six-episode continuation of the series, was in production with the same producers and director, and is scheduled to premiere on April 21, 2024.[6]Part 2 covers the 8 years between the original series in 2015 to present time, including new interviews, hidden material, and Durst's prison calls.[7]
Synopsis
The series investigates the unsolved 1982 disappearance of Durst's wife, Kathie, the 2000 execution-style killing of writer Susan Berman, and the 2001 death and dismemberment of Durst's neighbor, Morris Black, in Galveston, Texas. Durst was suspected of involvement in the first two murders and confessed to the third but claimed self-defense and was acquitted at trial. The series incorporates a wide array of existing media, including news footage, security footage, police evidence, and archival interviews, combined with footage shot by Jarecki. It is composed of contemporary interviews, visual reenactments (some of which were shot at Jarecki's upstate New York home),[8] and self-reflexive footage of Jarecki's film-making process and odd working relationship with Durst. Its complex editing style and narrative construction emphasize the contradictions, within both Durst's life and the bizarre and grisly murders he committed.
During the conclusion of the fifth episode, Sareb Kaufman, Berman's stepson, contacts the filmmakers, asking them to review material that was left by Berman after her murder. In it, he highlights an envelope from Durst to Berman, which was sent in March 1999: the envelope's block letter handwriting matches and contains the same "Beverley [sic] Hills" misspelling as an anonymous envelope sent to police in December 2000 to alert them to Berman's murder. The filmmakers, shocked by the revelation, place both envelopes in a safety deposit box and decide to get a second interview from Durst.
In the sixth and final episode, the filmmakers visit a forensic document examiner. After analyzing both envelopes and other documents in Durst's block letter writing, he states that the two writings have characteristics that can come from "one person, and only one person.” Jarecki attempts to get a second interview with Durst, who suddenly becomes evasive and uninterested in a follow-up. At one point, he claims to be in Spain, but Kaufman says that Durst told him he was in Los Angeles. After Durst is arrested for violating a restraining order filed by his brother, Douglas,[9] Jarecki convinces Durst to conduct a second interview. During their session, Jarecki confronts Durst about the match in handwriting on the two envelopes. Durst acknowledges the similarity but denies writing the letter about Berman's murder. After the interview, Durst goes to the bathroom. Apparently unaware that his microphone is still recording, he makes a rambling, off-camera statement to himself, ending with, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."
Kevin Hynes (former Assistant District Attorney, Westchester County, New York)
Sareb and Mella Kaufman (children of Susan Berman's boyfriend)
Deni Marcus (cousin of Susan Berman)
Paul Coulter (detective, Los Angeles Police Department)
Stephen Silverman (friend of Susan Berman)
Kurt Sistrunk (former District Attorney, Galveston County, Texas)
Michael Ramsey (attorney for Robert Durst)
Susan Criss (judge, Galveston County, Texas)
Chris Lovell, Joanne Gongora (jurors, Texas v. Durst)
Chip Lewis (attorney for Robert Durst)
Evan Kreeger (nephew of Robert Durst)
Edward Wright (former private investigator)
Elizabeth McCormack (niece of Kathie Durst)
Ross Vitalie (cab driver, Eureka, California)
John Osborn (forensic document examiner)
Cast (reenactment)
Gary Napoli as Robert Durst
Eric Rizk as Seymour Durst
Michael Antonio as Young Robert Durst
Deirdre Roberts as Kathie Durst
Candace Bryant as Ellen Strauss
Juliette Campa as Susan Berman
Sara Canter as Geraldine
Rose Cordova as Eleanor Schwank
Gus Lynch as Beverly Hills Postal Worker
Dillon Mathews as Struk
Amelie McKendry as Mary McCormack
Hanan Miller as Douglas Durst
John Ohkuma as Jim McCormack
Aftermath
Douglas Durst, estranged brother of Robert and head of the Durst Organization, was apprehensive about the documentary's portrayal of the Durst family and, in particular, its use of videotaped depositions that had been subject to a confidentiality agreement. He petitioned the New York Supreme Court in January 2015 to compel Jarecki to reveal his sources.[21][22] "Douglas Durst is worried [that] The Jinx will be a violent broadside against the family name and history,” the petition stated.[23] By showing that Robert or wife Debrah Lee Charatan violated a Westchester County judge's 2006 order sealing the material, Douglas could sue to recover a $65 million family trust settlement.[21][23] According to The New York Times, Robert gave filmmakers "unrestricted access" to his personal files, which included the videotaped testimony.[24][25]
A lawyer for Douglas argued that The Jinx is a "sensationalized docudrama" and that its director is exempt from New York's shield law, designed to protect journalists. Jarecki replied that his use of dramatic reenactments (by actors whose faces were never shown[8]) was not evidence of fictionalization. Despite attempting to "portray Robert Durst as a human being in a fashion that could help explain some of his behavior, rather than as a burlesque figure," Jarecki never promised Durst that his film would ultimately defend his innocence.[23]
On March 14, 2015, the eve of the final episode's airing, Durst was arrested in New Orleans by the FBI on a first-degree murder warrant obtained by the LAPD in connection to Berman's death. They had undertaken an investigation based on new evidence presented in the miniseries.[5][20][26][27] The Associated Press reported that the 1999 letter written by Durst to Berman, unearthed by the filmmakers, provided "key new evidence" leading to the filing of murder charges.[28] According to The New York Times, the filmmakers sought legal advice on when to share the letter with law enforcement, weighing journalistic privilege against possible claims of evidentiary inadmissibility in a future trial.[20]
Interviewed ten days after his brother's arrest, Douglas told The New York Times that his brother had stalked him as recently as February 22, 2015, in Palm Beach, Florida. He felt "a tremendous sense of relief" at the turn of events which led to Robert's arrest. Although sharply disputing some assumptions about the Durst family presented in Jarecki's documentary (which he had not seen), and continuing to stress the threat Robert posed to him and others, Douglas sounded a conciliatory note: “I no longer am looking over my shoulder,” he said. “I’m very grateful to ‘The Jinx’ for having brought this about.”[29] Douglas dropped his legal action against Jarecki in late April 2015, and was reportedly considering a move to freeze $74 million of his estranged brother's assets.[30][31]
In April 2019, during Durst's trial, a transcript from the series revealed that Durst's final remarks had been edited and presented out of order. According to the transcript filed in court, Durst's complete remarks were as follows:
"[Unintelligible] I don't know what you expected to get. I don't know what's in the house. Oh, I want this. Killed them all, of course. [Unintelligible] I want to do something new. There's nothing new about that. [Inaudible - possibly "disaster."] He was right. I was wrong. The burping. I'm having difficulty with the question. What the hell did I do?"[lower-alpha 2][32]
Jarecki, Smerling, and Stuart-Pontier defended the edits as "entirely representative of what Durst said". Documentary filmmaker Mark Jonathan Harris described the edits as "problematic", saying that Durst's statements are "definitely more ambiguous in the transcript" and the edit made them "damning".[32]
The Jinx received widespread critical acclaim and media buzz, particularly upon airing its revelatory finale. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 96% based on 45 reviews. The website's critics consensus is, "Disturbing themes and an engrossing blend of interviews and dramatizations make The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst a docu-series that merits further pursuit."[36] On Metacritic, the first season has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[37] John Hendrickson at Esquire called the series' ending "one of the most jaw-dropping moments in television history."[38] Mike Hale from The New York Times said it was "gut-wrenching, remarkable television."[39] Sean T. Collins of The New York Observer called the series "a documentarian’s unicorn: a quest for the truth that, it seems, found it, and found it spectacularly," adding that in comparison to usual television true-crime documentary fare, The Jinx "pulls an SUV with a vanity plate that reads 'BEVERLEY' up on the curb and mows it all down."[40]
Other critics accused the documentary of charting an uncomfortable line between storytelling and journalism.[41][42] Two days after Durst's arrest and one day after the final installment of The Jinx was aired, The New Yorker reported that "[t]he filmmakers, having been quizzed on the time line of events as represented, have cancelled forthcoming interviews."[43][44][45] Specifically, when challenged over whether Robert Durst's arrest for trespassing on his brother Douglas Durst's property occurred before the filmmakers' second interview with Robert, as implied by The Jinx, Andrew Jarecki replied, "Yeah, I think I’ve got to get back to you with a proper response on that."[46][47][48] Several media outlets questioned how long the filmmakers had sat on evidence damaging to Durst before turning it over to law enforcement.[48][49]
Jarecki subsequently sent an explanation to multiple media outlets:
“Given that we are likely to be called as witnesses in any case law enforcement may decide to bring against Robert Durst, it is not appropriate for us to comment further on these pending matters. We can confirm that evidence (including the envelope and the washroom recording) was turned over to authorities months ago.”[50]
A study of Westchester County case notes by The Guardian indicated that, contrary to then-District Attorney Jeanine Pirro's assertions in The Jinx that "we were about to speak with" Susan Berman about Kathie Durst's disappearance, New York investigators had not yet scheduled an interview nor funded an investigator to visit Berman in California at the time of her December 23, 2000, murder.[51] Durst said in a 2005 deposition, excerpted in The Jinx, that Berman called him shortly before her death and said: "The Los Angeles police contacted me. They wanted to talk about Kathie Durst’s disappearance.”[52]
Although the Los Angeles Police Department denied any connection between Durst's arrest and HBO's airing of The Jinx finale,[53]Dick DeGuerin, Durst's defense attorney, lashed out at the timing. “Do I think this is a coincidence? Hell, no,” he said. “There has been rumor, innuendo and speculation for a number of years, and now we’re going to get our day in court on this.”[54][55]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season holds an approval rating of 93% with an average rating of 7.5/10, based on 14 reviews.[56] On Metacritic, the season holds a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[57] Ed Power of The Telegraph awarded the second season four stars out of five, writing that "if the second series is a more traditional account of a murder trial and its aftermath, it is nonetheless supercharged with suspense, and, in Durst, it has one of true crime's most horrifically compelling villains."[58]
Awards
The Jinx was nominated for six and won two Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2015: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming. It received nominations for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming, Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera), and Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming.[59]
The miniseries premiered in Australia on May 7, 2015, on Showcase.[62]The Jinx premiered in India on June 9, 2015, on HBO Defined.[63]
Notes
↑ Chapter 6 is referred to as "The Second Interview" on some promotional platforms.[15][16][17]
↑ Emphasis provided on the two lines edited out of order.
Related Research Articles
Capturing the Friedmans is a 2003 HBO documentary film directed by Andrew Jarecki. It focuses on the 1980s investigation of Arnold and Jesse Friedman for child molestation. The film premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival where it received critical acclaim as well as the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. The film went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Eugene Jarecki is an American documentary filmmaker. He is best known as a two-time winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, as well as multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards, for his films Why We Fight, Reagan, and The House I Live In.
Andrew Jarecki is an American filmmaker, musician, and entrepreneur. He is best known for the Emmy-winning 2015 documentary series The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. He is also known for the documentary film Capturing the Friedmans, which won eighteen international prizes including the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Circle award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He also co-founded Moviefone and created the KnowMe iOS platform.
Dick DeGuerin is an American criminal defense attorney based in Houston, most notable for defending Tom DeLay, Allen Stanford, David Koresh and Robert Durst. In 1994, DeGuerin was named Outstanding Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year by the State Bar of Texas Criminal Justice Section.
Robert Alan Durst was an American real estate heir and convicted murderer. The eldest son of New York City real estate magnate Seymour Durst, he gained 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.
David Berman was a Jewish-American organized crime figure active in Sioux City, Iowa, the Twin Cities, and the Las Vegas strip. He was a casino gambling pioneer in Las Vegas, where he was a partner with mobster Bugsy Siegel at the Flamingo Hotel. Berman died in 1957 during surgery.
Susan Jane Berman was an American journalist and author. The daughter of mobster David Berman, she wrote about her late-in-life realization of her father's role in organized crime.
Kim Lankford is an American businesswoman and retired actress, best known for her role as Ginger Ward on Knots Landing from 1979 to 1983.
Matt Birkbeck is an American investigative journalist and author.
Cathleen Scott is a Los Angeles Times and New York Times bestselling American true crime author and investigative journalist who penned the biographies and true crime books The Killing of Tupac Shakur and The Murder of Biggie Smalls, both bestsellers in the United States and United Kingdom, and was the first to report Shakur's death. She grew up in La Mesa, California, and later moved to Mission Beach, California, where she was a single parent to a son, Raymond Somers Jr. Her hip-hop books are based on the drive-by shootings that killed the rappers six months apart in the midst of what has been called the West Coast-East Coast war. Each book is dedicated to the rappers' mothers.
All Good Things is a 2010 American mystery/crime romantic drama film directed by Andrew Jarecki and written by Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling. Inspired by the life of Robert Durst, it stars Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, and Frank Langella. Gosling portrays the wealthy son of a New York real estate tycoon (Langella) who develops a disturbing relationship with his wife (Dunst) and becomes suspected of a series of murders, as well as his wife's unsolved disappearance.
A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst is the true story of Robert Durst, the heir to a New York real estate dynasty who has been a person of interest in the missing-person case of his wife Kathie since her 1982 disappearance. The book was written by journalist and author Matt Birkbeck, and was published by Berkley/Penguin. A Deadly Secret was released in hardcover in 2002 and in paperback in 2003.
Seymour Bernard Durst was an American real estate investor and developer. He created the National Debt Clock.
Sheila Nevins is an American television producer and former head of MTV Documentary Films division of MTV Entertainment Studios. Previously, Nevins was the President of HBO Documentary Films. She has produced over 1,000 documentary films for HBO and is one of the most influential people in documentary filmmaking. She has worked on productions that have been recognized with 35 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, 42 Peabody Awards, and 26 Academy Awards. Nevins has won 31 individual Primetime Emmy Awards, more than any other person. She is also a member of the board of directors for the Peabody Awards.
Murder of a Mafia Daughter: The Life and Tragic Death of Susan Berman is a nonfiction book by author and journalist Cathy Scott about the 2000 murder of Susan Berman. Murder of a Mafia Daughter was first released in hardcover in 2002 by Barricade Books. A 2nd edition in trade-size paperback was released in June 2015 following the March 2015 arrest of suspect Robert Durst in Berman's murder. After the trial and conviction of the Durst for Berman's murder, and then Durst's death, a 20th Anniversary updated edition of the book was released.
Douglas Durst is an American real estate investor and developer. He has been the president of The Durst Organization since 1992.
HBO Documentary Films is an American production and distribution company, a division of the cable television network HBO that produces non-fiction feature films and miniseries.
Marc Smerling is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and director. He was nominated for an Oscar for Capturing the Friedmans in 2003, and co-wrote and produced The Jinx, a six-part HBO documentary on suspected murderer Robert Durst. He directed the FX docuseries A Wilderness of Error based on the book of the same name.
Making a Murderer is an American true crime documentary television series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. The show tells the story of Steven Avery, a man from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, who served 18 years in prison (1985–2003) after his wrongful conviction for the sexual assault and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen. He was later charged with and convicted of the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. The connected story is that of Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey, who was accused and convicted as an accessory in the murder of Halbach.
John J. Waldron is an American lawyer based in Allentown, Pennsylvania and is best known for his work as a criminal defense attorney. His notable clients have included Robert Durst, Jamie Silvonek, George Juno, and James Alan Austin. He is known for his role during the Katheryn Deprill 'Burger King Baby' reunification case and for his representation of Stacey Esterly during the Kevin Esterly/Amy Yu affair. He is a founding partner at Huber, Waldron & Williams, a Lehigh Valley law firm, and a past board member of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
↑ Dwyer, Jim (January 1, 2015). "Douglas Durst, in Rare Move, Speaks About Robert Durst Ahead of HBO Documentary". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020. Retrieved March 9, 2015. Mr. Durst said he refused many times to be interviewed for the documentary because the same filmmakers all had previously made a feature film based on the Dursts, "All Good Things," which he believed distorted the truth, and would not give him assurances that the HBO series would not be twisted by his brother's fabrications.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
