Close friends of Robert Durst are speaking out against the accused murderer, saying they believe the real estate scion killed author Susan Berman back in 2000.
Durst, 76, is currently locked up in the medical ward of Los Angeles Twin Towers Correctional Facility while awaiting trial over the gruesome slaying.
In a Dateline special titled Robert Durst: The Secret Tapes, set to air on NBC on Monday, August 19, the billionaire’s former friend, Nick Chavin, can be seen for the first time giving testimony which may be used at the trial, scheduled to begin next year.
Chavin claims Durst admitted to murdering his long-term friend Berman in a private conversation they had several years ago.
Recalling the chat, Chavin states: ‘We walked out the door, and on the sidewalk, I said, “You wanted to talk about Susan?” And Bob [Durst] said, “I had to. It was her or me. I had no choice”‘.
Robert Durst is awaiting trial on the medical ward of Los Angeles Twin Towers Correctional Facility, charged with killing his friend Susan Berman in 2000
Prosecutors believe Durst confessed to Berman that he murdered his first wife, Kathie, who disappeared back in 1982.
Fearing that she may reveal his secret, they claim the real estate mogul killed Berman execution style with a 9mm handgun shortly before Christmas Eve in 2000.
Meanwhile, another of Durst’s longtime friends is speaking out in the Dateline special.
Emily Altman – who publicly defended Durst for several years – now says she is coming to terms with the fact her pal may be responsible for the slaying
‘It’s like a nightmare and you’re waiting to wake up, but at this juncture I don’t think I’m gonna wake up,’ Altman stated.
‘You know, I may have face the reality that this is the reality,’ she added.
On NBC’s Dateline, Durst’s former friend Nick Chavin can be seen for the first time giving testimony which may be used at his trial next year
Emily Altman, another of Durst’s longtime friends, now says she is coming to terms with the fact her pal may have committed the murder
Durst is currently standing trial over the death of his longtime friend Susan Berman, 55, in an execution-style slaying at her Beverly Hills bungalow just before Christmas in 2000. The pair are pictured together several decades ago
Investigators have long suspected that Durst – who achieved worldwide notoriety through the hit HBO documentary series The Jinx in 2015 – also murdered his first wife Kathie.
The wealthy real estate heir admitted killing and dismembering neighbor Morris Black in Texas in 2001 but was acquitted after claiming he acted in self-defense.
Black’s gruesome death was discovered when body parts washed up in Galveston Bay before cops worked out that Durst had been posing as a woman to avoid police inquiries.
Investigators have long suspected that he also murdered his first wife Kathie Durst, who disappeared in New York in 1982. Kathie’s body has never been found and Durst has never been charged or convicted of his first wife’s murder (couple above in their wedding photo)
Durst is currently being held on the medical ward at the Los Angeles Twin Towers Correctional Facility.
The wealthy real estate heir admitted killing and dismembering neighbor Morris Black (pictured) in Texas in 2001 but was acquitted after claiming he acted in self-defense
He has been ill since suffering esophageal cancer in 2007 and more recently was hit by hydrocephalus, a build up of fluid on the brain.
His trial was due to start in Los Angeles in September, but was recently postponed until January 13 next year.
A source close to Susan Berman’s family, who asked not to be named, expressed dismay at the prospect that he may never face trial, given his ill health.
They said: ‘It’s disgusting how long it is taking to bring him to justice.
‘Isn’t he just going to croak within the next year in an orange jumpsuit? That’s probably the only justice we are going to get.
The Dateline special, ‘Robert Durst: The Secret Tapes’ will air on NBC on Monday, August 19 at 10pm ET/9pm CT
Durst with wife Kathleen who disappeared from their shared New York apartment in 1982