A former boyfriend of a woman who was allegedly killed by Robert Durst testified on Monday that she had once casually mentioned that the real estate scion had ‘killed’ his first wife.
During a Los Angeles Superior Court hearing on Monday, Paul Kaufman testified that Susan Berman made the shocking statement while they were on a flight to New York years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported.
‘She said, ‘By the way, you know, Mr. Durst killed his wife,’ ‘ Kaufman testified during the hearing tied to the 74-year-old’s upcoming trial in professional writer Berman’s 2000 execution-style slaying.
The real estate heir is charged with murdering Berman in an effort to keep her quiet about his alleged role in the 1982 disappearance of his then-wife, Kathie Durst.
A former boyfriend of a woman who was allegedly killed by Robert Durst (file above) testified on Monday that she had once casually mentioned that the real estate scion had ‘killed’ his first wife
The real estate heir is charged with murdering his friend, Susan Berman (above with Durst), in an effort to keep her quiet about his alleged role in the 1982 disappearance of his then-wife, Kathie Durst
Kaufman told a court that he isn’t sure if what Berman said was true because they were ‘talking about imaginary circumstances’ during a discussion on script ideas involving mobsters and murder.
He said that he ‘did not’ ask Berman about how she knew what she had claimed was true at the time.
‘I did not particularly believe it or disbelieve it,’ he added, according to the LA Times.
Another friend of Berman’s testified about the conversation he had with her.
Richard Markey, who is one of the last people to have seen Berman alive, testified under oath, ‘She said to me at some point that she knew things that no one else knew, but I don’t think the conversation went any further than that.’
Prosecutor Habib Balian pressed Markey further, and reminded him that he told police in 2001 that Berman made the comment while discussing the unsolved disappearance of his wife.
‘Susan said, ‘I think I’m the only person who knows what happened,” Markey recalled.
Durst (above in January) was arrested by police in March 2015, one day before the finale of the popular HBO documentary The Jinx, in which he was caught on camera talking to himself in a bathroom saying: ‘What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.’
Kaufman, 74, and Markey, 69, are two of many now-elderly witnesses whose testimony regarding her fatal shooting is being recorded on video before Durst goes on trial in fears they could be killed or die before the trial.
Berman was found dead on Christmas Ever 2000 in her Beverly Hills home after police received an anonymous letter alerting them to a ‘cadaver’ there.
Durst was arrested by police in March 2015, one day before the finale of the popular HBO documentary The Jinx, in which he was caught on camera talking to himself in a bathroom saying: ‘What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.’
When he was arrested, Durst was staying in a New Orleans hotel under another name and had a loaded gun, cash and a stash of marijuana, police said.
The real estate scion also had an elaborate human mask and a map suggesting that he was planning to flee to Cuba, police said.