To backtrack a bit, Durst didn’t necessarily confess. After the HBO crew had finished filming, Durst went to the bathroom, evidently not realizing he was still wearing his microphone – and still being recorded for posterity. "There it is. You’re caught," he rambled. "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."
"All" apparently alludes to, among others, Susan Berman, whose prolific writings include the nostalgic memoir Easy Street, the story of growing up as a self-styled "Jewish Mafia Princess." For years, one of the primary theories about her murder was that it was a Mafia hit in retaliation for having told the inside story about the days when her father, "Davie the Jew" Berman, "Ice Pick Willie" Alderman and Ross Miller were running the Riviera on behalf of the Chicago mob.
Miller’s son – and former Nevada governor – Bob Miller never bought that theory. "It was suspected that her writings about her father being a reputed mobster got her killed, but in interviews at the time, everyone she wrote about was already dead," Miller explained to Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke. "If I were a gangster. I'd have encouraged her to write more," Hollywood friend Rich Markey told New York Magazine, alluding to her rose-colored view of life in the Mob. Indeed, Susan Berman remained in denial of her father’s criminal activities into adulthood.
Among those also not buying the Mob-hit theory is respected crime author Cathy Scott (who also wrote Huntington Press best-seller The Killing of Tupac Shakur). Her books, Murder in Beverly Hills: The Mob-Style Execution of Susan Berman, Her Crime Boss Father and the Deadly Secret She Took to Her Grave and Murder of a Mafia Daughter: The Life and Tragic Death of Susan Berman single out Durst as the prime suspect in the case. Shortly before Christmas Eve, 2000, Berman was fatally shot in the back of the head with a 9mm handgun. The manner in which she was murdered was a key part of what gave rise to suspicions of a Mafia connection.
Police, who eventually arrested Durst and charged him with Berman’s murder, attributed the bust to "investigative leads and additional evidence that has come to light in the past year," without specifying what the new evidence is. Some of it might be the resemblance between the handwriting on an unsigned letter that tipped police off to Berman’s dead body and another letter that was found among Berman’s belongings by her stepson. According to Daily Beast correspondent Michael Daly, "You look at the letter, and the handwriting is astonishingly similar."
Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Kirk Albanese downplayed any role played by the HBO miniseries, saying, "We based our actions on the investigation and the evidence. The arrest was made as a result of the investigative efforts and at a time that we believe it was needed."
Says CNN’s Jean Casarez of the Berman-Durst relationship, "[Susan] was a confidante of Robert Durst. She knew him well. And it was just days before investigators were to fly out to California to talk with her about what she may have known about the disappearance of Kathleen Durst that she was shot execution-style in her living room."
Tomorrow: Who was Kathleen Durst and why was her fate closely linked to Susan Berman’s?
