It begins with the mysterious fate of Kathleen, Robert Durst’s ill-fated first wife. In 1982, she boarded a train in Westchester and was never seen again. Durst was suspected of engineering her disappearance, which brought him back into Susan Berman’s orbit (they had known each while students at UCLA and later in New York City), as she handled his public relations during that time.
They were close: Durst escorted Berman down the aisle at her 1984 wedding. She dedicated her books to him and, shortly before her death, received a $50,000 cash gift from Durst. But, after Berman’s death, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro revealed that Berman had been shortlisted as an interview subject in a new probe of the Kathleen Durst disappearance. "New York investigators, acting on several tips that Berman might have some critical information, sought to find her. They got there too late," according to the New York article "Who Killed the Gangster’s Daughter?"
In one of her last phone conversations before death, Berman told friend Kim Lankford that "I have information that's going to blow the top off things," adding later that her new psychic had told her "I was going to die a violent death and that there'd be a gun involved." However, the "information" may have alluded to Berman’s long-running investigation of her mother’s death by drug overdose. (Dave Berman died during a 1957 colonic surgery.) Although it was officially decreed a suicide, Berman clung to the belief that there was foul play involved.
She was also said to have had an omerta-like loyalty to Durst. "There is also suspicion that she may have helped him dispose of Kathie's body, which has never been found," says Matt Birkbeck, author of the 2010 Durst exposé A Deadly Secret.
And, yes, there’s the Mob. After the publication of Easy Street, Berman told a confidante, she’d been warned, "Don’t ever mess with us again." But she did: She co-wrote an A&E miniseries on Sin City and penned an accompanying book, Lady Las Vegas: The Inside Story Behind the Neon Oasis. And, at the time of her death, she was planning an Easy Street sequel entitled Rich Lady Broke. (Berman’s financial troubles were constant.)
Although, according to a friend, "she'd provided Bobby's alibi" for Kathleen Durst’s disappearance, Robert Durst was a conspicuous no-show at the Writers Guild memorial service, even though special arrangements had been made to accommodate him.
"Investigators can place Durst in Los Angeles on December 24, 2000, the day Berman was killed [sic], based on his travel and credit card records," Birkbeck told People magazine.
Whether Durst reciprocated Berman’s loyalty to him or he committed the ultimate double-cross is a question that may finally be answered once the Los Angeles Police Department unpacks its evidence. Stetson-wearing Durst attorney Dick DeGeurin says his client is looking forward to the trial, telling the Los Angeles Times "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." Then there are those like Cathy Scott, who says, "I’m so happy for her family that justice is going to be seen for Susan."
