Nile Jarvis shares more than a few passing traits with Bob Durst. On the series, Jarvis is the son of a New York City real estate tycoon Martin Jarvis, played by Breaking Bad’s Jonathan Banks. In the series, Martin runs Jarvis Industries, a massive real estate conglomerate that owns multiple skyscrapers in New York City and is under attack from a progressive political candidate calling out Jarvis Industries for monopolizing the city.
In reality, Durst was also the heir of a New York–based real estate dynasty. His grandfather, Jewish tailor Joseph Durst, emigrated to the US in 1902 from what is now Poland and founded the commercial and residential real estate company The Durst Organization in 1927. Joseph proceeded to purchase commercial buildings and skyscrapers across Manhattan. Robert Durst’s father, Seymour Bernard Durst, inherited the company in 1974 and helped grow it into a multimillion-dollar organization. According to Forbes, the Durst family’s real estate holdings were estimated to be worth more than $8 billion in 2020; as the eldest son, Robert Durst was once expected to inherit the throne and run the company.
Robert Durst appears in court during opening statements in his murder trial on March 4, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.Etienne Laurent -Pool/Getty Images)
This would never come to pass. Born in 1943, Robert Durst had a turbulent childhood in Scarsdale, NY, despite—or perhaps because of—his immense wealth. When he was seven years old, Robert’s mother, Bernice Herstein, died after either falling or jumping off the roof of their Scarsdale home. Robert would later claim that he witnessed his mother commit suicide, having been brought to the window by his own father to watch it happen. (In a 2015 New York Times interview, Robert’s younger brother, Douglas,denied that ever happened). A psychiatric report of Robert at age 10 mentioned the possibility that Robert might suffer from “personality decomposition and possibly even schizophrenia.” In 1992, Seymour ultimately chose Douglas to run the company, due to his eldest son’s erratic behavior—exacerbating a rift that already existed between Robert and his family.
On The Beast in Me, Nile Jarvis also has a fraught relationship with both his real estate mogul father, Marvin, and his extended family. Unlike Durst, whose father passed him over for the top job in favor of his younger brother, Nile considers himself the brains of the family business. “For all his kicking and screaming, I pulled my father into the future,” he says in episode three. “Got him to take a couple of big swings and grew the business tenfold.” But according to Jarvis, his father Marvin was a self-made man who “shoveled cow shit before school”—making him more like Durst’s paternal grandfather, Joseph, who emigrated to the US with just $3 in his pocket before amassing his fortune.
He was the real estate heir who many suspected was responsible for the death of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, when she vanished under suspicious circumstances in 1982. Then, in 2021, he was found guilty of killing his friend and confidant, Susan Berman, and sentenced to life behind bars. How Robert Durst died should come as some comfort to the families of his victims though there are still a lot of questions left unanswered.
Durst was born in New York City on April 12, 1943, into a wealthy family known for its real estate empire. Durst’s father Seymour Durst was a prominent property developer and the head of The Durst Organization. The family was exceptionally affluent and the young Durst attended prestigious schools, including the Horace Mann School in New York City and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in economics.
His connection to several suspicious deaths was the subject of The Jinx documentary series by Andrew Jarecki. In the series’ final moments, he seemingly confesses to three murders on a live mic while in the bathroom: “There it is. You’re caught. … What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” (The quotes were later revealed to have been manipulated for dramatic effect but the production.) Here’s the story of how Robert Durst died.
How did Robert Durst die?
Robert Durst’s health had been deteriorating for some time during the Berman trial, for which he was eventually found guilty of her murder. He had bladder cancer and two days after his sentencing, he contracted COVID and was hospitalized. He later died, age 78, of natural causes due to a number of health issues in 2022.
Durst’s trial had already been delayed 14 months because of the pandemic, and his trial attorney Dick DeGuerin described him as being “very, very sick”; the worst he’s looked in 20 years of representing him. According to NPR, “Durst entered the courtroom with a wide-eyed vacant stare. Near the end of the hearing, after Berman’s loved ones told the judge how her death upended their lives, Durst coughed hard and then appeared to struggle to breathe. His chest heaved and he pulled his mask down below his mouth and began to gulp for air.”
Durst was arrested in 2015 in connection with the murder of his friend Susan Berman, who was found shot to death in her Los Angeles home in 2000. Durst was accused of killing Berman to prevent her from revealing information about Kathleen McCormack Durst’s disappearance. He was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Robert Durst left behind a mighty fortune
Durst’s net worth was estimated to be $100 million, per the New York Times, which is a drop in the ocean compared to that of the Durst empire—Forbes magazine estimates the family’s fortune at $8.1 billion. The Durst family owns more than 16 million square feet of real estate in New York and Philadelphia, including a 10 percent stake in One World Trade Center.
He left his fortune to Debrah Lee Charatan, his wife at the time of his death. Ironically, the day of Charatan’s hearing to become the executor of his estate fell on the 40th anniversary of his first wife Kathie Durst’s disappearance, who was declared legally dead in 2017.
In 2022, Kathie Durst’s family sought more than $100 million from Durst’s estate and widow in a wrongful death suit. Robert Abrams, the family’s attorney, claimed Charatan quietly married Durst in 2000 to help him evade authorities after the investigation into Kathie Durst’s disappearance was reopened.
Abrams said the suit is an “important step toward justice for Kathie and toward exposing the corruption that allowed Robert Durst to go unpunished,” adding that once Charatan was appointed executor, she would “apparently seek to collect the balance of her husband’s interest in the Durst family Trusts, which we believe was promised to Ms. Charatan in exchange for helping Robert Durst evade justice in connection with the murders of Kathie, Susan Berman, and Morris Black.”
He also told the Associated Press: “We’re not about to let Debrah Charatan dissolve the trust and get tens of millions of dollars more. You don’t get tens of millions of dollars in America for covering up a murder.”
The Jinx — Part Two airs its finale on Sunday, May 26 at 9 pm ET on HBO and Max.
He was the real estate heir who many suspected was responsible for the death of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, when she vanished under suspicious circumstances in 1982. Robert Durst‘s second wife, however, Debrah Lee Charatan, was with him until the end.
Durst was born in New York City on April 12, 1943, into a wealthy family known for its real estate empire. Durst’s father Seymour Durst was a prominent property developer and the head of The Durst Organization. The family was exceptionally affluent and the young Durst attended prestigious schools, including the Horace Mann School in New York City and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in economics.
His connection to several suspicious deaths was the subject of The Jinx documentary series by Andrew Jarecki. In the series’ final moments, he seemingly confesses to three murders on a live mic while in the bathroom: “There it is. You’re caught. … What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” (The quotes were later revealed to have been manipulated for dramatic effect but the production.)
When he died behind bars in 2022, convicted for the 2000 murder of his longtime friend, Susan Berman, Robert Durst‘s wife inherited a large fortune. Here’s what we know about where Debrah Lee Charatan is now.
Where is Robert Durst’s second wife now?
Debrah Lee Charatan currently serves as president of BCB Property Management, Inc. in New York City. According to the New York Times, Durst and Charatan met in 1998, introduced by a mutual friend at a real estate dinner.
In 2000, when the investigation into his first wife Kathie’s disappearance was reopened, Durst was said to have panicked and proposed to Charatan and gave her power of attorney over his bank accounts and business affairs. “I wanted Debbie to be able to receive my inheritance, and I intended to kill myself,” he said in a 2005 deposition. “It was our understanding that unless I was married to him, I couldn’t benefit from any of the trusts,” Charatan said in her own deposition.
“She’s not some opportunistic woman who came into Bob’s life for monetary gain. She was very successful, a millionaire several times over long before she met Bob,” said Amir Korangy, publisher of TheRealDeal.com told CNN in 2015. But Susan Criss, the retired judge who presided over the 2003 trial, observed, “It’s very clear that she only cares about the money.” According to sources, she only briefly lived with Durst and they had been separated, though they were still married.
Durst’s net worth was estimated to be $100 million, per the New York Times, which is a drop in the ocean compared to that of the Durst empire—Forbes magazine estimates the family’s fortune at $8.1 billion. The Durst family owns more than 16 million square feet of real estate in New York and Philadelphia, including a 10 percent stake in One World Trade Center.
When Durst died behind bars in 2022, Charatan inherited a large fortune. Not long after, Kathie Durst’s family sought more than $100 million from Durst’s estate and his widow in a wrongful death suit. Robert Abrams, the family’s attorney, claimed Charatan quietly married Durst in 2000 to help him evade authorities after the investigation into Kathie Durst’s disappearance was reopened.
Abrams said the suit is an “important step toward justice for Kathie and toward exposing the corruption that allowed Robert Durst to go unpunished,” adding that once Charatan was appointed executor, she would “apparently seek to collect the balance of her husband’s interest in the Durst family Trusts, which we believe was promised to Ms. Charatan in exchange for helping Robert Durst evade justice in connection with the murders of Kathie, Susan Berman, and Morris Black.”
He also told the Associated Press: “We’re not about to let Debrah Charatan dissolve the trust and get tens of millions of dollars more. You don’t get tens of millions of dollars in America for covering up a murder.”
One of my guilty-pleasure filmmakers is the British director Nick Broomfield, who, in the prime of his career making documentaries around lurid tabloid material, including two about the Aileen Wuornos case (Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer), another about Heidi Fleiss (Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam), and two more, back to back, about violent pop-culture tragedies, Kurt & Courtney and Biggie & Tupac. All of these cases had been thoroughly picked over in mainstream media, so Broomfield’s approach, particularly in Kurt & Courtney and Biggie & Tupac, was to poke around at the fringes and find compelling weirdos with minor connections to the major players. His schtick was to put himself in front of the camera and act like he fell off a turnip truck, and it worked like a charm every time.
Now that The Jinx has gotten past its first season, where it played a role in successfully nabbing a murderer, and past the first episode of this season, where it took a victory lap for successfully nabbing a murderer, the show seems to be settling into a Broomfield doc — wholly unnecessary, wildly entertaining. The path from Robert Durst’s apprehension to his conviction is not all crucial for a six-part documentary to follow, which has given The Jinx Part Two the quality of the longest DVD supplement of all time. But Andrew Jarecki and company are obviously interested in seeing this project all the way through, and the case has immediately started to drum up some incredible misfits on the edges. Bob Durst was not an ordinary guy, so it makes sense that his confidants are not ordinary people. Someone normal, like his first wife Kathie, never really fit in his sphere.
Though it introduces some other fun characters — I look forward to more from Michael and David Belcher, the apple-cheeked law clerks known as “the Wonder Twins” — “Friendships Die Hard” focuses intently on three friends who Durst worked hard to keep loyal in the lead-up to his trial in Los Angeles. With the trial on the horizon, Durst has been anxious about using his prison calls to secure their protection and sending his lawyers if that doesn’t work. Meanwhile, our cold case specialist, John Lewin, peppers them with phone calls in an effort to pry them away. Jarecki’s access to all of these calls and prison videos gives us some insight into how the case against Durst was built, but mainly it works as a window into the type of morally feeble misfits whose loyalty could be bought through a checkbook. A question like, “What do you do when your best friend kills your other best friend?” would be easy for 99.9 percent of humanity to answer. Jarecki introduces us to the other .1 percent.
First up is Doug Oliver, a real estate developer who seems awful even by the low standards of real estate developers. Charles Bagli of the New York Times describes Oliver as a would-be playboy in the ‘80s who convinced Durst to buy out a tenement building to rehabilitate the property and got 50 percent of the profits in return. When Lewin calls him about speaking to the prosecutors about Durst, Oliver brusquely declines, then wonders if he’ll have to pay for his flight to Los Angeles if Lewin subpoenas him. That leads to Oliver snootily negotiating for the state to pay for a private plane, knowing full well that Lewin can only offer a coach, and then telling him, “You guys are not going to get me on the commercial flight.” He would rather go to jail in New York than fly commercial. (Honestly, the quality of commercial flights makes that a less ridiculous statement than it should be.)
With Oliver looking like a firm “no,” Lewin turns to the most absurd figure of the three: Nick “Chinga” Chavin, an advertising executive who earned millions when the Durst Organization became his only client. Chavin feels especially grateful to Durst because he wasn’t likely to make his fortune as the frontman of Chinga Chavin, a “country porn” band that made its theoretical bones on country-western numbers with names like “Cum Stains on My Pillow (Where Your Sweet Head Used to Be).” Chavin met Durst through Susan Berman, who’d reviewed his band positively and become friends promoting his career. The two men were “naughty boys” having fun in New York, and Chavin describes them as sharing “a contempt for the law and for society and for the rules.”
It’s blazingly apparent that Chavin would have kept dodging any involvement in the case at all if not for his wife Terry, whose distaste for Durst and Debrah Lee Charatan, Durst’s second wife and co-conspirator, is rivaled only by her hatred of Chavin’s music. It turns out that Terry, at a low moment in her life, took a job working for Charatan at a real estate firm that sought a niche in the male-dominated field by hiring all women as employees. Yet in Terry’s account, this was not a great step forward for womankind: In maybe the craziest story in an episode full of them, Terry recalls Charatan being so concerned about how the women in the office smelled that she’d line her workers up in her office, have them lift their arms, and sniff their pits for inspection. If they didn’t smell up to standard, they’d have to go home for a shower.
As Terry’s cajoling makes the reluctant Nick more persuadable, Lewin moves on to Susie Giordano, Durst’s assistant and possible girlfriend, who worked with Chavin at his firm. Giordano’s status as a penpal and future love-nest inhabitant makes her a tough get for the prosecution, though the nature of her relationship with Durst naturally puts her at odds with Charaton, who doesn’t want to hear about the $150,000 he transferred to her. Of particular interest to Lewin is a package that Giordano shipped to Durst in New Orleans while he was plotting his getaway. The box was stuffed with clothing and other items that Giordano claimed to have jammed in there over the three minutes she was in his darkened apartment. There was also some cash that she estimated at $1,000 and that the authorities discovered was $114,000 higher than that estimate.
The sad truth of “Friendships Die Hard” is that loyalty can be purchased at various price points that a man like Robert Durst can easily afford. For Susie Giordano, the price was at least six figures. For Chris Lovell, the bald juror from Galveston, the mere promise of money seemed to have been enough.
• Funny callback from the Wonder Twins to Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, who had to clarify in a 2015 Instagram post that he did not, in fact, “Kill ‘em all.” The only thing that Durst killed was rock and roll.
• Digging deeper into the Chinga Chavin phenomenon, the album Country Porn sold over 100,000 copies via mail order through Penthouse magazine and included a song called “Asshole from El Paso,” a parody of Merle Haggard’s notorious “Okie From Muskogee,” that Chavin co-wrote with Kinky Friedman.
• Did Durst dismembering Morris Black bother Chavin? “It just didn’t have any impact on me. I don’t have that same moral hatred of murder and murderers.”
• It may be far down the list of Jarecki and company’s motives for revisiting the Durst case for another season, but staging a reenactment of women lifting their arms in Debrah Lee Charatan’s office is real cinema.
At the end of the workday, I like to shut my laptop screen and transition to my other screen times. Yes, as embarrassing as it is to say that, we all do it. You spend all day staring hard at your computer, just to end up looking at your phone and TV all night.
It’s not the healthiest way of living, but if I’m being honest it’s what we do. While we should aim to minimize our screen time as much as humanly possible, it’s tough when the entire planet is run by Apple. Suddenly, we’ve all developed an emotional attachment to our screens.
During the pandemic, documentaries soared in popularity. We’d run out of shows to watch, tired of the endless reality television loop, and turned to true crime. Podcasts like Serial, Morbid, and Crime Junkie all followed famous cases of serial killers, thieves, and grotesque examples of inhumanity.
And, as someone with FOMO who’s fallen victim to the grip of pop culture and constantly needs to stay in the know, I’ve done my due diligence, my field research. I’ve combed through days worth of documentaries searching for the best of the best.
A good documentary contains at least one of these elements: shock factor, eye-witness testimony, and at least one moment worthy of a viral clip. Take Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened…which became an overnight meme thanks to Fyre Fest producer Andy King detailing how he was willing to offer oral sex in exchange for Evian Water to save the festival.
What’s The Best Streaming Service For Documentaries?
It’s about getting the people talking, and no streaming service makes a better documentary than HBO Max (more recently known as just “Max.”). Max somehow knows exactly what the people want to see and that’s…drama.
Since there are so many documentaries out there, you’ve got to find a way to keep people interested. We already know many of the infamous serial killers like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, so it takes true storytelling to get our attention.
HBO Max does something special: finding lesser known stories, nabbing exclusive interviews, and catching the story at the right time. Sure, Netflix shows you what’s already happened, but somehow Max gets ahead of the story every time.
The most shocking and relevant docus are on HBO Max, so if you’re ready to binge watch something that will have your jaw on the floor…I’ve got you covered.
Here are my top 4 documentaries on HBO Max that you can stream right now!
Love Has Won: The Cult Of Mother God
Have you ever witnessed such ludicrous, outlandish behavior that it almost makes you laugh? Welcome to Love Has Won, a cult led by the late Amy Carlson known as “Mother God,” “Mother” for short.
Mother claimed she’d been reincarnated 534 times as notable figures like Jesus, Marilyn Monroe, and Cleopatra. She promised to lead 144,000 people into the 5th dimension. Not only that, but Donald Trump was her father in a past life and she frequently speaks to Robin Williams…who’s no longer present in the “physical.”
In May 2021 Amy Carlson died due to: anorexia, chronic colloidal silver ingestion, and acute alcohol abuse. But the cult believed she had finally ascended. Even pushing colloidal silver as the magic elixir, this documentary truly has everything.
BS High
This documentary answers the question: “What if you went to high school and it wasn’t real?” From 2019-2021, Bishop Sycamore High School advertised themselves as a sports training academy that would forge young men into 5-star D1 recruits for football.
The team went on to play some of the best high school football teams. But after mounting hype around their players…people soon realized that these boys were far from D1 recruits. During the 2021 season, they somehow landed the fourth toughest schedule in the nation…and none of the teams they played were in Ohio.
Led by coach and BS High founder Roy Johnson, BS High was slated to play the best: IMG Academy. After facing odd scheduling and huge blowouts, IMG romped BS, 58-0. From there, Roy Johnson was exposed for hundreds of lies: essentially creating a fake high school and none of the players received even a GED.
Featuring first-hand interviews from Roy Johnson and the players themselves, this docu is both crazy and sad.
The Jinx: The Life and Deaths Of Robert Durst
If you’re going to watch one documentary on this list, make it this one. Robert Durst is a real estate heir who had never cooperated with a journalist before. Durst was so enamored with director of The Jinx Andrew Jarecki’s work that he offered to sit down and do an interview with Andrew.
Durst’s story is intriguing because he was surrounded by death. His wife, Kathie, had been missing since 1982. His friend, writer Susan Berman, was killed execution-style in 2000. His neighbor, Morris Black, was found dismembered in 2001. The one common denominator? Robert Durst.
As Durst is interviewed over the years, you see the conniving mega-millionaire evade any consequence as evidence piles up against him. Clearly this guy is guilty…which was solidified when he was arrested a day before the finale came out. But the final twist will have shocked to the core.
Plus, The Jinx part two comes out April 21.
Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV
One of the most recent viral documentaries hits close to home. Growing up, I was a devout Nickelodeon viewer. My nights ended with The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, iCarly, and more. Over the years, fans have closely watched as many former beloved child actors have had very public breakdowns. And it’s all being explained now by HBO.
Quiet On Set exposes Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider’s treatment of employees and cast members throughout his tenure at the network. It includes horrifying accounts from cast members such as Drake Bell, who details the sexual abuse he encountered from dialogue coach, Brian Peck.
Dan Schneider’s downfall has been building since the glory days of Nickelodeon, and it all peaks with this documentary.
