tv Very Scary People CNN December 14, 2024 6:00pm-7:00pm PST
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>> what i heard was maurice black was not to be played with that. when you're in a moment of fright and fear, it's called panic. they said if a person is already dead and you get to chopping up the body, that's called tampering with evidence. and that's another case and another trial. >> welcome to very scary people. i'm donnie wahlberg. when robert durst's wife,
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kathie vanished without a trace, her family suspected foul play. but there was no proof of a crime. no body was ever found. 18 years later, when prosecutors opened a new investigation into her case, durst himself disappeared. he fled to galveston, texas, and began a strange new life. a new name, a new story, a whole new identity. he was posing as a deaf mute woman named dorothy signer until a dead body was discovered floating in the bay nearby, and a trail of blood led right back to his door. it all seemed too bizarre, but durst would explain everything in detail. here's part two of robert durst. nobody tells the whole truth. >> good afternoon. in the news today, a reward of $100,000 offered by a husband to help find his missing wife. >> robert durst's wife, kathie durst, went missing in 1982.
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>> the wife, 29 year old kathleen durst, a medical student at albert einstein college, disappeared from the couple's manhattan apartment. >> once i heard she disappeared, i think i knew pretty fast that something bad had happened. >> personally, between you and me, albert. and never to be quoted. okay, i think she's dead. >> nobody turned up. there's no crime scene even. and the case just lost all momentum after a while. >> then 18 years later, there's this new investigation into the disappearance of kathie durst. >> i have a lot of questions. it appears that things are not what they seem to be. in 1982, when he learns that there's a new investigation and he's going to come under scrutiny once again, bob was in a panic. >> what he does is he goes down to galveston and he rents an apartment posing as a middle aged woman who was deaf, and her name was dorothy signer. he's basically on the run waiting to see what happens and
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then a few weeks later, susan berman is murdered in los angeles. >> susan berman, an author and a close friend of robert durst. >> she was the closest person to bobby back in 1982. she knew everything that was going on. >> someone had addressed an envelope to beverly hills police, and inside, on note paper was the word cadaver. and an address. susan's address. the supposition was that whoever sent that letter had seen the body and wanted the body to be discovered. >> then, in september 2001, another body turns up. >> a teenage boy fishing in the shallow waters off galveston, texas, stumbled on the gruesome remains of a murder. >> galveston police are convinced 58 year old robert durst killed and dismembered his 71 year old neighbor, morris black, who can chop up a body i don't know how a
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surgeon does it, let alone a real estate heir. >> then an arrest is made. they had a bond hearing where they expected him to show up, and at some point they realize he is not coming. >> today durst was due in court but didn't show. >> this incredibly wealthy man is on the run. >> you're talking about a guy that's got millions of dollars at his disposal. >> robert, if you see this or hear this, please come home. >> now he's a fugitive from the law. and the question is, where is he? >> i strongly believed that he is a danger to the community. he's very, very dangerous. man after six weeks of being a fugitive, robert durst gets caught in a small town in pennsylvania after he was accused of shoplifting a sandwich. >> that's how he gets arrested and sent back to galveston, texas. >> very few white. are you
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competent to stand trial? >> he has no comment well, jury selection got underway in galveston, texas, today. >> robert durst is on trial for murdering and dismembering his neighbor. >> if he is found guilty of that murder, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, which is a far cry from the lifestyle that he was born into. >> he's a member of one of the wealthiest real estate families in new york city. he's worth at least $500 million. >> the attorneys that represented him were some of the best in the country. >> dick deguerin, kip lewis and mike ramsey. they're the dream team of criminal defense attorneys in this region of texas. >> it was a dream team defense that cost bob several million dollars. >> the prosecution had a really good circumstantial case. >> we had a tremendous amount of physical evidence. here we've got what we believe to be the murder weapon. we had
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the blood trail between morris black's apartment and his. we also found a receipt from a local hardware store that indicated a purchase for a bow saw and several garbage bags. >> these were all instruments that were used in the killing and dismembering and disposing of morris black. >> going into this trial, everyone thought that the only way robert durst might have a chance of getting out of this situation is if he pled that he was insane. >> how else do you explain the cutting up the body? i mean, how do you explain a person who could be so cold as to do that he was swimming in the blood and then he cleaned up and went back to the san luis hotel and had a caesar salad. >> he also went to a local walmart, got a money order to pay morris black's rent so
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that the landlord would not come around looking for the rent. >> this is a man who by many accounts he was cross-dressing. he portrayed himself as a mute woman. certainly. you know, i guess eccentric at the very least, would be the word to describe it. >> at first glance, when you look at what's going on here in galveston, you think, oh, robert durst isn't all there. there must be something wrong with him mentally. but then little things start popping up here and there that make you question. is there something else going on here? he started going around setting up safe houses like he did in galveston. >> he also did the same thing in new orleans, dressed up as a mute female. >> durst had also cemented a very crucial relationship before he went on the run with the very person who had wired him the $300,000 that he needed to make bail. >> that's when we learned about deborah charatan, his secret wife. >> she's another influential person in real estate in new york. >> their romantic relationship
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had lasted only a couple of years, but she was still a confidante of his. and when bob learned of this new investigation into kathie's disappearance, authorities believe he immediately takes action and marries his longtime friend deborah lee sharon. nobody had known that they got married. >> it was clearly a business deal for her to agree to marry him. >> he gives her power of attorney over his financial accounts. >> it was a marriage of convenience. exactly right. that that was exactly what we were doing when robert durst returns to texas. >> they revoked the bail. he ran on us on the first one. you're not getting another shot. the odds seemed completely stacked against them. >> there's no winning defense in a crime like this. unless you have a winning defense attorney like dick deguerin. >> mr. garrett, are you ready? >> yes. your honor.
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>> andy, take a seat. anderson. look at this. you're wet. disheveled. there's debris hitting you. we need to be ready for new year's eve maybe you are ready. >> new year's eve, live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. >> starting a business is never easy. but starting at eight months pregnant. that's a different story. with the chase inc card we got up and running in no time. >> earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase with the chase ink business unlimited card from chase for business on medicare. >> living with diabetes. progress is having your coffee like you like it. the freestyle libre three plus sensor is covered by medicare for more people managing diabetes with insulin. this is progress. ask your doctor today sara atishi la la kiara.
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how to help you holiday. >> okay everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy ensure with 27 vitamins and minerals, nutrients for immune health and ensure complete with 30g of protein. >> the state of texas versus robert durst in the district court of galveston county, texas. the defendant, robert durst, stands charged by indictment with the offense of murder. >> robert durst defense, led by defense attorney dick deguerin, surprises everyone. >> the defense that deguerin presented was quite an audacious one, which was, yes, my client did it. we're not arguing that. but he did it out of self-defense. >> robert durst says morris black was accidentally killed in self-defense while both men struggled for a gun. >> well, if the defense is self-defense, you almost have to put him on the stand. only two people know what happened. one is now deceased. the other
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one is mr. durst. >> it's got to be a risky strategy putting this man on the stand. do they even know what he's going to say? >> they're going to prep him very well, but it is definitely a high risk strategy. >> dick deguerin lives by this philosophy where you embrace the negative. don't deny what you can't deny. >> deguerin has this phrase that he teaches law students you kiss the ugly baby. you have to take whatever your horrible thing in your case is, and you kiss that ugly baby. >> they quickly figured out that robert durst can't deny that he killed morris black. so you have to admit what you did, and you take away the prosecutor's sharpest knife in their toolbox. there was a mountain of evidence showing that robert durst was guilty of killing. but that doesn't mean he was guilty of murder. >> before robert durst took the stand, his defense attorneys tried to prepare the jury for some of his quirks. >> they told us that as a
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child, he suffered with asperger's. >> defense attorneys say durst suffers from a mild form of autism, which they say explains why durst acted the way he did the whole asperger's thing. >> i never thought that about anything. >> that was a psychiatrist coming up with an explanation, and it was never necessary at the trial. >> bob, you agree that was a load of bull by the string? yeah. >> and i watched him walk from that table to that box to sit in. he looked frail and he got up there and he was real soft spoken and he said he didn't want to be. >> he didn't want to be bob anymore. >> this kind of ends up playing into this whole idea of, you know, him having to explain why this multi-millionaire is living on a texas island dressed as a woman. >> by his own admission, robert durst came to galveston with a secret that he wanted to change
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identities morris black was robert durst's next door neighbor who distinguished himself in galveston as being a complete and utter crank. >> the defense said that they immediately became fast friends and eventually they become friendly enough where robert durst drops the the disguise of being dorothy siner morris black was the only one who knew robert durst as robert durst. >> they were both estranged from their family. were lone wolves, and they were also incredibly cheap. >> bob says he gave him a key to his apartment. bob had a television. he welcomed morris in to watch television but what i heard in this case
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morris black, was not to be played with. bob had a pistol, which he kept in the oven they presented it more like morris was more interested in durst's weapon, you know, like he had a fantasy with his weapon but at a certain point, bob says he took the key away from morris black he comes home one evening and finds morris there holding his gun. according to bob. >> they tussled, but it was like a self-defense tussle
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and as they fell to the ground, the gun goes off, killing morris black, according to durst, morris was shot in the face. >> bob says he's freaking out because he knows that there's now a new investigation into kathie's disappearance. >> the way he told the story, he didn't believe anybody was going to believe him, that it was self-defense. so he had to make this calculated decision to hide this body so in a fugue like state, he went over to chalmer's hardware store and got what everybody else would get right. >> a buzzsaw according to him, in order to cut the body up, he had to get drunk and smoke a lot of pot.
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i've never heard anybody describe in such bloody detail something that they did that was so horrific bob's defense team hammered away with the jury that they had to separate the act of how morris black died from the cutting up of the body. >> this case is not about what bob durst did after morris black died. the sole issue for you, ladies and gentlemen, to decide is how morris black died. >> they said that if a person is already dead and you get to chopping up the body, that's called tampering with evidence. and that's another case and another trial. >> prosecutors say durst very calmly planned to get away with murder, wrapping body parts in trash bags and inside suitcases, even using his money
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to pay for the victim's rent. they say durst's actions after the shooting prove his guilt, but they didn't come up with a good story to tell about why the murder occurred. >> they're saying that durst shot morris black dead center in the back of his head. but you can't say that because you don't have the head. >> what you had is mr. durst taking the stand and telling a story that basically couldn't be disproved. it's like proving the negative. and the prosecutor had a hard time doing that reasonable doubt. >> it means a doubt based on reason and common sense. >> mr. foreman, i understand you have a verdict. we, the jury, find the defendant, robert durst, not guilty.
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>> i don't think he believed for a minute that he was going to be found not guilty. >> not guilty? he cut a guy in pieces. and hid the evidence. not guilty. >> we did the best with what we had. and whether it agreed to you all or to anyone else out there in america. this is what we came up with to stop luther. >> never too much. new year's day at eight on cnn. life. diabetes. there's no slowing down. each day is a unique blend of people to see and things to do. that's why you choose glucerna to help manage blood sugar response uniquely designed with carb steady glucerna. >> bring on the day
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>> closed captioning brought to you by mso book.com. >> if you or a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 800 821 4000. >> we begin with a courtroom shocker. a man who admitted that he killed his neighbor and chopped up his body is found not guilty of murder by a texas jury. >> after robert durst was acquitted of murdering morris black, he pleads guilty to some lesser charges, tampering with evidence for dismembering morris black's body jumping bail, and then federal weapons charges. within two and a half years. robert durst is back out on the streets by then, new york filmmaker andrew jarecki was inspired to make a feature film based on robert durst's life. >> by late 2010, all good
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things is coming out. >> all good things was the name of the health food store that robert and kathie durst were running in vermont in the early 1970s. >> we thought carefully about trying to make it as accurate as possible, and i remember saying to my partner when we were writing that movie, i would like to make a movie that the real bob durst could see and have an emotional reaction to, and bob says that he loved the movie the way they made all good things. >> it made me not. >> it made me a sympathetic person as opposed to a super aggressive person, which is pretty much correct. and i wanted them to see the whole thing and that they would see me as an acceptable human being as opposed to all this other stuff. >> i wrote a story in the times how much he liked the movie, despite the fact that it implicated him in three murders, but it also made his
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family look horrible, and he reveled in that. >> based on durst's very positive response to all good things, he contacts the director and suggests that jarecki should interview him for a documentary about his life. >> they did two massive interviews, one at the end of 2010 and then again in 2012. >> why in the world would he agree to do an interview on camera? >> he had never talked before, so he wanted to tell his story as he had it in his head. >> i believe bob sat down to do the jinx because he believed that he was infallible in february of 2015, the six part docu series the jinx premieres on hbo, which is owned by hln parent company warnermedia. >> for the first time. durst makes revealing statements on camera like this one about his trial testimony in galveston.
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>> you know, it's a question of not what do i say? >> but how do i say it? i never intentionally purposefully lied. i made mistakes i did not tell the whole truth. nobody tells the whole truth. >> bob admits a lot of things on the jinx. >> i was talking to him after every episode. by the fifth episode, when i called him, he was very agitated. >> in the jinx, a new stunning revelation by the stepson of susan berman killed execution style in her beverly hills home in a storage box. the stepson comes across a letter durst sent to berman shortly before she died. durst's handwriting the killer's note to police. they bear remarkable similarities down to the misspelling of beverly. >> it was sent on december
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23rd, the same day that susan was killed. inside, on note, paper was the word cadaver and an address. susan's address. >> oh, god. the b is exactly the same son of a whoever wrote that letter knew that susan berman was dead. >> then in the sixth and final episode, andrew jarecki shows durst the letter and confronts him. >> so you wrote one of these, but you didn't write the other one. >> i wrote this one, but i did not write the good one. >> and can you tell me which one you didn't write no. >> when confronted, durst becomes nervous, even burping uncomfortably on camera. >> i would conclude they were both written by the same person. and then the interview comes to an end and bob asks to go to the bathroom.
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>> visibly rattled, durst stepped away to the bathroom. his microphone still live. >> there it is. you're caught what the hell are you doing kill them all of course. >> i just had no idea that that last five minutes, we would see something like that. >> i stood up and gasped. >> i shed a couple of tears because it was. it was a final closure on your worst fears. >> and i thought to myself, oh, my god, he's going to run. >> sometimes monsters walk among us. >> he's a serial killer. even the serial killer's fear of donnie wahlberg. >> very scary. people returns
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absolutely free. text l o to 321321. >> today i'm rafael romo at the georgia state capitol in atlanta. this is cnn. >> welcome back to very scary people. when robert durst reached out to documentary producers and offered to tell the truth about his controversial life, his goal was to set the record straight to create a positive impression. he was confident he could control the narrative until a confrontation about the handwriting on the susan berman letter. then he went on the run again. >> the day before hbo broadcast that final episode of the jinx. a warrant had been issued for his arrest in the murder of
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susan berman, but nobody could find him. >> lapd at this point knows he has left his home in houston with five bags, and he's going somewhere. >> the fbi is looking at his whereabouts, and they see that he gets into a car and he starts driving east. and then he turns off his phone. and so they can't track him. what he did was go to new orleans. he checked into the marriott under an assumed name. it was that day or the next day bob turns on his phone. big mistake, because now they know where he is. so that saturday afternoon, two fbi agents go to the marriott and they ask for the manager, and they say, do you have bob durst here? no, nobody
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by the name of bob durst i said, well, how about. and they go through ten aliases. no. so they're standing around in the lobby and they turn in. and who comes walking through the revolving door? but a guy that looks a hell of a lot like bob durst so they pull him aside, and they said, are you bob durst? >> breaking news tonight. >> multimillionaire robert durst, arrested in connection with the execution style killing of his longtime friend susan berman. >> he's going to jail. >> there he is in the back seat of the car, smiling, looking happy. >> his facial expressions are often inappropriate, but this man has been teflon coated his entire life. nothing bad sticks to robert durst. >> when did you find out about the statement? in the bathroom.
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>> when i saw it on television, like most everybody else in the country. and if that's the strength of their case, i mean, i can be ready tomorrow. we want to contest the basis for his arrest because i think it's not based on facts. it's based on ratings. >> fbi found cash, smith and wesson and five ounces of marijuana. that is a lot of marijuana for any one individual to smoke. they find $117,000 in cash. he also had maps with florida, the u.s. and cuba. this is a guy who was clearly plotting and planning something. >> they found a mask that would cover your face over your neck, up to your chest area. it was creepy looking. >> this morning, new york real estate heir robert durst remains behind bars in new orleans. >> john lewin, the prosecutor he had gotten on a plane the
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minute he heard they had him in custody. and he lands very early in new orleans and goes straight to the jailhouse and asks if bob is willing to talk to him, which he was. >> what i see here, you can see. >> and they start talking for almost three hours. >> without durst lawyer present. >> i'm here talking to you today because i truly believe, bob. i don't think you feel that badly about morris. that's my view. i don't know how you feel about kathy, but here's what i do know. i know that when you killed susan, that was not something you wanted to do i'm going to stay away from killing susan. >> it was a brilliant interview
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because the prosecutor had a checklist of what he wanted to ask bob and get a response to, like the so-called cadaver note. >> you've been shown the letter and the cadaver note. whoever wrote the note was a part of killing her? yes. you agree, right? yes. no question. right. >> whoever wrote that note had to be involved in susan's death. okay. >> lewin explains his theories of the crimes he believes durst has committed. >> i don't think you planned out the killing of kathy. i think that happened, and you were stuck with it. i do think you planned out susan and i. and i think you planned out morris. >> in the case of morris black, lewin theorizes that black was the one person in galveston who knew the true identity of robert durst and may have threatened to expose him. >> he knew who you were. and the problem with morris was that morris was pushy and a
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pain in the he was putting pressure on you to basically set him up, you know, in a house with you? yes. and you wanted to leave? i was finished with morris. >> i was finished with galveston, and i was going someplace else for my life. >> by the end of the conversation, they start dancing around very obliquely about, you know, a plea agreement. >> you'd like some details from me if i knew. >> yes. about where kathy's body is and about what happened to susan. and about what happened. and you would agree that you're in the position. if you want to tell me more than you have so far about that. >> i'm not about to go that far. okay. >> lewin is telling him basically, we got you. >> you're not going to see outside again as a free man. >> so if i was to accept that
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i'm not going to be out of prison. now, the question is, where do i want to spend my time? and i'm going to be, you know, assuming we can come up with something. >> it looks as if he wants to tell his story. >> the defense view of robert durst playing that game of cat and mouse is that robert durst was playing the prosecutor at that time. >> i do think that the prosecutor in los angeles has got his number. i think he understands bob better than anybody who's dealt with him. he's researched this case. he knows everything. you could possibly know. >> i've been doing these kinds of cases for many years and um, and do you know the reason why i win them? >> i haven't the faintest. well, no, i mean, you seem like you're probably a competent d.a.. >> that's not why i win.
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>> why do you win? >> i win because the guys that i'm prosecuting they did it i never. >> imagined this moment would come. >> we sat down for a cnn exclusive with the man leading the offensive. >> this regime is dead. the russians admit that they were surprised by the events quickly unfolding inside syria. >> we go in to get a closer look. >> i'm a civilian, he says. i'm a civilian. after three months in a windowless cell, he can finally see the sky. >> you can see people are so happy, but at the same time just exacerbates the fears about what might be coming next details make the holidays get 2.99% apr, plus eligible owners can get $2,000 on the gv70 exclusively at your local genesis retailers. >> oh, what a good time we will.
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>> right now. all over the country. kids at shriners hospitals for children are able to go home and be with their families for the holidays. >> and that's only possible because of the monthly donations from people like you. >> thanks to a generous donor, every dollar you give will go three times as far to help more kids with your gift of just $19 a month, only $0.63 a day, we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as a thank you and a reminder of the care you'll be providing so kids can be with their families christmas eve will find me where the love light gleams. it only takes a moment to call the number on your screen. or you can visit love shriners. org. your gift of $19 a month will have three times the impact in the lives of kids like me, because every child just wants
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to be home for the holidays, and your gift makes that possible. your call is the best gift of all. your gift will be my favorite christmas present this year. please call the number on your screen or go to love shriners. org to give whatever you can. and when you become a monthly donor, your first gift will be tripled. thank you for giving. >> harlem has everything, but i couldn't find pilates anywhere, so i started my own studio and with the right help, i can make this place i love even better. earn up to 5% cash back on business essentials with the chase ink business cash card from chase for business. >> closed captioning is brought to you by mike, an all in one home access and monitoring system. >> my garage. i'd be closing while i'm hiking in wyoming. if my home just had a brain bob durst did not kill susan
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berman, and he doesn't know who did. >> he wants to prove it. >> how strong is the case against him? >> completely out of whack. >> 20 hours of footage. 20 hours of interviews that this guy gave without his lawyer present. without anybody present to keep his mouth shut. to hbo that's going to be used against him. >> the fundamental problem for the defense is that their client talked and talked and talked again. he did the very thing that his lawyers and his friends warned him against. don't poke a stick in the beehive. >> durst attorney says he needs to be in a hospital instead of jail because of several medical conditions, one of which was definitely obvious here. you can see it right about here. it's a shunt bulging from the side of his shaven head, implanted during surgery to treat hydrocephalus you don't want to say here and
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now, though i am not guilty. >> i did not kill susan berman. >> as it stands today, bob is charged with one murder. the murder of susan berman. but the theory of the prosecution's case is that bob executed susan because he was afraid that she would reveal to the authorities her role in the disappearance of kathie durst. >> that man kills witnesses. that's what he does. that's what he did in this case. that's what he did with morris black. mr. durst, when pushed into a corner, he murders people. >> they have an idea that somehow they're going to try three murder cases, one of which he's previously been acquitted of. the other he's never been charged in. and in this case, it's the first presumption that they have is
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that first, kathie durst is dead. >> there's no evidence that she is. but second, that bob durst had anything to do with her disappearance. there's no evidence. there never has been. there isn't anything new. >> it's a circumstantial case. so john lewin has a very difficult task ahead of him, especially given the defense team that durst has assembled, which is pretty much the same defense team he used in the morris black trial. >> that man beat a murder in galveston. beat a murder he murdered that man, and he got away with it. he's not going to get away a second time. >> this is not a slam dunk by any means. this is going to be something to watch. >> do not underestimate robert durst or his defense team. >> we're back in session, people. versus robert durst. >> as early as 2017, deputy da john lewin began calling conditional witnesses. these are people that he wanted to get on the record before the
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trial began the deputy district attorney dug up a dozen people who susan told some fragment of the story. >> and when you put them all together, they are a mosaic that tells a bit about what susan knew lynda obst. she had been interviewed for the jinx, but she didn't talk about this piece of information, and she testified that susan had told her that she helped bob with covering up how kathy disappeared. >> lynda testified that susan admitted that she had called kathy's medical school and pretended to be kathy. >> you're seeing people come forward now who have protected him in the past one of the people who had not spoken to law enforcement until then was a mutual friend of susan berman and robert durst, named nick
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chavin, the prosecutor in los angeles, spent seven months trying to get nick to talk, and nick, as he put it, is weighing his loyalty to his two best friends. >> susan on the one hand and bob on the other, and ultimately he decided to cooperate. he became the big mystery witness at the first big hearing in los angeles. >> chavin gave testimony about an encounter he had with robert durst in new york in 2014. >> nick gets a call and bob says, i want to talk to you about susie. so they have dinner they get outside and nick says to him bob, you you wanted to talk about susie this
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person that was near and dear to both of them. and he's looking down at the ground and he says, i had no choice. it was her or me i can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. >> you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much new year's day on cnn come play with me get 2.99% apr plus eligible owners can get $2,000 on the gv70 exclusively at your local genesis retailers. >> i've got this. >> hey, susan. toothbrush. >> big interview, huh? nice new suit, new haircut, ancient bristle stick. make the sonicare switch. all right, now
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reliable 5g, plus wifi speeds up to a gig where you need it most. xfinity mobile. xfinity internet customers, ask how to get a free 5g phone and a second unlimited line free for a year. free text draw to 369369 today. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn i want to thank all of you. >> this has been a really long process. >> prosecution's making their case right now in a los angeles courtroom. >> more than 150 witnesses could be called to the stand after decades of suspicion. >> robert durst's long awaited murder trial is about to finally begin. paul vercammen
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is on this story from los angeles. >> the first time we caught a glimpse of durst, he was stooped over and he must not weigh much more than 120 pounds. >> bob has come to look like a very old man and somewhat feeble. he moves very slowly, and with a great amount of effort. >> durst will hear the opening statements from the grim reaper of cold case defendants. john lewin has had a lot of success prosecuting cold cases, especially under circumstantial evidence. >> what the evidence will show is that bob durst killed kathie durst in the midst of a nasty divorce, that he killed susan berman because he was afraid that susan berman was going to reveal what he knew. >> lewin also put this out there that, although loyal, susan berman was not the best at keeping secrets. >> and with susan berman told
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him that, you know what? i'm going to talk to investigators did she seal her fate and that john lewin brings it up, that cadaver? >> note that note that points police to susan berman's body. durst has also made clear that he ever wrote the cadaver note is, in fact, the person who murdered susan berman, writing a note to the police that only the killer could have written. and then they're getting ready to pick a jury, and then all of a sudden, boom, there's lawyers now admit that he was the one who wrote the note and mailed it. >> after many years of adamantly and repeatedly denying that he wrote the note three months ago he also stipulated that he wrote down so many had wondered for months, how in the world will the defense explain that cadaver? >> note they actually admit to the jury that robert durst
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found her body when bob showed up and found her dead. he panicked. he wrote the anonymous letter so her body would be found, and he ran. durst lawyer's mantra is a lack of evidence is evidence, in this case, of his innocence, there is no forensic evidence whatsoever linking bob to mrs. durst disappearance or more importantly, miss berman's murder. >> no evidence of fingerprints in the house. blood, dna, ballistics, two houses, no forensic evidence. >> and on that call where the prosecution says susan berman posed as kathie durst, the defense is basically said this call from susan berman never happened. and then the jinx killed them all. >> of course, the jinx will definitely be center stage, but the defense said this is
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heavily edited. >> it is deceiving and deliberately misleading. you're going to see the unedited parts, and i think the evidence will show you that the editing changed a lot of, i call it gotcha. journalism i think this is going to be a final reckoning. >> and the defense, one thing that they have on their side is all they have to do is convince one juror that the prosecution hasn't proven what happened. this trial is not simply about murder of susan berman. this trial covers three deaths over
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a span of almost 40 years, and it's about justice. >> i'll be watching this trial very closely. i don't think i get up and not think of kathy on any given day, probably several times a day. >> a lot of people have suffered over the years not knowing what happened to kathy. she had a lot of people who loved her, including myself. i think it would give a lot of people at least some peace of mind to know the truth. >> it just may simply be robert durst will be the custodian of all these secrets, and that those secrets will remain locked up inside of him. >> you know, things stay hidden, but they don't stay hidden forever
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when robert durst entered the courtroom for the susan berman murder trial, people gasped. >> he looked weak and frail, his voice barely audible. his attorneys confirmed his poor health, and many wondered if he would live long enough to hear the verdict. in spite of any evidence against him, durst always insisted he did not kill his best friend, susan. the jury found him guilty. donnie wahlberg. thanks for watching. good night.
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