. is he consumed by violent demons? he clearly has perpetrated violence. >> it's frustrating that this guy continually goes free. >> it's the case that's riveted the country. elusive, reclusive, robert durst, the millionaire arrested for murder, exposed in the documentary "the jynx. >> what the hell did i do? killed them all, of course. >> he seemed to confess to murder right there on television. but now that the tv drama is over, the real drama is just beginning. >> robert durst has evaded justice for 32 years. >> but did he really kill them

all? "dateline's" followed the case for years. the wife -- still missing. >> she disappeared without a trace. >> the best friend -- was she about to talk? >> she kept saying that she was on to something big. >> the neighbor -- who wound up in pieces. >> what kind of person can cut up another human being? and now? >> robert durst needs to go to prison. >> bob further did not kill susan berman. >> will he walk away once more? >> it's entirely possible that bobby durst will get off yet again. >> i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." tonight, dennis murphy with the latest on robert further, "inside the long strange trip." >> he's locked away in louisiana, robert further, multi-millionaire, an american oddball like knew others, charged now with the first-degree shooting death of a me fail best friend in los angeles in 2000. finally say the many, many

people who have wanted to see durst permanently in a prison jumpsuit for more than 30 years. >> he's a menace to society. >> it could be a death penalty case when it goes to trial. and promises to be a showdown of some of the sharpest legal talent in the country. it's about money t. privilege of class and just plain old hypnotic weirdness that's off the scale. >> bob durst did not kill susan berman. he doesn't know who did. >> there's a lot we will untangle tonight. let's start with the most serious of charges he face, that he shot to death his long time friend writer susan berman, law enforcement's theory, perhaps because she knew too much about what had happened to durst a wife, cathie, missing now for

more than 30 years. here at "dateline" we've been looking in on the ongoing robert durst investigations for the last 13 years. and tonight, you'll learn that maybe some of the best evidence against him, the very case for first-degree murder, isn't so much what he mumbled to a tv microphone as what he's written. we can say that the los angeles authorities believe a handwritten letter linked to to susan berman's murder was, in fact, written by the hand of robert further and post-parked near the los angeles airport the day before berman was found shot to death. maybe you were the first introduced to robert further on the multipart hbo documentary "the jynx, the life and deaths of robert durst." by agreeing to take part in an hbo documentary, he kicked a sleeping dog, an investigation long smoldering in a california cold case homicide file revived. cathie scott wrote two books about the case.

>> he wanted to have a documentary made about himself, and it ended up being the death of robert further, so to speak. >> r. >> reporter: durst agreed to sit down for two interviews, with the documentary producers. in the second interview, he struggled to explain two document, then asked to use the bathroom. his microphone was still hot as he mulligan talking to himself. >> what a disaster. >> reporter: then he blurted out what sound like a confession. >> what the hell did i do? killed them all, of course. >> reporter: them? did he mean his wife, cathie, friend susan berman? the old guy in gavelson he admitted to dismembering? whatever. it was riveting television and by the time the final segment aired last sunday, durst was already under arrest in jones. >> behind bars, the wealthy heir suspected in connection to a pair of mysterious deaths under arrest tonight.

did an explosive new doemtary help build the case against him? >> reporter: fbi agents took him down without incident in the lobby of a marriott hotel. >> it's a unique set of circumstances, but our case is independent of the documentary. our case will stand on its own. >> reporter: in the days that followed, durst appeared in a new orleans courtroom to waive extradition to california. but louisiana authorities also want to prosecute him on drugs and gun charges. in houston, meanwhile, agents executed a search warrant on his luxury condo and left with six boxes. it is all familiar stuff to a one-time west chester county, new york, district attorney, who tried to build a case against durst for killing his wife in 1992. >> there is no doubt in my mind that robert durst has committed murder. >> reporter: these days jeanine pirro is a tv judge, the host of a fox news channel's "justice

with judge europeanine." but if she were a sitting judge. >> the bathroom admission to me is clearly as missible. everything about it is voluntary. he had agreed to the interview. he had done it for some 25 hours. he's got on a hot mic and he knows it. to most judges, it would be, you know, case closed. >> reporter: is it finally over for a man some people in law enforcement regard as a nutcase killer extraordinaire? journalist robert drapeer, though, thinks not so fast. he's written extensively about robert durst over the years and has seen him dance away from the flames time and again. >> durst's lawyers are highly skilled and have been down this road before. in our justice system, anyway, definitely have the wind at their face.

>> our years of durst coverage the stories you have been hearing and reading about all week, the missing wife the murdered friends the old man in galveston missing and tossed into the bay. at the time further was living as a cross-dresser. and you'll hear statements from those close to the case the people who know it the best. the missing wife's brother, susan berman's best friend the lead homicide detective in los angeles. so we're going to turn back the clock and start at the beginning. new york in the 1970s, studio 54 and the love affair of an unlikely couple. put your seatbelts on. ritz going to be, as they say, a bumpy ride. >> when we come back, inside that very first mystery, what has happened to his wife? >> bobby told everyone that his wife took off, got on a train and went into manhattan. there was no way cathie durst got on that train.

>> for her to make a statement like that, it was so unusual. >> but if anything happened to me, bobby did it.

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3 f2 en el lenguaje de las it's the early '70s, encountered a tenant in one of his father's aparmtd building, 18-year-old dental hygienist kathleen mccormack. the youngest of five from a middle-class irish-catholic family in long island, soon to become his girlfriend. jim mccormack is cathie's brother. >> the relationship is prince charming. they truly were in love. >> reporter: the couple married in 1973. he was shy, a little aloof, some thought, nearly ten-years-older. she was lively, attractive, the sparkplus who'd gather friends for denners. they had a snazzy penthouse apartment in new york and a pretty little cottage in west chester county. and they were perks to being the heir to a manhattan real estate

dynasty when the velvet ropes parted to some of the most exclusive clubs in town. studio 54, xenon, discos, the fabulous people, champagne and drug when they were labeled recreation and kathleen wasn't going to settle for being arm furniture for her rich young husband. she got her nursing degree then enrolled in medical. life was good. think rich hippys. >> the song that reminded me a lot of cathie and bobby bob dylan ♪ lay lady lay ♪ ♪ lay upon me ♪ ♪ my brass bed ♪ and kate and bob had this room off the side of their ate house and there was a big brass bed and every time i think of that song, i connect the two of them because they were totally in love then. >> reporter: there was another love in robert durst's life, the platonic kind, a friend he met at grad school in l.a.

her name was susan berman. >> they were like loving siblings. she adored him. he adored her. ives i can like, well, you know, these two just, there's something about them. they get it. they dig each other. she was very fond of cathie, bobby's wife. >> i know they socialized together a lot. >> reporter: and susan was there when it all started breaking apart when cracks appeared in paradise. bobby was, by several accounts, smoking a lot of marijuana, seeming marginalized in his family business. >> he was financially independent. >> reporter: toughing it out got tougher than expected. friends say the marriage turned violent. an investigative journalist has written extensively about durst. >> they had been fighting a lot. in fact, they were talking about divorce. she had pet with divorce lawyers. >> then came a wintry night in january, 1982, a night that would change everything.

as durst would tell it later, when his wife arrived home, they had some dinner. then he dropped her your at the commuter station in katonah. a train bound for new york city. >> bobby told everyone that his wife, you know, took off, got on a train and went into manhattan. >> reporter: five days later, durst walked into a police station on manhattan's west side. he looked unemotional. he had a dog with him. at no time did he come along. >> reporter: durst told detectives his wife was embroiled in studies the final month of med school. in fact, a woman had called the u called the dean a couple days after cathie disappeared to say she was sick. she would be absent. still the detective launched an investigation. >> we had the emergency services unit come and check rooftops,

elevator shafts, do canvass of the building. >> reporter: but kathleen durst remained missing. her brother says he looked aloof, lawyered up, and stuffing cathie's personal belongings into the garbage. >> he threw out not just her things, that hurt. >> that hurt terribly. >> there were a lot of weird things that just didn't add up. there was no way cathie durst got on that train and no one heard from her, you know, she disappeared without a trace. >> once more, she says cathie told a close friend something ominous the day she vanished. >> to her best friends at the time, if anything happens to me, bobby did it. so this isn't some happy wife going on a train ride into manhattan. >> reporter: as whispers turned to durst, so did the police. even as detectives mulligan to doubt further's version of events, one person stood by him,

even had his back, a self appointed pitbull spin doctor, his close friend, susan berman. >> susan, several wagons, make sure he's okay. look out for him. susan took charge. >> and susan told anyone that cared to listen that bobby had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance and detectives couldn't prove her wrong. nypd was hitting a brick wall with a lack of cooperation from robert durst and absent of any piece of evidence. >> it was certainly my opinion at that time that he certainly could have had something to do with the disappearance, be but you can't go about accusing someone like that unless you can report it. >> reporter: so it remained for years, no body ever found, robert durst denying anything wrongdoing, the trail growing ever cold. >> through the grieveing process, the shock, anger, disbelief, the depression. >> reporter: until around 2,000

when authorities, including new york state police investigator, decided to take another look at cathie's case. >> just to hear their story about how evasive he was, how devastated the family is, you can't take it to heart and for her to fall off the face of the earth like that is so unusual. >> reporter: jeanine pirro felt it unusual and organized a team of investigators and prosecutors to do a lot more. >> people say what was it about that case? what was it about that case is was that this is a woman who has every reason to live. she disappears because she wanted a divorce and he didn't want to give it to her and at that point she needed to be disposed of. and he had the wherewithal all, the money the power and the smarts to get away with it. >> reporter: to find out more about the couple's back story, investigates needed to speak to some of robert durst's friends,

near the top of that list, his best buddy, susan berman. it was getting close to being too late to do that. >> coming up, mystery number two, the pal with a flamboyant past. >> susan's childhood was just unbelievable. an oil painting hung of her in pigtails in the lobby of the flamingo. >> who would want her dead? >> probably somebody she knew and trusted. >> when "dateline" continues. kitchen electrics. and remember - you'll save even more with your friends & family savings pass! plus you'll pick up a little kohl's cash too. this thursday through sunday. find your yes. kohl's.

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new york state police reserved the investigation into the disappearance of cathie durst. the news spread quickly, all the way to los angeles, where susan berman had moved to pursue a screen writing career. >> when i spoke to susan that december, there had been an article in "people" magazine about bobby durst and his being under suspicion once again for the disappearance of his wife. and i said, oh, i can't believe the papers are, you know, after bobby durst again. and she was like, yeah, isn't that just ridiculous?

she was so clear about bobby's innocence regarding cathie, still what a great guy he is. >> there with bond seemed unbreakable. not surprising given they had been through so much. both lost their mothers so young. both were formed by the complication of being raised in families that were loaded. robert was the heir to that vast new york real estate fortune, his to lose to more favored younger brother. and susan? she was something else. the daughter of a notorious las vegas gangster who in the 1950s had owned one of the biggest joints on the strip, the flamingo hotel. >> susan's mooild childhood is just unbelievable. an oil painting hung of her in the pig tails in the lobby of the flamingo. she did her homework in the

counting room with casino chips. >> reporter: investigative journalist lisa depaula said susan was a chip off the old block. >> susan had an absolute sense of mob royalty and there was no one she was more loyal to than bobby. >> reporter: it seemed ironic the way the lala life would all come to such a story to him. it was the day before christmas, 2000, susan made plans to get with her cousin denny for family dinner. when she didn't show you. deni picked up the phone. >> i had a qwizzy, sad feeling. >> reporter: a police detective picked up the phone. he told her that they had been called to susan's home after neighbors found her dog running outside unleashed. inside, bloody paw prints led to susan's body in the back bedroom. susan berman had been killed with a 9mm gun, one shot, straight to the back of the head.

>> i'm going, who deliberately went into susie's house and murdered her in such a heinous, violent, deliberate way, almost as if to say, you came from a mob family. this is the way you are going out. >> a murder of passion, it's the old i hate you, i hate you. >> it's an exclusive interview in 2010, the first one ever given by the lpd about the susan berman investigation, the detective told "dateline" at first it sure looked like a mob hit. it was one single gunshot clean to the head and that's it. >> reporter: but the mob theory came unglued almost immediately. susan had written a best seller about her childhood, more an ode to her father than a damming expose that could remotely occur in mafia retaliation.

she spoke about it in a 1981 "today show" interview. >> was eight sort of pride, your father arizona big a guy he was and incredible shame that he was a pretty bad man? >> i feel no shame, jane. i feel a tremendous sadness that his life was so painful. the life of organized crime led in many ways to his early death and my mother's suicide and the fact i had to grow up without them. >> most of susan's mob buddies had been long dead. there was no reason some 2nd or 3rd generation mobster would want to knock sui shan berman off. >> they left evidence at the scene. so if it was a professional mob there, you'd think they would clean up, do whatever. >> it was more plausible the guy, the killer was a break and enter guy, a common thief looking for loot. nothing had been taken. there were no signs of a forced entry, which left another distinct possibility. >> it appeared to me somebody

she was comfortable with. somebody she knew, she allowed into the house. >> susan's cousin deni said if she left someone in, it was no stranger. >> she was a paranoid person. there was no way she would go to bed and leave the door unlocked or open up the door to somebody she didn't know. >> the more the detective thought about it, the more he came back to a growing suspicion that whoever eliminated susan must have known her pretty well, even creepily cared for her. as he studied the crime scene photo, he noticed something unusual. the victim was lying on her back. >> if you are shot on the back the momentum will throw you forward. it's almost like somebody laid her down, gingerly laid her down. >> then a huge development a. very peculiar letter arrived at the beverly hills police station. the letter lapd is a key piece

of evidence in their case against robert durst. it was postmarked the very day it was believed susan had been murdered. someone had written out susan's home address block letters and added a single word. >> somebody is sending to the police, advising them that there is a body at this address, again, it's a sign of compassion. yeah, they just killed this person. they don't want them to lay there and not be found for days or weeks or whatever and decompose. that's my feeling that the keller had a special connection, someone she knew and trusted. >> someone los angeles authorities now believe is robert durst. >> coming up, was susan berman keeping a secret? >> at the time that she died, se kept saying she was on to something big. >> and was she about to share

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>> reporter: susan berman was dead. when he heard the news back on the east coast, new york state police investigator becerra could not believe it. in the recently revived investigation into the cathie durst's disappearance, she had been near the top of his interview list. >> it was very upsetting. not only because of the fact that she was someone who might have had valuable information to us, but the fact that she lost her life. we immediately contacted the detectives out in los angeles, told them what we were investigating here in new york and basically gave them background on robert that we knew of. >> reporter: back on the west

coast, durst was an lapd detective coulter's investigative radar. he couldn't help but notice that durst, one of susan's closest friends, was conspicuously absent from her funeral, a private memorial organized by her friends. now the detective got word from durst's lawyers that durst would be a no-show at the police station as well. >> for him to have attorneys write us or send correspondence to not interview him on the death of his close, close friend, we thought was a little unusual. we're not investigating his wife's case, we're investigating the case in los angeles. so that -- that did send up only flags. >> reporter: and the red flacks kept coming. police interviewed one of susan's best friends, a woman named julie smith. she told them susan had been struggling financially for quite some time but she'd been hopeful of getting back on her feet soon. she was on to something, something big. >> at the time she died, she kept saying she was on to something big.

she wouldn't say what it was. and i said, "what, susan? tell me about it?" she brushed me off, she was really good about that, she said, "oh, julie, never mind, it doesn't matter." she slipped into the next subject. >> reporter: lapd wondered, despite susan's adamant zfls of durst, did she know more than she let on? new york state police and cathie's friends told them that perhaps she did and ill had to do with that phone call cathie allegedly mid to the dean of her medical school the night she disappeared. >> it was a bizarre thing. most people don't call the dean, for years, it's been the theory of investigators that cathie further's disappearance that that phone call was made by susan berman. >> well, we were starting to hear from associates of susan's that susan berman might have provided an alibi for robert

durst at the time of his wife turning up missing. so, yeah, it was piquing our interest. maybe she did know something more. >> reporter: detective coulter wondered what durst would do if susan, indeed, had information about her. >> he does have a motive, whatever he thinks that susan might say something about the wife's case. >> reporter: not only that, investigators say durst was in california and he could have been nearby on that fateful day before christmas. durst's attorneys said not a chance. he claimed his client was 3,000 miles away from new york but that ale buy didn't hold up when detective coulter checked the airline record. further, he found, was in san francisco on december 23rd, waiting to board a flight to new york. >> we know what flight number he was on, what time the flight left california. and, yes, there is ample opportunity for him to be in the los angeles area in the time frame that we thought she was

killed. >> reporter: and there was something else that piqued the detective's interest. he found out that durst sent susan two $25,000 checks just before she was killed. >> is that? is it to keep her loyalty? i don't know. >> reporter: detective coulter found the timing of the checks suspicious, because around the same, two other things had happened. the "new york times" published a long expose on cathie's case and when the detective examined susan's phone records, he found that she and durst were talking on the phone way more often than usual. >> susan berman had been in dire straights for a while. only after the magazine article comes out that now all of a sudden, okay, i'm going to help you out. and, you know, only bobby durst can tell you the reasons for that. from if she felt at all betrayed by him of let down by him, it could have been a different dynamic.

keep in mind, whatever was going on in her head may have been very different from what was going on the bobby's head, suddenly the case of his wife's disappearance is reopened. he is incred bring paranoid. he isic freaking out. if he thought susan knew something, who knows, as many people thought to me, susan would have taken a bullet for bobby. you know, maybe she did. >> reporter: it's a theory, the evidence, police didn't have much to work. their main person of interest refused to talk to them. then simply disappears, nowhere to be found. then ten months after susan berman's murder, durst was suddenly back on the map and talk about something big. >> somebody called us and said, hey, did you hear about durst? he got arrested in galveston for murder. >> reporter: coming up, mystery number three, the woman across the hall. >> he dressed as a female. he bought a wig and female clothes.

>> and the neighbor who vanished. >> what kind of a person can cut up another human being? >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. . . . then shop the latest styles from your favorite brands. this thursday through sunday. find your yes.

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before the gulf of mexico. robert durst was quietly and secretly living on the island

after the death of susan berman. >> a sleepy little community. people there, they you know, they don't ask questions about who are you? >> reporter: or what you may have done. cody cazalas was a homicide detective in gavelson. >> i think that robert durst saw that it would be a good place to get away if he needed to. >> reporter: get away in a $300 a month apartment but here's the head-spinner. he signed a the lease as dorothy ciner, the name of a long-ago high school classmate. >> he dressed as a female. he went and combot a wig. he bought some female clothes. >> reporter: and because he didn't want his masculine voice to give him away, he posed as a mute woman him and it 150e8d to be more than just a bizarre disguise for a man who wanted to vanish from his old life as writer robert drapeer. .

>> at times, he was flamboyant and hung out with flamboyant company. >> reporter: now add to this decadent setting, the man across the hall from further in the apartment on avenue k, morris black, a 71-year-old former merchant veteran marine. >> he complained about everything, where the library had certain books or whether a bus driver was properly adhering to schedules. >> reporter: then one day, morris black wasn't around anymore to harass the city hall check clerk or the utility he waged war on. on channel view drive, a kid was fishing with his dad when he saw something bobbing in the bay. >> the young boy saw the hidless, armless and limbless torso floating in the water. >> reporter: authorities found some body parts in plastic garbage bags, agree wrong with a receipts from a hardware store for a saw and conveniently a piece of an address trasd back to the apartment building where

yourself dushst and morris black lived. investigators found evidence of morris black's blood everywhere. it was a killing that almost solved itself. two days later, galveston police arrested durst and charged him with murder. >> i hoped to god he was dead before robert durst started cutting him apart. i seen a lot of deaths in my career. i seen a lot of homicides in my career. i never had a dismemberment in my career. >> reporter: as the lead detective, cazalas talked to people who knew both men and came up with a theory for motive. >> robert durst says he told morris who he was, his name. and i think he searched him. and i think at some point, morris told him, i'm going to tell new york detectives where he is at. >> reporter: some believe susan berman threatened to implicate durst in his wife's disappearance and it cost her a bullet in the back of her head. in the case of dismembered

morris black, significantly, his head was never found. >> without the head, you don't know where the gunshot wound occurred. he was probably shot just like susan berman in the back of the head. >> reporter: bail was set at $250,000. the authorities in galveston had no idea he was multi-millionaire robert durst. and once he paid the pail, he was out of there. so then the man hunt begins. robert dirst was a fugitive. but six weeks after he failed to show for an aaron. in gavelson, durst tripped himself up. he was caught on a security camera inside a wegman's supermarket in pennsylvania's lehigh valley. where he'd gone to college authorities stopped him and minutes later he's under arrest. his rental car searched. >> when you opened the trunk,

there were $37,000 in cash and two handguns. >> reporter: and back at the police station, it got even more interesting when the officer ran the shoplifter's name through the computer for a background check, there was a hit from galveston. >> i asked him, when was the last time you were in texas? with that, his face just dropped. he said he didn't want to talk to me unless he spoke to an attorney. >> reporter: robert durst was extradited to texas to stand trial for murder t. careless evidence he left behind was a prosecutor's gift. there was no question he killed his neighbor and chopped up his body and threw him into the bay. he pled guilty to tampering with evidence and if he eluded authorities in the case of his missing wife, if he had a hand in susan berman's killing, did those same people believe, surely, here in galveston, justice would be a slam dunk. >> we were very confident of a conviction. >> reporter: but it wouldn't be

easy, not by a long shot. at his murder trial in 2003, robert durst and his high priced dream team lawyers claimed self-defense. durst, himself, took the stand. he said he'd come back to his galveston apartment only to find morris black, a cranking neighbor, waving one of his handguns, demonstrating how it went durngs he told the jurors, it went off with black slumping dead. the millionaire said he thought he had no alternative but to dispose of the body, given the suspicions that followed him in the disappearance of his wife and the murder of susan berman. who would believe him if he really killed him in self-defense. >> he answered every question. he can remember everybody. then it's the prosecution's turn to question him and he can't remember anything. >> reporter: after six weeks of trial, it was the juror's turn. they needed five days to reach a verdict.

>> will the defendant please rise? we, the jury, find the defendant, robert durst, not guilty. >> durst bowed his head. he seemed as shocked as anyone, not guilty of first degree murder. one person not surprised by the verdict whereas the judge in the case, susan chris, who believed the defense outlawyered the prosecution. >> i knew it was going to be not guilty. >> reporter: chris is willing to speak down now, she's not minceing her words about robert durst. >> not only was there evidence to prove that he did it. there was evidence to prove he covered it up and in a way that terrified a normal person. what kind of person can cut up another human being? >> reporter: now durst faces another murder charge in l.a. this time, no mutilated body parts, no admissions. it's a case so far of bathroom mum basketballings, a couple of misspelled letters, and who

knows what else? will he walk again neighborhood, coming up, are we about to see the next trial of the century? >> i think there will be a huge fight and the defense may benefit by it. >> it is entirely possible bobby durst will get off yet again. . ad ache muscle or joint pain

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. >> reporter: and now robert durst will be going to hollywood, a place that knows a celebrity defendant when it sees one. >> if the media whips this up and makes this the next trial of the century, that's what it will be. >> reporter: assuming he pleads not guilty to the murder charge and the case goes to trial, durst may be facing the death penalty if prosecutors elect to go that route. writer kathie scott says durst will go to court prepared for battle. >> durst is a fighter. he's an absolute fighter. he's not going to give up. he believes in his own innocence. >> reporter: his defense team will be led by houston heavyweight criminal defense attorney dig deguerin.

the same lawyer who pulled durst from the fire in the galveston case where he was found not guilty of murdering morris black. the guy across the hall. >> we want to get to california as quickly as we can so we can get in the court of law and try this case where it needs to be tried. >> reporter: but here's what's different. in galveston, durst was a forlorne, cross-dressing, drifter who'd arrived in their town, a stranger, his biography mostly unknown to them. but now in a media hip, celebrity, los angeles where he'd likely stand trial, he's already gone o.j., phil spector, the menendez brothers, the star of a provocative hbo documentary "the jynx," an appearance that won't get him a star on the sidewalk. >> i think he's going to go into court this time not looking like

a billionaire businessman but he's looking like a crazy billionaire. >> reporter: one big fight that will almost certainly play out in court, will involve the so-called cadaver letter. it's a letter that was posted to the beverly hills police the day before susan berman's body was found. >> what i see is a similarities from the misspelling in beverly. other than that, block letters are block letters. how else would you write a block letter than that? it's almost like a typed thing. so it looks like two typewriters, it's going to look the same. >> you wrote one of these you didn't write the other one? >> i wrote this one, not cadaver one. >> reporter: just this week, authorities said he did. according to detectives, two handwriting experts concluded

durst did write the cadaver letter. durst's lawyers fired back. years ago, a another handwriting expert thought it was likely written by another man's hand altogether. lawyer tom mezero was not known in the case. he is best known for representing michael jackson in the molestation trial in 2005. although california courts have admitted handwriting evidence in the past, he's skeptical about the documents in this case. >> because a clever forger can take someone's hand writing and put together a letter that looks exactly like the handwriting in the original. >> reporter: and that bathroom audio mesereau says there will be a battle royal even that. >> i think there will be witnesses walled riu called to testify about what was included in the documentary, what was excluded and why i think there will be huge fights over what should come in and the defense

may benefit from it. >> reporter: the galveston verdict is a reminder that even when a case looks like pure gold for the prosecution, a strong defense team can make all the difference. susan chris the former judge. >> i think what happened was that the state was overconfident. >> reporter: this time dushst's crack defense team will be up against a seasoned prosecutor, john lewin. three years ago, lewin told us about his packs for his work, particularly the cold cases. >> i want to do the cases where i feel leak i can bring some skills to the table that will make a difference. you know, you want to try cases where you as a lawyer make -- have some effect. >> reporter: the los angeles trial is shaping up to be a legal showdown, but long-time durst watchers wouldn't be surprised if history repeated itself in california and the houdini of the criminal justice system managed to slip away again. >> it is entirely possible, even likely that, bobby durst will

get off yet again and recede into the shadows. but there's another thing of which we can be pretty sure. while in the shadows, durst will call attention to himself yet again. >> reporter: police forces around the country are looking to see if links exist to durst and unsolved murders in their jurisdictions. it has been a long, strange trip for robert durst. from the mid-manhattan towers the foundation of his family's great wealth to the missing wife and the country place outside new york, no charges ever filed. to the utter astonishment how a grizzly case in galveston played out and to years of suspicions about the best friend in los angeles, only now becoming a formal accusation. durst in every instance so far is able to slip away from his pursueer's grasp, as someone following the case years ago atold us, if you want to nail bobby durst, you have to bring your best game. that's all for this edition of "dateline."

we'll see you again tomorrow at 9:00, 8:00 central. right now, stay tuned to an all new "black list." i'm lester holt for nbc news, good night. en3 f2 soy lester hallolt buenas noches.m keen. my ex-husband is dead. i just need to go back in, okay? i don't care what it is. i'll take anything. how's your german? red: you trained him to b be a deep-cover operative. it's all he's ever done. when one operation ends, he comes back to you for another. [ grunts ] major: what do you want? i want tom keen.