Robert Durst Net Worth

What Was Robert Durst's Net Worth?

Robert Durst was an American convicted murderer and real estate scion who had a net worth of $65 million at the time of his death in 2022. Robert Durst first gained notoriety in 1982 following the unsolved disappearance of his wife, Kathleen, and later became infamous for killing his friend Susan Berman and his neighbor Morris Black. Durst spent his remaining years serving a life sentence at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles. Robert died on January 10, 2022, at the age of 78 while in custody at a California Department of Corrections health care facility.

Durst was the son of New York real estate mogul Seymour Durst and the brother of billionaire commercial developer Douglas Durst. Durst is the subject of the 2014 HBO documentary "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst."

Early Life and Career Beginnings

Robert Durst was born on April 12, 1943, in New York City, New York. He grew up in Scarsdale. Robert was the son of Bernice Herstein and real estate magnate Seymour Durst and the older brother of Tommy, Douglas, and Wendy Durst. When Durst was seven, his mother died by suicide after jumping from the roof of their home. As a teen, Robert went to Scarsdale High School. He subsequently enrolled at Lehigh University, where he was a member of the varsity lacrosse team and the business manager of the student paper. Following his graduation in 1965, he enrolled in a doctoral program at UCLA. However, he ultimately dropped out and returned to New York in 1969.

Uninterested in working for his father at the Durst Organization, Durst opened a small food store called All Good Things in Vermont. He closed the shop a few years later when his father convinced him to work for his organization. However, due to Robert's inappropriate behavior, his father decided to appoint his other son, Douglas, to take over the company. Feeling he was entitled to be the heir, Durst eventually sued for his share of the family fortune.

Disappearance of Wife Kathleen McCormack

Robert met dental hygienist Kathleen McCormack in 1971. By the next year, the two were living together at Durst's home in Vermont, and later in Manhattan. They got married in April 1973. Almost a decade later, in early 1982, McCormack mysteriously disappeared. She and Durst had gotten into a fight, and Robert claimed that he put Kathleen on a commuter train before going home and turning in. McCormack's friend Gilberte Najamy was supposed to meet her at a pub, and grew concerned when she never showed up. Later in the week, Durst filed a missing person's report. Three weeks after that, the superintendent at their apartment found McCormack's possessions in the building's trash compactor. Before her disappearance, McCormack had asked Durst for a $250,000 divorce settlement; instead of this, Robert cancelled her credit card, removed her name from their joint bank account, and refused to pay for her medical school tuition. McCormack had also been treated at a hospital for facial bruises allegedly caused by her husband.

Eight years after his wife's disappearance, Durst divorced her while claiming spousal abandonment. McCormack's mother later attempted to sue Durst for killing her daughter and depriving them of the right to bury her. After a reopened criminal investigation and more lawsuits, the disappearance was reclassified as a murder in May 2021. In October, Durst was officially charged with her death.

Murder of Susan Berman and Life Sentence

On Christmas Eve in 2000, Durst's friend Susan Berman was found murdered in her home in Los Angeles. Previously, Berman had helped create Durst's public alibi in the disappearance of his wife. Durst was known to have been in California days before the murder, and to have flown back to New York the night before Berman's body was found. Investigative journalist Cathy Scott asserts that Durst murdered Berman because she knew too much about the disappearance of McCormack. Robert was arrested by FBI agents in March 2015. Following numerous delays, retrials, and hospitalizations due to alleged medical crises on the part of Durst, in September 2021, Robert was convicted of the first-degree murder of Berman. In October, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Shortly after this, Durst tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed on a ventilator in critical condition.

(Photo by Etienne Laurent -Pool/Getty Images)

Murder of Morris Black

In October 2001, Durst was arrested in Galveston, Texas, after body parts belonging to his neighbor Morris Black were found floating in the bay. Police searched Durst's rental car and found two guns, marijuana, $37,000 in cash, Black's driver's license, and directions to Gilberte Najamy's home. Durst was tried for the murder of Black in 2003. He alleged self-defense and that he inadvertently killed Black in a struggle over a pistol. He also admitted to dismembering Black's body and dumping the remains in Galveston Bay. However, because Black's head was never recovered, a lack of forensics led the jury to acquit Durst. In December 2004, Robert pleaded guilty to two counts of bail jumping and one count of evidence tampering. He was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison, which was then reduced to three years; he was paroled in 2005. After violating the terms of his parole shortly after, he was returned to prison and released again in 2006.

"The Jinx"

In 2015, Robert was the subject of a six-part HBO documentary called "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst." The film outlined circumstantial evidence linking Durst to Berman's murder, and also detailed the disappearance of McCormack and the murder of Black. Countering the advice of his attorneys and his wife, Deborah Charatan, Robert gave myriad interviews in the film and allowed the filmmakers unrestricted access to his personal records. At the end of the documentary, when Durst seemed to believe he was no longer being recorded, his microphone picked up admissions of guilt in his murders.

Other Cases

Beyond his murders, Durst committed various other crimes, including indecent exposure, bail jumping, shoplifting, and being a felon in possession of a firearm and a controlled substance. For the latter charge, he received an 85-month prison sentence in 2016.

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