By Konrad Putzier
Real estate heir Robert Durst’s arrest on murder charges Sunday led to a public sigh of relief from his brother Douglas Durst.
“We are relieved and also grateful to everyone who assisted in the arrest of Robert Durst,” the chair of the Durst Organization said in a statement.
“We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done.”
Robert Durst, long suspected of murdering three people, was arrested after an HBO documentary about his life unearthed new evidence linking him to the murder of his close friend Susan Berman in 2000.
Douglas and Robert have had a strained relationship ever since their father Seymour picked Douglas to head the family company. At one point Douglas hired a bodyguard for protection against his brother.
Apart from Robert Durst’s arrest, Douglas likely had little reason to be happy about The Jinx, the HBO documentary whose sixth and final episode aired on Sunday. The series portrays the Durst Organization and its chairman as something of a minor villain.
In the fifth episode, the filmmakers reveal that the family hired a private detective to investigate the disappearance of Robert’s wife Kathy in 1982, but quickly abandoned the effort when it unearthed information that seemed to contradict Robert’s account of the night of her disappearance.
In the final episode, the filmmakers chronicle their futile attempts to get an interview with Douglas Durst, again presenting the Durst Organization as more concerned with keeping its name clean than with helping to solve the many mysteries surrounding Robert Durst.
