-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,628371,00.html
}}}>Begin
Murder quiz for fugitive transvestite
The discovery of a torso in a rubbish bag has reopened a bizarre 20-
year mystery killing in the US
Ed Vulliamy in New York
Sunday January 6, 2002
The Observer
When a 13-year-old boy opened a plastic rubbish bag washed ashore off
the Texas coast last autumn and found the torso of Morris Black, he
also prised open the grisly true-crime mystery that has gripped
America for two decades: the one surrounding Manhattan's millionaire
real estate heir, Robert Durst.
Black's body part was duly followed by his arms and legs in other
rubbish sacks; all that remains missing is his head. But although the
charge of Black's murder has put Durst behind bars in Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania (where he was taken shortly before Christmas), it is
merely a coda to an odyssey that began with the mysterious
disappearance and presumed death of Durst's wife Kathie, in 1982.
Since then, speculation has been rife that Durst murdered her too, and went on to kill
his best friend from college, crime writer Susan Berman, a Las Vegas mobster's
daughter, who is believed to have supplied Durst with a
libis around the time his wife vanished.
Durst has meanwhile blazed a trail across America, criss-crossing not only the
continent but its social strata and dress codes - from the cocktail lounges of
Manhattan to the massage spas of Palm Springs; from backstreet
diners in New Orleans to those of coastal Texas, dressed as a woman.
Now, his only friend is the woman he made his second wife in secret last October, his
fellow real estate magnate Debrah Lee Charatan, who posted bail in Texas so he could
run away only to be caught again, and who now visi
ts and kisses him in jail.
The Observer has learned that Durst may plead insanity to the Black murder and any
other charges that follow it. A spokesman for the Durst Trust property organisation,
one of the largest real estate trusts in Manhattan of
which Robert remains an heir, said the 58-year-old was 'mentally ill'.
Such a plea would fit Durst's behaviour on the run: he was heard babbling to himself
and was seen wearing drag complete with a false white moustache.
But police in both Galveston and New York are unconvinced, saying that such a plea
would only mask the motives of a calculated killer. 'Don't be surprised if they find
that all the bizarre behaviour he's exhibited these p
ast weeks is nothing more than a clever facade,' said Lieutenant Mike Putnal. 'The
calculated way in which he disposed of the body and tried to hide the weapon [a saw]
was not the act of a crazy man.'
Durst's famous defence lawyer, Richard Geurin of Houston, refused to comment on his
client's intentions, having won a gagging order concerning the case. The order has
not, however, stopped police from talking, nor has it
prevented official co-operation with a virtual novella on the case in Tina Brown's
Talk magazine.
The Durst saga began 20 years ago when his wife, who came from of humble origins and
who had waltzed with him through Manhattan's glitzy social life, disappeared after
rumours of fights, violence and infidelities. Durst a
dmitted an affair with Prudence Farrow, sister of Mia and inspiration for the Beatles
song 'Dear Prudence'.
New York police were slow to follow the suspected murder trail and were pursued by
Kathie's best friend, Gilberte Najamy. District Attorney Jeanine Pirro only took an
interest when it came to talking to Susan Berman about
a possible connection.
Berman was the daughter of a lieutenant to the Las Vegas mafia don, 'Bugsy' Siegel.
She wrote crime thrillers and was outraged at the suggestion that her friend had
murdered his wife.
But late in 2000, after Durst's marriage to Charatan, relations between the two
friends became strained. On Christmas Eve, Berman was found shot in the head. Police
believe she knew her killer. The press then embarked on
an orgy of publicity led by an announcement that Pirro had reopened the Kathie Durst
case.
Durst, meanwhile, began changing personas - cross-dressing, pretending to be a deaf
mute, and living on the cheap in the South. Early last year, he rented an apartment in
Galveston, Texas, in drag and under the alias of D
orothy Ciner. His neighbour was an eccentric who used to shout at dogs in the street
and wash dollar bills - a 71-year-old by the name of Morris Black.
The remains of Morris Black led police to the dustbins outside an apartment block he
shared with Durst. There, they found a receipt for a new pair of spectacles, which
Durst later went to collect, only to find his captors
waiting.
But the Galveston court was lenient, even to a murder suspect, granting Durst bail of
$300,000 (�215,000), promptly paid by the then mystery woman, Charatan. In Durst's
world, that was freedom at a bargain price.
But on 30 November, Durst pulled up at Wegman's supermarket in
Bethlehem, where he had been a student, in a 'Rent-a-Wreck' car hired
in Alabama, with $37,000 (�26,000) in the boot.
He went inside, took a single band-aid out of a packet, stuck a
newspaper and a $7 sandwich inside his coat and was apprehended by
security staff as he made to leave. Police duly found the money, two
guns and the thief's true identity. The only item missing was the one
thing they expected to find: the head of Morris Black.
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
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