Robert Durst, real estate heir and subject of six-part documentary “The Jinx”, told Los Angeles prosecutors last year that he was high on methamphetamines (meth) during interviews he gave for the 2015 HBO mini-series, according to court papers released on Friday.
On Friday, a transcript of the March 15, 2015, jailhouse interview was filed in Los Angeles county Superior Court, reports latimes.com.
In it, Durst claims he was intoxicated during the filming of the HBO series.
“I was on meth, I was on meth the whole time… it should have been obvious,” Durst said.
“I think the reason I did it had to be because I was swooped, speeding,” he added.
Durst, 73, is currently serving a seven-year federal prison term for illegal possession of the revolver at the time of his New Orleans arrest. He was transferred from an Indiana penitentiary to southern California in November.
“The Jinx” covered Durst’s links to three tragedies involving his wife, who disappeared in 1982 and is presumed dead, his best friend who was shot execution-style in her Beverly Hills home in 2000, and a former neighbour in Texas whom Durst admitted shooting, chopping up and dumping in a bay in 2001 — “in self-defence”.
A jury acquitted Durst in the Texas case and he was a free man until the night before the final episode of the mini-series aired. In it, Durst is caught muttering into a microphone during a bathroom break: “What the hell did I do’ Killed them all, of course.”
Worried that Durst may leave the country, authorities arrested him in New Orleans, where he had been staying in a hotel under a fake name. He had marijuana, a .38-caliber revolver, more than $40,000 in cash and a mask, according to court papers.
Days later, while sitting in a New Orleans jail, Durst gave a nearly three-hour interview to prosecutors from Los Angeles who were investigating his links to the slaying of Susan Berman, the friend of Durst’s who was discovered with a single bullet wound to the back of the head in Beverly Hills.
Durst has since been charged with that murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
