Remember New York’s Cross Dressing Serial Killer?

Do you remember the wealthy cross-dressing serial killer from New York? Sometimes reality is so strange that even the best writers couldn't make the story up. This is one of those cases. I am obsessed with true crime, so I always watch true crime shows. American Crime Network, Oxygen, and Investigation Discovery stay at the top of my channel rotation. I just so happened to be watching HLN, when the show 'Very Scary People' with Donnie Wahlberg came on. The episode was about a cross-dressing serial killer from a wealthy and well-known family from New York, so of course my ears perked up.

Who Is Robert Durst?

Robert Alan Durst was born in New York City on April 12, 1943. Durst was the first-born son of real estate magnate Seymour Durst and Bernice Herstein. Durst had three younger siblings, Douglas, Tommy, and Wendy Durst. He and his brother Douglas had issues with sibling rivalry and went to counseling to try to address it. At the age of 10 years old Robert's mother Bernice killed herself. She committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the family's home in Scarsdale. Durst attended Scarsdale High School in Westchester County. He then moved to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to attend Lehigh University, according to Wikipedia.

Durst's relationship with his father was strained, at best. Although he was the eldest son of Symore, who ran the Durst Organization, Seymour chose Douglas to succeed him. This caused Durst to have resentment towards his family.

Robert Durst, The Cross Dressing Serial Killer

Durst isn't a serial killer in the traditional sense - someone who targets strangers - but he did kill three people.

The first murder Durst committed (that we know about) was his wife, Kathleen "Kathie" McCormack, who disappeared in 1982. He met Kathy, who was a dental hygienist, in 1971. The couple married in Manhattan on April 12, which is Durst's birthday, in 1973. Right before she vanished, Kathy was in her final year at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in The Bronx. She was studying to become a pediatrician. The couple had an argument on the day Kathy went missing and they hadn't been living together, as she had asked for a divorce. She also claimed he had beaten her three weeks before she disappeared. Durst claimed he put his wife on a train and talked to her later via telephone, but later admitted that didn't happen. Her friends and family believed for decades that Durst was responsible for her death. He was officially charged with Kathy's death on October 22, 2021.

Credit: BuzzFeed Unsolved Network via Youtube

Durst's second murder was his best friend Susan Berman. Susan had constructed Durst's alibi after his wife vanished. After falling on hard times financially, she eventually told Durst that the Los Angeles Police Department wanted to speak with her about Kahty's disappearance. Robert sent her $50,000. Some believe it's questionable that the LAPD wanted to talk to her about Kathy since the case was in Westchester County. Susan was found dead on December 24, 2000, at her home in Benedict Canyon, California. She was killed execution style. Durst had been in California around the time of her death.

Durst's third victim was his elderly neighbor 71-year-old Morris Black. Here's where the cross-dressing comes in. Durst was living in Galveston, Texas disguised as a deaf-mute woman named Dorothy Ciner. Morris' body parts were discovered floating in Galveston Bay. Durst was arrested on homicide charges related to Morris on October 9, 2001. He was given a bond and skipped out of town. Durst was eventually captured after he was caught shoplifting in a Wegmans supermarket in Bethlehem. Even though he had $500 in his pocket he had tried to steal Band-Aids, a newspaper, and a chicken salad sandwich.

Credit: Today via Youtube

Surprisingly, Durst who claimed self-defense, was acquitted of murdering Morris. On March 14, 2015, Durst was arrested for killing Susan. Six years later, on September 17, 2021, a jury convicted Durst for the murder of Susan. Durst died three months later on January 10, 2022, at the age of 78. He suffered a fatal cardiac arrest at the San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, California.

"Days after the Berman murder, police were reportedly examining connections between Durst and the disappearances of 18-year-old Lynne Schulze from Middlebury, Vermont, and 16-year-old Karen Mitchell from Eureka, California. Investigators were also considering a possible connection between Durst and the disappearance of 18-year-old Kristen Modafferi, who was last seen in San Francisco in 1997."

You can read more about Robert Durst here.

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