Robert Derest, the multi-millionaire heir and real estate tycoon who was serving a life sentence for murder in California and suspected of two other murders in the last four decades, has died in prison at the age of 78, the lawyer announced today. .
His death was caused by natural causes, according to the Reuters news agency, while the law firm told the New York Times that Derest suffered a heart attack and died at San Joaquin Hospital where he was treated.
Derst was once ready to take over the Durst Organization, one of New York's largest real estate companies, but spent much of his life avoiding the clutches of the law and in recent years has been behind bars.
For many years he managed to be one step ahead of the prosecuting authorities, until he was arrested for monologuing into the microphone during the filming of the HBO documentary series The Jinx (2015): "What the hell did I do ...? "I killed them all, of course." He was taken into custody before the last episode of the series aired.
His wife, Kathleen McCormack Dorst, disappeared in New York in 1982, but was not charged until a Los Angeles court found him guilty and convicted Dorst of killing his best friend, Susan Berman, in 2000.
According to the case file, Berman was ready to reveal how she helped Dearst make up the staged story about his wife's disappearance.
In New York, after the hearing in Los Angeles was completed, a county court in Westchester announced charges against Derst for the murder of his wife.
Prosecutors also charged Derst with the murder of his neighbor, Maurice Black, in Galveston, Texas, in 2001 because Black allegedly revealed his identity at a time when Derest was hiding from the law, sometimes disguised as a deaf man.
A Galveston court acquitted Derest, who claimed he was in legal defense, although he admitted to subsequently dismembering Maurice Black's lifeless body.
In his apology, Robert Derest cited the many health problems he faced, including esophageal and bladder cancer, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, neuropathy, chronic kidney failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Los Angeles Attorney General John Levine praised documentary filmmakers The Jinx, Andrew Jarecki and Mark Smerling for their revealing interviews with Dorst, telling reporters after the verdict: we would be where we are today. "
The story of Derest was brought to the big screen in the movie "All Good Things", starring Ryan Gosling, directed by Jareki.
Robert Derst was the grandson of Joseph Derst and the son of Seymour Derst, who raised the Durst Organization into a real estate giant in New York and built some of Manhattan's most iconic skyscrapers. The company is headed today by the brother of the deceased, Douglas Drest, who had testified at the trial and said of his brother: "He would like to kill me."
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ-Reuters