Douglas Durst is finally speaking out to the New York Times about his unstable brother, Robert Durst ahead of an HBO documentary “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.” Douglas Durst, inheritor of the family’s billions of dollars in real estate, is concerned that Robert will distort the family story, as he alleged happened in an earlier film. The brothers have not spoken to each other for 13 years, and Douglas has put a restraining order on his brother, who was claimed to have appeared in front of Douglas’ apartment with a ski mask and a weapon.
Robert was not charged for trespassing, and he has a talent for escaping the court system. He was never made a suspect in the 1982 disappearance and death of his wife, in the murder of her long-time friend and confidant, and he wasn’t convicted for dismembering and chopping up a neighbor in Texas, because he claimed he did not kill him. After his wife died, Robert fled to Texas dressed as a woman, and recently got caught in a CVS peeing in a cash register. He blamed this behavior on a urinary problem and was not charged.
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Apparently, Robert was always literally pissed off. He showed many signs of instability growing up, according to Douglas, like claiming to be in the school band and hiding the tuba in the school band, siphoning rent money that belonged to the family, even though his father Seymour would have just given him the funds, and finally peeing in uncle’s wastebasket at the office.
Douglas noticed the pee in the wastebaskets, and other employees admitted they knew he did it quite often. Seymour Durst was upset, and signed over authority over the estate to Douglas rather than his older brother Robert. That is when the hatred grew hot.
Douglas said he never wanted to believe that Robert killed his wife, but after a few more deaths occurred that seemed linked to Robert (although he was never charged), he recalled Robert owned 7 dogs, each one named Ivan, and each one would die mysteriously after 6 months and was replaced by a successor dog named Ivan. In fact, he heard Robert once say “I want to Ivan Douglas.”
Douglas, 70, says he does not want to see the HBO documentary, nor did he submit to an interview they requested of him. He believes that Robert might have manipulated the filmakers into recording distortions, and told the New York Times, “Bob is incapable of telling the truth. He is a true psychopath, beyond any emotions. That is why he does things, so he can experience the emotions that other people have vicariously. Because he has absolutely none of his own.”
