Family of Robert Durst’s First Wife Files $100 Million Lawsuit

The new lawsuit, brought by the mother and three sisters of Durst’s first wife, Kathleen McCormack, centers on “a rarely used NY law granting family members the immediate right to possession of a body for burial”. Kathleen’s family has spent the past 33 years believing Robert was responsible for her disappearance, which followed marital disputes that Robert confirmed in The Jinx.

The suit follows the airing of an HBO documentary, “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst”, in which Durst appears unaware his microphone is on when he mumbles: “What the hell did I do?”

McCormack’s brother sought the authority to file a wrongful death suit on behalf of his mother, who is 101, but his sisters, led by Carol Bamonte, are pursuing separate legal action.

The documentary addressed not only his wife’s disappearance, but also Durst’s later acquittal in the dismemberment of a neighbor in Galveston, Texas.

During the footage, he was heard mumbling that he “killed them all”.

Kathleen Durst disappeared in 1982 and was pronounced dead six years later, although her body has never been found. “The family’s priority has been and continues to be to provide Kathleen with a proper and dignified burial”, the McCormack family lawyer said.

In the series finale of “The Jinx”, Durst was asked about similarities in handwriting in a letter he wrote and another linked to the Berman killing.

Despite his lawyers’ warnings, Robert Durst agreed to take part in the HBO mini-series by documentarian Andrew Jarecki-who, in a side note just as unusual as Durst’s unraveling, made the 2010 drama All Good Things, inspired by Kathleen’s mysterious disappearance.

He is expected to be sentenced in a few weeks in the Louisiana gun charge, before being extradited to California to face the charges in the Berman case.

Experts place Durst’s net worth, thanks to his family’s NY real estate holdings, at about $100 million.

“Anybody can file a lawsuit but in order to sustain a lawsuit you have to have evidence, ‘ the attorney said”.