Former Centrum Resident And Convicted Murderer Robert Durst Has Died
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- Robert Durst lived at The Centrum in the Cedar Springs area.
- During his time in Dallas, Durst dated Realtor Linda Zevallos.
- While the two dated, Durst acted bizarrely and threatened Zevallos.
Robert Durst, a wealthy New York real estate heir who was convicted last year of murdering his best friend, Susan Berman, and suspected in several other deaths, including that of his first wife, died in Los Angeles earlier this week. He was 78 and worth an estimated $100 million.
He was the son of New York City real estate tycoon Seymour Durst, who is credited with creating a $500 million New York real estate empire. After inheriting his father’s millions, Durst lived in Texas for several years, leasing a condo at The Centrum on Oak Lawn at Cedar Springs.
The one-time Dallas resident suffered numerous medical issues, including bladder cancer, and had contracted COVID-19 last August. During his California murder trial and sentencing last fall, he remained in a wheelchair and appeared frail.
‘Killed them all, of course’
His case was intriguing because of his appearance on an HBO show The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.
Durst was interviewed and provided new details about the night his first wife, Kathie McCormack Durst, disappeared. He said he was “hoping that would just make everything go away.” The show unearthed new evidence and caught him in a stunning confession while his microphone was still on as he muttered to himself, off-camera: “Killed them all, of course.”
Durst was arrested in 2015 for Kathie Durst’s murder 39 years ago. The fourth-year medical student disappeared on January 31, 1982. Her family had her declared legally dead in 2017.
Durst Acquitted For Murder in Galveston
Bizarrely, Durst admitted killing his 71-year-old neighbor while living in Galveston. Morris Black’s body was chopped up and tossed out to the bay. Claiming it was self-defense during a struggle over a gun, Durst was acquitted of that murder. Durst also lived in Houston where he owned three condos in the Rice Village area. He was once arrested in Houston for allegedly urinating inside a CVS.
Durst Once Disguised Himself as a Mute Woman in Dallas
Before his move to Galveston, Durst lived in the Centrum on Oak Lawn in a unit he took under a woman’s name.
“I was hiding from Jeanine Pirro,” Durst told jurors when asked by his lawyer Dick DeGuerin why he flew to Dallas and rented an apartment under a woman’s name in late 2000.
“I disguised myself as a woman,” he said, explaining he bought the wig at a store in Dallas.
“I got a big sweatshirt and cargo pants. I shaved real good,” he said. “My voice is very recognizable. I knew I would not be able to speak to anybody, so I wrote on a 3-by-5 card, ‘I am mute.’ Anyone who spoke to me, I would show them the card.”
Dallas is where he dated Real Estate agent Linda Zevallos, then with Ebby Halliday, who met him flying first class on a plane from New York. The next day Robert Durst sent Linda $500 worth of orchids. His phone number was on the card, asking her to call him.
A Whirlwind Romance And a Saw on a Stand
Eventually, he called and asked her to lunch. They met at his Centrum home. He offered champagne (Linda said it was too early) and they walked across the street to Eatzi’s for lunch.
“He was as nice as he could be,” she said. After lunch, they got stuck in a torrential rain downpour. They were sopping wet, trying to duck out of the rain under awnings, but it had been a very pleasant lunch. She left after they got back to the Centrum.
“He was interested in me,” says Linda. “He called me shortly after that.”
In his apartment, Linda says he had real estate “things” all over the walls. He had a place in San Francisco and New York. At first, he told Linda he was a labor lawyer, then he told her that his father had built office buildings in Times Square.
Next Durst called and said he wanted to take Linda to a nice place for dinner, perhaps Stephan Pyles’ then-restaurant in the Centrum building. It happened to snow that day, and school was closed, which meant Linda had to stay home with her 13-year-old son. She canceled.
“He got furious, really mad,” says Linda. “He said ‘I cannot believe you people in Dallas when it snows you just stop.’”
He cooled down later after finding that the restaurant had closed, too.
“I think he had a real hard time handling rejection,” says Linda. “he just couldn’t bear it.”
Among other things, Durst was mercurial.
“He could be really nice and then really mean,” says Linda. “When the house I was going to rent fell through, Bob offered to let my son and me live in his high rise.”
He also once kicked her under the table at a restaurant for not ordering what he told her to order.
Once when Zevallos wanted to use the bathroom in Durst’s Centrum condo, Durst stopped her from using the powder room near the kitchen, saying it was dirty.
It had a strange “sculpture” on display.
“The floor was concrete,” says Linda, “he had a saw in there, on a stand.
Robert Durst’s family owns more than 16 million square feet of real estate in New York and Philadelphia, including a 10 percent stake in One World Trade Center, the Manhattan skyscraper formerly known as the Freedom Tower.
Family members bought out Robert Durst’s stake in the business for $65 million in 2006.
