DURST APPEARS IN NEW ORLEANS COURT; POLICE SAY HE HAD A REVOLVER WITH HIM WHEN ARRESTED

Millionaire Robert Durst agreed Monday (16 MARCH 2015) to return to Los Angeles to face a 15-year-old murder charge after muttering that he "killed them all" in a documentary about his links to three sensational killings.

Robert Durst, 71, appeared before a judge in New Orleans after FBI agents arrested him before HBO's broadcast of Sunday's final episode of the documentary.

He is charged in the shooting death of Susan Berman, a mobster's daughter who acted as his spokeswoman. He has also long been suspected in the death of his wife, Kathleen Durst, and was acquitted years ago in the death of an elderly neighbor.

In the finale of the documentary that authorities hope will finally lead to a conviction, he muttered that "killed them all, of course."

He shuffled into the courtroom with his hands shackled at his waist, wearing sandals and an orange jumpsuit. He turned to the gallery and smiled, then appeared to fall asleep just before the hearing started. Later, he answered "yes" to questions from the judge about whether he was waiving extradition from Louisiana state to California.

But one of his lawyers, Dick DeGuerin, said the trip may be delayed because New Orleans prosecutors are considering other unspecified charges. He wouldn't elaborate, and spokesman Christopher Bowman said the Orleans Parish district attorney's office won't comment.

A police report said Durst was in possession of a revolver when he was arrested. In Louisiana, a person needs a permit to carry a concealed weapon, and it was not immediately clear if Durst had a permit.

A former prosecutor who reopened one of the cold cases against Durst years ago, Jeanine Pirro, said Monday that his own words, recorded during and after a lengthy interview he gave to the filmmaker, are enough to convict him.

In the finale of "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," Durst acknowledges similarities in the handwriting of a letter he wrote and another one sent anonymously to Beverly Hills Police alerting them to his friend's "cadaver." Then he went to the bathroom, still wearing his live microphone.

What followed was bizarre rambling in which Durst said, apparently to himself, "There it is. You're caught" and "What the hell did I do? Killed them all of course."

Jarecki and his co-writer and cinematographer Marc Smerling answered some of the many questions raised by Durst's audiotaped comments in a New York Times interview published Monday.

They said they never confronted Durst about what he said in the bathroom, but that they did share what they found with authorities last year as they were preparing the film to be aired.

Durst willingly talked with Jarecki on camera. They met after the filmmaker told a fictionalized account of Durst's story in "All Good Things," a 2010 film starring Ryan Gosling.

The making of the documentary took three years, and the bathroom audio was discovered by an editing crew last June, Jarecki said.

For the filmmakers, the audiotape tipped the scales - they not only believe he's responsible for the murders, but that he's capable of more violence. Jarecki told the Times that they hired security and were relieved when Durst was finally arrested.

Berman was the daughter of an associate of Las Vegas mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky who spoke out on Durst's behalf after his wife disappeared. She was killed at her home near Beverly Hills with a bullet to the back of her head.

Durst then lived as a mute woman in a Texas boarding house until 2001, when dismembered parts of Black's body were found floating in Galveston Bay. He fled house arrest, then turned up shoplifting in Pennsylvania.

Lewis told that jury that Durst shot Black in self-defense, and he was acquitted of murder, despite admitting that he dismembered Black's body.

AP Television

New Orleans, March 16, 2015

1. Various of attorneys for Robert Durst leaving the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court

2. SOUNDBITE Dick DeGuerin, Attorney for Robert Durst:

"let me just say that we came here to waive jurisdiction and go back to California and get it on. Bob Durst didn't kill Susan Berman. He's ready to end all the rumor and speculation and have a trial. But we were frustrated because local authorities are considering filing charges on him here and holding him here. We're ready to go to California and have a trial. See you later."

3. Various of who is believed to be Robert Durst arriving by sheriff's vehicle transport at a secure back entrance to the Orleans Parish criminal courthouse complex, which is next to the Orleans Parish jail

4. Various exteriors of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court

Ellen Strauss, a friend of millionaire Robert Durst's first wife Kathleen Durst, said she is "over the moon" about his arrest.

Strauss has been investigating the death of her friend for over 30 years and feels vindicated by Durst's arrest.

"I will take his going to jail anyway I can, I'm not fussy, he can only go to jail once. What I would like is for him to tell us, on his death bed if he has to, where he put Kathy's body or pieces of it," said Strauss.

Strauss said she has spoken to Kathleen Durst's family and said they are "very happy" with the arrest.

"They've finally seen an end to it. You know she has a mother that's 101-years old living at home, 101 and not knowing for the last 33 years where her daughter is," said Strauss.

Durst was charged Monday in Los Angeles with first-degree murder in the shooting of Susan Berman, the daughter of a prominent Las Vegas mobster. Durst has also been suspected _ but never charged _ in the disappearance of his first wife in New York.

He could face the death penalty under special circumstances that allege he ambushed Berman and murdered a witness to a crime.

Authorities found more than a quarter-pound of marijuana and a revolver in Durst's hotel room when he was arrested over the weekend, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Durst appeared before a judge for a second straight day on Tuesday to face the drug and weapons charges.

In 2003, he was acquitted of murder in a dismemberment death in Texas.

In a documentary that just wrapped up about Durst's troubled life, he mumbled about how he "killed them all," providing a dramatic kick to the end of the series. But a law enforcement official said his arrest on the murder charge was based on words he wrote.

Analysis linked a letter Durst wrote to his friend Susan Berman a year before her killing with one that pointed police to her body, and that was the key new evidence in the long-dormant investigation into the 2000 killing, the official not authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

AP TELEVISION

New York - March 17, 2015

1. Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst:

"I'm over the moon, absolutely over the moon. That's why I agree to do all these interviews, I'm exhausted. I wish my friend Eleanor Schwank, who worked with me on this, who just passed away could see it."

3. Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst:

"I will take his going to jail anyway I can, I'm not fussy, he can only go to jail once. What I would like is for him to tell us, on his death bed if he has to, where he put Kathy's body or pieces of it."

5. Ellen Strauss, Friend of Kathleen Durst

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst:

"They're very happy. They've finally seen an end to it. You know she has a mother that's 101 years old living at home, 101 and not knowing for the last 33 years where her daughter is."

7. Ellen Strauss, Friend of Kathleen Durst

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst:

"I haven't thought that far ahead, I mean I don't expect he is going to get off scot-free, I really don't. I think this time we've got him. He stabbed himself. He hoisted himself on his own petard whatever you want to call it. I am not thinking that way at all. I really think this time we've got him."

9. Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst, walking outside

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst:

"I think the trial is another chapter. I mean I'm waiting for that to be the nail in his coffin. He's got to squeak out of this one, that would be really amazing."

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst:

"How hard everybody worked, how hard all of us worked and it now seems that maybe it paid off, that it did pay off. I know that that the last chapter isn't written yet, but that is what life is all about surprises."

12. Ellen Strauss, friend of Kathleen Durst: