Durst Plotted to Kill Brother, Too: Prosecutors

He allegedly used 'Igor' as code for murder
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2020 3:33 PM CDT
Durst Plotted to Kill Brother, Too: Prosecutors
Real estate heir Robert Durst sits during his murder trial at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles on Thursday.   (Robyn Beck/AFP via AP, Pool)

"I was planning on Igor-ing BM." So said Robert Durst in a jailhouse phone call in 2001, a recording played during his murder trial Monday. Deputy District Attorney John Lewin explained to jurors that "BM" referred to his brother, Douglas, and "Igor-ing" was his code for killing, reports the Daily News. "Mr. Durst is discussing the fact that he had screwed up his plan to kill Douglas," Lewin told jurors. Buzzfeed explains the "Igor" background here. In 2015, Douglas Durst told the New York Times that his brother once acquired seven Alaskan Malamutes. All were named Igor and all "died mysteriously ... within six months of his owning them," he said, adding that he believed Durst used the dogs in "practicing killing and disposing his wife." That would be Kathleen Durst, who disappeared in 1982.

Prosecutors maintain that Robert Durst wanted to kill his brother because he was angry that Douglas was chosen as CEO of the Durst Organization over him in the early 1990s, per the Daily Beast. For those unfamiliar with Durst's convoluted tale, made popular in the documentary The Jinx, he is implicated in the disappearances of three people: Kathleen Durst, friend Susan Berman, and a neighbor named Morris Black, though he was acquitted of murder charges in the Black case. The current murder trial is for Berman's murder in 2000. Prosecutors believe Durst killed Berman to keep her from telling investigators what she knew about Kathleen's disappearance. His defense attorney said Tuesday Durst did not kill Berman, but the lawyer acknowledged for the first time that Durst did find her body shortly after she was shot. Durst has admitted writing a famous tip-off note to police about Berman, and his attorney says he did so out of panic. The lawyer also revealed Durst will testify during the trial, which is expected to last five months. (More Robert Durst stories.)

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