The mobster's daughter whose life and death became a real-estate heir's undoing
In short: Susan Berman was a journalist and daughter of a notorious mob figure who lived at the intersection of Hollywood glamour and organized crime. Her 2000 murder remained a cold case for over a decade, eventually linking her longtime friend, Robert Durst, to a dark web of secrets and fatal betrayals.
Born in 1945 to a high-ranking Jewish-American mobster, Susan Berman grew up navigating the shadows of Las Vegas and Hollywood. Her father, David Berman, managed the Flamingo Hotel following the 1947 killing of Bugsy Siegel. Despite her upbringing, Berman carved out a career as a journalist and author, penning memoirs like Easy Street that explored her complex relationship with her father's criminal legacy. She eventually received $4.3 million from the Mafia for her father's casino interests, though her own life was marked by financial instability and creative pursuits, including a planned Showtime series titled Sin City.
Berman's life became inextricably tied to Robert Durst, a real-estate heir she met while attending UCLA in the late 1960s. Their friendship spanned decades, with Berman even acting as a media spokesperson for Durst during the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst. Investigators later suspected that Berman facilitated a public alibi for Durst regarding that case. In the months leading up to her death, Berman reached out to Durst for financial support, expressing anxiety about the state of their friendship as authorities reopened the investigation into Kathleen's vanishing.
On Christmas Eve 2000, Berman was found dead in her Benedict Canyon home, killed execution-style with a 9mm handgun. The case languished until 2015, when Durst was arrested in New Orleans. Prosecutors argued that Durst murdered Berman to prevent her from speaking to police about his wife's disappearance. A typewritten note sent to police shortly after the killing, titled "Possible motive for Susan Berman murder," pointed toward this connection. In 2021, a jury convicted Durst of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison, dying behind bars just months later.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Susan Berman
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