Morbid - Episode 669: The Crimes of Robert Durst (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

In October 2001, the dismembered remains of seventy-one-year-old Morris Black were found floating in Galveston Bay. A few days later, Black’s neighbor, Robert Durst, was arrested on suspici...on of murder and released on $250,000 bail. After posting bail, Durst jumped bail and disappeared for six weeks, before being arrested by Pennsylvania authorities at the end of November.In the years that followed, investigators and prosecutors began combing through Durst’s life, discovering disturbing connections between the excentric millionaire and the mysterious disappearances and deaths of several people who were once close to Durst. Robert Durst had been a suspect in the murder of Morris Black, but was it possible he was in fact a multiple murderer who’d evaded detection for decades?Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesAssociated Press. 2001. "Fugitive is arrested in Galveston man's death." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, December 1: 26.Babineck, Mark. 2001. "A mysterious trail left in Galveston." Austin American-Statesman, October 20: 25.Bagli, Charles. 2020. "4 decades of Durst's past are traced as trial begins." New York Times, March 11.—. 2021. "Durst faces new charge for murder of his wife." New York Times, October 23.—. 2021. "Durst is convicted of murder after 2 decades of suspicion." New York Times, September 18.—. 2021. "Durst is sentenced to life in prison for 2000 murder of friend." New York Times, October 15.—. 2020. "Real estate scion admits he wrote note in case profiled in 'The Jinx'." New York Times, January 1.—. 2014. "Stranger than fiction? Try fact." New York Times, December 2.Bagli, Charles V., and Kevin Flynn. 2001. "A two-decade spiral into suspicion." New York Times, October 21: A33.Bagli, Charles, and Kevin Flynn. 2001. "On the run with a fugitive: tales of aliases and disguises." New York Times, December 7: D1.Bagli, Charles, and Vivian Yee. 2015. "Straight from TV to jail: Durt is charged in killing." New York Times, March 16.Cartwright, Gary. 2002. "Durst case scenarios." Texas Monthly, February: 87-112.Collins, Marion. 2002. Without a Trace: Inside the Robert Durst Case. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.Forbes. 2020. Durst family. December December. Accessed March 28, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/profile/durst/.Gerber, Marisa. 2021. "The Hollywood ‘Mafia princess’ was Robert Durst’s best friend. Did loyalty lead to murder?" Los Angeles Times, May 21.Hale, Mike. 2024. "Conversations on murder." New York Times, April 24.2015. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. Directed by Andrew Jarecki. Performed by Andrew Jarecki.Lozano, Juan. 2003. "Juey to see Galveston case evidence." Austin American-Statesman, August 14: 21.—. 2003. "Officer testifies there's no direct evidence against heir." Austin American-Statesman, October 21: 17.—. 2003. "Murder trial gets under way for multimillionaire Robert Durst." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 23: 21.Miller, Julie. 2015. "Robert Durst may have had a Mission Impossible-style plan to flee the country." Vanity Fair, March 18.Palmer, Alex. 2015. The Creepiest Things Robert Durst Says in His All Good Things DVD Commentary. April 15. Accessed April 1, 2025. https://www.vulture.com/2015/04/robert-dursts-all-good-things-dvd-commentary.html.Reporter-Dispatch. 1950. "Durst death in Scarsdale ruled an accident." Reporter-Dispatch (New York, NY), November 10: 9.Stewart, Richard, and Kevin Moran. 2003. "Millionaire is acquitted of murder." Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Nevember 12: 1.Streeter, Kurt. 2001. "N.Y. police had sought to quiz slain author." Los Angeles Times, January 9: 28.Zeman, Ned. 2020. "He also decided to kill her." Vanity Fair, April 23.—. 2015. "The fugitive heir." Vanity Fair, March 16.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, weirdos. Before we unleash today's macabre mystery, we were wondering, have you ever heard of Wondery Plus? It's like a secret passage to an ad-free lair with early access to episodes. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You're listening to a morbid network podcast. If you're shopping while working, eating, or even listening to this podcast, then you know and love the thrill of the hunt. But are you getting the thrill of the best deals? Rakuten shoppers do.
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Starting point is 00:01:20 Be protected, be Zen. Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alaina. And this is Morbid. This is Morbid. Morbid, morbid, morbid, morbid. There you go. It's kind of like morbid in the morning. Yeah, no, it's very much like morbid in the morning. We woke up so early this morning that you could tell me it was 11 a.m. right now. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:55 I'd be like, yeah, totally. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we're doing some yoga, some yoga in the morning. We're yoga girls. We're yogis. Yeah, pretty much. I felt like a yogi today because
Starting point is 00:02:05 sometimes the instructor like most of the time she does it with us like so I can look at her and be like, what are we doing? But today, uh-uh. And I mostly knew what I was doing. Yeah, I mostly knew. Oh, I'm an honest girl. Sometimes I was like, the fuck? Where are we? Like, which warrior are we in? Yeah, the warriors I have down. We did a lizard and I said, what? So what's a lizard? I said lizard. Lizard feels great.
Starting point is 00:02:30 And sometimes when we were like doing that like three dog thing, I was still flowing down. And then like everybody else was three dogging and I was still open hearting. Three dog thing. I don't know. I like that. I like that a lot. It feels good though. It feels nice. Yeah, I feel good. I feel like I'm't know. I like that. I like that a lot. It feels good though. It feels nice.
Starting point is 00:02:45 Yeah, I feel good. I feel like I'm getting stronger. And it clears your mind. It does. But you kind of zone out for a little while. It's a great way to start the morning. Especially super early because we do it before even like anyone, my kids wake up. So that's nice because it's like then I'm fully awake and ready to go by the time they
Starting point is 00:03:04 come rolling down the stairs. And you've like had some you time. Yeah, I think that's important as a mama Sita. Oh, it is very Very recommended if you can get yourself up before your kids in the morning Just to give yourself even if you don't have to do anything productive you can just sit. Oh, yeah, if you want I'd argue the silence I'd argue that's productive for you watch a watch something on TV that you never get to watch because you don't get the TV. The other morning. Just even having just that hour, even just an hour before your kids wake up, I'm telling you it makes a difference.
Starting point is 00:03:38 Yeah. And if you don't have kids, it's also just nice to have like to be the only one to wake in your house. Like the other morning, I think you like overslept or something, and I was like, oh, I'm not going with her. I could have very much, but I said no. But I stayed up and I just read some of my book for like an hour, like five to six.
Starting point is 00:03:54 I just sat in my like dark living room with my like mood lighting in red. I was like, bitch. I love it. Speaking of reading. Oh, yes, speaking of reading. You got some stuff to tell us? We're recording this well ahead of time because, you know, life. But so I think by the time this comes out, I think we'll have a whole new like ecosystem coming about by the time this comes out.
Starting point is 00:04:20 Absolutely. But I'm just kidding. But by the time this comes out, the paperback of The But game is going to be out and available for preorder. I'm excited. It will be out officially on August 12th, I believe. But you can preorder it now. It's so early, I don't have a link, but we'll try to throw one in the show notes. So the link is in the show notes right now. Check it. So do it, pre-order it. Everyone loves a paperback. The paperback is nice.
Starting point is 00:04:50 Yeah. You know, I only have the galley of the paperback. I want the, the fin deal. You need the fin deal. I have the galley. I have the hardcover. Now I need the paperback. Now you need the paperback.
Starting point is 00:05:01 A paperback is good. You can throw it in your bag. Yeah. You can bend it if you want. Yeah. You can, you can bend it if you want to. She might get mad at you. I won't, you know, I won't get mad at you as long as you don't bend my copy of it. Okay. Fair. Which is fine. Cause I don't lend it out. So I never lend out books. That's true. She doesn't. One time you gave me a book, but you made me essentially sign a contract saying I wouldn't dog ear the pages. It's
Starting point is 00:05:24 not worth borrowing a book from you. I make it very not worth it. Really quickly, I'm so excited. I can't wait for the paperback to come out. Is there a date? You're like really quickly, forget this. I was like, wait, before I move on, let me fully acknowledge how excited I am. I'm very excited.
Starting point is 00:05:43 But is there a date? So it's already out for pre-order, but I think it's going to be out officially August 12th. August 12th. I like that date. Yeah. Nine, 12th? I love August. August is eight, you fucking idiot. August is right before fall. That's time, baby. Right before fall.
Starting point is 00:06:01 We're getting there. Yeah. August. It's so close to fall. August. Fall! I need, I feel fall in my bones already. No, let us get through the summer first, okay? You know what I'm sick of?
Starting point is 00:06:12 What are you sick of? I'm sick of any time, every year I get to this exact spot and I say, I need fall. And you know what I hear from everybody? Let us get through summer. I'm not stopping you. I'm not stopping a whole season from coming and going. I'm not putting some kind of magic into the air that makes
Starting point is 00:06:32 it stop. You are putting magic into the air. I'm just saying, man, I want fall. You know you're manifesting. Because John does the same thing. He's like, let us get through summer. I'm like, I'm letting you. Oh my God. Calm down. You crazy person. Never Mikey. What are these weird, it's just like weird things you're doing with your vocal cords. It's like, I'm scared. Cause I'm mad.
Starting point is 00:06:55 I'm scared. I'm mad. I'm not stopping summer. No, but you are putting magic in the air. You're like manifesting that summer goes by fast and I don't want it to. Yeah, too bad. That's why I said,
Starting point is 00:07:05 I'm going to manifest. I like fall too. All I want in my goddamn life is to go. And this is, I'm a Disney adult and I don't care. I'm going to say it out loud and I don't care. All I want in my goddamn life is to go to fucking Disney world for October. Like, I crave that so badly. So I can't wait for fall. But then every time fall comes around, it's fucking hurricane season. In Florida. In Florida.
Starting point is 00:07:32 Yeah. So I can't go. I mean, I never want to leave New England during the fall and kind of refuse to. I know. We're just stating our wants now. So there's that. So that's my want.
Starting point is 00:07:44 So hurricane season actually that's my want. So hurricane season actually works in my favor. I'm underbiting at her. I'm underbiting this bitch right now. I'm not traveling during that time. So I want to. So bad. I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:07:57 Maybe this year is the year. Maybe it's the year. Maybe 2025. Maybe. I want to go and I want to like see like the, like it be like the pumpkin in the center and everything and get the merch. Yeah. And the party.
Starting point is 00:08:11 I want to go. I want that for you. Thank you. You know. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:08:19 I had a moment. I won't yell at you about that. That's good. You can't yell at me anymore. You already yelled at me real big. Because I'm not stopping summer. I'm just going to talk at you about that. That's good. You can't yell at me anymore. You already yelled at me real big. Because I'm not stopping summer. I'm just going to talk about fall all through summer. That's the thing.
Starting point is 00:08:31 The whole time we're all enjoying summer, you're saying fall. What did you say at the beginning of that sentence? The whole time that we're enjoying summer. We're still enjoying. You're still enjoying summer. We're still enjoying. I can talk about fall and everybody can still enjoy their summer. This woman.
Starting point is 00:08:48 God damn. This woman. We're going to get in an actual fight again. We've been match recording too much lately. We have too many match recording. People are like, are they going to break up? No, we're fine. Literally never.
Starting point is 00:09:02 We're not allowed. We're fine. But speaking of things that you don't know, I're fine. Literally never. We're not allowed. We're fine. But speaking of things that you don't... No, I have nothing. I don't have a way to segue. It has been too many patch recordings because I've lost my ability to segue. My coffee almost came through my nose. No, I don't have anything. I don't have it.
Starting point is 00:09:22 I thought it was going to... You know how sometimes when you don't have something to say, you just keep going. You're like, just talk and it'll form itself. Sometimes that's how I get through my everyday life. Not here though. That didn't work. It doesn't always. So I'll, I'm just going to go right into it. What we're going to cover today is the crimes of Robert Durst. Of course. Not Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit. Different. He just wants to break stuff. He does. He wants to break stuff. But we're talking about the Jinx.
Starting point is 00:09:49 Of course. Of course. If you've watched the documentary, The Jinx, I highly recommend you do it. It's fascinating. And the theme song. Oh, fresh blood. Oh, the theme song is A plus. Is it the eels?
Starting point is 00:10:04 Yeah, it is. Wow. Bitch, check me out. A plus. Is it the eels? Yeah, it is. Wow. Bitch, check me out. Impressive. Thank you. Yeah, I immediately put it on a playlist when I watched it. So good. It's a really horrifying documentary. It's scary, it's upsetting, but it's fascinating.
Starting point is 00:10:17 It's all that stuff. And they caught that very infamous chitter chatter in the bathroom on his hot mic there. And at one point, the way he says, of course, in that clip, he's like, of course, it's like a very specific way he says it. And Ash says, of course, like that. And I've noticed it. But not intentionally.
Starting point is 00:10:38 Not intentionally. She just, that's how she says, she'll be like, oh, like, yeah, I'll drive, of course. She just says it. It just naturally happens. And every time she says it, I'm like, okay, Jinx, I can't stop. So that's just in my brain right now. Of course. Let's get to the very beginning, because I think a lot of people know the Jinx documentary. They know the name Robert Durst. They might know a little bit about it, but this is a really scary case.
Starting point is 00:11:08 It's involved. He's a very scary man. Yeah, he did a lot. So we're gonna start with the murder of Morris Black, which is a very gruesome, very sad thing. So on the morning of September 30th, 2011, David Avena set out for Galveston Bay for just to go fishing with his kids.
Starting point is 00:11:29 He had his 13-year-old son, James, and his eight-year-old daughter, Elise. They were really just like, this isn't like a big thing, they were just going out to kind of like hang out together lazily, fish. So they set themselves up on the shoreline, they just put their lines in the water and just sat down and waited for fish to bite. That's how it goes. That's how it goes. So somewhat bored with this whole thing though, the 13 year old James.
Starting point is 00:11:53 He was like, I'm just going to wander down the beach a little bit because I'm just staring at a fishing pole right now and at 13, you don't want to do that probably. So he goes down the rocky beach and he hears his father calling him back because he was asking him to come help reel in some of the lines. Oh, his shit got excited. Shit got excited when he left. That's what always happens. You leave and then the fish bite.
Starting point is 00:12:13 Exactly. So as James wandered back to his father and sister, he saw something in the water and he saw something floating and he was like, huh. So he just stared at it for a couple of seconds, kind of trying to like reconcile what he was looking at. And he said it was just like a pinkish blob, but he was like, but he was weird. It was weird looking.
Starting point is 00:12:32 It just didn't look like anything he had seen before. And then it dawned on him and he said, oh, I'm pretty sure that's a piece of a human body. Oh. And he's 13. Like, no kid should have to see that. ["Jingle Bells"] It seems like everything is connected to your gut microbiome, like everything.
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Starting point is 00:15:12 Go to rocketmoney.com slash morbid today. That's rocketmoney.com slash morbid, rocketmoney.com slash morbid. So, James yelled to his father and he said, there's a body over here. But David Avino was like, yeah, he's definitely joking and he's probably trying to get his sister all freaked out. Like that's very 13 year old boy to do. So, David dropped what he was doing and ran over to James and he was expecting to see, you know, maybe an animal in the water or something like inanimate just floating in the water, but it was not an animal and it was not something inanimate. David Avena had been a surgical nurse and so he was very well versed on the human body.
Starting point is 00:15:57 What are the odds? And yeah, right. And he immediately knew what was floating in the bay had definitely once been part of a human body. Specifically, it was the trunk portion of a man. But the head, arms, and legs were missing, which must have been horrifying to see. So he led his kids back to the car and immediately called the police and they arrived on the scene a few minutes later. Now, the remains were removed from the water and while they were doing that, police and shore patrol agents were fanning out across the beach looking for any additional evidence, any more remains.
Starting point is 00:16:31 And several hours into the search, long after the sun had gone down, investigators found about 80 feet offshore, three garbage bags containing more of this victim's remains. Oh man. A short time after that, more bags were found down the shore and those contained the rest of this victim's remains. Oh, man. A short time after that, more bags were found down the shore, and those contained the rest of the man's remains. My goodness. According to the technician who performed the autopsy, the remains were that of an elderly white man in his seventies.
Starting point is 00:16:56 So sad. You make it to 70 years old. And that's how you go out. The cause of death was a 22 caliber gunshot wound to the face. All indications were that the dismemberment had occurred postmortem. More interesting than the remains themselves was that there was a lot of other stuff mixed in with these remains. There was a lot of pieces of garbage, basically.
Starting point is 00:17:17 Cash register receipts for garbage bags, a drop cloth, a $6.99 bow saw. In the bags, they also found bloody towels, one flip-flop, one shower shoe, a piece of tan fabric, like a bunch of blue plastic cups, used paper towels, and a copy of USA Today from two days earlier. And the address label was still on the USA Today. When they scoured the shoreline, they also found a blue bed sheet and a pair of men's underwear. Okay.
Starting point is 00:17:50 So a lot of stuff. Yeah, that's a lot. A lot of stuff. So investigators ran the victim's fingerprints and identified him as 71 year old Morris Black. Morris Black was a resident of Galveston. He did have a criminal record, but it was just minor offenses. People who knew him, they didn't have the kindest things to say about him. They called him gruff.
Starting point is 00:18:10 They called him short tempered. He was very demanding, that kind of thing. They didn't call him like he was this horrible monster. It's just like he was kind of like a grumpy older dude. Kind of like, yeah, short tempered. A Galveston business owner said of dealing with Morris Black, no matter how busy we were, he would break in and demand that I stop everything and see him.
Starting point is 00:18:33 And Black's sister, Trudy, kind of gave a similar description. She said of her brother, if he had a disagreement, he'd go protest. He'd march in front of the building. He could make enemies. So he had a little bit of a reputation. So investigators were like, all right, there's probably at least one person that might have wanted to hurt him. Right.
Starting point is 00:18:51 But the more they interviewed his neighbors and acquaintances, they realized that it wasn't that like he was like a bad guy. And it's not like they really didn't find, they were like, I don't think he would have attracted a killer. He seems like he's just kind of like a nuisance. Like he just kind of rubs people the wrong way. Like he's not like threatening people or like out in these streets making enemies. It didn't seem like he was pissing people off to the point of like, you could have attracted somebody like that. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:19:17 So when their interviews with friends and acquaintances turned up nothing, investigators visited Morris Black's home. And that was the address that they had found on the USA Today copy. When they arrived there, which it was a fourplex on a quiet street, and investigators took a look around the outside of the building, just look for anything basically. And inside one of the trash cans,
Starting point is 00:19:40 they found an empty black garbage bag that matched the bags that Morris Black's remains were discovered in. They also found the packaging for the drop cloth found with the body and a large amount of paper towels that matched those found in the bags. And they found a bunch of other items that connected the apartment building to the murder. So a search of the second trash can turned up even more evidence. I mean, it's crazy, including a 22 caliber pistol and a spent shell casing and a receipt for an eye exam addressed to one of the residents, Robert Durst, whose address was across the hall from Black's apartment.
Starting point is 00:20:20 Now according to the landlord, Klaus Dillman, no one by the name of Durst, Robert Durst, lived in that building. He said, no, the person in the place across the street, the hall from Black, that there's a quote, nice middle-aged lady named Dorothy Sinner. So the landlord told detectives that Sinner had lived in the apartment since 2000. Apparently they had moved in about a month
Starting point is 00:20:43 after Morris Black and the woman had never caused any problems. Okay. They were like, I don't know what you're talking about. But Dilman did add that it wasn't Sinner herself who had rented the apartment, but her brother-in-law. Her brother-in-law had made all the arrangements over the phone because Sinner had some kind of condition with her larynx, so she could not speak. Okay.
Starting point is 00:21:04 In fact, he said in the few times when Sinner and him had communicated at all, she had done so through handwritten notes. And finally, Dillman said yes, he had met the brother-in-law once and had seen him on a few occasions and he'd never actually seen the two of them together actually. Weird. Strangely, meaning Sinner and the brother-in-law. Strange. When investigators searched Black and Sinner's apartments, it was clear they'd found the crime scene. In both apartments there was blood on the walls and floors as well as a blood trail leading across the hall from one apartment to the other. Well, that'll tell ya. Yep. In Sinner's apartment, detectives found a four-inch
Starting point is 00:21:42 paring knife and a pair of bloody boots. They also discovered blood outside the apartment building in the parking lot. In one of the other tenants, Maria de Hernandez, told detectives that on the night of Morris Black's murder, she had seen a man loading black garbage bags into a silver Honda in the parking lot, and she didn't recognize that man. That's terrifying. So, as crime scene technicians processed Sinner's apartment, what they found painted a very strange picture
Starting point is 00:22:09 of who lived there. Although Sinner had lived in the apartment for nearly a year, there was like very little furniture in here. There was a futon, a small table, and a television. The refrigerator was completely empty, and the stove appeared as though it had never once been used. That's weird. It also looked as though it had never once been used. It also looked as though someone had gone out of their way to thoroughly scrub the floors.
Starting point is 00:22:32 But when they pulled up the tile on the floor, they found a large amount of blood had seeped through and soaked the boards underneath. Analysis of the blood would prove that it was Morris Black's blood. Now based on the statement from the neighbor, investigators ran a check for any vehicles registered to Sinner's address that matched the description of the Silver Honda. And they learned that Robert Durst had registered just such a vehicle there. Hmm.
Starting point is 00:22:59 When they showed Klaus Dillman a photo of Durst, he acknowledged that he looked like the man he'd assumed to be Sinner's brother-in-law. Imagine that. But more importantly, he also bore a pretty striking resemblance to Dorothy Sinner herself. Strange. In fact, the more Dillman looked at the photo of Durst, the more he was like, oh, that is actually him. Like that is Robert Durst.
Starting point is 00:23:23 Dorothy Sinner is Robert Durst. Wild. Can you imagine? Robert Durst had lived there how many years? Did you say four? I think, yeah, at least like he had moved in right after, or Dorothy Sinner had moved in right after Morris Black. That's wild.
Starting point is 00:23:40 Which is kind of crazy. The handful of interactions Dillman had had with Dorothy Sinner had all been quite brief. And really, like I said before, only through notes. So it had never occurred to him that Sinner could have been anyone other than who she was saying she was. Why would you question that? Given what they'd found in the apartments and the information collected from witnesses, it was clear to investigators that there was no Dillman, Dorothy Sinner. And the main suspect in the murder of Morris Black was Robert Dyrsk.
Starting point is 00:24:08 Okay. Now a few days later on October 9th, a patrol officer spotted the silver Honda and pulled the driver over. When the officer asked for ID, the driver handed him a holiday and express hotel card with the name Jim Truss. That is not identification, sir. Yeah, obviously this was not what the officer was asking for. So he was like, hey, step out of the car.
Starting point is 00:24:29 And he placed this man in custody. When the officer searched through the vehicle, he found a bag of marijuana, a 9-millimeter handgun, and a bow saw similar to the one purchased with the other items days earlier. Not day-to-day travel items. Not day-to-day travel items. At first, investigators suspected
Starting point is 00:24:46 this was the saw used in the dismemberment. But when the autopsy was complete, the medical examiner actually confirmed that whoever did the dismemberment had used a paring knife to cut away the muscle, then used a hacksaw to remove the limbs. Oh my. Now this man that was arrested on the side of the road
Starting point is 00:25:03 was Robert Durst. That's crazy. Yeah, right. That's wild. You didn't see that coming, did you side of the road was Robert Durst. That's crazy. Yeah, right? That's wild. You didn't see that coming, did you? I had no idea. The arrest of Robert Durst for the murder of Morris Black came as a surprise to just about everyone, particularly because Durst hardly looked like the kind of man who was
Starting point is 00:25:17 going to shoot another man in the face. He really didn't. Then dismember his body. No. But as investigators started looking into his background, they discovered he was unlike anyone they had investigated before. They were like, wow, we definitely did not know that this is what was lurking underneath. So let's talk about Robert Durst. Who the hell is this man? What is going on?
Starting point is 00:25:37 He's lived a thousand lives. None of them good. None of them good. Robert Alan Durst was born in Manhattan on April 12th, 1943. He was the oldest child of four children. His parents were Seymour Durst and Bernice Herstein. I think Seymour is a great name. That is a great name. Like his father before him, Seymour Durst was a wildly successful New York real estate developer and partner at the Durst Organization, which was a development firm recently valued at $8.1 billion. Cassie Gerhardt Casual.
Starting point is 00:26:09 Cassie Gerhardt Very casual. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. I just feel like maintaining your mental health is so important. It used to be that people didn't like to talk about going to therapy, and now I feel like all my friends are in therapy. It's great, mental health awareness is growing. This Mental Health Awareness Month,
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Starting point is 00:27:25 What's something your moms always wanted to do? Get into painting, write that novel, make the perfect croissant? Whatever it is, this Mother's Day you can finally help her achieve it with MasterClass. Our parents were our first mentors, but who did they look up to? Maybe Wolfgang Puck, Ron Finley, RuPaul. Give them the gift of learning to the people who taught you so much with MasterClass. Whether you're showing love to your parents or yourself, nothing compares to the gift that can change your life for the better. When I got into MasterClass and took Joyce Carol Oates' Art of Storytelling class, I learned that sometimes you have to kind of dive into the dark parts of yourself to
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Starting point is 00:28:17 Stein's Writing for a Young Audience class and it really helped me to like bring it down to a level where it can be spooky, but fun and palatable to a young audience. Our listeners always get great discounts on Masterclass of at least 15% off any annual membership on masterclass.com slash morbid, masterclass.com slash morbid. Since being established in 1915 by Joseph Durst and his brothers, the Durst organization has owned or built some of the most expensive and most recognizable properties in New York City, including the Henry Miller Theater, the Bank of America Tower, and the development of One World Train Center. Damn. So, yeah. So like Seymour, Robert's mother, Bernice, also came from New York's elite class
Starting point is 00:29:15 and filled her days with social activities. Queen. She was a lady who lunches. She did like charities, luncheons. Goals. Very Emily Gilmore. Yes. Bernice and Seymour married in 1940, and in the 10 years after that,
Starting point is 00:29:28 she gave birth to the couple's four children, Robert, Douglas, Wendy, and Thomas. Now tragically on November 9th, 1950, Bernice fell to her death from the roof of the family home in what was later deemed an accident by the coroner. According to the press, Bernice had gone out on the roof for unknown reasons and someone called police and fire department to rescue her. But as the firefighter was climbing the ladder to reach her, Bernice insisted she
Starting point is 00:29:55 could get back inside on her own, but slipped on wet leaves and fell to the driveway below, which is horrifying. Yeah, that's really sad. Seymour told investigators that his wife had been in treatment for asthma and had taken a sedative that morning, and later that day she had seemed confused and unlike herself. The family consulted a physician who recommended Bernice stay in bed to rest, but later that afternoon she climbed out the window onto the roof in her bathrobe. Oh man. Despite the official report of an accidental death, there are many reporters and New York socialites who believe Bernice had been profoundly depressed
Starting point is 00:30:31 and had possibly intentionally ended her life. Oh, that's really sad. Now this is people speculating. Yeah, of course. Obviously, we do not know that. Now, following Bernice's very unexpected death, the Durst children understandably struggled to adjust to life without their mother. I can't imagine.
Starting point is 00:30:48 Particularly seven-year-old Robert. Oh, so little. He claimed to have witnessed the fall. Oh. Seymour responded to the loss of his wife by just retreating into himself and becoming very consumed with his work. Which you can't when you got four little ones to take care of. When he was at home, he would often just disappear
Starting point is 00:31:06 into his study and bury himself in books in order to just avoid all of it, avoid all the feelings, everything. The new reality in the Durst home meant that the children were for the most part now being raised by nannies and other domestic workers. Which is like a big change for them. Yeah, your mom's there one day and then gone the next.
Starting point is 00:31:25 And now you're being raised by like people who aren't your parents. Now, as he grew older, Robert Durst developed a quiet and mostly shy personality. He performed pretty, you know, adequate in school. He had a few friends. His life was pretty unremarkable, like nothing crazy. Which honestly, that's pretty remarkable in and of itself for someone who came from such wealth and privilege. The fact that it was just kind of a chill life, like a pretty casual existence.
Starting point is 00:31:52 That said, he seemed to develop some quirks that people who knew him found a little unusual. That's one way to describe this man. He is quirky. He is quirky. Very quirky. According to his childhood friend, Julie Baumgold, she said, quote, he spoke with a drawl, long pauses punctuated his speech as if he were struggling to spit out the words. Now, and he does have a different way of speaking, for sure.
Starting point is 00:32:19 Despite being strongly introverted, Robert tried to fit in and was a member of many clubs, including the camera club, the Spanish club, and being a member of the Junior Varsity Soccer Team. Trying to just like be one with everybody. After graduating from high school, Robert went on to study business and economics at Lehigh University and intended to go into real estate, like the business, with his father. Things changed though once Robert joined the anti-war movement that was growing on college campuses across the country. While many young people became activists during this period, Robert's decision to participate
Starting point is 00:32:54 didn't really sit well with his dad. His dad insisted his son take his life and responsibilities more seriously. But by then Robert had become fully involved in the counterculture movement and wasn't interested in whatever his father was trying to tell him what to say. Now, this shift in his priorities during this period definitely was a major change. This marked a major change in his personality too. Most of his life, he lived up to his father's expectations and incredibly high standards. But now that he
Starting point is 00:33:25 was away from Seymour Durst, he began developing his own identity and much of that identity was going to be rooted in opposition. He told a reporter, when I was growing up, it was the days of long hair and marijuana. In terms of announcing that you were going into the family business, that was extremely uncool. Instead, he completed his studies at Lehigh and enrolled in graduate studies at UCLA, where many of the counterculture ideas and philosophies were being born. Yeah. Now, it was at UCLA that Durst met one of the more important influences in his later
Starting point is 00:33:56 life, 21-year-old Susan Berman. Despite their attraction to one another, Robert and Susan never became a couple. Instead, they formed a very tight, close friendship. They bonded over their almost unique personal histories, basically. Like Robert, Susan came from a prominent and wealthy, but pretty troubled family. But unlike Robert, Susan's father's wealth had come from questionable means. Oh. Unlike Robert, Susan's father's wealth had come from questionable means. In 1947, the mob-affiliated David Berman took over the Flamingo Hotel after its previous owner. Bugsy Siegel was shot to death by an unknown gunman in his Beverly Hills home.
Starting point is 00:34:36 I heard a Bugsy. So yeah. That's high up shit. Yeah, that's some shit. So Robert and Susan would remain close until her death in 2000, but it turned out that graduate school wasn't exactly where Durst wanted to be. After completing a portion of his program, he dropped out of UCLA in 1969 and went back to the East Coast, but he still wasn't interested in joining the family business. Instead, he, I mean, by now he's fully immersed
Starting point is 00:35:03 in the counterculture lifestyle. So he moved to Middlebury. That's in Vermont and he opened a health food store. So he went fully the other way. That's it. Vermont plus health food store equals Robert Terst. Also, my youngest calls Vermont Vremont and I love it. And every time I see it, I think Vremont. I hope she never grows out of that. Now, the thing is, for this, it looks like he's like totally, you know, rebelling against the idea of the family business. He's going to Vermont, he's opening up a health food store. It was
Starting point is 00:35:34 entirely bankrolled by his father. Of course. So it's like, it's not like he's going out on his own. I can't stop saying of course. Yeah, of course. Now, as far as Seymour Durst was concerned, the store was a waste of time, but at least Robert was directing his energies towards business and was moving in a more, what he considered to be respectful direction.
Starting point is 00:35:53 Okay. The store, which was called All Good Things. I love that, I would go there. Right? It sounds cool. We wouldn't try a store called All Good Things. Yeah, it reminds me of the Stephen King book, Needful Things. Yeah. It reminds me of the Stephen King book Needful Things.
Starting point is 00:36:05 Yeah. But it's not the same. So the store, All Good Things, was opened in a dirt stone building. And as a condition of giving his son the money, Robert had to be responsible for the property, which included acting as a landlord to the building's one tenant, Kathy McCormick. Now, Robert first met Kathy in late 1971 when she moved in and pointed out a number of things that needed repairing.
Starting point is 00:36:29 And he was immediately taken by her, like immediately. He said, strong woman knows what she wants. Robert wasted no time asking her for a date. And after going out just two times, he asked her to move into his house and she agreed and moved in in January 1972. He said, this is great because I love you and because I won't have to fix those things. I won't have to fix the shit. So while Robert and Kathy's relationship was going well,
Starting point is 00:36:54 things at the store were not. At the same time, Seymour Durst had began encouraging his son to close up the store and return home to join the family business. If nothing else, Robert would be able to make much better money, which would allow him to support Kathy and Seymour hoped their family to come. Perhaps he was swayed by the money or the thought of an easier life, but Robert finally caved and went in with his father's demands and he and Kathy returned to New York in early 1973. And a few months later on April 12th, Robert and Kathy were married. Nice.
Starting point is 00:37:30 Now initially Robert and Kathy moved in with Robert's brother Douglas and his wife and their newly built home in Katona, which is about 60 miles outside the city. The house was massive, it was spacious, definitely more than enough room for four people. But Cathy quickly started feeling uncomfortable there. According to one of her college friends, the home was more than adequate, but she just hadn't expected things to be so tense, she said. Mm-hmm. Apparently, Eleanor Schwank said,
Starting point is 00:37:58 the two brothers fought, bickered, and constantly needled each other. So that's uncomfortable. And after Cathy made her feelings known about this whole thing, the couple moved out of the house and into the Durst Organization's most expensive apartment, which was a penthouse on Riverside Drive, and it had panoramic views of the Hudson River.
Starting point is 00:38:17 Can you imagine? It's amazing. So now that they've moved, they're much happier in their new apartment than they had been living outside the city. I mean, it's a penthouse, honey. It's a penthouse and Robert and Kathy settled into their new lives.
Starting point is 00:38:32 She was a nursing student and he was a real estate developer at the time. Yes. A friend, Gilberto Najame said, they were earthy, downright, regular people. I thought he was a caring, loving husband. I know Kathy was in love with him. That may have been true, but it didn't take very long for the shimmer and shine of their marriage to wear off a little bit.
Starting point is 00:38:53 For Cathy, the idea of marrying someone from an incredibly wealthy family was exciting. Hell yeah. It not only meant that she could finally have, you know, all the things she ever dreamed of having as a child growing up in a middle-class home, but it also meant that she was rubbing elbows with famous and very influential people. That's fun.
Starting point is 00:39:10 What she hadn't counted on was Robert being so modest in how he lived. Not fun. Or that all those famous and influential people would be more interested in him than they were in her. That's tough. Yeah. But most of all, Kathy didn't love how much time Robert spent with Susan Berman.
Starting point is 00:39:29 I probably wouldn't either. Yeah, and who moved to New York in the mid 70s to work for Us Magazine. Okay, oh, very cool. Yeah. With much more free time on her hands than she'd had before, Kathy enrolled in medical school
Starting point is 00:39:40 and started making friends of her own. Wait. Good for her. Good for her. Good for her. Also, that's funny that Susan worked for Us Magazine. Wasn't that the magazine that they found at the crime scene in the beginning of this whole tale? Was it Us Magazine?
Starting point is 00:39:52 I think it was. I think you said Us Weekly. I think you're right. That's weird. Yeah, that is weird. Just like a weird coincidence. That is very strange. Right?
Starting point is 00:40:01 Sorry. Yeah. I was like, no, I was like, oh wow. Had to veer off there. The number one thing your mom wants from you is a call to her. This Mother's Day, you can give her a call and you can give her an Aura digital picture frame. Mother's Day is coming up and you need a good gift ready. And guess what?
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Starting point is 00:41:18 Promo code morbid. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] us at Checkout, terms and conditions apply. But by the end of the 1980s, the once happy couple were now leading lives that appeared to be going in very different directions. Robert wanted things to stay exactly as they had been, with Cathy always being available to him whenever he wanted. That's not realistic.
Starting point is 00:41:42 Cathy, on the other hand, complained that, quote, they were living well below their means and she aspired for more. Also, Robert's jealousy and his possessiveness had become pretty intolerable, which I totally, you can only take so much of that. He wanted to be the most important person in his wife's life, often at the expense of all her other relationships. That just can't. Singular focus.
Starting point is 00:42:06 That can't last. Yeah. Kathy's brother, Jim, said, at first I liked Bob, but then as the years went by, he said that he seemed not just uninterested in being a part of Kathy's family, but also pretty resentful of having to see or even acknowledge them at all, which is a big problem. Yeah, that's big red flags right there. Yeah. Finally, by late 1980, Robert and Kathy's marriage had just started falling apart. And a few months later, she hired a divorce lawyer and confided to several of her friends that
Starting point is 00:42:36 Robert had been physically abusive towards her. Oh. Throughout 1981, Kathy started working with her lawyer to file divorce paperwork and continued working to finish medical school at the same time. Geez, that's impressive. What about us? By the end of the year, she was just a few months from earning that degree. Then in January 1982, Kathy Durst disappeared without a trace.
Starting point is 00:42:59 She was months away from earning a medical degree. That's awful. On the morning of January 30th, 1982, Robert and Kathy drove from Manhattan to Truesdale Lake in South Salon, where they were planning to spend the weekend at their vacation home. By then, the marriage was definitely in tatters, and Robert had hoped that maybe they were still able to save things if they, you know, took some time to work on it, got away from what he saw as their problems, from the chaos, the constant social stimulation of the city.
Starting point is 00:43:30 I mean, at this point, you're looking at it and you're like, I don't know if you really could have rebounded from what was going on here. Once you've become physically abusive, there's really no moving on from that. There's really no rebounding off of that. Because again, like you said, Robert had become physically abusive at this point, and Kathy had moved out. And there was really not a lot between them besides like bitterness and resentment and anger. Which is makes sense.
Starting point is 00:43:52 So like, what was this gonna do? But the following day, Kathy knocked on the door of their neighbor, Ruth Mayer, and asked if she could borrow a hat and a scarf because she had forgotten to bring hers and she wanted to go for a walk. Later, when asked about the specifics, Ruth couldn't recall whether Kathy had mentioned if she planned to go for the walk by herself. She said, as Kathy began walking away, she called out to say, Ruth did, she called out and said she was having some friends that evening and suggested that Kathy stop by, but Kathy had other plans. The last time Kathy Durst was seen alive was that evening, January 31st.
Starting point is 00:44:27 It was at a dinner party thrown by her friend, Gilbert Najimy. Earlier in the afternoon, Kathy had called Najimy and said, I have to get out of the house. Can I come over? Oh no. She arrived a short time later and appeared very distraught. Najimy said she was always nicely turned out. The things she wore were always nice. But that afternoon, she apparently showed up wearing red
Starting point is 00:44:50 sweatpants and looked as though she hadn't combed her hair in days. It was obvious she was in some sort of trouble. Now, towards the end of Robert and Kathy's marriage, friends and family had definitely started to suspect that things were really bad between this couple. But that afternoon, Jimmy got a much more detailed account of just how bad it was. It had started when she was starting to go to medical school years earlier. A signal to Robert that she was becoming more independent. Now, a real man, a real human, a real partner would think that's great. Yeah, and sing your praises. And sing your praises and encourage you.
Starting point is 00:45:30 But no, Robert was like, meh, you're not going to need me. The abuse started gradually, first with just some like really biting remarks, you know what I mean? Like discouragement, just like the verbal kind of stuff. Then it elevated to threats of cutting off her tuition payments. Like, you know, using the financial thing against her, like the thing with the whole like, this is my money kind of shit, which is like, that's when it's already done. It's like, not when you're married. The physical abuse soon followed. At first,
Starting point is 00:46:00 friends recalled Kathy occasionally mentioning, which she just mentioned that Robert had slapped her. But I can't imagine one of my friends saying that casually. No, and me not going to their house and taking care of that. But by 1981, the term slapped was replaced with hit, implying much greater force and aggression was happening. In the last two years of their marriage, the cruelty Robert directed at Cathy definitely got worse. He openly carried on affairs with other women, including an affair with Mia Farrow's sister
Starting point is 00:46:37 Prudence, and threw them in Cathy's face whenever he wanted to hurt her. At the same time, his drinking and drug use had increased, which only exacerbated his volatility. Yep. At one point, when Robert thought Kathy was having an affair with a mutual friend, he violently assaulted the man, breaking a bone in his face and sending him to the emergency room. Jesus Christ.
Starting point is 00:46:58 But remember, he is carrying on affairs. Yeah, and that's totally okay. She can't do anything about that, right? No. In early January, Kathy called a friend after. She can't do anything about that, right? No. In early January, Kathy called a friend after a particularly bad fight she had with Robert in which he had hit her multiple times. Her friend, Eleanor Schwenk, insisted Kathy go to the hospital in order to get the assault
Starting point is 00:47:16 documented. If nothing else, you know, just to get it on the record. Yeah, it's on paper. And Kathy finally took her friend's advice. Just a few weeks before her disappearance, the documentation of the assault would have surely been included in the divorce proceedings. Oh. Yep.
Starting point is 00:47:33 And would have likely swayed things in Kathy's favor. Yep. But that wasn't all Kathy had on her side either. Just a few days before she disappeared, Kathy told friends she had discovered some potentially embarrassing financial information related to Robert and the Durst Organization, and she had planned to send it to someone high up in the company. Oh, don't ever tell people about that stuff. You got shit, just send it. By no means is this like her fault.
Starting point is 00:47:59 That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying like, that's so scary. Yeah. Blackmail is scary. She was not specific about the details of the information, but she heavily implied that whatever it was, it was going to be very damaging to Robert and the Durst family. So as Kathy talked to Najimy that afternoon, their conversation was repeatedly interrupted by phone calls from Robert. He screamed at his wife, he demanded she return to South Salem, and the last time he called
Starting point is 00:48:29 was a little past 7pm, and the couple argued for a few minutes before Kathy hung up. She told Najimy, Bobby wants me home, he's really upset. Don't go home. So she grabbed a few things she had with her and walked to the door, but before she left, she turned to Najimy and said, if something happens to me, check it out. I'm afraid of what Bobby will do. My God. To think that there are so many women
Starting point is 00:48:54 who know what that feels like, and that their partner, their person that they decided to marry, and that they were so in love with at one point in time and felt like was so in love with them. To have that crumble and just explode like that is so heartbreaking. And to say with full, like, your whole chest, if something happens to me, look into it,
Starting point is 00:49:14 because it's probably him. Like, to know that in your heart, that they are capable of that, and not like potentially they could do that, but that I don't know how to get out of this. Like, holy shit. It's awful. In this, could do that, but that I don't know how to get out of this. Like that's awful. Holy shit. It's awful.
Starting point is 00:49:27 In this, her saying that this is the last time anyone other than Robert Durst saw Cathy Durst. Wow. Four days later on February 4th, Robert Durst walked into the 20th precinct on West Street in Manhattan and reported his wife missing. Four days later. To Detective Michael Strzok, the timing of Durst's report was a little suspicious. Yeah, what am I saying?
Starting point is 00:49:49 According to Durst, he had last seen Kathy on Sunday night when he dropped her off at the train station to return to Manhattan alone, which meant Robert had waited four days to report his wife missing. Weird. Durst explained to Strzok that it was not unusual for Kathy to work three or four days straight in clinical training. So ding, ding, ding, we're going to use her going to medical school against her even when she's gone. We're going to be like, well, she's just so busy, she'll be gone for three days.
Starting point is 00:50:14 Yeah. No, that doesn't make any sense. So he hadn't thought of, you know, he hadn't thought she was missing until that day. Still Strzok couldn't help but notice that for a man whose wife had been missing for four days, Robert didn't seem particularly shaken up or overly emotional about it. Yeah, because he doesn't actually love her. It seemed very straightforward. He knows what's happening. So for Detective Strzok, the case only grew more and more curiouser and curiouser in the days that followed.
Starting point is 00:50:42 I like that you scratched your chin. I did. You guys couldn't see it, but I did the chin scratch like I had a beard. That was great. In his early investigation of Cathy's disappearance, Strzok found two witnesses who claimed to have seen Cathy on February 1st, the day after Durst claimed to have dropped her off
Starting point is 00:50:57 at the train station, the superintendent and the doorman at the couple's Riverside Drive apartment. Later that same day, someone identifying themselves as Kathy Durst called the associate dean's office at the medical school to say she was terribly ill and wouldn't be making it in. So remember we're talking, he just said, someday she's in clinical training
Starting point is 00:51:16 for like three days straight and I can't get ahold of her. Oops. She wasn't. So she definitely wasn't. And also who was that that call do you think? Exactly, that's what I wonder. And it's here that the trail goes cold think? Exactly, that's what I wonder. And it's here that the trail goes cold though, at least in terms of law enforcement.
Starting point is 00:51:29 For Robert Durst, things were only getting started. By the time she'd gone missing, most of Kathy's friends and family were aware of how bad their relationship was deteriorating. And a lot of them knew about the extent of Robert's abuse. That's why Robert's performance of the alarmed husband in the wake of her disappearance seemed so fake. Disingenuous at best and at worst, it was coming off suspicious. Like he was totally, it was coming off the opposite of how he was trying to.
Starting point is 00:52:00 The week after he reported her missing, the New York press picked up on the story and everyone was clamoring to interview Robert Durst. In the meantime, he'd hired a private detective to track down his wife, who he firmly believed was still alive. He told a reporter from the New York Post, she was going to graduate medical school in three months. That's what makes me sure she's not hanging out at somebody's house. Which, no. What do you mean? You're just trying to embarrass her and like, make her sound like she runs away from you and yada yada. So whatever concern Robert showed for his missing wife in public was all that absent in private.
Starting point is 00:52:37 So it was very clearly an act. When he spoke to her increasingly worried friends, he didn't come off like he gave a shit at all. When Robert finally spoke to Jimmy a few weeks later, he said, by the way, Gilbert, have you seen Kathy? And the tone was casual as though he was asking after an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time. Not his actual wife.
Starting point is 00:52:59 Who had mysteriously disappeared. Yeah. Remember, we're talking a few weeks later, he sees a friend and he's like, hey, by the way, have you seen Cathy? Like what? Like she's been missing for weeks. And he just says it like in passing. Like you're talking about like, oh, like, have you seen my, like, that's so weird. Like, have you seen that that coat that I wore the other day? I can't find it. It's so fucking strange. He creeps me out. So he's just asked, he's acting so fucking weird about this.
Starting point is 00:53:28 Like so fucking weird. And within a few months, he had retreated from the public spotlight and never gave another interview or spoke publicly about Kathy again. He also stopped returning detective Struck's calls, which only made the investigator more suspicious. And in the few months that have passed since she was initially reported missing, the supposed
Starting point is 00:53:48 witness sightings from the doorman and the superintendent proved less certain than they had been. When Strzok re-interviewed them in the spring, both men confessed that they'd really only seen her from the back and from a distance. So neither could be certain. Anyone in New York City. They couldn't even be certain that it was Kathy Dirth. From the back at a distance is crazy to be like, oh yeah, I saw her the other day.
Starting point is 00:54:11 Yeah. Yikes. They, I'm sure like speculation, obviously, but I'm sure they were intimidated. Yeah. By somebody. By somebody. And we're going to end it there because we're going to do two parts of this. The second part is going to have even more strange stuff in it. Now there's a lot to follow in this case. So I do think it's a good going to end it there because we're going to do two parts of this. The second part is going to have even more strange stuff in it. Now there's a lot to follow in this case. So I do think it's a good idea to break it into two.
Starting point is 00:54:30 Yeah, there's a lot of names. There's a lot of stuff going on and there's a lot of a lot of jinx stuff going on. Yes, of course. Of course. And we'll get to that. Don't worry. We'll get to that. We'll get to that whole thing.
Starting point is 00:54:42 Yeah, of course. Heard around the world. So in the meantime, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you don't throw an of course around. I'm sorry. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself pro at TreadExperts. Conquer rugged terrain with on-road comfort. Until June 15th, receive up to $60 on a prepaid MasterCard
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