Millionaire Robert Durst, in a California court this week, denied murder charges against him for the killing of Susan Berman in December 2000.
Berman was the only daughter of David Berman, Las Vegas mobster casino operator, while Durst is a 78-year-old son of a New York real estate magnate. During testimony in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, Durst denied Killing Susan Berman.
Durst is currently battling colon cancer and had difficulty speaking. Durst became friends with Berman in the 1960s while they were still undergraduates at UCLA. Durst and Berman are alleged to have conspired for the disappearance of Durst’s wife, Kathie, who was later declared dead, though no charges were placed.
Prosecutors believe Berman arrived at Durst’s home in his Benedict Canyon, California Christmas eve. She trusted him. But he ended it by blowing her brain.
Berman had inherited about $5.25 million from her father, who died in 1957 aged 54 of a heart attack. However, by the time of her death, she was penniless.
She, however, embarked on a writing career that included the publication of a 1981 memoir “Easy Street: The True Story of a Gangster’s Daughter.
Berman credited her father for turning Las Vegas into a potential gaming capital.
“He was the Mob visionary who helped convince his Eastern associates that there was money to be made in that honky-tonk town called Las Vegas, and went on to forge a gambling silver mine out of a desert full of sagebrush.”
