In the Jinx sequel, Galveston trial choose Susan Criss sounds off on the strangeness of the scenario.
“Chris Lovell was one of the jurors in the Galveston case who immediately befriended Bob as soon as the trial was over,” says Criss. “I think he was enamored with Bob because Bob is incredibly wealthy. He was hoping that would provide some financial rewards. I’ve never seen or heard of a juror forming a relationship with a defendant after trial. But then most defendants aren’t extremely wealthy with sort of a celebrity status.”
Referring to the Houston condominium cleanup, she provides, “It is astounding that 12 years after a murder trial, one of the jurors is helping Bob make his getaway.”
Lovell spoke to Jarecki for the primary Jinx. “I didn’t set out to be Robert Durst’s friend,” he mentioned. “I just set out to get some questions answered in my mind, but it has developed into a friendship, and I don’t have a problem with him at all.”
Doug Oliver
Lewin dubbed Doug Oliver “the rudest witness I’ve ever encountered in my career.” Vulture referred to as him “a real estate developer who seems awful even by the low standards of real estate developers.” And Robert Durst referred to him as a loyal buddy.
According to Charles Bagli of The New York Times, Durst earned Oliver’s allegiance by being beneficiant with him firstly of his actual property improvement profession. As Bagli recounts in The Jinx, Durst, who was the scion of a prestigious Manhattan actual property household, fronted the cash for a tenement constructing Oliver wished to purchase. When they offered the constructing, Durst evenly cut up the income with Oliver, launching a lifelong friendship.
“Doug Oliver was [Durst’s] bad-boy, knocking-around friend,” mentioned Jarecki. “They went to St. Tropez and brought girls…. He was like the bad angel on Bob’s shoulder, or vice versa. They were off doing mischief. And he loved that about Bob.”
Oliver was an individual value questioning, based on Lewin, as a result of “he was extremely close to Bob. He was talking to Bob in 1982, the week Kathie disappeared.”
But when Lewin initially linked with Oliver by cellphone, Oliver refused to cooperate with the deputy district legal professional. That contentious cellphone name, which will get performed within the sequence, ends with Oliver telling Lewin that he’d moderately go to jail than get on a industrial flight to Los Angeles. Oliver additionally tells Lewin he’ll want a subpoena and a private-jet funds to get him to take part.
In the tip, Oliver did bend to the regulation and testify—although he was admittedly uncooperative, bristling at questions and alleging he couldn’t recall a lot that prosecutors requested him about (till prosecutors referred him to his earlier statements).
After listening to Oliver’s nasty tone with the deputy district legal professional, it’s eerie to listen to him ooze sweetness in a name with Durst, featured in a brand new episode: “Whatever I can do for you, Bobby. It’d be my pleasure.”
Nick Chavin
Nick Chavin is one other actual property buddy whose loyalty Durst earned by leveraging his monetary belongings. After Chavin gave up his profession fronting the X-rated nation act Chinga Chavin—you learn that accurately—he was launched to Durst by their mutual buddy Susan Berman.