Robert Durst · Tiger King · Yellow Bird
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Holy smokes, Robert Durst’s murder trial is finally getting started. Doesn’t it seem like we lived in a whole different world back when The Jinx made its premiere? I just spent, like, a hundred years looking for the episode of The Blotter Presents on which Sarah and I discussed the seminal true crime doc before realizing we actually talked about it on Extra Hot Great, the show she does with Tara Ariano and David T. Cole, in, my lands, 2015.
Anyway, we’re all old, true crime is different now, etc etc. And now, Durst’s interviews (as the least) have seemingly caught up with him, as in a L.A. courtroom Wednesday, jury selection began in the shooting death of Susan Berman. The AP reports that, as selection began, Judge Mark Windham told prospective jurors, “If you’re going to have one trial where you’re going to be a juror, this is the trial. These are the best lawyers I’ve ever seen. … This case is very, very interesting. … You’re never going to have an experience like this.”
This is not something I have ever, ever had a judge say when I’ve been called to serve, so I’m a little bit jealous. Though I sort of think I would have been dismissed, given that I was on that darned podcast. As I was a San Francisco crime reporter for a long time, in fact, I am almost always dismissed as soon as the prosecutor see my name and profession on my juror form.