The recent arrest in New Orleans and the HBO documentary The Jinx have put Robert Durst back in the headlines. Matt Birkbeck was the first reporter to access Durst’s NYPD files. His book on Durst, A Deadly Secret, was the very book found in Durst’s own apartment when it was searched by police.
Based on interviews with family, friends, and acquaintances of Durst, law enforcement, and others involved in the case, A Deadly Secret is a cross-country odyssey of stolen IDs and multiple identities that raises baffling questions about one of the country’s most prominent families—and one of its most elusive suspected killers.
Matt Birkbeck is an investigative journalist and the author of The Quiet Don, Deconstructing Sammy, and A Beautiful Child.