HBO’s ‘The Jinx’ Will Turn Your Stomach and Drop Your Jaw

HBO sent a collective chill down our spine with the grisly drama True Detective, but that level of macabre has been eclipsed when the network debuted The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst a few weeks ago.more The six-part documentary focuses on a chain of connected crimes spread over several states and stars cross-dressing prime suspect, Bob Durst, who just so happens to be a millionaire scion from a New York real estate family. The series has been seven years in the making for director- producer Andrew Jarecki, who returns to true crime after his Oscar-nominated Capturing the Friedmans. “I’m always interested in these kinds of monster stories where somebody has been oversimplified,” says Jarecki. “It was important for me to go deeply into who this person was and how these crimes were being alleged.” Acquitted of murder, Durst cooperated with the filmmaker by supplying hidden documents, never-before-seen footage, private recordings, and exclusive interviews that broke his 30-year silence. “I didn’t anticipate making this into six parts,” continues Jarecki, “but it just got more and more complex. This story has nothing but question marks, and nobody has ever really been able to figure out what happened, but I think by the time the audience gets to the end of this series, they will know.”

By Dan Frazier