BUILDING THE CASE

Durst’s Wife Said He Had ‘Homicidal’ Tendencies: Witness

The real-estate heir is on trial for allegedly murdering a friend who knew too much about the wife’s disappearance.

Witnesses in the trial of real-estate heir Robert Durst testified Monday that his first wife, Kathie, was abused by him and worried that he would kill her. “She said there was a homicidal side to him and that was, that was shocking to me,” Dr. Peter Wilk, who was Kathie’s mentor, told jurors, recalling a 1981 conversation. According to the New York Daily News, another friend of Kathie, Janet Finke-Shaw, told of a call she received that same year. “She told me that they had a fight and she tried to escape through the window and he pulled her back in and it was horrifying,” Finke-Shaw said. “She just said he had a gun.”

Kathie Durst vanished in 1982 and is presumed dead, but that is not why her husband is on trial. He’s charged with murder in the death of his friend, Susan Berman—who prosecutors allege was killed because Durst feared she knew too much about Kathie’s disappearance.