In the Jinx sequel, Galveston trial judge Susan Criss sounds off on the strangeness of the situation.
“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 apartment cleanup, she adds, “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 first Jinx. “I didn’t set out to be Robert Durst’s friend,” he said. “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 called 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 friend.
According to Charles Bagli of The New York Times, Durst earned Oliver’s allegiance by being generous with him at the beginning of his real estate development career. As Bagli recounts in The Jinx, Durst, who was the scion of a prestigious Manhattan real estate family, fronted the money for a tenement building Oliver wanted to buy. When they sold the building, Durst evenly split the profits with Oliver, launching a lifelong friendship.
“Doug Oliver was [Durst’s] bad-boy, knocking-around friend,” said 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 a person worth questioning, according to Lewin, because “he was extremely close to Bob. He was talking to Bob in 1982, the week Kathie disappeared.”
But when Lewin initially connected with Oliver by phone, Oliver refused to cooperate with the deputy district attorney. That contentious phone call, which gets played in the series, ends with Oliver telling Lewin that he’d rather go to jail than get on a commercial flight to Los Angeles. Oliver also tells Lewin he’ll need a subpoena and a private-jet budget to get him to participate.
In the end, Oliver did bend to the law and testify—though he was admittedly uncooperative, bristling at questions and alleging he could not recall much that prosecutors asked him about (until prosecutors referred him to his previous statements).
After hearing Oliver’s nasty tone with the deputy district attorney, it’s eerie to hear him ooze sweetness in a call with Durst, featured in a new episode: “Whatever I can do for you, Bobby. It’d be my pleasure.”
Nick Chavin
Nick Chavin is another real estate friend whose loyalty Durst earned by leveraging his financial assets. After Chavin gave up his career fronting the X-rated country act Chinga Chavin—you read that correctly—he was introduced to Durst by their mutual friend Susan Berman.