NEW ORLEANS, La. - The arrest of Robert Durst, a wealthy eccentric linked to two killings and his wife's disappearance, came just before the finale in an HBO show about his life in which he said he "killed them all."
In the finale that aired Sunday evening on HBO, Durst was asked about similarities in handwriting in a letter he wrote and another linked to one of the killings. Later, filmmakers said Durst wore his microphone into the bathroom.
What followed was a bizarre rambling in which Durst said, apparently to himself, "There it is. You're caught" and "What the hell did I do? Killed them all of course."
The show ended, and it wasn't clear whether producers confronted Durst about the secretly recorded words, or what Durst meant by them.
Durst was arrested by FBI agents Saturday at a New Orleans hotel, on a warrant from Los Angeles for the murder of Susan Berman 15 years ago.
Durst, 71, was arrested in New Orleans in connection with a Los Angeles murder. He is a member of a prominent New York City family that owns a multibillion-dollar real-estate company.
He was taken into custody in a hotel lobby Saturday night and was being held Sunday on a first-degree murder warrant, Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office documents said.
The FBI New Orleans Division installed surveillance in the hotel and arrested Durst after he walked into the lobby around 4:30 Saturday afternoon. He apparently gave false identification to the hotel staff.
The Los Angeles Times reports that authorities in Los Angeles have been interviewing new witnesses in the 2000 slaying of writer and Durst confidant Susan Berman.
Durst discussed the case in the HBO documentary series, which wraps up Sunday night.
Durst will not fight extradition to Los Angeles, Durst lawyer Chip Lewis said. Lewis said he plans to fight the murder charge.
His brother Douglas, expressed "relief" and gratitude in a statement to CNBC.
"We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done," Douglas Durst said.
In 1982, Durst was the only named suspect in the disappearance of his first wife, medical student Kathleen McCormack, who vanished after Durst maintained he dropped her off at a train station near their home north of New York City in Westchester County.
On Chistmas Eve 2000, after investigators looking into the McCormack disappearance contacted Berman, she was found murdered with a gunshot wound to the back of her head. Durst was never charged.
Durst moved to Texas after Berman's death, where he lived as a woman before being acquitted in the 2001 dismemberment death of his Galveston neighbor, Morris Black. Durst said that killing was in self-defense.
A law enforcement official close to the investigation said that Durst left Houston and traveled to New Orleans on March 10. Durst was no stranger to New Orleans. After Black's body was found in 2001, Durst also fled east to New Orleans.
According to the law enforcement official, who requested anonymity, said there was concern among law enforcement tied to the investigation that Durst might possibly flee the country, possibly to Cuba.
Last week's HBO episode hinted that Los Angeles detectives were closing in on Durst, showing an apparent match between a Dec. 23, 2000, anonymous letter alerting police to a body at Berman's address and the handwriting on a letter Durst sent Berman the previous year. Both letters misspelled Beverly Hills as "Beverley."
New York state police Investigator Joseph Becerra was the first to take a fresh look at McCormack's disappearance in 2000 and has worked closely with Los Angeles detectives and FBI agents in recent months.
"We're going to monitor the Los Angeles case closely, and hopefully it will lead to some resolution of our case," Becerra said Sunday.
Months after Berman's death, Durst was arrested in the murder of Texas neighbor, Morris Black. Durst admitted cutting up Black's body and dumping the remains in Galveston Bay. Aided by a trio of famed Houston defense lawyers, Durst won an acquittal based on self-defense.
Durst's family's business, the Durst Organization, owns more than 15 skyscrapers, including the Bank of America Tower in the heart of Manhattan, and has a large investment in One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the U.S. and the replacement for the Twin Towers. Douglas Durst serves as president; Robert Durst is not involved in the family business.
In July, Durst had a more quirky run-in with the law. He was accused of urinating on a Texas CVS cash register and candy rack. Lewis at that time said Durst suffers from a form of Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism.
"He wasn't arguing with anybody and he didn't seem agitated," Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva told The New York Post. "He just peed on the candy. Skittles, I think."
The Associated Press and CBS News contributed to this report.
