Robert Durst was arrested for the murder of Susan Berman on Saturday, hours before the finale of The Jinx and months after the series’ producers turned over evidence connecting Durst to the crime, including an audio recording in which he seemed to confess — but that’s just a coincidence, says the LAPD. According to Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese, the arrest was purely the result of years of hard work and good policing. “We based our actions … on the investigation and the evidence,” Albanese told the Los Angeles Times. “We didn’t base anything we did on the HBO series. The arrest was made as a result of the investigative efforts and at a time that we believe it was needed.” In a post-finale interview with the New York Times, Jinx co-writer Marc Smerling suggested the documentary series was “hugely important” to the case against Durst. Meanwhile, Durst’s lawyer saw a connection of his own, telling the New York Post that his client’s arrest was timed to the Jinx finale because, “It’s all about Hollywood now.”
