This should come as no surprise, but HBO’s The Jinx: The Life And Deaths of Robert Durst, just nabbed the Emmy for best documentary or nonfiction series. While accepting the award, director Andrew Jarecki read an email from Robert Durst, Deadline reports. “I’m going to watch Episode 6 and then decide if I’m going to Cuba,” Durst wrote.
Of course, anyone who’s seen Jinx and kept up-to-date on it knows that Durst never even had a chance to flee to Cuba. Instead, he was arrested on first-degree murder charges the day before the finale aired. “He didn’t go because he was arrested and that’s testament to the power of television,” Jarecki said after reading the email. Jarecki also thanked his wife for encouraging him to “intentionally antagonize a triple homicide suspect.”
Deadline caught up with Jarecki backstage and asked the director if he had any idea that the project would lead to Durst’s arrest. “We had the sense he wanted to tell the truth,” he said, “and it was going to take a lot of work to figure out what that was.”
Durst is currently in prison in New Orleans and Jarecki has not heard from him since his arrest. But he doesn’t think this is the end of their story. “I don’t think it’s impossible we’ll end up talking again,” he said.
