His mother's suicide
One thing I felt was not discussed, was why his father showed Durst his mother on the roof?
Why was he watching and not helping, and why was he showing his son?
Yeah, I wondered about that too.
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MovieChat Forums > The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015) Discussion > His mother's suicide
I triple that. What the hell was that?
I doubt that his father thought she was just up there to enjoy the great view.
Sounded like a very sick act to me. Scary.
IMO it served two purposes. 1) It shows that mental illness ran in the family and explains a potential reason why Robert is "off." 2) It showed that the Dursts had a history of treating their women as possessions that could be discarded if they threatened you or the family name. I don't for a second think that the old man did not know what Robert had done. His dad helped cover up the first murder, handed the reigns over to his less psycho son, and told the less psycho son to insulate himself as much as possible to minimize the inevitable damage from Robert. In my opinion Robert subconsciously wanted to get caught so that he could give one last middle finger to the rest of the family who sacrificed the mental well being of their family member for the good of the rest of the family. I'm actually kind of surprised that the old man did not have Robert knocked off.
shareI agree. The same thoughts came to my mind when Kathie's brother described in the movie how they visited his Dad to ask for help finding Kathie and he showed zero reaction and eventually Douglas kicked them out.
Sociopathy seems to be in the whole family.
I agree with you. I believe his dad helped him out covering up Kathie's murder. When he killed again, however, I believe that Doug got very afraid things were getting totally out of control (even more than before).
I am sure he knows things about Kathie's death, and that's why Seymour and Doug never reached out to Kathie's family, which would be a completely normal thing to do under such circumstances.
I thought of the possibility that he was trying to stop his wife from jumping by showing her her son, as he only brought him out for a minute and from memory took him back to bed before she jumped.
You only here the story from Bob as a distant and probably repressed memory so you wouldn't get any explanation from him
His wife died in 1950 at age 32 by falling or jumping off the roof of their family home in Scarsdale. It was never determined if the death was an accident or a suicide. Their son Robert has said that he witnessed the event; his brother, Douglas, has stated that none of the children witnessed the accident.
So there's Dear Old Bob claiming he saw it, who is certainly no truth teller and the other brother who denies any child seeing it. It's possible, of course, that Bob is telling the truth, but he could also be building up a backstory for himself (to try and earn sympathy?) as well. share
Very possible. Like the way 'the doorman saw her' and the media lapped it up.
shareI'm not to sure how true this is, but in the movie 'All Good Things', the character asks his father why he made him watch and his father told him that he thought if she saw him there that she wouldn't actually jump.
Like I said, I don't know how much truth there is to that but it's quite surprising that it was not explored further in this documentary.
It is surprising. It's something that really bugged me.
shareWe only have Robert's word for it that it even happened (that his father took him to see her, I mean - the suicide was real). I wouldn't believe a word he said, given his track record.
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My thought is that Robert Durst despised his father for choosing his younger brother to run the (billion-dollar) family business. This story is a way to paint himself (Bobby) as a poor child victim subject to a mother's mental illness and his father's cruelty. The story (among many others, like his reason for shaving his eyebrows and his 'best friend' Morris Black) is told with such assurance and confidence that it is actually convincing to many.
The whole story and answer seemed so rehearsed... I agree this could all be completely false indeed.
shareI found that strange as well. I wondered if he wanted his wife to see their son in an attempt to stop her from jumping.
shareI believe he did it to punish the mother for committing suicide. Seymour hated his wife for killing herself. To make Bob watch would forever pain him and this was a way to hurt her. It's a sick thing but Seymour was a monster himself.
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