November 30, 2025 • 24 mins
Rewind. On Christmas Eve 2000, Susan Berman, a talented journalist, screenwriter, and author, sadly lost her life at her home on 1527 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills. Susan, the cherished daughter of a mobster and a former dancer, was raised as part of mob royalty, celebrating birthdays with Elvis and Liberace. Her tragic passing deeply affected her friends, leaving us wondering—did Susan ever suspect her killer?
Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Executive Producer and Host Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Hello, my name is SandyAdamidis, the social media
director for the PageInternational Screenwriting
Awards and your host for theWriters Hangout, a podcast that
celebrates the many Frominspiration to the first draft,
revising, getting the projectmade, and everything in between.
(00:32):
We'll talk to the best and thebrightest in the entertainment
industry, and create a spacewhere you can hang out, learn
from the pros, and have fun.
Hey, writers and friends, it'sSandy.
I hope you all had a wonderfulThanksgiving.
I had a really nice day, butunfortunately the holiday was
(00:53):
busy and I fell behind.
So I'm going to share an episodefrom the early days of the
Writer's Hangout way back to2022, so unbutton those
Thanksgiving coma pants and getcomfy, as I tell you, the true
crime story of a real life mafiaprincess and screenwriter Susan
(01:16):
Berman.
even if you remember thisepisode from 2022, go ahead and
give it another listen.
I put together this episode byreading Susan's memoir, doing a
lot of research, and I forgotlarge parts of her fascinating
life and tragic death while Iwas re-editing this episode.
(01:38):
Oh, and I also recommend hermemoir Easy Street.
it's about Susan's life as thedaughter of a Las Vegas mobster.
let's start the show.
Terry, right before we startedto record, you were telling me
'cause it rained last night.
(01:58):
Yeah.
and you were telling me about astory of how.
You and your wife go to sleepnowadays.
Can you tell us about that?
Yes, we choose TV to put us tosleep.
Oh, do you have a specialprogram that you listen to?
Well, I like, uh, PBS, uh, I'msorry, out there.
Good for PBS people.
but it's great sleep too.
My wife likes the news andthere's the conflict.
(02:19):
Oh, the news is too, there's toomuch to it.
Yeah, I understand that.
So it's a delicate dance, butI'll tell you that the rain is
better than either of thoseprograms.
Sure.
You just open the window a teenybit.
Mm-hmm.
A beautiful sound of rain.
Yes.
Getting effortlessly.
Against the roof.
Yes.
I'm getting tired now.
No, we can't finish this.
(02:40):
We can't do this.
No.
We'll do it another day.
Okay.
Okay.
But this story just reallytouched me.
I'm just finding through doingthese series of true crimes
about writers a.
I'm getting so attached to thesepeople.
This is the story of SusanBerman, the Mafia Princess,
Susan Berman was born inMinneapolis, Minnesota in 1945,
(03:02):
and she was the only child ofthe former traveling dancer
named Gladys Evans and DavidDavy Berman.
Davy was born in abjectdestitution to immigrant parents
from Ukraine, and he turned toan early life of crime out of
desperation and survival.
(03:22):
His childhood was defined bymerciless poverty, not the
picturesque poverty, but thehungry, dirty, shameful poverty.
Wrote Susan, who learned thather father and uncle were forced
to endure the unforgivingprairie winters in a one room
clay house with no coats orshoes as an adult.
(03:43):
Berman was a major organizedcrime figure who was one of the
three men who walked into theFlamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and
announced the resort was nowunder the direction within
minutes after.
Benjamin Bugsy Siegel was shotand killed in the Beverly Hills
home of his girlfriend, VirginiaHill.
(04:06):
Berman died under mysteriouscircumstances on the operating
table when Susan was 12.
But all indications were that hedied of a heart attack during
surgery.
She believed uncertainty alsosurrounded her mother's presumed
suicide by overdose a yearlater.
(04:26):
I mean, it's highly likely that.
Her father died on the operatingtable, but also, what a perfect
way to pay somebody off.
If you're a mob person, right.
And you're used to doing thedirty work, you could pay
somebody off to botch a surgery,correct?
Sure.
And her mom was very fragile andwas in and out of institutions
(04:48):
for years or just hire a, asurgeon who got Ds.
I mean, they're out there.
It took me a moment, but you'reabsolutely right.
I see where you're, yes, we'rebringing Bob in.
You bring Bob in.
Yeah.
Bob can't do this.
Susan wrote the backgroundsounds of my childhood were slot
machines crunching.
(05:09):
Dice clicking the songs ofSophie Tucker and the Andrew
Sisters and the carping of anever present hotel page.
To this day, the desert airinvigorates and exhilarates me
like nothing else, and hotelcoffee shops and floor shows.
Give me a sense of security.
(05:31):
I love that.
Within hours of David Berman'sfuneral in 1957, the mob cleaned
out Susan's house and gave awayall her toys.
She was shipped off to Idahowith a single truckload of
clothes and mementos to livewith her uncle Chickie Berman.
(05:52):
I love that name.
Chicky.
Later she was sent away tovarious boarding schools.
Her education broken up byregular visits with Chicky, who
was then in jail.
He would ask her to wear Chanelnumber five.
She wrote so he could smell thereal world.
It's Wow, a little odd.
(06:13):
That sounds like an ad campaign.
Yeah.
I know Uncle Chickie sent Susanto boarding schools with her own
trust fund and by her accountshe lived her parents' values,
especially their Jewish faithand abiding sense of loyalty and
the importance of keepingsecrets.
(06:35):
Susan attended the Chadwick.
School in Hollywood.
I had never heard of theChadwick School in Hollywood.
Have you heard of it?
No.
No.
Where, where, do you know whereit's located?
You know, I meant to look thatup.
My bad.
I didn't.
But it's within the Hollywoodbounds.
Yeah.
Is it still.
A place.
Now again, I meant to look it upand I didn't.
Sorry.
So thank you for pointing thatout, please.
(06:56):
Where I had to try admit that Iplease.
Phone in.
People messed up.
If you can please, please phonein with your complaints.
Well, complaints and then theinformation.
Then the information.
We don't like getting goling.
It's too much work.
Yeah.
She shared a dorm room with.
Jean Martin's daughters and, uh,remembered feeling envious of BD
(07:17):
Merrill because her mother, whowas Betty Davis visited every
weekend.
That's wow.
Um.
It's odd.
Usually you would go to boardingschool in Switzerland or
somewhere further.
Yeah, She had a French classwith Yu Brenner's son who spoke
the language fluently becausehe, well, there's Switzerland
(07:38):
because he had lived inSwitzerland and she said Liza
Minnelli was an adorable wave.
Who improvised dances wheneverthere was a spare moment.
Wow.
That can, that can get oldthough.
Like lunch.
You don't need to dance.
Yeah.
This isn't fame, Liza, shereceived a bachelor of arts
(08:01):
degree in 1967 from theUniversity of California.
It is here where she met Robert.
Durst.
Now I'm sure that name RobertDurst.
Sounds familiar.
Did yes.
Do you know that name, Terry?
I do.
Okay.
I know where this is going.
We're gonna double back toRobert Durst, but, I will
(08:22):
mention that Robert Durst was anAmerican real estate heir who
gained attention as a suspect inthe.
Unsolved 1982.
Disappearance of his wife,Kathleen McCormick and the 2001
killing of his neighbor, MorrisBlack Durst was acquitted of
murdering black in 2003.
(08:45):
In 2012, Durst participated inthe 2015 documentary mini
series, the Jinx.
We'll come back to Robert Durst,but I have this affinity for the
Jinx in an odd way.
Sadly, my sister Penny, um, gotcancer and she died.
But my sister Penny loved truecrime.
(09:06):
So when I went to go stay withher, I brought my, they didn't
have HBO and uh, the jinx was onHBO and I brought my.
Apple TV device back toConnecticut, and Penny and I and
my brother-in-law watched theJinx while she was six.
Oh.
And she, she loved it.
Oh, we talked about it for hoursand it, it just made our time
(09:28):
normal.
It was one of the times thatwere just so normal, sitting in
her kitchen watching the Jinx.
Okay, back to Susan.
In 1969, Susan graduated with amaster of arts and journalism
from the University ofCalifornia Berkeley.
And at age 21, she was paid atotal of 4.3 million by the
(09:52):
mafia.
I don't know if that was on thecheck for her father's interest
in casinos and other properties.
So she was flush with cash.
In the seventies, Susan workedfor the San Francisco Examiner
and then moved to the East Coastand started working for New York
(10:14):
Magazine in 1991.
Susan's memoir, easy Street,about growing up in Las Vegas at
the height of its glamor, wassold to Universal.
Susan received$350,000 for themovie rights, and she decided
that it was time to move to LosAngeles and start her
(10:35):
screenwriting career.
I need to lose some money.
Yeah.
Susan, grew up ignorant, believeit or not, of her father's mob
ties and Easy Street.
her memoir was a researchproject.
It was partly filled with whatshe learned about him from the
FBI files, that she gotincluding his time in Sing,
(10:59):
sing, and memories of havingLiberace sing at her birthday
and learning to play gin at agefour with men she knew as
uncles, but were in fact.
Bodyguards.
It's very Shirley Temple.
She never knew the family'sharried midnight departures to
LA or anything other than herfather's busy.
(11:22):
Only available time forvacation, not flights.
From the threats ofassassinations, they.
Actually were.
Susan grew up in an emotionalfog about her parents.
Carolyn C wrote in her LA TimesReview of Easy Street.
Two months after moving to LosAngeles, Susan met her first
(11:44):
husband in a classic cute meet.
She was in line to register ascript at the Writer's Guild
when she met Mr.
As he called himself Margoles.
He was 25 and broke.
She was 38.
Literally.
He a adopted Mr.
As a first name.
Correct.
(12:04):
And he also was a screenwriter,but I, and I couldn't find any
of his, anything that he wrotewas ever made into a movie.
Well, he was so deep in thethird person.
Yes, he was.
That he went with Mr.
He was before his time.
Yes.
they fell in love and gotmarried in a lavish wedding at
the hotel Bel Air Complete withice swans like the ones her dad
(12:26):
insisted in on having at theflamingo.
Robert Durst gave her away andmega film producer Robert Evans,
toasted the couple.
Unfortunately, the meat cute didnot have a fairytale ending.
The marriage quickly ended andMr died of a heroin overdose at
(12:46):
27.
Susan knew when she married himthat Mr had done heroin in the
past, but she believed it wasover.
Susan was naive to the point ofbeing.
Puritanical about drugs says herfriends, despite the pain in her
life, she never medicated.
I don't think she ever smoked ajoint in her life, says a friend
(13:09):
of hers, the only alcohol sheever drank was a glass of wine
at Passover.
This too came from her fatherwho told her that drugs and
alcohol were for suckers and notsomething.
Jewish people did.
In 1987, Susan started datingPaul Kaufman.
He was a financial advisor withHollywood aspirations, and he
(13:34):
had two children, Mila and Reb.
Please forgive me if I ampronouncing.
Not incorrectly.
Susan loved the children andthey considered her their mother
Berman, who once lived a flashylifestyle from a trust fund.
Her father left was leftpenniless towards the end of her
(13:54):
relationship with Kaufman whenthey broke up in.
1992.
So basically he left her whenthe money ran out.
Sucker.
I know.
Yeah, I bet he drank.
Friends said they believedBerman invested her money into a
play with Paul Kaufman thatnever took off the bank, took
(14:15):
her house.
And she had to declarebankruptcy.
So she a lot of highs and lowsin this woman's life.
Mila and Reeb would continue tobe her children.
Being a mother to these kids wasone of the proudest and most
satisfying things in her life.
She was quoted to say.
In 1992, a friend gave Susan nowpenniless use of a condo on
(14:39):
Sunset Boulevard.
While Reeb stayed with hisfather, Susan and Mila lived
there for five years for free,and Susan started writing
mysteries to pay her expensesand her daughter's private
school.
Tuition.
By then, Susan acquired hermanager, Nile Brenner, whom she
met while walking her dogs onSunset Boulevard.
(15:02):
It would prove to be a strangerelationship.
Susan was the only writer,Brenner rep, and the rest were
struggling actors, and it waslost on no one.
That Nile was a dead ringer forMr.
Marley's.
Yeah.
Friends say that Susan wouldcall him constantly to help her
(15:25):
deal with her.
She suffered from phobias, butat this point in her life, they
were raging phobias.
And she would ask him to takeher shopping to doctor's
appointments, take her dogs tothe vet.
He would get fed up with her.
They'd have raging arguments.
He would say, I'm gonna leave.
And she would say, fine.
(15:46):
And then a couple days would goby and the cycle would just
start all over.
That's not gonna help thephobias.
No, in the year 2000, onChristmas Eve.
Police Responded to a call byneighbors who'd grown alarm that
one of.
Three Fox Terriers so preciousto Susan and such a nuisance to
(16:07):
others was running wild andbarking hysterically.
at 1527 Benedict Canyon Policefound the rear door open and
Susan dressed in sweats in at-shirt, was lying on the cold
hardwood floor with a singlebullet in the back of her head.
(16:27):
Execution style.
Bloody paw prints of the dogssurrounded her.
They determined she had beenlying there for a day, although
a bullet casing was found, thegun was never recovered.
There weren't any signs of forceentry, which led some to
believe.
That Susan had opened her doorto the acquaintance or friend
(16:50):
that tragic day.
The bizarre story doesn't endthere.
On December 23rd, the policereceived a note, even though,
Susan's body had already beendiscovered, and all the notes
said was 1527 Benedict Canyoncadaver.
Whoever killed Berman, thepolice assumed, must have cared
(17:13):
for her in some way, and theydidn't want her body to just go
undiscovered.
Usually.
Terry, I would turn to you atthis point and say, who do you
think killed?
Susan Berman and I wouldn'tknow, but keep going.
Okay.
Susan's story does have aconclusion, theories that were
(17:33):
floating around.
The Godfather.
Susan was executed because shewrote about mobsters.
On December 19th, five daysbefore police found her body,
Susan was on the phone talkingwith her good friend, actress
Kim Langford, who I looked up.
She was on a nighttime soapopera called Nots Landing.
(17:55):
Of course, Susan said to Kim, Ihave information that's going to
blow the top off things.
What do you mean?
Kim asked?
What information?
I don't have it myself, saidSusan, but I know how to get it.
Well be careful, for God's sake.
Said Kim.
(18:16):
Susan promised they would talkafter the holiday and it wasn't
unusual for.
Susan to be about to getinformation.
Kim said because she was ajournalist, and Susan at the
time was working on three bigprojects, two book ideas and a
television pilot.
Two had to do with Las Vegas, soKim assumed what Susan was
(18:40):
talking about was possibly who.
Killed Bugsy Siegel.
And she also remembers thinking,eh, who cares at this point?
Who killed Bugsy?
Siegel, on a side note, atanother point in the
conversation, Susan told Kim,she talked to a psychic, and the
psychic told Susan she was gonnadie of violent death and that a
(19:05):
gun would be involved.
Wow, that's a psychic that Iwould not want to go to.
I'd go to one.
Not as good.
No.
Right, exactly.
If this psychic charged 50, Iwould go to the$25 an hour.
Yeah.
Jerry McGuire.
Susan, as I mentioned before hadan obsession with her longtime
manager, Nile, and he wasgetting to the point where he
(19:31):
just couldn't handle Susananymore.
After Susan died, he declined tobe interviewed except to say
yes.
Yes, I know everyone adored her.
She was remarkable andincredibly talented, but she was
not an easy person to get alongwith.
Okay.
Reached a second time byreporters Brenner.
(19:53):
said I've got other clients totake care of.
I don't have time for this.
I was tapped out by Susan everyday while she was alive, and
it's the same in her death.
I just can't take it anymore.
Now, uh, that was myinterpretation of how he
sounded, but it sounded likeNile and Susan things did not
end well.
No.
(20:14):
The third theory and what turnedout to be the truth.
The Jinx, a Los Angeles juryfound Robert Durst, the
notorious subject of the HBOseries.
The jinx, guilty of the firstdegree murder.
Of Susan Berman.
Berman's murder came just daysbefore prosecutors had planned
(20:37):
to meet with her about the 1982disappearance of Robert Dursts
wife Kathleen.
McCormack at the end of herlife, Susan was struggling both
emotionally and financially.
And although Durst was known forbeing cheap, prosecutors said he
(20:57):
gave Berman two checks totaling$50,000.
In exchange for covering up thedisappearance of his wife, they
claim Durst shot Berman.
In hopes of silencing her inregards to his wife's case.
By all accounts, everyone whoknew Susan said she would never
(21:20):
have squealed on Durst, thoughhe had good reason to be
nervous.
Susan, who had casuallymentioned.
To several friends over theyears that Durst had something
to do with Kathie'sdisappearance, had not only
provided an alibi for Durst thenight McCormick went missing,
(21:42):
Susan also acted as his medialiaison.
In the months that followedDursts wife's disappearance,
Susan knew where the bodies wereburied, quite literally, and
police contended that Robertkilled her for it.
Although authorities believethat Robert flew from New York
to San Francisco on December19th in the year 2000, he then
(22:06):
took another flight to Eureka,and then the following morning
drove to Los Angeles.
He headed to Susan's house lateon the evening of December 22nd,
or early in the morning of the23rd and shot her.
The back of the head, Susan, thespeed talking journalist and
(22:27):
screenwriter with an exoticbackground and a career that had
shriveled to the point where shecouldn't pay her rent.
Met a violent death.
Durst said Whatever happened toKathie was a big chunk, my
fault.
But with Susan, I'm ready to gobefore God naked and say, I
don't know nothing.
(22:49):
In October of 2021, a LosAngeles jury convicted Durst,
then 78 of first degree murderfor the killing of Susan Berman.
Prosecutors argued that Dursthad shot Susan at point blank
range in her home to prevent herfrom telling police what she
knew about the 1982disappearance of Dursts first
(23:13):
wife.
The verdict marked the firsthomicide conviction of Durst who
had been linked to the deaths ofthree people in three states.
There are scars within me thatwill probably never heal.
I have uncontrollable.
Anxiety attacks that occurwithout warning.
(23:34):
I am never secure and live witha dread that apocalyptic events
could happen at any moment.
Death and love seem linkedforever in my fantasies, and the
caddish will ring always in myears.
Susan Berman from her memoirEasy Street.
The sources for this story aboutSusan Berman is an article from
(24:00):
an LA magazine by Charles BagleyWikipedia, a daily news article
by.
Kate Feldman La Times article byCarolyn Kellogg, A US Sun
article by Adrian Zza, JenniferAch and Nina Clevenger, A New
York magazine article by LisaDePalo and.
(24:23):
The book, easy Street, the TrueStory of a Mob Family, a memoir
by Susan Berman.
That's a wrap for the Writer'sHangout.
Thanks so much for listening.
If you enjoyed the show, pleasesubscribe and thrive till we get
to hang out again.
Keep writing.
The world needs your Stories.
Hello, my name is SandyAdamidis, the social media
director for the PageInternational Screenwriting
Awards and your host for theWriters Hangout, a podcast that
celebrates the many Frominspiration to the first draft,
revising, getting the projectmade, and everything in between.
(00:32):
We'll talk to the best and thebrightest in the entertainment
industry, and create a spacewhere you can hang out, learn
from the pros, and have fun.
Hey, writers and friends, it'sSandy.
I hope you all had a wonderfulThanksgiving.
I had a really nice day, butunfortunately the holiday was
(00:53):
busy and I fell behind.
So I'm going to share an episodefrom the early days of the
Writer's Hangout way back to2022, so unbutton those
Thanksgiving coma pants and getcomfy, as I tell you, the true
crime story of a real life mafiaprincess and screenwriter Susan
(01:16):
Berman.
even if you remember thisepisode from 2022, go ahead and
give it another listen.
I put together this episode byreading Susan's memoir, doing a
lot of research, and I forgotlarge parts of her fascinating
life and tragic death while Iwas re-editing this episode.
(01:38):
Oh, and I also recommend hermemoir Easy Street.
it's about Susan's life as thedaughter of a Las Vegas mobster.
let's start the show.
Terry, right before we startedto record, you were telling me
'cause it rained last night.
(01:58):
Yeah.
and you were telling me about astory of how.
You and your wife go to sleepnowadays.
Can you tell us about that?
Yes, we choose TV to put us tosleep.
Oh, do you have a specialprogram that you listen to?
Well, I like, uh, PBS, uh, I'msorry, out there.
Good for PBS people.
but it's great sleep too.
My wife likes the news andthere's the conflict.
(02:19):
Oh, the news is too, there's toomuch to it.
Yeah, I understand that.
So it's a delicate dance, butI'll tell you that the rain is
better than either of thoseprograms.
Sure.
You just open the window a teenybit.
Mm-hmm.
A beautiful sound of rain.
Yes.
Getting effortlessly.
Against the roof.
Yes.
I'm getting tired now.
No, we can't finish this.
(02:40):
We can't do this.
No.
We'll do it another day.
Okay.
Okay.
But this story just reallytouched me.
I'm just finding through doingthese series of true crimes
about writers a.
I'm getting so attached to thesepeople.
This is the story of SusanBerman, the Mafia Princess,
Susan Berman was born inMinneapolis, Minnesota in 1945,
(03:02):
and she was the only child ofthe former traveling dancer
named Gladys Evans and DavidDavy Berman.
Davy was born in abjectdestitution to immigrant parents
from Ukraine, and he turned toan early life of crime out of
desperation and survival.
(03:22):
His childhood was defined bymerciless poverty, not the
picturesque poverty, but thehungry, dirty, shameful poverty.
Wrote Susan, who learned thather father and uncle were forced
to endure the unforgivingprairie winters in a one room
clay house with no coats orshoes as an adult.
(03:43):
Berman was a major organizedcrime figure who was one of the
three men who walked into theFlamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and
announced the resort was nowunder the direction within
minutes after.
Benjamin Bugsy Siegel was shotand killed in the Beverly Hills
home of his girlfriend, VirginiaHill.
(04:06):
Berman died under mysteriouscircumstances on the operating
table when Susan was 12.
But all indications were that hedied of a heart attack during
surgery.
She believed uncertainty alsosurrounded her mother's presumed
suicide by overdose a yearlater.
(04:26):
I mean, it's highly likely that.
Her father died on the operatingtable, but also, what a perfect
way to pay somebody off.
If you're a mob person, right.
And you're used to doing thedirty work, you could pay
somebody off to botch a surgery,correct?
Sure.
And her mom was very fragile andwas in and out of institutions
(04:48):
for years or just hire a, asurgeon who got Ds.
I mean, they're out there.
It took me a moment, but you'reabsolutely right.
I see where you're, yes, we'rebringing Bob in.
You bring Bob in.
Yeah.
Bob can't do this.
Susan wrote the backgroundsounds of my childhood were slot
machines crunching.
(05:09):
Dice clicking the songs ofSophie Tucker and the Andrew
Sisters and the carping of anever present hotel page.
To this day, the desert airinvigorates and exhilarates me
like nothing else, and hotelcoffee shops and floor shows.
Give me a sense of security.
(05:31):
I love that.
Within hours of David Berman'sfuneral in 1957, the mob cleaned
out Susan's house and gave awayall her toys.
She was shipped off to Idahowith a single truckload of
clothes and mementos to livewith her uncle Chickie Berman.
(05:52):
I love that name.
Chicky.
Later she was sent away tovarious boarding schools.
Her education broken up byregular visits with Chicky, who
was then in jail.
He would ask her to wear Chanelnumber five.
She wrote so he could smell thereal world.
It's Wow, a little odd.
(06:13):
That sounds like an ad campaign.
Yeah.
I know Uncle Chickie sent Susanto boarding schools with her own
trust fund and by her accountshe lived her parents' values,
especially their Jewish faithand abiding sense of loyalty and
the importance of keepingsecrets.
(06:35):
Susan attended the Chadwick.
School in Hollywood.
I had never heard of theChadwick School in Hollywood.
Have you heard of it?
No.
No.
Where, where, do you know whereit's located?
You know, I meant to look thatup.
My bad.
I didn't.
But it's within the Hollywoodbounds.
Yeah.
Is it still.
A place.
Now again, I meant to look it upand I didn't.
Sorry.
So thank you for pointing thatout, please.
(06:56):
Where I had to try admit that Iplease.
Phone in.
People messed up.
If you can please, please phonein with your complaints.
Well, complaints and then theinformation.
Then the information.
We don't like getting goling.
It's too much work.
Yeah.
She shared a dorm room with.
Jean Martin's daughters and, uh,remembered feeling envious of BD
(07:17):
Merrill because her mother, whowas Betty Davis visited every
weekend.
That's wow.
Um.
It's odd.
Usually you would go to boardingschool in Switzerland or
somewhere further.
Yeah, She had a French classwith Yu Brenner's son who spoke
the language fluently becausehe, well, there's Switzerland
(07:38):
because he had lived inSwitzerland and she said Liza
Minnelli was an adorable wave.
Who improvised dances wheneverthere was a spare moment.
Wow.
That can, that can get oldthough.
Like lunch.
You don't need to dance.
Yeah.
This isn't fame, Liza, shereceived a bachelor of arts
(08:01):
degree in 1967 from theUniversity of California.
It is here where she met Robert.
Durst.
Now I'm sure that name RobertDurst.
Sounds familiar.
Did yes.
Do you know that name, Terry?
I do.
Okay.
I know where this is going.
We're gonna double back toRobert Durst, but, I will
(08:22):
mention that Robert Durst was anAmerican real estate heir who
gained attention as a suspect inthe.
Unsolved 1982.
Disappearance of his wife,Kathleen McCormick and the 2001
killing of his neighbor, MorrisBlack Durst was acquitted of
murdering black in 2003.
(08:45):
In 2012, Durst participated inthe 2015 documentary mini
series, the Jinx.
We'll come back to Robert Durst,but I have this affinity for the
Jinx in an odd way.
Sadly, my sister Penny, um, gotcancer and she died.
But my sister Penny loved truecrime.
(09:06):
So when I went to go stay withher, I brought my, they didn't
have HBO and uh, the jinx was onHBO and I brought my.
Apple TV device back toConnecticut, and Penny and I and
my brother-in-law watched theJinx while she was six.
Oh.
And she, she loved it.
Oh, we talked about it for hoursand it, it just made our time
(09:28):
normal.
It was one of the times thatwere just so normal, sitting in
her kitchen watching the Jinx.
Okay, back to Susan.
In 1969, Susan graduated with amaster of arts and journalism
from the University ofCalifornia Berkeley.
And at age 21, she was paid atotal of 4.3 million by the
(09:52):
mafia.
I don't know if that was on thecheck for her father's interest
in casinos and other properties.
So she was flush with cash.
In the seventies, Susan workedfor the San Francisco Examiner
and then moved to the East Coastand started working for New York
(10:14):
Magazine in 1991.
Susan's memoir, easy Street,about growing up in Las Vegas at
the height of its glamor, wassold to Universal.
Susan received$350,000 for themovie rights, and she decided
that it was time to move to LosAngeles and start her
(10:35):
screenwriting career.
I need to lose some money.
Yeah.
Susan, grew up ignorant, believeit or not, of her father's mob
ties and Easy Street.
her memoir was a researchproject.
It was partly filled with whatshe learned about him from the
FBI files, that she gotincluding his time in Sing,
(10:59):
sing, and memories of havingLiberace sing at her birthday
and learning to play gin at agefour with men she knew as
uncles, but were in fact.
Bodyguards.
It's very Shirley Temple.
She never knew the family'sharried midnight departures to
LA or anything other than herfather's busy.
(11:22):
Only available time forvacation, not flights.
From the threats ofassassinations, they.
Actually were.
Susan grew up in an emotionalfog about her parents.
Carolyn C wrote in her LA TimesReview of Easy Street.
Two months after moving to LosAngeles, Susan met her first
(11:44):
husband in a classic cute meet.
She was in line to register ascript at the Writer's Guild
when she met Mr.
As he called himself Margoles.
He was 25 and broke.
She was 38.
Literally.
He a adopted Mr.
As a first name.
Correct.
(12:04):
And he also was a screenwriter,but I, and I couldn't find any
of his, anything that he wrotewas ever made into a movie.
Well, he was so deep in thethird person.
Yes, he was.
That he went with Mr.
He was before his time.
Yes.
they fell in love and gotmarried in a lavish wedding at
the hotel Bel Air Complete withice swans like the ones her dad
(12:26):
insisted in on having at theflamingo.
Robert Durst gave her away andmega film producer Robert Evans,
toasted the couple.
Unfortunately, the meat cute didnot have a fairytale ending.
The marriage quickly ended andMr died of a heroin overdose at
(12:46):
27.
Susan knew when she married himthat Mr had done heroin in the
past, but she believed it wasover.
Susan was naive to the point ofbeing.
Puritanical about drugs says herfriends, despite the pain in her
life, she never medicated.
I don't think she ever smoked ajoint in her life, says a friend
(13:09):
of hers, the only alcohol sheever drank was a glass of wine
at Passover.
This too came from her fatherwho told her that drugs and
alcohol were for suckers and notsomething.
Jewish people did.
In 1987, Susan started datingPaul Kaufman.
He was a financial advisor withHollywood aspirations, and he
(13:34):
had two children, Mila and Reb.
Please forgive me if I ampronouncing.
Not incorrectly.
Susan loved the children andthey considered her their mother
Berman, who once lived a flashylifestyle from a trust fund.
Her father left was leftpenniless towards the end of her
(13:54):
relationship with Kaufman whenthey broke up in.
1992.
So basically he left her whenthe money ran out.
Sucker.
I know.
Yeah, I bet he drank.
Friends said they believedBerman invested her money into a
play with Paul Kaufman thatnever took off the bank, took
(14:15):
her house.
And she had to declarebankruptcy.
So she a lot of highs and lowsin this woman's life.
Mila and Reeb would continue tobe her children.
Being a mother to these kids wasone of the proudest and most
satisfying things in her life.
She was quoted to say.
In 1992, a friend gave Susan nowpenniless use of a condo on
(14:39):
Sunset Boulevard.
While Reeb stayed with hisfather, Susan and Mila lived
there for five years for free,and Susan started writing
mysteries to pay her expensesand her daughter's private
school.
Tuition.
By then, Susan acquired hermanager, Nile Brenner, whom she
met while walking her dogs onSunset Boulevard.
(15:02):
It would prove to be a strangerelationship.
Susan was the only writer,Brenner rep, and the rest were
struggling actors, and it waslost on no one.
That Nile was a dead ringer forMr.
Marley's.
Yeah.
Friends say that Susan wouldcall him constantly to help her
(15:25):
deal with her.
She suffered from phobias, butat this point in her life, they
were raging phobias.
And she would ask him to takeher shopping to doctor's
appointments, take her dogs tothe vet.
He would get fed up with her.
They'd have raging arguments.
He would say, I'm gonna leave.
And she would say, fine.
(15:46):
And then a couple days would goby and the cycle would just
start all over.
That's not gonna help thephobias.
No, in the year 2000, onChristmas Eve.
Police Responded to a call byneighbors who'd grown alarm that
one of.
Three Fox Terriers so preciousto Susan and such a nuisance to
(16:07):
others was running wild andbarking hysterically.
at 1527 Benedict Canyon Policefound the rear door open and
Susan dressed in sweats in at-shirt, was lying on the cold
hardwood floor with a singlebullet in the back of her head.
(16:27):
Execution style.
Bloody paw prints of the dogssurrounded her.
They determined she had beenlying there for a day, although
a bullet casing was found, thegun was never recovered.
There weren't any signs of forceentry, which led some to
believe.
That Susan had opened her doorto the acquaintance or friend
(16:50):
that tragic day.
The bizarre story doesn't endthere.
On December 23rd, the policereceived a note, even though,
Susan's body had already beendiscovered, and all the notes
said was 1527 Benedict Canyoncadaver.
Whoever killed Berman, thepolice assumed, must have cared
(17:13):
for her in some way, and theydidn't want her body to just go
undiscovered.
Usually.
Terry, I would turn to you atthis point and say, who do you
think killed?
Susan Berman and I wouldn'tknow, but keep going.
Okay.
Susan's story does have aconclusion, theories that were
(17:33):
floating around.
The Godfather.
Susan was executed because shewrote about mobsters.
On December 19th, five daysbefore police found her body,
Susan was on the phone talkingwith her good friend, actress
Kim Langford, who I looked up.
She was on a nighttime soapopera called Nots Landing.
(17:55):
Of course, Susan said to Kim, Ihave information that's going to
blow the top off things.
What do you mean?
Kim asked?
What information?
I don't have it myself, saidSusan, but I know how to get it.
Well be careful, for God's sake.
Said Kim.
(18:16):
Susan promised they would talkafter the holiday and it wasn't
unusual for.
Susan to be about to getinformation.
Kim said because she was ajournalist, and Susan at the
time was working on three bigprojects, two book ideas and a
television pilot.
Two had to do with Las Vegas, soKim assumed what Susan was
(18:40):
talking about was possibly who.
Killed Bugsy Siegel.
And she also remembers thinking,eh, who cares at this point?
Who killed Bugsy?
Siegel, on a side note, atanother point in the
conversation, Susan told Kim,she talked to a psychic, and the
psychic told Susan she was gonnadie of violent death and that a
(19:05):
gun would be involved.
Wow, that's a psychic that Iwould not want to go to.
I'd go to one.
Not as good.
No.
Right, exactly.
If this psychic charged 50, Iwould go to the$25 an hour.
Yeah.
Jerry McGuire.
Susan, as I mentioned before hadan obsession with her longtime
manager, Nile, and he wasgetting to the point where he
(19:31):
just couldn't handle Susananymore.
After Susan died, he declined tobe interviewed except to say
yes.
Yes, I know everyone adored her.
She was remarkable andincredibly talented, but she was
not an easy person to get alongwith.
Okay.
Reached a second time byreporters Brenner.
(19:53):
said I've got other clients totake care of.
I don't have time for this.
I was tapped out by Susan everyday while she was alive, and
it's the same in her death.
I just can't take it anymore.
Now, uh, that was myinterpretation of how he
sounded, but it sounded likeNile and Susan things did not
end well.
No.
(20:14):
The third theory and what turnedout to be the truth.
The Jinx, a Los Angeles juryfound Robert Durst, the
notorious subject of the HBOseries.
The jinx, guilty of the firstdegree murder.
Of Susan Berman.
Berman's murder came just daysbefore prosecutors had planned
(20:37):
to meet with her about the 1982disappearance of Robert Dursts
wife Kathleen.
McCormack at the end of herlife, Susan was struggling both
emotionally and financially.
And although Durst was known forbeing cheap, prosecutors said he
(20:57):
gave Berman two checks totaling$50,000.
In exchange for covering up thedisappearance of his wife, they
claim Durst shot Berman.
In hopes of silencing her inregards to his wife's case.
By all accounts, everyone whoknew Susan said she would never
(21:20):
have squealed on Durst, thoughhe had good reason to be
nervous.
Susan, who had casuallymentioned.
To several friends over theyears that Durst had something
to do with Kathie'sdisappearance, had not only
provided an alibi for Durst thenight McCormick went missing,
(21:42):
Susan also acted as his medialiaison.
In the months that followedDursts wife's disappearance,
Susan knew where the bodies wereburied, quite literally, and
police contended that Robertkilled her for it.
Although authorities believethat Robert flew from New York
to San Francisco on December19th in the year 2000, he then
(22:06):
took another flight to Eureka,and then the following morning
drove to Los Angeles.
He headed to Susan's house lateon the evening of December 22nd,
or early in the morning of the23rd and shot her.
The back of the head, Susan, thespeed talking journalist and
(22:27):
screenwriter with an exoticbackground and a career that had
shriveled to the point where shecouldn't pay her rent.
Met a violent death.
Durst said Whatever happened toKathie was a big chunk, my
fault.
But with Susan, I'm ready to gobefore God naked and say, I
don't know nothing.
(22:49):
In October of 2021, a LosAngeles jury convicted Durst,
then 78 of first degree murderfor the killing of Susan Berman.
Prosecutors argued that Dursthad shot Susan at point blank
range in her home to prevent herfrom telling police what she
knew about the 1982disappearance of Dursts first
(23:13):
wife.
The verdict marked the firsthomicide conviction of Durst who
had been linked to the deaths ofthree people in three states.
There are scars within me thatwill probably never heal.
I have uncontrollable.
Anxiety attacks that occurwithout warning.
(23:34):
I am never secure and live witha dread that apocalyptic events
could happen at any moment.
Death and love seem linkedforever in my fantasies, and the
caddish will ring always in myears.
Susan Berman from her memoirEasy Street.
The sources for this story aboutSusan Berman is an article from
(24:00):
an LA magazine by Charles BagleyWikipedia, a daily news article
by.
Kate Feldman La Times article byCarolyn Kellogg, A US Sun
article by Adrian Zza, JenniferAch and Nina Clevenger, A New
York magazine article by LisaDePalo and.
(24:23):
The book, easy Street, the TrueStory of a Mob Family, a memoir
by Susan Berman.
That's a wrap for the Writer'sHangout.
Thanks so much for listening.
If you enjoyed the show, pleasesubscribe and thrive till we get
to hang out again.
Keep writing.
The world needs your Stories.
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