The first ‘Jinx’ ended with a hot mic murder admission. ‘Part Two’ shocks as well

In 2014, the producers of This American Life presented a podcast called “Serial,” examining the facts, and loose ends, involving a cold murder case. A year later, HBO followed with a TV equivalent: The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. Together, those two wildly popular programs helped ignite the true-crime documentary and podcast craze – a genre that itself became so imitated that it was spoofed by Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.

Durst was arrested the night before HBO televised the final episode of The Jinx, and later was convicted of murder, and died in prison in 2022. On April 21, Jarecki returns to HBO with a sequel documentary series, The Jinx – Part Two, which also will stream on Max. I highly recommend you see the original Jinx, first if you haven’t – it’s available on most streaming sites. But it’s not required.

Halfway through the run of the original Jinx, Durst, watching from home, is feeling kind of cocky. But then, because of a spelling error in his handwriting that seems to connect him to an anonymous note sent to police after one murder, he shifts gears. FBI agents and Los Angeles district attorneys track him withdrawing large sums of money, then fleeing before the final episode – but as The Jinx – Part Two shows, he’s cleverly tracked down in a New Orleans hotel, and captured.

LA deputy district attorney John Lewin is the first to interrogate to Durst in a recording that we see in The Jinx – Part Two. What follows is a story with as many twists, turns and shockers as the original. Jarecki is as good an interviewer as he is a director, and what he gets out of his conversations with people – from Durst’s friends and lovers to his investigators and prosecutors – is unexpected, and sometimes is almost laughably candid.

As it turns out, there’s a great story in the continued telling of the Robert Durst saga – and there are some lessons to be learned, too. Don’t commit murder. If you DO commit murder, don’t cooperate with a documentary filmmaker. And if you DO kill someone, and talk about it on camera, learn how to spell.

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