Durst arrested ... again

In a new twist to one of the most bizarre stories in recent years, New York real estate heir Robert Durst was arrested yesterday after he visited Galveston, violating the terms of his supervised release. Durst, you'll remember, was found innocent in 2003 of murdering his neighbor in Galveston even though he admitted to cutting up the neighbor's body and dumping it in Galveston Bay.

Though he was acquitted of murder, Durst was jailed for five and a half months for carrying a weapon across state lines while he was fleeing prosecution for the murder he said he didn't commit. In July, he was released from a New Jersey prison and was placed on supervised release until next year; he was spotted in Galveston on Dec. 16. It's unclear why he was on the island, though KPRC reports he was seen on the lawn of one of the witnesses in his murder trial.

Even though he's from New York, Durst is the kind of bizarre local figure we love to adopt, then talk about. He's the son of Seymour Durst, who headed a billion-dollar New York real estate company, but he became estranged from his family in the early 1990s and lived in a cheap apartment in Galveston, where he posed as a mute woman. In 2001, Galveston police charged him with murdering his neighbor, Morris Black; Durst fled to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested when he tried to steal a sandwich from a grocery store and was found to be carrying two pistols. On trial in Galveston County in 2003, Durst testified he accidentally shot Black, then cut his body into pieces in a panic. With cases like that, who needs fiction?

A hearing is expected in the next two weeks to determine whether Durst will be sent back to prison, to a short-term secured facility or will be placed back into supervised release.