Robert Durst is Getting the Law & Order: SVU Treatment

When Law & Order: SVU returns for Season 17 on Sept. 23, it will have a two-hour episode that’s “ripped from the headlines” — apparently inspired by accusations against real estate heir Robert Durst.

Durst was the subject of the HBO documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, which made headlines in March when its finale showed the man caught on a hot mic whispering seemingly incriminating messages to himself.

Durst has been accused of several murders over the years, including that of his wife, Kathie, his friend, Susan Berman, and his neighbor, Morris Black, whose body was found floating in garbage bags in Galveston Bay (he said he killed the man in self defense). The SVU episode depicts black plastic bags with body parts washed ashore, and show a man caught on tape saying, “Kill them all, whatever it takes.”

Durst’s hot-mic recording in the documentary included the phrase, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

Other Law & Order franchises have based episodes around headlines about deaths tied to Durst: a Criminal Intent plot resembled Berman’s murder, and a plain-old Law & Order episode resembled Black’s death.

Durst was arrested in March in connection with Berman’s death; he also faces federal gun charges after a firearm was found in his possession during the arrest, for which his has plead not guilty.