Cross-dressing millionaire cleared of man’s murder

ECCENTRIC New York millionaire Robert Durst, who said he accidentally killed a hot-tempered neighbour in self-defence and then dismembered the body in a panic, was found innocent yesterday of murder.

Jurors deliberated over five days, following nearly six weeks of testimony, before deciding that the real estate heir did not murder 71-year-old Morris Black, who lived across from him in an apartment building.

Durst, 60, who is under suspicion in two other killings and who posed for a time as a mute woman, testified in his own defence. He insisted Mr Black was shot accidentally during a struggle over a gun, and said he used two saws and an axe to cut up the body. The victim’s head has never been found.