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Whoever plays Robert Durst in the TV movie had better have range, because Durst has displayed a bounty of personas over the years: Manhattan playboy, heir to a real estate fortune, jealous husband, fugitive and, in the opinion of some, devious killer. Durst, 60, was acquitted last week of murdering his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, in Galveston, Texas. The verdict was a shock because Durst has a history of finding himself close to people who die or disappear and because he himself described grisly details surrounding Black's demise. In court he admitted dismembering the body but said he recalled little of the horror, except that at one point he was "swimming in blood."

Durst was born to privilege, but he has always lived on the edge of trouble. Westchester, N.Y., district attorney Jeanine Pirro is investigating the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack. He is also a "possible suspect," according to Los Angeles police, in the murder of Susan Berman, an L.A. writer who was executed gangland style on Christmas Eve 2000. Oh — and while he was on the lam, Durst sometimes dressed as a woman.

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The fact that Durst's high-priced legal team has kept him insulated from punishment in Texas has outraged some. "I went through a range of unprintable emotions before reaching anger, which is where I am right now," says Jim McCormack, Kathleen's brother. Members of Durst's family say they fear that he might come after them next. In 2001 Robert allegedly drove to his younger brother Douglas' estate in Katonah, N.Y., armed with two guns.

So how did a guy worth an estimated $250 million, according to his lawyer, end up in a $300-a-month Galveston apartment in a death struggle with an elderly seaman? The eldest child of Seymour Durst, a New York City real estate tycoon, Durst was 7 years old when he reportedly saw his mother Bernice fall to her death from the roof of their home in what may have been a suicide. In 1972 he married Kathleen McCormack, a beautiful dental assistant. The couple had a history of violent confrontations, and on Jan. 31, 1982, she vanished. Then on Christmas Eve 2000, Durst's friend Susan Berman was shot in the head in her home just days before she was to be interviewed by investigators seeking information about Kathleen's disappearance.

In 2001 Durst was living in Galveston under the identity of a mute woman named Dorothy Ciner. "Dorothy" wore cargo pants and a blond wig. In Galveston, Durst met Black, 71, who lived across the hall and, according to Durst's testimony, became his "best friend." On Sept. 28, 2001, Durst returned to his rental to find Black there watching television. A scuffle ensued, Durst's pistol went off, and Black is believed to have died of head trauma.

What Durst did with Black's head became the central mystery in the case. Durst was arrested 11 days later, after a boy discovered Black's torso bobbing offshore. Durst's second wife, Debrah Charatan, helped him post $300,000 bail and he fled. On Nov. 30, 2001, he turned up in rural Hanover Township, Pa., where he was nabbed for shoplifting a sandwich, even though he had $500 in his pocket and about $38,000 in his car. Police also found in his possession two .38-cal. pistols, pot and ammunition. Durst's lawyer Dick DeGuerin tells TIME that Durst "was just then coming off a 40-year high of smoking marijuana every day and getting drunk every night, self-medicating the emotional problems he had."

Why was Durst acquitted? There were no witnesses to the killing. Black's head could have proved how he was shot, but it was missing. Jurors say the defense stuck to its story that Durst acted in self-defense, while prosecutors gave several possible scenarios. The jury might have convicted him of manslaughter, but that wasn't presented as an option. Durst seems to have expected a guilty verdict. He reportedly commissioned an $8,000 study to find the most comfortable prison in Texas.

Durst now sits in a Texas jail. Galveston district attorney Kurt Sistrunk told TIME he plans to pursue a charge of bail jumping against Durst, for which he could receive a prison term of up to 10 years. And Durst could soon be back in court to face a wrongful-death civil suit brought by Black's sister Gladys Saslaw, which would require a lighter burden of proof than the one he faced for Black's murder. For that, he may have to mount another extraordinary performance.

• Daren Fonda