Ever since HBO’s very good investigative pornography show “The Jinx” exploded this past spring, viewers and critics have wondered how much creator Andrew Jarecki’s own digging influenced the active murder investigations in Los Angeles and Westchester, N.Y., into his subject, the sociopathic millionaire Robert Durst. A freedom of information request filed by Gawker suggests the two are intertwined.

Robert Durst is one of the more sympathetic alleged serial killers I've seen interviewed on television. He's not folksily unhinged, like Charles Manson, or flatly terrifying, like Jeffrey Dahmer. He seems like any other New York eccentric. He carries a backpack, wears little sneakers and toddles around New York City, Starbucks Americano in hand. He speaks in a nasal drawl, his voice steady, never rising or falling above a certain pitch (except for some stray whispers).

Jarecki is the founder of Moviefone and the director responsible for the award-winning doc Capturing the Friedmans.