Unsolved: How Did Natalie Wood Die?

0:00Hello, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Casual Grimlist. I as always, I'm your host Simon. Welcome back. This is the show where one of my writers, in this case, Raddy. Thank you so much, Raddy. It was written me an episode. Unsolved. Unsolved. The one where we never get a satisfying ending, and we always just end up speculating while some horrible person usually gets away with a crime. Brilliant. It's what we're all here for. How did Natalie would die? I guess we're not going to find out because it's unsolved. I don't know why these episodes seemingly do quite well, but I just find them like, we don't know, I want to know. But I guess that's kind of the appeal. Anyway, let's get into it. I've never read this before. That's the format. Off we go. In November 1981, Hollywood actress Natalie Wood had finished filming a scenes for a latest release, a sci-fi thriller named Brain Storm. A sci-fi thriller named Brain Storm is the most 1980s sci-fi thriller name that I've ever heard.

1:04Also, I don't know who Natalie Wood is. How famous is Natalie Wood? I would say if she was in a sci-fi thriller called Brain Storm today, there would probably be a B movie, but it could have been a huge deal in the 80s because I mean it was the 80s. To celebrate, she boarded the splendor, the yacht which she co-owned with her husband, Ella Acta, Robert Wagner, and went on a little weekend trip to Santa Catalina, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. Okay, well, there's two things to give away the fact that she's successful. She's not an actress, she is a Hollywood actress, and she owns a yacht. There were four people aboard the splendor. Natalie Wood, her husband, her Brain Storm co-star, Christopher Walken, and the ship's captain, Dennis Daven. It was supposed to be a weekend of rest and relaxation, but events soon took a dark turn. Wait, Christopher Walken was on a boat where someone was like, what? What? How do I not know this? On the night of November the 29th, Natalie Wood died at the age of 43 in an apparent drowning. Her body was recovered the following morning about a mile away. As far as authorities were concerned, this was an open and shut case, the county coroner

2:07ruled Wood's death an accidental drowning. She was buried just a few days later and following a cursory investigation that lasted only about a week, the police declared the case closed. This has been an episode of the casual cruelly, thank you. No, there's more to it than that, isn't it, because we're about 25 pages to go. But as you would expect, whenever a celebrity dies suddenly and prematurely, it was a big hula belu that would not quiet down quite so easily, especially when the papers found out that Wood and Wagner had a nasty fight the night before her untimely demise. A mysterious death is always going to create speculation, that of a celebrity even more so. The time has began surfacing that Wood's death might not have been quite so accidental, perhaps even that a husband might have been involved. I mean, it's always the husband, right, we got a star with the husband, but I don't think the fact that they had a fight beades he murdered his wife. But maybe he did. We're not going to find out because it's unsolved, let's carry on. In the four and a half decades that have passed, those rumors have not died down one bit. I mean, to be fair, Rady, they definitely have, because I've never heard of this before,

3:11and I bet at the time it was quite big news. It existed so much, in fact, that the police eventually reopened the case in 2011. In the years since then, people have come forward with new testimonies, Wood's death certificate has been amended, and has been labelled suspicious, and Robert Wagner has been declared a person of interest. While it might not be fair to her, it's accurate to say that Natalie Wood's death has far overshadowed her life and career to the point of being one of the most intriguing and enduring mysteries in Hollywood lore. And today we're going to talk about it. Natalie and RJ Natalie Wood was born Natalia Nicolavenia Zacharenko in San Francisco on July 20, 1938, to to Russian immigrants. With a name like that, never. Her name was soon changed to Natasha Gerdin since Zacharenko was the name of a mother's ex-husband and not of that of a father. Ultimately, this hardly mattered since just a few years later, she became Natalie Wood, to have a name more appealing to an American audience. Hollywood came calling early for a good sign since we all know that that turns out well

4:16for child stars. Yes, Natalie Wood had a first role in 1943 when she was just four years old. In an adaptation of John Steinbeg's novel, The Moon Is Down. Her younger sister, Svetlana, also became a child actor, better known to you and me as Lana Wood. Though her career never quite reached the same heights of success as Natalie. As a young actor, Natalie's biggest hit was the 1947 Christmas Classic Miracle on 34th Street. That's why she was heralded as one of Hollywood's most promising, up-and-coming actors. But it's often the case that even though most popular child stars don't necessarily parlay their early success into a long and fruitful acting career. Is it more common than not for a child star not to have a big career? I feel like yes, right? But then there are actors who've been acting like their whole lives. Right? This is not what happens with Natalie Wood, though. In 1955, when she was 16, she starred in a first serious drama where she wasn't child anymore. She was a young woman. The movie was the iconic rebel without a cause, starring James Dean, and for her role, Natalie

5:16Wood received an Oscar nomination and won the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year. Holy shit, that's pretty impressive. How old was she 16? And she got an Oscar nom? God damn! The following decade was the peak of Wood's career. She had roles in hits like The Searchers, Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story, and The Great Race. After starring in Love with the Proper Stranger opposite Steve McCoyne in 1963, Natalie Wood became the youngest person in history and three Oscar nominations, a record that was stood for half a century. Ooh, who took that? In 2003. Oh, no, it's not here, but I'd like to know. Her personal life was a bit more chaotic. When she was 18, she began dating actor Robert Wagner, known as Arge A to his friends. The couple soon got engaged and tied the knot on December 28, 1957. At first, they were the picture perfect pair. Young, beautiful, successful, especially and utterly, let's be honest, she was the A-list to here, whereas Wagner never quite managed to establish his bona fide as a big movie star. He did not find true success. It's only appeared as a role as a TV show lead.

6:18Even so, the tabloids loved them. The public loved them. They were America's new dream couple. Oh, okay, so this was, I feel like, like back in the day, movie stars didn't do TV because it was like the niece of us, like, I'm a movie star. I don't do television. But then, like, television got really good. And like, was it, I feel like House of Cars was one of the big ones, whereas Kevin Spacey was a movie star and he's like, yeah, I'll do House of Cards. And then, was that, that must have been one of the big first movie to TV movies where it wasn't like a step down. This extended honeymoon lasted for about two and a half years. Then in 1961, despite outwardly appearing as if everything was peachy-gain, the couple announced their separation, finalising their divorce in 1952. When did they get married? Oh, they've been married five years. That's not very good. You get to boss chop, but it's just not very long marriage, is it? As the reason why, neither really gave a straight answer, but it's commonly assumed that one of them cheated on the other. Longstanding rumours say that Natalie Wood had an affair with her splendor in the grass

7:18co-star Warren Betty, while even juicy agossip claims that Natalie came home one day to find RJ in bed with another man. Either way, the marriage was over. For now. Oh, right, because they get married, I guess, again, because they go on that boat together. Right? Or they go on a boat, and they don't seem to have a boat right now. Wagner left the Europe hoping to find greater career success there and got hitched to Marion Marshall along the way. I feel like I'm supposed to know who all these people are, but I feel like, I don't know, I don't know who actors were. I've heard of James Dean. I've never seen a James Dean movie. Who was the other guy Steve McQueen heard of him? I don't think I've ever seen a Steve McQueen movie, but I don't know who Marion Marshall is. It's put in here like I should. Meanwhile, would it several relationships throughout the 60s before marrying British movie producer Richard Greggson in 1969 and giving birth to a daughter named Natasha? However, by 1979 both Wagner and Wood would have forced again. Given that they both worked in Hollywood, it was inevitable that the two of them would eventually meet socially. This happened at a party hosted by producer John Foreman and according to Wagner's memoir,

8:21a light went on in both of them, when they looked into each other's eyes. Not long after, they started dating again and got married for the second time on July 16th 1972. So they were married for five years, divorced for ten, where they both got married and divorced again and then they got married again. Hollywood's weird. Brain Storm. For a long time, it looked like the third marriage would be the charm for Nataliewood. Is our guess is technically a third marriage? Does that count though? You just remarried, like the first person. Throughout the 70s it appeared again as if Wood and Wagner had the perfect relationship. In 1974 she gave birth to their daughter Courtney and Nataliewood spent the decade in semi-retirement dedicating herself primarily to motherhood. She only appeared in a handful of movies during the 70s, instead taking on more television work that didn't require her to be away from home for long periods of time. Ordinarily Hollywood actors consider television roles a serious step down from films there we go, especially back then.

9:22Yeah, I think it is different today, right? Movie stars in TV. But Natalie and RJ seemed content with their lot. Would even one another golden globe for best actress in a TV drama for the miniseries from here to eternity? Meanwhile, Wagner was also experiencing the biggest success of his career thanks to leading roles in popular shows such as Switch and Heart to Heart. But then the 80s came around and would begin itching for her return to the silver screen. First, she did the 1980 comedy The Last Married Couple in America opposite George Seagull. It didn't get much of a positive reception. Not enough species to start to her comeback, but the following year she was offered the lead female role in a sci-fi movie called Brain Storm. Science fiction was a big deal back then. Star Wars had just become the highest grossing movie in history, topping previous box office BMFs, such as Gone With The Wind and Jaws. All the studios were on the lookout for that new IP that they could turn into a billion dollar franchise. MGM hoped that Brain Storm could be their new cash cow. They got Douglas Trumbull to direct. Although primarily a visual effects director, his sci-fi credits were undeniable having worked

10:23on 2001 a space odyssey, close encounters of the third kind, and Star Trek the Motion Picture, only some proper credentials. Plus, they signed Oscar winners for the top roles, Christopher Walken, Louise Fletcher, and Cliff Robertson. Natalie Wood was thrilled to join the cast, convinced that they had a hit on their hands. I mean to be fair, with a director like that, an actor like those. You have them, and in a time when sci-fi is real hot, even though it sounds like a B-movie day, like yeah, I mean, it seems like you got a potential hit on your hands for sure. Her husband seems not so much. Not so much. Oh, to join the cast, so he's not super happy that she got the role. Little bit of jealousy there, Robert, maybe. He didn't like the idea of Wood going away for six weeks to film in North Carolina, and the tabloids were not making things easier as they published rumours that Wood was having an affair with a Brain Storm co-star, Christopher Walken. During the shoot, Wagner even took a surprise trip to North Carolina to visit Natalie, or more like these at Jaguar, but however, he discovered nothing nefarious.

11:25In his memoir, Wagner wrote that he felt Wood was being emotionally unfaithful, but that was about it. So, as a way of Mending Fences, once Natalie finished filming us in, Wagner suggested that they invite Walken to spend Thanksgiving with them on a cruise to Catalina. A week in getaway. Now that we've reached the part of the story, Wood involves the death of Natalie Wood, and we're going to rely on the accounts of the people who were there. In time, we'll also hear from the County Coroner, Natalie's sister, a bunch of people from the island, and the authors who investigated her death to write books about it. But for now, let's just see what the first-hand witnesses had to say. And it's worth pointing out that their stories are not always going to be consistent. The versions they gave initially, the versions they gave later when their lawyers showed up, and the versions written in books years later are not identical. Very errrr. Very odd. I mean not odd, but like, it's suspicious. Deloins to have is like, you might want to not say that. OK, I retract my former statement, which I shouldn't have made, because my lawyer wasn't

12:28there. Let's start with Natalie Wood's husband, Robert. He very rarely talked about her death. He has always declined to give interviews for books on newspapers that were covering the subject. However, given that it was such a major turning point in his life, it was kind of hard to leave it out of his memoir, Pieces of My Heart, which gives us the most detailed account of that weekend from Wagner's perspective. A quick reminder that there were only four people on board the splendor that weekend, the two of them, Christopher Walken, and the ship's captain, Dennis Daven. However, Wagner informs us that this was not the original plan. Three more people were supposed to join them on the trip, but they were cancelled with their areas reasons. Anyway, on the morning of November 27th, Wagner and Wood met up with Christopher Walken. It's that everyone's at W. I belong at this party. A dark of Marina Del Rey, boarded the splendor together, and set off the Catalina Island. The first day was pleasant enough and predictably boozy. After anchoring offshore near the city of Avalon, the trio took their dinghy out, which is called Vivalient, and sailed to the island where they spent the afternoon enjoying some beers and margaritas.

13:28They returned to the boat at around nine o'clock just in time for dinner and some more booze. There was a small argument between husband and wife on that first night. Wagner wanted to move the boat into gentler waters, would resist at the idea, saying that it would make a difference, and instead insisted to be taken shore again. So Dennis Daven took her to Avalon aboard the Vivalient, and she spent the night on the island. Meanwhile, Wagner and Walken finished their drinks and went to bed in the cabin. But the following morning, Natalie returned to the ship in better spirits, made Hweyver's rancheros for the whole group, and everyone was friends again. Remember this is all from Wagner's perspective, right? The husbands. The one notable thing from the first day was that Wagner confirmed that Natalie Wood had a fear of being in water. Apparently this was something that everyone in Hollywood knew. She was okay on the boat, but didn't like being in the water, and because of this, she was a terrible swimmer. This is a point that's often brought up by people who don't believe that Natalie would drown accidentally. They argue that her phobia made it unlikely that she would have gone into the water alone, or even aboard the dinghy, at least not of her own volition. I'm sorry, but she owns a yacht. Like, you're going to go in the dinghy at some point, like there's not always going to

14:31be a marina, or a dog. Like, you're going to anchor off shore sometimes enough to take the little dinghy, and it's just how it is. Apparently, Natalie got this water phobia from her mother, who was deeply superstitious, into the Romani magic that was popular with Russian immigrant communities a hundred years ago. When she was pregnant with Natalie, she visited a fortune teller who told her that her daughter, quote, would be a great beauty known throughout the world. As if there's any fortune teller in history who ever told her parents clients that her child grubs look like shrek. Anyway, the Borscht artist also delivered her a warning, beware of dark water. It seems that not only did Natalie's mother take the warning to heart, but that she passed on her strong beliefs to her daughter, and technically speaking, it appears that the fortune teller was correct. So one point, if this actually happens. Getting back to the weekend, the trio spent Saturday at Ismascove, a secluded region on the northern part of the island. In the afternoon, everyone returned to the boat for a little power nap, but when Wagner

15:32woke up, he discovered that Wooden Walken had gone back to the island without him. He joined up with them, but he was already in a foul mood, and as the three kept drinking, their tempers only got worse. Guys, why are you not having a good time? It's like you're on a boat, you're drinking margaritas, you're only yacht visiting an island, in your little dinghy. Why is everyone in a bad mood? This sounds fantastic. Still, there was no cuffuffle yet. After having dinner on the island, the three of them returned to the boat at around 10 o'clock, and of course, had a few more drinks. This was when tensions finally boiled over and the fights started. However, it wasn't between husband and wife. No, it seems that the fight took place between Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken. Although remember, this is strictly Wagner's version of events that we are discussing at the moment. According to him, he got a rate when Walken began talking about the total pursuit of a career. Walken thought he was important for his personal life to take a back seat, to his professional life in order to succeed, and he told Wood that she should do the same. At that point, a furious Wagner got up and shouted, why don't you stay out of her career? He's got enough people telling her what to do without you.

16:35Walken fears part did not back down, and the two got into a shouting match. However, it never got close to a physical fight. The most aggressive thing that happened was that Wagner picked up an empty wine bottle and slammed it on the table, breaking it into pieces. I don't think I've raised my voice at another adult. I cannot think of a time where I've shouted at an adult. Like, I've shouted at my kids and be like, hey, stop that if you know that, of course, I'm not going to be in trouble or I'm going to hurt themselves or something. But like, to angrily shout at someone it seems like, as I know, quite childish. After about 15 minutes of the two screaming at each other, they decided to leave the salon and walk up to the deck. It seemed that the cool breeze had a calming effect on the two actors, or maybe they just got tired. Who knows? But either way, the quarrel soon died down. As for Natalie, she got up in the middle of their shouting match and went to the master cabin. Wagner saw her fixer hair in the bathroom mirror. After that, she closed the door and went to bed. And that was the last time that he saw Natalie would alive. A tragic discovery.

17:37After Wagner and Walken had calmed down, the lachua retired to his bedroom, while the former stayed up a while longer with Dennis Daven. At around midnight he finally went to bed, only to discover that his wife wasn't there. He went up on deck to look for her, and he noticed that the dinghy was missing too. Strange. Surely Natalie would not have attempted to pilot the dinghy alone at night given a fear of water, but maybe the fight scared her enough to go ashore. This doesn't make a lot of sense though, if it would truly didn't want to sleep aboard the splendor, she could have asked Dennis Daven to take her ashore. Back she did the first night. Plus Wagner was fairly certain that they would have heard the valiant if Natalie started the engine. Confusional worry soon turned to panic and fear. Wagner radioed ashore for a boat to come and pick him up and he went to the island, hoping that his wife had gone back to Doug's harbour reef, the restaurant where they had dinner earlier that night. Of course there had no idea where wood was and the dinghy was nowhere to be found near the dock. This doesn't sound like an unreasonable thing to go check up on. Like why is it, of course, there had no idea. I'd be like that's the first place I'd check. Isn't that reasonable?

18:38Am I missing something? Meanwhile, Daven had called for help on the harbour channel. When Wagner returns after some brief discussions it was agreed to call the coast guard for assistance. When they went out to the splendor they scoured the boat from top to bottom but found nothing suspicious. Then they mounted a search and rescue operation but it was hard to spot anything in the dark. Meanwhile, the trio of Wagner walk in a daven waited for news in the ship Salon without saying anything, getting up only to go to the bathroom. When news finally did arrive it was not good. At around 5.30am the coast guard found the valiant in an isolated cave. It was about a mile and a quarter from where the splendor was mored. The engine was off, the gear was in neutral and the oars were fastened to the side of the dinghy. There was no sign of wood. Shortly after 6am a helicopter was dispatched to aid in the search. About an hour later the pilot called in saying that it spotted something resembling a red bubble floating in the water. A search boat approached to investigate that found Natalie Wood. The man who discovered her, harbour master Doug Bombard described the scene quote, her feet and legs were hanging underneath her. Almost in a standing position like she was just suspended there.

19:40Her arms were out and her face was in the water, with a hair floating on the water around her. I turned her over. Her eyes were open. I knew she was gone. The doctor would Bombard have the unenviable task of informing Robert Wagner that his rife was dead. The actors knees buckled and he had to be held up to prevent him from collapsing. According to Dennis Daven, Wagner then uttered the words, she's gone. She's gone. Oh God, she's gone. Why? The investigation begins. Now, leaving Wagner's account for a moment, initial appearances suggested that the actress had drowned. The red bubble that the pile at spotted was the windbreaker jacket that she was wearing, but beneath it, she was still dressed only in an eye-gown and socks. This is a point often brought up by those who suspect foul play. If Natalie Wood would have left the splendor willingly, surely she would have gotten dressed first, and if she had left aboard the dinghy, why would the keepy in the off position? It seems that some people found the whole thing suspicious from the very beginning.

20:41The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, or LSD deputy, Bill Crawl from Avalon, was the first Norman to respond to the scene. He went to the splendor to interview the men regarding Natalie's disappearance. He took statements from local witnesses on the island and examined Wood's body after it was found. Shortly after leaving the scene on Sunday morning, he wrote up his report and then requested the involvement of the homicide bureau. I feel like if you're these guys, you've got to... If you're completely innocent, even still, you've got to be like, now I've got to get a lawyer and I've got to explain to my lawyer that I didn't do anything, and they'll make sure that I don't get myself in trouble. Right? Actually enough, his report was then classified as an apparent accidental drowning, maybe Crawl had had a change of heart, who knows, or maybe some investigators speculate the classifying was done by one of the deputy's higher-ups who wasn't as keen to have a homicide investigation involving several high-profile celebrities. Alas, you never told his full story at the past away in the 90s. Also drowning in the waters off Catalina, Ireland. It's a hell of a coincidence. Back to the event in question. The discovery of Natalie Wood's lifeless body was just the first step of the investigation,

21:43and Al people wanted to know what happened to her that night. There was something else that needed to be done before that. Even though everyone was certain that it was really her, somebody had to make the official identification. I mean, people know what she looks like, she's very famous. Her husband was the obvious candidate, but he pleaded with Davin to do it instead, saying that he couldn't stand to see her like that, and did he didn't? By his own admission, Wagner never saw his wife's body, not there, not at the morgue, not at the funeral. This is more unusual in America, right? Like, I've never seen a dead body. I've been to funerals, and you know all that stuff, and it's always just, you know, we don't have the casket open in the UK, and yeah, we generally don't look that dead. I wouldn't want to. I'd be like, please, I'd like someone else to do it. Like, this is not for me. A patrol boat arrived, picked up the three men, and took them to the island. Davin went with the officials to make the ID. It was her, by the way, just in case you were wondering. Sure luck. Was not wondering, Rady, but thank you for the clarification.

22:44Meanwhile, Walken and Wagner took a private helicopter provided by the authorities to return to the mainland. This was just one of the concessions that were according to the actors that would probably not be available to your average Joe. Eventually, this led to accusations that the investigation was bungled from the outset by allowing the fame and privilege of the people involved to dictate the course of the inquiry. Also, isn't it, I mean, for their privacy and stuff, like if this was non-famous people and there was this murder, they'd just be taken to shore by boat. There wouldn't be any cameras there. There'd be no journalists, and they'd just walk to the police station for interrogation or whatever. But because these two people are really famous, they can't do that. I mean, they could, but it's going to be miserable for them. Anything is unreasonable to give them the privacy of a helicopter? I'd maybe, I'd maybe bill it to them, though, because they're rich. While all of this was happening on Catalina, Ireland's Los Angeles County was mobilising to investigate another tragic and sudden celebrity death. It was hardly the first, and it definitely wouldn't be the last. Everyone knew it was going to get a lot of attention, especially given the uncertain circumstances around Natalie Woods' demise.

23:46To witness a speak. Veteran LASD detective Dwayne Rasur and crime scene investigator Roy Hamilton were assigned to the case. Together with investigator Pamela Aika from the coroner's office, they took a helicopter from Long Beach. Ballyke went off to view the body. Rasur and Hamilton waited for the arrival of Wagner and Walken. They had some questions to ask them. First, Er was the husband, of course. Wagner gave a very short and vague statement, saying that they were in the salon when Natalie went to her bedroom. After a while he noticed that both she and the dinghy were missing. His interview only lasted six minutes. Rasur concluded that Robert Wagner was in a deeply emotional state at the time and was in no condition to answer questions. Plus he still had to break the heartbreaking news to their children, so he was allowed to leave. Oh, dude. Oh, that's so rough. His second interview which took place on December 4th was a bit more detailed, but not by much.

24:46Plus by this point, Wagner had his lawyer by his side, making sure that his client didn't say anything that would raise any eyebrows. According to the actor, his wife went to bed while he and Walken remained in the salon to chat for another 15 minutes or so. He said nothing about the argument between them. When pressed about the topic they were discussing before would left the room, Wagner said it was about her being away from the kids too much. The police also asked about the broken glass on the floor, which could have been an indication of a fight, but Wagner blamed it on the rough seas, knocking over some empty bottles. Oh, he changed his story later to say like, that's also insane. Like to break a bottle to be like, it's very childish. Next up was Christopher Walken. Obviously, although he was distraught, he was nowhere near the level of Wagner, so his original interview was longer but not by much. Hamilton and Resher probably didn't keep Walken for more than 15 minutes. I'm going to combine their notes to create a more readable account, but Walken's story aligned pretty well with the one we heard from Wagner. With the one notable exception, that he did mention the dispute that arose between the two actors.

25:47According to him, they went out drinking on Saturday night. Walken had a lot to drink, dastily not so much because she wasn't a big drinker. This part would turn out not to be true. They were all drunk and scunked, but I think the deception could be attributed to Walken not wanting to speak ill of the dead. Back on the boat, he and Wagner got into an argument. A small beef, as he put it, but they soon made up and hugged it out. Holy shit, their argument was intense, they were like shouting and breaking bottles. Oh my god. Natalie was just sitting there, probably thinking they were a bunch of our souls. She got up and went to a room. Walken assumed she'd gone to bed, but at some point, Daven noticed that the dinghy was gone, even though none of them heard the engine. Probably around midnight, they looked for both her and the dinghy, but couldn't find either. Wagner called a shoreboat, and they went to the island to look for Natalie, but without any luck. Okay, I mean, this all lines up fairly reasonably in any little lies that have been told or like emissions, fairly harmless and understandable. Like about the not drinking and about the argument, because I mean, you've got to say, there's

26:50celebrities that don't want this out in the press. Like they're fighting before you know. Nothing crazy suspicious so far is what I'm saying. That was the first version of Orkens statement. Just like with Wagner, the second one came a few days later in the presence of his lawyer, and although it didn't differ much, this one was more ex-culpatory. Orkens said that once the trio of men saw that the valiant and Natalie were missing, they all assumed she went to shore, possibly returning to the restaurant. While Agno went to check, Orkens retired to his own bedroom and went to sleep. He said that he slept all night, yet no reason to suspect anything a farrier since would had also spent the first night on the island. Yeah, again, completely reasonable. I thought it was a completely reasonable assumption that she'd gone to shore. I'm not sure why we thought it was so weird. The key difference in the statements is that now Orkens spent the whole night asleep, whereas originally he said they all looked for her in the dinghy. This new version also went against the testimonies of two men from the island, Don Witting, the manager of the restaurant, and Doug Uden, acting harbour master for two harbors, who claimed they'd talked with Agno Walken and Daven aboard the splendor before calling in the Coastguard.

27:52But that was Walken's story and he stuck to it. In the decades that have passed, he's rarely discussed the subject, and whenever he did, it was a variation of the same thing. It was a tragic accident, but he didn't know how it happened. I mean, he could have done this stuff like looked for it and then talked and then gone to bed. Right? The official story. OK, once the detectives arrived on Catalina, Ireland, they went to take Dennis Daven Statement. Of the three men involved, he was the only one who didn't have a fancy high-priced lawyer, so when the questions started getting a bit too personal, such as questions about the argument between Wagner and Walken, Daven declined to answer without consulting RJ and his attorney. Who's, oh, RJ's Walken, right? And indeed, Wagner ensured the services of a criminal defence lawyer, Daven. The instructions of the boat-captain were simple. They say nothing. He did eventually have an interview with the police a few days later, but he didn't say anything major that contradicted the statements from Wagner and Walken. Wagner even had him stay over at the house for the next few days until the matter was

28:55settled. As far as the actor was concerned, he had already said everything he intended to say on the matter. From that point on, his lawyer acted as his spokesman and Wagner avoid due contact with the media, instead presenting this press statement to describe the horror of the events of that night, and it read, While Mr. Agner was in the cabin, Mrs. Wagner apparently went to their state room. When Mr. Agner went to join her, he found that she was not there and that the dinghy was also gone. Since Mrs. Wagner often took the dinghy out alone, Mr. Agner was not immediately concerned. However, when she did not return in 10 to 15 minutes, Mr. Wagner took his small cruiser and went to look for her. Unable to find his wife, Mr. Agner contacted Doug Bombard, whose company leases Ismas Cove and who operates a harbour patrol service there. End quote. This all feels very reasonable. Again, there's nothing very suspicious about this to me yet. I imagine there will be because plenty of people think this is suspicious. I'm just waiting to see what it is. But I don't think it's suspicious that he'd just be like, no, I don't want to talk to the press. I don't want to talk to the police. I've said what I'm going to say.

29:55The rest can be done through my life. Thank you very much. I'm busy. And I just want to be left alone with my family because my wife just died. Yeah, that's fine with me. This apparently still wasn't clear enough. So a few days later, he had a revised version published in Entertainment Tonight, which read what happened is she went downstairs in the boat to the master bedroom. And RJ thought she was going to sleep. And then he went down there 10 or 15 minutes later. When he found out she was gone, he noticed the dinghy was gone. And then he went out with his boat to try and find her. And then he immediately called the coast guard and they made a search and did not discover her all the dinghy until this morning at about 8 o'clock. One could argue, that's the end of the statement, by the way. One could argue that the statement was streamed line for readability as a PR firm would put it and that the small details were unimportant and didn't change the overall story. But one could also argue that it was edited in such a way to show Wagner in a much better light. Just going by his own memoir, we know that he did not use his boat to search for Natalie, especially not his small cruiser because it did not exist. Oh, there are only vessels with a yacht and the dinghy.

30:57Okay, yeah, I mean it wasn't a bit weird that this boat had two little boats. Instead he radioed for a shore boat to come and pick him up and then he went to the island to check at the restaurant. After that he returned to the splendor where he stayed put. He also didn't call the coast guard immediately. Wagner always maintains that he did, but as we will see from the statements of several other people, there are a couple of hours that still remain unaccounted for to this day. Now we're getting to things being a little bit suspicious because I'm like, you did call the coast guard immediately or you didn't. And if you say you did, and then it turns out there are a couple of hours, that's not immediate, is it? So why are you lying? Although there aren't differences between the various versions of events provided by Robert Wagner, but we also have to take into account the context for each one. The press releases were published immediately after Natalie Woods' death. Everyone was still wondering what had happened to the beloved actress, so it's important for Wagner to be the one shaping the narrative. Important for you to be shaping the narrative is the most PR-themed thing that I've ever heard. His memoir, however, came out in 2008 almost 30 years later.

31:57It was old news by then everyone had already made up their mind about what had transpired that night, so Wagner didn't have to be as guarded as before. His strategy seemed to work. Back in 1981 everyone seemed happy to go along with his story. In fact, just two days afterwards on Timely Death, the detectives who had been assigned to our case told the Daily Mirror that it had been the result of an accident. The ones who were challenging Wagner were the tabloids, particularly the National Inquirer. They wrote that the Hollywood husband and wife got completely wasted that night and had a big fight on the island, presumably at the restaurant, and then continued fighting when they arrived aboard the splendor. Then I mean who knows what happened. And they'd also seem that despite having what seemed to be a suspicious death on their hands, the LASD were very eager to label it an accident as soon as possible. Now let's be honest, the National Inquirer probably would have printed that or something to that effect regardless of the circumstances, but they might have had a point when they said that the authorities seemed keen to close the case, A-TAP. But there was one more person who needed to weigh in on the investigation.

32:58Yeah, I'd say it's pretty important that all current airways in. Because it's a suspicious death, right? Just we continue a quick word from our fantastic sponsor, Shopify. Look, people love waiting for the perfect time to start something, don't they? But the perfect time never seems to actually arrive, does it? I mean, you might have been sitting on that business idea for some time and just thinking, I should have a crack at that. Why not? Well, Shopify gives you everything you need to turn it into a real store from day one. Shopify checkout helps more customers finish their purchase and when they come back, their details already save so they can check out in one tap, which I mean, personally is something I love when I'm shopping online and then it's just like, you get to the checkout, I start off in here before, have I? Click and I say, well as long as it hasn't been four years of my credit card as it expired, we're good to go. Because Shopify handles the setup and the checkout, you could spend less time wrestling with the systems and more time growing your business, which Shopify nothing stands between your idea and a real business so go and make it one why not.

33:58So if you're ready to stop putting off your business idea and start hearing, then you're ready for Shopify, start your free trial at Shopify.com slash casual today. That's right, start your free trial at Shopify.com slash casual, that's shopavai.com slash casual. The coroner to the stars. We arrive now at the accounts provided by Dr. Thomas Naguchi. Serving as the chief medical examiner for the LA County during the 60s, 70s and 80s, he might hold the strange distinction of performing more optopsies on famous celebrities than any other person in history. That is why he was known as the coroner to the stars. And in 1983, after his retirement, he published a book titled Coroner. It examines some of his most notorious cases, including the likes of Marilyn Monroe, John Belouchy, Sharon Tate, William Holden, and of course Natalie Wood. So let's see what he had to say. The Guchi's account began with a story within a story because he first presented the narrative of Paul Miller, a deputy with the LA County Medical Examiner's office.

34:59This was the first time I saw him mentioned anywhere, but he was described by Naguchi as their chief consultant on ocean accidents, and wouldn't you believe it, he had been just a few minutes away on that fateful night. According to the coroner, Miller had also spent their weekends on Catalina Island, because this miscoeuvre was so remote, it was no place to dock a yacht, so all the big ships had to moor out in the bay. There we go, that's where you got the little boat. How did the Natalie woman think that she doesn't take that boat? Of course she does. As it happens, Miller's own boat, the easy rider, was more to the same boy as the splendor on the night of Wood's death. And not only that, but he went to the same restaurant as the Wagner's that night. Leaving earlier, he was on the deck of his scooner and saw the actors return from the restaurant, and he was the first person to respond later that night when Wagner called for assistance. This was pretty surprising to read, and just to be sure, I went back to Wagner's memoir, to search on the name Paul Miller, and it's literally not mentioned once. But Miller's account provided some important bits of information. He said that he didn't hear anything coming from the splendor that night, but also that

36:01there was a pretty big party taking place nearby with loud music, so that could have drowned out any Christ for help. Like on another boat, because they're quite far out, no? He also mentions that he had witnessed Natalie Wood earlier that day, taped the valiant to the shore alone, so it seems that her fear of dark water did not prevent her from operating the dinghy on her own. However, that was during the day while she was sober. Tipsy at night, they were a little bit more than tipsy, right? What's the corollary going to say about that? Might've been a different matter, and we already know that during the first night, she asked Dennis Daven to take her ashore. She didn't go alone. Anyway, at 1.15am, Miller got out of bed, and he wanted to sleep at Kudden because of the rock music, plaring from the party. He turned on his radio, then switched it to the harbour channel, intending to contact the island's private coast or detail known as the Baywatch. Excellent. It's come and quiet down the revelry. Nobody answered. Chances were good that the Baywatch were already at the party, getting their groove on. Life lessened there if you want to throw a loud late night shindig, make sure to invite the guy in charge of shutting you down. Surely not.

37:03While Miller was on the radio, someone else's voice came through. It was Robert Wagner. He told him that Natalie and the valiant were missing. Because anyone can listen in on the harbour channel, Don Witting, the night manager of the restaurant, where they all dined out, also heard their conversation. Witting, being the local, arranged for a friend to go and a boat to the splendor, pick up Wagner and bring him ashore. From then on, the events of the night are a repeat of what we've already heard. To the coroner, Miller's presence there was an unbelievable stroke of luck, so unsurprisingly, he tasked him with conducting his own investigation, and Niguchi gave him four specific points to focus on. Check the stern of the splendor for disturbances or evidence of violence. Check the valiant for the same. Check the algae on the bottom of the splendor's swimming step. Doctors could suggest someone grabbed on and tried to re-board the boat. Check the sides of the valiant for fingernail scratches. Again, they could indicate that someone tried to climb a board from the water. Days later, Niguchi got a call from Miller. Up until now, the coroner had been inclined to agree with Wagner's version of events. Natalie Wood slipped on the boat and fell in the water.

38:04But Miller said, no way. That was not what happened. He told the coroner, he had it wrong, Tom. Natalie Wood didn't die like you think. Now according to Miller, the winds played a key factor. Thanks to geography of the Ismascove, a wind funnel is formed that blows straight into the bay where the splendor was mauled. So anyone who tried to get out of the bay would have faced the wind head on. And it was gusty night that night. Not a big deal for a yacht, but different prospect altogether for a rubber inflatable dinghy. I mean, if he's got a motor though, it's going to be able to do a bit of wind. Miller had found fingernail scratches on the valiant, but no traces in the algae beneath the splendor. This suggested that while in the water, Natalie Wood had tried to climb board the dinghy, not the yacht. Given a choice between the two, anyone sensible would opt for the yacht. After all, it had a swimming step specifically designed to help you get out of the water. The dinghy had nothing like that, and yet Natalie Wood chose it over the yacht. In Miller's mind, this could only mean one thing. There was no actual choice to be made, because the valiant and the splendor were not next

39:04to each other. That's a pretty fair assumption. You could have just been quite drunk, because we know they were really quite drunk, right? There is Al things went down that night, according to Naguchi with the extra information from Miller. Natalie Wood untied the dinghy. Why exactly? The coroner didn't speculate, but the strong winds immediately began pushing the valiant away from the yacht. Then Natalie Wood fell in the water. Again, Naguchi did not speculate on how that happened, but once she was in, she hooked her arm over the side of the dinghy to keep her afloat. In her panic and confusion, she might not have realized just how quickly she was being blown away from the safety of the splendor. In just a few seconds, she could have been 20 to 30 yards away. By the time she had regained her composure, it was too late. She was too far away from the yacht to reach it, especially since she was not a strong swimmer. The loud music on the beach drowned out any calls for help. Natalie Wood was drifting helplessly, hanging on with all of her might to her only lifeline, the valiant. Then a new wave of terror hit her as the actress realized she could not climb up the dinghy from her position.

40:04The valiant had large cylindrical sides. Other than hooking them with an arm, Natalie Wood could not physically lift the rest of her body over them. Uh oh. This is pretty terrifying. I have a thought. I think this is pretty reasonable speculation on the part of the coroner and the cop here. But I think if she did get in, so she put her jacket on, even though she was slaining night clothes, which is a little bit odd. But she could be going to the hotel where she stayed out on the shore ride. She's, I'm not going to get dressed. I'll just throw my coat on, get in the dinghy and go back in. But then you asked the immediate question, well, why didn't she start the engine? And I reckon she wanted to slip away. So she'd get the dinghy, she'd untie it, she'd be in the dinghy. The dinghy would like go away from the boat, she'd drift a little bit, then when she's mostly out of the air shot of the boat to not disturb the guys on the boat, just to kind of get away from them because they seem to be having this fight. They should have done one of your part off, she didn't want to cause a fast, so she should just slip away. And I think she'd have let the boat drift a little bit. And then, you know, from there. So I don't think it's if the speculation about why she didn't start the engine, I think

41:08that's probably what she was doing. Neguchi believed that the bruises on her lower legs indicated that the actress went around to the back of the boat and tried to climb over the motor but couldn't manage that either. She was tired, and a jacket was now wet and heavy making every movement extra difficult. Every passing second, wood was being pushed further and further. Hypersermia had become a dangerous and very real possibility. But she had one last hope, to reach shore. With one hand, she held onto the valley and for dear life. With her legs, she paddled toward the beach. After a while, she saw blue-caven point. There wouldn't be any boat sank at in that cove, but at least she would have been protected from the wind. Natalie would try making her way there, but she just didn't have it in her anymore. Her body was numb. All the strength had been sapped from it. Just a couple of hundred yards away, Hypersermia caused her to slip into unconsciousness. And then, as a grip on the dinghy gave way, the actress sank beneath the waves and drowned. So, right now, there's some errors in their story. There's some that the one about him saying he called the coast guard, but then it was actually

42:10like two hours later or whatever, is suspicious. But I feel this is a very reasonable explanation of what happened to her. So, but I know there's quite a bit of suspicion, so let's find out why people are more suspicious. The autopsy. So, that is what Naguchi believed happened to Natalie Wood. But even if you were to accept his version of events as the truth, he kind of glossed over two key details at the beginning there. Why the valiant was untied from the splendor, and most importantly, how Natalie Wood ended up in the water? Yeah, that's like...it could have been windy, so she could have like...I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that she was pushing the boat out. It's very windy. She tries to get into the boat, she slips. The boat is immediately carried pretty far away, she can't climb into the boat, and she hasn't started the motor, so...I think she probably slipped as she was getting into the dinghy. Those can make the difference between an accident and something far more nefarious.

43:12But to be fair to Naguchi, he was the coroner, it wasn't his job to determine either of those two facts, so let's get to what was his job, the autopsy. Well begin with another short account, that of Pamela Ika, the investigator on his staff who went along to the islands with the two detectives. She was the first medical professional who examined Natalie Wood's body, and this was her official report. Decedent's body had been taken from the ocean and placed in the hyperbaric chamber for safekeeping. Upon this investigator's arrival at location, Decedent observed lying in stokes litter. Decedent observed lying in soxia what's that mean. Decedent is wrapped in plastic sheet. She herself is dressed in flannel nightgown and sox. The jacket that she was wearing when found floating is no longer on the body, having come off when she was pulled from the water. So how do you say that? It means like a deceased person, right? But I don't think I've ever said that word before, Decedent. At the time, Decedent was pulled from the water. Sheriff's personnel say that the body was absent of any rigor, and that they noted foam coming from her mouth. Decedent still has foam coming from mouth. Rigor is now present, so they three to four-plus throughout her entire body.

44:15Decedent has numerous bruises, to legs and arms. Decedent's eyes are also a bit cloudy appearing. No other trauma noted, and foul play is not suspected at this time. End quote. Now the actual autopsy took place on Monday morning in November 30th, one day after Natalie Woods' body was recovered. It was actually performed by Dr. Joseph Choi, one of Noguchi's deputy medical examiner, as widely supervised. Here are the note where the facts that they uncovered. I hope there's something here that suspect I don't know, I mean, I don't hope. But there should be something here that's suspicious, right? Because so far, not suspicious. To me at least. Maybe you're suspicious, dear audience. I'm not suspicious yet. There was a widespread bruise, roughly four inches by one inch, over the lateral part of Woods' right arm. The good she was fairly certain this was caused by her holding onto the dinghy for so long. Another site's superficial bruise about half an inch in diameter was on her left wrist caused by her struggling in the water. There were numerous skin bruises over her lower legs. They were all superficial and fresh, and the coroner believed that they were the result of the actress trying to climb into the dinghy.

45:15Two other fresh bruises, both about two inches in diameter, on her left knee and right ankle, possibly the result of trying to climb over the dinghy's motor. The only headwind was a vertical brush type abrasion on the left cheek, no injuries to the skull. When her body was found, Natalie was wearing a flat on nightgown wool socks and a red down jacket. They were still wet at the time of the autopsy, and the jacket, saturated with water, was extremely heavy, weighing between 30 and 40 pounds. If you're in the water and you've got down is fantastic at keeping you warm, but it's also for dastardly heavy if it absorbs water, which is done here. You've got to take that off before you climb in the boat, no? Why would you take that off? The good she speculated that had the actress taken the jacket off, she could have been able to climb inside the dinghy, right? Everyone knows that if you fall in the water and you need to swim, you've got to take off like your heavy clothes, take off your trousers, take off your jacket, and get swimming. It's not going to keep you warm. The toxicology report showed that Woods Blood Alcole level was 0.14%, which was 0.04% over the intoxication standard set by California's vehicular code at the time.

46:17It was 0.1, you could drive with 0.1, the UK is 0.08, which I believe is the same as a lot of America, but in Europe that's regard as pretty high. It's the highest, I believe, along with Malta, and it's double the next country that allows you to drink a drive. I live in a country in Czech where you can't drink at all, you've got to blow a 0.00, and every time that you get pulled over by the police the other day, I didn't have a highway to get. You know, the vignettes that you get could travel on the highway, I forgot to renew mine, they pulled me over and they gave me a fine. And every time you get pulled over, they breathalyze you. The first time I'm having to me, I was like, dude, it's like 11 o'clock in the morning. It's a type of breathalyzer, and it's just apparently it's every time you get pulled over, you get breathalyzed. And of course, I blew a 0.00 because don't drink and drive kids. The coroner considered her high blood alcohol level to be a deadly factor. If she had not been so impaired, she probably would have thought to take off the heavy jacket and may have survived.

47:19Case closed. Now the biggest knock against Noguchi that I've seen mentioned multiple times is that he let the whole coroner to the star's thing go to his head and that he enjoyed the spotlight a little too much. And it's hard to argue with that point when the doctor scheduled a press conference on the afternoon of November 30th, just hours after finishing the autopsy. The coroner defended his actions in his book by reasoning that, in the short time that had passed since Natalie Woods' death, many sorted rumors had already appeared. Some suggested that a violent fight took place aboard the splendor. Others that had loved trying up between Wood, Wagner and Walken was the reason behind the altercation. And of course, there were the rumors that Natalie's death had not been accidental. The Gucci said that it was his responsibility to present the facts to either dismiss or substantiate those rumors. We've, yeah, pretty reasonable. He's a little bit of an excuse and you also get a little bit of fame. Don't you, but I think that's pretty reasonable. And so that afternoon he walked up to the podium in a room full of media and declared that Natalie Woods' death had been an accident, not a homicide or a suicide.

48:23He said, mis-wooded appears, based on our investigation. Around midnight, shortly after midnight on Sunday morning, she apparently attempted to get onto the dinghy, slipped and fell in the water, unable to return to the dinghy or the boat. And later her body was found a mile away. The boat, the dinghy, was also found close to the shore. There were two controversial points that Noguchi wanted to tiptoe around, because he knew they would grab the attention of any journalist looking for a juicy angle on the story. First the blood alcohol level. At 0.14%, Natalie Woods had crossed the threshold for legal intoxication. Just two weeks earlier, Noguchi held a similar press conference to announce the results for the death of actor William Holden, who got drunk, fell and if he said on a table. Coroner said that alcohol played a part in Holden's death, which was true, but it seems that this statement got Noguchi a lot of angry calls from the actor's family and friends. He was hesitant to do it again, but he knew that the journalists would pick up on it anyway. It was in the report. It's a bit, yeah, he's just doing his job. It's like, do I feel that alcohol led to this death? Yes. I'm a doctor. He's a doctor, whatever.

49:23He's like doing his job, he's a coroner. It's like, I'm just doing the meds indeed. The coroner said that Natalie Woods had been slightly intoxicated after doing some recreational drinking during dinner. He did not believe that drunkenness caused her to fall in the water. When a run reporter asked him if her intoxication played any role in his death, he said yes. The intoxication was one of the factors involved in the fact that she was not able to respond well to the emergency after she was in the water. And then came the second point. One which the coroner hoped to avoid altogether, but the press had done the research. They asked why Natalie would try to leave the art. The Gucci probably should have said that he didn't know or that he didn't want to speculate. Instead, he brought up a heated but non-violent arguments between Robert Wagner and Christopher Walkenny then said, an argument apparently took place, not involving Miss Wagner, but Mr. Wagner and the other actor. And Miss Wagner apparently did not get involved and apparently that may be the cause of herself separating from this group. Three apparently's, in a row, enough to pick the interest of any scandal news-hound worth his salt.

50:24Clearly, this was something that the Gucci did not want to discuss, which meant it was definitely something to pursue. The detail that could fuel hundreds of extra articles based on nothing but rampant speculation. The press never. If some kind of fight had taken place, then the human mind would automatically assume that there could be more to Natalie Woods' death than a simple accident. I mean… Pfff. Newspapers are going to newspaper, right? The bit too late, the Gucci had realised that he was out of his depth and asked his press liaises on Richard Wilson to take over. He stated, there was an argument between Mr. Wagner and the other gentleman, the actor. I can't remember his name right now. There was a non-violent argument. In other words, they were arguing about general purposes. We don't know specifically why. There was no physical altercation. Each of the two gentlemen were examined, looked over by our investigators, as well as sheriff's investigators. There were no physical marks, or whatever. End quote. Even so it was too late, but the genie back at the bottle, the press had their angle, and they were running with it.

51:24This actually caused a bit of a dispute between the coroner's office and the sheriff's department, who didn't appreciate New Gucci putting that information out into the public. Yeah, it's not your job, mate. Just do the medicine. You were doing just fine. Until you did this. Two days later, the front page story on the LA Times was a rebuttal from Roy Hamilton, one of the LAST detectives in charge of the case, and he was throwing some shade at New Gucci. The article wrote,

53:14The coroner wrote about it in a book, and they didn't, and two, there wasn't that much of an investigation to speak of. It seems that the detectives were ready to declare the whole thing an accident, almost from the outset. The three men involved all loyered up, and were only interviewed for a few minutes each. The police took witness statements and inspected the yacht, but as I already mentioned, just two days after we drowned, the detectives were already telling the media that her death had been an accident, and were completely downplaying the argument angle. On December 1st, one day after that autopsy, Natalie Wood was buried. Apparently this was all arranged by Robert Wagner, who called up Dr. Joseph Troy, the coroner who performed the autopsy, and asked for a speedy procedure so that the body would be ready for the funeral on Tuesday. Or, exactly, the coroner's office complied with a request from a private citizen, particularly when he was involved in the case actively being worked on, and we can only speculate. But it probably had something to do with this being rich, famous, and having expensive lawyers on speed dial. Almost certainly. On December 11th, 1981, the case was officially closed.

54:16The Hollywood actress, Natalie Wood, had died as the result of an accidental drowning. I gotta say, I don't think this is unsolved. I keep reading, and I keep expecting more suspicious circumstances to be introduced, but I'm like, this just seems to be a tragic accident. Publish your parish. And with that, Natalie Wood became another tragic Hollywood story. From the beginning, most people involved seemed content with labelling half-eight in accidents and getting on with their lives. Eventually, with no new developments to mention, even the tabloids had to find a new scandal to milk absolutely dry. And that is how things stood for almost two decades. Okay, so there's going to be something more suspicious, because it seems like everyone else was like, yeah, it's probably an accident. For something new, it's going to come about, right? A long time later, which is weird. Let's find out what it is. And that is how things stood for almost two decades. Sure, there were still whispers and rumours that there was more to her death than what we've

55:17been told. For one, Lana Wood always maintained that Robert Wagner played some role in his sister's death without outright accusing him of it. Not to be outdone, he counted with claims that Lana was merely trying to capitalize on the tragedy, seeking to profit as much as possible from her sister's untimely demise. Indeed, this included publishing, not one, but two books about Natalie Wood, one which came out just a year after her death, and the other, which was released just a few years ago. But that was not all. According to Wagner, who couldn't help but take a few shots at her and at his own memoir, he wrote, Natalie's will didn't leave her sister Lana any money, just her clothes. A few days after I went back to work, Lana called the house, and said she wanted her inheritance. Liz, Natalie's secretary, explained that the will hadn't been probated yet, but Lana kept calling and demanding her property, which included some fur coats that were particularly valuable. I wanted Natasha and Courtney to have those, so I told Liz to have the coats appraised, and I would send Lana the money. The coats were appraised at $11,000, so I sent Lana a check for that amount, and told her that she could have everything else. Whoa.

56:18Jesus Christ, that's some expensive coat, this was the 80s. That's got to be like 60 grand, 5060 grand today. The quote continues, Damn, if Lana didn't take me literally, she pulled up a truck and proceeded to strip Natalie's walk-uncloset down to the walls. She even took the underwear. The clothes ended up on sale in a store on Ventura Boulevard that dealt in second-hand clothing. Lana then promptly rushed to write a ridiculous book about her sister that was published a year after Natalie died. Her writing career went about as well as her acting career. At least she was consistent. There's nothing but a word! Oh, burn-ditch! Clearly there was no love-loss between Robert Wagner and Lana Wood, but her accusations didn't really amount much. After all, she hadn't been there that night, so she couldn't possibly know what happened. All Lana Wood could bring to the table were her personal suspicions. Someone else needed to be the one to shed light on the incident. But who? It was clear it was never going to be Wagner or Walken. They gave their official statements on the matter and wanted nothing more to do with the whole ordeal. Yeah, I don't blame him. You just run it as light I've said what I'm going to say and I'm done.

57:20I'm going to get back to my successful acting career, especially in the case of Christopher Walken. But there was a third band there that night, the bow captain, Dennis Daven. And after a decade or so of silence, he seemed ready to talk. For the right price. Oh no, so oh, I don't like that. It's like the book thing. It's like, yeah, money. If there is one consistent criticism of Daven as a witness, is that his actions always seem to be financially notivators. As early as the mid 80s, he began accepting payments to retell his version of events, to various tabloids or TV programs culminating with appearance on Gerardo in 1992, where he was secretly filmed, implying that there was much more to the story and that he was withholding the spiciest information for a big payday. What Daven truly wanted was a book deal, but no publishers were interested. I mean, how are you going to spin a book out of this dude? It's not that it's not that big of a tale to tell. At least not back then they weren't. Eventually Daven did contribute to a book titled Goodbyin Atelier, Goodby Splendor, which

58:23came out in 2006. However, that was not the publication that set things in motion for the second chapter of the investigation into the death of Patelie Wood. No, that would be the biography of the actress titled Natasha by journalist and biographer, Suzanne Finstad. The book came out in 2001. By then, there were already other biographies of Natalie Wood available, in order to be successful, they needed a hook. So in the lead up to its publication, the book was advertised as having damning new details about the death of the beloved actress. Obviously, Robert Wagner refused to be interviewed for it, but more than that, he cooperated with a different biography of Natalie, one that was authored by Gavin Lampert, which was due to come out at the same time. Years later, Finstad asserted that Lampert had absolutely no interest in writing a bi on Natalie Wood. He was doing it simply as a favor to Wagner, who was behind the entire project, to counter Finstad's explosive and controversial work with a fluff piece that was careful to show Wagner in a good light. This again feels like some equality PR firm has arranged this for a very large amount

59:25of money. Unfortunately for Wagner, this was a blunder that had a strife and effect. If Finstad's book had been published on its own, who knows how many people would have cared, but dueling bios that were coming out at the same time that directly contradicted each other, that grabbed people's attention. All of a sudden, everyone was interested in Natalie Wood's death. A new story told. Although the competition between the two bios was the catalyst for the renewed attention to the last moments of the actress, the first new in-depth report on them as a was actually an article in Vanity Fair, which was published earlier in March 2000 to take advantage of the extra publicity surrounding the story. It concluded that, quote, Natalie Wood's fatal fall was not simply an accident, as Robert Wagner has maintained, but the final act in a two-day drama of jealousy and rage, fueled by around the clock drinking. End quote. They'd interview Dennis Daven and Dwayne Rezure, the LASD detective who handled the case back in 1981.

1:00:25This time, the investigator was more open with his findings and shared a copy of the police report, which provided never-before-seen details and testimonies. It seemed that the bad blood between husband and wife has started from the first night, not the second, when Wood spent the night ashore. The fight between Wood and Wagner was longer and more heated than the actor initially let on. At one point, Daven asked Walker to interfere, but he simply told him, never get involved in an argument between a man and a wife and confine himself to his room. Pretty good advice, to be honest. I'm not getting involved in that mess, mate. Off I go to my cabin. Eventually, Natalie asked Daven to take a reshore to find a hotel, and the two spent the night together. This was a point the boat captain refused to discuss during his first interview with the police. In fact, he denied they went ashore at all, claiming that all four spent the first night on the splendor. This was a stupid lie that was easily debunked by the detectives when they spoke to the hotel employees. So during the second interview, when Daven was accompanied by the two lawyers hired by Robert Wagner, he fessed up. He admitted to staying in the same room, saying, we thought it best for me to stay with her.

1:01:27For protection, she knew I wasn't going to make any kind of play for her. She was comfortable with me. But just what he's on a boat. You've got the only boat. He's literally stuck on a boat out there. Like, he's going to come ashore and find you and find your room in the hotel. This is exceptionally unnecessarily paranoid. Also, these people are clearly very rich. Be like, you know what? We could have two hotel rooms. Like, what? On the second night, the group went to Doug's Arbery for dinner, and testimonies from the people there indicated that the rift between husband and wife was obvious. Their waitress, Kristina Quinn, said they drank two bottles of wine, two bottles of champagne and several dacaries, and the Natalie Wood was in a bad mood, complaining about every little thing. And at one point, throwing a glass on the floor. No, no. I feel like, if you're famous, you can't miss behave like this, because people are going to be like, oh, you, I know you, I'm God. I was renting a car the other day. And it was like, there's long ass line. There was one dude, and there was, I'm, get, I'm standing there, my kids are screaming.

1:02:30And as long as I'm just waiting. And this dude is like going through, why swear? He's like all these crazy unnecessary details. And there's like four counters, and they're all unmanned. And it's the middle of the day at Heathrow. And I feel so bad, because I go up and I'm like, you know, I'm not very pleased. I'm like, ah, right, you know, it's, uh, it's a long way. So I'm just feeling a little bit blunt. And I was a bit blunt. The guy's like, by the way, big fan. I'm like, oh, God, I'm so sorry. I forgot, I can't be a dick sometimes. Oh, oh, God. Don Whitting, the manager said that he thought at the time there was some possible problems between Robert Wagner and his wife, the victim. He remembered some glass being broken, possibly thrown. He was of the impression that Robert Wagner was a little bit irritated with his wife. Kurt Craig of the Harbour Patrol office saw the party board the valiant to return to the yacht and said he heard a scream come from the female. He thought that she may have been drunk and was unhappy at something that had happened in the restaurant. Here is what Robert Wagner said happened in an interview back in 1986.

1:03:34Quote, we reached the boat in a happy frame of mind after spending a few hours at the restaurant eating and drinking. During dinner, I got into a political debate with Walken and we continued it aboard the yacht. There was no fight, no anger, just a lot of words thrown about like here in most political discussions, such as, you don't know what you're talking about. Natalie sat there saying not much of anything and looking bored, she left her after about half an hour. And we sat there talking for almost another hour, then I went to kiss her good night and found her missing. I mean also, I wouldn't say like, oh no, we're having a raging fight, absolutely raging and then she turned up dead, of course you're downplay it. And here is what Dennis Daven said really happened in his Vanity Fair interview. The wine is flowing, we opened another bottle, then Natalie lit her beeswax candles, RJ was drinking scotch by Ben and I joined him. So we're sitting there. And Chris and Natalie are giggling and carrying on the same as before, totally forgetting that me and RJ are there. I'm saying to myself, oh god, this is getting to be too much right now. All of a sudden RJ grabbed a bottle of wine and smashed it right on the table in front

1:04:37of them. Glass goes flying all over. Jesus Christ, what are you trying to do? My wife? Christopher got up in two or three seconds and headed right out the door. Now Natalie says, I'm not standing for this a minute longer. He goes down to her state room and slams her door. Christopher goes right down to his state room. Now I'm left alone with RJ. I say, RJ, let's calm down. We stayed up there for a little while. Then RJ says, I'm going to go down there and see Natalie. At that point Daven remained on the bridge, so he didn't see exactly what happened next, but he could hear the couple fighting like crazy in a way that had never seen them before. They were shouting at the top of their lungs, things were getting thrown around and smashed to the ground. Then he heard the dinghy being untied. And then silence. I don't really believe him. I think like you would have, the risk of not saying anything to the police if they dig something up is like, isn't that like obstruction or something? And now you're getting paid for it. Like in my opinion, this feels a bit made up, maybe not made up, but like overblown a lot.

1:05:46At around 1130, Wagner returned, tussled, sweating profusely as if it had been in a terrible fight, an ordeal of some kind. He refused to comment on what had just happened. Instead, he opened another bottle of wine and he and Daven drank it on the bridge. After out an hour, Wagner got up and said he was going to go check on Natalie, only returned a few minutes later and simply declared she's gone. Daven claimed he was the one who went to look for her, checking in every room and then noticing that the valiant was missing. Reading all sorts of different accounts about Natalie would, it's kind of hard to pin point exactly how debilitating a fear of dark water was. Some said she was just fine as long as she was inside a boat, even the dinghy and that she had no problem taking the valiant out on her own. Others said, her phobia was famous in all of Hollywood and that Natalie would even struggle to filming water scenes in a tank on a studio lot surrounded by people. Actor and pal Robert Blake, who had to keep a calm while filming a water scene in this property, is condemned, said there wasn't enough alcohol in the world to make Natalie have anything to do with a rubber dinghy in the ocean in the dark.

1:06:46Except she'd gone out multiple times in the rubber dinghy in the dark because that's how you get from the boat to the shore. Right? Fispar, Daven agreed, saying that the stars were not out that night and it was pitch black outside. There was no way that Natalie would have attempted to take the dinghy out alone. But here was where Daven's accusations against Wagner became much more serious. Up until now, even with all the new information, it was still possible for the couple to have had a fight and everything that happened in Natalie to slip in an accident. But according to Daven, Wagner actively impeded the search for his wife. First the boat captain wanted to down the floodlights and look for Natalie. His boss told him no. Then he wanted to start the engine and cruise around searching for her. Again, Wagner said no. His main concern seemed to be to not let anyone around them know that something was wrong. The timeline. Wagner of course always maintained that they began looking for his wife the moment they noticed she was gone, but the timeline suggests otherwise.

1:07:47Let's try to recreate it as best we can. Mordorball people said that the group left the restaurant around 10pm, Don Whitting, the restaurant manager called Kurt Craig of the Harbour Patrol at that hour to inform him that the force had left dogs harbour reef and were very drunk. Whitting asked him to ensure that they reached the splendor safely. The argument of involving Wagner and Walken happens soon after they were aboard the yacht. Natalie would retreat to a room immediately, so this would have been sometime around 10.45. It's hard to say exactly when the rest of the group noticed that she was missing. This is the part where various statements contradict each other, but it was definitely before midnight. Everybody agrees on this point. So then the question is, why did Robert Wagner, Whitting hour and a half, maybe even two hours, before alerting anyone? In his memoir, the actor didn't offer exact times, which is smart of him. However, he did say that it was around 1.30pm when he reached the restaurant again to see if his wife had returned there. This meant that during the previous hours, he had realised that Natalie had gone, had searched for her, alerted the shore, requested a boat to come pick him up and then travelled to

1:08:47the island. It lines up if we accept that he acted immediately after noticing his wife's disappearance. Wait, so where were the two unaccounted hours? But that's not what other people have said. Going back to the account of Paul Miller, the coroner's investigator, he said it was around 1.30pm when he heard Wagner radio that someone was missing aboard the splendor to ask for help. Don Whitting, who was the one who arranged for a vote to come pick Wagner up, also said the same thing. And a third man named Paul Wintler said he heard Wagner on the radio at 1.30pm. He was also the one who went to pick Wagner up in a boat and brought him a shore. So if we accept their testimonies, there are a couple of hours unaccounted for. Yeah, I mean, I definitely, this is the first properly suspicious thing in today's episode. And I mean, we touched on it earlier, I said it was suspicious. But you've got basically three people saying, no, it's 1.30 when he called, which doesn't line up with what he said. So what's up? While Wagner went to the restaurant, Wintler did a cursory search along the shoreline. By 2.30pm, they were both back on the splendor while Witting was at the pier conducting the

1:09:49search efforts with Wintler. Witting and Wintler. Everyone is at W in today's episode. It's Wagner, Woods, Walken, Wintler, Witting. What's going on? But it was clear that they needed professional help. Apparently now, even Wagner did not want to call the coast guard. So instead, Witting woke up Doug Odin, the harbour master who took a skiff and went out to the yacht. According to him, both Wagner and Daven were so drunk they could barely stand up or speak coherently. Odin arranged for five volunteers to use their boats to conduct a search, checking the shoreline, the beach and a few popular boat spots. No luck. Returns of the splendor after about 45 minutes convincing Wagner that there was no choice but defying the coast guard. They finally made the call at 3.30pm but by then Natalie Wood had been in the cold water for four hours and it was undoubtedly too late to save her. Wait, I mean, they don't know where she is, she could be in the boat. Like the boat could have drifted off with her in it. Right? So you definitely want it late and then she got the big coat on, she'd be fine.

1:10:53Why are we assuming that she's not in the boat? Case reopened. This new far more nefarious version of events certainly showed Robert Wagner in a much darker light but it still relied heavily on the testimony of Dennis Daven, a man who wanted to profit as much as possible from the story and who had a serious grudge against Wagner. Initially the actor looked after his boat captain, he would give him checks, a thousand dollars here, two thousand dollars there. Something which, for whatever reason, Daven did not consider hush money because his daughter, J, was a real friend. Wagner got into acting roles in commercials, he got him into the screen act as girls and even a small role on Wagner's hit TV show Heart to Heart. But then a few years passed and it all went away. Wagner donated the yacht to a youth boating club and completely cut out Daven from his life. Ever since then the former boat captain has been flogging his story to tabloids and TV shows, always giving it away by piecemeal and always suggesting that he had more to say as long as the check cleared. I can't, you can't trust this guy. This didn't really make him an ideal witness and even in the Vanity Fair article he hinted

1:11:56he still had not told the whole story. Daven was really angling for that book deal, but it seems that he wasn't the only one in the world to know the truth, or at least the truth according to Dennis Daven. There was a second person. Lana Wood, the sister? Okay, I mean she wrote her own book and capitalised on it a little but she wasn't even there. It seems that way back in 1992, Lana Wood received an unexpected phone call from Daven, who was drunk and was remorseful. It sounded like he just wanted to confess to someone so he told Lana the true story. It was more or less like in the Vanity Fair article with one major exception. While the husband and wife were having the biggest ruff their lives on the rear deck, Daven did not stay on the bridge until Wagner joined him. No, he went to see what was going on and he saw Natalie go overboard during the fight. He quickly went to help her, but Wagner ordered him to stop yelling, leave her there, teacher a lesson. The actor was in such a foul mood that he just kept screaming his wife and berating her while she was struggling in the water. Eventually he relented, but by that point they couldn't find her anymore.

1:12:58This no, I don't know, I'm sorry, like I don't believe you and also this story makes you look like a piece of sh- it doesn't matter what's happening because someone's drowning in the water, you're a bow captain, you can swim, jump out into the water and rescue her. This what any person would do. It doesn't matter if the boss is screaming, don't do this, it's like well I'm not going to let her die. Right? Any reasonable human being would be in that water. For whatever reason, Lana would decide to keep this secret for almost a decade until it came out in Cisand Finn's dad's book, not really surprising that Wagner tried to discredit it as much as possible, but it could have been even more accusatory. Allegedly, Lana would also said that Daven told her that he not only saw Natalie go overboard, but that Wagner had pushed her. Obviously pushing someone into the water is far more serious than watching them fall and doing nothing, especially from a legal point of view and especially when the person being accused as expensive lawyers. Which is why this is the only part that Daven has ever denied, claiming that he never witnessed the actual moment when Natalie would went overboard, which is why Finn's dad didn't

1:14:01include it in her bio, although she did mention it in her revised edition 20 years later. And there seems to be good reason why the story is being revisited after all this time. In 2013, the Los Angeles County's coroner office officially changed Natalie Wood's course of death to drowning and other undetermined factors. The motivation were a number of bruises on her body, particularly on her wrists, that were never satisfactorily explained. What was, who's digging this up like decades later? The new chief medical examiner was Lakshaman Sathya Vagus Warren, a man who had his own brush with fame like Thomas Neguchi, handling high-profile cases like O.J. Simpson's murder trial and the death of Michael Jackson. He wrote in the report, The location of the bruises, the multiplicity of the bruises, lack of head trauma, or facial bruising, support bruising having occurred prior to entry in the water. Since there are unanswered questions and limited additional evidence available for evaluation, it is abhined by this medical examiner that the matter of death should be left as undetermined. End quote

1:15:01Since then, the case has been officially reopened. There are a few new witness statements to consider, although in reality the word, new, isn't really appropriate here. The first demons have existed all this time. It was just that no investigator deemed them important. First was Warren Archer, a man who's at the restaurant that sat at a night and sent over a bottle of champagne to the Wagner table. He also had a boat called the Vantage, more than in the same Bay as the Splendor, and he later called them to invite them over for drinks. He spoke to Wagner who declined the invitation, but Archer said that he could hear Natalie wood in the background, screaming at Arsmond. It was his belief that he interrupted the couple during a fight. He also stated that later that night he looked at the Splendor and spotted that dinghy still tied to the yacht, although he wasn't sure what time that was. Okay, this doesn't add anything though. It's like, okay, we knew they had a fight, we knew the dinghy was there and then it wasn't. It's not really adding anything. More interesting are the testimonies of John Payne and Marilyn Wayne, another W. Okay. And also there's Warren Archer, a couple who were also more in the same spot aboard the Capricorn.

1:16:02They had a herd of women in the water, a crowd for age, shouting, somebody please help me, I'm drowning. Furthermore, they looked at the time when they heard the scream and it was 11.05pm. So assuming the person they heard was Natalie Wood, it provided the exact time when she went overboard and it lined up with a timeline the group arrived on the Splendor around 10.30. Wagner and Walken began arguing and Wood got up and left around 10.45. Walken went to his room while Wagner went to fight with his wife and 15 to 20 minutes later she was in the water. Wait. These people are like, did you just hear a woman scream that she's drowning? Yes, I did darling. Oh, Charlie good. You're not, call the coast guards, call someone. Although to be objective, it also lined up with the accident story. Everything went the same until 10.45 when Natalie Wood got up and left the salon and then she tried to untie the dinghy, slipped and fell into the water. It could have happened that way, but why would the actress ever attempt such a thing? It has sometimes been mentioned by proponents of the accident theory that the strong winds kept causing the dinghy to bang against the side of the yacht and the noise was keeping

1:17:05wood awake. Others, however, quickly points out that the valiant was made of rubber and wooded to made a noise if it hit the spender, certainly not enough to bother someone inside the bedroom. At that point, you might be asking yourself, if pain and wheyn heard the actress scream for help, why did they just leave her to drown? Yeah. Apparently it is because they thought somebody else was coming to her rescue, sort of. What? According to their testimony, the couple had voices belonging to a man or multiple men. They were clearly drunk and they were saying things in a mocking tone, such as, oh, don't worry, we'll help you and hold your hat. We're coming to get you. They never identified the voices belonging to Robert Wagner, but it seems to match Dennis Davins' damning story that he revealed to Lana Wood. That's pretty f**k suspicious, my guy. The pleas of help coming from the woman didn't stop. Pain went to the radio to call the Harvard Master, but like Paul Miller also mentioned, nobody answered. Whoever was supposed to be there was probably at the beach party. After that, they contacted Avalon, the city on the other side of the island, and they

1:18:06said they would send a helicopter for unclear reasons they never did. The couple couldn't go out there on their own because they'd already inflated their dinghy since they were leaving in the morning. They would have taken too long to inflate it, plus it was picked black outside, so even though they could hear voices, they could not see where they were coming from. At 1125, the cries helped simply stop. They didn't know what had happened until the next day when they heard about Natalie Wood. Guys, you really should have called the Coast Guard. If you hear someone drowning, come on now. LSD Detective, Dwayne Resurp, discounted their testimony during the initial investigation. He didn't believe them, saying that they were attention-hounds who made up the story to get in on the publicity surrounding the case. But nowadays, given all the extra information we have about that tragic night, investigators are probably more inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. But we haven't really got that much more. In 2018, LSD detectives named Robert Wagner a person of interest in his wife's death, mainly because he was the last person seen alive with her. Although they stressed that no charges have been filed, Lieutenant John Karina believed that Wagner was keeping things from them stating,

1:19:08I haven't seen him tell the details that match all the other witnesses in this case. I think he's constantly changed his story a little bit, and his version of events. Just don't add up. Yeah, they don't add up, and as always, with these untold, unsolved episodes, it's like, yeah, we don't know. I don't know. It's definitely some weird here. It's obviously not enough for anyone to be found guilty of this, but it's a bit weird. I probably subscribed to the accident theory about the boat and, you know, her falling in, but definitely some weird stuff going on. Unlike earlier, I don't blame the people who want to find this suspicious for finding it suspicious. This has been an episode of the Casual Grimmest. Thank you so much for being here, and I'll see you next time. I'm Chrissy Champagne, host of Residue. The podcast where true crime meets the movies.

1:20:09Every week, we break down films based on real-life crimes, separating fact from fiction while honoring the victims behind the headlines, and exploring the emotional residue these stories leave behind. Listen to Residue wherever you get your podcast. Hey, everyone. It's Kristen from True Crime Creepers. Every week, I tell my friend and True Crime Nubie Mogab about a case she's never heard before, but that I've been obsessing over. We talk about all the real-life creeps from serial killers to con artists, so if you're into dark tales with a touch of humor, tune in wherever you get your podcasts. What's up? I'm Delaney Fisher, host of the Self-Helpless Podcast, where science, spirituality, and sustainability are brunch buddies. Each week, I explore the cutting edge of personal growth with leading specialists who share paradigm-shifting insights. Come hang out with us. You can subscribe to Self-Helpless wherever you get your podcasts. Hello there, I'm Dave and Hiske, and on my podcast, The Brain Food Show, our team,

1:21:12including the great Simon Whistler, our own devices, Jio Messier and Fact Fiend's Carl Smallwood serve up fascinating facts and stories that will blow your mind. From ancient mysteries to scientific curiosities to deep dive history, we deliver knowledge that will help you become the star of Watercooler Talk, the world over. Listen to The Brain Food Show wherever you get your podcasts. Your watch list is full of documentaries. You know every Hollywood rabbit hole, and you appreciate True Crime that's handled with respect. Welcome to the Murdered Isres. I'm Natalie, and I'm Paige. The Murdered Isres has three episodes every week. Tragedy Hollywood on Mondays, Docu files on Tuesdays, and on Thursdays, we cover a True Crime case that deserves your attention. Tune in now to join the conversation.