Timesuck with Dan Cummins - Short Suck #34 - The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood

Episode Date: May 23, 2025

In the 1960s, Natalie Wood was one of the world's leading actress, her star shining as bright as Elizabeth Taylor's. She'd been acting since she was a small child, appearing in movies like Miracle on 34th Street. She'd starred opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, and she'd been linked romantically to Warren Beatty, Michael Caine, Elvis Presley, and Dennis Hopper. And her husband, actor Robert Wagner, may have gotten away with killing her off of Catalina Island in 1981, during a weekend getaway the couple shared with none other than Christoper Walken. For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com 

In the very early hours of November 29th, 1981, the 3,000-ish residents of Catalina Island, a 74-square-mile span of rugged canyons, rolling hills, cliffs, and sandy beaches, just 22 miles southwest of Los Angeles, woke up to a frantic search for a missing woman. Many of them quickly joined, alongside Harbor Patrol, law enforcement, and eventually the Coast Guard. Some wondered if the woman had fallen into the water, drunk which apparently was not uncommon back in the 70s and 80s. And indeed for the past couple of days this woman had appeared a little less than sober on numerous occasions.

And according to some, she was drinking when she went missing. According to others, she may have been high on something else as well. Perhaps weed, which was on board her boat, or drugs to combat seasickness, or perhaps something stronger, such as a pain med like Darvon, a weak opioid that was commonly prescribed at the time, or maybe something else had happened. Something nefarious. That weekend her husband, by some accounts, was being a huge asshole, berating her for spending time away from him and her job, acting jealous of her new

coworker, who she'd invited along. Some wondered if he came along to participate in some sort of sexual tryst this coworker. Had they all gotten drunk and high and then jealousy mixed with violence and that led to a tragic accident. Or maybe something tragic that wasn't so accidental. When her body turned up hours after she went missing, floating face down in the water, it seemed like there were only two possibilities, a tragic accident or murder. This death will go down in American history as one of the most enduring mysteries

of the past half century, but not just because of the mysterious circumstances. It captivated the public's attention because of who these people were. They were not just your average joes. The woman who was found dead was Natalie Wood, one of the most famous actresses of the 1950s and 60s. At one time, she was as famous as Elizabeth Taylor.

Her asshole husband, Robert Wagner, also a very famous actor. And the co-worker, none other than household name Christopher Walken, whom Natalie had just finished wrapping up filming with for the science fiction movie Brainstorm. Poor Natalie would not live long enough to see Brainstorm hit the theaters, nor to do the plays she had planned to act in afterwards, a play she had hoped to take to Broadway. She wouldn't live long enough to see her daughters, 11 and 7 at the time, grow up. Sometime in the very early hours of November 29th, 1981, Natalie Wood's life was abruptly cut short at the age of 43. And nobody's been able to prove definitively what happened or who might be responsible.

But there's been a lot of speculation. And some people are convinced that Natalie's death was far from an accident. That something far darker happened aboard Robert and Natalie's yacht. A boat named Splendor. On a night that was anything but splendid. Words and ideas can change the world. I hated her, but I wanted to love my mother. I have a dream! I plead not guilty right now.

Your only chance is to leave with us. Natalie Wood was born Natasha Zakarenko on July 20th, 1938 into a family of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. Her mother was Marusia. Known amongst friends and family is Maria, and Maria's family had escaped repression at the hands of the Russian Revolution's Bolsheviks and settled into China. While in China, Maria had her fortune told to her by a Romani woman who warned her to quote, beware of dark water. And that same person interestingly told Maria that her second child would be a great beauty

known throughout the world. Maria married a Russian-Armenian regimental captain named Alexei Taitulov and they had a daughter, Osvana, known as Olga, who was born in China on October 27, 1928. Alexei soon arranged for the family to immigrate to the U.S. where they settled in San Francisco, and there things would take an unexpected turn. Within a few years, Taitulov left Maria and Olga for another woman. After the couple's divorce and likely not wanting to be alone with a kid in a country that must have still felt very new, Maria married her ex-husband's friend Nikolai Stefanovich Zakarenko,

with whom she would have two more daughters. Maria's second born was Natasha or Natalie, born July 20th, 1938. Her third daughter Svetlana, born March 1st, 1946. Nikolai would change his family's name to Gurdon, possibly in an attempt to Americanize them. Nikolai also, not a great dad. He would drink to excess, didn't make a lot of money, and as a result of financial pressure and overdrinking, would often erupt at his wife and children in fits of rage, forcing Maria to flee with the girls to a hotel.

Hotels were not the only place she would take them. She couldn't get to prediction about her second daughter out of her head, about how she would be a great beauty known throughout the world. So in 1943, when she heard that renowned Hollywood director Irving Pichel was shooting his film Happyland in nearby Santa Rosa, Maria reached out and somehow got the attention of the director and forced Natalie to sing a little song for him and Pichelle was impressed. He gave her a role in which she had to drop an ice cream cone in front of a drug store and cry and Natalie did it right on cue. Energized by this small victory, Maria moved her family to Los Angeles,

Hollywood, showbiz. When the family was settled, Maria tracked down Pichelle at Universal International Pictures and Pichel at Universal International Pictures. And Pichel was, once again, looking for a little girl, this time for his movie Tomorrow is Forever. The role was for a young Austrian orphan with a German accent who would perform alongside two major stars, Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert. Natalie was just six, but she played the character perfectly.

Orson Welles would later say he found her talent quote, terrifying. Such a young kid and already acting like an experienced professional. After that, Maria was able to negotiate a contract for her daughter with Universal International. She signed a three-year deal with famous artist agency to represent Natalie, insisting on veto rights for every offer Natalie received. And now young Natalie, at the tender age of just six, is the family breadwinner and pulls her family out of poverty. Her work as an actress even helped her stepdad,

Nikolai, land a job as a studio carpenter. Meanwhile, studio executives quickly realized they had a star on their hands. But a star who needed something that Natalie Gurdon didn't have, a better, catchier name. So they chose wood for her. And while Natalie didn't like the name, she did as she was told. She would do a lot as she was told as a child actor.

Following tomorrow, young Natalie was cast opposite another big star, Marina O'Hara, to play Susan Walker, the little girl who didn't believe in Santa in the low budget 20th century Fox film you've probably heard of, Miracle on 34th Street, filmed in 1947. It would become Natalie's first classic film and it would launch her into the spotlight. By the time Natalie was eight, Maria rescinded her contract with Universal and instructed famous artists to commence negotiations for a new contract with 20th Century Fox. Soon little Natalie had a seven year deal with Fox,

including an agreement to pay her mom Maria for answering Natalie's fan mail, which was apparently a full time job, which speaks to how well known she was. Natalie went on to appear in a full 21 films during this contract, starring in a variety of films with Hollywood icons like James Stewart, Fred McMurray, Betty Davis, and Joan Blondell. Following this contract, teen Natalie would now try to shed her cute little kid child star image. Not an easy thing to do.

Child stars almost never translate to adult success in Hollywood. But in 1955, Natalie, now 16, was given the opportunity to star in Rebel Without a Cause, a drama about juvenile delinquency and teenage alienation. And Natalie would co-star along with Dennis Hopper and James Dean. Her family, agent, and others actually weren't happy about this controversial role as Judy, a rebellious teenager who falls in love with James Dean's bad boy character. It was the first role that Natalie fought for, but she actually chose for herself.

Now that she was almost a legal adult and she was able to override the decisions of those around her who were trying to stop her from take this role, she was not a little kid anymore. And her decision paid off big time. The film was a huge sensation. Received three Academy Award nominations, including one for Natalie for Best Actress.

And with that came a lot of new attention, specifically a lot of new male attention. Older married stars like Frank Sinatra, that fucking dirtbag who was 40 years old, were trying to get in this teenager's pants. Older film execs went after her too, and she allegedly had an affair with a 43-year-old director of Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray. They would meet secretly at the Chateau Marmont, just off of Sunset Boulevard. She was also dating her co-star and Rebel, Dennis Hopper, who was actually age appropriate at 19. According to her sister, Lana, Natalie was also brutally raped for hours by a well-known older star who led her on by telling her that he would get her a role in one of his films. It was so bad the injuries from the assault required medical attention, and young Natalie,

afraid for her career and afraid of this man, kept it quiet. Much later, after her and the actor's death, her younger sister Lana would reveal who allegedly did this was Kirk Douglas. Hollywood has preyed on young starlets in the most disgusting ways for so long, since the very beginning. The Me Too movement, when it finally came along, long overdue. A lot of predators still roaming around the Hollywood hills, I imagine. I hope a lot more finally get their due.

But back to the 1950s. Around this time, Natalie met an actor who was a known Hollywood playboy who was eight years her senior, Robert Wagner. Or rather, she re-met him. Wagner had actually been her celebrity crush ever since she'd run into him on a studio lot when she was 11. Robert, known by his friends as RJ, born in 1930 in Michigan was 19 or so when they met for that first time. He was the only child of wealthy socialite parents and when Robert was seven his parents had moved the family to California and settled in the bougie little enclave of Bel Air

There at the country club Wagner would caddy for celebrities like Cary Grant Fred Astaire and Clark Gable Hollywood's most suave and magnetic leading men and he decided he wanted to be just like them and He was lucky in the sense that he had the makings to be just like them or close He had astounding charm leading man looks looks, a beaming smile, and, most importantly, rich parents. If only we could all be so lucky. His dad, through his social connections, managed to secure him a small part in the 1950 production of The Happy Years. After that, Wagner signed with Henry Wilson, an important film and TV agent with the reputation for representing handsome young men like Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson.

Wilson got Wagner a contract with 20th Century Fox between 1951 and 1957, so from the ages of 21 to 27 or so, Wagner appeared in 19 films. Most of his critical reviews weren't that great, especially when it came to 1954's Prince Valiant. The character Robert had to play in a pageboy wig and a padded body stocking complete with rubber calves. It looked fucking ridiculous. But women and girls loved him. That three million dollar cinemascope epic did all right at the box office, but it was lethal to RJ's budding career as a serious actor. During filming,

some method-trained actors at the studio would drop by the set just to laugh at his ridiculous getup, and Dean Martin actually mistook him for Jane Wyman, Academy Award-winning actress and first wife of actor and future president Ronald Reagan, because of that stupid wig. As the years wore on, R.J. found that he couldn't make the jump to true Hollywood royalty, at least not on his talent alone. His networking, on the other hand, still meant he was one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors. And Natalie was one of Hollywood's most, if not the most, eligible bachelorettes.

Still, although they were both actors, he and Natalie couldn't have been more different, and it was a surprising pairing to many. Natalie's star was flying way higher than RJ's was the time. But she was also running around with people, quote, he wouldn't have in his house, according to a mutual friend. He fancied himself a sophisticated upper class, even if he didn't have the career he wanted, while Natalie didn't care who she hung out with.

What was important to her was that she was having a good time. But still they bonded over something, and that was their mutual love of boats. In fact the two consummated their relationship during a moonlit sail on Wagner's boat My Lady and according to Lana Wood they continued to celebrate the anniversary of that boat fucking I guess every year. Their relationship began on July 20th 1956 when at his invitation Wagner escorted 18-year-old Natalie to the premiere of his most recent film, The Mountain, in which he played the

brother of Spencer Tracy's character. But even though they had now started dating, Natalie still hadn't given up on dating other men. She spent two days with Elvis in Memphis in November of 1956, but the big star disappointed her. He can sing, she later confided to her sister Lana, but he can't do much else. Perhaps that disappointment led her back to Wagner, because within a few weeks of returning to LA on December 6, 1956, in Beverly Hills' chic Romanoff's restaurant,

Wagner proposed, handing her a champagne glass with a diamond and pearl engagement ring at the bottom. It was inscribed with the words, marry me. Swept off her feet, young Natalie accepted, and the couple married a year later in Arizona, December 28, 1957. Wagner was 27, Natalie was 19. The couple spent much of their honeymoon on the water, first cruising the Florida Keys, then returning to Los Angeles, where they dropped anchor just off Catalina, that small island with rich Hollywood history, that island that for the past decade or so has been home of the real life Catalina wine mixer, an event inspired by the fictional Catalina wine mixer in 2008's Will Ferrell movie Stepbrothers.

Pretty funny. But Catalina, practically an honorary Hollywood set at the time Natalie would go there. Long ago it had been used by many different Southern California native tribes before being claimed by the first European colonists for the Spanish Empire in 1542. Finally winding up in the hands of the United States in 1848, the island was used for otter hunting and gold digging throughout the 19th century before successfully being developed into a tourist destination in the 1920s. It immediately became popular amongst the Hollywood elite, who wanted to use the coastal scrub oak woodlands, grasslands, and rocky beaches for film projects.

In 1935, Clark Gable had filmed Mutiny on the Bounty in the island's waters. Same year, Errol Flynn swashbuckled his captain blood off the Catalina coast. A decade before, film crew had imported a small herd of bison for a 1924 film called The Vanishing American, and their descendants would roam and actually still roam, the remote craggy hills high above the Pacific. Catalina and its cute little town of Avalon would become

one of Natalie and Robert's favorite places on earth. Returning from their honeymoon, they bought a mansion in Beverly Hills, a boat, new cars, hit the nightlife circuit as friends of Frank Sinatra's infamous Rat Pack to the tabloids that looked like the Wagner's would be in love forever. But behind the scenes, things were souring quickly. The writer Thomas Thompson, close friend of Natalie's, who first met her when he was assigned to interview her for Life magazine, recalled that at the beginning of the marriage, Natalie

was in emotional ruins. She was insecure and suspicious of everyone, especially of Wagner. Wagner didn't trust him. Controlled by the studios and her ambitious mother Maria, Natalie suddenly realized that she had no idea who she was. She spent her life being the person others needed and wanted her to be. I was unable to make a decision of any kind. People had told me what to do all my life, she later said. Her unhappiness manifested in constant insomnia and she started to rely on

sleeping pills. Her two 1958 films, Marjorie Morningstar and King's Go Forth, did not do great at the box office, but they didn't quite take her out of the A-list either. Wagner meanwhile was continuing to have career troubles. Natalie attempted to boost his prestige by appearing with him in the 1960 film All the Fine Young Cannibals, an overwritten Tennessee Williams knockoff in which they wore cartoonish wigs and acted like southern hillbillies. And that didn't really help him. And then Natalie had her biggest break yet, Splendor in the Grass.

Splendor in the Grass was a film set in Kansas in 1920s and directed by celebrated stage director Aaliyah Kazan, who directed award-winning movies like East of Eden and A Streetcar Named Desire. I think it's Aaliyah, Aaliyah, kind of a particular name. Natalie would play Deanie Loomis, young woman destroyed by her struggle between her love for her high school sweetheart, named Bud, played by superstar Warren Beatty, and the puritanical tyranny of small town America. Natalie played the role masterfully, culminating in a scene in which Deanie tries to drown herself in a river. And given the passionate performance, there were abundant rumors that something was brewing between Natalie and Warren.

And that apparently pissed Wagner off enough to lead to significant strains in their relationship. He was a jealous guy. According to some sources, after filming wrapped in 1961, Natalie returned home to find Wagner having an affair with another man. That was the reason they split up. And not only another man, but their English butler, David Cavendish. They were having all kinds of problems. They immediately separated, shocking fans who had always believed, long believed in their Hollywood love story.

Wagner left for Europe, where he would then appear in five films between 1961 and 1966, achieving finally or finally achieving positive critical recognition and won a supporting role in the Pink Panther. During this period, R.J. married the actress Marion Marshall, and the two would have a daughter, Catherine, whom they would call Katie. Natalie meanwhile made a string of classic films, including West Side Story and Love with the Proper Stranger. She received two more Academy Award nominations, a Golden Globe Award, and the Foreign Press

Associations Award for World's Favorite Actress. At the time, she was the youngest actress to have ever received three Academy Award nominations. However during this time she also fell into a deep depression and then she started going to therapy, working on herself, determined to find out who the real Natalie Wood was outside of Hollywood stardom and high-profile relationships. And then in 1969 feeling more stable she married again, this time to Richard Gregson, a sophisticated British entertainment agent, film producer, and screenwriter. They had a daughter more stable, she married again, this time to Richard Gregson, a sophisticated British entertainment agent, film producer, and screenwriter.

They had a daughter named Natasha, but then two years later, Natalie discovered that Richard was having an affair with her secretary. My God. And the marriage ended. Meanwhile, R.J. and his new family returned to Hollywood in 1966, where he now signed with Universal Studios. After appearing in three more films, Wagner got what would turn out to be his big break. In 1967, powerful television mogul, Lew Wasserman, suggested to Wagner that his ideal medium was television.

At the time, television wasn't considered on the same level as full-length feature films, so Wagner, still considering himself a leading man, initially wasn't hot on this idea. But Wasserman would persuade him to accept the lead and it takes a thief. The TV series about a thief who works for the US government would run for three seasons and Wagner's performance earned him an Emmy nomination for Best TV Actor. Soon after the TV series ended, Wagner and Marion separated. He filed for divorce October 14th, 1970. He would then spend most of 1971

absorbed with a divorce settlement terms. And by the time the divorce was settled, December 10th, 1971, he was casually dating Tina Sinatra, the daughter of his longtime friend and party buddy, Frank, who was 18 years younger than him. She was 23, he was 41. And that's fucking weird. It's highly weird. I mean, would you want your 41 year old drinking buddy dating your 23 year old daughter? I hope not. Not the worst age gap. She was definitely an adult,

but also she'd known him since she was a little kid when he would come over to party with her dad. Ah, that to me is so cringe. Robert, while he dated Tina Snartra, was also almost out of money. The divorce was ruining him financially. But then Robert and Natalie's mutual friend John Foreman, producer of Butch Castee and the Sundance Kid, separately invited RJ and Natalie to the same Hollywood party. And before we go any further and jump into Robert and Natalie's reunion that will end in tragedy, time for today's mid-show sponsor break. If you don't want to hear these ads, you can sign up for our Patreon, become a spacer for

five bucks a month, get the entire catalog ad free and more. Thanks for listening to those ads and now let's jump back into late 1971 when Natalie and Robert show up at the same party. Wagner would say that when their eyes met across the room, it was like a quote light went on in both of us. Not sure how she could get over his previous affair, but she would. During a cruise around Sardinia a little while later, Natalie fantasized out loud about a new life with Robert to her big sister Olga. By Christmas of 1971, the two were an item again. Wagner took Christmas presents to Natalie and her daughter Natasha, and later in the month of 1971, the two were an item again. Wagner took Christmas presents to Natalie and her daughter Natasha and later in the month of January he invited Natalie to his Palm Springs home. He said later when she got off the

plane, quote, it was instant reaction and before anybody knew it we fell in love all over again. It was the kind of story that was so perfect it felt made up expressly for the tabloids. The return of old Hollywood glamour in the form of two of its most iconic figures. Added to that, Natalie and RJ knew how to give the public what they wanted, and they chose the 1972 Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to re-emerge in public as a romantic couple. To make it official, the couple remarried July 16, 1972, aboard the borrowed yacht Ramblin' Rose and the two honeymooned at the Paradise

Cove estate at the Isthmus on Catalina Island. They then settled in Palm Springs where they redecorated Wagner's comfortable home. Natalie began focusing on motherhood and put her career to the side, happy to embrace her new role as homemaker. But Wagner's life didn't prove so easy to fit into. He was in an enormous amount of debt including back taxes, alimony, child support, potential liability for a breach of contract, a case filed by Universal Studios. Natalie would use her money to bail him out though. First she'd supported her own family as a kid and now she's supporting RJ. Then in 1974 she and RJ have a

daughter Courtney. And the following year in 1975 Natalie and Robert acquire a yacht, the Challenger. They decide to rename it in honor of Natalie's hit film Splendor in the Grass so now it's called Splendor. Included in the deal is a 13-foot dinghy they name Valiant as a little satirical tribute to Robert's failed movie Prince Valiant. The couple hired the young man who had helped bring the boat from Florida all the way to California to serve as their captain, Dennis Davern. Dennis Davern had been around boats since he was six years old. He felt more than qualified to take on the big 60-foot yacht Splendor with its four staterooms and full deck with

handrails all the way around. The couple would get to know Davern well, unlike other celebrities or most other. They made him part of the family and invited him to hang out with the family on the weekends. And it wouldn't always be a wholesome family fun on the weekends. They liked to party. Natalie especially apparently liked to throw down. Darren would later recall how he'd often knocked down a few bottles of wine with Natalie and RJ and Natalie was the real partier. I'd tell her, I'll give you five quailudes if you give me ten volumes because the time I like taking a volume in the morning and floating all day long. So it would be let's eat these

quailudes let's chase them down with some wine. They had total trust in me so they could do anything they wanted. During the week Natalie began inching back into show business. Her comeback began with a string of proper box office films and some made for TV movies. Among them was a 1979 made for TV version of From Here to Eternity, which did earn her a Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination. And then finally Wagner's career started to really soar.

He made regular appearances in the television prisoner of war series, Cold It's, had a part in the highly successful film, The Towering Inferno, and signed a lucrative contract with television producers Aaron Spelling, father of Tori Spelling, and Leonard Goldberg. But it was with the CBS detective series, Switch, that his career really took flight. And after it ended after three seasons in August of 1978, Wagner started production on Heart to Heart, which premiered August 25, 1979. The award-winning series would run for five seasons, with Wagner playing Jonathan Hart,

a suave, wealthy businessman married to a beautiful journalist played by Stephanie Powers. Together, the two characters outsmarted thieves, spies, and murderers, solving cases that law enforcement could not. By the spring of 1980, Natalie, meanwhile, had appeared in a drama called The Memory of Eva Ryker, and soon she was asked to star in Brainstorm, a science fiction thriller about a research team's efforts to perfect a system that records a person's sensations for others to feel and experience. And as soon as she finished with Brainstorm, she planned to play the lead in the stage production of Anastasia at the Music Center in Los Angeles with rehearsals beginning in January of 1982.

It would be her stage debut, and if all went well, the producers would take it to Broadway in New York, many an actor's dream. But first, brainstorm. Things would not start smoothly on this production. The role required that Natalie be away from home for six weeks filming in North Carolina. And within a few weeks of the start of location shooting in September of 1981,

rumors started swirling around that Natalie and her co-star, her married co-star, Christopher Walken, were having an affair. Walken was 38, Natalie was 42, and I gotta say, I have a hard time picturing him seducing her. Not a bad-looking guy, but, you know, it's Christopher Walken. Oh, Natalie, I find your body so intriguing. I would love to place my lips all over your supple skin. It really gets you motor racing. Compel you to make sweet love to me. Really, no fooling.

I want to knock your socks off." These rumors prompted Robert to take a mid-October trip to Raleigh-Durham to check up on her. He's a fucking jealous guy. And apparently while he was visiting, Natalie invited Walken on a cruise back in California to prove they were just friends, and Robert agreed. According to other sources, Natalie just invited him because, uh, she did like him. Maybe even had a crush on him, and she didn't give a shit what RJ thought. This is fantastic, Natalie, and if RJ would like to join us, I'm more than open to the idea. I was never big on geometry,

but for you, I'd happily make a devil's triangle. Also, maybe Natalie didn't have feelings for walking. Maybe RJ wasn't that worried about walking, and they all just wanted to have a good time. But I think RJ was pretty jealous. The couple also did invite Mark Crowley, producer on Heart to Heart, and Natalie's secretary, Peggy Griffin. But Mark and Peggy had too much work to do, and they turned down the offer. Whatever the real reason for the invitation, Natalie finished location filming on Brainstorm.

October 27th, 1981, returned to MGM Studios in LA with the other cast members to finish the rest of their scenes in town. Meanwhile, Robert was in Maui, Hawaii, until November 12th shooting some scenes for Heart to Heart. And after both working so much, they were both very eager to spend the weekend relaxing. But would it be a relaxing weekend? No, it would be one fraught with a lot of drama. The beginning of the trip was not promising. The Wagner's accompanied by Walken and Dennis Davern, the captain, sailed to Catalina Island, 22 miles off the California coast, leaving around noon on Friday, November 27th, and it was rainy and cold. And though Natalie and Walken began drinking and having a good time, Walken quickly got

seasick and then hid out in his cabin for quite a while. The motion of this ocean, I gotta say, is not a fan. I feel that I got a fever and the only prescription is getting this goddamn yacht in the calm of waters. They anchor just off Avalon, the island's main little town, and when a shore in their dinghy, right, Valiant leaving Davran behind. The trio then shopped at a number of cute little boutiques headed for El Galleon, a restaurant facing the harbor that I believe is still there today, it appears. Add a few beers, discuss jokingly how to get to or how to get one of Avalon's jewelers to lower their prices. Darkness was then falling when they re-boarded the

Splendor where Davern was preparing a barbecue for everybody. Walken still feeling a bit ill, decided to skip dinner and returned to a stateroom to lie down. The waves were particularly rough that night and Natalie decided she wanted to sleep on shore so she and Davern took Devallion back to the island. Wagner stayed on the boat with Walken. On the island, Natalie asked the manager of Elgallion, Paul Reynolds, if she and Davrin could use his telephone to call a hotel. Then Natalie asked him if there was a boat returning to the mainland anytime soon. He said there would be a boat at 10 the next morning and in the meantime he made arrangements for them to stay at the

Pavilion Lodge. By the time they got there they both appeared very drunk according to the night manager. The next morning Natalie once again asked where she could get transportation to the mainland. This time she asked a day clerk at the hotel and then Natalie apparently changed her mind. Returned to the yacht where she made a big meal of huevos rancheros for everybody. That afternoon they sailed to Istmis Cove, an isolated spot at the northern end of the island in a tiny town called Two Harbors, or it has a tiny little town called Two Harbors, a couple hundred people there as

well. They dined that evening at Doug's Harbor Reef, which was the only restaurant in Two Harbors at the time. Some of the restaurant staff thought the Wagner party was drinking rather heavily. Apparently they consumed two bottles of wine, several cocktails, and Walken and Davern split a joint before they came inside. I'm quite fond of this ganja. It's doing a lot to calm my stomach, or at least trick my mind into thinking my stomach's calm. Very happy that Davern brought his devil's lettuce. A friend with weed truly is a friend indeed. Despite all that, Natalie didn't seem to be having fun. A waitress remembered Natalie complaining about the amount of light on the table, the fish not being fresh enough, a bunch of other little petty irritants.

At some point she seemed to be laughing, having a good time, but then at another point abruptly she would, you know, her mood would sour. She's kind of all over the place. At one point her glass of water tumbled to the ground where it smashed. Had she thrown it? Was it an accident? No one remembered. Both William Peterson, a shore boat operator, and Kurt Craig, the harbor master, later told police

they watched the Wagner party board valiant and then motor back to their yacht at around 10 p.m. Craig later told police that as the four were descending the ramp to the dinghy, quote, what he described as a scream came from the female. He thought she may have been drunk and was unhappy at something that happened at the restaurant. After the group departed, Don Whitting, the restaurant's manager, was worried enough to warn Kurt Craig to keep an eye out for their safety. Now what happens next

has been hotly debated for over 40 years. Let's begin with Robert Wagner's version. It's worth saying that this is the version that appeared in his 1986 biography Heart to Heart with Robert Wagner, so he would have had a lot of time to think about it. But did he tell the truth? We'll deal with the inconsistencies in his various stories to the police in a bit. Robert's main story went like this. They get back to the boat in a happy state of mind. Apparently, Walken and Wagner had gotten into a little bit of a political debate back at the restaurant. They were continuing it, but it was good-natured now. And they were fine as they got aboard the yacht.

He thought Natalie seemed bored, a perspective that was reinforced when she left for her bedroom. Walken and Wagner then continued to talk for about an hour. Then Wagner went to Natalie's room to kiss her goodnight, but she's not there. He said he initially thought that Natalie couldn't sleep with the dinghy banging against the side of the boat, that she must have tried to go tight in the cords herself and maybe fell and, I don't know, knocked herself unconscious. In police interviews at the time, however, he would say that he and Natalie had had a discussion before she went to bed, a discussion that had turned into a heated argument

about her work and how much time she was spending away from the kids. Davern would back that story up shortly after the incident, mostly. He said they all went back onto the boat and that Natalie and Robert started having an argument about her being gone too much when Walken interjected in support of Natalie. She's a brilliant actress, Robert, and to be fair, she's been more successful in her artistic endeavors than yourself. If anyone should be staying at home with the children, perhaps it's the man in the mirror, Prince Valiant.

Walken standing up for Natalie apparently annoyed the shit out of Robert, and Walken, sensing he was overstepping as their guest into their relationship, excused himself and went to bed. Natalie then also decided to go to bed. But usually she'd get ready and then pop her head back in to say good night to everybody. When she didn't come back this night, Robert and Captain Davern went looking for her, but she was gone. She'd already fallen into the water.

Walken's story was different than both RJ's and Dennis Davern's, but it was closer to Wagner's. He told police that he and Robert got into quote a small beef. A small beef? A bowl of the dinghy. And once on the boat he went for a walk onto the deck for a few minutes. Then when he came back to where everybody else was, Natalie and Robert were talking about how much she was away for work. Walken interjected. Natalie was an actress. That was part of the job RJ had known that when he remarried her Realizing however that this was putting him in on thin ice socially He said excuse himself and then he came back Robert was apologizing and everything seemed fine, but was

Everything fine doesn't seem so around midnight some other people not on the splendor They heard something John Payne a Los Angeles commodities broker and his girlfriend Marilyn Wayne, Payne and Wayne, pretty funny, were sleeping aboard their boat, the Capricorn, that was moored definitely with an earshot of the Splendor that night. They were just 50 feet away. Fucking nothing. John would tell police that around midnight he heard a woman clearly yelling, Help me! Someone please help me! How suspicious is that? He said that the voice was coming from near the stern of splendor and pain believed from someone in a dinghy. He awakened Marilyn Wayne, who now heard the cries too.

Then they both heard a man's very drunken voice respond mockingly, Okay honey, we'll get you! The couple claimed they hadn't intervened because a loud drunken party was raging at that time on another nearby yacht, and they thought that maybe somebody was just, quote, playing around. If what they are saying there is true, then at least one of the men aboard the Splendor,

Robert, Walken, or Davern, knew that Natalie was in trouble and mocked her instead of helped her. Around 1.15 a.m. that morning, Deputy Harbor Master Doug Oden, woken up by Don Whitting, the night manager of Doug's Harbor Reef and Saloon, and Bill Coleman, the restaurant's cook. There had been a ship to shore call.

Oden and Whitting boated out to the Splendor to talk with the visibly intoxicated and dazed Wagner, who said that Natalie was missing, but discouraged them from talking to the authorities. Suspicious. Said he wanted to keep the search low-key so the media wouldn't pick up on it. Whitting apparently asked if Wagner had any idea where Natalie would take the yacht's dinghy, and Wagner said maybe she went back to the restaurant. But then Davern spoke up. Boss, do you think she could have gone to the mainland? And Wagner replied,

yeah, that's a possibility. The mainland was over 22 miles from the Isthmus Cove where the Splendor was moored. It seems highly unlikely that Natalie would want to go there in a small dinghy in the dark, especially on choppy water. Then again, she had wanted to sleep on shore the night before and she was intoxicated. By around 2 in the morning, residents and members of the Harbor Patrol were already out looking for Natalie. But they weren't turning up anything because their search had largely been confined to the isthmus mooring sites, the beach, the tiny community, and dock shoreline because Wagner had initially said he believed Natalie went back to the restaurant's bar. When nothing turned up, Doug Oden made his call to the Coast Guard, 3.26 a.m., to report a woman missing in a dinghy, then return to the Harbor Patrol office to initiate further

action. First, Petty Officer Gallagher took down the report after overhearing radio transmissions from Splendor that the missing woman was none other than Natalie Wood. Gallagher reportedly dispatched the Coast Guard, cut her point Camden to the scene, planning for it to arrive around 5.30am. Why such a long wait? This is also something that would puzzle people for a long time. Maybe the fucking Coast Guard bow is a long ways away. Maybe human error, circumstance, deliberate sabotage. We don't know. Meanwhile, Whitting and Coleman, the night manager and the cook, continued

the search by expanding to the shoreline outside the cove near Blue Cavern Point, about two miles from two harbors where the foursome had had dinner. At precisely 515 in the morning, the two men found the yacht's dinghy bumping up against the rocks at Blue Cavern Point. The sheriff's deputy later wrote in his report, the key was in the ignition, which was in the off position. The gear was in neutral and the oars tied down. It appeared as if the boat had not even been used. In other words, it appeared that the fucking engine had never been fired up, right? The oars weren't using, very suspicious, it's just floating aimlessly to its current position. It seemed like Natalie had not tried to take it to the shore, either to the island shore

or to the mainland shore after all. But nobody could confirm that because there was very strangely, excuse me, no sign of Natalie. Oden, back in the Harbor Patrol office, contacted the Sheriff's Department and Baywatch lifeguards, reporting what he believed now was a life or death matter. He also went back to the Splendor to tell Wagner that the dinghy had been found without Natalie in it. Wagner, Davern, and Odin then returned to the pier.

According to Odin, that's when Wagner, now quote, painfully sober, stood forlornly at the rail of the pier, head between his hands, staring at the black water below and mumbled, she's terrified of the water. She doesn't even like to swim in the water. It scares her. Is he sincere here or he is an actor? Is he putting on a show? People would later find it odd that he said that because there was no evidence at that

point that Natalie was in the water. However, maybe that was just a reasonable inference. I certainly would at least consider the possibility that she was in the water. Meanwhile, authorities requested that a search and rescue Sikorsky helicopter Air 53 be dispatched to assist by combing the area where the dinghy was retrieved. And approximately 45 minutes later, at 7.44 a.m. Sunday November 29th 1981 the rescue helicopter spotted something floating approximately 250 yards north of Blue Cavern Point and someone else saw it at the same time. Doug Bomberd, owner of Doug's Harbor Reef,

as he steered his Harbor Patrol boat towards a red bubble floating about a hundred yards off of Blue Cavern Point his heart sank. The bubble was a red-down jacket. The same kind of jackets Natalie had worn the night before at his restaurant. Bonbar would say later that her feet and legs were hanging beneath her almost in a standing position like she was just suspended there. Her arms were held out, her face was in the water, her hair haloing her head. He turned her over and saw that her eyes were open.

She was definitely dead. And from the looks of it, she had drowned. Bomber carefully lifted Natalie into the patrol boat. Under her down jacket, she was wearing a flannel cotton night shirt, wool socks, and some jewelry. She also appeared to have several bruises on her arms, scratches on her face. It would be revealed that she had a pretty significant head wound. If she had drowned, where the hell had all that shit come from? Bombard was immediately suspicious that her death was not an accident,

and this is when things really start to get shady in this story. Wagner now refuses to make the identification of his wife's body. Instead, Davern has the responsibility of officially identifying Natalie's body, while Wagner and Walken are whisked off the island at their request by the same helicopter that had assisted in locating Natalie. When they arrive in Long Beach the two celebrities are ushered into the captain's office where crime scene investigators Dwayne Raescher and Roy Hamilton are waiting for them. Wagner's interview initiated at 9 54 a.m. last just six minutes. Raescher allegedly gave Wagner a pass because of his emotional condition and afterwards Wagner departed with his friend Mart Crowley and they went directly to

Wagner's psychiatrist, apparently for advice on how to break the news to the children. But he was actually too late or at least for one child he was too late. Natasha had already heard on the radio that her mom's lifeless body had been found in the ocean. This fucking poor kid, she was ten years old. Afterwards Wagner returns home where his lawyer, Paul Ziffern, had already arrived to be his spokesman. Together, they came up with a statement for the press summarizing the events surrounding Natalie's death,

and it read, "'While Mr. Wagner was in the cabin, Mrs. Wagner apparently went to their stateroom. When Mr. Wagner 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. Wagner 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. Wagner contacted Doug Bomberd, whose company leases Ismus Cove and who operates a harbor patrol service there. Walken's interview, meanwhile, lasted an indeterminate amount of time, but the brief notes made by law enforcement and the fact that Walken was back on the island being briefed by 10.50 a.m. indicates that it probably didn't last any longer than 20 minutes or so. Hamilton would write down what Walken had to say the night before. to say the night before. Saturday night went out, had drinks, had a lot. She can't drink, had two.

RJ and I had a small beef. I ran out the door, came back and she went down to her room. RJ and I made up, hugging each other. Didn't hear boats start, thought she went to bed. Thought she thought we were a bunch of assholes. I think Davin noticed Dingy gone. We looked for Dingy, then looked for her. And that's obviously not quotes.

They were just writing notes on what he said. I kind of like abbreviated walk in there. Back of the island, a request for the homicide bureau's involvement had been triggered somewhere between 7.45 and 8.30 a.m. Law enforcement had boarded the Splendor or had boarded the Splendor and they had interviewed both Davern and Wagner before RJ was whisked off via the helicopter and both men had you know decently similar stories.

Law enforcement then examined Natalie's body observed injuries to her nose, bruises on her arms and legs. They interviewed eight local witnesses but unfortunately not those fucking people in the boat directly next to them. The 10-page report was approved for distribution to the Homicide Bureau but Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Bill Kroll classified his report as a 490, a person dead, apparent accidental drowning. Modern-day investigators would never be able to ask Kroll about why he did that, they thought it was odd, but he drowned April 22nd 1996 free diving off of Little Gibraltar on Cattling Island. Dr. Thomas L. Ngochi the chief pathologist for the LA County Department of Medical Examiner coroner's office and

his team of pathologists were the next to weigh in on Natalie's death. The first person from that office to arrive on the scene would be Pamela K. Eaker, the coroner's office first responder who was assigned with examining the body, determining the time of death parameters, collecting and documenting evidence and reporting back. Eaker was instructed, it's unclear by whom but possibly by Lieutenant Bill Kroll, to treat the death as an accidental drowning, which was completely inconsistent with protocol when dealing with an unknown cause of death. So her examination not as thorough as it should have been.

She nevertheless followed instructions, authored a five page report to Dr. Noguchi, concluding even though Natalie had some yet unexplained or yet explained injuries that her death was an accident and that quote foul play is not suspected at this time. This was then repeated by Noguchi, who in his press conference on November 30th downplayed all sensationalist aspects of the case. It's worth noting that this coroner was already under fire for his handling of the death of actor William Holden, who two weeks prior had emptied a bottle of vodka in his Santa Monica apartment, then tripped and gashed his forehead on a bedside table. He bled to death, according to Noguchi, probably because he

was drunk, too drunk to staunch the wound or call for help. And the Hollywood community was outraged that Noguchi had revealed Holden's drunkenness to the press and then the world, feeling it was a huge invasion of the deceased actor's privacy. So Dr. Noguchi not necessarily incentivized to tell the truth if the truth could damage the reputations of Wood, Walken, Wagner, all the above. And there was another reason why the truth might not have been at the top of his priority list. Wagner had actually called Noguchi the afternoon of November 29th, the day before his press conference,

after Wagner had got back home. He was put in contact with Dr. Joseph Choi, one of Noguchi's trusted deputies, and requested an early post-op, another word for autopsy, for November 30th, since Natalie's burial was scheduled for Tuesday, December 1st So basically can you hurry up? Can you move it along?

Maybe Noguchi had simply complied and expedited the autopsy or maybe he had agreed to lie for the actor about what he'd really found Either way when not dr. Noguchi held an afternoon news conference November 30th a few hours after Natalie's autopsy He declared her death was not a homicide not a suicide It was an accident. He was very definitive. He had his own version of events Natalie he said had been trying to board the dinghy when she fell into the water Fingernail scratches on the side of the valley and proved that she had struggled to hoist herself up from the water But her waterlogged jacket quickly weighed her down Or somebody was fucking pushing her back down into the water. He'd found that her blood alcohol content was at least 0.14%

0.04 over the 0.1 BAC legal limit to drive in California at that time. There were also traces of two types of medication in her bloodstream, a motion sickness pill and a painkiller, both of which increased the effects of alcohol. Perhaps he concluded her judgment had been clouded from the alcohol and confused. She had clung to the dinghy's sign as it had just drifted away from the splendor until, overcome by hypothermia and exhaustion, she had just let go and drowned. Noguchi did let something slip, however, that there had been an argument that night between Mr. Walken and Mr. Wagner, and that set the Hollywood rumor mill on fire.

So much so that the next day, December 1st, Dr. Noguchi's administrative chief of staff, Richard Wilson, gave an interview restating that Natalie's death was a tragic accident. He reiterated that in the coroner's view, Natalie had probably attempted to get under the dinghy as it slid away from her, banged her face on the ladder, fell into the water. At that point she became disoriented, confused, started screaming for help, but no one on board heard her, even though a couple on another boat heard her. So bullshit no one on this boat heard her. Also, did anybody check fucking Robert Wagner's hands for like, I don't know, bruising, maybe defensive wounds put upon him by Natalie Wood? No.

To the coroner's office, though, this proved that everything had happened the way that they'd laid it out. But RumorMiller, not this story, did not answer every question. Why had Natalie gotten into the dinghy in the first place? Why didn't she swim back to the yacht's ladder when she fell in? If she was screaming again, why didn't Wagner, Walker, or Davern, who would have all been awake, come to help her? Dr. Wilson also mentioned that non-violent argument again and said that Wagner and Wacken had been examined for marks. But that doesn't seem to be true. There was no report that fucking anyone at the LA Sheriff's Department had done anything

like that. So what's going on there? Then on December 2nd, the Los Angeles Times reported that crime scene investigator Royal Hamilton said there had been no argument between Walken and Wagner. I think Dr. Noguchi was juicing it up a bit, he stated. Even though he himself had written it down that Wagner and Walken had had a small beef. So what the fuck is going on here? This was starting to look less and less like a random accident and more and more like an intentional cover-up. But covering up what? An attempted murder? Why are they covering it up? Nobody knows. Had Natalie been thrown off the boat by

Walker or, excuse me, Wagner? Walken? All these fucking W names. Or at the very least, had she fallen and then Wagner and Walken both did nothing to help her? Were they pulling a prank on Natalie, who was known to hate deep dark water? Was it something more sinister? Or were these all baseless theories simply drawn from a senseless, indeed meaningless death as so many deaths are? If Natalie's body held any clues to what had happened to her, sadly they wouldn't be revealed. She was buried December 3, 1981 at Westwood Memorial Park in LA. According to an article written by the Washington Post, about 100 people gathered around Wood's

gravesite to bid farewell, including her daughters Courtney and Natasha, who were seven and eleven years old, and Robert sweetly kissed the coffin before it was lowered into the ground. That same day, police would re-interview Christopher Walken, this time with his criminal defense lawyer present. Walken said that they discovered Natalie and the dinghy were missing, that after that, they all felt that she had gone ashore, probably back to the restaurant. Walken then told him according to Raesher's notes, it didn't mean too much to RJ because he knew she had gone ashore the night before and stayed at Avalon, so he just went to his stateroom and went to sleep. Hamilton wrote

in his notes that Walken said he slept all night, Slept like a baby. He didn't say baby. But the statement was markedly inconsistent with Walken's narrative on the morning of the 29th before he lawyered up. In his first statement, Walken told investigators when they discovered both Natalie and the dinghy were missing, they looked for her in the dinghy. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are we doing here? Let's not jump to conclusions.

Let's not make mountains out of molehills. I've been drinking. A lot. I was very high. Daven's weed. A long way from stems and seeds. That flower had power. I was quite confused when everything went to shit.

I'm not a killer. I'm a joker. Midnight toker. I sure don't want to hurt no one. I'm a lover. A sinner. a space cowboy All of this evidence though not outright condemning should have probably raised some questions and pushed law enforcement to continue their investigation But the police are just seemingly made up their minds

Despite mounting inconsistencies despite interviewing very very very few witnesses For example the police told the public via the LA Times that Natalie was known to go out on a nice night, even though Natalie was also publicly known for her deep fear of dark water, and it wasn't that nice of a night. Right? It was cold, light drizzles, white-capped water. Nevertheless, on December 11th, Detective Razer took action to officially render the case number 081008981873496 Wagner Natalie Wood inactive and classifying the file as person dead accidental drowning. From the police's perspective, there was nothing left to investigate and everyone could

just go ahead with their lives and the others did. Robert did. He got custody of Natalie's daughter Natasha and her estate. 1982 he began to date actress Jill St. John whom he'd known since the late 1950s. After eight years together they married May 26, 1990 in the Pacific Palisades and would continue raising Natasha and Courtney together. Natasha herself would go on to become an actress appearing in several projects in the late 90s and early 2000s, including Lost Highway, Another Day in Paradise, High Fidelity. Walken, meanwhile, well, he became fucking Walken, an icon.

He played a James Bond villain, Max Zoran, in 1985's A View to Kill, which was Roger Moore's last appearance as Bond. He would continue acting in many, many movies, TV shows, Saturday Night Live, more cowbell, a bunch of plays, so much, TV shows, Saturday Night Live, more cowbell, a bunch of plays, so much, too much to list, and continued to be married to his wife, George Ann Thawne, who he'd been, who he married back in 1969. So he was seemingly supposed to be very happily married when he spent that weekend with Natalie and Robert on the boat. Christopher and George Ann are still married to this day. For many years, it would seem like this case was closed whether people wanted it to be or not.

Maybe murder? Probably not. Maybe an accident? I don't think so. But then in 2000, nearly 20 years after that fateful night, Boat Captain Dennis Davern comes back into the spotlight. Tells a very different story of what had happened the night Natalie Wood died. In a March 2000 story for Vanity Fair, Davern said that when they all got back on board the night of November 28th after their dinner in Two Harbors, he offered to make tea for everybody, right? Let's help sober up before we fall asleep. In the meantime, though, they also opened another bottle of wine and Natalie, he said, started to

cuddle up to Walken. Huh. Maybe innocent, but maybe not in the eyes of Robert Wagner, and also maybe incentive for Christopher Walken not to want to talk about what really happened later because he could get him in a lot of trouble with his wife, maybe ruin his marriage. Anyway, Davern said, 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 my god, this is getting to be too much right now. Daven said that things were getting more and more tense as Wagner sat there steaming,

watching his wife cuddle with Christopher Walken, and then all of a sudden, he fucking grabs a bottle of wine and smashes it on the table. Jesus Christ, he thundered to Walken. What are you trying to do, fuck my wife? He yells that. He said that Walken seemed shaken up by this accusation, leaves immediately. Natalie does the same, goes into her room, dramatically slamming the door.

Davern then tries to calm Wagner down. This is a very fucking different story than they told the police at the time. Eventually Wagner said that he was going to talk to Natalie. As Davern remained upstairs, he said he could now hear the couple fighting. Then he heard the dinghy being untied after he'd heard them fighting, and then silence. Suspicious as fuck. Shortly after that, he said that Wagner came back tousled and sweating profusely. That's what he said. Looking tousled and sweating profusely. And that he and Daven drank another bottle of wine. That began

around 1130, and they continued to drink for two hours until about 1.30 in the morning. Wagner then said he would go check on Natalie and when he came back, oh, wouldn't you know it? She's gone. Does this story seem very fucking suspicious to you? Paradoxically it's the most realistic story admitting that everyone was drunk and probably trying to fuck each other and or fight giving everyone real motives for what happened and also the most salacious given everyone's bad behavior. Sure seems to strongly imply that Robert Wagner did something to Natalie before he returned

tousled and sweating profusely. Nine years later, in 2009, Daven would publish his tell-all, Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendor. Two years after that, he was among the 700 plus people who signed a petition over the flawed investigation into Wood's death, prompting the L.A. County Sheriff's Department to reopen the case in November of 2011. Following year, 2012, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner amended Wood's death certificate, changed the cause of death from accidental drowning to, quote, drowning and other undetermined factors.

Said the circumstances of how Wood ended up in the water are not clearly established. January 14th 2013 Los Angeles County Coroner's Office offered a 10-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report. The addendum stated that Wood might have sustained some of the bruises on her body before she went into the water but that could not be definitively determined. Five years later February 1st 2018 Robert Wagner officially named a person of interest at the age of now 87 days away from turning 88. Way too fucking late.

He, of course, denies all involvement. And maybe, maybe he wasn't involved, but also, if he hadn't turned himself in at some point during the previous 37 years, why would he admit it now? Four years later, May 27th, 2022, Los Angeles County Police Department Lieutenant Hugo Renega announced that all leads in the case had been exhausted and the case would remain open and unsolved. What happened to Natalie Wood aboard the Splendor on the night of November 28th is still a mystery. But with those recent events, maybe not quite as mysterious. My money is for sure on Robert that in a drunken, jealous fit of rage, he did something real fucking stupid. He pushed Natalie overboard either accidentally or on purpose.

He released the dinghy, right, down to have a, you know, lease the dinghy, let it float out into the water so it looked like she took off in it, and then sat down to have another bottle of wine to let that boat, you know, have time to float away so we could cover up his tracks. There's more evidence that he was involved. In March of 2020, Suzanne Finstad, best-selling author, lawyer, investigative journalist, wrote an article for Vanity Fair about all of this. She definitely believes that, seems to me, she definitely believes that Robert killed her. She said a confidential source told her that Walken told a friend that he had seen Robert

push Natalie the night she died. And that Davern, when he didn't think cameras were still rolling when they were recording his interview for his March 2000 Vanity Fair piece, also stated he saw Robert get physical with Natalie and push her the night she died. And Dr. Michael Franco, a family medicine specialist in LA who was an intern at the LA coroner's office when Natalie Wood's body was flown to LA County, said he observed himself what he was certain was critical physical evidence on Natalie's body that established that her death was a homicide. That's his words. What Franco observed and found suspicious were bruises on Natalie's anterior thighs and shins, bruises he described as friction burns. He told Suzanne what struck him is wrong.

He said, I remember the striations were in the opposite direction of somebody trying to get onto a boat. It was almost like somebody being pushed off. And because of the significant amount of bruising in the lower anterior thighs and shins, that's what caught my attention. She would have had to have had to have been pushed forcefully off or there was a force that was pulling her off or something. The amount of noticeable bruising to the thigh shouldn't have

been there. Franco took this up with Dr. Noguchi telling Suzanne, I mentioned to him the abrasions on Natalie. I told him I was having trouble understanding them. I said they seemed to be in the opposite direction of what one would expect as to her cause of death. I remember when I told him who I was he hesitantly stopped doing what he was doing, looked up at me, nodded his head, didn't say anything, continued doing what he'd been doing, and then said, some things are best left unsaid. Damn. As a volunteer intern in 1981, Dr. Franco was not listed as a coroner's employee and therefore he was never questioned by law enforcement. He only

came forward with that info four decades later when pressed by Suzanne Finstad. Finally, Natalie's younger sister Lana Wood now refers to Natalie's death conclusively as a murder. She's reported that a few days after Natalie's drowned, she drowned Guy McElwain, her sister's powerful Hollywood agent, dropped by to see her. He had just been to RJ's house and he said that RJ had told him what really happened the night on board or the night on the boat. And then he said, quote, I would tell you, but I don't trust you. And she asked what do you mean? And he said, well someday you're going to say something. And I don't want RJ hurt. Nobody needs to be hurt anymore. Why did he only name RJ? Sure sounds to me like that motherfucker got away with murder. Right after Kirk Douglas may have gotten away with brutally raping Natalie when she was 16. It is so sad.

Man, with all these stories, the older I get, the more sympathy I have for the world's women. Fame, fortune, and beauty still were not enough for Natalie to get justice when she was seemingly raped and then seemingly murdered by others who also had fame, fortune, and beauty because they had one big advantage over her. They were men. And that is it for this edition of Time Suck Short Sucks. Man, if you get a chance, check out some of Natalie's old movies like Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass.

She was so much more than a victim. She was an incredible actress. And don't watch any of Robert Wagner's shit. There's a lot more information that I just didn't choose to put in the short suck because I didn't have time to turn it into a big time suck. But man, the more I looked, the more I was like, that motherfucker did it for sure! Dude straight up got away with murder. And I think Christopher Walken probably didn't tell the truth about what was actually happening that night in the boat because he didn't want to fuck with his marriage. Ugh!

Enjoy this story. Check out the rest of the Bad Magic Catalog. Beefier episodes of Time Suck every Monday at noon Pacific time. New episodes of the now long running paranormal podcast Scared to Death every Tuesday at midnight. With two episodes of nightmare fuel, fictional horror thrown into the mix each month.

Big thanks to Sophie Evans for her initial research. Big thanks to Logan Keith polishing up the sound of today's episode, making that cool episode thumbnail art. Please go to BadMagicProductions.com for all your bad magic needs. Don't dwell on this tragedy too much and just try to have yourself a great weekend. Add Magic Productions