Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Bruising noted in actress Natalie Wood's autopsy report: Does the pattern prove domestic abuse?

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Bruising noted in actress Natalie Wood's autopsy report: Does the pattern prove domestic abuse? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Not one Christmas goes by that we do not watch.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Uppet Christmas, Carol and Miracle on thirty fourth Street,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the remake and the Classic with Natalie Wood. Natalie Wood.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Just the name evokes glamor, beauty, grace. But even now,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: decades later, many convinced Natalie Wood didn't quote just drown,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: that Natalie Wood was I murdered. I Nancy Grace and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: this is crime stories, crime stories with Nancy Grace such
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: You're at Catalina Island found the body of Natalie Wood
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: floating just offshore this morning, an apparent drowning victim. She
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: had sailed to the island with her husband, actor Robert Wagner,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: aboard the couple's yacht. Authority said the actress apparently tried
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: in an inflatable motor launch. What happened isn't known. The
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: boat was found afloat near the body. Today, Miss Wood's
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: distraught husband returned their Beverly Hills home to receive a
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: constant stream of mourners. The couple had been popular fixtures
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: in Hollywood Grand Marshals in the nineteen seventy nine Christmas Parade.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: As an actress, Miss Wood rose to prominence with Miracle
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: on thirty fourth Street and through the years had been
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: nominated for three Academy Awards. David Dow's CBS News Hollywood.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: In the last days, the death of Natalie Wood has
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: taken center stage yet again. I mean see Grace, this
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: is crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Not
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: only was Natalie found, her body found full voting out
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: in the cold water. According to witnesses, there had been
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: a horrible argument between her and her then husband Robert
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Wagner the night before on their yacht. With me an
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: all star panel to dissect the very latest Stephen Lampley,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: former detective, author of I Was the Girl, about his
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: time as an undercover cop in an underage sex sting.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Doctor Bryan Russell's psychologist, lawyer and host of investigation Discoveries
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Fatal Vows. Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Institute and now an expert in the Natalie Wood case.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Marty Ruley, author of Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendor on Amazon,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: and special guests joining me. Lanna Wood, Natalie's sister and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: actress Bond Girl, the star in over twenty Moon movies
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and over three hundred television shows. I Want to start
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: with Lanta Wood, Lanta. A lot of people don't realize
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: for what it's worth. This month is National Domestic Abuse
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Awareness Month. And having prosecuted felony crimes for ten years
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: and working at the batter Women's Center at night for
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: nine years, I sometimes feel like I've seen too much
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: regarding battered women, but I feel like it has never
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: been analyzed as it relates to your sister, Natalie. Lanna,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: can you describe the relationship Natalie had with Robert Wagner?
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Starting at the beginning, Natalie, Natalie was really living her
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: fantasy of being married too late a handsome movie star.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Natalie fortunately or unfortunately, really was living her dream, but
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: her dream wasn't exactly what she taught it would be.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Their relationship was very difficult at times, very disturbing to Natalie,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: extremely disappointing, and I used the word extremely because it
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: isn't like little things that disappointed her. Also just as
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: a momentary asside to let everyone know what Natalie was
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: like is Natalie was very, very concerned with showing her
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: fans and the world that she was Natalie would she
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: never let that down. Ever, she would not show frailties.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: She would not. She felt she had a certain role
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: to play when she stepped out of her house, and
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: she was very, very concerned with keeping other things private
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: because it didn't match up with what she wanted the
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: world to see. Um. Their relationship was a difficult one. UM,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and it's so complicated. I don't really know how easily
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I can even describe it simply because it was it
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: wasn't just a young girl falling in love. It was
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: playing another role. It was it was another role for
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Natalie as well. And that's what she knew. That's what
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that's what she'd done all her life, and that's also
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: why she had been in therapy for many, many many
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: years and continue this is trying to break away from
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the pretense of the fantasy and face the reality. Not easy.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: You know, that's really interesting, guys. I'm speaking with Natalie
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: woods sister, Alanna, who I now consider to be a
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: personal friend. Over the years, we have analyzed this case
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: so many times. And it pains me to say over
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the years because not that I regret knowing Alanna for
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: this amount of time, but that justice has never been
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: obtained for Natalie Wood over all these years. The author
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: of Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendor, which is the name of
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Natalie's yacht. Marty ruly is with me. You can find
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: her or her name. Are you li on Amazon? Marty,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I'd like to hear your reaction to what Lanta has
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: just said about her sister's relationship with Robert Wagner. Well,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: it's so true that Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood were
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: such a public relationship. The world had eyes on them
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and Natalie. My friend Dennis de Verne, who worked as
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: their skipper on the boat, he saw them in the
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: most intimate weekends of their lives when they got away
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: from the hustle and bustle and took their trips to
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Catalina Island, and Dennis so he saw the pleasure part
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of their life. He had never really seen anything like
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: what happened the weekend Natalie died beforehand. But he also
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: spent a lot of private time with Natalie in the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: wheelhouse because she didn't like the water activities. So Natalie,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: she was in therapy, and she told Dennis a lot
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: about her therapy. They confided in each other, and she
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: did explain that there were things about her relationship because
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: it was so public that made it more difficult. So
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I totally understand what Lana is saying. And the one
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: thing and Natalie didn't want the public to see the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: problems in her marriage. They were so popular, they were
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the king and Queen of Hollywood at that time. So
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Natalie not only had to hide certain things, she lived
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: with the fear of the public finding out that everything
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: wasn't perfect. In you know, the perverbial Lala Land and
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the night that Natalie died, A lot of women are assaulted,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: and you know, my advices get out the first time,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: because it usually doesn't get better, it gets worse. And Natalie,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know what may have happened to be in
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: in privacy in their relationship ship, but I do know
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: what happened that night. So not only was Natalie the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: very night that she died physically assaulted, as her autopsy
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: report shows Bruce's all over her body, it's the emotional
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: aspect of it too. She was so angered that night
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: because Robert Wagner had smashed a wine bottle in front
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: of the face of her costar, who she was trying
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to impress in a family way, taking him on a
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: family cruise with her husband, And here she was totally embarrassed.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: She was angry the emotional aspect of it by the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: time Robert Wagner got to their stateroom and the horrible
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: fighting started. The physical part of it, Natalie was experiencing
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: emotions that go along with this horrible thing. And then
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: when he's probably started abusing her, there was the shock
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of that. If it wasn't a constant thing in their relationship.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, this was a bad fight. It probably got worse.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to what a witness tells our friend,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: doctor Phil. Have you replayed this in your mind? Are
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: you mad at yourself that you didn't do something different? Well,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I actually, I actually don't think. I think she was
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: dead when she hit the water. She was unconscious, you
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, when she hits the water. I
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: mean they said there wasn't any water in her lungs.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: So what is your theory? I think the argument got
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: out of control and she was she was knocked unconscious
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: by a physical fight from Robert Wagner and put in
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the water. So you believe when you were standing on
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the back of that boat and he said, don't turn
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: on that searchlight, you were talking to a murderer. Exactly.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: You believe Robert Wagner murdered Natalie Wood. I really do
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: prime stories with Nancy Grace. There were two lifeguards that
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: handled the initial investigation. One of those is dead, another
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: one is not speaking. He's refused to talk about this case.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Now he says he's done talking because he doesn't believe
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: justice has been served. And is one Roger Smith, Yes, okay,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: because we have some audio of him. One of the
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: lifeguards was Roger Smith who led the lifeguard team that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: searched for Natalie, and he's the one who actually pulled
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: her body out of the water. Here's a clip if
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: his interview on the podcast Fatal Voyage The Mysterious Death
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: of Natalie Wood. Let's listen to it. He said, we've
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: had the shore boats and the harbor trow go to
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: every boat in the harbor, and we couldn't locate her.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Look at here's the boat right here, And he and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Wagnes said we didn't call them because her public agency
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: and she might be fooling around a something boat and
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: she often does that. I found out by one of
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the Marine Science Center students who studied anatomy over there
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: and that worked the chamber with me that she could
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: live three to five point eight hours hanging under that
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: raft being blown out to sea before she succumbed to
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the code based on one alcohol level she had on
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: her hand under the safety line that goes along the
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: side of it. Her hands were still liable, you know.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: So nothing is said in yet linga mortis, no ring
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: of martis at all, and in her facial she looked,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: she looked, I shan't that diver. I looked out at
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the raft. As I looked at it, I saw some
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: scratch marks on the didn't scratch end of the material,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: but like somebody was clawing on the side of it
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and staggering. So what does that suggest? That she became
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: conscious at least or at some point was conscious, was
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: hanging onto this raft and may have been clawing trying
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to get up in the raft from the water. True,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Natalie Wood didn't have to die. You were hearing our
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: friend doctor Phil and his guests, including the man that
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: pulled Natalie Wood's body out of the icy waters at Catalina. I.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories. Thank you for being
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: with us. How did she end up in the water?
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: To Cheryl McCallum, cold case Research Institute director explains, Cheryl Nacy,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: she's in her stateroom and then she leaves that, which
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: is he goes straight out to the back of the boat.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Whether she and Robert Wagner are having a furbal argument
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: to the point thence to Verne with the radio rowed
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: up in the wheelhouse, can hear it? He looks out
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and sees it, and he thought, well, I'm going to
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: give him their privacy, so he looks away. The next
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: thing he knows, Robert Wagner comes him and says, Natalie's missing.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: But when you look at the injuries to her body,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: and not just what's written on the autopxy but the drawing.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: She's got a mark on her left cheek, She's got
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: injuries around her neck, on her wrists, on her thigh,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: on her knees, on her ankles, on the front of
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: her leg, both of them, on the backs of her legs.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: There is no injury, however, to the inside of the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: palm of her hands. And that crucial to me because
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: had she been holding onto that rope and that rope
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: fly away from her because the boat gets jerked away
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: in the wind, she might have burned from the rope.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: They didn't notate any injury where she had been scratching.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: But this is really important for your listeners to paint
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: this picture. The dinghy was not some heavy wooden boat.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: It was filled with air. The moment that it got untied,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: it's like a balloon in the wind. There would have
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: been zero chance she could have re entered that boat
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: from the water. Not possible. So you think if you've
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: ever been pulled like on a knee board, and that
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: you know in the lake if you fall off that
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: you can't get back on that you have to have
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: everything stopped in order to pull yourself back up. Bones
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: just a small raft forget getting ding not gonna happen.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: And your point is she was not trying to reinter
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: that dingy. She was not conscious. Let me ask you this, yere,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna call him. What about her fingernails in autopsy?
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I don't recall them being chipped or broken? None. Her
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: focks are owned, her nightgown own, the jacket his own.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: She's dressed fully. And the point is that if well
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: we know all these injuries are true because they're on
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the autopsy report, if she was did not sustain them
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: trying to get into the boat the dinghy. Then how
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: did she sustain them? I want to circle back to Lanta.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Would Natalie's sister Lana I believe that Natalie was a
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: domestic abuse victim? Agree or disagree? Oh? I agree completely completely?
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I why just based upon the current the New Corners
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: examinations and his conclusions. Um, Dennis Deverne, having gone to
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the stateroom door when he heard his words, founds like
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: furniture was being thrown around, banging, raised voices. He knocked
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: on the door, which was opened, A small bitch and
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: uh basically told to go away by Robert Wagner. Um, Natalie,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Natalie first all was very tiny. UM a lot. There's
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: so much for me to say. I keep getting lost
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: in my wanderings here. The fingernail, Um, you know, it's
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: it's standard operating procedure. It is for fingernail clippings to
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: be taken. This was not done or there there are
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: nuns in u in evidence anywhere a rate kit was
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: not done. There again, away from procedure, there are so
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: many questions Natalie did did bruise easily? And for her
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to have sustained that many bruises, I mean It's quite obvious.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: There's no way I can pretend that it wasn't done
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: to her. But about their history, you are in a
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: unique position to know her history. Robert Wagner. Was there
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: any indication through the years that she had been a
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: domestic abuse victim, not that she ever admitted, which is
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: very very much like Natalie. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: special guests joining me Lanna Wood, Natalie's sister and actress.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: This month is National Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, but I
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: feel like it has never been analyzed as it relates
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: to your sister Natalie. Was there any indication through the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: years that she had been a domestic abuse victim, not
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: that she ever admitted, which is very very much like Natalie,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: because she also had a role to play with me.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I was her baby sister who was always around. She
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: didn't want me to see really ugly things. We didn't
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: talk about things like that. If I would begin to
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: talk about things like that in respect to myself my relationships,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: she would say she didn't want to hear it. Well,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: can you tell me about an incident where Natalie cut
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: her hand? I was a teenager. It was at my parents' home,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: a small home in Van Eyes, and Natalie appeared at
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the door very late at night with her hand bleeding
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: badly as she had cut herself with a wine glass
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: that she crushed with her own hand. She was so furious,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: so shocked, so distraught that she was able to do that,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And it was because of something that she witnessed with
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: her husband, Robert Wagner. Um that she also then wrote
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: about in her in her own memoir which she was
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: attempting to finish, that it shook up her entire life.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: It destroyed everything she believed in in marriage and everything else.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Um what what destroyed everything she believed in? Finding her
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: husband with someone else? That was the reason for the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: first divorce? Um, yeah, it was. I was really devastating
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to her, absolutely devastating. Did I miss hear that, Marty Ruley, No,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: you did not, and you did not mishear anything. And
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Robert Wagner, actually Natalie, Natalie even let the world believe
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: when all of the movie gossip magazines back in the
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: day were saying that the marriage had broken up because
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Natalie's was with Warren Beatty, that an affair had started
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: while she was making Splendor in the Graph. Natalie wasn't
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: even that keen on Warren at first. They became good
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: friends after Natalie's marriage had deteriorated after that incident, and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: then Warren had been engaged to Joan Collins and that
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: engagement had broken up. So Warren and Natalie started confiding
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: in each other and their relationship grew. But the movie
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: magazines were attacking Natalie for ruining the marriage by having
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: an affair with Warren Batty and poor Robert Wagner. That's
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: not the case. Natalie caught her husband, Robert Wagner, in
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: a compromising position and went home to her parents' house
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and allowed, And she does write about it. She doesn't
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: describe it, but she writes about her extreme emotional devastation
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: over that incident in her diary to Cheryl McCollum. In
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: my mind, and you and I have worked on so
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: many domestic violence cases that end in homicide, and my mind,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: adultery is a form of emotional abuse, especially when your spouse,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: your partner knows it's happening and you continue to do it.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: That's abuse. But if this was my case and I
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: was coming to you at the court house that lay
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: it out and tell you what we have, I would
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: start with when they met, NOI they year volder might
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: be that he did control her a little bit when
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: they met. He is a bigger deal at first than
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: she was. Then she took the lead. She became the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: movie star. And not just in movies. She was in
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the Blockbusters at the time, three Academy Award nomination. I
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: mean she's living the dreams. She's on TV, and in
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: that world there's a distinction. So there's jealousy there. There's
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: other things that play in And one thing that I
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: would bring to you at the courthouse, I would say, Nancy,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: she died on this night, but let's talk about the
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: night before, because you cannot discount the fact she was
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: either so upset and angry and wanted to get away
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: from Robert Waggoner's so bad. The night before she died,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: she got in and severne to take her to a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: hotel on shore. She did not spend the night on
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: the Funday. She's absolutely right to Atlanta Wood, Natalie's sister
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and star in her own right. You don't have suddenly
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: an explosion one night, a battering situation and the person
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: is killed when there is not a history leading up
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: to it. Okay, now, what Cheryl McCollum is saying is
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: absolutely correct. Just like when Nicole Brown Simpson was trying
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to leave home okay because she had been battered that
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: night before she was killed, Natalie Wood had Davern the captain,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: take her to short leave the yacht like so many
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: women leave their homes, because she was angry and afraid
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: of Robert Wagner. Alanna, this is absolutely true. No, that
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: there would have had to have been something really quite
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: horrific for Natalie to leave and spend the night away
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: from the Splendor and stay on shore and asked Dannis
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: to please stay by her side. She asked him to
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: please stay with her. Marty Ruly, author of Goodbye Natalie
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Goodbye Splendor on Amazon. What do we know about the
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: night before she died? That night bothers me to this
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: day because the reason Natalie left the yacht that night
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: everything was fine. That night, She Christopher and RJ had
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: spent time on the island in Avalon and they had lunch,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: They had some drinks and did some early Christmas shopping,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: which was one of Natalie's reasons for wanting to spend
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: that weekend in at Catalina. She wanted to get some
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: she was into the holiday spirit. She was in good spirits.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: But after they returned to the boat on Friday night
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: of the cruise, Black Friday, that was they had dinner
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: aboard the boat, and then suddenly RJ wants to move
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the boat across the island to the remote part of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the island where there's the only one restaurant, but which
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: has closed at that time ten ten thirty at night,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: and the water was choppy that night. That's the night.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: The water was choppy, it was cold, it was raining,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: and Robert Wagner suddenly he's running around, he's pulling anchor.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: He's demanding that Dennis go to the wheelhouse and get
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: the engines going. They're going to the other part of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: the island. Why And that was Natalie's question, why, r J?
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Why are you doing this? And j he was so
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: upset that night. He was angry, he was boiling over
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: with probably jealousy. And that's when Natalie said, Dennis, I
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: don't like this. Take me assure Dennis did. And she
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: was so upset that night. They stayed up almost all
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: night long while she confided in Dennis that she was
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: not going to tolerate this anymore. She was tired of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: RJ's jealousies, which does have a history. One time, and
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Robert Wagner himself writes about this in his memoir that
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: he was Well. It was actually in Gavin Lambert's biography
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: about Natalie that when she starred with William Devane and
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Wagner was very jealous of William Devane in From Here
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: to Eternity. And one night they were in a hotel
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: room and RJ wanted to throw himself out of an
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: eight story hotel window over his jealousy. But there were
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: other people in the room that night Natalie had gone
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: to bed, and they all calmed r J down. So
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: there was a history of his jealousies and he's not
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: trusting Natalie. But on this night, the Friday night that
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Dennis spent the night with Natalie, she was very afraid.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Now I believe that she asked Dennis to stay with
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: her so she could then to him, and also because
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: she was afraid. Why would he want to move that
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: boat at that late time at night to the remote
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: part of the island where the next night Natalie ended
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: up in the water exactly at the same spot he
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: wanted to travel to On Friday Night Crime Stories with
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace to Lana would Natalie's sister and actress Lana.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Their relationship was fraught with explosive arguments and threats and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: jealousies and all night drinking. What do you know about
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: their arguments over the years. I mean it led to
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: one divorce and then they got back together. Well, I
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: was listening to Marty. It also brought back to me
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: when Natalie was filming Peeper with Michael Caine UM and
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: he was just a family friend, Michael UM. But Nadalie
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: and I were in her in her trailer and she
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: was she was getting ready to go back out on
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the set and r J arrived. He walked up the
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: steps and you know when came into the trailer, we
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: were not expecting him, and he instantly started this kind
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: of um, I want to say, snide sort of bickering
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: about you know, oh, you better make sure your mic
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: has turned on. When when the sound man put on
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: your microphone and set everything up, was he turned on?
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Did you let him see anything? I mean it was
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: rather because I was standing there. It was sort of
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: done in an in an undertone, but it was very
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: cruel and it was weird. It was just odd that
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: he would become very who steps up her microphone? That
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: sort of thing would go on from time to time always,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: but he uh, he would try to cover up most
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of the time when they would start that kind of bickering,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and Natalie would get very upset. She did not lash back,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: She did not say anything that would further his his
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: strange behavior, his thoughts, and generally I would excuse myself
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and say, you know, hey, if they wanted to have
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: dinner later, um, give me a callback, and I would
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: I would leave because it was very unpleasant. So the
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: jealousy was that common and their relationships, that type of
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: behavior was common. There seemed to be some sort of
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: a jealousy that was not that that had no basis.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: So I don't know psychologically if that was something that
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: he just simply enjoyed or that was his way of
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: upsetting Natalie. Let me ask you this. Lana would during
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: her marriages to Robert Wagner. First and second, did you
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: ever suspect that she was a victim either physical or
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: emotional abuse? Emotional yes, yeah, the physical no, I didn't really.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Ladie always had bruises, but whenever I'd slay what happened there.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: The apple would be, oh, I don't even know. I
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: you know, I bump in the thing. Okay, that's interesting
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: to me. To Marty Rulely Arthur of goodbye Natalie, goodbye splendor.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: That people actually noticed Natalie Wood's bruises, well, she was
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: an active person and you can acquire bruises and a
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: lot of people as an excuse later, you know, explaining
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: the bruises on her autopsy, reports said well, when your
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: boating neck can happen. Not the type of bruises that
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Natalie had, especially at the ankles. The ankle bruises that
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: she had actually looked like fingerprint marks, which and you know,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: I am an amateur when it comes to the medical
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: field in respect to a coroner's report, but I did
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: markings on a makeshift body, and those bruises Natalie's ankles
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: on her autopsy are exactly fit the handprints of being
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: pulled by the ankles, probably dragged along the deck, which
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: is how she acquired her facial abrasion, which just had
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: non skid applied to the deck, you know, close here
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: and it up for the winner the boat and so
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: But in actual every day to day life, I did
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: not know Natalie or ever see Natalie. But Nolana just
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: said that she a lot of times had bruises. Who
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: knows where they came from. I want to follow up
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: on something you're saying with Cheryl McCallum, director of the
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Cold Case Research Institute, regarding the bruises on Natalie's ankles.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: You have to ask yourself first, or her injuries consistent
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: with a fall. If you answer no, that's why we're here.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: That's why the autoxy results have been changed from accidental
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: railly to undetermined because they're not consistent with a fall.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: There's no way this is unusual. Bit, My daughter Caroline
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: is exactly Natalie Wood's height. Caroline could no more from
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: the back of that boat, reach that thinging, pull it
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: toward her, and enter it without help. And here's what
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: key to me. The night before, when she's mad and
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: upset and angry and wants to get away from him,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: she don't jump in that boat and take off. She
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: gets Vinnis to take her the next night. You want
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: me to believe that Natalie Wood who was falling. I
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: have personally looked at over twelve hundred photographs of Natalie Wood.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: There ain't a bad one. There is only one that
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: I had found. She's an a bathing suit walking down
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the beach. Her smile is perfect, debasing sus perfect to play,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Her legs are positions, walking is perfect, But her eyes
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: are closed. That is as close to a bad picture
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: of her that I have found. The reason that's key.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: I am never gonna believe that Natalie would guide in
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: a boat by herself, that she was petrified of the water,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: that she was petrified of a boat. She never drove
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: and went to town in a flannel nightgown did not happen.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Natalie Wood would not give people to believe she owned flannel.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: She was a movie star all the time. It wasn't.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: It wasn't playing for Natalie who she was. We wait
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and hope for justice. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Goodbye Friend,