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