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Speaker 1: Well, nothing screens Hollywood like movies, murders, and love affairs.

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Speaker 1: And when you wrap all three together, you have a blockbuster,

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Speaker 1: especially when it's a true story. Superstar actress Natalie Wood

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Speaker 1: turned up dead in the icy waters off Catalina Island

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Speaker 1: in November of nineteen eighty one, and none of it

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Speaker 1: makes any sense. I'm Patti Steele. Only one person there

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Speaker 1: that night is talking. That's next on the backstory. The

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Speaker 1: backstory is back. Hollywood is famous for keeping mysterious, dark

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Speaker 1: stories just out of reach. They like to protect their

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Speaker 1: big stars at all costs, and if that means hiding

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Speaker 1: the truth, they find a way to do it. It's been

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Speaker 1: over forty years since the death of an A list

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Speaker 1: movie star Natalie Wood. Was it an accident or murder?

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Speaker 1: Her husband Robert Wagner, now ninety four years old, and

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Speaker 1: her then co star Christopher Walkin, still a huge Hollywood

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Speaker 1: presence today is eighty Neither of them were talking, but

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Speaker 1: somebody else there that night is talking. Now, the question

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Speaker 1: is why did his story get so little attention. We're

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Speaker 1: talking about movie stars, So, guys at the stage right,

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Speaker 1: Natalie Wood was this beautiful, incredibly talented actress. She starred

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Speaker 1: in iconic flicks like West Side Story and Rebel Without

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Speaker 1: a Cause. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar

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Speaker 1: for Splendor in the Grass. All those flicks and so

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Speaker 1: many more during the sexy, glamorous nineteen fifties and sixties

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Speaker 1: in Hollywood, but she started out as a really successful

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Speaker 1: child actress. She was the eight year old co star

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Speaker 1: in the original version of Miracle on thirty Fourth Street,

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Speaker 1: the classic from nineteen forty seven. Her success continued through

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Speaker 1: the fifties, sixties and into the very early seventies, but

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Speaker 1: that's when she took a hiatus slowed her down a

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Speaker 1: little bit to raise her kids. Natalie was married in

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Speaker 1: the early sixties to one of the biggest names in

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Speaker 1: Hollywood at the time, Robert Wagner. They divorced, she married

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Speaker 1: again for several years, then divorced that guy to remarry Wagner.

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Speaker 1: Very Hollywood right. Well now, it's November twenty ninth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty one, the day after Thanksgiving. Natalie is co starring

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Speaker 1: in a new movie called Brainstorm with Christopher Walkin, who

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Speaker 1: starred in Annie Hall and won an Oscar for The

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Speaker 1: Deer Hunter. You probably know him better these days for

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Speaker 1: the TV series Severance and the hugely successful Dune Part two,

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Speaker 1: which just opened in theaters a few weeks ago. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: so how did Natalie wind up dead in those icy

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Speaker 1: waters off Catalina Island in the middle of a cold

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Speaker 1: November night. Her body was found the next morning, floating

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Speaker 1: off the coast, wearing her nightgown, a puffy jacket, and

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Speaker 1: wool socks. It all started when Natalie and her husband

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Speaker 1: Robert invited Christopher out on their yacht right after Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: to get away for the weekend. Here's the problem. Neither

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Speaker 1: Robert nor Christopher seemed to have any idea what happened,

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Speaker 1: and neither seems inclined to talk about it. Police did investigate,

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Speaker 1: and while Wagner changed his story a few times, investigators

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Speaker 1: finally decided it had simply been a heartbreaking accident. They

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Speaker 1: said she had probably gotten on the small dinghy tied

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Speaker 1: to the boat, and just fallen into the water unsteady

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Speaker 1: after a night of drinking. But let's go forward. Decades later,

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Speaker 1: the yachts captain finally shares his story. Dennis Davern says

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Speaker 1: Natalie and Robert got into a huge fight after that

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Speaker 1: night of drinking, there was loud arguing shouting between Robert

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Speaker 1: and Natalie, as well as between Robert and Christopher Walking,

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Speaker 1: and Davern says that ultimately, sometime just before midnight, he

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Speaker 1: believes Robert pushed Natalie off the boat. Davern says he

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Speaker 1: wanted to turn on the yacht's searchlights so they could

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Speaker 1: try to rescue her, but he says Robert wouldn't let him,

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Speaker 1: claiming it would bother folks on nearby yachts talk about

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Speaker 1: a problem with the one percent. Oh the lights from

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Speaker 1: your yacht as you search for your dead wife for

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Speaker 1: keeping me awake. Wow. Anyway, While in autopsy placed Natalie's

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Speaker 1: death at right around midnight, Robert didn't call in a

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Speaker 1: missing person report until one thirty am, and the rescue

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Speaker 1: boat captain Roger Smith, who helped pull Natalie's body from

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Speaker 1: the water, says he didn't get a call to even

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Speaker 1: look for until after five am. On top of that,

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Speaker 1: a corner's report thirty years after the fact says Natalie

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Speaker 1: had fresh bruises on her arms and knee, along with

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Speaker 1: a scratch on her neck and a scrape on her forehead,

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Speaker 1: and the report specifically says she might have been assaulted

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Speaker 1: before she drowned. Dennis Davern says Robert was so intense

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Speaker 1: about keeping him quiet in the aftermath he basically held

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Speaker 1: him hostage for over a year to keep him from talking.

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Speaker 1: He had Davern live in his home and gave him

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Speaker 1: a job on the set of his big nineteen eighties

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Speaker 1: TV show Heart to Heart. Davern says, in the morning,

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Speaker 1: Robert's driver would pick me up at the house and

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Speaker 1: drop me at the studio. At the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: the driver would bring me back to the house. When

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Speaker 1: I went to bed at night, the door to my

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Speaker 1: room would close, and there was a magnetic lock which

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Speaker 1: wouldn't let me open the door. I couldn't get myself

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Speaker 1: out of my own room in Robert's house. What's Robert

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Speaker 1: Wagner's side of all of this, Well, he originally told

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Speaker 1: Copps he Natalie and Walkin had dinner on shore that

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Speaker 1: night and then went back to the Splendor. Pretty soon

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Speaker 1: he got into an argument with Walking about Natalie's career,

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Speaker 1: saying he thought she should slow down and raise their kids,

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Speaker 1: but Walking disagreed, saying she should chase her career even

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Speaker 1: more aggressively. When things got really heated, Robert says Natalie

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Speaker 1: walked away from the argument. An hour later, he says

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Speaker 1: he went to check on her and she was gone.

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Speaker 1: Simple as that, he thought she might have taken the

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Speaker 1: dinghy back to shore, but that didn't make any sense

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Speaker 1: given Natalie's way well known fear of the ocean at night.

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Speaker 1: I mean, really, wouldn't you be frantic to rescue someone

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Speaker 1: you loved if you even thought they might have accidentally

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Speaker 1: fallen into the ocean. When Davern finally told investigators the

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Speaker 1: real story in twenty eighteen, they asked him to take

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Speaker 1: a polygraph. He says he passed it with flying colors

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Speaker 1: when he wrote a book about that night. The LAPD

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Speaker 1: reopened the case, and they finally named Robert Wagner a

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Speaker 1: person of interest in Natalie's death, but after a few

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Speaker 1: years they quietly dropped the investigation, saying they'd reopen it

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Speaker 1: if any new evidence popped up. For now, they're not

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Speaker 1: interested in where this could take them in stirring up

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Speaker 1: a case against a ninety four year old longtime movie

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Speaker 1: and TV star. There's been talk that the fight between Wagner,

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Speaker 1: Walking and Natalie really centered on the possibility that Walking

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Speaker 1: and Natalie were having an affair. But unless somebody talks, well,

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Speaker 1: probably never know. Once again, Hollywood, the press, and Hollywood

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Speaker 1: law enforcement have a longtime reputation for protecting big stars

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Speaker 1: at all costs, and maybe that's still the case. I

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Speaker 1: hope you're enjoying the Backstory with me, Patty Steele. Please like, follow,

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Speaker 1: and subscribe. Much appreciated. If you have a story you

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Speaker 1: want me to take a deep dive into and share,

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Speaker 1: I would love you to DM me on Facebook at

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Speaker 1: Patty Steele or on Instagram at Real Patty Steele. I'm

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Speaker 1: Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,

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Speaker 1: the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer

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Speaker 1: is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new

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Speaker 1: episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out

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Speaker 1: to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram

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Speaker 1: at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The

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Speaker 1: pieces of history no you needed to know