WEBVTT - The Tragic Death of Natalie Wood 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:07.200 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.720 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and Chuck's 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.040 here too, and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:21.279 you should know part of our ongoing, indefinitely continuous through 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:22.079 prime edition. 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:27.560 That's right, and weirdly, our second paulap Tompkins reference is 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:32.120 coming on this episode. Oh yeah, yeah, because Paul's wonderful, 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:34.920 hysterical wife, Jannie looks like Natalie Would. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:37.920 Okay, is she known for that? 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.600 I mean, I don't know if she's internationally known, but 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.640 I think Janie knows it and her friends know it, 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:47.080 and it has been said out loud. 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.159 I got, So that's that's what I'm after. I mean, 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.240 if this is just your observation or not. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.560 Oh no, no, no, it's it's been It's been said before. 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:55.360 It's on record. 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:00.000 So if you don't know who Natalie Would is, first 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.800 go look up Jennie Tompkins. You get a pretty good idea. 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.720 You could also look up Natalie Wood herself, sure, but 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.560 you probably are familiar with her one way or another. 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.200 First of all, she probably captured your heart as the 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:15.880 little girl who doubted the existence of Santa Claus a 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:19.640 Miracle on thirty fourth Street, the original one. She might 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:24.479 have also captured your heart as the kind of good 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:29.919 girl gone bad in Rubble without a Cause. She also 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.280 may have been like I like that girl in West 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:35.600 Side Story, or I like that girl in Splundor in 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.279 the Grass, or I like that girl in the nineteen 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:40.959 seventy six made for TV remake of Cat on a 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.000 Hot Tin Roof. Well, then you like Natalie Wood. 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.559 Guys, yeah, Or if you grew up like we did 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:50.800 in the eighties, you might like her from the sci 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:57.720 fi classic, not classic eighties, early eighties sci fi classic Brainstorm. 0:01:58.120 --> 0:01:58.800 I never saw it. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.840 Oh really, yeah, you should check it out. It was 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:03.760 sort of one of those It was in the early eighties. 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:05.919 Like there were a few a few of those movies 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.920 that were kind of in the same vein of do 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:13.120 you remember the movie Looker, Yes, like with Albert Finney, 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:15.440 And then there was the Tom seliquin about the Little 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.400 Rope with Jeene Simmons, with the little Robo run Away. 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:19.959 It was in that vein. 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.680 Oh, okay, well, definitely that sounds like a great triple 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:23.600 feature if you ask me. 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:25.320 It's kind of right up your alley. I bet you'd 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:25.560 like it. 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:27.960 Okay, I'll check that one out. I have not seen that. 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:29.960 I was familiar with her from Rebel without a Cause 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.040 because I went through a real big James Dean phase 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.720 in high school. Oh yeah, you might also be familiar. Yeah, 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:40.920 you might also be familiar with her sister Lana would. Yeah, 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.160 she was plenty of tool and diamonds are forever. She 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.079 was very well known for that. And both of these 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:52.320 sisters were originally named Zacharenko. They were the daughters of 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:55.440 Russian immigrants, Maria and Nick Zakarenko, who moved to San 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:59.160 Francisco and had these two kids, and their mom said, 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.880 you're both going to be stars, especially you. Natalie born Natalia. 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:08.160 That's right, and Lana was born what Svetlana? 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:08.920 Mm hm. 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.520 So they, you know, they kind of americanized their names 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.959 kind of kind of and you know, we're going to 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.280 be reading through a few different Olivia helped us with this, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:20.600 but she got a lot of this stuff from a 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:25.320 few different biographies. So if we reference like Suzanne Finnstad's 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:30.520 biography or maybe Robert Wagner's biography or autobiography, that's that's 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:31.360 what we're talking about. 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.880 Yeah, our Sam Kashner wrote a very great Vanity Fair 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:35.640 article on it. 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:40.720 Oh that's right, very good one. But Suzanne Finnstad's biography 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:44.840 recounts the childhood that wasn't as great as it seemed 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:48.720 from the outside. That her her father was an alcoholic, 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.920 her mother was a very controlling sort of manager of 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:58.800 her career and would organize meetings with the very experienced 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.400 men and acts trying to get her foot in the door, 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.760 including one incident where she did so with Kirk Douglas 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:12.120 where she was well. She says she was raped by 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:16.000 Kirk Douglas when she was sixteen at one of these 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.400 meetings at the Chateau Marmont. And I was kept secret 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.200 for many, many years until Kirk Douglas died, and then 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:24.560 Lana came out and said, well, I feel like I 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.840 should reveal who this person was now. And I think 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.479 this was in her book that she wrote about her sister, 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:32.479 so there was also that account of her life. 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:37.320 Yeah, so that's just Kirk Douglas. Apparently her mom arranged 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:41.880 sexual liaison when she was fifteen with Frank Sinatra to 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.279 get this part in Rubble without a cause. She apparently 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.040 had to prove she was capable of being a bad 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.680 girl by sleeping with the director, who was forty four 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:52.800 at the time. I think she was sixteen then too, 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:55.440 And her mom was like complicit in all of this, 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.520 Like she's just like, this is the price for entry 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.080 into Hollywood. Sorry, just keep your mouth shutting your chin up, 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.040 which is I just can't imagine the damage of just 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:11.240 these these instances, but then of being like that, dismissed 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:16.200 and unsupported by you know, your mom. Just I can't. 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.640 It's just awful. But what's amazing is that she managed 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:23.000 to stay alive and actually thrive over the years, because 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.680 she did develop a really amazing career, especially early on 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:27.520 in the sixties. 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.159 Yeah, you mentioned all those, you know, classic movies she 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.200 was in. In nineteen fifty seven, she married for the 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.440 first time Robert Wagner, who you and I Josh would 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.279 go on to know as the lead actor in the 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:42.160 eighties TV show Heart to Heart. 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:43.880 Co starring Stephanie Powers. 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:48.640 Stephanie Powers. But in the nineteen fifties he was an 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.240 actor kind of you know, it wasn't super famous, but 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.240 he acted a lot, and then his star rose as 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.240 hers was kind of fading. But they divorced in nineteen 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:03.680 sixty one on their first marriage. People. You know, some 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.240 people say magazines, especially back then, said that, you know, 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:09.240 Natalie would they broke up because he had she had 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.960 an affair with Warren Batty. Her Splendor in the Grass 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:16.919 co star Sam Kashner in his article says, yeah, this 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.680 basically is what happened. But in the Finnstad biography, she's like, no, no, no, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.000 that is not true at all, and including including Lana 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:29.000 will back this up, says, you know, Natalie stumbled upon 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.840 r J. Her husband, having relations with a man and 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.120 had a suicide attempt, which was one of several apparently, 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:39.360 and that's what happened to their first marriage. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.279 Yeah, but she allowed the press to say that she 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:44.880 had had an affair with Warren Batty. The reason that 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.799 that held water, even if it wasn't true, is because 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.359 they were very close. On the set of Splendor in 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.080 the Grass. They had like just their characters had like 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.760 just this crazy, sizzling love affair, and as actors, it's 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.520 tough to separate those things. 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:04.040 I belie an Warren Beatty had a certain reputation. 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:09.120 Yes, so apparently that is what Robert Wagner thought. He 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:11.360 thought that they were having an affair, and he was 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:18.160 very jealous and very protective and just felt cuckholded. I 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:21.239 guess by this, even though supposedly it didn't even happen. 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.520 But that's a really important point. That was one of 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:27.320 the reasons they broke up was he was very jealous 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:31.160 and very overprotective of his relationship with her. 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.440 That's right. She got married to a gentleman named Richard 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.160 Gregson after that in nineteen sixty nine. He's a British 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.520 writer and actor, just sort of, you know, producer of 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:47.680 film industry guy. They had their daughter, Natasha, who goes 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:52.160 by Natasha Gregson Wagner. Although she's married now. She may 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.160 have added another name to the end of her name. 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:59.000 I'm not sure McGill cutty, mguilla cutty. But she was 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.640 an actor too. I haven't seen anything a little while. 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:03.360 I'm not sure she's still in doing that because she's 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:06.080 I know she made a documentary recently about her mom. 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.800 But I remember seeing her in a few movies back 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:11.640 in the day that she did a really good one 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:13.960 with Robert Downey Junior. And I can't think of the 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:14.760 name of it now. 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:16.800 Less than zo oh oh. I know who it is. 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.200 The Last Days of Disco. No pick up artist. 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.200 No, he wasn't in the Last Days of Disco. 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:25.640 Oh I was it? 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:31.520 I can't remember less than zero. No weekend at Bernie's. 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:33.520 Think. I think it was just like three people in 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:35.360 the movie. Was a very small Oh, now you know 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:36.720 what it was weekend at Berney's. 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:37.680 There. 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:43.559 So she married wag I'm sorry, Gregson. And during that 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.240 same period, Wagner married a woman named Mary and Marshall. 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.960 They had a daughter named Katie in sixty four, and 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.599 then they eventually remarried in seventy two and had a 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.880 daughter named Courtney. So now there are our three daughters, 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:58.280 one that Wood and Wagner had together, and one of 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.600 each from previous marriages. For her part, Lana Wood was like, 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:04.840 why did why are you getting back together with this guy? 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.920 And as recounted in her book, Natalie said, sometimes the 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.360 devil you know is better than the devil you don't. 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:12.559 Yeah. 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:15.480 And the reason why Lana Wood Orlana Wood was even 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.920 questioning her was because they had a tumultuous relationship. Well, 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.880 they were married the first time, but apparently they never 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.199 fell out of love or they never stopped loving each 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.480 other's how I saw it put think in an investigation 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:33.160 discovery documentary, and so they remarried in nineteen seventy two. 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:38.400 They had Courtney in nineteen seventy four and basically just 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:40.679 went back to married life, but now with a family 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.000 with three daughters. That was a big difference between their 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.560 first go round. They were trying to make the family 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:47.680 work and apparently it was going fairly well. 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.000 Yeah, he was a little older when he like seven 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.720 or eight years older, eight I think eight years older, 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.560 and yeah, he got that role in Heart to Heart, 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:00.199 and so he started, you know, doing pretty we well 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:04.760 in the industry while you know, and you know, it's 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.200 just the same as true today and an actress in 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:13.080 her forties they start looking elsewhere, generally speaking, unless you're 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.520 you know, like a Meryl Streep or somebody, you're not 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:17.720 gonna get the calls that he used to get. And 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.680 that's what happened certainly with Natalie Wood after great, great 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.720 fame in the nineteen sixties, fifties into the sixties, and 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.040 then it started to sort of tail off into the seventies. 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:29.959 Yes, but if you're a man in Hollywood and as 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.400 you start to age you become distinguished, it's a different 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:34.520 right of your career, and that's certainly what happened with 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:35.440 Robert Wagner. 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.480 No, he wasn't washed up at forty three. I guess 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:39.640 he would have been almost fifty. 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:44.240 Yeah, he actually his star started to rise again. So 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:49.760 they had oppositional careers as far as time went. 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:52.800 And that figures in, by the way, that's the reason 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:54.480 we're I'm talking about this right. 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.600 So it's November nineteen eighty one. They've been married again 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:04.400 for nine years, and Natalie Wood's forty three, Robert Wagner's 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:07.839 fifty one, and I say we take our first break 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.360 and come back and start talking about the problem. 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:40.160 We'll be right back, okay, Chuck. 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:44.520 So in Thanksgiving nineteen eighty one, the weekend after, Robert 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.560 Wagner and Natalie Wood took their yacht out, the Splendor 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.800 sixty foot yacht. Pretty nice. Apparently it had five state rooms, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.920 the whole deal. It was like a legit yacht. Robert 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.000 Wagner was a boat guy, a yacht guy. Really. I 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:03.559 think they took it to Santa Catalina Island better known 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:07.480 as Catalina Island. I think like twenty miles off the 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.400 coast of Los Angeles and I've never been there, but 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.840 I get the impression that it is very yacht friendly, 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.560 almost like the South coast of France is how I 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:21.720 kind of take it, where very rich people put their 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:23.680 yachts in and then go and party in town and 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.360 then go party from yacht to yacht. And so they 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:31.960 showed up Thanksgiving weekend at Catalina Island looking to have 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:32.960 a good time. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.160 Yeah, they originally were going to have a lot more 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.760 friends on board, but apparently the weather was the forecast 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.080 was a little dodgy, and so the only person that 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:48.480 came along was Christopher Walkin, who said, it takes more 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:50.960 than a few rain drops to frighten me. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:52.480 It's not bad. 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.800 Didn't you interview Christopher Walkin on movie Crush once? 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:57.079 Yeah? 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:57.760 Sure, I did. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:12:58.520 Pretty cool. 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:01.679 Listen to that episode great, and also listened to the 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:03.280 Kevin Pollock episode. 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.280 So the reason that Christopher Walkin was there because you're 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.280 just like, well, that's a little random, Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner. 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.040 Christopher Walkin, he was an up and coming actor at 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.520 the time. I'm not even sure did he have the 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:18.000 Dead Zone under his belt yet? 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.880 M I mean he had done he did The Deer 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.000 Hunter by then Annie Hall and The Deer Hunter and 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:27.760 I don't know if Dead Zone it was right around there, 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:29.400 but he was, Yeah, he was doing his thing a 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:29.800 little bit. 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.920 He was like Hollywood's it guy actor at the time, 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.280 like he was in demand, and he was co starring 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:41.000 in this movie Brainstorm with Natalie Wood. So she invited 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.760 her co star friend to the yacht and he was 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:46.720 the only one that came out of this whole group. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:51.920 And then very noteworthy as the fourth person, Dennis Davern 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.320 He was the captain of the yacht and so the 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:59.440 four of them were on this yachting weekend after Thanksgiving. 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.960 Right actually Dead Zone came out that very year, so 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:06.440 he was This was kind of early peak walkin Okay. 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:12.199 So on Saturday, the twenty eighth of Thanksgiving weekend, they 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.480 ate dinner at Doug's Harbor reef on Catalina. They got very, 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:21.160 very drunk. The manager there said that he was even 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:23.520 worried that they couldn't get back. They had a little 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.320 inflatable motorized dingy, you know, that's what you do when 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.200 you have a yacht to go to shore. It was 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.040 called the Prince Valiant, which is also the name of 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.800 an early Robert Wagner movie, and obviously Splendor was named 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:37.280 after Splendor in the Grass, so they had their little boats. 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.640 Hers was the yacht name. His was the dinghy name, 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:42.440 which is interesting. 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.440 And he hated his role in Prince Valiant. He felt 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.960 it was his worst role. He was apparently mocked for 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:50.960 it widely, so it was kind of like tongue in 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.120 cheek that he named kell boat Valiant. 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.040 Yeah, yeah, that makes sense then. But the night manager 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:58.280 there at Doug's harbor reef was like, I don't even 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:00.560 know if these guys are so drunk the I fear 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.160 for their safety of just getting back onto the Splendor. 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:07.200 So he said, hey, harbor patrol person, can you make 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.440 sure they get back safely? They left about ten ten 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.600 thirty at night, and then at one thirty in the morning, 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:19.760 Robert Wagner and Captain Dabn made a call to the 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.800 shore saying, you know, Natalie what has gone missing? We 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.560 need your help this one thirty am. Two hours later, 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.800 at three thirty they called the Coastguard to get a 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:32.160 formal search going, and then very tragically, at seven forty 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.600 five in the morning, Davern identified the body of Natalie 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:39.280 Wood about a mile south of where the yacht was anchored, 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.440 and a flannel nightgown, socks, and a red down jacket. 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.680 Yep, the dinghy they found washed up on the shore 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:52.120 and very very importantly, the oars were locked, so they 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:55.080 had not been used to row. The ignition was off, 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:59.040 so it had not been turned on, and yet it 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.120 was just kind of washed away from the boat. This 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:08.080 was an enormous deal. I mean, like, Natalie Wood was 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.600 already like Hollywood legend. And what's more, she was one 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:14.440 of the reasons she was having trouble getting parts was 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.760 not just her age, but she was old Hollywood, and 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:21.160 Hollywood had started to transition in the seventies into like 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.720 a newer version of itself and kind of resented the 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:28.080 old studios and stuff. So she was like Hollywood royalty 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.680 at this time already. And the idea that she died 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.280 from unnatural causes was just I mean, it was just 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:38.120 a sensation right out of the gate. 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:41.320 Yeah, I mean, I remember this. I was a kid, 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:46.600 but I was a kid who devoured entertainment. Tonight the 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.800 TV show when that first came out, which was somewhere 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:51.800 around here, I remember being about that age when that 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:53.800 TV show premiered and I would watch it every night 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.560 and keep up with that stuff. And I remember very 0:16:56.560 --> 0:17:01.640 distinctly Natalie would die and drowning and her husband I 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.119 was like the heart to heart guy, and kind of 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:08.280 out of the gate, it was portrayed as as an accident. 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.000 And that's sort of what you know this podcast is 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.600 going to detail is the way the story has changed 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.040 over the years, the suspicions that it wasn't just a 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:20.959 simple accident. And it kind of started off with the autopsy. 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.560 There was a medical examiner named Joseph Troy who said 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:30.160 that Nellie Wood's blood alcohol content level was point one four, 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:31.320 just very high. 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.520 Yeah, let me just I look that up because I'm like, okay, 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:39.159 what does that actually mean in like like physical behavioral terms. Yeah, 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:43.760 according to the South Australia government, point zero eight two 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.600 point one five, So just above what Natalie Wood had 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.640 in her bloodstream, you can expect slurred speech, impaired balance, 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:57.359 unstable emotions, possible nausea and vomiting. Just above point one five, 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.680 you can't control your bladder and you probably will need 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.000 help walking around. So she was very drunk at the 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:05.800 time she died. 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.160 Yeah, And uh, if you want to be very very 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.200 technically bored. You should go listen to our episode on breathalyzers. 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.000 Yeah, they were really difficult to explain. 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:19.320 That was a beast and I'm surprised we don't remember 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:22.600 that more often when we're asked what episodes have been 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:23.919 the hardest or worst. 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.760 Definitely the hardest because there's like a crystal involved that 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.480 somehow like tells your fortune and then they translate that 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.760 and the ones and zeros. 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:36.080 A very very tough episode, but it's out there. He 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.760 uh so, Troy said point one four percent, and also 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.400 a medical examiner, right, yeah, and also said that there 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.520 were bruises on her arms and legs and face and 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.919 basically said, you know, it looks like she probably fell overboard. 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.439 She was trying to get into the dinghy. She was 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:56.200 very drunk, and this these bruises and things were is 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.680 evidence of her kind of doggedly trying to get back 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.760 on unsuccessfully. There was a chief medical examiner named Thomas 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:08.119 Nogucci for the county who said, yeah, and if you 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:10.200 look at the dinghy here, there's scratches on the side 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.440 of it. Clearly she was trying to pull herself back 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.360 up on this thing. But she was in that down 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.399 jacket and it became very very heavy, and she probably 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.919 just held onto that dinghy and got hypothermia and exhausted 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:23.880 and she drowned and it's an accident. 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.000 Yeah, So that was the official line for a very 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:30.800 long time. For some reason, Natalie Wood decades tried to, yeah, 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.480 tried to get into the Valiant, the dinghy late at night. 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:35.879 She was very drunk, and as she was trying to 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.439 get into the dinghy, she slipped and fell and drowned. 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:41.359 She was well known as a strong swimmer, or not 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.080 a strong swimmer, not very good at swimming at all, 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:47.600 the opposite of a strong swimmer. The thing is is 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.199 that doesn't explain why she tried to get into the 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.920 dinghy at night. That was It's always been an outstanding question. 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.560 And so Thomas Nogucci, the chief medical Examiner for the 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:02.600 Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, come to psychological autopsy, which 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:05.240 is a thing, but from what I can tell, it's 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.440 a thing that you commission when you're trying to show 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:14.560 that a suspicious death that seems accidental was actually suicide. 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.560 Like they take into account like the person's life history, 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.560 their family history, social interactions, what they were doing right 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.240 before they died. So it's kind of odd that he 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:29.280 had this commissioned. It was even odder that when he 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.640 got it back, he's like, I'm not releasing to the public, 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:35.000 and he said that he was afraid that he would 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:39.159 be accused of sensationalism that ship had already sailed. He 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.080 was very much despised by Natalie Wood's friends and just 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.919 Hollywood in general because he made the grave mistake of 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.959 mentioning that she was drunk when she died accidentally at 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.280 the press conference about her death and their findings, and 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:57.359 he received the ire of Frank Sinatra, Screen Actors Guild 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.600 and generally all of Hollywood, and ended up being demoted 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.119 from his position at the top of the coroner's office 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:07.560 to not chief. They actually assigned him the title not 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:10.480 Chief Examiner anymore. Yeah. 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:12.800 I think it was definitely one of those cases where 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.920 she was Hollywood royalty, like you said, and no one 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:21.400 in the world wants to hear that Natalie Wood got 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:23.480 so drunk that she slipped and fell into the water 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:26.720 and drowned. No, it's tawdry, Yeah, And so they tried to, 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.240 you know, they tried to keep that quiet. It was 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:32.520 a you know, when he mentioned it the press conference, 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:35.800 it was a big deal. And now we get into 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.480 sort of the you know what happened after three decades 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:41.560 and how this story has changed over the years. 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:45.960 Yeah, because just one thing, Chuck. If that were it 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:48.520 and like the story stayed straight all these years and 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:52.000 nothing ever changed, it would be fishy, but not a 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:55.119 big deal. The reason that it's a big deal and 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:57.160 we're talking about it today is that over the years, 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:00.600 the people who were there changed their stories, and that's 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.280 why it goes from kind of fishy to an all 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:04.600 out mystery. 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:09.239 Yeah, an all out mystery and scandal really that you know, 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.840 how many years later is this people are still sort 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:15.240