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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/a...rt-wagner.html
"New Doubts in Natalie Wood’s Death: ‘I Don’t Think She Got in the Water by Herself’ "
Originally ruled an accident, her death was recently reclassified as “suspicious.”
“She got in the water somehow, and I don’t think she got in the water by herself,” Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told Erin Moriarty, a CBS correspondent, in a special “48 Hours” report to be broadcast on Saturday.
Yeah, but that's 2 years old and just sounds like much to-do about nothing. They don't name these new witnesses, who suddenly remember hearing what they said sounded like Natalie and Robert arguing, 37 years later? If they knew what Natalie and Robert sound like, didn't they know about her death 37 years earlier? It just doesn't add up anything to me, Maybe it will, but I haven't seen anything yet that looks convincingly incriminating. If this wasn't 2 high profile people (3 counting Walken) nobody would be talking about it.
If they weren't celebrities, the husband would be in jail. Sinatra used his political capital to cover up for Wagner. The key may be it is necessary to have a civil trial.
If they weren't celebrities, the husband would be in jail.
Based on...what evidence? That the couple had an argument and she turned up drowned? Sadly, you might be right if it was a poor black defendant but that's only a reflection of how easy it is to be convicted for something if you don't have the resources to defend yourself.
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Sinatra used his political capital to cover up for Wagner.
I see. And the evidence for this is...?
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The key may be it is necessary to have a civil trial.
Which carries a lower burden of proof than a criminal trial.
It's doubtful that Wood's daughter (Wagner's stepdaughter) would have remained close to her stepfather if he'd had anything to do with her mother's death.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2000...s-fatal-voyage
This article is a good summary of what we know, including Wagner dating Tina Sinatra and living at Sinatra's Palm Springs house. Sinatra worked to get Noguchi fired.
" Noguchi later wrote, he commissioned a “psychological autopsy” to find out why Wood “felt she should separate herself from her husband and Walken that night.” However, when the report “on the real facts of the death of Natalie Wood” came in, Noguchi “decided not to release the document to the press. It added details the media would only call ‘gory’ and ‘sensational.’ The report did not alter the official coroner’s conclusion of an accidental drowning. So, rather than create more media indignation over ‘too many details,’ I reluctantly filed away that report.”
"Noguchi’s discretion failed to save his job; complaints from Frank Sinatra and the Screen Actors Guild, among others, continued to accuse him of sensationalizing his duties. He was demoted on April 27, 1982.
This prevented the psychological autopsy from being published, and it was subsequently "lost".
The idea of a civil trial would be to force Wagner to testify. The reason for not prosecuting at this time is because the LASD does not yet have enough evidence to go to trial. If Wagner sued for defamation, he would have to prove the statements were false. This is why Wagner has never sued Davern or Lana Wood. Just as OJ won his criminal trial, he lost his civil trial.
If Wagner were not a celebrity, he would not have had such great protection, and he would have faced more serious questioning. Clearly Wagner lied during his two police interviews, but there was never an obstruction of justice charge - past the statute of limitations now. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/...wood-s-n843631
"A 2000 Vanity Fair report described how Wagner's first interview with police was cut short because he was "in an emotional state." In the second interview five days after her death, police pressed him on what he was talking to Wood about before she disappeared."
Wagner admitted his jealousy in his book "Pieces of My Heart," published in September 2009. He acknowledged that there had been a fight with Wood, writing that he smashed a wine bottle on a table. Oh, but he did not say this during his questioning by the police.
Ms. Wagner would have no idea about the drowning, except what her stepfather told her, as he raised her.
Last edited by Graywhiskers; 12-23-2019 at 02:56 PM..
From the Vanity Fair article linked above:
"In his 1983 book, Coroner, about his most celebrated cases, Noguchi returned to the mysterious death of Natalie Wood—indeed, he began the book with it. After acknowledging the crucial questions—“Wasn’t it strange that the two men on the yacht didn’t even know that she had left the boat? Hadn’t she spoken to them? Why had she slipped out to the stern of the yacht in the middle of the night, climbed down a ladder, and untied the dinghy? What was she doing? And where was she going? And why?” and also “When she first fell off the swimming step into the water, why didn’t she simply swim a few strokes and reboard the yacht by way of the step? It must have been only a few feet away from her. Even with the heavy jacket, she could have accomplished this effort easily”—he proceeded not to answer any of them."
Well that was a laborious read just for several useful paragraphs. My takeaway is that Wagner's theory is the simplest, and also the most plausible. There simply isn't any reason to think he killed her, and there's also no reason to think a drunk Wood didn't fall drunk into the water.
Whether they argued or not really sheds no light on what happened to her. If he had a history of beating or threatening her, then yeah it would be more suspicious.
Well that was a laborious read just for several useful paragraphs. My takeaway is that Wagner's theory is the simplest, and also the most plausible. There simply isn't any reason to think he killed her, and there's also no reason to think a drunk Wood didn't fall drunk into the water.
Whether they argued or not really sheds no light on what happened to her. If he had a history of beating or threatening her, then yeah it would be more suspicious.
Police say she was beaten before entering the water. Wagner changed his story about arguing with Wood, writing he broke a bottle of wine. He delayed searching for her. Police changed Wagner's status to a person of interest. Davern says Wagner killed Wood, and Wagner has not sued Davern. Wagner wrote he tried to shoot Warren Beatty. Wagner refuses to talk to the police, although Walken did. Yes there are reasons to believe he killed her. Including the questions coroner Noguchi had.
The simplest answer is not necessarily the right answer, and upon examination, may not be the simplest answer. It was just Wagner's fake story. Is punching Wood overboard complex? Police went on television and said they do not believe Wood entered the water by herself.
Last edited by Graywhiskers; 12-24-2019 at 07:52 AM..
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