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Natalie Wood. The very name conjures up for film fans a litany of images from her iconic films: Miracle on 34th Street, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass. These films and others in the mesmerizing actor’s repertoire made her a cultural hero to multiple generations. But a dark twist in her life – the evening she plunged into the cold waters off of Santa Catalina Island in California and subsequently drowned – has also made her the subject of endless speculation over the years. Did the acting legend accidentally slip off of her yacht and drown, or did something far more sinister happen to her? Only three other known people were onboard the boat the evening that Natalie drowned back in November of 1981: Her husband, actor Robert Wagner, fellow actor and co-star Christopher Walken and the boat captain Dennis Davern. On the eve of the 40th anniversary of her passing, it looks as if we may at last be getting a little closer to the truth according to our friends over at Variety.
Investigative author Samuel A. Perroni – who has a book forthcoming on the strange death of Wood – has just petitioned the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to open an inquiry into the nearly four decade old death, claiming that there was a cover-up of the exact details behind the star’s death.
Perroni, a retired federal prosecutor as well as an Arkansas trial lawyer, officially filed the petition last Thursday. The petition in question was brought to the L.A. Superior Court and is against the L.A.S.D. and Sheriff Alex Villanueva, seeking a judge’s order instructing that all pertinent information on this case be turned over.
The petition in question states that Perroni, through his investigative efforts, “seeks to inform the public about the circumstances of Ms. Wood’s death. Regrettably, respondents have met the petitioner’s request for records with obstruction and delay.”
So what exactly does Perroni want from L.A.S.D. and Villanueva? The author is requesting copies of the L.A.S.D.’s computer program records that include files on Natalie’s death, along with records at one time obtained by another author named Suzanne Finstad who wrote a bio on the star.
Perroni is claiming that a vast cover-up has occurred related to Natalie Wood’s demise. The author’s new book on the death which is titled Cover-Up is determined, according to his website, to reveal “the corrupt motives that influenced the outcome of the original investigation.”
Natalie Wood’s death has, for many people, gone unresolved for close to forty years. In 2012 the assertion that Natalie met with foul play gained a new momentum when the L.A. County coroner’s office amended the star’s death certificate, changing the manner from the original certificate from accidental drowning to “drowning and other undetermined factors.” What precisely might those “undetermined factors” be? No one is talking, at least not on the record, ensuring that this is one cold case that sadly may remain unsolved for yet another forty years.
