Natalie Wood and 9/11

Hauntingly beautiful, two-time academy award nominated actress Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, but the studio wasn’t having any of that nonsense) died on November 29, 1981, at the age of 43.  She drowned, after falling into the sea from her yacht.

Natalie Wood

At the time, police ruled it an accidental drowning, but there were always suspicions.  There were 4 people on the boat:  Wood, her husband Robert Wagner (also an actor, pretty well known to American TV fans but not nearly as famous as Wood), Christopher Walken (who was  co-starring with her in Brainstorm, a sci-fi film), and the skipper, Dennis Davern.

Davern has changed his story of the night’s events several times, and it seems like something he said has now persuaded police to reopen the case.

I suppose it’s possible that her husband killed her.  Every couple has problems, and they had divorced once and then remarried.  There’d been some drinking going on.  (the coroner said Wood had had approximately 7 or 8 glasses of wine)  Still, murder is pretty harsh and divorce is a much easier solution, so I don’t suspect Wagner.  Walken?  No way.  Sure, he always plays sort of a weird, evil psychopath, which indicates to me that he is probably a really nice guy in real life.  The skipper?  No motive.

I don’t know what the police have,  but it can’t be physical evidence after all this time and testimony from Wagner, Walken or Davern would have to be taken with a grain of salt at this point.  So, we’ll wait and see, but I believe it was an accident and don’t really get the point of re-opening this investigation.

The investigation that should be re-opened is the investigation into the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2011.  It’s only a 3rd as outdated as the Wood drowning, it affected thousands, and ultimately millions of people, and there’s absolutely zero possibility that it was accidental.  We just disagree about who the real culprits were.

Of course, like the Wood drowning, any physical evidence has long since disappeared.  The powers that be saw to that, pretty sharpish.  No new evidence is likely to surface and nobody is changing their story.  So, why do I think the case should be re-opened?  Because  there was never a proper investigation to begin with.  The director of security for the WTC, Marvin Bush (the president’s brother) never had to testify under oath.   The collapse of building 7 was practically ignored.  And president Bush would only talk to the lead investigator on condition that Cheney was in the room and he was not under oath and the meeting was unrecorded.  I mean, not even recorded on paper.

But the biggest proof that it was a sham investigation is the very fact that it took place during the Bush administration.  Seriously.  Bush lied about everything else, so why wouldn’t we just assume that this investigation was fraudulent as well?

Do it again.  Make everybody testify.  Let the chips fall where they may.