Houston writer reopens Natalie Wood cold case
Suzanne Finstad wrote books about crime in Texas, and she wrote books about lives in Hollywood. In a peculiar way, her most recent work touches on both crime and Tinseltown. It also has morphed into something of a timetraveling piece because its story ended decades ago and then came back to life.
“Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography” was published last spring. That said, it’s not entirely a new thing. Some readers may remember the book from 20 years ago as “Natasha,” a deep-dive biography of the actress whose life reads like fiction. She was born Natalia Zakharenko, the daughter of Russian immigrants, became a child star, a young superstar and an awardwinning actress, who died at age 43. Her short life was an American tragedy, a story of a child who endured manipulation and trauma and constantly sought affirmation and connection in a world of wolves, with few people attuned to her best interests.
Finstad thought she had put Wood’s story away decades ago, even though the actress’ death in November 1981 never sat comfortably with the biographer. Finstad wrote a book about Warren Beatty, but she also found new sources and new information that she felt warranted a new version of “Natasha.”
“It’s not really amended, just augmented,” Finstad says of the new edition of the book. “I don’t think I ever really stopped with this story. Which is an odd thing working on it. There was so much about her death that felt incomplete. Stories that weren’t right, with contradictions. It was Kafka-esque.”
“Act Six: Revelation” updates the book with dates that follow Wood’s. It covers 1981 to 2020.
Finstad documents her access to Wood’s “murder book,” which is how she describes the Los Angeles Police Department’s “official record of a homicide investigation.”
“‘Shocking,’ to me, is an overused word,” Finstad says. “But it truly was shocking.”
She describes leads that weren’t pursued and potential witnesses never interviewed.
Within weeks of Wood’s death, the Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Department ruled it an accident involving bad judgment and alcohol. Wood had argued with her husband, actor Robert Wagner, and tried to leave his yacht on a dinghy late on Nov. 28, 1981, or early the next day. Her body was recovered the next morning.
The only people on the boat were Wood, Wagner, actor Christopher Walken and the ship’s captain, Dennis Davern. And none of the surviving three has been particularly forthcoming with information. Davern has issued contradictory commentary; Walken, 77, has been mum; and Wagner, 90, maintains Wood’s death was an accident.
Finstad delivered her manuscript on time; the book was published on time. But it bothered her, perhaps because she had a background in what readers would call true crime.
That Finstad would find a strange connection to Wood’s story in Houston isn’t absurd. A Minneapolis native, she moved with her family to Houston for her father’s work when she was 12. She attended the University of Texas at Austin and then came back to Houston to work as a clerk at the Butler & Binion law firm. At 20, she clerked on a case involving the Howard Hughes estate. Hughes had died in 1976 en route to Houston, his hometown, without a will indicating any heirs. “I was tasked with finding his heirs,” Finstad says. “And that started me with the investigative game. I’ve been there since.”
She wrote “Heir Not Apparent” about the search for Hughes’ heirs in 1984. That year, Texas businessman Henry Kyle was shot and killed, which became the subject of “Ulterior Motives,” her second book three years later. Then, in 1991, she published “Sleeping With the Devil,” another true-crime piece about a Texas tycoon’s involvement in a killing of a California woman.
“I cut my teeth on true crime,” she says. “Even knowing that, I never imagined writing a biography of Natalie Wood would turn into a true-crime reboot of my past. But it gave me a background and a skill set, so I never really let this go. When I delivered the manuscript to the publisher, I knew about Natalie Wood’s torments and tragedies. This successful, gorgeous movie star, who covered up her tragedies and sadness and all the darkness there.”
She’d take some time to get to
Wood’s story. Finstad moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s, and her work turned away from crime toward personalities. She wrote about Priscilla Presley, with an emphasis on the way her life changed when she, as a teen, married superstar Elvis Presley. Worth noting now is the reliability of sources. One of Finstad’s sources for “Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley” was sued by Priscilla Presley for defamation prior to the book’s publication.
Following that book, Finstad turned her attention to Wood’s life, a tragic tale involving all manner of flawed protectors of the child actress, a tale of assault, manipulation and a lack of any kind guidance.
The book was published in 2001 to positive reviews. Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich made a film based on it. But the questions at the heart of Wood’s story — how a woman terrified of the water ended up leaving a yacht and drowning — lingered.
More information became available in the two decades since its publication. Much of it Finstad unearthed herself.
Some of her information had Houston connections. Her brother, a dentist here, treated an ex-girlfriend of Davern’s, who suggested her ex knew everything about the fateful night.
Finstad’s reporting in Los Angeles was more concrete and persuasive as she found investigators willing to take up a case others would have thought cold.
Access to Wood’s murder book revealed information that was swiftly swept from public view. Even if her death was an accident, it represented a failure of those in her immediate circle to properly respond to a crisis.
Finstad found an assistant medical examiner — somebody whose voice had been stifled when Wood’s body was examined — who noticed contusions that suggested a physical struggle.
The investigation into Wood’s death was never put away for good. And two years ago, the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department looked more closely into that night, with new detectives on the case, including Detective Ralph Hernandez and now retired Detective Kevin Lowe.
She sees the renewed interest fitting with an increasing awareness of incidents of domestic violence, compared to 40 years ago when some prominent stars could have intervened in the case. Finstad cites Frank Sinatra as one who may have been complicit. He was a friend of Wagner’s, who also had a relationship with Wood when she was still a teen. Finstad also includes suggestions of Wagner’s double life. She submits that Wood may have caught him in a relationship with a man when they were married the first of two times.
“It was a different time, and things have changed in terms of our consciousness,” she says. “Then it was accepted to sweep things under the rug. People had secrets that they wanted to keep secret. And it created a horrible miscarriage of justice. A tragedy within the tragedy.”