Highlight Hollywood World EXCLUSIVE, ‘The Night My Husband Killed Me’ A Novel By Kathleen McKenna Theorizes Natalie Wood’s Final Night Alive, Thrilling, Shockingly Frightening And A Must-Read

July 08, 2012 Tommy Lightfoot Garrett 2 Comments


The Famed Investigative journalist Dominick Dunne often said, “Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied.” Prolific bestselling crime author Kathleen McKenna lives by that motto, and in a blockbuster Highlight Hollywood exclusive, we spoke directly with the author of the soon to be published “The Night My Husband Killed Me.” On the heels of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. having Natalie Wood’s death certificate changed from accidental drowning to undetermined, McKenna, a California resident, who is the premier author and historian on Natalie Wood’s death investigation, she now makes shocking claims in her novel, which mirrors Natalie Wood’s life and death, or at least the final night of Natalie’s life, as it were.

“I have done extensive research and spoke with many of the players in this story, as you know, Tommy. I worked for several years silently, but shared with those I interviewed extensively what my theory of that night could have been,” said McKenna. Who doesn’t name a suspect, but her book hints to a chilling close connection to who may have killed the heroine in her novel, which seems eerily similar to a famed now deceased Hollywood iconic leading lady. Highlight Hollywood is the only one outside of McKenna and the publishing house itself (Taylor Street of San Francisco, California) that has read this shocking, but very riveting page-turner. This book will definitely reach greater heights than any other publication surrounding the death of any film icon in Hollywood’s fabled history.

The author of “The Wedding Gift” and “Family Matters,” both of which are must-read for the summer, has done it again. But this time, it’s heroine remains with us in a very haunting manner. Highlight Hollywood’s exclusive excerpts from the book include a passage that will bring tears to your eyes. “Nearly thirty years have passed and here I remain, forever waiting, forever drowning. And yet having now remembered my story all of it and told the truth to the best of my ability I think maybe if I looked up again I might see a million stars above me and be able to see even further and higher beyond them to the place where all of us stars first came from.

McKenna obviously got a great deal of insight from reviewing the man who found Natalie’s lifeless body in the cold November morning of November 29, 1981. Since Roger Smith, the rescue captain is perhaps the best authority on Natalie Wood’s death, and his story has never changed, he’s a respected man in the community, not a drunk or druggie like some of the “witnesses” in the case have been known to be. I asked Kathleen how she was able to reenact that fateful night. “I actually did spend five hours in the Pacific Ocean one night wearing what Natalie was wearing that night, a down jacket and a nightgown,” said McKenna in an exclusive interview shocker. “I know may not have been there on that night with Natalie, but I know how it happened, because I recreated it and since only Roger Smith’s recollection can be trusted and Roger swears she was with the dinghy, so it must be true. The coat weighs a million pounds when you are in the water with it, you don’t sink but you cant swim or rise and you certainly couldn’t climb up the side of a lifeboat/dinghy in it, now here’s the terrible thing, in my opinion. She could have taken off the coat, anyone could, it would be difficult but it could be done at least in the beginning before the numbness sets in, but a woman who could barely swim who was terrified of dark water who knew that coat was the only thing keeping her above water, could not bring herself to do it, further even without the coat you could not make the maneuver from the water into the dinghy, all you could manage would be to overturn it onto yourself. I would have because I could have taken off the coat and swum for shore she did not have that choice and even I was at times paralyzed by the thought of what might be right beside me right underneath me, its very possible she felt sharks, as well. I did all night whether they were real or not I cant say,” said the famed author of “The Night My Husband Killed Me.”

The entire book is the most dazzling Splendour of all time. It is gripping, forceful, imaginative but seemingly totally factual and mesmerizing. You feel Natalie’s fears that last night of her life. You know that time is not her keeper, and not her friend or guardian angel. “The Night My Husband Killed Me” is the best story I’ve read this year. And I’ve read hundreds of books in 2012. It is nothing short of a crushing weight of unmerciful life-altering fear that engulfs one’s soul and brain while reading it.

In a Highlight Hollywood exclusive excerpt from “The Night My Husband Killed Me,” author McKenna writes the following of what occurs in her book to the heroine on her final night on this earth.

[We didn’t have locks on any of the cabin doors on our boat, it isn’t safe to do that with small children and even if there had been a lock on my door he would have broken it. I knew when I heard him come in that drunk or sober this was going to be one of those nights when he would demand reassurance, I decided to play possum and ignore him.
He had other plans he grabbed me by my right arm and yanked me out of the bed flinging me into the wall. I tried to stand and he punched me hard in the stomach, I let out a scream and he socked me in the forehead. I fell down hard and he grabbed me by my hair and dragged me face forward across the carpet I could only manage moans by then until I felt the cold night air against my exposed skin where my nightgown had ridden up around my waist.

He had opened the back door of our cabin which led out onto the swim step. I screamed loudly then and tried to crawl past him towards the cabin, he reached down and grabbed both my ankles roughly and raised me up and in one move dropped me head first into the cold water. For a minute I struggled blindly and then came up to the surface gasping for air.

I grabbed the swim step with both hands and looked up at him stunned. He was crouching on the step looking down at me with his face twisted in rage. “I want you off my ******* boat you ******* bitch, you are gone Natalie, all gone.” I gripped harder and screamed for Chris and Dennis both. He didn’t like that and with an intent expression stood up and raised his foot over my hands.

“Let go of my ******* boat bitch or I will break your ******* fingers right now.” Scared I did and turned and lunged for the dinghy. It was hard to scramble over the side but in my wet nightgown but I made it. I laid there on the bottom of it for a minute panting and wheezing.

Before I had a chance to do more I felt something soft thump down over me, I looked up. A foot away my husband was standing on the swim step sweating and enraged. I sat up and reached for whatever it was he had tossed me, it was my red down coat. I looked at him confused he smiled.

“Put it on darling, I don’t want you to be cold for your trip to shore.” Freezing by now I did what he said and then watched paralyzed with fear as he knelt again and untied both dinghy lines. I asked him what he was doing, did he expect me to take the dinghy to shore and do what when I got there?

I demanded he stop this **** and step aside and let me back on my boat. He did not answer until he was done untying the ropes, then he did the strangest thing, he pulled the dinghy right up to the swim step so that it was parallel to it. All I had to do was roll forward and I would be back onboard but I didn’t do that because I was afraid that he was setting me up for just such a move so he could kick me off the step and back into the water. I looked at him in silence, he leaned forward.

“You look like a drowned rat Nat darling, have a good swim.” Before I knew what he was doing he yanked up the side hard and I slid across the dinghy and flipped out into the water. This time when I came up I was too wary to go near him again and finding my down coat surprisingly buoyant I paddled slowly around to the front of the boat to scream for Dennis.

I heard my husband’s running footsteps and then a few muffled words followed by a louder yell of, “turn on the ******* music.” I spent what seemed to me a long time calling from the water and then suddenly there he was leaning over the railing with a smile.
“Hang onto your hat, I’ll get you, I’ll come right now as soon as you say the magic words.” I was beyond angry by then, far too angry to be as afraid as I should have been. I wouldn’t say the magic words. I knew Dennis would rescue me and if not him than anyone from the dozens of nearby boats. As soon as Dennis told Chris then people would get called and I would be brought out of the water and from that moment on my husband was going to learn the meaning of revenge movie star style.

I should have been afraid, I should have said and promised whatever he wanted to hear, maybe I could have changed his course, maybe…wondering if that could be true is I think one of the things that has kept me here trapped all these years, but sometimes I understand so clearly that none of it was spontaneous at all and that I could have never been saved.

There was a strong wind that night and it created a current which caught me and began dragging me from the area near the boats. I struggled lost and gave up when I saw that I was not being cast further out into the ocean but towards shore, then like a miracle I saw the dinghy floating ahead of me just a few yards away I swam towards it which was not easy in my coat. But I was closing in on it when I felt and then heard and then saw that I was not after all completely alone in the ocean that night.

I cannot say to this day with certainty that it was a shark maybe it was a helpful dolphin, I did not believe it was a dolphin. I knew enough about sharks to know that movement alerted them to the presence of prey in the water, Jaws had come out a couple years before and I made the mistake of going to see it. Every scene from that movie played out in my head then. I hung motionless in the water and watched silently the first tears of real terror sliding down my face as the dinghy moved further away. I felt something brush against my hanging legs then and who knows maybe it was only the current but after a few minutes slowly, so slowly trying not to make a ripple I managed to draw my legs up towards my chest.

As the water had drenched my coat it had also expanded it and I found that I could keep my legs curled up inside it and that even created minimal warmth as well. With my body pulled close like that I felt vulnerable of course but less so than with exposed limbs. I was now floating in a ball not really drifting much either towards or away from the shore. I was afraid but not yet hopeless, that came later.

Hours in I still could not manage the courage to free my legs and try to swim for shore, I felt the murderous malice of my husband somewhere behind me on the boat and I felt the mindless malice of the shark lying in wait between me and the shore.

Despite my coat I was becoming colder and while at first my enemy, the cold became my friend. It lessened the immediacy of my aching desperation to reach the distant lights of Isthmus Cove which spelled safety. The cold distanced me from the thought of my little girls and my terrible fear and rage at the knowledge that after all, despite all the odds against it I was indeed going to be left out here in the dark water un-rescued.

To eventually die of either cold or the increasingly seductive lure of lowering my head into the waiting water. I looked up for guidance and hope one last time that endless night, hoping to see the stars, but the sky was black and blank. I looked down at the water inches from my face and saw that I cast no reflection I wondered if I was already dead and didn’t know it. I murmured a prayer for help and laid my face against the water.
Death came in minutes then but not as people think of death at least not for me. I awoke from what passes for sleep amongst my kind, it’s really more of a time slip I suppose, but to me it felt as though I awoke from what had been a long disorienting dream. I was still here, it was still night and I was still in the water. It was only the slow realization that I was no longer cold and no longer felt any fear of sharks or of my husband that made me realize the dream I had woken from was my life.]

Robert Wagner has stated that he had nothing to do with his wife’s death, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. has said, Wagner is not a suspect in Natalie Wood’s death. However, the LASD and L.A. County officials have recently changed her death status from accidental to undetermined.

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Written By: Tommy Lightfoot Garrett
Photographs are Courtesy: Kathleen McKenna and Taylor Street Publishing House and Tommy Lightfoot Garrett by Mara Photography in Hollywood
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The sincerest form of flattery is plagiarism I suppose. Sadly though, this self published drivel will never be read by more than McKenna's buddies. Tommy Lightloafer Garrett will promote anything under the sun if he thinks there's payday of any description in it for him. For what it's worth, whatever these two edge scrapers come up with will only lead people to seek out GNGS and further Rulli's success.

Well, this is very interesting.

What is the meaning of"Rulli's Mimi Me".

To promote something this irresponsible in the middle of a true investigation is revolting. These two lechers should be ashamed of theirselves. I highly doubt Marti Rulli has anything to do with this.

"I highly doubt Marti Rulli has anything to do with this."

Of course Rulli has NOTHING to do with these clowns. (But I'm pretty sure everyone knows that)

McKenna is a good friend of Rulli's. I know this for a fact.

"McKenna is a good friend of Rulli's. I know this for a fact."

You don't know as much as you think you do.

His famous last words "I know this for a fact" A few weeks ago he was saying that the case was closed, he said he knew it for a fact.

Rulli and McKenna are not friends.

Garrett's purple prose makes me want to wretch. He is one of the worst writers under the sun. Followed by this woman I suppose. Her reenactment was ridiculous. Like Natalie would lie there with all of the B movie dialog going through her head. If she was conscious she would have been fighting for her life. I don't know how Wagner did it, I just know he did.

"Garrett's purple prose makes me want to wretch. He is one of the worst writers under the sun."

To even call Garrett a writer is to whelp the English language till it begs for mercy.


No but seriously, Garrett is nothing more than a cut and paste blogger. He takes the words (as poorly written as they may be) of others and attempts to insinuate himself into the proceedings. It's a typical and common act of a wanna be who'll will never be.

McKenna and Rulli were very good friends. Only way they're not would be if they had a falling out recently. I have also read the four stories that comprise "The Night My Husband Killed Me."

They were never "good friends". They were acquaintances.

that sounds like fiction at its not so finest

If they were friends at all they are not now

Like I said in the other thread, now the jerkos of the world have a cesspool to hang around. I started to read McKenna's fiction and couldn't get through the ridiculous dialogue. COuld care less what it says.

rulli's fiction was the same.

The troll is posting, responding to himself.

rulli's book got the case reopened. she works with the LACSD, not against them.

the lacsd does'nt recognize anything rulli has done, they go by facts not fiction

Poor little troll wants to think that the LASD does not recognize anything Marti has done. If you only knew!

OH I (we) know more than you think, it's easy.

No you don't, if you did you would not say that the LASD does not recognize what Rulli has done.

that's cuz they don't. i'm going to call on you like they call on you on IMDB provide your evidence or STFU.

LOLOLOL....You are so pathetic! I'm not going to reveal anything. I don't have to prove anything to you. Where is your "evidence" that the LASD does not recognize Rulli's work? You know nothing about any of this.

Do you really think the LACSD would use anything from GNGS a book of fiction as evidence or use as a base for an investigation? Do you really think changing the ruling on NW's death to undetermined is a blow to Wagner? You have a rude awaking coming and it's right around the corner. A game is being played, that's all this is and in the end nothing will have changed. Come on, you people are smarter than this, wake up and smell the coffee

The LACSD said it was reopened because new information was brought to them. Gee, I wonder who that could be? Give her props, sore loser. Two years ago no one would ever have dreamed to come this far.

As for labeling it "a book of fiction", that is what the Wagner fan base would call it because it reveals the truth about their Wagner, truth that they do not want to see. We'll wait until the case is closed to discuss the role the GNGS played in the investigation.
The change of the certified cause of death made Wagner a very unhappy man. More about Wagner when the case is closed.
The troll knows nothing about this "rude awakening", nothing about any of this. Soon enough details will be revealed.
As for this being a game, a lot of money has spent on this "game".
Will there be an arrest? It's been 30 years, it's Murder One or nothing but we have a homicide detectives investigating and we have death certificate changed after 30 years. We know from this that the LASD and the Coroner's office no longer believe that Natalie's death was an accident so they certified her death as Undetermined. They lack the evidence they require for a Homicide charge but the change in the certification tells us that after re-examining the circumstances of Natalie's death, speaking to various people, examining the original statements, examining the autopsy photos they came to the conclusion that Natalie's death was NOT an accident. If this was a "game", the death certificate would not have been changed.
How can the troll say nothing has been changed when something already has been changed. Keep in mind, the trolls has told us that the case would never be re-opened, he has told us that the re-opened case was closed, he has told us that the detectives have not spoken to any of the men on the boat. All of that is inaccurate. I suggest that HE wake up and smell the coffee.
The Wagner troll loves to say that Natalie's death was found to have been an accident. He can't say that anymore. At this point, the LASD is saying they don't know how she died but they do not believe that she accidentally fell in the water and that conclusion was reached based on the bruises on her body. That speaks volumes about what the detectives investigating this case truly believe but may never be able to prove.
Let's not forget, the LASD is feeding the public and media what they want them to believe at this point. I'm sure there are members of the LASD who did not want this case to be re-opened as it points to the very shabby investigation done in 1981. Re-opening the case and then changing the death certificate points to errors withing the original investigation. I'm sure Rasure is calling some of the good old boys at the LASD. They will try to play down the importance of the change in the death certificate because the police do not like to admit that they screwed up! Rather than accept responsibility, the PR people at the LASD blame Thomas Noguchi. They are saying Noguchi made the wrong call. In the meantime, the actual working detectives are still investigating this case and to be sure they have a direction that are following and have been following since the re-investigation began. I look forward to the revelation of all of that.

Thank you for this post, it was the most intelligently written of the comments on this particular thread. I know it would be very difficult to prove murder one after 30 years, maybe impossible, but think of what would happen if the new investigation concludes publicly that a homicide took place but the statute of limitations has run out and murder one can't be proven. That in and of itself would be a jail sentence for Wagner. Where could he possibly go after that? O.J. was acquitted in criminal court, but was he really? And Karma caught up with him (O.J.) in the end, anyway. People in that universe live for good PR and public image. No, even if LASD cannot prove murder one and the statute of limitations has run out on all lesser charges, justice WILL be served. The public will get a good message...no one is above the law. I'm sure the old guard of the LASD won't be pleased, but that's too bad.

By the way, I went to Marti Rulli's blog today for any updates and the blog has been taken down...any reason why?

I tried (right now) to visit Rulli's blog and it was gone. Then I tried again and it appeared. Weird. I wouldn't doubt someone trying to sabotage her blog. Wonder what's up with that. Another writer friend of mine has a blog and old browsers sometimes do this to BLOGGER (what Rulli and my friend uses) and other older blog supports. Could be nothing more than a computer glitch. I was at her blog moments ago.

McKenna's version of the Wood drowning is unbelievable and doesn't sound plausible in the least that it could have occurred that way. I find it most unlikely that Wood personally thought Wagner was a terrible lover. I'd bet their love life both times around was very voracious.

Perhaps Marti Rulli finally regained some sense and decided to take her obsessive stalker blog down.

Nope, it's up and running!

I don't think anyone cares about their love life aside from the troll. Maybe McKenna knows something you don't or at least something you don't want to know. Bi Bi

Kathie, the blog is up and running. Probably a glitch, it's happened before. She is restricted in what she is allowed to share on her blog. If she was not taken seriously by the investigators, she would not be asked to be discreet. That's an indication of how serious this is and how seriously Marti takes all of this. She deserves credit for sticking with this, never giving up.

"That in and of itself is a jail sentence for Wagner" EXACTLY! His fans would like us to believe that he is able casually dismiss all of this. He's not able to dismiss this. For a man who is as consumed with how he is seen by others, this is hell on earth! Justice will be served by Wagner being revealed.

Yah, I'm sure McKenna was in their bedroom watching them have sex. We know she wasn't Wood or Wagner's confidant. She simply made it up as she went along as is obvious if you've read it, which I have.

Look up toad in the dictionary and you'll see Rulli's "mini me".

Wagner's too old now for any of this to affect him in the years he has left. Perhaps if this had happened 20 years ago it would have had more of an impact on his fans and personal life. Now....not so much.

It's peculiar that Wagner didn't want to go identify her body after it was found, but sent the skipper instead. WTF haven't they polygraphed those three? Those LACSD Barney Fife detectives have no clue how to proceed on an old reinvestigation case.

Too old to affect him? You might want to give him a call and tell him that.

It will have a HUGE impact on how he will be remembered and what he will be remembered for especially when details are revealed.

Exactly, it's fiction but it seems to be a big deal to you or you would not have mentioned it. She knows as much about their sex life as you do which is nothing! I LMAO when you try to make old Wagner look like the last of the red hot lovers! Bi Bi!

Oh, I think when that white haired old man was young he was quite the lover to the ladies! Jealous much?

He also had outstanding exceptional good looks and voice, something you'll never know. Green is so unbecoming on you and no matter what Rod says, you do not wear it well....

LOL

Don't care much but your obsession with this reveals your paranoia and insecurity over his sexuality. McKenna really got to you with that book! It's fiction, right? LMAO

Oh yeah, I'm really "gotten to" LOL. When all else fails, the dumb*ss throws this out. Yeah, I'm a quivering heap sitting here surfing the net and getting paid for it. My office is littered with empty boxes of kleenex, my eyes are red from my river of tears flowing rapidly and my hair is scattered all over the floor from ripping it out in anguish.

Thanks for the laugh. :)

As for his sexuality, that was what McKenna made up. As if she slept with him and would know. I don't hear any of the dozens of ladies he bedded ever complain. I think you've been "got to" simply because you're unattractive and there are no dozens of ladies wanting to bed you, now or ever. But, good luck with that. Good hygiene can help out ugly people.

LOL, you don't hear them because the women he claimed to have "bedded" are dead!

I doubt if all of them are dead but since he's eighty something, could be probable. I read where Lana Wood always said how Natalie raved about what a generous and voracious lover he was. She had no complaints. Say, don't you have a date with your right hand about now?

Lana never said that. That is one of your desperate attempts to make Wagner out to be a great lover. How sad is that that Wagner's "fans" have to lie to make Wagner out to be a great lover and how sad it is that this troll devotes so much time to bragging about Wagner's ability in the bedroom. Kinda weird.

Wagner made sure that the women were dead when he wrote his book. He did not say a word about any of these women when they were alive, all of these big romances were "secret". How convenient for him. Wagner was into men also. He's Bi-sexual but more about that when the case is closed.

Oh, Lana said it honey. Natalie told her sister all about her man's blissful sexual prowess as most sisters will do.

She never said that. Show us where she said that.

Oh, the smut writer's interest is severely piqued. You just keep wonderin' dude. She commented on it a few times so see if you can find it. Report back to me at the end of the day. Ta! Ta!

She never said that. This stupid pathetic fool wants to build Robbie up to be a great lover. Why? LOL