The troublesome death of Natalie Wood has fascinated the public for decades. But what will grab you with Brainstorm is where I locate the obstacle in determining how and why Natalie died. It is not just the passage of time, not just missing evidence, but the active resistance of Los Angeles County officials who are hell-bent on keeping the truth buried forever. I am not just investigating a death. I am fighting a decades old cover-up. That shifts the story from a cold case to a conspiracy, and it makes my probe even more enlightening.
I used lawsuits, freedom of information requests, and persistent digging to obtain unseen and confidential files, documents, photographs, and information from long-lost witnesses. That is not passive research. That is legal warfare.
I am a criminal law authority, not a journalist. I used the tools of the courtroom to force the release of information that the powerful wanted to keep secret. That gives my investigation credibility that a freelance researcher could never achieve.
The title Brainstorm is doing layered work. A brainstorm is a sudden idea, a creative breakthrough. But it is also the name of the film Natalie Wood was working on when she died, the film that remained unfinished without her. My book is a brainstorm in both senses: a creative investigation into a mystery, and a tribute to the film that Natalie never completed.
The endorsements of Brainstorm are significant. Beth Karas, host of Oxygen’s Snapped: Notorious and a former prosecutor, praises my “passionate quest to unearth the truth.” Marilyn Wayne, an ear and eyewitness, says that readers can decide for themselves “whether someone got away with the murder of Natalie Wood.” That is a powerful statement from someone who was there. And you can see Marilyn’s statements for yourself in a video deposition setting right here _.
My background as a criminal law authority gives Brainstorm a procedural rigor that you will not find in any true crime books on any unsolved death case and true crime fans will appreciate it because it pinpoints the contradictions in the official statements about why a prosecution was not pursued. I am not speculating. I was building a case. And I am inviting the reader to function as a juror, weigh the evidence, and decide whether justice was done.
I believe that no homicide case should be closed while questions remain. What do you think?
