Following are three posts by readers who have commented on GNGS. I appreciate each one, and am proud that readers are recognizing our truest purpose in having gone the polygraph route for our book: I appreciate these readers. Your comments are welcome.
From "LoraC" at Amazon.com Review Comments page to review by parothd of Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour)
Just some observations here and perhaps even some fodder for those who wish to defend Wagner's actions (or inactions) on the night Natalie Wood died and offer alternative ways to interpret the facts.1. Wagner delayed calling for help for 2 hours after he told Davern that Natalie was missing. He only called for help from the restaurant workers, and it took another 2 hours for them to convince Wagner to call the Coast Guard. The delay is documented. How can it be reasonably explained?2. Wagner denied for years that a fight took place that night, but now he admits to a fight that enraged him enough to violently smash a wine bottle on the table. Why lie in the first place? Which leads to the question: If Wagner felt the circumstances required lies and evasions (which he obviously did), if he felt something was "not right," WHY did he himself not demand an investigation to find out what really happened? There were two other men on board, and given the high tension, as well as the improbability of Natalie leaving in the dinghy, why (unless he already knew the answer) did Wagner not look to them for an explanation? Why did he not at least wake up Walken to help look for Natalie??3. Wagner said Natalie "often took the dinghy out alone," but in his book, he says when he considered that she may have taken the dinghy out, his first thought was "No way!" Again, why lie?It seems the negative reviewers are still trying to hold Davern accountable for Wagner's behavior, but NO ONE has ever asked Wagner to explain himself . . . and even when he has the golden opportunity to do so in his own book, he skims over the events and fails to address a single inconsistency.
From "Sis-of-4" at Amazon.com Review Comments page to review by parothd of Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour:
Good points, Lora C. I might add something here after viewing Rulli's blog this morning, where she uses last night's Geraldo FOX NEWS show to make a few valid points. Geraldo had a forensics psychiatrist on to ask some valid questions about another book (Mackenzie Phillips' "High on Arrival"). Getting to the point: shouldn't publishers and media begin, as do police, to suggest and sometimes even require a polygraph test to substantiate controversial accounts? Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour may be one of a few, and possibly the very first book to set such a standard. I truly commend the inclusion of a polygraph test to accompany this book. Every kiss-and-tell book, like Wagner's, should offer up the proof, too. It would spare so many people. Yet, Rulli's book is questioned: the only one on the shelves supported by the source's passing of a polygraph test. Amazing!
From Annie at Wall Street Journal's SPEAKEASY:
Maybe a new standard should be set for authors with controversial claims and tell-alls like Mackenzie Phillips’ “High on Arrival” where the accused is already gone. Such a standard, I believe, has been established in another new controversial book just arriving on the scene. “Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour” a book about the mystery death of Natalie Wood comes with a certified polygraph test and everyone it talks about is alive to respond (except for Natalie, thus the polygraph by the former captain, Dennis Davern.) This book by author Marti Rulli is a must read, enhanced by the efforts to substantiate its contents!
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/09/23/mackenzie-phillips-on-oprah-details-about-her-relationship-with-dad-john-phillips/tab/comments/#comment-7893
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The best part of Marti's writing is that she is one of the few true crime writers who arent dry and boring as hell! Dont raise your eyebrows, I love almost true crime better than the real stuff. Dominick Dunne, Joyce Carol Oates, Jodi Piccoult etc. They write about cases and make page turners out of them most true crime writers dont, two exceptions, Bugliosi and McGinnis, Marti writes like them. And by that I mean she interjects herself into the book and that makes it as wonderful as a novel by Mr. Dunne and the rest of those literary giants. What's a readers optimum? A book that you cant put down and one that teaches you something at the same time. These books are few and far between. So welcome to my "gotta buy on day one list Ms. Rulli!
ReplyDeleteKathleen McKenna