I tried to learn all I could about Frank Salerno, the lead detective in Natalie's case, before I was to speak with him. Frank Salerno Sr. had helped to nail the Hillside Strangler and the Night Stalker, two infamous, demented killers. I learned he had once acquired the nickname "Honest Frank".
After retiring from the department, Salerno became president of his own private investigation company called Salerno & Scully Investigations, offering detective, guard, and armored car services, in Encino, California.
At the L.A. Weekly Web site,
Former Deputy Gets life in Prison - Page 1 - News - Los Angeles - LA Weekly
the article I found about Salerno told of a cold case he had left behind when he retired. It was not until 2007 that the cold case went to trial—a case with virtually no evidence and no murdered body ever found. The L.A. Weekly reporter, Christine Pelisek, started her October 17, 2007, article by saying:
For Frank Salerno and Louie Danoff, two hard-boiled detectives working out of the Hall of Justice downtown, the last thing they needed was a complicated case. It was 1991, and the murder rate was skyrocketing to historic highs, with 2,054 homicides in Los Angeles County that year alone. Salerno, a veteran homicide dick who caught plenty of high-profile cases, like the Hillside Strangler, the Night Stalker, and the strange drowning of Natalie Wood, was ready to retire early due to high blood pressure. His partner, Louie Danoff, was another toughie as the clue manager on the Hillside Strangler and Night Stalker task forces, and a seasoned gang-homicide detective.
In the spring of 1991, Danoff and Salerno were handed the case involving the disappearance of Ann Racz, a churchgoer and devoted 42-year-old mother who vanished. Her newly estranged husband, John Racz—a cop—claimed Ann had gone on a vacation and never returned. Salerno and Danoff never gave up; even after retirement, they contributed to this case that reeked of foul play with no evidence to arrest their suspect, John Racz.
Two female detectives who took over the cold case in 2005, Sergeant Delores Scott and Detective Cheryl Comstock, continued interviewing people who knew that John Racz was suspect. According to the L.A. Weekly report, Sergeant Scott said, “The interviews got better, in part because the people who were reluctant to say ‘murder’ after a few months were suspicious after 16 years and were more willing to talk about their suspicions.”
John Racz, now a retired teacher, was about to meet his worst nightmare in Scott and Comstock, two female detectives from the generation that came up behind Danoff and Salerno. They persuaded the District Attorney’s Office to file charges. Not only was there no body; there was not a shred of physical evidence that Ann had met with foul play.
Then the case got some crucial help “from the grave.” The L.A. Weekly articles states:
It was the highly organized Ann Racz who posthumously provided the clues they needed to prosecute. As the meticulous report completed by Scott and Comstock clearly showed, one day Ann’s well-established pattern of behavior suddenly—and dramatically—ceased. “She helped us because she was a note taker and methodical and always stayed in close contact with her friends,” says Scott. And that became the key to a case 16 years in the making.
Salerno and Danoff had learned from the start that Ann was going to leave John, but lack of evidence prevailed. Jurors rarely convict without a body, but John Racz was convicted of murder in the first degree.
***
I thought about all of Natalie's "cries from the grave"
Frank Salerno was a good detective—the kind of detective Ann Rule writes about and admires. Ann Rule told me she knows of Frank and she does admire him. I wanted to admire him, too. The Natalie Wood case is not an open case, but I wanted Salerno to reconsider it as a cold case and I almost had him! When I spoke with him, it was almost as if he were looking for something that would give him reason to hang up on me.... although he did NOT hang up on me, he found something to use to end the conversation so that he would not have to get involved with what I know he sensed was a true blunder.
