The Death of Marilyn Monroe

Shortly before dawn on Sunday August 5, 1962 a woman ran screaming from the house in Brentwood, Los Angeles screaming "Murderers! Murderers! Are you satisfied now that you have killed her?" Three neighbours heard her. Florabel Muir, a crime reporter for the Hearst Corporation, thought it was Eunice Murray, Marilyn's housekeeper, but Muir was convinced that Murray was part of the cover up. She then suspected Pat Newcomb, Marilyn's personal publicity handler, as Muir had thought that she had stumbled on a murder scene when she arrived at the house at 4.45 am. However, the woman's identity remains a mystery.

two people who knew the truth were Peter Lawford, Kennedy's brother-in-law, and Pat Newcomb. They were at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, in Massachusetts. Lawford later emerged from the compound to give a 'public appearance', granting exclusive interviews to hand picked journalists in New York, Boston and San Francisco, saying "I know that it was accidental. I know that the poor dear didn't mean to kill herself."

Los Angeles District Attorney reinvestigated the death in 1982 and they found that Lawford and 'the studio people' had been re-arranging the scene.

In the early morning of August 5, two uniformed security guards from 20th Century Fox were positioned at the front and back entrances to the house. Later another guard appeared at the front gates to the house. Then publicists Frank Neill and Arthur Jacobs, Eunice Murray and Peter Lawford examined the dissaray left behind by the actress. Publicists, Studio police and members of Monroe's personal staff, including Eunice Murray and Inez Melson, Marilyn's business manager, poured pescription drugs down the lavatory, removed her contracts and memo's, and carted off arm loads of Marilyn's personal belongings, probably carried away in the briefcases of lawyers and studio executives. Once cleared up, the death scene indicated suicide. All bed linen and personal laundry was cleaned, dried and put carefully into cupboards. The murder of Marilyn Monroe had the best stage manager of all - Los Angeles Police Chief, William Parker - the city's most powerful man.

From the very beginning Parker classified Monroe's death as suicide. He had told his force to investigate the death as suicide, and he gave the Coroner similar instructions. He turned the case over to the newly formed Suicide Investigation Team, which, he knew, could only determine why Marilyn had killed herself, because they were not allowed to investigate how she was killed.

By doing this, it headed off an official inquest, or a grand jury hearing. An inquest would have forced Lawford, Newcomb, Murray and Robert Kennedy to testify. Parker shut down the investigation five days later, offically ruling it as being suicide. He was fortunate that 20th Century Fox were on his side, as they had already labelled Marilyn as being mentally ill, Fox's publicity chief, Harry Brand's version of her firing from the film Something's Got to Give.

It was clear that Monroe was the victim of two conspiracies during the last fourteen weeks of her life. Firstly, a great film corporation made her the scapegoat for its multi-million dollar maladies. This led to the second conspiracy - the cover up of all the circumstances surrounding her death. Fox publicists had sucessfully 'leaked' word of a so called suicide attempt by Marilyn during the first week of filming Somthing's Got to Give, so they found it that much easier to disguise the foul play leading to her death as 'self-inflicted'.

The physiological famework on which the suicide ruling rested was false and the Coroners office knew this at the time. The chemistry was not right. Monroe's blood contained 4.5% barbituates - namely Nembutal. Toxicologist Raymond Abernathy, found a lethal dose of Nenbutal, and an equally fatal dose of Chloral Hydrate in her system. It was enough, said Deputy Coroner Thomas Nogachi, to "kill three people".

She could not have taken these doses orally. Firstly, she did not have enough pills. On August 3, Marilyn's doctor, Hymen Engleberg, prescribed 25 1.5 gram Nembutal capsules. According to Eunice Murray, Marilyn had taken three (leaving twenty two) that night. She had also been given a supply by Lee Siegel, the studio doctor; however, most of these had been taken the previous weekend, in a disasterous trip to Lake Tahoe.

Parker noted that Monroe might have been hoarding pills, but Murray had not found any in a search a week beforehand. The police were so concerned about the source of the drugs, that they falsified Engleberg's prescription, doubling it in a report to the Coroner, stating 50 instead of 25.

When asked about the high percentage of drugs found in Monroe's system, a spokeswoman at Abbott Laboratories, manufacturers of Nembutal, aty first said "that's not possible". But if it were possible, how many capsules would Monroe have had to have taken to reach that level? She stimated that it might have taken somewhere between 75 and 90 capsules.

Inez Melson, who arrived at Monroe's home at 5 am on the day after her death, found 'dozens of pills' including Nembutal, scattered across the table. "There were sleeping pills and sedatives of all kinds. Whoever had been there before us didn't take them, so we threw them all down the toilet". This destroyed evidence that could have proved her murder. Marilyn monroe would would have needed every one of those pills to achieve the level of barbituates in her system. This evidence, ignored by police and unknown to Noguchi, all but proves that the fatal dose was administered by injection or, as Noguchi suspects, by enema or suppository.

"A cursory examination of her kidneys found them to be clear of drugs", said John Miner, the Deputy District Attorney who investigated Monroe's death. "This should have indicated that the stomach may have been bypassed. And the only way that could have happened was by injection". Realising the seriousness of this implication, Noguchi ordered the microscopic analysis of tissue taken from the small intestine. But the sample had vanished. Also, if Marilyn has taken a large number of pills, a residue should have remained in her stomach, but nothing was found.

Through the decades, Noguchi's findings have been mis-understood. He never said - or wrote - that Marilyn had died after "taking fatal doses of sleeping pills". He was, in fact, sceptical; "Marilyn Monroe would have had to have gulped an enormous number of pills to have killed herself". On his preliminary report, he continued; "The liver, kidneys, stomach and its contents are saved for further toxicolological study". Five days later, he complained to the Los Angeles Herald Examiner that "the lab technicians have not tested the organs I sent them - and this is disturbing, since the routine tests were not profound". When Noguchi called Abernathy to ask where the organs were stored, he was told, "I'm sorry. I disposed of them because we have closed the case".

Since Monroe would have had to have taken more than 70 capsules in under 10 minutes, death by oral overdoes seems unlikely. Also, she had a terrible time taking pills. Often, she would break open the capsules and would pour the powder into champaigne. However, no glass was found in her bedroom.

The most likely argument against suicide, or accidental death, came from the Suicide Investigation Team. "Marilyn would have had to gulp down those pills, all of them, within a matter of minutes", said Robert Litman, the psychiatrist who headed the team. "If she had taken those pills a few at a time, she would have been unconcious before she could injest the amount needed to achieve that degree of barbituates in her blood stream".

Overdose by injection was always the most likely cause of death. However, the police ruled this out when Noguchi announced, on August 7, that he had made a search of needle marks on Monroe's body, and found none. Yet, Monroe had had an injection on Thursday evening, in her bedroom, and a second in Engleberg's office late on Friday. Both of these should have shown up in the exhaustive search.

Jack Clemmons, the police sergeant who received the first report of Monroe's death, believed she had been given Chloral Hydrate, a colourless, odourless liquid, in her champaigne. "It would have worked on her like a Mickey Finn", he said. "Then after she drifted off, the fatal injection of Nembutal was administered". Marilyn may have received a third injection, early in the afternoon of her death, when Kennedy visited her. Sources in the Los Angeles Police Department who glimpsed the original 723 page report, which homicide detectives compiled on Monroe's death, say that Kennedy went to her home with an unidentified physician. An injection was given to calm her down. In 1991, the department said that all reports had been destroyed. Only 30 pages of the huge report, titled INVESTIGATION INTO THE DEATH OF MARILYN MONROE still exist. The intelligence division of the Los Angeles Police Department denied that such a report had existed.

Robert Slatzer, a friend of Marilyn's, also stumbled on a source who provided him with portions of a statement that Robert Kennedy had given Parker. "Bobby admitted that he went to Marilyn's house when she became too distraught to handle. He admitted brining a doctor, who in turn gave her a mild sedative".

Dr Ralph Greenson, Monroe's psychoanalyst, dismissed the suicide theory immediately. He told the investigation team that "suicide is not an option in this case". John Milner recalled, "I had more than six-hours of interviews with Dr Greenson. I was requested to do this by the chief Medical Examiner and I came away convinced that the actress could not have killed herself deliberately. And i wrote a report saying just that". Needless to say, the Milner report dissapeared - probably taken by detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department's Intelligence squad.

Peter Lavathes, Fox's head of production, was one of the last people to talk to Marilyn. He pointed out: "She never sounded better. She knew we were going to finish the picture (Something's Got to Give) and that it would start in a matter of weeks. Everybody went around saying that she was despondent at her treatment by the studio, and because she had been fired. That was all nonsense. We had hired her back at a salary of half a million dollars. and she was ecstatic".

Almost everybody studying the crime scene missed the most compelling evidence - the arrangement of Monroe's room and the condition of her body. When Eunice Murray and Ralph Greenson told police that "nothing was out of the ordinary", this was not the case, and they knew it. Everything was out of the ordinary. Marilyn never went to bed naked, with all the lights on and the curtains open. She had an elaborate bedtime ritual - an unvarying routine that she observed even if she had further telephone calls to make. The thick black-out curtains were shut every evening before Murray brought her a glass of milk. Then Monroe would slip on a fresh bra - from a supply she kept in her bureau - to keep her breasts from sagging. After that, she would take her Chloral Hydrate capsules with the milk. Additionally, the ritual included an eye mask and ear plugs. And yet Marilyn had done none of thesethings on her last night. The fact that she had fallen asleep naked, in a room full of light, should have alerted Murray to foul play.

One of the most interesting analysis of the death came from Tass, the news agency of the former Soviet Union. On the 25th anniversary of her death, in 1987, Tass published a series of articles that accused "highly influential people in hollywood" of covering up the truth about her death. The investigation team that produced the five-part study, had access to detailed information from the KGB. "Marilyn was killed by the CIA because she planned to expose a US plot to murder Cuban dictator Fidel Castro", Tass claimed. In an articleon Monroe's realtionship with Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, the writers claimed to have absolute proof of these affairs. "We could not rule out the fact that operatives protecting the Kennedys had Marilyn killed", the article said.

In July 1962, Monroe told Slatzer about the CIA's intention to murder Castro with the help of the Mafia. Slatzer warned her that "this sort of information could get you killed". She had also made notes about the CIA, the Mafia and the Kennedy's Administration's view of Castro, including hints that the CIA and the mob had conspired to assassinate the Cuban dictator.

Eye witnesses have placed the Attorney-General at Monroe's home at least once - and probably twice - on the evening of her death. After grilling by Ted Landreth, the producer and director of the BBC's 1986 documentary Say Goodbye to the President, Murray finally admitted that Robert Kennedy had been there. She also admitted that the hours had slipped by before the police were informed about Marilyn's death, so that Lawford and the Secret Service could spirit Kennedy away.

In seems entirely plausable that agents from the Secret Service or even the FBI made sure that Monroe received one more shot - thereby pushing her over the edge to death.

Hazel Washington, the studio maid, described "evidence" being burnt in Monroe's fireplace at noon on Sunday, implying that Monroe's complete collection of notepads was reduced to ashes. After the Secret Service and the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Fox publicity department had finished, not a scrap of paper remained at Marilyn's house.

The Build up to the Murder

This began on the morning of Friday, August 3. After the Attorney General's aides had relayed the messages that Monroe had left at the St. Francis Hotel, in San Francisco, kennedy must have realised that she was ready to reveal her ties with his family.

Kennedy probably promised Marilyn that he would fly to Los Angeles early on Saturday. It is believed that Marilyn threatened to hold a press conference about both of her affairs, and that she might have been willing to publicise excerpts from the notebooks she had filled with details of the romances.

Along with trusted members fo the Secret Service, Kennedy dashed to the Lawford beach house in Los Angeles, for a strategy session. It is believed that he made another call to Monroe, who by then was hysterical, telling him to get out of her life. It also seems clear that Kennedy's coningent of Secret Service agents moved into action, and may have bought CIA operatives into the situation as well. Because of Monroe's loose words about the plot to kill Castro, the CIA had a strong stake in her demise.

As a last resort, Kennedy collected a family doctor in Beverley Hills and travelled to Monroe's house in Brentwood, at about 6.30 pm. The doctor then gave her a strong sedative. When Kennedy returned to the Lawford mansion at 7 pm Marilyn was already on the phone, raging about her mis-treatment by both brothers. Kennedy was stunned: His problems with Monroe were getting worse, not better. He called the President in Washington and his mother is Hyannis Port.

Sometime between 6.30 pm and 9 pm somebody entered Monroe's house and administered a potent shot of Nembutal in her rectum or under her armpit: - An injection in either of these places would not be detected during an autopsy that missed evidence of the injections she received in the preceeding two days.

Thomas Noguchi has belatedly admitted that he did discover clues that pointed to foul play. "I did find evidence which indicated violence. There were bruises on her lower back area - a very fresh bruise - and bruises on the arms".

Monroe died at about 10 pm, and one of the most complicated cover ups in Hollywood history, was set in motion. Around 10.30 pm publicist Arthur Jacobs rushed to the Brentwood house, to sweep the site clear of all incriminating documents. At the same time, a helicopter landed on the beach, next to the Lawford mansion, and collected Kennedy. Ralph Greenson, Marilyn's psychoanalyst, was called to the house just before 11 pm. Arriving next was the delegation from the Fox publicity department. According to various sources, Lawford was on hand for hours - probably directing the sweep. We do know that Lawford reported back to the President early in the morning with a progress report.

Earlier in 1992, a record of Lawford's report was found in formerly supressed logs kept by the White House switchboard. The very first entry in the Presidential log of August 5, 1962, shows that Lawford had spoken to Kennedy for 20 minutes, beginning at 9.05 am (6.05 am Pacific time).

Hazel Washington, thew studio maid, heard that Lawford had made an even earlier call from the telephone in Monroe's bedroom, but a White House log from those hours does not exist. It would surely have shown up on Marilyn's telephone bill - but it has vanished from the files of the telephone company.

The deserted street was yet another indication that a well organised cover up had been completed. It was 4.45 am when Sergeant Jack Clemmens turned inthe small cul-de-sac. But the road had been teeming with activity at 1 am. At that moment, a Los Angeles financier, named Arthur Landon, who lived next door to Marilyn, turned into the road and found it crammed with vehicles. He saw a Mercedes, a Station Wagon, a small foreign convertible, and two plain saloons which had the appearence of unmarked police cars. After Landon had squeezed into his own drive, he tried to question one of several men guarding the gates to the Monroe compound. "Don't worry about it", he was told. "Of course, we all knew when we turned the radio on the next morning", he said later.

When Clemmens asked Greenson what had gone on during the hours before the police were called, the psychoanalyst answered "I cannot explain myself without revealing things I don't want to reveal. You can't draw a line in the sand and say "I'll tell you this, but i wont tell you that!" It's terrible to have to say "I can't talk about it, because I can't tell you the whole story"".

"Listen", Greeson said "Talk to Bobby Kennedy".

Prologue

The story of Marilyn Monroe's death can only be pieced together from interviews with people involved with events. The truth, however, was probably recorded on tape, as were many of the secrets of her affairs with President John F Kennedy and his brother Robert.

In 1975, thirteen years after the death of the actress, Oui magazine published an article by Anthony Scaduto, an investigative reporter. He theorised about the identity of the killers. "She may have been killed by those protecting Bobby, JFK and the future Kennedy presidential dynasty from scandal". Oui was also the first to say that Monroe's house in Brentwood had been bugged, and that the surveillance produced sensational tapes of Robert Kennedy and monroe fighting on the last afternoon of her life.

Fred Otash, the Hollywood private detective, has described massive bugging operations at Monroe's home, as well as at the beach house owned by Peter Lawford. Otash was allegedly paid in-directly by the Mafia to use bugging devices to gain evidence to be used against the first family. In December 1961, his bugs at Lawford's house picked up a steamy love scene between the President and the actress. Otash even hinted that state secrets were discussed. He also claimed to have heard recordings made in Monroe's home on the last day of her life. It seems certain that Robert Kennedy, who had become Monroe's lover almost immediately after the President ended his relationship with her, drove to Monroe's house, alone or with Lawford, to quash the impending scandal, follwoing her repeated threats to expose the details of her affairs with the brothers.

Recordings of that visit may exist somewhere in the vaults of the Secret Service, the CIA or FBI. J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, was said to have made a copy for his own secret files, and apparantly listened to it regularly. According to Otash, these tapes revealed a running quarrel between Monroe and Kennedy, as they moved from room to room and topic to topic. "Marilyn and Bobby had a very violent argument and she told him: "I feel used, I feel passed around"." Otash said. "Then Marilyn ordered the Attorney General out of her house". Later, the tapes supposedly recorded a call from Monroe to Kennedy, who was at the Lawford's beach house. Again, according to Otash, Monroe screamed: "Don't bother me. Leave me alone".

During the taping of an item for 20/20, ABC's newsd programme, Otash was asked if the tapes confirmed that Kennedy and Monroe had had an affair. "Of course", Otash replied. He offered the same reply when asked if the tapes were running at the time of her death. ABC later decided not to show the item.

But according to a source involved with organised crime, somebody - either Kennedy or Secret Service agents - had already found the bugs in Monroe's house and pulled the wires. James Spida, Lawford's biographer, said that Kennedy was frantically searching the house for any sign of a wiretap during his arguments with Monroe.

During Robert Kennedy's Presidential campaign in 1968, a group of Conservatives offered a $75,000 reward to anybody who could produce tapes of his affair with Monroe. An un-named Los Angeles police officer answered the advertisment and met secretly with a representative of the group. That representative found the tapes "impressive". An exchange was set up. The day before it was due to take place, Kennedy was assasinated. The tapes vanished.