Marilyn Monroe’s Weird Death

Marilyn Monroe was the blonde bombshell to end all bombshells. She drove men wild with her sex appeal. She remains an enduring figure, imitated by actresses and adored by the public. To this day she is usually the first name mentioned when you ask either men or women to name a famous sex symbol. She died at the height of her fame and beauty and so will forever be remembered as the young and sexy women she was at the time of her death. Her death remains one of the strangest events in all of her short life. Let’s take a closer look…

Marilyn Monroe’s most defining role was in the movie "The Seven Year Itch", which contained the famous scene involving her skirt being blown up by an air blast from a subway vent. Marilyn Monroe's notable films include: "All About Eve", "Bus Stop", "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", "Some Like it Hot", and "The Misfits" (this was her last film, and interestingly, it was Clark Gable's last as well).

Marilyn Monroe who was much more intelligent than she was given credit for, enjoyed politics and political conversation and intrigue, was romantically linked to both President John F. Kennedy and some suggest to Bobby Kennedy as well. Marilyn Monroe was married to playwright Arthur Miller and later to baseball great Joe Dimagio, who continued to profess his undying love for her until many, many years after her death.

The sex symbol died on the evening of Saturday, August 4^th, 1962. According to witnesses, she had been planning to hold a news conference on Monday, August 6^th, wherer in she was going to "tell all," about her relationships with John and Bobby Kennedy. This prompted Bobby and younger brother Ted Kennedy to fly to California, where they arrived on August 4^th.

According to testimony at the inquest, the officially accepted timeline is as follows: At about midnight on the 4^th of August 1962, Marilyn went to her room, taking her personal telephone with her. She said goodnight to her housekeeper, Mrs. Murray, and closed her door. When Marylin's lawyer called at about 1 a.m. he was told that Marilyn was in her bedroom but the light was still on, he decided he would call back in the morning. Mrs. Murray says that at about 2 a.m., she noticed that the light was still on in Maylin’s room and she became concerned. She knocked on the door but could get no response. Worried, she finally called the ambulance service to effect a forced entry. At 3:30 in the morning of the 5^th of August, Marilyn was found dead, lying spread out on her bed, naked with one arm out stretched holding her telephone. The first coroner's report declared that her death was due to "presumed suicide caused by an overdose of barbiturates."

Controversy today still surrounds the unexplained timeframe of events on the night of Monroe's passing. Interestingly, Monroe's housekeeper, Eunice Murray, attempted to cash a $200.00 check made out to her by Monroe several days after Monroe's death. City National Bank of Beverly Hills declined to pay Murray and marked the check "deceased." The check is today on display in the Monroe exhibit at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. It later came out that Murray had been fired by Monroe two days before her death - so why was she even there?

A few interesting facts about some of Monroe’s staff follow: Shortly after Monroe's death, Murray, a widow with no assets and no income, left the country for an extended and expensive European cruise on the Queen Mary. Some suggest that she absconded with several thousand dollars worth of Monroe jewelry and cash that was known to be in the house. Pat Newcomb, Monroe's personal publicist from Hollywood, was later hired by the Kennedy administration soon after Monroe died, and was reportedly given a big fat salary with no substantive work to do.

The death of Marilyn Monroe never resulted in a court case, so much of the "evidence" has never been subjected to a judge or jury. Many significant questions linger about the death of the famous actress. Here are some of the most glaring:

~ Why did Robert Kennedy deny being in Los Angeles on the night Monroe died? Monroe's neighbors said they saw a helicopter land, and Kennedy get out with two other men. A Los Angeles patrol officer said he stopped a car carrying the Kennedy brothers and actor Peter Lawford shortly after midnight near Brentwood, where Monroe lived. Years later, Marilyn's maid admitted Bobby Kennedy had in fact been at the house that night. So why did Kennedy lie?

~ If Marilyn died from an overdose of pills, why were none found in her stomach? Dr. Thomas Naguchi, who performed the autopsy for LA County, found not a trace in her stomach.

~ Who wiretapped Marilyn's house, and why? It wasn't until new owners purchased the home in 1972 that this was discovered. The new owners hired a contractor to replace the roof, and the contractor discovered a sophisticated eavesdropping and telephone tapping system that covered every room in the house. The components were not commercially available in 1962, but were, in the words of a retired Justice Department official, "standard FBI issue".

~ What happened to the tapes made from this surveillance?

~ What happened to Marilyn's red diary, which reportedly contained intimate details of her affairs with the Kennedy brothers, and her dealings with Frank Sinatra? The book was present at the death scene, but vanished mysteriously from the coroner's office. It has never resurfaced.

~ Why are the neighbors so sure that they saw an ambulance arrive at 11pm, when the official report says the ambulance arrived at 2:30 am?

~ Why was the bedroom door locked from the outside, which Marilyn could not have done herself? Who locked that door?

~ Why did Jack Clemmons, the first policeman to arrive at the scene, find Murray, the housekeeper, washing Marilyn's sheets at 3:30 am?

~Why did his report state that rigor mortis had fully set in by the time he arrived?

~Why did his report describe the scene as a "homicide"?

~ Why did Marilyn's housekeeper and her doctor wait several hours after Marilyn was dead to notify police and summon an ambulance?

If the actress truly did commit suicide, she did not do so by swallowing pills, as the autopsy fully shows. Therefore, the official conclusion is disproved by the coroner's report. Suicide is not even a possibility, leaving only two solutions: Her death was an accident - or it was a murder.
Evidence tampering and deliberate lies by everyone from the US Attorney General to the housekeeper, along with the likelihood of government surveillance, seem to indicate that Monroe may have been killed to silence her.

In those pre-Clinton days, the Presidency was above all reproach - and a sex scandal would have had disastrous consequences. Hot-headed Bobby Kennedy was likely sent to Los Angeles to silence Monroe. Many investigators theorize she was killed by an injection.

Based on what evidence remains, we will never know what really happened the night Marilyn Monroe died, but it is safe to say that the suggestion that she killed herself is pretty much disproved, so if she did not kill herself then who did?

Ours is a truly weird and sometimes horrible world. Join us again next time, won’t you?

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