They were words that would prove to be quite prophetic.
‘I was the kind of girl they found dead in a hall bedroom with an empty bottle of sleeping pills in her hand.’
That is what Marilyn Monroe, the world’s most celebrated woman, told a journalist in 1954 – eight years before she died in remarkably similar circumstances from a seeming overdose of barbiturates.
More than 60 years on, a cloud of mystery continues to hang over the death of the Hollywood celebrity, model and global sex symbol.
Three times married and three times divorced, Monroe was, in her final weeks, a woman in chaos, an idol defeated by the crushing weight of her own stardom.
But did she really take her own life by overdosing on barbiturates at the age of just 36, or is the reality much darker?
Was she killed for threatening to reveal the secrets of her two most powerful lovers, US President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby, the Attorney General?
New book The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, by mega-selling author James Patterson and co-writer Imogen Edwards-Jones, details the unanswered questions and alleged suspicious circumstances encompassing Monroe’s demise on August 4, 1962.
Monroe allegedly had a ‘violent argument’ with Bobby Kennedy at her home in Los Angeles, California, on the day she died, accusing him of abandoning her.
And Sergeant Jack Clemmons, the policeman who came to Monroe’s home after she was found dead, said it was ‘the most obviously staged death scene I had ever seen’.
Further, in a 1985 interview on the BBC with investigative journalist Anthony Summers, Monroe’s housekeeper Eunice Murray, who found her dead, had said cryptically words to the effect of, ‘Why do I have to keep covering this up’.
As for her post-mortem, that was not done by the chief medical examiner but instead carried out by a junior counterpart, who subsequently revealed that he did not do the entire range of organ tests that would normally have been expected.
Hinting that there may have been foul play, Patterson said in a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter: ‘I think that she was treading in very dangerous waters.
‘She had these incredible relationships with President Kennedy, and with Robert Kennedy, and with [Frank] Sinatra, and with Mafia figures.
‘They told her stuff, and she kept track of it. She had information that was kind of dangerous.’
He added: ‘I didn’t know much about the death scene, about the autopsy not being as complete as it should have been, that one of the detectives was convinced the scene was staged.’
News of the death of Monroe, the star of films including Some Like It Hot and a bedroom pin-up for millions of young men, was front-page news worldwide.
In his tribute, acting titan Sir Laurence Olivier, who starred alongside Monroe in his 1957 romantic comedy The Prince and the Showgirl, spoke for many.
‘Marilyn was the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensationalism,’ he said.
‘She could be incredibly sweet, most tenderly appealing and very, very witty.
‘Her end is dreadfully and shockingly sad, but popular opinion and all that goes to promote it is a horribly unsteady conveyance for life, and she was exploited beyond anyone’s means.’
The last several months of Monroe’s life had been turbulent and humiliating.
The star had, for years, been dependent on a cocktail of drugs, was chronically depressed and had undergone surgery for endometriosis.
In May 1962, she made international headlines and sparked a surge of affair speculation when she serenaded President Kennedy at his 45th birthday celebrations at Madison Square Garden.
The following month, Monroe – now notorious for her perceived lack of professionalism – was sacked from the production of Something’s Got to Give, which would turn out to be the last film she worked on.
Much of the suspicion surrounding Monroe’s demise hinges on the claims of former vice detective Fred Otash, who said he was ordered to conceal a surveillance microphone in the star’s house.
The original tapes of the alleged recorded conversations were said to have gone missing soon after Monroe was discovered dead.
According to Otash, the tapes prove that Bobby Kennedy went with his brother-in-law, the English actor Peter Lawford, to Monroe’s home on the day she died.
There, according to Patterson’s account of Otash’s claims, a ‘highly emotional’ Monroe demanded ‘an explanation as to why Kennedy was not going to marry her’.
‘According to Otash, it is “a violent argument about their relationship and the commitment and promises Bobby made to her. She said she was passed around like a piece of meat.”
Kennedy was then alleged to have lost his temper and said he would not leave until he got Monroe’s ‘little red book, where she kept all her notes about “political things” she discussed with him and, before him, his brother.’
Otash reported: ‘She was screaming. Bobby gets the pillow, and he muffles her on the bed to keep the neighbours from hearing.
‘She finally quieted down, and then he was looking to get out of there.’
Monroe then allegedly took some pills to calm down before having rambling phone conversations about “betrayals… men in high places… clandestine love affairs.”
She was said to have told one caller: ‘I know a lot of secrets about the Kennedys. Dangerous ones.’
To another, she claimed to have news that ‘will one day shock the whole world’.
Monroe was supposed to have dinner at Lawford’s home on the night she passed away.
However, the star’s slurred speech, which sounded like she was high, startled him when he called her later.
She cryptically told him: ‘Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to the president, and say goodbye to yourself, because you’re a nice guy.’
In the early hours of August 5, Monroe’s housekeeper woke abruptly, worried that something was not right.
Mrs Murray tried to enter her boss’s room after getting out of bed, but she discovered the door was locked.
She called Dr Ralph Greenson, Monroe’s psychiatrist, now quite concerned.
Mrs Murray then looked through Monroe’s bedroom window, according to her version of events.
There she saw the star on her bed, lying naked on her back. Her hand was still holding her telephone.
Dr Greenson then arrived, broke the window with a poker and climbed into Monroe’s bedroom.
Revealing what happened next, Patterson writes: ‘He leans over Marilyn and presses gently on the side of her slim neck. Please, God, let there be a pulse.
‘He presses harder. The flesh feels tepid, not as warm as he would like. Maybe there is something? There! Then he realises it’s his own pounding heartbeat.
“We’ve lost her!” he cries out, his knees buckling beneath him.’
Dr Greenson then saw the numerous pill bottles and a trail of white tablets on the carpet. A 50-capsule bottle of the sedative Nembutal was empty.
One pill every night is the typical dosage.
Sergeant Clemmons arrived shortly before 5 am. When he examined Monroe’s body, he was instantly suspicious.
The new book continues: ‘Marilyn’s legs are perfectly straight. Her face is buried in a pillow. He’d like to get a look at her mouth, check for signs of foam or vomit.
‘Suicides are usually messier than this. The normal signs of distress or struggle are not present.’
Speaking of why he believed the scene was staged, he said: ‘The pill bottles on her table had been arranged in neat order, and the body was deliberately positioned.’
Although Sergeant Clemmons was later criticised for being an unreliable witness, Mrs Murray’s account was also contested.
When she spoke with Summers in 1985, she was asked what she meant when she said words to the effect of, ‘Why do I have to keep covering this up?’
She replied: ‘Well, of course Bobby Kennedy was there.’
Summers said of the conversation: ‘I asked her what she meant, and she then astonished us by admitting that Robert Kennedy had indeed visited Marilyn on the day she died, and that a doctor and an ambulance had come while she was still alive.
‘It became so sticky that the protectors of Robert Kennedy, you know, had to step in and protect him…’
Dr Thomas Noguchi performed Monroe’s post-mortem rather than his more experienced colleague.
Patterson and Ms Edward-Jones write of Dr Noguchi: ‘He detects neither needle marks, indicating a drug injection, nor signs of physical violence.
‘The autopsy confirms blood toxic with barbiturates and a stomach empty of food particles, even the yellow dye that coats Nembutal capsules.
‘But he never performs the full range of organ tests. He admits later: “I didn’t follow through as I should have.”
It was later claimed that Dr Greenson prescribed Monroe a chloral hydrate enema and that it was this medication, when mixed with Nembutal, that killed her.
Then, according to the claim, Dr Greenson and Dr Hyman Engelberg, Monroe’s personal physician, staged the star’s death as suicide amid fear of the consequences should they be blamed for her death.
However, the allegations that Monroe was killed to prevent her from discussing the Kennedy brothers have persisted.
In a 1995 interview, Monroe’s close friend Sidney Guilaroff said he had spoken to her on the phone just hours before she died.
‘Marilyn telephoned me and was in an absolute state. She said, “Bobby Kennedy was here, and he threatened me, screamed at me, and pushed me around!”
‘I think I said something like “What was Robert Kennedy doing at your house?”, because I couldn’t believe my ears.
‘I knew absolutely nothing about her affair with Bobby, and I thought I knew everything.
‘I knew about Jack, but then she told me she’d had an affair with Bobby as well.
‘Everything had gone wrong. Now she was afraid and felt she was in terrible danger.
‘Bobby felt she had become a problem and had said to her: “If you threaten me, Marilyn, there’s more than one way to keep you quiet.”
Sinatra himself is said to have been convinced that Monroe had been murdered.
Tony Oppedisano, his former manager and close friend, wrote in his 2021 memoir: ‘Frank believed she was murdered, and he never got over it.’
However, in the 1980s, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office opened an inquiry into Monroe’s death as unanswered questions stirred.
The then district attorney, John Van de Kamp, told the Los Angeles Times: ‘Based on the evidence available to us, it appears that her death could have been a suicide or a result of an accidental drug overdose.’
Investigators at the time said murder would have required a ‘massive, in place conspiracy’ that would have involved, ‘the actual killer or killers; the chief medical examiner coroner; the autopsy surgeon to whom the case was fortuitously assigned; and most all of the police officers assigned to the case, as well as their superiors.’
The authorities added: ‘Our inquiries and document examination uncovered no credible evidence supporting a murder theory.’
Many people thought Marilyn Monroe had been murdered, and since not everyone could be mistaken, someone had to be correct. After all, she was quite knowledgeable about a number of powerful individuals.
If she was threatening to expose both the Kennedy brothers, what was she going to disclose? It must have been something worth killing for.
Was there really any uncertainty, after all? Frank Sinatra mingled with a lot of shady characters while he was alive, so if he thought she was murdered, then perhaps she was, but we will never really know for sure; it’s just all conjecture, and always will be.
Somebody, or many, knew the truth, but if it was the Kennedy’s they had to be protected. In this day and age, it frankly makes Clinton and Trump look like choirboys.
Marilyn was, of course, an incredibly troubled woman, and she was taken advantage of by powerful men. Once they’d finished playing with her, and had no use for her anymore, she had to go, although she could have sold her story for a lot of money, but all she really wanted was to be loved. However, humans can be evil monsters; it’s that simple, they take what they want and then toss it away.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 