The death of Marilyn Monroe
- Paige Phillips
- Jan 13, 2019
- 6 min read
“They will only care when you’re gone”
– Marilyn Monroe
This is probably one of the most well-known, and one of my personal favourite conspiracy theories out there. Whether you believe it or not, the circumstances surrounding Marilyn’s death are extremely peculiar.
At the time of her death, Marilyn was addicted to prescription drugs, enjoyed a turbulent love life and had a history of suicide attempts. Off-screen, Marilyn was deeply insecure and unable to sleep without pills and relied heavily on psychoanalysis. It was rumoured that in the years leading up to her death, she was having an affair with John F. Kennedy.
Marilyn’s career had also been on the rocks. She had not completed a film since ‘The Misfits’ in 1961, and spent much of that year preoccupied with health problems. She was cast in ‘Something’s Got to Give’ in April 1962, but was fired 2 months later, with the studio claiming she was the cause of many production problems.
Marilyn was found dead in the early hours of Sunday 5th August 1962 at her home in Los Angeles, California. It was declared the death was due to a barbiturate overdose. She was 36 years of age at the time. The Saturday before her death, she spent her time at her home, accompanied by her publicist, photographer, housekeeper Eunice Murray and psychiatrist Ralph Greenson. At Greenson’s request, Murray stayed overnight to keep Monroe company due to her sleeping disorder. At approximately 3am on Sunday, she noticed that Monroe had locked herself in her room and was unresponsive. Murray alerted Greenson, who arrived soon after and broke into her room, finding Monroe dead. The death was ruled a suicide due to the large amount of barbiturates she had ingested. The case was re-opened in 1982 due to the prevalence of a variety of conspiracy theories surrounding her death in the media, but after review of the case, the outcome of the original investigation remained the same.
Things that imply it may not have been a suicide:
1. The police weren’t called until over an hour after the discovery of Marilyn’s body
The housekeeper, Eunice Murray, is said to have become alarmed when the actress didn’t respond to her knocking later in the night and called Greenson, who came over around 3am. Greenson broke the window and climbed inside to find her apparently lifeless with one hand clutching a phone. He summoned the doctor who had prescribed her the sleeping pills, and was pronounced dead. However, the police weren’t called until 4:25am, approximately an hour and half after Greenson had discovered Marilyn’s body. The discrepancy in time could insinuate the doctors had something to do with the cover up of Marilyn’s death.
2. No water, or pill residue in her stomach
Marilyn’s death was ruled a drug overdose due to “acute combined drug toxicity, chloral hydrate and Nembutal”. Pill bottles were said to have been found near her bed. Despite this, there was no water glass found in her room, which would have been needed to swallow the large number of pills in order to overdose. The lack of water has led some to believe that Marilyn did not ingest the pills on her own accord. In addition to this, there was no pill residue in her stomach. If Marilyn had ingested such a large number of pills, there should have been some evidence of these capsules in her stomach, but accordingly to the pathologist, there was no trace of drugs in her stomach. This lack of residue and water could imply Marilyn had been injected with an overdose, by-passing her enteral system straight into her periphery.
3. Lack of testing
The coroner reportedly took samples from her stomach and small intestines and asked the toxicologist to perform tests on them to determine exactly how the drugs entered Marilyn’s system to give a definitive cause of death, but these tests were never conducted.
4. Eunice Murray changing her story
Murray is at the centre of a discrepancy over the exact time Monroe’s body was found, as she initially said she alerted Greenson at midnight, but later went on to change her story to 3am.
According to Anthony Summers, when conducting an interview with Eunice Murray in 1983 regarding Marilyn’s death, she put her head in her hands and said something to the effect of “Oh, why do I have to keep covering this up?”, to which Summers replied, “Covering what up, Mrs. Murray?”. Her reply was, “Well of course Bobby Kennedy was there [on Aug. 4], and of course there was an affair with Bobby Kennedy”
5. Position of her body
Her body was found naked with an arm stretched across the bed and a hand hung limp on the telephone. She was also lying face down. The position of her body is said to be bizarre according to many pathologists, with most overdose victims convulsing or having a complete shutdown of their body. It also is suggested that Marilyn would not be naked if she was planning on killing herself.
6. Her former husband, Joe DiMaggio claims to have known who killed Marilyn
In a book written by Dr. Rock Positano, who treated DiMaggio for a heel injury, said DiMaggio had a lot of great love and respect for Marilyn, and was worried that, as she was very vulnerable, it was easy for people to take advantage of her. It is claimed that DiMaggio never forgave his friend Frank Sinatra for introducing Marilyn to the Kennedy family, and she was coping with depression and drug addiction around the time the rumours of the affairs came out. Positano claims the actress had told DiMaggio that someone was going to “do her in”, and that DiMaggio had told him “The whole lot of the Kennedys were lady-killers, and they always got away with it. They’ll be getting away with it a hundred years from now. I always knew who killed her, but I didn’t want to start a revolution in this country. I’ll go to the grave regretting and blaming myself for what happened to her”. His apparently last words before his death in 1999 were, “I’ll finally get to see Marilyn”.
Suspects:
1. Robert Kennedy
Robert Kennedy is one of the main suspects in Marilyn’s death, as it is speculated she had an affair with both Kennedy brothers. It is claimed Marilyn had threatened to go public regarding her affair with JFK, which would end his political career. Clearly, these circumstances provide enough motive for Kennedy to want her silenced. Robert is suggested to have been implicated in her death on his brother’s behalf. Several witnesses have claimed to have seen Robert Kennedy visit Monroe during the course of her fatal evening. It is possible he went to plead his brother’s case, and when Marilyn refused to stay silent, he resorted to killing her. Peter Lawford, Marilyn’s friend and John F. Kennedy’s brother-in-law, called her shortly after 7pm on August 4thand claimed she sounded depressed and was slurring her words, whilst her ex-husband’s son, Joe DiMaggio Jr. called her around the same time, and claimed she sounded “like Marilyn”, suggesting he call from Lawford could have been used to insinuate the idea of Marilyn’s suicide.
2. Mafia boss Sam Giancana
According to this theory, it is claimed Kennedy had turned to his mafia boss friend Giancana to help him in regards to his Marilyn situation. It’s been suggested Giancana agreed to send his men to kill Marilyn, with the guarantee that Kennedy would help the mafia in their own endeavours, such as the overthrow of Fidel Castro.
3. Her doctors Greenson and Engelberg
It is reported her doctors caused her to have an overdose, with Engelberg prescribing her Nembutals and Greenson a chloral hydrate enema administered by Murray, which together had killed her. It is said the men wanted to cover up their mistake and therefore lied about Marilyn’s mental state. This also accounts for the discrepancy between the time Greenson arrived and the time the police were called.
Other conspiracies:
Whilst highly unlikely, it has been suggested Marilyn Monroe is actually alive and her death was a hoax used to clear her out of the spotlight. It is claimed that her psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, committed her to a mental institution in New Brunswick, Canada. It is believed she stayed in this institution for 20 years before being released. John Alexander Baker, author of Marilyn Monroe: Alive in 1984? Claimed to have picked up a hitchhiker in Nava Scotia in 1984 who claimed to be Monroe, but was now a “homeless, frightened and paranoid schizophrenic”. The woman told baker of her days as a former movie star and Baker was taken back by her resemblance to Monroe, as well as the similarity in her singing voice. Baker admits that the woman’s mental state would make her story hard to believe for most, but says that he believes 99% that she really was who she claimed to be.
If you're interested in learning more about this case, check out The Mile Higher podcast, which has nearly a 2hr episode on the case:
Comments