The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe’s Death

 For many years, the truth of what really happened to Marilyn Monroe has been surrounded by mystery. On August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home from what appeared to be a suicide. There are many questions to be asked regarding this crime, such as did she really attempt suicide, could her secret love affair with Robert F. Kennedy have resulted in an unhappy ending, or was someone so angry with Marilyn Monroe that they took her life? Although her death was officially ruled a probable suicide,' her secret love affairs, the lack of reliable indications of a suicide, and the eyewitness accounts of her death all point to the alternate probability that Marilyn Monroe was murdered.

        Marilyn Monroe is best remembered as one of the world's most famous sex symbols in history. She was an American actress, model, singer, and comedienne. In her early life, Marilyn Monroe was born to her parents as Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926. Growing up, Marilyn Monroe never knew her father and she spent many years in the foster care system. While in foster homes, Marilyn was molested several times and was raped at age eleven. At only the age of sixteen, she dropped out of high school and married Jimmy Dougherty. Soon, her husband was deployed and Marilyn was left alone. However, while Dougherty was gone, she was discovered by a professional photographer and by the time of 1946, she had a career as a model. All of her early life struggles and events can all be linked to her last years alive, because these events could have possibly led up to her death (Marilyn Monroe).

August 4, 1962 seemed like a normal day for the beautiful Marilyn Monroe. Eunice Murray, Marilyn's housekeeper, reported to work at Marilyn's home at 8:00 a.m. and about 9:00 a.m., Ralph Roberts, Marilyn's best friend, massaged her back in her bedroom. He specifically said she was not tense and she was very calm. At 12:00 p.m., Pat Newcomb, a guest in Marilyn's home from the night before, woke up. Marilyn became angry with Pat, because she had gotten plenty of sleep the night before while Marilyn had barely received any (Margolis 201-202).

As the day proceeds on and eventually becomes night, Marilyn is rather distraught by the events that took place earlier that day. At about 10:00 p.m., Marilyn makes her last phone call ever to Ralph Roberts, her friend, but she is told he is out for the evening. Then, she lapsed into unconsciousness from the drugs in her body (Margolis 207). Later, around midnight, Eunice Murray, Marilyn's housekeeper, sees a light on in Marilyn's bedroom and later she sees, the light is still on with the door locked. Worried, Mrs. Murray calls Marilyn's psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson, to come over and make sure she is okay. In the original police report, Eunice Murray said that Dr. Ralph Greenson saw Marilyn's lifeless body through a window and broke it from the outside to get into the bedroom. Once, they get into the room, they find Marilyn face down and nude on her bed. Dr. Greenson pronounces her dead and reports it to the local police department (MarilynMonroeHistory).

        At the scene of Monroe's death, there was very little credible evidence gathered. There was an empty pill bottle of Nembutal sleeping pills that she had just gotten refilled, which was later identified as the drugs she most likely overdosed on. Dr. Thomas Noguchi was the coroner that examined Marilyn Monroe's dead body. Noguchi says he looked at the police report which said she had been found eight hours earlier in Brentwood. It appeared to him that the victim died from a drug overdose. He knew that the empty pill bottle had been found near her body. He proceeded with his normal procedure and found Chloral hydrate and Nembutal in the results of her blood and liver test. After examining the lifeless body of Marilyn Monroe, the coroner ruled Marilyn's death a probable suicide.' He decided on this cause of death, because of the evidence at the scene presented to him and the lethal amount of acute barbiturate poison that made it seem like she had taken her own life (Preston).

        Marilyn Monroe's death came as a shock to everyone who loved, respected, and appreciated her. Just days before her death, Marilyn wrote about how happy she was and that she had not been this happy in a long time. If she was so happy, why did she commit suicide, or did she? What if her death was not an act of suicide? What if it was no accident?  What if Marilyn's death was an act of murder?

        There are many reasons that suicide being the cause of death is not accurate. There were many things going on in Marilyn's life that more than likely led up to her death, such as her secret love affairs with three different important men. The first man that Marilyn Monroe supposedly had an affair with was President John F. Kennedy. The rumors about their affair rose when Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday to him for his forty-fifth birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962. These rumors are now true to all, because it is clear that Marilyn and JFK met four times between the months of October 1961 and August 1962. It is believed that their only sexual encounter took place in a bedroom at Bing Crosby's house on March 24, 1962 (Waxman).

        Another man that Marilyn was involved with was John F. Kennedy's brother, Robert F. Kennedy. It is no question that these two were clearly involved with each other. They saw each other and talked on the phone many times throughout the week (Murderers; Kennedys Accused of Having Marilyn Monroe Killed over Doomed Affairs). Marilyn even announced that she was very in love with Robert and that they were going to get married, like he promised her (Margolis 2). Robert F. Kennedy will forever deny the affair between them, but many witnesses came forward and told the truth. Why was Robert so worried about their affair getting leaked out into the public? Well it was for the sake of his own reputation and his brother's reputation, of course. On the day of Marilyn's death, Robert F. Kennedy claimed he was not in town, but this will later be shattered to pieces by the strong evidence that puts him in Marilyn's home twice on the day she died. There was even a very heated argument between the two before Marilyn was found. Could the encounter between Robert F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe on the day of her death just be a coincidence or was he seriously trying to keep Marilyn quiet? 

        Thirdly, the affair between Marilyn and her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, was brought forward many years after Marilyn's death. It was clear by the tapes that were made from the bugs placed in Marilyn's home that these two were also involved. Dr. Greenson was very fond of Marilyn and even seemed to be falling in love with her. Marilyn stayed many nights in Dr. Greenson's and his wife's home. Greenson's wife claimed she was not aware of the affair between the two. Their affair grew into something much larger, especially near the time of Marilyn's death. When Marilyn had threatened Robert F. Kennedy with the fact that she was going to hold a press conference to leak the affairs and mistreatment at the hands of the two Kennedy brothers, Robert saw it as his chance. No one is really sure how, but Robert was well aware of the affair between Greenson and Monroe. He decided to call Dr. Greenson on the phone and convince him that Marilyn was also going to leak the affair between them, which was very untrue. Bobby told Greenson, Marilyn has got to be silenced. Did Robert F. Kennedy really set up Dr. Ralph Greenson to kill Marilyn (Margolis 3)?

        Along with her secret love affairs that led to Marilyn Monroe's death, there was a lack in the reliable indications of suicide being the cause of death. First being, the Mafia that were planted in her house picked up some interesting activity on the day Marilyn died. That day the tapes picked up the argument between Robert F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. Not only did it sound like a very heated verbal argument, it also sounded very physical. Marilyn screamed at Robert, saying, I feel passed around! I feel used! I feel like a piece of meat! From the tone of voice, it was very clear that Marilyn was upset. There was also a sound of some sort of struggled picked up on the tapes in Marilyn's bedroom. Robert F. Kennedy began to scream, Where is it? Where the hell is it? I have to have it! My family will pay you for it! There is no question that what he was referring to was her red diary that she wanted to use to expose the affairs she had with both Kennedys (Murder of Monroe ).

        Ray Straight also claims to have listened to several tape recording from the bugs in Marilyn's house. He said he heard them having a good time at first, until he said that he had to leave her, because too many people we were becoming suspicious. Marilyn ordered him to get out of her house, because of how upset she was by what he said. He left, but returned later that night. Robert F. Kennedy and two of his personal bodyguards searching through her guest cottage for her red diary of secrets. A very heated argument arose and Marilyn took it so far to threaten Bobby with a press conference she would hold to tell the world about the treatment she suffered at the hands of the Kennedys. Bobby responded to her comment by saying, If you threaten me, Marilyn, there is more than one way to keep you quiet.  On the tapes, it is heard that Robert said, Give her something to calm her down. He sedated her with drugs and then you could hear the sound of what was obviously her being smothered. Although, Robert F. Kennedy claims to have not been in town on the day of her death, this evidence clearly places him in her home (MarilynMonroeHistory).

        Along with the tapes that clearly incriminate Robert F. Kennedy for taking a part in Marilyn's death, there was a great amount of missing evidence at the scene Although she was found dead by which was believed to be a drug overdose, things were not adding up to suicide. There was empty pill bottle of Nembutal pills, but there was no water in which she would have to use to flush down the pills. How could she have taken a full bottle of pills with no water? Before the date of her death, Marilyn had attempted suicide before, but gagged on just a few pills (Murder of Monroe ). Could she have really gotten past the gagging and been able to take the whole bottle of pills?

        When the ambulance and police arrived officially to the scene, it looked as though her death scene was staged. Many believe that she was not even killed in that room. They believe she was killed in the guest cottage, which is supported by the tapes bugged in her home. In the original police report from Mrs. Eunice Murray, she claimed that Dr. Ralph Greenson had saw Marilyn's lifeless body from a window and broken in from the outside. She said that Marilyn's handyman was sent to fix it, but as it turned out, the window was just boarded up. The shards of glass from the broken window were also found outside the window in the flowerbed, rather than inside, where they would have fallen (Murder of Monroe ). Was this glass broken to support the fake story told to cover up the truth that Marilyn had been murdered?

        Thirdly, the autopsy report is another piece of evidence that does not point to suicide. Although the coroner ruled it a suicide, there are many things that point to a mistake in the autopsy report. There was no residue of the pills found in Marilyn's digestive system. If Marilyn had swallowed those sleeping pills, residue would have been found. Instead of being found in her digestive system, lethal amounts of these drugs were discovered in her blood and liver tests. This makes the argument of injection stronger than Marilyn just swallowing the pills on her own. Today, if you were to ask the coroner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, about this specific examination, he would say he messed up. He regrets not having all of Marilyn's organs examined, because maybe that would have caused him to rule her death as something more than suicide. He made a decision to return back to the toxicology lab to ask for the other organs to be tested, but was surprised to learn they had all been thrown out (Preston). If Dr. Thomas Noguchi had been able to test the other organs, could he have found something that could have made the ruling change? One will never know, but it is a great possibility. All of these unreliable indications of a suicide point to the fact that someone took Marilyn's life, rather than her taking her own life.

        The strongest pieces of the murder claim are the eyewitnesses of Marilyn Monroe's death. Who was there? Did they see anything that could possibly be a lead in this case?

Cite this page