INTRODUCTION
In 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home with an empty pill bottle nearby. Initially, the cause of her death was decided to be a suicide. But, with time, came more details and this began the conspiracy theories. Question began to spark was she murdered by the CIA as a get back at JFK, or was she murdered by JFK for multiple reasons? Could it have been her death was a staged suicide? So, let’s break down the details of each conspiracy to get to a basis on which theory fits better or would be more believable.
MARILYN BEYOND THE LIGHTS
Marilyn Monroe was a determined “it girl” of the 1950s to early 60s. "A devoted if troubled actress who took her craft seriously"(King), is how friends and people who knew her remember her. Marilyn Monroe born Norma Jean the glamorous vivacious sex symbol whom the camera had an eye for, but not so much vice versus. The 5’5” blonde-haired hazel-eyed woman who looked amazing in anything, even a potato sack, lacked something deep inside of her beyond her looks. Even though there was beauty and admiration behind the makeup and shining star personality, there were insecurities. A woman who only wanted to truly be loved since her early childhood, and find her place in everything fell into the fast life of Hollywood. She took her acting career very seriously and wanted to prove something other than what was already assumed of who and what she was.
The multi-talented woman eagerly wanted to add more of a reality to her acting career apart from playing the comedic bimbo roles. In 2012 her Bus Stop co-star Don Murray told the Los Angeles Times, “She was trying to prove she was a serious actress and not just a movie star playing bimbo parts. She was trying to prove she was an actress of substance, and in my opinion she certainly did.” (King) In an attempt to avoid the comedic dumb blonde roles, Marilyn moved from California to new york to take lessons with Lee Strasberg from 1955 up until her untimely death. This transition was very successful for her. After taking lessons she started playing more serious roles and began receiving praise from critics, New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther who started observing more of her acting wrote that she “has finally proved herself an actress.” (Morrison) This was a major milestone for her considering how critics would usually focus on her looks during her earlier roles. In 1955 she wrote in her record notebook that her “first desire was to be an actress.”(Bolten) Even though her work as a model and her looks are what she is most recognized for, she took her craft and talent for acting seriously.
Marilyn was a very naive woman while in search of love through many relationships and marriages in her lifetime. When asked in an interview with Vanity Fair about Marilyn, Joyce Carol Oates uses Emma Bovary, the 19th-century literature character, as a comparison. “Both are young women who have a very romantic and probably unrealistic vision of love.”(Walsh) Marilyn married at the young age of 16 to James Doughtery whom she would divorce in 1946 just 5 years later after signing a studio contract with Fox 20th century that same year. Later in life, she would go on to write about her first marriage stating, “My relationship with him was basically insecure from the first night I spent alone with him.” (Walsh 1) Her marriage with her second husband Joe Dimaggio was short-lived due to abuse and control. Her fame as the blonde sex symbol was a little much for Dimaggio, Marilyn stated that he was disgusted with her icon dress scene in the movie Seven Year Itch according to her he said, “exposing my legs and thighs, even my crotch that was the last straw.”(Bertram) Their divorce would be announced just 9 months after the wedding. She was no stranger to participating in affairs with married men in hope they would leave their wife to be with her, this was the case involving her relationship with playwright Arthur Miller. She wrote in her diary during her relationship with Arthur Miller, “I guess I have always been deeply terrified to really be someone’s wife since I know from life one cannot love another, ever, really… Starting tomorrow I will take care of myself for that’s all I really have and as I see it now, I have ever had.”(Bolten) Her marriage to Arthur Miller lasted 6 years which was longer than any of her other marriages.
DEATH CONSPIRACIES
In 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her home with an empty pill bottle nearby. There are three main conspiracies surrounding her death. The first theory is then president JFK had her murdered for multiple reasons. Another being she was murdered by the mafia as revenge for Bobby Kennedy. The last theory indicates that the CIA was the cause due to Marilyn knowing too much secret information.
The first conspiracy in the death of Marilyn Monroe is then President John F. Kennedy had her murdered as a way to silence her. Marilyn was so into the relationship that she made a call to the White House for Jackie Kennedy to confess her affair with JFK, "Jackie Kennedy was a smart political wife and she feared Marilyn Monroe, not as somebody that would be emotionally intimate with President Kennedy but rather somebody who could take down the administration in scandal. She viewed her as a loose cannon and unpredictable" as stated by Nick Ragone (Sambolin). Wouldn't Marilyn Monroe bring a threat seeing how she went so far as to call the First Lady to confess her affair to warrant her death; she was too much of a risk going to the media to the administration that she had to be silenced.
The night of her death she made a call to Peter Lawford, a relative of John F. Kennedy, to explain her plan to hold a conference to expose what the Kennedys did to her. Biographer Danforth Prince told Peter Lawford, “ You tell him that if he doesn’t fly down to see me and talk things over, he’ll hear from me at my press conference Monday morning, It’ll make headlines around the world, although not of the kind that would help Jack’s bid for re-election”(Staff Radar 1). Bill Barnes, a Hollywood historian, said Peter Lawford was responsible for keeping Marilyn under control for the Kennedys; Bill said that Peter was told “Look, you’ve gotta watch her. She’s outta control. She’s gonna blab state secrets” (1). According to Netflix's The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, it is believed that her death by "suicide" was a cover-up by the Kennedys who had FBI agents sent to kill her and take away any evidence and get rid of any taped calls and pictures of them together. Leaving her dead with a pill bottle nearby to be found dead the next day, framing the murder scene to look like a suicide.
The second conspiracy surrounding Marilyn's death is that she was murdered by the Mafia, and it was framed as a suicide. The night of her death it was said by Danforth Prince that Johnny Roselli along with two other gunmen visited Marilyn's home, upon orders from Mafia boss Sam Giancana (Staff Us Weekly 1). Danforth also mentions that one of the men used a chloroform-soaked rag on Marilyn rendering her unconscious (1). Then, to pull off an untraceable murder they administered drugs by using an enema according to Wendy Leigh (The Newsroom 1). The man who proceeded with her autopsy, then head of the Los Angeles District Attorney's medical-legal section, believed this enema theory (1). John Miner said, "If you wanted to kill someone, an enema would leave no residue in the stomach. Noguchi and I were convinced this was absolutely the route of admitting the fatal dose" (Cavalli 1). Marilyn's blood only contained 8 milligrams of chloral hydrate and 4.5 milligrams of Nembutal, two barbiturate sleeping pills, at the moment, according to Dr. Thomas Noguchi, Los Angeles Deputy Medical Examiner (1). No sign of the ten out of fifty pills from the bottle of chloral hydrate left beside her bed was discovered in her stomach (1). Even though she had consumed a sufficient amount of chloral hydrate and Nembutal to poison at least fifteen people, there was still no trace. After using the chloral hydrate to kill her, they staged her death to look like a suicide (1).
So, why would the mafia kill Marilyn Monroe? As retaliation, of course, due to her illicit affair with Attorney General Robert Kennedy. She was sought out as a way to discredit him. After Robert Kennedy took on his role as Attorney General, he began targeting organized crime, which led to him soiling the relationship between the Mafia and the Kennedys. A talk about Robert was caught on tape by the FBI between American Union leader Jimmy Hoffa and one of his men where he said "Somebody has to bump that son of a bitch off. You know, he drives about in a convertible and swims by himself. It would be easy to get him with that. But I'm leery of it. It's too obvious” (Cavalli 1). The next plan was to blackmail Robert Kennedy, threatening to go public about his affair with Marilyn Monroe; they had her phones tapped and bedroom wired to collect evidence of the two being together (1). Realization set in after a failed attempt that Robert Kennedy would never confess to any type of affair with Marilyn, so the next best decision was to have her murdered as retaliation (1).
The third conspiracy theory is that the CIA killed Marilyn Monroe because she knew too much and had classified information. According to Bill Barnes, Marilyn told him "that when she and John Kennedy were together he would whisper things to her that were… classified, state secrets" (Irish Central Staff 1). Her relationship with John Kennedy initially put her in danger especially when she was keeping track of everything she was told.
The author of the book Marilyn Monroe: The Lost Diary, The Fabulous Gabriel, revealed that Marilyn had a little red diary where she kept secretive information; "Marilyn Monroe kept a secret diary in which she recorded intimate information about her relationships with several celebrities, including love affairs with President Kennedy (1). Then, later on, she had a romance with Bobby Kennedy, the Attorney General. Everybody wanted to get their hands on the diary because she wrote down some incriminating things in her diary"(1). This wanted secret diary has been missing since the day of her death in 1965, apparently(1). According to detective Milo Speriglio, the last known person to see the diary was Lionel Grandson, deputy coroner, the same person who signed "under duress" on Marilyn's death certificate (1). As per Bill Barnes, Marilyn would weaponize her knowledge of this secretive information against the Kennedys (1). For example, according to Bill "she threatened Bobby Kennedy with going public by saying that the president told her that the CIA was planning to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro" (1). Around the time before her death, Marilyn's phone was said to have been wire taped by the CIA to ensure she wasn't revealing secret information (Us Weekly Staff 1). This was enough for the CIA to arrange for her murder to maintain her silence and for this red diary to disappear (Scheraga). This theory isn’t as popular as the other two but it still leaves some type of wonder about what could've happened in the death of Marilyn Monroe.
CONCLUSION
After sixty years the death of Marilyn Monroe is still a conspiracy theory mystery. Her death sparked the following three theories:
Did then President John F. Kennedy have her murdered?
Did the Mafia murder her out of revenge to hurt Bobby Kennedy?
Did the CIA have something to do with her death?
Even though her death was decided by a barbiturate overdose, after researching and looking into the top 3 theories of her death it seems there was more to the picture. Those who would’ve had something to do with her death are no longer here to deny claims made against them, so the mystery and conspiracies remain unsolved.
Citations
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Bosworth, Patricia. “The Mentor and the Movie Star.” Vanity Fair, CN Entertainment, 1 June 2003, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/06/marilyn-monroe-and-lee-strasberg-200306.
Cavalli, Brandy. “Catch That Theory: Marilyn & The Mob?” The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli, WordPress, 26 Sept. 2018, https://thepenhustler.com/2015/02/16/marilyn-monroe-and-the-mob/.
Cooper, Emma, director. The Mystery Of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes. Netflix, 2022.
Irish Central Staff. “Was Marilyn Monroe Killed over This Jfk Secret?” IrishCentral.com, Irish Studio, 11 Nov. 2022, https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/killing-of-marilyn-monroe-podcast-jfk-secret.
King, Susan. “Marilyn Monroe: People Who Knew Her Recall the Real Person.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2012, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2012-aug-04-la-et-mn-marilyn-monroe-memories-20120804-story.html.
Sambolin, Zoraida. “New Book Says Marilyn Monroe Called the White House to Confess Affair.” FOX 2, FOX 2, 6 Aug. 2013, https://fox2now.com/news/new-book-says-marilyn-monroe-called-the-white-house-to-confess-affair.
Scheraga, Michelle. “How Did Marilyn Monroe Die? All the Rumors and Conspiracy Theories Explained - Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays.” Parade, Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays, 1 Oct. 2022, https://parade.com/1374051/michelle-scheraga/how-did-marilyn-monroe-die/.
Staff, Radar. “Marilyn Monroe's Famous Final Phone Call Involved Serious Threat to President Kennedy.” RadarOnline, RadarOnline, 7 Oct. 2019, https://radaronline.com/exclusives/2019/10/killing-of-marilyn-monroe-podcast-reveals-final-phone-call-involved-threat-to-president-kennedy/.
Staff, Us Weekly. “Marilyn Monroe Killed by Mafia with 'Chloroform,' 'Syringe,' Podcast Claims.” Us Weekly, 23 Oct. 2019, https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/marilyn-monroe
Staff, Us Weekly. “Marilyn Monroe Was Wiretapped by FBI, CIA over JFK Affair.” Us Weekly, 18 Sept. 2019, https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/marilyn-monroe-podcast-reveals-actress-was-wiretapped-by-fbi-cia/.was-killed-by-mafia-men-podcast-claims/.
Summers, Anthony. “Marilyn Monroe's Final Hours: Nuke Fears, Mob Spies, and a Secret Kennedy Visitor.” Vanity Fair, CN Entertainment, 23 Mar. 2022, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/03/marilyn-monroes-final-hours.
The Newsroom. “Why the Mafia Had to Murder Marilyn Monroe.” The Scotsman, National World, 28 July 2002, https://www.scotsman.com/news/world/why-mafia-had-murder-marilyn-monroe-2512999.