Death of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe died at age 36 of a barbiturate overdose late in the evening of Saturday, August 4, 1962, at her 12305 Fifth Helena Drive home in Los Angeles, California. Her body was discovered before dawn on Sunday, August 5. She was one of the most popular Hollywood stars during the 1950s and early 1960s, was considered a major sex symbol at the time, and was a top-billed actress for a decade. Monroe's films had grossed $200 million by the time of her death.

Monroe had suffered from mental illness and substance abuse for several years prior to her death, and she had not completed a film since '' The Misfits'', released on February 1, 1961; the movie was a box-office disappointment. Monroe had spent 1961 preoccupied with her various health problems, and in April 1962 had begun filming ''Something's Got to Give'' for 20th Century Fox, but the studio fired her in early June. The studio publicly blamed her for the production's problems, and in the weeks preceding her death she had attempted to repair her public image by giving several interviews to high-profile publications. Monroe also began negotiations with Fox on being re-hired for ''Something's Got to Give'' and for starring roles in other productions.

Monroe spent the last day of her life, August 4, at her home in Brentwood. She was accompanied at various times by publicist Patricia Newcomb, housekeeper Eunice Murray, photographer Lawrence Schiller and psychiatrist Ralph Greenson. At Greenson's request, Murray stayed overnight to keep Monroe company. At approximately 3 a.m. on Sunday, August 5, she noticed that Monroe had locked herself in her bedroom and appeared unresponsive when she looked into the bedroom through a window. Murray alerted Greenson, who arrived soon after, entered the room by breaking a window, and found Monroe dead. Her death was officially ruled a probable suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner's office, based on precedents of her overdosing and being prone to mood swings and suicidal ideation. No evidence of foul play was found, and accidental overdose was ruled out because of the large amount of barbiturates she had ingested. Her funeral on August 8, arranged by her former husband Joe DiMaggio, took place at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, then she was interred in a crypt at the Corridor of Memories.

Despite the coroner's findings, several conspiracy theories suggesting murder or accidental overdose have been proposed since the mid-1960s. Many of these involve U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, as well as union leader Jimmy Hoffa and mob boss Sam Giancana. Because of the prevalence of these theories in the media, the office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney reviewed the case in 1982 but found no evidence to support them and did not disagree with the findings of the original investigation.

Background

For several years heading into the early 1960s, Marilyn Monroe had been dependent on amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol, and she experienced various mental health problems that included depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and chronic insomnia. She had acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with, and she frequently delayed productions by being late to film sets in addition to having trouble remembering her lines.

By 1960, this behavior was adversely affecting Monroe's career. For example, although she was the preferred choice of author Truman Capote to play Holly Golightly in the film adaptation of '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'', Paramount Pictures declined to cast her due to fear that she would complicate the film's production. The two films Monroe completed in the 1960s, ''Let's Make Love'' (1960) and '' The Misfits'' (1961), were both critical and commercial failures. During the filming of the latter she had had to spend a week detoxing in a hospital. Her third marriage, to author Arthur Miller, also ended in divorce in January 1961.

Instead of working, Monroe spent a large part of 1961 preoccupied with health problems and did not work on any new film projects. She underwent surgery for her endometriosis and a cholecystectomy, and spent four weeks in hospital care—including a brief stint in a mental ward—for depression. Later in 1961, she moved back to Los Angeles after six years in Manhattan; she purchased a Spanish hacienda-style house at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood. In early 1962, she received a "World Film Favorite" Golden Globe award and began to shoot a new film, ''Something's Got to Give'', a remake of ''My Favorite Wife'' (1940).

Days before filming began, Monroe caught sinusitis; the studio, 20th Century Fox, was advised to postpone the production, but the advice was not heeded and filming began on schedule in late April. Monroe was too ill to work for the majority of the next six weeks, but despite confirmations by multiple doctors, Fox tried to pressure her by publicly alleging that she was faking her symptoms. On May 19, Monroe took a break from filming to sing " Happy Birthday" on stage at U.S. President John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York ten days before his actual birthday.

After Monroe returned to Los Angeles, she resumed filming and celebrated her 36th birthday on the set on June 1. She was again absent for several days, which led Fox to fire her on June 7 and sue her for breach of contract, demanding $750,000 in damages. She was replaced by Lee Remick, but after co-star Dean Martin refused to make the film with anyone other than Monroe, Fox sued him as well and shut down the production.

Fox publicly blamed Monroe's drug addiction and alleged lack of professionalism for the demise of the film, even claiming that she was mentally disturbed. To counter the negative publicity, Monroe gave interviews to several high-profile publications, such as ''Life'', ''Cosmopolitan'' and ''Vogue'', during the last weeks of her life. After successfully renegotiating her contract with Fox, filming with Monroe was scheduled to resume in September on ''Something's Got to Give'', and she made plans for starring in ''What a Way to Go!'' (1964) as well as a biopic about Jean Harlow.

Timeline

Monroe spent the last day of her life, Saturday, August 4, 1962, at her Brentwood home. In the morning, she met photographer Lawrence Schiller to discuss the possibility of ''Playboy'' publishing nude photos taken of her on the set of ''Something's Got to Give''. She also received a massage from her personal massage therapist, talked with friends on the phone, and signed for deliveries. Also present at the house that morning were her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, and her publicist Patricia Newcomb, who had stayed overnight. According to Newcomb, they had an argument because Monroe had not slept well the night before.

At 4:30 p.m. PDT, Monroe's psychiatrist Ralph Greenson arrived at the house to conduct a therapy session and asked Newcomb to leave. Before Greenson left at around 7 p.m., he asked Murray to stay overnight and keep Monroe company. At approximately 7–7:15, Monroe received a call from Joe DiMaggio Jr., with whom she had stayed close since her divorce from his father, the elder Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio told Monroe that he had broken up with a girlfriend she did not like, and he detected nothing alarming in Monroe's behavior. At around 7:40–7:45, Monroe telephoned Greenson to tell him the news about the breakup of DiMaggio and his girlfriend.

Monroe retired to her bedroom at approximately 8 p.m. She received a call from actor Peter Lawford, who was hoping to persuade her to attend his party that night. Lawford became alarmed because Monroe sounded like she was under the influence of drugs. She told him, "Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to the president (Lawford's brother-in-law), and say goodbye to yourself, because you're a nice guy", before drifting off. Unable to reach Monroe, Lawford called his agent Milton Ebbins, who unsuccessfully tried to reach Greenson and later called Monroe's lawyer, Milton A. "Mickey" Rudin. Rudin called Monroe's house and was assured by Murray that she was fine.

At approximately 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 5, Murray woke up "sensing that something was wrong" and saw light from under Monroe's bedroom door, but she was not able to get a response and found the door locked. Murray telephoned Greenson, on whose advice she looked in through a window, and saw Monroe lying facedown on her bed, covered by a sheet and clutching a telephone receiver. Greenson arrived shortly thereafter. He entered the room by breaking a window and found Monroe dead. He called her physician, Hyman Engelberg, who arrived at the house at around 3:50 a.m. and officially confirmed the death. At 4:25 a.m., they notified the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

Inquest and 1982 review

Deputy coroner Thomas Noguchi conducted Monroe's autopsy on the same day that she was found dead, Sunday, August 5. The Los Angeles County coroner's office was assisted in the inquest by psychiatrists Norman Farberow, Robert Litman, and Norman Tabachnik from the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, who interviewed Monroe's doctors and psychiatrists on her mental state. Based on the advanced state of ''rigor mortis'' at the time her body was discovered, it was estimated that she had died between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. on August 4.

The toxicological analysis concluded that the cause of death was acute barbiturate poisoning; she had 8 mg% (mg/dl) of chloral hydrate and 4.5 mg% of pentobarbital (Nembutal) in her blood and a further 13 mg% of pentobarbital in her liver. The police found empty bottles of these medicines next to her bed. There were no signs of external wounds or bruises on the body.

The findings of the inquest were published on August 17; Chief Coroner Theodore Curphey classified Monroe's death a "probable suicide." The possibility of an accidental overdose was ruled out because the dosages found in her body were several times over the lethal limit and had been taken "in one gulp or in a few gulps over a minute or so." At the time of her death, Monroe was reported to have been in a "depressed mood", and had been "unkempt" and uninterested in maintaining her appearance. No suicide note was found, but Litman stated that this was not unusual, because statistics show that less than forty percent of suicide victims leave notes. In their final report, Farberow, Litman, and Tabachnik stated:

Miss Monroe had suffered from psychiatric disturbance for a long time. She experienced severe fears and frequent depressions. Mood changes were abrupt and unpredictable. Among symptoms of disorganization, sleep disturbance was prominent, for which she had been taking sedative drugs for many years. She was thus familiar with and experienced in the use of sedative drugs and well aware of their dangers ... In our investigation we have learned that Miss Monroe had often expressed wishes to give up, to withdraw, and even to die. On more than one occasion in the past, she had made a suicide attempt, using sedative drugs. On these occasions, she had called for help and had been rescued. It is our opinion that the same pattern was repeated on the evening of Aug. 4 except for the rescue. It has been our practice with similar information collected in other cases in the past to recommend a certification for such deaths as probable suicide. Additional clues for suicide provided by the physical evidence are the high level of barbiturates and chloral hydrate in the blood which, with other evidence from the autopsy, indicates the probable ingestion of a large amount of drugs within a short period of time: the completely empty bottle of Nembutal, the prescription for which (25 capsules) was filled the day before the ingestion, and the locked door to the bedroom, which was unusual.

In the 1970s, claims surfaced that Monroe's death was a murder and not suicide. Due to these claims, Los Angeles County District Attorney John Van de Kamp assigned his colleague Ronald H. "Mike" Carroll to conduct a 1982 "threshold investigation" to see whether a criminal investigation should be opened. Carroll worked with Alan B. Tomich, an investigator for the district attorney's office, for over three months on an inquiry that resulted in a thirty-page report. They did not find any credible evidence to support the theory that Monroe was murdered.

In 1983, Noguchi published his memoirs, in which he discussed Monroe's case and the allegations of discrepancies in the autopsy and the coroner's ruling of suicide. These included the claims that Monroe could not have ingested the pills because her stomach was empty; that Nembutal capsules should have left yellow residue; that she may have been administered an enema; and that the autopsy noted no needle marks despite the fact that she routinely received injections from her doctors. Noguchi explained that hemorrhaging of the stomach lining indicated that the medication had been administered orally, and that because Monroe had been an addict for several years the pills would have been absorbed more rapidly than in the case of non-addicts. Noguchi also denied that Nembutal leaves dye residue, and he noted that only very recent needle marks are visible on a body, and that the only bruise he noted on Monroe's body, on her lower back, was superficial and its placement indicated that it was accidental and not linked to foul play. Noguchi finally concluded that based on his observations, the most probable conclusion is that Monroe committed suicide.

Public reactions and funeral

Monroe's unexpected death was front-page news in the United States and Europe. According to biographer Lois Banner, "it's said that the suicide rate in Los Angeles doubled the month after she died; the circulation rate of most newspapers expanded that month." The ''Chicago Tribune'' reported that they had received hundreds of phone calls from members of the public requesting information about her death. French artist Jean Cocteau commented that her death "should serve as a terrible lesson to all those, whose chief occupation consists of spying on and tormenting film stars", her former co-star Laurence Olivier deemed her "the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensation", and ''Bus Stop'' director Joshua Logan stated that she was "one of the most unappreciated people in the world".

Monroe's funeral was held on August 8 at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, where her foster parents Ana Lower and Grace McKee Goddard had also been buried. The service was arranged by her former husband Joe DiMaggio, her half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle and her business manager Inez Melson, who decided to invite only around thirty of her closest family members and friends, excluding most of Hollywood. Police were present to keep the press away and to control the several hundred spectators who crowded the streets around the cemetery.

The funeral service, presided over by a local minister, was conducted at the cemetery's chapel. Monroe was laid out in a green Emilio Pucci dress and held a bouquet of small pink roses. Her longtime make-up artist and friend, Whitey Snyder, had done her make-up. The eulogy was delivered by Lee Strasberg, and a selection from Tchaikovsky's '' Sixth Symphony'' as well as a record of Judy Garland singing " Over the Rainbow" were played. Monroe was interred at crypt No. 24 at the Corridor of Memories. DiMaggio arranged for red roses to be placed in a vase attached to the crypt three times a week for the next twenty years.

In 1992, Hugh Hefner paid $75,000 to be interred at Westwood Memorial Park, in the crypt beside Monroe's. In 2009, he said to the ''Los Angeles Times'': "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to pass up."

Administration of estate

In her will, Monroe left several thousand dollars to her half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle and her secretary May Reis, a share for the education of her friend Norman Rosten's daughter, and established a $100,000 trust fund to cover the costs of the care of her mother, Gladys Pearl Baker, and the widow of her acting teacher Michael Chekhov. From the remaining estate she granted twenty-five percent to her former psychiatrist Marianne Kris "for the furtherance of the work of such psychiatric institutions or groups as she shall elect", and seventy-five percent, including her personal effects, film royalties and real estate, to Lee Strasberg, whom she instructed to distribute her effects "among my friends, colleagues and those to whom I am devoted". Due to legal complications, the beneficiaries were not paid until 1971.

When Strasberg died in 1982, his estate was willed to his widow Anna, who claimed Monroe's publicity rights and began to license her image to companies. In 1990, she unsuccessfully sued the Anna Freud Centre, to which Kris had bequeathed her Monroe rights, in an attempt to gain full rights to Monroe's estate. In 1996, Anna Strasberg hired CMG Worldwide, a celebrity-legacy licensing group, to manage the licensing rights.

Anna Strasberg went on to prevent Odyssey Group, Inc. from auctioning effects that Monroe's business manager Inez Melson, who had also been named Monroe's special administrator of estate, handed down to her nephew, Millington Conroy. Between 1996 and 2001, CMG entered into 700 licensing agreements with merchandisers. Against Monroe's wishes, Lee Strasberg had never distributed her effects amongst her friends, and in 1999 Anna commissioned Christie's to auction them, netting $13.4 million. In 2000, she founded Marilyn Monroe LLC.

Marilyn Monroe LLC's claim to exclusive ownership of Monroe's publicity rights became subject to a "landmark egalcase" in 2006, when the heirs of three freelance photographers who had photographed her—Sam Shaw, Milton Greene, and Tom Kelley—successfully challenged the company in courts in California and New York State. In May 2007, the courts determined that Monroe could not have passed her publicity rights to her estate, as the first law granting such right, the California Celebrities Rights Act, was not passed until 1985.

Monroe's estate terminated their business relationship with CMG Worldwide in 2010, and sold the licensing rights to Authentic Brands Group the following year. Also in 2010, the estate sold Monroe's Brentwood home for $3.8 million, and published a selection of her private notes, diaries and correspondence as a book called ''Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters''.

Conspiracy theories

1960s: Frank A. Capell, Jack Clemmons

During the 1960s, there were no widespread conspiracy theories about Monroe's death. The first allegations that she had been murdered originated in anti-communist activist Frank A. Capell's self-published pamphlet ''The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe'' (1964), in which he claimed that her death was part of a communist conspiracy. Capell claimed that Monroe and U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had an affair, which she took too seriously and was threatening to cause a scandal; Kennedy therefore ordered her to be assassinated to protect his career. In addition to accusing Kennedy of being a communist sympathizer, Capell also claimed that many other people close to Monroe, such as her doctors and ex-husband Arthur Miller, were communists.

Capell's credibility has been seriously questioned because his only source was columnist Walter Winchell, who in turn had received much of his information from him; Capell, therefore, was citing himself. Capell's friend, LAPD Sergeant Jack Clemmons, aided him in developing his pamphlet; Clemmons, who was the first police officer on the scene of Monroe's death, became a central source for conspiracy theorists. He later made claims that he had not mentioned in the official 1962 investigation: he alleged that when he arrived at Monroe's house, Eunice Murray was washing her sheets in the laundry, and he had "a sixth sense" that something was wrong.

Capell and Clemmons' allegations have been linked to their political goals. Capell dedicated his life to revealing an "International Communist Conspiracy" and Clemmons was a member of The Police and Fire Research Organization (FiPo), which sought to expose "subversive activities which threaten our American way of life". FiPo and similar organizations were known for their stance against the Kennedys and for sending the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) letters incriminating them; a 1964 FBI file that speculated on an affair between Monroe and Robert F. Kennedy is likely to have come from them. Furthermore, Capell, Clemmons, and a third person were indicted in 1965 by a California grand jury for "conspiracy to libel by obtaining and distributing a false affidavit" claiming that Senator Thomas Kuchel had once been arrested for a homosexual act. They had done this because Kuchel had supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Capell pleaded guilty, and charges against Clemmons were dropped after he resigned from the LAPD.

In the 1960s, Monroe's death was also discussed in Charles Hamblett's ''Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?'' (1966) and in James A. Hudson's ''The Mysterious Death of Marilyn Monroe'' (1968). Neither Capell's, Hamblett's, or Hudson's accounts were widely disseminated.

1970s: Norman Mailer, Robert Slatzer, Anthony Scaduto

The allegations of murder first became part of mainstream discussion with the publication of Norman Mailer's '' Marilyn: A Biography'' in 1973. Despite not having any evidence, Mailer repeated the claim that Monroe and Robert F. Kennedy had an affair and speculated that she was killed by either the FBI or the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who wished to use the murder as a "point of pressure ... against the Kennedys". The book was heavily criticized in reviews, and later that year Mailer recanted his allegations in an interview with Mike Wallace for ''60 Minutes'', stating that he had made them to ensure commercial success for his book, and that he believes Monroe's death was "ten to one" an "accidental suicide".

Two years later, Robert F. Slatzer published ''The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe'' (1975), based on Capell's pamphlet. In addition to his assertion that Monroe was killed by Robert F. Kennedy, Slatzer also controversially claimed to have been married to Monroe in Mexico for three days in October 1952, and that they had remained close friends until her death. Although his account was not widely circulated at the time, it has remained central to conspiracy theories.

In October 1975, rock journalist Anthony Scaduto published an article about Monroe's death in soft porn magazine ''Oui'', and the following year expanded his account into book form as ''Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?'' (1976), published under the pen name Tony Sciacca. His only sources were Slatzer and his private investigator, Milo Speriglio. In addition to repeating Slatzer's claims, Scaduto alleged that Monroe had kept a red diary in which she had written confidential political information she had heard from the Kennedys, and that her house had been wiretapped by surveillance expert Bernard Spindel on the orders of union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who was hoping to obtain incriminating evidence he could use against the Kennedys.

1980s: Milo Speriglio, Anthony Summers

In 1982, Speriglio published ''Marilyn Monroe: Murder Cover-Up'', in which he claimed that Monroe had been murdered by Hoffa and mob boss Sam Giancana. Basing his account on Slatzer and Scaduto's books, Speriglio added statements made by Lionel Grandison, who worked at the Los Angeles County coroner's office at the time of Monroe's death. Grandison claimed that Monroe's body had been extensively bruised but this had been omitted from the autopsy report, and that he had seen the "red diary", but it had mysteriously disappeared.

Speriglio and Slatzer demanded that the investigation into Monroe's death be re-opened by authorities, and the Los Angeles District Attorney agreed to review the case. The new investigation could not find any evidence to support the murder claims. Grandison was found not to be a reliable witness as he had been fired from the coroner's office for stealing from corpses. The allegations that Monroe's home was wiretapped by Spindel were also found to be false. Spindel's apartment had been raided by the Manhattan District Attorney's office in 1966, during which his tapes were seized. He later made a claim that he had wiretapped Monroe's house, but it was not supported by the contents of the tapes, to which the investigators had listened.

The most prominent Monroe conspiracy theorist in the 1980s was British journalist Anthony Summers, who claimed that Monroe's death was an accidental overdose enabled and covered up by Robert F. Kennedy. His book, ''Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe'' (1985), became one of the most commercially successful Monroe biographies. Prior to writing on Monroe, he had authored a book on a conspiracy theory of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His investigation on Monroe began as an assignment for the British tabloid the '' Sunday Express'' to cover the Los Angeles District Attorney's 1982 review.

According to Summers, Monroe had severe substance abuse problems and was psychotic in the last months of her life. He alleges that Monroe had affairs with both John and Robert Kennedy, and that when Robert ended their affair she threatened to reveal their association. Kennedy and Peter Lawford attempted to prevent this by enabling her addictions. According to Summers, Monroe became hysterical and accidentally overdosed, dying in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Kennedy wanted to leave Los Angeles before Monroe's death became public to avoid being associated with it, and therefore her body was returned to Helena Drive and the overdose staged as a suicide by Lawford, the Kennedys and J. Edgar Hoover.

Summers based his account on interviews he had conducted with 650 people connected to Monroe, but his research has been criticized by biographers Donald Spoto and Sarah Churchwell. According to Spoto, Summers contradicts himself, presents false information as fact, and misrepresents what some of Monroe's friends said about her. Churchwell, meanwhile, has stated that while Summers accumulated a large collection of anecdotal material, most of his allegations are speculation; many of the people he interviewed could provide only second- or third-hand accounts, and they "relate what they believe, not what they demonstrably know". Summers was also the first major biographer to find Slatzer a credible witness, and relies heavily on testimonies by other controversial witnesses, including Jack Clemmons and Jeanne Carmen, a model-actress whose claim to have been Monroe's close friend has been disputed by Spoto and Lois Banner.

Summers' allegations formed the basis for the BBC
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