Marilyn Monroe was beautiful, talented, charming, bubbly, depressed, insecure, trapped, tortured. On August 5th 1962, Marilyn Monroe died at the age 36. Monroe’s death case is one of the biggest mysteries. Did she commit suicide or was she murdered?
Monroe’s life was filled with fortune and fame, but little do people know about her distressed childhood. With a mother in a mental hospital with schizophrenia, Monroe grew up in many foster homes. She was very insecure. An enormous amount of people loved Monroe, and she was idolized by many. She had it all, fortune and fame. Why would she want to kill herself? Fame put Monroe in a cage. She wanted out of not only fame but also her life too. Monroe wrote countless journal entries about how she wanted to die (New York Post, par. 9).Who would want to murder her? Many people were jealous of Monroe. She was also having an affair with President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert Kennedy (Lindsey, par. 9). Marilyn Monroe was murdered and the whole case was covered up with a huge lie.
None of the evidence in Monroe’s death case adds up.
According to Murray, Monroe’s house keeper, she saw light coming from underneath Monroe’s bedroom door around midnight. Murray said she tried to open the door, but it was locked and there was no answer to her calls and repetitive knocking. Murray then frantically called Monroe’s psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, who arrived at the home around 12:30 a.m. Greenson peeked through Monroe’s bedroom window and saw her naked on her bed. Worried, he broke the window and climbed inside where he found Monroe unresponsive. Greenson contacted the doctor and pronounced her dead. Bizarrely, the police weren’t called until 4:25 a.m.; that is more than four hours later. (Baker, page 2-3.) There is a great deal of faults in this large piece of evidence. For example, the carpet in Monroe’s bedroom is piled too high for light to travel underneath. Therefore, Murray could not have seen light coming from her bedroom. If Monroe killed herself, why would she do it naked? The biggest caution sign is the statement “the police were not called until 4:25 a.m.” Why would you wait more than four hours to call the police?
A letter was written to the Los Angeles County Board of supervisors on October 8, 1985. In the letter it stated “On the night of Monroe’s death she was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Santa Monica, where she died in the emergency room. Then, her body was taken home, left there, and then the police were called.” (Lindsey, par. 19) To die in the hospital before being treated then being taken home to later call the police is inhumane. Whoever wrote this letter waited more than twenty years to say something; why would you wait that long?
Clemmons said when he arrived to Monroe’s home he saw Murray unaccountably cleaning the house. (Baker, par. 8) If Murray just minutes before found Monroe dead, why would she be cleaning the house? Murray could be trying to get her mind off of what just happened, or she could be doing a guilty habit. For instance, when you are doing an activity you are not supposed to be doing and, you get caught you have a bad feeling and start doing what you are supposed to be doing.
A vast amount of people believe Marilyn Monroe overdosed. Monroe has overdosed numerous times before; however, Officer Clemmons states, “There was not a glass of water in Monroe’s bedroom and supposedly she swallowed at least 50 pills.” Strangely, there was not any pill residue in her stomach. Wetch said, “With the number of capsules she would have to have ingested there should have been some evidence of it…How else do you account for the high levels of drugs found in her blood?” (Baker, par. 14) Many people believe Monroe was injected. She could not have swallowed 50 pills and not have any residue in her stomach. Why would Monroe want to overdose? Monroe just started filming again; she had millions of adoring fans, and had all the money she could dream of. Also, if there was not a glass of water in her bedroom she could not have swallowed those pills.
Wetch said, “I would have wanted to make sure we were not dealing with a homicide, and that statement is true today.” The coroner took samples from Monroe’s stomach and small intestines and sent them away to a toxicologist to conclude how the drugs got into Monroe’s body. The tests were never completed. The samples mysteriously disappeared. (Baker, par. 15) If Monroe committed suicide, why and how would the samples disappear? Toxicologists do not just misplace samples and evidence. Someone had to have felt guilty enough to sneak in and take the samples.
Although it was a secret, many people knew Monroe was having an affair with President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert “Bobby” Kennedy. Spada states “The Kennedys could not risk this coming out, because it could have brought down the President… the cover-up that was designed to prevent anyone from finding out that Marilyn was involved intimately with the Kennedy family…” During an interview with BBC, conducted by Summers with Murray, he says “Murray put her head in her hands and said ‘Oh, why do I have to keep covering this up?’ I said, ‘Covering what up, Mrs. Murray?’ She said, ‘Well of course Bobby Kennedy was there on August 4th, and of course there was an affair with Bobby Kennedy.’” (Baker, par. 17) Murray said Bobby Kennedy was there the night Monroe died and that they were having an affair. She also said she had to keep covering it up. Murray’s sister-in-law, Rose Murray, said, “She was not the type of woman who believed in lying.” Lying and keeping that big of a secret must have killed Murray inside. J.I Baker says, “A couple of people close to the investigation were later given high-profile new jobs…Publicist Pat Newcomb was awarded a job in the U.S. Information Agency in Washington, D.C.” That is a little odd for a publicist to go from such a small job to an important notorious job. There must be some sort of top secret information that no one is allowed to know.
Marilyn Monroe was killed and the whole cause was covered up to protect someone else. All the pieces do not fit together. There was not any water in her room for her to swallow pills. There was not any pill residue in her stomach. The samples from her stomach and small intestines disappeared. None of the evidence supports a suicide. “Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it was not that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.” – Marilyn Monroe.
Works Cited
Baker J.I, K.C Baker, Elizabeth McNeil. “A Question of Murder.” Web. 13 August 2012. 18 September 2012.
Stack, S. “Media coverage as a risk factor in suicide.” Web. 18 September 2012.
“Tortured Marilyn Monroe’s own account of her inner turmoil revealed for first time.” Web. 1 October 2012. 18 September 2012.
Lindsey, Robert. “REOPENING OF INQUIRY INTO MARILYN MONROE’S DEATH RAISES IMBROLOGLIO IN LOS ANGELES.” Web. 29 October 1985. 18 September 2012.
