Marilyn Monroe, my favorite person of all time. Was she murdered or did she take her own life? My personal belief is she was murdered, but let's look at the details of Marilyn's death.
Marilyn was found dead on August 5th, 1962 at her 12305 Fifth Helena Drive home in Los Angeles of a barbiturate overdose. At the time of her death Marilyn had suffered from mental illness and substance abuse for many years. She spent 1961 preoccupied with her various health ailments. In April of 1962 she had begun filming Something's Got To Give, but was fired in June. The studio publicly blamed her for the production's problems, and in the week's preceding her death, she attempted to repair her public image by giving several interviews to high-profile publications.
Marilyn spent her last day, Saturday, August 4th, at her new home in Brentwood, accompanied by her publicist Patricia Newcomb, housekeeper Eunice Murray, photographer Lawrence Schiller, and psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson. Murray stayed overnight to keep Marilyn company. At approximately 3 a.m. the next day, she noticed that Marilyn had locked herself in her bedroom and was unresponsive. Murray alerted Greenson, who arrived soon after and broke into Marilyn's room, finding her deceased. Her death was officially ruled a probably suicide by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. No evidence of a crime was found, and accidental overdose was ruled out due to the large about of barbiturates she had ingested. Her funeral was held on August 8th at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Now let's move on to conspiracy theories. Many involve President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, as well as Jimmy Hoffa and mob boss Sam Giancana. Frank Capell's self-published pamphlet The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe, claimed her death was part of a communist conspiracy. He claimed that Marilyn 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. I do believe this particular theory. The Kennedy's have always rubbed me the wrong way, something isn't right with them.
In 1973 the murder allegations first became part of mainstream discussion with the publication of Norman Mailer's Marilyn: A Biography in 1973. Despite not having the evidence to prove it, Mailer repeated the claim that Marilyn and Robert Kennedy had an affair, and speculated that she was killed by either a FBI or CIA, who wished to use the murder as a "point of pressure, against the Kennedy's". Two years later Robert Slatzer published the Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe based on Capell's pamphlet. In addition to his assertion that Marilyn was killed by Robert Kennedy, he also claimed to have been married to Marilyn in Mexico for three days in October of 1952 and that they had remained close friends until her death.
Another theory that I have read stated that Marilyn was psychotic and severely addicted to drugs and alcohol in the last months of her life and had affairs with both Kennedy brothers. When Robert Kennedy ended the affair she threatened to reveal the affair, which Kennedy and Peter Lawford attempted to prevent by enabling her addictions. Hysterical Marilyn accidently overdosed and died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. Kennedy wanted to leave Los Angeles before the death became public, Marilyn's body was returned to her house and the overdose was staged as a suicide by Lawford, the Kennedy's, and J Edgar, Hoover. Now that theory sounds extreme, but the point is all the conspiracy theories have the Kennedy brothers involved in some way. I don't doubt in any way that Marilyn had a drug problem. That is still common today with many celebrities. I do believe she may have been somewhat mentally damaged but I still don't believe she committed suicide. What is your theory?
