Goodbye Norma Jean
On August 5, 1962 (50 years ago today) actress Norma Jean Mortenson, better known as Marilyn Monroe, was found dead in her home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. At 4:25 A.M., LAPD sergeant Jack Clemmons received a call from Dr. Ralph Greenson, Monroe's psychiatrist, reporting that Monroe was found dead at her home. She was 36 years old. An autopsy later found that eight milligram per cent chloral hydrate and 4.5 milligram percent of Nembutal were found in her system. Dr. Thomas Noguchi of the Los Angeles County Coroners office recorded cause of death as "acute barbiturate poisoning", resulting from a "probable suicide". Many theories, including murder, circulated about the circumstances of her death and some conspiracy theories involved President John F. Kennedy and his brother Attorney-General Robert Kennedy. It was reported that President Kennedy was the last person Monroe called.
In April 2006, the CBS program 48 Hours presented a report by Anthony Summers on Monroe's death based on access CBS gained to audio tapes of interviews conducted by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office in 1982. According to Summers' sources, Monroe attended social events at actor Peter Lawford's beach home in Santa Monica, California, in the months before her death that also included President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The 48 Hours report quoted a former Secret Service agent as stating that it was "common knowledge" among his colleagues that there was an affair between Monroe and President John Kennedy. Rumors of a relationship with Robert Kennedy were not confirmed.
According to newly released FBI documents, Monroe was considered to be a security risk. In February and March of 1962, Monroe and Eunice Murray visited Mexico on a vacation, where Monroe socialized with Americans who were openly communist, including Murray's brother-in-law and Frederick Vanderbilt Field. Subsequently the FBI started monitoring Monroe with the type of file that the agency used for possibly subversive people, including performers and artists who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Summers stated in 2006 that, contrary to her public image as a dumb blonde, Monroe was passionate about politics and discussed atomic testing issues with President Kennedy just three months before the Cuban Missile Crisis.
According to the 48 Hours telecast, Lawford told police that he spoke to Monroe on the phone shortly before her death, that she sounded groggy and depressed, and that she said to him, "Say goodbye to Jack," and "Say goodbye to yourself." Phone records of her long distance calls that evening were lost, which was a cause of suspicion. Former Assistant District Attorney Mike Carroll, who conducted the 1982 investigation, said they found "no evidence of an intentional criminal act," and indicated that suicide was the most likely cause of death. He stated, "The bottles were there. She was unconscious. She had a history of overdose. In fact, she had a history of not only overdosing, but of being resuscitated."
In October 2006, under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI released thousands of pages of previously classified documents. In early 2007, writer Philippe Mora discovered a three page report among the papers titled Robert F. Kennedy that discussed Monroe's death. Written by a former FBI agent (name is redacted from the report) working for the then governor of California Pat Brown, it details Robert Kennedy's affair with the movie star and claims that Kennedy had promised Monroe he would divorce his wife and marry her, but after the actress realized he had no intention of doing so, she made threats to make the affair public. The report claims that to silence Monroe, who had a history of staging publicity-seeking fake suicide attempts, she was deliberately encouraged to do so again but was this time allowed to die. The report implicates Robert Kennedy, Peter Lawford, her psychiatrist Ralph Greenson, her housekeeper Eunice Murray, and her secretary and press agent, Pat Newcomb, in the plot. The report is prefaced with a statement noting that author of the report did not know the source and could not evaluate the authenticity of the information.
The FBI report can be found here and the entire 45 minute CBS program can be seen here (a lesser quality one can be seen below):
In April 2006, the CBS program 48 Hours presented a report by Anthony Summers on Monroe's death based on access CBS gained to audio tapes of interviews conducted by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office in 1982. According to Summers' sources, Monroe attended social events at actor Peter Lawford's beach home in Santa Monica, California, in the months before her death that also included President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The 48 Hours report quoted a former Secret Service agent as stating that it was "common knowledge" among his colleagues that there was an affair between Monroe and President John Kennedy. Rumors of a relationship with Robert Kennedy were not confirmed.
According to newly released FBI documents, Monroe was considered to be a security risk. In February and March of 1962, Monroe and Eunice Murray visited Mexico on a vacation, where Monroe socialized with Americans who were openly communist, including Murray's brother-in-law and Frederick Vanderbilt Field. Subsequently the FBI started monitoring Monroe with the type of file that the agency used for possibly subversive people, including performers and artists who had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Summers stated in 2006 that, contrary to her public image as a dumb blonde, Monroe was passionate about politics and discussed atomic testing issues with President Kennedy just three months before the Cuban Missile Crisis.
According to the 48 Hours telecast, Lawford told police that he spoke to Monroe on the phone shortly before her death, that she sounded groggy and depressed, and that she said to him, "Say goodbye to Jack," and "Say goodbye to yourself." Phone records of her long distance calls that evening were lost, which was a cause of suspicion. Former Assistant District Attorney Mike Carroll, who conducted the 1982 investigation, said they found "no evidence of an intentional criminal act," and indicated that suicide was the most likely cause of death. He stated, "The bottles were there. She was unconscious. She had a history of overdose. In fact, she had a history of not only overdosing, but of being resuscitated."
In October 2006, under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI released thousands of pages of previously classified documents. In early 2007, writer Philippe Mora discovered a three page report among the papers titled Robert F. Kennedy that discussed Monroe's death. Written by a former FBI agent (name is redacted from the report) working for the then governor of California Pat Brown, it details Robert Kennedy's affair with the movie star and claims that Kennedy had promised Monroe he would divorce his wife and marry her, but after the actress realized he had no intention of doing so, she made threats to make the affair public. The report claims that to silence Monroe, who had a history of staging publicity-seeking fake suicide attempts, she was deliberately encouraged to do so again but was this time allowed to die. The report implicates Robert Kennedy, Peter Lawford, her psychiatrist Ralph Greenson, her housekeeper Eunice Murray, and her secretary and press agent, Pat Newcomb, in the plot. The report is prefaced with a statement noting that author of the report did not know the source and could not evaluate the authenticity of the information.
The FBI report can be found here and the entire 45 minute CBS program can be seen here (a lesser quality one can be seen below):