Marilyn Monroe Conspiracy Theory by Thelma Martinez

In the summer of 1962, we lost a Hollywood icon (Herte and Donn). Marylyn Monroe was found dead in her home surrounded by pills and holding a phone. All the signs lead to suicide. What shadows haunted her that August night? Was she a victim of her own mental illness or is there more than meets the eye? In the last four decades since her death, various conspiracies have surrounded her death 

1. Was she killed by the Kennedys for knowing too much? 

2. Was it a cover up to malpractice? 

3. Did she commit suicide? 

Let’s explore the conspiracies surrounding her death with the possible result that she was a victim of malpractice. 

Character Analysis  

Marilyn suffered from various mental issues like depression and anxiety. Her childhood was a far fetch from a fairytale. According to the authors of Biography.com, “During her all-too-brief life, Marilyn Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to become one of the world's biggest and most enduring sex symbols” ("Marilyn Monroe ").  The California girl grew up in the foster care due to her mother’s psychiatric issues, "As a child, … was a lonely girl neglected by her mentally ill mother, who suffered from severe paranoid schizophrenia and spent most of her life institutionalized”. Her mother stayed in a metal asylum even after Monroe’s death in 1962.  

 Marilyn seems to be safer away from her mother. One of her earlier memories of her mother was being smothered by a pillow in her crib. As noted by her psychiatrist, “Marilyn was virtually abandoned, raised by various foster families and by Grace Goddard, a close friend of her mother’s. There were nearly two years when Marilyn was parked in an orphanage” (Kashner).  She also endured sexual abuse and rape.  Marilyn writes of her early sexual abuse: “I will not be punished for it or be whipped or be threatened or not be loved or sent to hell to burn.” (1).  Marylyn Monroe’s childhood was cut short as she was forced to grow up and mature quickly.  

Marilyn Monroe’s troubled psyche and tragic childhood, including her childhood experience with sexual abuse led to a life-long struggle with sexual addiction (1).  Dutchevici reports, “studies show a high correlation between childhood abuse and sex addiction in adulthood” (Dutchevici). She was rumored to have linked up with various people for example President John F. Kennedy. She married young and was always known to be in a relationship. In an interview, she admitted, “I sometimes felt I was hooked on sex. I could not stop having sex with almost every man I met” (1). At one point in her life, she was rumored to be dating the President and his brother Robert Kennedy at the same time. Most sex addicts cannot differ love from sex (2). Dutchevici believed, “having been sexually abused by men as a child, Monroe would likely have equated sex with attention, and attention with love” (3).  

Besides suffering from mental health issues, Monroe suffered from substance abuse. Life took a toll on her body, and drugs helped Marilyn Monroe cope. Dr. Howard Markel writes, “she often cracked open a Nembutal capsule (so that it would absorb faster into her bloodstream), added a chloral hydrate tablet (an old fashioned sedative better known in detective stories as a “Mickey Finn,” or “knockout drops,”), and washed them both down with a tumbler of Champagne” (Markel). The day of her death she was found surrounded by prescriptions pills. The column, “Marilyn Monroe and the prescription drugs that killed her”, gives a detail of what was found in her bedroom the day of her death (1). On Marilyn’s bedside table was a virtual pharmacopoeia of sedatives, soporifics, tranquilizers, opiates, “speed pills,” and sleeping pills. The vial containing the latter, a barbiturate known as Nembutal, was empty (1). Marilyn was known to take this lethal concoction. The night of her death, “an empty bottle found among several medicines beside her bed had contained 50 Nembutal capsules” (1).  Dr. Hertel explains, “The prescription was issued only two or three days ago and the capsules were to be taken in doses of one a night” (Hertel).   

Marilyn Monroe was really known for her beauty. According to Biography, actress Marilyn Monroe overcame a difficult childhood to become one of the world's biggest and most enduring sex symbols ("Marilyn Monroe "). She used her beauty to her advantage. Rafael Guzman writes,” She tended to walk so that her bust entered the frame just a beat before the rest of her, drawing attention away from anything and anyone else in the frame” (Guzman). Decades after her death, her beauty still influences Hollywood. Guzman comments, “In the 1960s she was Andy Warhol's silk-screened muse; in the '80s she inspired Madonna's career-defining "Material Girl" video” (1). Emily  acknowledges, “the fascination is obvious - it's the way she looks, the way she smiles, the expression of those eyes, the wry, funny, self-aware things she says, the hourglass figure and perfect blonde curls….” (Hourican). According to Whitey, Monroe’s makeup artist, her make up routine took up to three hours to perfect (2). 

 Despite her upbringing, Marilyn Monroe was a very intelligent female. She was the contrary of her film life. According to Milton Greene, “Monroe was a lot cleverer than she got credit for. She knew everybody loved her as a dumb blonde, and the minute she got off the set she wasn’t that way,” she says, “She was playing a character “(Stewart). She loved to read and write. Her favorite subject to write about was self-improvement. In one of her journal entries, she wrote, “Must make sure to do the following: take care of my instrument, personally and bodily. Try to find someone to take dancing from. Body work. Creative. If possible, take at least one class at university in literature” (1).  

Conspiracy Theories 

In the summer of 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead from an apparent suicide in her Los Angeles home. Now, 55 years later, various conspiracies still surrounded her death. Was she

killed by the Kennedys, or was her death a malpractice cover- up?  Let’s explore the conspiracies surrounding her death with the possible result that she was a victim of a malpractice cover up. 

Marylyn Monroe was rumored to have dated President John F. Kennedy and his younger brother Bobby Kennedy. Although the affair with the president was never proven, new evidenced surfaced that they did become an “item” (Baker). A letter was found recently that appears to confirm the long-held rumor that Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe had an affair (The Telegraph). Ethel Kennedy felt disgusted at the fact that the flirting between them was very obvious. It was stated, “She literally pinned him against the wall, and she had him trapped” (1). 

The night of her presumed death Marilyn spoke to Peter Lawford, President John F. Kennedy's brother-in-law (Baker). He emphasized, “she sounded depressed and was slurring her words” (1). The conversation between them is unknown, but it is speculated that it was about her relationship ending. In an interview, Eunice Murray, confessed that Bobby Kennedy had been present at Monroe’s home. She said, 'Well of course Bobby Kennedy was there, and of course there was an affair with Bobby Kennedy” (2). Information like this would have destroyed the Kennedys, and their attempts cover up the affairs were unsuccessful. Both Kennedy brothers had relationships with Marilyn and may have gone too far in their pillow talk, revealing political secrets to her (3). When she was rejected first by Jack, then Bobby, she threatened to go public and reveal not only the affairs but the secrets she knew (4). Marilyn has always been linked to the Kennedys,but there is not enough evidence to show that they had a significant reason to have her murdered.  

The second conspiracy was the overdose was accidental and a covered up was disguise the gross negligence of her doctors. Ralph Greenson had prescribed the actress a sedative enema of chloral hydrate to help her sleep and to try and wean her off the barbiturate Nembutal (Hertel and Donn). Greenson was unaware that her internist Dr Hyman Engelberg was continuing to prescribe her Nembutal and the lethal interaction of the drugs caused Monroe’s death (1). It’s a known fact that Marilyn Monroe depended a various prescription pills to combat her mental health issues. She died surrounded by empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression (A&E). On the night of her death, the first person called was Monroe's psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, who came over right after midnight (Baker). He entered the bedroom after breaking a window to find Monroe’s lifeless body (1). Instead of calling the 911, they opted to summoned the doctor who had prescribed her sleeping pills, and she was pronounced dead (2). They spent almost four unexplained hours alone with the body. 

Marilyn’s death was ruled a suicide,yet no water glass was found in her room. She would have needed enough of water to swallow the large amount of pills necessary to overdose (Baker). There was no vomit when she was found and no smell of drugs, as would have been usual with an overdose. During her autopsy, no pill residue was found in her stomach. According to the corner, "With the number of capsules she would have to have ingested, there should have been some evidence of it" (1).  There was evidence found that she had received an enema of broken down pills of Nembutal and chloral hydrates (both sleeping pills) was administered to Marilyn in her bedroom room.  The autopsy report does mention bruising to her anus usually common with enemas (2). 

  Not all tests were performed on her body. The coroner reportedly took samples from her stomach and small intestines and asked the toxicologist to perform tests on them that would have determined exactly how the drugs entered the star's system, but the tests were never done (2). After a brief investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was “caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide”    (A & E). However, Murray, Lawford or any of the Kennedys were never interviewed.  

Conclusion 

Fifty-five years later, Marylyn Monroe’s death is still a mystery. Out of many conspiracies only a couple stand out: 

1. Was she killed by the Kennedys for knowing too much? 

2. Was it a cover up to malpractice? 

3. Did she commit suicide? 

After a brief investigation, it was concluded that Marilyn committed suicide. However, no pill residue was found in her stomach during her autopsy. If Marilyn died in result to an overdose, she did not administer the deadly dose herself.