Monday, December 3, 2018

Marilyn Monroe Conspiracy Theories by Madison Neidhart



            In life, Marilyn Monroe was an alluring enigma that enchanted the world, it should come as no surprise that the circumstances of her death were equally mystic.  On August 5, 1962, Hollywood star and major sex symbol Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Brentwood home. The official story of her death was an untimely suicide by barbiturate overdose, not an unlikely story given her history of mental illness and declining mental state leading up to her death (“Marilyn Monroe is Found Dead”).  But given how tumultuous her life was, many refuse to believe it was that simple, giving way to many conspiracy theories concerning the real cause of her death. Was it all a cover-up by her doctors? Was it the mafia? Or, most famously, did the Kennedys, American royalty, kill her as a way to silence the star? Let’s examine these various theories and try to answer the question: What killed Marilyn Monroe?
            Marilyn Monroe, who is still a household name today, is one of the most enduring symbols of “Old Hollywood”.  She has been immortalized in the form of the blonde bombshell in a white dress blown up over a subway grate.  Everyone knows Marilyn Monroe: the glitzy, sultry superstar with the quick wit who was able to seduce a Kennedy.  But, how many people know Norma Jeane Mortenson: the lonely, volatile, woman who laid beneath the surface and suffered from mental illness?
            Marilyn’s childhood was a significant factor in the development of her mental state later in life.  Her mother, Gladys, had mental health issues and as a result could not raise Marilyn, who bounced between family friends and foster parents for the majority of her childhood.  Gladys spent many years in mental health institutions being treated for paranoid schizophrenia, which supports the claim made by many that Monroe suffered from mental health issues herself given the high heritability of many mental illnesses (Genova).  However, it is not believed that it was schizophrenia that Monroe suffered from.  According to Claudia Kalb, science journalist and author of Andy Warhol was a Hoarder,  “What is clear is that Monroe suffered from severe mental distress. Her symptoms included a feeling of emptiness, a split or confused identity, extreme emotional volatility, unstable relationships, and an impulsivity that drove her to drug addiction and suicide -- all textbook characteristics of a condition called borderline personality disorder” (Genova).  
            It was not only the genetic aspect of her upbringing that affected her, though.  With her mother unable to care for her and her father unknown, Marilyn was bounced from foster home to foster home in a never ending cycle. She often stayed with a family friend, until she was married off at sixteen to a Mr. James Dougherty who was five years her senior (Kashner).  The union was less about love than about giving Marilyn stability, as according to her, "Grace McKee arranged the marriage for me, I never had a choice. There's not much to say about it. They couldn't support me, and they had to work out something. And so I got married" (About Marilyn Monroe).  She was insecure and lonely in the relationship from the beginning.  She did not believe he had any true feelings for her and at one point expressed her unease and vulnerabilities about the marriage, writing,
“Finding myself ofhandedly stood up snubbed my first feeling was not of anger—but the numb pain of rejection & hurt at the destruction of some sort of edealistic image of true love.  My first impulse then was one of complete subjection humiliation, alonement to the male counterpart. (all this thought & writing has made my hands tremble …  (Genova)
Unsurprisingly, that marriage did not last, and the couple divorced four years later as Monroe’s career began to take off (Huntington).  Between being carted around to different homes to her first failed marriage at a young age, it is not hard to imagine the origin of her insecurities and fears of inadequacy that would haunt her throughout her life.
            Marilyn Monroe had a few unfortunate marriages in her short life, beginning with the one just mentioned.  In 1952 she met fellow actor Joe DiMaggio, and they soon began a romance together (About Marilyn Monroe). Marilyn described him as reserved and decent, someone who treated her very special. But their marriage fell apart when Marilyn couldn’t stay confined to the housewife lifestyle that Joe wanted for her.  He was a jealous man, and did not like the male attention she got from the movies she starred in. It was rumoured that he abused her when he got angry about the attention she recieved (About Marilyn Monroe).  Though Marilyn wanted to fulfill both their dreams of her as the perfect housewife, it just was not the lifestyle for her. She said as much when their divorce was announced, “When I married him (Joe), I wasn't sure of why I married him, I have too many fantasies to be a housewife" (About Marilyn Monroe). She soon began an affair with Arthur Miller, who she later married in 1956.  Marilyn desperately wanted to be a good wife to him and not disappoint him, she even converted to Judaism before marrying him. She wrote often about her fears that she would not be enough for him once the honeymoon period of their relationship ended, writing poetry in which she wondered, “but will he look like this when he is dead oh unbearable fact inevitable yet sooner would I rather his love die than/or him?” (Kashner). She later stumbled upon a diary of his that confirmed her greatest fears, that she would disappoint those she loved.  Arthur wrote that he was “disappointed in her” and even wrote that she often embarrassed him in front of his friends. This reveal devastated Marilyn, and she felt deeply betrayed, writing of their relationship “Starting tomorrow I will take care of myself for that’s all I really have and as I see it now have ever had. Roxbury—I’ve tried to imagine spring all winter—it’s here and I still feel hopeless. I think I hate it here because there is no love here anymore…” (Kashner).  This revelation most likely exacerbated her already very prevalent fears of inadequacy and her hopelessness for a happy ending. Once again, she longed to be the maternal housewife that both she and her spouse wanted, but it just wasn’t who she was. She was so troubled that she began taking barbiturates at the suggestion of her doctor to help her sleep (Kashner).
Though there is no doubt Marilyn Monroe was still the smart beauty she is known as today as proven by her love of poetry and reading and her quick wit (Huntington) , it is very evident that there is more beneath the surface. She was a Hollywood icon, but she was still human, which is very evident from her struggles with insecurities, mental illness, and abuse.  Do these qualities point to the simple suicide story that the public believes, or is there still more to the story?
When concerning the death of Marilyn Monroe, many reject the official story of a tragic suicide.  While there are many theories surrounding the true nature of her death, this essay will only focus on three.  The first theory suggests that her doctors were responsible and, with help from her housekeeper, covered it all up.  The last two both involve the Kennedy family, with one claiming it was a hit by the mafia as a warning to Robert Kennedy and the other holding him directly responsible.
The first theory claims that Monroe’s doctor and housekeeper staged the suicide.  Her psychiatrist Ralph Greenson was the one to find her body early in the morning on August 5th. He was called by Monroe’s housekeeper, Eunice Murray, after the star did not respond to her knocking on her door at around midnight (1). After arriving, he knocked down the french window to her bedroom to find her body on the bed (1).  Greenson and Murray then immediately called Monroe’s internist, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, who pronounced her dead at 3:50 a.m. It wasn’t until thirty minutes later that the police were called (1). Immediately upon arriving at the scene Sergeant Jack Clemmons noticed suspicious details.  The first was that the body seemed to be in an unnatural position, appearing to have been moved (1). Also, though the drugs that Monroe had supposedly taken were on the nightstand, missing was any drink to down the countless pills with or any vomit indicative of an overdose (1).  Another thing Clemmons noticed was the tell-tale sound of a washing machine running.  Across the house of her dead employer, Eunice Murray was washing sheets (1).  Beyond just the things the officer noticed, there were also inconsistencies in their story.  Both Monroe’s agent and lawyer attest to being told of her death around 10:30 p.m., hours before he body was supposedly found. These claims line up with the rigor mortis of the body, which estimates her time of death from around 9-11:30 p.m. (1).  This lead to Murray, Greenson, and Engelberg changing their timeline, claiming to have found her hours earlier than they originally stated (Death of Marilyn Monroe).
 All of these inconsistencies add up to a suspicious looking trio.  The most damning piece of evidence to suggests that her death was not a suicide, however, came from the toxicology and autopsy reports.  Though there was a lethal amount of drugs in her system, there was no trace of pills in her stomach. There was also no trace of needle marks on her skin, which begs the question of how then did she overdose herself?  The LA deputy district attorney at the time believed they were administered via enema, which would explain bruising found on her body.  This all adds up to make both the doctors and the housekeeper very guilty, but what doesn’t make sense is the motive.  Throughout the years there has never been a clear explanation for why they would want Marilyn Monroe dead.  Some say that she was getting ready to fire them, something that was typical of her to do to her employees. These three had been constants due to her poor mental state but were soon to be cut, too (Rosenfield). According to her masseur, her mental health had been improving and she was growing to resent them (Rosenfield).  Though this is interesting, it does not necessarily point to murder. Also, none of the claims have any real proof to back them up. Another possible explanation was that Marilyn really did overdose due to the doctors’ medical negligence, having both prescribed her drugs that were not supposed to mix, without the other knowing, thus causing her death (Death of Marilyn Monroe). The doctors may have staged it to look like a suicide and recruited the housekeeper to help, knowing that, with her public mental health issues, the story would likely be accepted (Death of Marilyn Monroe).  Though this story is more believable, it does not explain why no drugs were found in her stomach. 
The second theory is that that Chicago mafia boss Sam Giancana ordered a hit on Marilyn in order to intimidate US Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Kennedy had recently launched an investigation into organized crime (Why the Mafia). This is said to have infuriated Giancana, as he supposedly had ties to the Kennedy family.  It is even claimed that he helped John F. Kennedy win votes during the presidential election (Why the Mafia).  This theory claims that Giancana ordered a hitman to murder Marilyn using an enema to administer the drugs. These drugs had also been used in the past in many mafia-related murders (Why the Mafia).  Though this theory lines up with many of the unexplained elements of Monroe’s death, there is still not much evidence that directly ties the mafia to her death.
The last theory is that Robert Kennedy was responsible for her death. This is the most widely believed theory, with forty percent in a recent survey believing this to be true (36% believing it to truly be a suicide). Marilyn had reportedly threatened to go public with their affair and other incriminating secrets she knew about him and JFK (Mitchell). Years after Monroe’s death, Murray admitted that Robert Kennedy had visited Marilyn the night that she died. That was the reason for the cover story, as she said, “I told whatever I thought was good to tell” (Mitchell). He was, in fact, spotted arriving at Monroe’s house with two men by her neighbors. The two reportedly argued violently that night (Mitchell).  Kennedy reportedly asked the men to leave and when they returned Monroe was unconscious in the guest bedroom (Death of Marilyn Monroe).  Kennedy was also seen by multiple witnesses in Los Angeles on the day of her death, once even in the company of Ralph Greenson (Death of Marilyn Monroe). This has led many to believe that Kennedy had conspired with the doctors and housekeeper to kill Marilyn Monroe and stage it to look like an accident.  Some point out that Kennedy would not be dumb enough to visit Monroe if he was planning on killing her, but perhaps he did not plan it. It is possible that he did not intend to kill her, but something happened during their argument that ended in her death. He then may have contacted Greenson to help cover it up and stage a suicide.  Even Marilyn’s ex-husband, Joe DiMaggio, was convinced that the Kennedys were in some way responsible for her death. She supposedly told him that she thought someone was going to “do her in” (Carter).  He said, “I always knew who killed her, but I didn't want to start a revolution in this country, I'll go to the grave regretting and blaming myself for what happened to her.” speaking of the Kennedys (Carter). Whatever the details were, this seems to be the most likely theory. Whether he killed her and had her doctors cover it up, or he got them to kill her for him, this theory makes the most sense. It fills in the gaps of the doctor theory and has multiple witnesses to back it up.
Though it is not known for certain what actually happened on Marilyn Monroe’s last night, it is safe to assume that, just like the star herself, there was more than meets the eye.  
Marilyn Monroe died as she lived: mysteriously and with a bang.  There are many conspiracies surrounding the circumstances of her death, with three of them being the following:
1.  Her doctors and housekeeper conspired to stage her suicide.
2.  The mafia put a hit on her to send a message.
3.  Robert Kennedy killed her to keep her from spilling sensitive information.
It has been fifty-six years since Marilyn Monroe’s “candle in the wind” was snuffed out, but whatever the truth may be, her legend will continue to live on long after her death.


Works Cited

“About Marilyn Monroe.” Modern American Poets, www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/grahn/monroe.htm.
Carter, Maria. “Joe DiMaggio Knew Who Killed Marilyn Monroe, According to a New Book.” Country Living, Country Living, 10 Apr. 2018, www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a43044/marilyn-monroe-joe-dimaggio/.
“Death of Marilyn Monroe: Killing the Legend.” Theunredacted.com, Death of Marilyn Monroe, 3 Dec. 2016, theunredacted.com/marilyn-monroe-killing-the-legend/.
Genova, Alexandra. “'She Was Volatile, Unstable and Impulsive': Marilyn Monroe Most Likely Had Borderline Personality Disorder, New Book Reveals.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 16 Feb. 2016, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3448841/She-volatile-unstable-impulsive-Marilyn-Monroe-likely-borderline-personality-disorder-new-book-reveals.html.
Huntington, Monica. “Marilyn Monroe: The Surprising Reality Behind the Hollywood Legend.” DirectExpose, 21 June 2018, www.directexpose.com/marilyn-monroe-reality-hollywood-legend/2/.
Kashner, Sam. “Marilyn and Her Monsters.” Vanity Fair, Vanity Fair, 17 Nov. 2017, www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/11/marilyn-monroe-201011.
Mitchell, Jim. “4 Conspiracy Theories about the Death of Marilyn Monroe.” Guide, SBS, 24 July 2017,www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/07/24/4-conspiracy-theories-about-death-marilyn-monroe.
Rosenfield, Paul. “Leave the Kennedys Out of It : MARILYN MONROE: The Biography, By Donald Spoto (HarperCollins: 611 Pp.).” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 1993, articles.latimes.com/1993-05-02/books/bk-29911_1_marilyn-monroe.
“Why the Mafia Had to Murder Marilyn Monroe.” World, 28 July 2002, www.scotsman.com/news/world/why-the-mafia-had-to-murder-marilyn-monroe-1-1375559.

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