Standing in the spotlight for being
recognized as the national sex symbol of the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe was
constantly under the scrutinizing public eye; but in 1962, she captivated
headlines for an entirely different reason. When Monroe unexpectedly died on
August 5th, 1962, the swirling rumors of her “communist
association”, her relations with the Kennedy brothers, and the suspicious
behavior displayed by her house keeper, Eunice Murray, and psychiatrists, Dr.
Greenson, allowed for many conspiracy theories to be created (“Marilyn
Monroe”). Due to the significance of her relations with the Kennedy’s, it is
extremely plausible that they could have orchestrated Marilyn Monroe to be
murdered and staged as a suicide.
Almost anyone can tell you who the
sexy blonde woman standing over a subway grate in stilettos holding her white
dress down against the blowing air is. The scene is practically a piece of
American culture. But, who is really behind the iconic picture? Who is Marilyn
Monroe? Underneath the beautiful smile and put-together persona, resides Norma
Jeane Baker, the reality behind the unflawed “Marilyn” that the world marveled
in (Marilyn Timeline).
Behind the “Covergirl” façade,
resided a woman with “’[feelings] of emptiness, a split or confused identity,
[and] extreme emotional volatility’” (Genova). Norma Jean’s childhood can be
held largely responsible for the emotional distress she faced as an adult. With
her mother, Gladys Baker, suffering from mental disorders and spending the
majority of Norma’s childhood in institutions, and her father, whose identity
was never confirmed, Marilyn was practically orphaned. When her mother
abandoned Norma at the age of seven to enter an institution, her best friend,
Grace McKee, became the guardian for the young girl. Norma Jean lived with
Grace until she married Ervin Silliman Goddard and sent nine-year-old Norma
Jean to the “Los Angeles Orphans Home where she became occupant number 3463 for
several years” (Danamo’s Marilyn Monroe Pages). Being placed in such unstable
environments, young Marilyn was never allowed to experience the feeling of
permanence and commitment. She was also exposed to other threats, such as when
she went back to live with Grace McKee after spending two years in the orphanage,
her husband, “Goddard tried to molest her, and so she went to live with her
mother’s brother’s mother… [where] she was assaulted by one of [their] sons” (1).
The assaults clearly impacted Marilyn’s views on her self-respect and created
her to “dissociate sexual intercourse from affection” (Sechrist). Studies have
shown that there are two psychological theories that have emerged that can be
credited to the behavior displayed by the adult Marilyn Monroe, known as the
Behaviorist Theory and the Biological Theory of psychology. The Behaviorist
Theory supports that a person establishes their actions and personality traits
through observation of others and the Biological Theory claims that a person’s
behavior is genetically formulated and passed down. These theories have been
appointed to Marilyn Monroe because “mental illness ran in her family, and her
own illness mirrored that of her mother; as well as this Monroe’s true
personality being suppressed by the film industry and her substance created…
[from] stress and discontent [which led] to depression” (A Psychological
Analysis of Marilyn Monroe).
Her unwanted sexual encounters, and
lack of a reliable man’s presence in the early years of Norma Jean’s life
distorted her take on men and marriage and value of her body. Her first
marriage to 21-year-old James Dougherty at age sixteen, was used as an escape
route from foster care (Marilyn Monroe Biography). Their marriage four-year
marriage was abandoned when Norma Jean traded their simple life-style to pursue
fame and transform into Marilyn Monroe. Her next marriage was to New York
Yankees star, Joe DiMaggio. Their marriage was extremely short lived, only
lasting nine months. Their divorce was primarily credited to “DiMaggio’s
discomfort with his wife’s sexy image” and Marilyn’s inability to sacrifice
that image that her career was founded upon to save their marriage (Marilyn
Monroe Marries Joe DiMaggio). Her third and longest marriage, lasting five
years, was to Arthur Miller. After being wed to Miller, Marilyn came across
“Miller’s notebook… and discovered that he was disappointed in her” and learned
that he “feared that his own creativity would be threatened by this pitiable,
dependent, unpredictable waif he had married and was seriously regretting the
union” (Marilyn Monroe Marries Arthur Miller). This finding once again
increased Marilyn’s overpowering insecurities and increased the fear that she
had always retained of not being good enough for a man, or for the world in
which she wrote in her journal that she “’[knew] from life one cannot love
another, ever, really,’” (Kashner). Within each marriage she suffered from
miscarriages and is rumored to have had multiple illegal abortions, most likely
from her affairs or relations outside marriage which took huge tolls on both
her physical well being, as well as her emotional state of mind.
Her
prominent insecurities unsurprisingly caused issues with her ability to easily
perform in front of a camera confidently and efficiently. It was commonly
reported by many who professionally worked with Marilyn that she “’never
arrived on time’ and forced a fellow actor to ‘take a drink’ due to
difficulties filming her scenes” (“Grubby” Marilyn Monroe Made Laurence Oliver
“age 15 Years” during Filming). In a professional setting, this unprofessional
behavior naturally caused irritation amongst her coworkers. It has been
reported that the cause of her continuous tardiness to work was a result of
suffering from insomnia and her intense stage fright.
Suffering from insomnia opened the door for Marilyn to
retrieve sleeping pills and learn how easily it was to abuse them. The
combination of her traumatic and abusive childhood, failed relationships,
mental health issues, and the predominant feelings of considering herself worthless
outside her body’s sex appeal, lead the movie star to begin to become dependent
on barbiturates and other drugs (Markel). It has been recorded that Marilyn
most commonly took Barbiturates as her sleeping aid, which are known to
commonly cause “slow thinking, irritation, [and] emotional instability” (Wang).
Along with taking an abundant amount the pills consistently, they were often
mixed with alcohol.
Taking a look into the creation of
Marilyn Monroe and examining the roots of Norma Jean Baker depicts a different
image of the sexy superstar that the world was introduced to. Behind the
perfect smile and flawless persona, hid an insecure and depressed woman longing
to feel desired and secure in her own skin. Understanding Marilyn Monroe’s
upbringing and mental state can allow the public to understand her actions and
help to provide reasoning to her abrupt death.
The first conspiracy theory
proposes that Marilyn Monroe was assassinated by the government due to her
alleged “communist association”. The attention that was drawn to Monroe due to
the rumored affairs with president John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert
Kennedy, was negatively perceived by much of the community, as well as the
government. This wasn’t the first time Monroe had negatively caught the
government’s attention as it has also been rumored that the FBI has had a file
on Monroe, documenting all communist-related interactions and contacts that she
had acquired.
One of the documents stored inside
the file was received by the FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, from an FBI agent
stationed in Mexico accounts for the “‘mutual infatuation’ [that] had developed
between Frederick Vanderbilt Field and Monroe” through her visits to Mexico
(FBI Suspected Marilyn Monroe of Communist Ties). Along with her concerning
relations with Field, Monroe continued to raise concern about her political
standings when she frequently “spoke of her admiration for activities in China
and her anger at the McCarthy era witch hunt against suspected communist
sympathizers in Hollywood” (Thompson). The people Monroe associated with also
contributed to the FBI’s suspicion of her involvement in the support of
communism, such as her ex-husband, Arthur Miller, her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph
Greenson, and her internist, Engleberg.
The conspiracy theory that the FBI
played a role in Marilyn Monroe’s death gained a great deal of attention from
the public on March 25th in 2015 when seventy-eight-year-old man
claimed to be a former hit-man for the government while on his death bed. The man’s
name was Normand Hodges and he pronounced that he had performed a total of
thirty-seven assassinations for the government throughout the course of his
career, with Marilyn Monroe being named as one of his victims (Mikkelson).
Hodges provided the information that he “had evidence that Marilyn Monroe had
not only slept with Kennedy, but also with Fidel Castro. [And his] commanding
officer told [him] that she had to die and it had to look like a suicide or
overdose…[he] obeyed it and did it for America. She could have transmitted
strategic information to the communists, and we couldn’t allow that!” (1). Even
though Normand Hodges has provided a logical explanation to Marilyn Monroe’s
controversial death, it is impossible to prove his statement. Any of the previous
CIA agents that worked with Hodges have been reported missing or have died,
leaving no one available to credit his confession (Zapo).
The second conspiracy theory
suggests that the Kennedy brothers, primarily Robert Kennedy, devised Marilyn
Monroe’s murder. Beginning her relations with the Kennedy’s, Monroe first
developed an inappropriate relationship with John F. Kennedy, and she refused
to accept that their affair had been terminated, she relentlessly continued to
call the White House, and Robert Kennedy was sent to clarify that she was no
longer desired. Meeting with Robert then
began their affair. Due to her numerous affairs between both the brothers,
Marilyn Monroe had gained a plausible amount of information from the Kennedys.
According to sources she collected all the “dangerous secrets she knew about
the Kennedys and had written [them all down] in the little red diary she kept
hidden” (Margolis and Buskin).
When Robert Kennedy eventually
admitted to Marilyn that he would never leave his wife to marry her, she
threatened to hold a press conference and expose her affairs with both brothers
and all the secrets she had recorded in her diary. Robert discovered that
Monroe had also been having an affair with her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson,
and convinced him that Marilyn was planning on exposing their affair along with
the Kennedy’s, even though she had no intention to do so. In fear of losing his
career and destroying his marriage, Greenson agreed to aid Kennedy in “taking
care” of Marilyn Monroe (Margolis and Buskin).
It was later reported by a neighbor
that Robert’s brother-in-law, Peter Lawford, Robert Kennedy, and “two long-time
personal bodyguards from LAPD’s notorious Gangster Squad who performed illegal
activities for the LAPD off the books” were seen entering Marilyn’s home the
evening of her ruled “suicide” (1). When the men confronted Marilyn about her
press conference and demanded she hand over her diary, she refused and lashed
out at them. In her fit of rage, “one of the bodyguards shot Marilyn in the
armpit with intramuscular pentobarbital (Nembutal) to calm her down”, and once
she was sedated, they men searched through her belongings for the red diary
(Margolis and Buskin). The Nembutal was not strong enough to stun Monroe for very
long, and when she awoke “’the two LAPD Gangster Squad partners held her down,
stripped her clothes off, and gave her an enema filled with broken-down pills
containing anywhere from thirteen to nineteen Nembutal’s and seventeen chloral
hydrates’” which successfully permanently subdued Marilyn (1). Unable to
uncover the hidden diary, the men left the scene around 10:30 p.m. causing
Monroe’s Maltese terrier to excessively bark and draw the attention of her
house keeper, Eunice Murray (1).
It was observed that despite
ingesting 64 pills in a “suicide attempt”, there was “no vomit… [and] no odor
of drugs from her mouth” which were two guaranteed signs to be present if a
drug overdose had occurred (Margolis and Buskin). A first responder at the
scene, James Edwin Hall, stated that he revived Marilyn with an external heart
massage. When Ralph Greenson arrived on the scene, he made orders to remove the
resuscitator in order to allow him to apply intense pressure to “Marilyn’s
abdomen in the wrong place” and “muttered ‘I’ve got to make a show of this’”
(1). Following applying damaging pressure to Marilyn’s fragile body, Greenson
removed a “a hypodermic syringe with a needle [that] looked about a foot long”
and shoved the it into her chest with some much force that he broke her ribs
(1).
Peter Lawford,
Murray Liebowitz, and James Hall were all present to witness the apparent
murder of Marilyn Monroe by Ralph Greenson. A reporter from Life Magazine
claimed that he made a visit to see Marilyn Monroe’s body by bribing the morgue
staff. He reported that “her body showed cyanosis… consistent with needle
injection” (Margolis and Buskin). It has also been reported that the FBI and
CIA had planted recording devices in Monroe’s home. J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI
director’s, neighbor released a statement that “Hoover had told him Monroe was
murdered but he didn’t want to arrest Bobby” a.k.a. Robert Kennedy (1).
The third conspiracy theory suggest
that Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, and housekeeper, Eunice
Murray, were responsible for her untimely death. Many who speculate that
Marilyn Monroe was murdered as opposed to having committed suicide find it
incredibly uncanny that Eunice Murray was hired as Monroe’s housekeeper by Dr.
Greenson and also managed to be the first witness to find Marilyn dead in her
room (Marilyn Monroe- Killing the Legend). Crime reports have stated that
Greenson and Murray’s details of the night have been altered each time they are
asked to recount what they had witnessed.
Tabloid rumors had reported that
“(according to the testimonies of Monroe’s friends) [Murray began] reporting to
Greenson on the actress’ daily activities” which lead to Marilyn having a
distaste for Murray (Eunice Murray). Originally, Murray had stated to police
that she became uneasy about Marilyn’s whereabouts when she discovered light
shining under her locked door at approximately 3 a.m. and received no answer
from Monroe when she called out to her. However, in 1975, Murray’s story was
altered in that she had noticed a telephone cord running from underneath
Marilyn’s door caused her to telephone Dr. Greenson from a separate landline,
when “in 1962 she had told police that she had contacted Greenson after
becoming alarmed by Monroe’s bedroom light shining through the space under the
door” (1).
During one of her interviews in
1985 Eunice significantly caught speculation from the public eye when, unaware
of the microphone that was still attached to her and on, she made the remark
“Why, at my age, do I still have to cover this thing?” She then went on to
claim that Robert Kennedy had paid visit to Marilyn the day of her death and
that “’the doctor’ arrived to help Monroe while she was unconscious but alive”
(Eunice Murray). Since Murray had finally expressed to the public that Marilyn
Monroe was still alive when Dr. Ralph Greenson and Dr. Hyman Engelberg arrived
to the home, it has become plausible that Greenson could have injected Monroe
with chloral hydrate which worked with the Nembutal’s she had previously been
administered, killing her (Mallia). Being Marilyn’s psychiatrists, Dr. Greenson
had a set of tapes that Monroe had created only to ever be listened to by
Greenson’s ears. The only other person to have heard the contents of the tapes
was a district attorney, John Miner, who was investigating Monroe’s death.
After Greenson’s death, “[Miner] revealed that Monroe was optimistic about the
future and anything but suicidal, Miner concluded that she must had been
murdered” (1).
A survey of twenty people revealed
that 65% agree that Marilyn Monroe’s true cause of death was murder, most
likely orchestrated by the Kennedy’s. Even with several claims from multiple
different witnesses have emerged placing Robert Kennedy at the crime scene, and
reporting that Marilyn Monroe was still alive upon the arrival of theorized
accomplice, Dr. Ralph Greenson, there is an insufficient amount of factual
evidence that can be presented. With rumors of lethal injections being
administered to Monroe on Kennedy’s orders, there was no evidence of needle
marks on her body, according the the coroners report (Sheridan). Along with
being unable to identify needle marks, the little red diary found in Monroe’s
home that provided Kennedy with motive to Marilyn’s murder, mysteriously
vanished from the coroner’s office the day after her autopsy and has not been
seen since (1).
Although Marilyn Monroe’s death has
officially been named a self- administered barbiturate overdose, three
conspiracy theories have still remained over fifty years after her death:
1.
Did
the government kill Marilyn Monroe due to her rumored communist association?
2.
Did
her relations with the Kennedy’s lead to Marilyn’s assassination?
3.
Did
her psychiatrist and housekeeper work together to murder Monroe?
The idea that Marilyn Monroe
committed suicide when her muddled life was on the verge of a positive
turn-around, leaves a large percentage of the public unsettled. Currently, many
still seek justice for Monroe by searching to find more evidence to support the
theory that she was, in fact, murdered.
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