Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Marilyn Monroe by Maddi Goodwin


    When first thinking of Marilyn Monroe your thoughts may be of her glamourous life style, timeless quotes, or iconic pictures but there were plenty of scandals concerning the last years of her life. Was her “suicide” really a suicide, and if it was were there any efforts to help the young struggling actress? From this question rises a few conspiracy theories:

1. Did her house keeper Eunice Murray and Physiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson have something against her?

2. There’s also the fact that she was the government’s watch list and the FBI has missing files concerning her. Could they have been involved?  

3. Lastly, it is rumored that she had been romantically involved with the Kennedy brothers, John and Richard, both who held important political positions, right up until her suspicious death in the 1960’s.

Either way, did she really deserve her unfortunate ending? Let’s take a look at Marilyn Monroe, the conspiracy theories surrounding her death, and the likelihood that her death was rooted from the Kennedy Administration.
Character Analysis

 Who was Marilyn Monroe? You may be able to answer this question yourself, but there is much more to her than what meets the eye. Most people picture her angelic blond hair, perfect hour-glass figure, and white dress blowing up from under a subway grate, but the struggles she overcame to accomplish this iconic image were tremendous. Monroe endured a troubling childhood which then effected the way she lived out her life.

 She grew up not knowing her father, and having a mother who had psychiatric problems and spent the majority of Marilyn’s childhood in a mental institution. Later in life Monroe states, “the earliest memory I have is my mother trying to smother me in my crib with a pillow,” (Marilyn Monroe). With her mother being admitted into a mental institution, Monroe bounced around from home to home in the foster care system.  In her foster home, she reported being sexually assaulted and raped at only 11 years old (1). With the absence of her mother and father throughout her childhood, it caused her great internal conflict. She never felt good enough and this lead to problems in her adult life. To get out of the foster care system, she married her first husband Jimmy Dougherty in 1942 at the age of 16 (1).  This relationship diminished in 1946 when she was discovered by a photographer and began to focus on her career.

When Monroe’s career began to flourish, her insecurities rooting from her childhood began to play a role as well. Monroe suffered from pre-performance anxiety that sometimes made her physically ill and was often the root cause of her legendary tardiness on film sets (1). Not only did her insecurities play a part in her job, but also in her relationships as well. Her lack of a father figure in her childhood years caused her to be distrustful of men. She had several unsuccessful marriages with not only Jimmy Dougherty but with Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller as well. With the insecurity of never feeling good enough, she was in constant pursuit of trying to prove herself. Her co-star Don Murray once said, “She was trying to prove she was a serious actress and not just a movie star playing bimbo parts. She was trying to prove she was an actress of substance, and in my opinion she certainly did,” (King). Two years previous to her death, Marilyn started seeing a psychiatrist named Dr. Ralph Greenson. She would sit in his office and spill her secrets, insecurities, and stories, with which Dr. Greenson has taken to the grave. He diagnosed her with depression and border line personality disorder. For this, she was prescribed different medications, which may have been the cause of her “suicide” at the young age of 36.

While her internal conflicts sparked from a situation she could not control (her childhood), her external conflict was also something of fate. Marilyn Monroe was, and always will be, an iconic sex symbol in the history of Hollywood. Her seemingly good looks have pleased many, especially those of the male gender. She was the lady that every woman dreamed of looking like and the one who every man lusted after. Whether it was her intimidating gene pool or her mental disability, Marilyn faced the external conflict of not only having failed relationships but also not very many close friends. Amy Greene, a friend of Marilyn’s said, “She was a recluse. When she lived in Los Angeles, she had no social life. She ate, slept, and worked. She didn’t go out at night,” (King).

Being intimidating for women and lacking deep personal friendships was an external conflict that Monroe dealt with in her short years of life. With the mix of a troubling childhood, failed relationships, and intimidating looks the conflicts in her life defined her.

Conspiracy Descriptions (Main Idea and Details with Survey Results)

In the murder case of Marilyn Monroe, three conspiracies are emphasized. One of the theories suggest that her house keeper Eunice Murray and psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson were involved in her “suicide”. Another suggests the involvement of the government due to her suspected involvement in communism. The most popular theory concerning her death is the idea that the political family the Kennedys were in some way connected to it.

The first conspiracy theory proposes that Marilyn’s housekeeper, Eunice Murray, and her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, are in some way responsible for her premature death. The story goes that Monroe was pronounced dead by her doctor around 3:50am, but it’s rumored that she was found dead before this time (Unredacted). The first people on scene were Murray and Greenson. Oddly enough, Murray obtained her position of the housekeeper through Dr. Greenson (1). There was much confusion concerning the main witness, Murray’s, statement due to the fact that she changed her story multiple times. One of Murray’s stories goes like this: “She knocked on Marilyn’s door around midnight and got no reply. Worried, she called Greenson who arrived with Dr. Hyman Engleberg, her internist. They then broke into her room through the French windows of Marilyn’s room and discovered her lifeless body laying face down in the bed. They then called the police at 4:25am and the first police on scene, Sergeant Jack Clemmons, was suspicious.” (1). Clemmons noticed several skeptical things. The body looked to be posed and not in a natural body position, there was no glass of water present, and Eunice Murray was washing and drying sheets. (1). These weren’t the only conflicting things concerning the circumstances. Monroe’s lawyer was told that Marilyn had been found dead before her body had been discovered (1). In 1985, journalist Anthony Summers claim that Murray states, “The reason for the cover story was because Robert Kennedy was at the house that day,” (1). While this conspiracy theory doesn’t offer a clear cause of death, it offers the fact that Murray and Greenson know more than they are letting on.
The second conspiracy suggests the government was responsible for the death of Marilyn Monroe. The idea of Monroe being romantically involved with both John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy is common knowledge to American society. This scandal may be reason enough for the government wanting to silence Monroe, but their motive does not end there. She was also acquainted with Fredrick Vanderbilt Field, the great-great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt and also a known supporter of communism who had been exiled to Mexico for his beliefs (Summers). She had been spotted in Mexico with him 7 months before her death, where she spent 10 days shopping for her Mexican-style home in California (1). Upon Marilyn returning to the United States, an FBI official in Mexico sent Director J. Edgar Hoover a report stating: “Monroe had been associated closely with certain members of the American Communist Group in Exile…during the course of this visit a mutual infatuation arose between Monroe and Field…” (1). This document along with others concerning her encounters with the Kennedys were filed under “Marilyn Monroe—Security—Communist” and were withheld within the governments records for 40 years. Monroe was also known to gravitate to left-wingers. The people she surrounded herself with seemed to be entangled with the communist party. These people include her psychiatrist Greenson, internist Engleberg, and her ex-husband Arthur Miller. Her psychiatrist’s daughter, Joan Greenson, said that Monroe was “passionate about equal rights, rights for blacks, rights for the poor. She identified strongly with the workers,” (1). The actress had also before mentioned her commendation for the activities in China and her dissatisfaction at the McCarthy era witch hunt against suspected communist sympathizers in Hollywood. For her romantic relations with the Kennedy brothers, which presented her with valuable political information, and her supposed involvement in communism this categorizes her as a security risk and a threat to the government. On March 25th, 2015 a 78-year old man named Normand Hodges admitted on his death bed to being a hit-man for the American government. He introduced the idea that he had committed 37 assassinations throughout his life, one including Marilyn Monroe (Mikkelson). His explanation behind the assassination was that, “I had evidence that Marilyn Monroe had not only slept with Kennedy, but also with Fidel Castro. My commanding officer told me she had to die and it had to look like a suicide or overdose… I obeyed and did it for America. She could have transmitted strategic information to the communists, and we couldn’t allow that!” (2). While this conspiracy theory does offer an answer to the famous question of Marilyn’s death, it can not be proven. The four other members of the CIA which worked along side of Hodges are dead or missing leaving no one to back him up on his story (Zapo).

The last conspiracy theory, and certainly the most well known, has to do with the involvement of the Kennedy Brothers. It focusses mainly on Robert Kennedy known to be romantically involved with her around the time of her death. Her relationship involving Robert Kennedy spurred from his brother’s disinterest of Marilyn in her constant pursuit of him. President John F. Kennedy sent his brother, Robert Kennedy, to Los Angeles to tell this iconic sex symbol that he was not interested in leaving his wife in order to be with her (Margolis and Buskin). During this time in Los Angeles, Robert was put under Marilyn’s spell. Being in an adulterous relationship with both of the Kennedy brothers came along with not only dangerous relationships, but also with knowledge of important and private political news and events. It was rumored she had kept and little red diary where she wrote about her illicit affairs and of all the dangerous secrets concerning the Kennedys. Eventually Robert admitted, the same as his brother, that he indeed would also not be leaving his wife to marry Marilyn. This infuriated Marilyn to the point where she threatened to expose all the affairs and all the secrets that surrounded them (1). Robert demanded that she hand the red diary over to him, but Marilyn refuse. This is when Robert plotted a way to silence Marilyn once and for all. Robert called Marilyn’s psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson, who Robert knew she was also having and affair with (1). Robert convinced Greenson that Marilyn was going to go public on their affair, even though she had no intention in doing so (1). If that kind of information went public, he would not only lose his profession, but also his wife and would have to spend some time in prison. With the fear of all of these consequences, Greenson agreed to help end Marilyn’s life. The afternoon of August 4th, 1962 Robert Kennedy along with his brother-in-law, Peter Lawford, visited Marilyn for the last time (1). This visited resulted in an argument which caused Robert to leave and return later with his personal bodyguards and Lawford (1). “One bodyguard shot Marilyn in the armpit with Nembutal to calm her down, the then Robert threw her to the floor,” (1). This statement came from Robert in a deposition confirming he and Lawford were indeed at her house the night of her death (1). The Nembutal injection was not strong enough to sedate Marilyn so they then gave her “ and enema filled with broken-down pills containing anywhere from thirteen to nineteen Nembutal and seventeen chloral hydrates,” (1). While Marilyn was under the men searched frantically through her house for the red diary which could ruin their futures. Kennedy and Lawford left her house without the diary at 10:30 pm, leaving her house keeper, Eunice Murray, to find her face down hanging over the edge of the bed in the guest cottage (1). Eunice called an ambulance and attendant James Edwin Hall was the first one on scene at around 12 pm (1). Hall states, “ She was naked. She had no sheet, no blanket. There was no water glass. No alcohol… We ascertained that her breathing was very shallow, her pulse was very weak and rapid and she was unconscious at the time. As I bent over it hit me- there was no vomit, unusual with an overdose which is what the woman managed to tell us that she thought was wrong… there was no odor of drugs from her mouth. Another classic symptom,” (1). While Hall was trying to revive her, Greenson arrived stating, ‘”I’m her doctor, give her positive pressure,” (1). Greenson was acting suspicious. While pushing on Marilyn’s abdomen in the wrong place, Hall remembers Greenson saying, “I’ve got to make a show of this.” (1). Greenson then, “drew up a liquid from a bottle with a rubber seal and filled the syringe. He pushed hard and he drove it all the way through the rib, making a loud snap as the bone broke. I know he scarred that rib broke. I know he scarred that rib bone. I had watched a lot of medical procedures and this guy was downright brutal,” states Hall (1). Peter Lawford, Murray Liebowitz, and James Hall were all witness to Marilyn Monroe’s murder and state that Dr. Ralph Greenson was responsible (1).

While not one conspiracy theory has been proven there are many speculations that Marilyn Monroe would take her own life. A survey of twenty people indicated that 80% agree that no, Marilyn’s death was not actually a suicide. The idea that the Kennedy administration is to blame is the most explainable conspiracy theory due to the fact they have the most prevalent motive.

Conclusion

The death of Marilyn Monroe has and will continue to haunt the American people until a more justifiable conclusion is reached.

On August 5th, 1962 in her home in California, Marilyn Monroe was found dead with the cause of her death being ruled suicide. This rose many questions and several conspiracy theories due to the scandalous way she was rumored to live. Here are three conspiracy theories that surround her death:

1.      Her housekeeper and psychiatrist were involved

2.      The government wanted her dead

3.      The Kennedy brothers, mainly Robert, had her killed to cover for himself.

In 2016, the 54th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death just passed and the case is still ruled as probable suicide. This cause of death is still questioned today while the American people still remained enamored with the iconic sex symbol herself.






Works Cited:





Buskin, Richard, and Jay Margolis. "EXCLUSIVE - Bobby Kennedy Ordered Marilyn Monroe's Murder by Lethal Injection to Prevent Her from Revealing Her Torrid Affairs with RFK and JFK: New Book Sensationally Claims to Have Finally Solved the Mystery Surrounding Her Death." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 16 May 2014. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

King, Susan. "Marilyn Monroe: People Who Knew Her Recall the Real Person." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2012. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

"Marilyn Monroe." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 26 Apr. 2016. Web. 27 Oct. 2016.

Mikkelson, David. "Retired CIA Agent Confesses on Deathbed: 'I Killed Marilyn Monroe'"Snopes. Snopes, 16 Apr. 2015. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Noguchi, N. "Autopsyfiles.org - Marilyn Monroe Autopsy Report." Autopsyfiles.org - Marilyn Monroe Autopsy Report. Autopsy Files, 5 Aug. 1662. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

Summers, Anthony. "FBI/CIA Murdered Marilyn Monroe." Tangible Information:. N.p., 30 July 2007. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

The Unredacted. "Marilyn Monroe - Killing the Legend." Theunredacted.com. The Unredacted, 10 Mar. 2016. Web. 27 Nov. 2016.

Zapo, George. "Dyin CIA Agent Claims He Assassinated Marilyn Monroe." Inquisitor. N.p., 17 Apr. 2015. Web. 15 Nov. 2016.

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