So, then, how did Marilyn most likely spend her last hours? She was undoubtedly becoming more and more affected by drugs. Whether they were the ones provided her by Dr. Engelberg or ones she took herself, the barbiturates that entered Marilyn’s body that night were of a massive volume.
If she had taken these willfully, she either intended to kill herself or had become so desperate to quiet her mind that she tossed reason aside and experimented with higher doses and possibly different delivery methods. It might be reasonable to assume that Marilyn, a woman who had administered numerous enemas to herself in the past, may have used this mode to ingest some of her dissolved Nembutal capsules. Yet, no matter how these drugs entered her system, Marilyn’s consciousness had to have been growing increasingly compromised throughout that night.
It seems that she continued making telephone calls—but the number of calls is up for debate as well. Some people’s claims that they had spoken to Marilyn on this night have been viewed with skepticism, the theory being that they had an interest in being remembered as a part of the mystique of the events that followed.
Later that fateful night, Peter called again. This time, he could sense Marilyn wasn’t well. According to Peter, it was during this call that she said, “Say goodbye to Pat. Say goodbye to the president, and say goodbye to yourself because you’re such a nice guy.” Obviously, this was distressing and would seem to indicate that she was thinking about taking her life. Alarmed, Peter called Marilyn yet again; the line was engaged. He mentioned to his business partner, Milton Ebbins, that he was worried about her. He wanted to go to the house, but Ebbins was afraid that Marilyn had overdosed again and didn’t want Peter—the president’s brother-in-law—to be the one to find her. Ebbins called Marilyn’s attorney, Mickey Rudin, who then rang the house at 9 p.m. He spoke to Eunice, who told him that Marilyn was fine, but whether or not Murray was able to confirm this (or even had an interest in doing so) is unknown.
The conflicting accounts of Marilyn’s passing occur after this time frame. The most oft-told version is this one, the events and timings based on official statements by Eunice Murray and Dr. Greenson.
At around 2 a.m., Eunice Murray called Dr. Greenson, alarmed because Marilyn’s door was locked and she couldn’t get into the bedroom. Greenson showed up five minutes later and went around to Marilyn’s window. He saw the actress on her bed, frozen and lifeless. Breaking the glass, he let himself into the room. Once inside, he realized that she was dead, lying facedown, holding her telephone in her right hand with numerous open bottles of pills on her nightstand.
With the passing of the years, many murder theories developed. Some involve Marilyn being killed by Bobby Kennedy, or at the orders of Bobby. Some implicate Peter Lawford. Some the FBI. Dr. Greenson. Eunice Murray. The Mafia. Of course, it’s very easy to pin murders on dead people and intelligence agencies. It has to be noted here that the mystique of Marilyn’s death would become a lifelong obsession for some, and the conspiracy theories born of it would serve an important purpose for these individuals. The belief that Marilyn had fallen victim to any one of a number of dastardly plans provides a macabre solace for those who felt her loss most deeply. The possibility that her death was at another’s hands, or that its details will never be fully known, makes it a mystery virtually without a chance of being solved. If the way Marilyn met her end is unknown, in an odd way that keeps her alive—there’s still more she has to reveal. In fact, debates about the circumstances surrounding that evening may never end, and whether or not they choose to admit it, that’s just how many people want it.
Are there suspicious circumstances around Marilyn’s death? Absolutely. For instance, the doctors and Murray waited almost two hours to contact the authorities. Why? No one has ever sufficiently answered that question. More intriguingly, Eunice would later say that there was no lock on Marilyn’s door. If that’s the case, then the entire story of how she was found seems to fall apart. There was very little drug residue found in Marilyn’s stomach—and what was found wasn’t properly analyzed. Also, there was some discoloration in her lower intestine. Do these facts support the theory that maybe she was given a lethal enema by… someone? Not really. Marilyn was a drug addict. It is a medical fact that an addict’s stomach becomes accustomed to the drugs of choice and that they easily pass into the intestines. Many addicts die without a trace of pills in their stomachs. Also, an empty stomach does not preclude the possibility that pills were ingested over a number of hours, and the high levels of barbiturates found in Marilyn’s liver testify to this. Perhaps if the autopsy had been more thorough, though, who knows what might have been concluded? Certainly, if she died today, with current science, there would be no mystery.
So, as always… the question remains: Suicide or murder?
All the byzantine theories of Marilyn’s death share one common denominator: They involve an often frightened, vulnerable, unstable woman who had been spiraling deeper and deeper into her own mental illness. She was in a state of confusion, panic, and despair, and had been off and on for most of her life. If she had been a stable woman who had never overdosed in her lifetime, then, yes, one might legitimately question the circumstances of her death. However, this was a woman who over the years had overdosed more times than people in her circle could even recall—sometimes, it seemed, intentionally, sometimes maybe not. She could have died on any number of those occasions were it not for people like Natasha Lytess, Arthur Miller, Susan Strasberg, and the others who found and revived her. In fact, she overdosed twice just in the month before her death—at Cal-Neva and then at her home—and was saved both times. However, that night of August 4, tragically enough, no one came to her aid. Perhaps the only real question about her death is whether or not it was intentional. *
It’s been argued that Marilyn’s upcoming prospects were so promising, she couldn’t possibly have taken her own life. She supposedly had too much to live for. However, what was probably going on inside her mind had little correlation to those factors. When we consider her last moments on earth we need to focus on an unwell brain, not simply the enticing rewards of a movie star’s existence. Marilyn’s day-to-day happiness was not affected by a desire for more fame, more wealth, more success. To believe that her will to live could have been reclaimed by finishing Something’s Got to Give or even by a million-dollar contract with Fox is absurd. To do so is to greatly underestimate the formidable opponent she faced—her own mental illness. To accept this unfortunate truth doesn’t negate all that this woman was in her lifetime—it just forces one to accept that Marilyn’s story isn’t simply one of glamour and fame. In fact, it may not even be a story about “Marilyn Monroe” at all. *
This is the story of a girl named Norma Jeane Mortensen. She thrived despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles and almost impossible odds. She created and became a woman more fascinating than even she believed possible. And in the face of her own failing mind, she battled to keep that creation alive—not for her, but for us. Indeed, Marilyn Monroe did exist. Even though the woman inside her was at times doubtful of that fact, we knew it better than she did. She spent so much of her energy, her own will, projecting an image of impossible beauty and ultimate joy. Yet, as the end neared, her experience of who she truly was drifted farther and farther from that ideal—until she found it impossible to pretend anymore. Her choice, as awful as it may have been, was this: Admit to the world that Marilyn Monroe had become nothing more than smoke and mirrors, or die.
On August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe gave the world all she had left to give—the knowledge that she was, and always would be… ours.
Norma Jeane Mortensen was born on June 1, 1926. This beautiful baby would, of course, grow up to one day become the great film star Marilyn Monroe. (Retro Photo)
A sad but beautiful photo of Marilyn the woman. This picture says it all about her: Vulnerable. Tragic. Gorgeous. (Getty Images)
The way Gladys Baker is holding Norma Jeane—almost as if she were a baby doll— s
uggests that maybe she wasn’t prepared to be a mother. Less than two weeks after giving birth, Gladys turned the infant over to foster parents, Ida and Wayne Bolender, to raise. (Getty Images)
A very rare photo of Ida and Wayne Bolender with their foster children. Ida is holding the infant Norma Jeane in her arms. (Courtesy of Maryanne Reed Collection)
A never-before-published photograph of the man Gladys Baker said was Norma Jeane’s father, Charles Stanley Gifford Sr. His son, Charles Stanley Jr.— interviewed for this book— maintains that he and Marilyn Monroe are not related. (Retro Photo)
Gladys would sometimes visit her daughter at the Bolenders’ and take her for the occasional outing, such as this one to the beach when the girl was about three. Still, because of her mental illness, it was difficult for her to ever forge a relationship with her child. (Getty Images)
Norma Jeane at about four years of age. (Photofest)
Norma Jeane at age six. (Getty Images)
Norma Jeane married her first husband, Jim Dougherty, in June 1942—but only so that she would not have to go into another orphanage. (Retro Photo)
Norma Jeane was a highly successful model long before she ever became Marilyn Monroe. Here she is in 1944, “wearing” some of her many covers. (Courtesy of Maryanne Reed Collection)
The postcard Norma Jeane wrote to her half sister, Berniece, after meeting her for the first time in October 1944. (Getty Images)
A very rare family photo taken at the Pacific Seas restaurant in September 1946, right after Norma Jeane was divorced from her first husband, James Dougherty. From left to right: Berniece Baker (Marilyn’s half sister) and her daughter, Mona Rae; Grace Goddard (Norma Jeane’s beloved guardian) and her sister, Enid Knebelkamp; Norma Jeane, Norma Jeane’s “Aunt” Ana and her mother, Gladys Baker. (Getty Images)
The lavish production number “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” from the 1953 movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. (Photofest)
Marilyn married Joe DiMaggio in January of 1954, even though there were many indications that the marriage would not work out—not the least of which was his unhappiness over her career. Although Marilyn was forced to leave him when DiMaggio became physically abusive, their love for one another never died. (Retro Photo)
A love letter Marilyn wrote to Joe—addressed to “Dad.” “I want to just be where you are,” she wrote, “and be just what you want me to be.” Unfortunately, what he wanted was for her to just be his wife, not one of the world’s great movie stars. (Getty Images)
The filming of this famous scene from The Seven Year Itch was the catalyst to the end of Marilyn’s relationship with Joe. It so enraged him that he became violent with her that very same evening. Then, as far as she was concerned, the marriage was over. (Retro Photo)
Three iconic poses of a legend. (Photofest)
Marilyn received this very impersonal Christmas card from her mother, Gladys, in December of 1956. She never knew just what kind of communication to expect from her mother, who was at the Rock Haven Sanitarium at the time. (Shaan Kokin/Julien’s Auctions)
By the summer of 1960, Marilyn’s third marriage, to Arthur Miller— seen here on the set of The Misfits—was all but over. (Photofest)
In February 1961, Marilyn was committed to the mental ward at the Payne Whitney Clinic in New York. Thanks to Joe DiMaggio’s intervention, she was later moved to the Neurological Institute of Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital, where she would remain for almost three weeks. Of course, there was the expected pandemonium when she was finally released from that facility— looking quite beautiful, as always. (Retro Photo)
Meanwhile, Marilyn’s mother, Gladys Baker Eley, tried to commit suicide while locked behind these gates at the Rock Haven Sanitarium in California. (Retro Photo)
According to photographer Bernie Abramson, these three photographs have never been published in any Marilyn Monroe biography. Marilyn’s close friend Pat Kennedy Lawford (left in the top photo); Pat’s husband, Peter Lawford; Marilyn’s occasional lover Frank Sinatra; and Marilyn are seen experimenting with Sinatra’s new Polaroid camera at the Lawford home in Santa Monica, California, circa 1961. (MPTV)
By 1962, Marilyn had done everything she could to see to it that her mother—seen here at Rock Haven Sanitarium—received the proper medical attention for paranoid schizophrenia. However, because her religious beliefs restricted the use of most medications, Gladys’s mental illness was never under control. (Courtesy of Maryanne Reed Collection)
Not at all well. In these two rare photographs, taken on January 20, 1962, Marilyn is seen at a party hosted by Harvey Weinstein, producer of her movie Something’s Got to Give. In the first, she sips on a cocktail while talking to poet Carl Sandburg. In the second—published here for the first time—she is seen dancing while still holding a drink. (Note how thin she is in this picture.) (Getty Images)
Marilyn first met Bobby Kennedy on February 1, 1962, at a dinner party at Pat and Peter Lawford’s home. This receipt disproves the long-reported story that Marilyn became so drunk that night she couldn’t drive herself back home and had to be driven by RFK and a friend. That maybe happened some other time, but on this evening she was definitely driven to and from the Lawford home by Carey Cadillac. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection.)
Certainly Kenneth O’Donnell, special assistant to JFK, couldn’t have known the sensation that would be caused by extending this invitation to Marilyn! (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)
Another photo that has never before appeared in a Marilyn Monroe biography, of Marilyn and her publicist, Pat Newcomb, arriving at Madison Square Garden for JFK’s birthday party in May 1962. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)
Taken at a party following her performance, this is the only known photograph of Marilyn with both Bobby (left) and President John F. Kennedy. (Cecil Stoughton/Life Magazine, Time-Warner Inc.)
Marilyn performed for JFK wearing what she described as “a dress only Marilyn Monroe could wear.” (Photofest)
Marilyn sent this telegram to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Kennedy, declining an invitation to attend a party in honor of Pat and Peter Lawford in June 1962. Some have speculated that Marilyn declined because she was having an affair with Bobby. Others have wondered if Ethel would have invited her at all had she thought Marilyn was involved with her husband. In fact, it doesn’t seem as if Marilyn and Bobby were anything more than friends. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection.)
This fascinating photo hasn’t been seen in decades and has never before been published in any Marilyn Monroe biography. It, too, was taken at the after party following the Madison Square Garden event. Marilyn—on the right, watching Diahann Carroll perform—is holding a glass of champagne, her arm dangling carelessly over a railing. Seated on the far left is President John F. Kennedy. Against the wall, under the stairs, one can spot Ethel Kennedy and Pat Kennedy Lawford, Marilyn’s close friend. Peter Lawford is directly behind Marilyn, leaning against the wall. (The Kennedy Library)
The Lost Weekend: Marilyn and Peter Lawford at the Cal-Neva Lodge in July 1962, the weekend Marilyn was perhaps at her worst—the weekend that changed the lives of just about everyone involved: Peter, his wife, Pat, Frank Sinatra, and, of course, Marilyn. (MPTV)
It’s difficult to believe that one of the greatest movie stars of all time died in this sparse, disheveled bedroom. It’s been said that she hadn’t had time for interior decorating, even though she’d moved into the house almost six months earlier. (Retro Photo)
Berniece Miracle leaves the funeral home after having made final arrangements for her half sister. (Retro Photo)
A sad—and shocking—headline. (Retro Photo)
Marilyn’s final resting place, at Westwood Memorial Park. (J. Randy Taraborrelli Collection)
A never-before-published letter from Gladys Baker Eley to Marilyn’s business manager, Inez Melson, written after Marilyn’s death in 1962. “She is at peace and at rest now,” Gladys wrote of her daughter, “and may God help her always.” Gladys affixed
to the letter a newspaper notice of the probate of Marilyn’s will. (Shaan Kokin/Julien’s Auctions)
Gladys lived another twenty-two largely unhappy years after the death of her famous daughter. (Photofest)
“She should have been made of iron or steel, but she was only made of flesh and blood.” Like many of the photographs in this book, this one is so rare it may never have been published before, and certainly not in any previous Marilyn Monroe biography. (Frank Worth Estate and International Images, Inc.)
APPENDICES
AFTER MARILYN
AFTER MARILYN’S DEATH
Miss Monroe has suffered from psychiatric disturbance for a long time. She had often expressed wishes to give up, withdraw and even to die. On more than one occasion in the past when disappointed or depressed, she had made a suicide attempt using sedative drugs. On these occasions, she had called for help and had been rescued. From the information collected about the events of the evening of August the fourth, it is our opinion that the same pattern was repeated—except for the rescue.
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe Page 50