— Theodore J. Curphey Los Angeles Coroner’s Office August 1962
Obviously, the repercussions of Marilyn Monroe’s death on many of the principal players in her life would be profound. She was much loved by those in her close-knit circle. Unfortunately, her half sister, Berniece Miracle, received the news of Marilyn’s death many hours after most people in the country already knew about it. She had been on a vacation, driving for hours with a broken radio. When she finally returned home and was called, she immediately flew to Los Angeles. Though overwhelmed by grief, she still managed to plan the funeral with her ex-brother-in-law, Joe DiMaggio.
As is by now well known, it was DiMaggio’s decision to prohibit just about everyone in Marilyn’s life from attending the services that took place on August 8, 1962, at the Westwood Village Mortuary Chapel. He felt strongly that the Kennedys and Frank Sinatra had let Marilyn down and, in some way, even contributed to her death. Therefore, he lashed out by excluding them from the services—as well as most of Marilyn’s other friends in show business. During this time of grief, DiMaggio wasn’t even sure what to make of Marilyn’s publicist and friend Pat Newcomb, because he knew she had known the Kennedys before Marilyn, and still had a relationship with the family. According to Gary Springer, DiMaggio asked his father, John Springer, to handle the bulk of public relations for Marilyn’s funeral.
Some of the choice few who were allowed to attend the services for Marilyn Monroe were Pat Newcomb, Berniece Miracle, Inez Melson, Milton Rudin, Ralph Roberts, Allan “Whitey” Snyder, Sydney Guilaroff, Joe DiMaggio Jr., Dr. Ralph Greenson, and his family. In all, there were just twenty-six names on the approved guest list. Lee Strasberg read the eulogy, describing Marilyn’s “luminous quality—a combination of wistfulness, radiance, yearning—that set her apart and made everyone wish to be a part of it.”
Certainly, in the coldness of death, no one looks as they did in life, and especially not a woman who had been as vital as Marilyn Monroe. Still, she appeared at least serene in a simple green dress of nylon jersey, her blonde hair (a wig, actually) styled pretty much as it had been in the ill-fated Something’s Got to Give.
George Jacobs, Sinatra’s valet, says that Frank Sinatra was very upset over Marilyn’s death. Surprisingly, he even joined DiMaggio in the finger-pointing. “Mr. S. began to suspect Lawford and his brothers-in-law of possible foul play,” Jacobs recalled, “but since at that point, he would get suspicious of them for a rainstorm, I didn’t put much stock in it. Marilyn was one of Mr. S.’s favorite people. He loved how much she loved him. Without that love and admiration she constantly showered onto him, he was deeply wounded. The healing of that wound made him harder and colder than ever before.”
For her part, Pat Kennedy Lawford was obviously also devastated by Marilyn’s death. She and Peter showed up at the chapel in Westwood only to be turned away at the door. Even Eunice Murray, who wasn’t fond of most people in Marilyn’s circle, insisted to Berniece Miracle that Pat should be invited to the services. However, Berniece really didn’t have much input in that decision, it was all in Joe DiMaggio’s purview. This had to have been especially trying for Pat in that the last conversation she had with her friend had been an angry one. It was the one during which Marilyn said she feared Pat might be jealous of her friendship with Peter Lawford.
Pat’s friend Pat Brennan says, “It doesn’t overstate it to say that Pat was never the same woman. After Marilyn’s last weekend at Cal-Neva was when she really began to change. I think she saw firsthand the destruction her husband’s lifestyle could wreak on a person. Even though she had enjoyed some of the parties herself, and was also a drinker from time to time, she had never seen anything like Marilyn at Cal-Neva. That weekend marked the beginning of the end of her marriage to Peter. After Marilyn’s death, she decided that she wanted out of the marriage. Indeed, the good times in Santa Monica ended with Marilyn’s death.”
In fact, the Lawfords decided to stay together until after JFK’s reelection bid in 1964, but, of course, he was assassinated in 1963. Shortly after her brother’s murder, Pat filed for a legal separation. The couple would divorce in 1966. She would never marry again. Peter died in 1984.
Pat, who battled alcoholism for many years after Marilyn’s death, worked with the National Center on Addiction. She was also a founder of the National Committee for the Literary Arts. She died at age eighty-two in New York from complications of pneumonia. She is survived by four children and ten grandchildren.
It’s impossible to know what President John F. Kennedy thought about Marilyn Monroe’s death. It would seem she didn’t mean that much to him after all. In his mind, she was likely not much more than a one-night stand. In fact, according to the Secret Service gate logs of the White House, the night after Marilyn’s death—August 6, 1962—another of his mistresses, Mary Meyer, paid him a visit at the White House while Jackie and the children were on their way to Ravello, Italy, for a vacation. Meyer showed up at 7:32 p.m. At 11:28, Kennedy called for a car to meet Mary Meyer at the White House’s South Gate to take her home.
Robert Kennedy also went on with his life and political career, never mentioning Marilyn publicly. He was assassinated in 1968.
Ida and Wayne Bolender heard the terrible news of Marilyn’s passing on television, like most of America. “Ida went straight to church to pray for the soul of Norma Jeane,” said one of her relatives. “She never stopped loving her. In her mind, she would always be that little girl she raised. Wayne was sad for many months. It was like losing a daughter for the both of them, it really was.” Ida Bolender survived Marilyn Monroe by ten years. She died in 1972. Wayne lived two more years, until 1974.
Respected Marilyn Monroe historian and author Charles Casillo should have the last word on Marilyn here:
“Many decades after her death, Marilyn Monroe is still able to reach from the grave and entice, enthrall and inspire. The living Monroe had inspired a love affair with the world, through death she has inspired a sort of mass necrophilia. Yes, she had and maintains the astonishing fame that many still crave—but beyond that she had an incredible sweetness that touched us and a genuine soul that blazed. Now that she’s gone, we’re still reaching for that glow… willing to grab what light we can.”
GLADYS’S LIFE AFTER MARILYN
Shortly after Marilyn’s death, Inez Melson received a two-page handwritten letter on personalized stationery from Gladys Baker Eley, sent from the Rock Haven Sanitarium. Published here for the first time, it said:
My Dear Friend Mrs. Melson;
I am very grateful for your kind and gracious help toward Berniece and myself and to dear Norma Jeane. She is at peace and at rest now and may our God bless her and help her always. I wish you to know that I gave her (Norma) Christian Science treatments for approximately a year; wanted her to be happy and joyous. God bless you and all your goodness. I am getting ever so much good out of the fan and I am indeed most thankful and grateful to you and Berniece and all. May the love of our God bless you and keep you. Miss Travis told me you’d be here to see me this weekend so I am anticipating and hoping to see you soon.
Love, Gladys
When Gladys refers to giving Marilyn Christian Science treatments, she’s likely not suggesting that she was praying with her daughter (because that had never been the case) but rather praying—or to use Christian Science vernacular, “treating”—for Marilyn. Of course, she did not attend the funeral.
When Gladys’s other daughter, Berniece Miracle, went to visit her mother at Rock Haven Sanitarium in La Crescenta, California, in August 1962, after Marilyn’s funeral, she was distressed to find that Gladys’s biggest concern was as it had always been: She wanted her freedom. During that visit, Gladys was dressed in her nurse’s uniform, all white—including stockings and shoes. At this point, she was sixty-two years old. She was still attractive with her aquamarine blue eyes and snow white hair, which she wore tied into a tight knot on the top of her head. She had Marilyn’s fine bone structure and
would have been an absolutely striking older woman if she had taken care of herself, or had any interest in doing so. It’s not known what her private reaction was to Marilyn’s death, but with Berniece and others who came to visit, she seemed to not be upset.
Mira Bradford’s mother was Gladys’s friend Ginger—whom Marilyn met the last time she saw her mother at Rock Haven. “I went to visit my mother after Marilyn’s death and I saw Gladys,” said Mira Bradford. “She was watching television. I remember that she was wearing her nurse’s uniform—all in white from head to toe. I went to her and said, ‘Gladys, I am so sorry about your daughter.’ She looked at me with cold eyes and said, ‘She shouldn’t have been taking sleeping pills. I told her many times that I could help her sleep with prayer, but she wouldn’t listen to me.’
“I was very upset. I had never met Marilyn Monroe, but I thought she deserved more from her own mother than that. Of course, I understood Gladys’s illness because my mother was just as disturbed. But, still, I thought I might be able to get through to her. So I sat in front of her and held her hands in mine. I remember they were very cold, very bony. I said, ‘Gladys, you know that Marilyn loved you very much, don’t you?’ She shook her head. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t think Marilyn loved me at all.’ I wasn’t prepared for that. I couldn’t hide my surprise. I instinctively let go of her hands. But then I saw a flash of humanity. Suddenly looking very sad, she said, ‘Marilyn didn’t love me. Norma Jeane loved me, and I loved her. She was a good girl.’ Then she just went back to her television. I got up and walked away so that I could cry. It broke my heart.”
Marilyn provided $5,000 a month in her will for her mother’s care for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, Marilyn did not die a wealthy woman. It’s difficult to imagine where all of her money went, but it certainly wasn’t in any of her bank accounts. Eventually, the estate would accumulate enough money to care for Gladys, but in 1962 there was only about $4,000, not even enough to continue to care for Gladys at Rock Haven. Berniece left Los Angeles at the end of August to return to Florida and begin the process of having Gladys’s conservatorship transferred from Inez Melson to herself. It would be some time, though, before Gladys would be moved to Florida. Then, shortly after her sixty-third birthday, she did the unthinkable.
“It was shocking,” recalled Mira Bradford. “I went to visit my mother and there was chaos at Rock Haven. Police were everywhere. Gladys had tied bedsheets together, nailed them to a windowsill on the third floor, and climbed out the window to the ground floor. Then she somehow managed to scale the high fence around Rock Haven. They didn’t know she was gone until the next day. I was astounded at her will to be free. The police searched all of Los Angeles for her. She was gone a couple of days. They found her about fifteen miles away, sound asleep in the basement of a church. It was so sad. She was then returned to Rock Haven. I saw her there about a month later. Her eyes were cold as steel. I thought she was worse. Much worse. After that, she was transferred to Camarillo State Hospital, which was far, far worse than Rock Haven in terms of its conditions. It was very sad, how this woman suffered.”
In 1967, Gladys was finally released into Berniece’s care in Florida.
In 1970, she was considered sane enough to live in a retirement home not far from Berniece.
In April of 1971, Marilyn Monroe historian James Haspiel spent time with Gladys. He explained, “My wife and I were traveling through Gainesville, Florida. I found Gladys’s number in the telephone book and just called her. She picked up the phone. Obviously, I wanted to meet her. She asked me if I was a Christian Scientist. I said, ‘No, but I’d be interested in exploring that.’ I eventually persuaded her to let me come to visit her if she could give me literature on Christian Science. I took my wife and two little sons with me to the apartment building. She wasn’t frail. She was almost a little weighty. What was so striking about her was that she had Marilyn’s face. But more significantly, she had Marilyn’s laugh. I couldn’t get over the laughter.
“En route to her apartment, I decided that I would only call her daughter Norma Jeane, not Marilyn. So for the hour and a half I was there, I called her Norma Jeane. But she called her Marilyn. She was very intense on the subject of Christian Science. She gave me a bunch of pamphlets before we left. She asked me to call her back, and I did. Gladys’s displeasure with Marilyn’s profession was very evident to me. She called it the moving picture industry. In fact, she said her work, what she did as a Christian Scientist, was ‘diametrically opposed to what Marilyn was doing in the moving picture industry.’ She said that she never wanted Marilyn to be in that business, but, as she put it, ‘I never told her one way or the other. I never told her a word.’ ”
Gladys continued to live in Florida, spending infrequent time with her daughter Berniece—at her own decision—for many more years. She was known to ride a tricycle around town with a red flag on the handlebars that read, “Danger.” Around 1977, she finally began receiving money from the estate of Marilyn Monroe.
Gladys Baker Eley died of heart failure in Gainesville on March 11, 1984—almost twenty-two years after her famous daughter. She was eighty-three years old.
PERSPECTIVE: MARILYN AND THE KENNEDYS
Six months. That’s all it was, just six months. It would appear that Marilyn Monroe’s in-depth experiences with the Kennedys comprised just six months out of thirty-six years of her life. Despite such a brief span of time, a plethora of books and documentaries have resulted that have sought to stretch those months into many years and, thereby, make them the central focus of all sorts of romantic intrigue and FBI espionage. However, fresh research now establishes that it’s simply not true. Of course, it’s always possible that two people can slip away and have secret rendezvous that no one else could ever know about. That’s a little harder to do when the two people are as high-profile as Marilyn Monroe and either of the Kennedy brothers. That said, here is all we know with absolute certainty based on fresh research for this book:
Marilyn met JFK at a dinner party in the 1950s. She met him again at the Democratic Convention in July of 1960. Those meetings were passing and perfunctory.
A year and a half went by.
Then the six-month time clock began:
Marilyn met Bobby Kennedy on February 2, 1962, at Pat and Peter Lawford’s home.
She saw JFK in March 1962 at a dinner party in New York.
She slept with JFK on March 24 and possibly March 25, at Bing Crosby’s home.
She performed at JFK’s birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in May 1962.
She saw Bobby at another dinner party at Pat and Peter Lawford’s in June 1962.
Other than telephone calls she placed to JFK—which he apparently did not take—and to Bobby—which he and his secretary apparently did take—that’s it. Anything else just cannot be proven. Of course, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. JFK and Bobby could also have been secretly living in her guesthouse, too—and that can’t be proven or dis-proven either.
Over the years, so much has been said and written about these colorful characters, it’s become accepted wisdom that Marilyn was romantically involved with both brothers. However, this writer interviewed Peter Lawford in 1981—before most of the fiction about Marilyn and the Kennedys took root—and was told, “All of this business about Marilyn and JFK and Bobby is pure crap. I think maybe—and I’m saying maybe—she had one or two dates with JFK. Not a single date with Bobby, though, and I swear to Christ that’s the truth.”
But then, of course, a number of years later, an ex-wife of Peter’s came forward and added to the confusion. She said that Peter finally confessed all to her “when he was kind of high.” The next day, Peter was so confused about what he may have said while up on his cloud, he called the ex-wife and told her to just forget about all of it. He was stoned and, he observed, “Who knows what I was talking about?” Of course, she didn’t forget. However, to take the secondhand recollection of someone who was “kind of high” as g
ospel truth is perhaps not the wisest course of action in matters so historical.
Sadly, Peter Lawford—a kindhearted even if conflicted man who many say would never have betrayed a friend—has been widely quoted about Marilyn and the Kennedys decades after his death. It’s as if the man couldn’t stop talking about them during the last months of his life. But did he really make all of those statements, especially to ex-wives? “If you knew Peter like I knew Peter,” Dean Martin told this writer when I wrote a book about Frank Sinatra, “you would know that he would never have said those things about Marilyn and the Kennedys—especially if those stories were true.”
Of course, it’s easy to see how Marilyn and the Kennedy brothers became eternally linked to so many sensational and lurid tales. The confluence of these powerful and historical men with one of the most legendary movie stars of her time has been too compelling to ignore. The Kennedy regime was viewed as a special time in history—Camelot, it was called after the fact—during which idealistic men came into power with an eye toward changing the way people thought of government. Both brothers were known philanderers, though it wasn’t reported at the time because, pre-Watergate, the press was much more protective of those in government. Marilyn’s publicist Michael Selsman recalls, “I spent a lot of time saying to reporters, ‘The president? What? You must be joking!’ Knowing all the while that it was true. I was also good with, ‘Pills? What pills?’ And, ‘Drinking? Of course not. Marilyn is just a social drinker.’ ”
Sometimes, though, JFK’s nature was at least suggested in the press, and as a result, innuendo about him and Marilyn can be traced all the way back to 1960. For instance, in July of that year, after learning that Marilyn had been asking questions to her friends about Kennedy’s policies, Art Buchwald wrote, “Let’s be firm on the Monroe Doctrine. Who will be the next ambassador to Monroe? This is one of the many problems which president-elect Kennedy will have to work on in January. Obviously, you can’t leave Monroe adrift. There are too many people eyeing her, and now that Ambassador Miller has left, she could flounder around without any direction.” Such wink-and-nod reporting was going on way back in 1960 where JFK and Marilyn were concerned, and she’d only met him twice by that time.
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe Page 51