When Monroe’s body arrived at the coroner’s office, it quickly turned into a zoo. Reporters, insurance company representatives and curious onlookers flocked to the morgue. Monroe’s dead body was put on display like a freak in a traveling circus sideshow. Medical examiners and their staff, studio heads, actors and politicians traipsed through to get a glimpse at the actress’s body. One enterprising paparazzo even snapped a picture of Monroe’s corpse.
Head coroner, Dr. Theodore Curphey, added to the aura of mystery surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s death. Curphey stated, unequivocally, that Monroe died from an oral overdose of Nembutal and chloral hydrate. He estimated she had swallowed at least 50 pills in "one gulp," despite there being no water at the death scene.
Furthermore, Curphey was not dissuaded by the lack of some key evidence. Nembutal capsules, when digested, leave a yellow dye discoloration on the lining of the intestine. There was no such discoloration inside Monroe. There was no evidence that partially or undissolved capsules even existed in her digestive tract.
It seemed as if the coroner’s office was determined to call Marilyn Monroe’s death a suicide at all costs.
The question is, "Why?"
Why did the coroner fail to test her lower intestine for the tell-tale dye marks? If there was no liquid to swallow the pills, why didn’t the coroner’s office look at other methods of introduction, such as an injection or colonically? Why did the "official" death certificate list the cause of death as "Probable Suicide," with the former word penciled in?
Many theories abound. Some believed it was a simple case of suicide. Others believe Murray was angry for being fired earlier that day. Many more believed it had something to do with the Kennedy brothers.
In 1962, Monroe was had just come off two box office failures -- Let’s Make Love and The Misfits. She had begun work on a new film with Dean Martin called Something’s Got to Give. Her troubled history with drugs and depression reared its ugly head on the set as she constantly missed days of filming, flubbed her lines, and seemed dazed and confused. For the first time in her illustrious career, someone did not want Marilyn Monroe. The studio fired her.
That same year, her relationships with the Kennedy brothers heated up. On May 29, Monroe made her now legendary appearance at President John F. Kennedy’s birthday party at Madison Square Garden, where she sang "Happy Birthday" to the president. Monroe’s skintight dress and seductive voice caught the attention of the president’s brother, Bobby, who became infatuated with the icon.
Allegedly, Monroe felt that Bobby was a better lover than his brother. She also fell in love with Bobby and believed he would divorce his wife for her. There were rumors that Monroe kept a diary of her late-night pillow talk with Bobby Kennedy -- a diary that supposedly contained detailed conversations about several top-secret political matters.
As the U.S. attorney general, one of Bobby Kennedy’s objectives was to crack down on Mafia-controlled unions and their leaders, most specifically AFL-CIO head Jimmy Hoffa. The union leader was supposedly tipped off that Kennedy had been sleeping with Monroe. Hoffa wanted to get the goods on the president’s pesky little brother so he allegedly wire-tapped Monroe’s home, to record the couple’s most intimate moments. When Bobby Kennedy’s handlers found out about Hoffa’s nefarious activities, they decided he had to dump Monroe, which he did.
What was Marilyn to do? According to one of her former lovers and friend, Robert Slatzer, she scheduled a press conference for Monday, Aug. 7, 1962. Monroe was planning to spill the beans on the Kennedy boys. She also made an appointment to meet with her attorney right before the press conference because she intended to revise her will.
Reportedly, Robert Kennedy was in Los Angeles on Aug. 4, the day Monroe died. His staff, however, claimed he was in San Francisco for the entire day and could not have been in Brentwood to kill Monroe.
However Marilyn Monroe died, her legacy has only grown over time.
Her legions of fans, from horny men to uber-feminists, find something positive in Marilyn Monroe to this day. Her sexuality, charm, innocence and wit have pulled in generation after generation of new fans. Her mysterious death only raises more questions and intrigues more people who want to know what really happened to America’s favorite screen goddess.
