No celebrity death has raised more eyebrows than the supposed suicide of Hollywood’s most beloved glamour girl, Marilyn Monroe. The sexpot starlet made a name for herself as the most alluring, seductive and coquettish woman of the big screen in such films as Niagara, Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
By 1962, as Monroe’s career was faltering, she became romantically linked with some of the country’s most powerful men – namely, President John F. Kennedy and his brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. As some people would have you believe, her association with the "boys from Camelot" may have contributed to her early death.
On Aug. 5, 1962, at approximately 4:45 a.m., Sergeant Jack Clemmons received a phone call from Dr. Hyman Engelberg informing him that Marilyn Monroe had died from an overdose of pills. Clemmons drove out to Monroe’s modest bungalow in Brentwood. He had suspicions that it might have been a prank, but they were soon doused upon his arrival at her home.
Dr. Engelberg and housekeeper Eunice Murray led Clemmons into Monroe’s bedroom. The officer found the actress facedown on her bed, nude, her left hand sprawled across the bed touching the telephone on the nightstand. He noticed several prescription bottles littered on top of the nightstand. He did not, however, notice a drinking glass in the room. Clemmons asked Murray about the bathroom. The maid informed the detective that there was no running water. Clemmons also noticed that Murray had done the laundry, so he questioned her `about her odd behavior. She nervously replied she knew the coroner would come to the house and seal it up for evidence, so she wanted to make sure everything was neat and tidy.
Clemmons further observed that Monroe’s body was in an advanced state of rigor mortis, which indicated that she had been dead for at least six hours. The officer asked Murray what time she found Monroe’s corpse. Murray claimed that she noticed Monroe’s bedroom door was locked after midnight. Murray claimed she knocked on the door and did not hear a response from her employer. She got worried and telephoned Dr. Engelberg.
The doctor claimed to arrive at Monroe’s bungalow and was unsuccessful in waking up Marilyn Monroe. The doctor and maid went outside to Monroe’s window and saw the actress lying on her bed. Dr. Engelberg retrieved a fireplace poker and smashed the window to gain entry. Monroe, however, was already dead.
Instead of calling for police or paramedics immediately, Murray waited nearly four hours to contact authorities after discovering Marilyn Monroe’s body. Murray also admitted to contacting some movie studios first, as well as some of Monroe’s business associates. Clemmons knew it should not have taken four hours to complete these calls.
Despite all of the uncertainty surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s death scene, Clemmons packed up his notepad, called the coroner’s office, and headed back to the station to file a report. He was relatively new to the force and assumed a higher ranking detective would take over the case for him.
