The mysteries that still persist about the death of Marilyn Monroe after 60 years

BBC News Brazil

“How do you write the story of a life? The truth rarely comes out and lies usually circulate. But it’s hard to know where to start if not with the truth.” Those were the words of Marilyn Monroe in the last interview given before her death, 60 years ago, on August 5, 1962.

Norma Jean Baker (her real name) was 36 years old and left behind a life full of contrasts: a star adored by millions of people around the world, she dealt with countless psychological and emotional problems that she herself attributed to her childhood and, to a lesser extent, scale, to the weight of fame.

His lonely death at dawn, officially classified as a “probable suicide”, caused countless rumors and conspiracy theories that endure to this day. It contains the perfect ingredients for a Hollywood movie: sex, politics, secret agents and even the supposed involvement of the mafia or a powerful family, like the Kennedys.

British journalist and author Anthony Summers delved into an extensive investigation in the 1980s, which has now been updated, to try to unravel the mystery. But what did he find?

meticulous work

The initial objective of the journalist’s trip to Hollywood was to cover the reopening of the investigation into the death of the actress, announced by the District Attorney of Los Angeles, in the United States. The year was 1982 and Monroe’s death turned 20 years old.

“Marilyn was not one of my favorite actresses. I liked Natalie Wood and other artists of the time better,” Summers told BBC News Mundo, the BBC’s Spanish-language news service.

“I went to Los Angeles and started looking at what the prosecutor was doing. I soon realized that the story was much broader and more complicated than I thought,” he says. “I also realized that his entire life had been poorly covered in the press, except for two or three biographies. There was a lot to learn.”

He bought a car and started visiting houses and making phone calls. The evasive or openly negative responses of the people showed that, even with the passage of time, the subject still aroused fears and suspicions.

But Summers insisted. Until, finally, she managed to interview more than 700 people, some of them with very detailed knowledge of the last days and hours of the actress. One of them was her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, as well as the family of her last psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson.

As a result of this work, Summers published in 1985 the book “Marilyn Monroe, a Deusa: as Vidas Secretas” (released in Brazil by Editora Best Seller, in 1987). The book has been updated and reprinted on several occasions and has now served as the basis for the recent Netflix documentary “The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: Unreleased Recordings”, which shows previously unknown audio from people very close to Monroe.

“I found nothing to convince me that she was murdered, but I did find evidence that the circumstances of her death were deliberately covered up,” says Summers. “And I would say the evidence suggests that this was because of the actress’ ties to the Kennedy brothers.” But what is Summers referring to?

MARILYN AND THE KENNEDYS

At the center of all the mystery surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s death is the actress’ alleged relationship with brothers John and Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, respectively president and attorney general of the United States at the time. The years were 1961 and 1962 and the actress didn’t have much time to live.

Summers got direct sources to confirm that Monroe and the Kennedys frequented, with some regularity, the mansion of Peter Lawford, brother-in-law of the politicians and acquaintance of the actress, on Malibu Beach, California (United States).

Other interviewees went further and talked about an alleged sentimental relationship between Monroe and the two brothers — first with John and later with Bobby — that was never acknowledged by the Kennedy family.

Among Summers’ recordings, the testimonies of private investigators, informants and ex-FBI agents stand out, openly acknowledging over the microphone that Monroe and the Kennedys were being spied on.

Investigators directly involved in the case, such as Fred Otash and John Danoff, explained to the journalist that the actress and Lawford’s homes had microphones installed by security forces and by mafia groups that were interested in uncovering a possible scandal to put pressure on the attorney general.

In addition, Summers had access to official files showing that the FBI was investigating the actress for her alleged left-wing ideology and that the agency considered Monroe’s meetings with the president and attorney general “reason of security concern.”

Summers’ investigation demonstrates that this caused the Kennedys to sever all relations with the actress. Reed Wilson, an expert wiretapping agent working for the FBI and CIA, confided to Summers that, in Monroe’s last conversation with Peter Lawford on the day of her death, the actress demanded that they leave her alone.

“I feel used. I feel like a piece of meat. I feel like I’ve been passed from one to the other,” said Monroe, according to Wilson. “It’s not that she was heartbroken, I don’t believe it was,” Wilson pointed out. “It was more that she felt that she had been taken advantage of, that she had been lied to.”

A plot to assassinate her?

The idea that Marilyn Monroe might have become an uncomfortable or even dangerous figure for the Kennedys made the assassination theory stronger. But for Anthony Summers, there is no evidence to support this hypothesis.

“The insinuation that she was murdered is not supported by the facts,” he explains. “To suggest that someone was murdered, you have to have some proof — and that proof doesn’t exist.” “Evidence from the night she died indicates that a story was made up and that the truth was not told,” he says.

“According to the version released at the time, housekeeper Eunice Murray saw a light [no quarto da atriz] at three in the morning on Sunday, August 5th, and called Ralph Greenson, Monroe’s psychiatrist, who, upon arriving, looked out the window and saw her lying on the bed, apparently dead,” explains Summers. “Greenson then broke the glass and quickly he and Murray called the police.”

But Summers collected testimonies from others with a different version, such as Nathalie Jacobs, widow of Monroe’s publicist. She recalled that someone had warned her husband that there was an emergency with the actress at 10 or 11 pm on Saturday, the 4th.

At the same time, the forensic doctor who performed the autopsy, Thomas Noguchi, determined the probable time of death to be 11 or 12 o’clock at night, which would indicate the date of death as August 4th and not the 5th. difference between 11 pm and 3 am in the official version?

“It took me a long time to see what pieces of the puzzle I could find and see if they fit together,” says Summers. “With the discovery that an ambulance was sent to Monroe’s home, according to a very reliable source – the head of the Schaefer ambulance company – which was confirmed by seven more people, I was able to do a more realistic analysis of the schedules”, he explains. .

“I was convinced, and now even more so, that there was a mistake about what happened, but not that she was killed. There was no physical damage, according to the autopsy, and no signs of injections.” “Before coming to that conclusion, you have to ask what else could have happened. They found sleeping pills, an empty bottle of Nembutal, which is a barbiturate.”

“To me it seemed entirely possible that she had died from an accidental overdose. Or that she had deliberately killed herself, as she had tried before.” “If you ask me what I think of either scenario, I think the most likely thing is that it was a terrible accident. If she wanted to commit suicide, I would expect that she would have told someone or that she had left a note informing her that she was killing herself. .Apparently, she didn’t.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever know, but I lean toward accidental death,” says Summers. In one of the updates to his book, the journalist managed to add some of the missing pieces to his particular puzzle. One of them was Sydney Guilaroff, who worked as Monroe’s hairstylist in several of her films and the actress’s confidant.

“When I was in Los Angeles in the 1980s, more than once, I met with him and we talked,” Summers recalls. “He was always very kind and cooperative with things that happened before Marilyn’s death, but he behaved very strangely when I asked about the events of that night.”

“Years later, Guilaroff described in his biography how Marilyn called him at 9:30 the night of her death. She sounded lethargic and upset.” “She told him desperately that she was ‘surrounded by dangers and betrayals by men in high places’ and that Robert had been at her house that very day and had threatened and yelled at her,” explains Summers.

And the housekeeper also told Summers that Kennedy visited the actress that afternoon and that there was a heated argument. “My interpretation, based on the people I’ve talked to, is that Bobby went to see her that day, that they argued and he needed to leave town. So they needed to buy time,” Summers says.

“It would have been compromising to know he’d been at the house hours before his death. Part of the delay was making sure Bobby was out of town.” The journalist gained access to the flight logs of a helicopter that, that same night, took off from Peter Lawford’s home. But Robert Kennedy never acknowledged that he had been in Los Angeles on the day of the actress’ death.

FASCINATION THAT ENDLESS

“Happiness… is it possible to know it? Trying to be happy is almost as difficult as trying to be a good actress.” Marilyn Monroe’s life was filled with glorious moments and enormous pains and disappointments. Sixty years after her death, the figure of the star continues to arouse great interest. In May, a painting by American painter Andy Warhol featuring her image was auctioned for a record-breaking millionaire.

Kim Kardashian attended the Met Gala – the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in the United States – in the same dress worn by the actress the night she sang “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy in New York. York in June 1962. And in September, Netflix will premiere the movie blondewith Cuban actress Ana de Armas in the role of Marilyn Monroe.

“I’m not sure why, but what I do know is that from Connecticut [nos Estados Unidos] to the Congo, it appears on coffee mugs, bags, you name it,” comments Summers. “In Malaysia, for example, there is a restaurant named after you and a bank with a cardboard Marilyn Monroe picture, so sit next to her and take a picture with her.”

“I wonder what young people these days think about her. Do they see her as a real person with feelings? I hope so, because she was a real woman with real intelligence.”

“There are numerous reasons to empathize with her. She is much more than a cardboard figure. And it will be more than that. I believe that things have gotten out of hand. No one has any idea who the real Marilyn Monroe was,” he says.

“Marilyn Monroe was a brilliant woman and a great actress. She read a lot, knew about politics. She was an intelligent woman under almost unbearable pressure, and in the end, you could say that pressure killed her”, concludes Summers.

The actress’ last words to Richard Meryman, the journalist who interviewed her for the American magazine Life, also reflect this desire to be taken seriously. “Please don’t make a joke of me.”

This text was originally published here.