Debunking myths about Marilyn's last days

Jim DiEugenio: The whole Marilyn Monroe case became a sensationalistic industry in the mid seventies. And there was probably no person more responsible for that than Robert Slatzer. He literally made up this story about him being married to Marilyn, which was complete and utter BS. In fact he promised to pay a friend of his if he would lie for him about it to Anthony Summers. Well, the guy lied, Summers bought it, but Slatzer welched on the deal and did not pay him. So the guy then told the truth: that Slatzer made up a cock and bull story in order to sell his book. In  his volume, Murder Orthodoxies, Donald McGovern spent 20 pages utterly dismantling that piece of rubbish story. 

And I have to add that as bad as Norman Mailer's book was, Slatzer's was even worse. His book really broke the dam, and once it was out there, and went through a mass market paperback sale, all bets were off. Anything was now allowed. And I mean anything. Even space aliens. And Bobby telling Marilyn about how he was involved in Murder Inc. Which he was not. In fact, its ridiculous. But Slatzer printed that garbage. Thus the gates flew open. It was open season now on MM. She could be turned into anything you needed her to be: Mafia moll, UFOlogist, secret KGB spy, foreign policy expert for JFK.  I wish I was kidding but I'm not. Slatzer ended up selling two books and two documentaries out of his phony claims. Which turned out to be lucrative for him. Very bad for everyone else. Especially for the memory of Marilyn Monroe.  

Authors like McGovern and Vitacco-Robles have spent years and thousands of hours working on both MM's life and her passing. And they have done original research. That is they have interviewed many, many people. People likely do not know this, but the DA's office conducted a year long inquiry into these matters, including the charges made by people like Slatzer and Jeanne Carmen. Very similar to what Rothmiller comes up with more recently. DA Ronald Carrol wrote a 641 page report which refuted them specifically and in detail.  The MM nuts only mention a 27 page report. But that was  only the summary. Gary VItacco Robles petitioned the office for the full report. And he uses it in his book Icon. According to Mike Rothmiller, Bobby was in Brentwood not once, but twice that day! How, with the contravening evidence? Which as Don notes, Rothmiller says RFK was desperate for the diary, which did not exist. Her actual journals--which included poems--were discovered later in the Strasberg archives. As per the first detective on the scene, is Mike for real? Don McGovern proved that Clemmons was not just a fabricator but he was indicted on libel charges and forced to leave LAPD. Don proved that everything Clemmons said about the scene was false. The lie about the washer dryer, thus making Murray into some kind of unwitting accomplice was really kind of sick. 

As was the lie about there being no glass in MM's bedroom and it being neat. Pat Newcomb was a former student of Pierre Salinger. She was heartbroken after MM's death since she left the house that day over an argument about whether or not MM should pose nude in Playboy. She was against it. She was so broken up after her death that she left her job as a PR person and Salinger got her a position. Newcomb was not any kind of informant since there was nothing to inform about while she was there. Don McGovern describes how MM was positioned on the bed by the first group of cops to arrive after Clemmons left. And its not how Thompson describes it. Doug Thompson is an amateur. As for Rothmiller, he has joined up in the MM mythology/scatology industry. He tells us utterly nothing about JFK, RFK or MM. What he does is create false smears of them, which people who do not know anything about the case think are credible. When, in fact, that is the last thing they are. Its part and parcel of something I once called the posthumous assassination syndrome. Don McGovern demolished the Rothmiller story about MM and JFK having dinner during the second night of the 1960 Democratic Convention, when in fact she was not even in California! Rothmiller used Fred Otash? That seals it.  Otash was about as bad and amoral as they come. He made Spindel look like a decent guy. Wait until you see what I have on him in my upcoming article  "Joyce Carol Oates, Brad Pitt and the Road to Blonde."

And that whole thing about a press conference is even worse. Gary VItacco Robles interviewed the guy from her PR company and he said, nope. Not one word about it. This is what is called doing research for cross checking purposes. As per the Unheard Tapes, consider the way she was asked the question: "But, on the show, Summers did not ask Eunice if Robert Kennedy visited on August 4th: the term the author used was “that day,” along with “that afternoon.” We know that Robert Kennedy visited Marilyn, accompanied by Pat and Peter Lawford, on the 27th of June in 1962. Eunice Murray recounted the attorney general’s brief visit on that Wednesday for biographer Donald Spoto. The Lawfords arrived at Fifth Helena that afternoon to collect Marilyn, and Robert Kennedy was with them: Marilyn wanted them to see her new home. After a brief tour of Marilyn’s humble hacienda, the group proceeded to the Lawford’s beachside mansion for a dinner party. That June visit, residential tour and dinner party was the fourth and final meeting of Bobby and Marilyn.

There were no such questions in any literary form about MM's death until 1964. This was when inveterate Kennedy hater and professional Red hunter Frank Capell issued his pamphlet on the subject. Which no one today takes seriously since it is so obviously a political hit piece on RFK. Secondly, if say Allen Dulles or Curtis LeMay, had wanted to know where RFK was that weekend, they would have consulted with Hoover and Hoover's report said that he was in GIlroy with the Bates family.  That report included time of arrival and departure. So like with many things, what on earth  is Mike talking about?  The MM fables did not begin in earnest in any way until Mailer's book, several years later.  And then Mailer admitted on TV that he threw RFK in for one reason: he needed the money.

MM did not have "affairs" with either JFK or RFK. You can only adduce that if you rely on more jokester sources like the discredited David Heymann or Jeanne Carmen, both proven frauds. Don McGovern examined every major tenet of the Rothmiller book. It is not my opinion that RFK had nothing to do with MM's death.  It is an established fact that he was in Gilroy about 350 miles away at the time. And there is a plethora of evidence, including a series of photographs in time sequence, that demonstrate this beyond doubt. For many years on end, actually decades, cheapjack writers like Robert Slatzer and David Heymann simply manufactured a mythology that had no basis in fact in order to sell their pulpy books to an all too willing populace. What Don McGovern did was to carefully analyze the information in these books, compare them to each other, and compare them to the adduced record. The pills MM took were ingested, they were not injected or supplied by enema. And Don proves this scientifically. 

The mixture she took of Nembutal and Chloral Hydrate should have never been allowed by her doctors. There is no evidence that there was anything at all between RFK and MM. There is some evidence that there was a one shot encounter between JFK and MM, back in 1961. There was not any continuing affair. The work that has been done on this by skilled and professional writers uses the calendars that are demanded of the AG and POTUS, with the MM day books by Carl Rollyson and April Vevea. April Vevea has become a really good and valuable writer on the subject. And she has been one of the most proficient sources to effectively counter all the crapola that came from people like Slatzer and Mailer and Carmen. The difference being she does some careful and logical and fact based work. As per RFK and Gilroy, how much evidence do you want? Pictures, testimony, newspaper stories. As per Summers and Shaw, their books, for me, are like one step below people like Slatzer. Just take a look at how much Summers relies on Slatzer, Carmen and Smathers.  And I should also add Gary Wean. I actually sent away for Wean's book. And what Summers left out about this guy is the real story that you will hear soon.  Source: https://educationforum.ipbhost.com

The Enchanters (Marilyn), Affairs to Remember

Bug mounts meant potential tapped phone lines. The Marilyn Monroe crib featured three extensions. Living room, spare bedroom, Marilyn’s boudoir. I made the rounds and ran receiver checks. I pulled the handsets off the phones and unscrewed the perforated tops and bottoms. I checked for stashed mini-mikes and got zilch. But—I saw left-behind circuit spacers. That meant the three phones had been tapped. The spacers were frayed and corroded. My spacers and mikes had been inset in the handgrips. Monroe bought the house in February and moved in March 10. My surveillance job began April 11. I photographed the three spacer sets and replaced the receiver caps. I dropped the damp prints in my kit. I returned to Monroe’s bedroom and worked up fibers and prints. Hardwood flooring. Two throw rugs by the foot of the bed. One wood-veneer dresser. The flooring would not trap dry-constituent fibers. The rugs would. The dresser had good touch-and-grab planes that might sustain latent prints. Hoffa brushed crumbs off his lap. “Jack the K is ramming this nutty nympho, Marilyn Monroe, I have this on good authority, but I can’t reveal my source. I want you to build a derogatory profile on Monroe, Jack, Bobby, and any other extraneous cooze those whipdicks are slipping it to, not to mention whatever bedroom dirt you can get me on Miss Marilyn Monroe herself.” Tilt. Royal flush. Money tree. Three-cherry jackpot.

“You want full-time bugs and taps. Listening posts, monitor shifts, tape copies and transcriptions, summary reports, physical surveillance on Monroe and the other principals, and you want all this shit to rock around the clock, and you are keenly aware that it’s going to cost you a great deal of money.” Hoffa went harumph. “You’re a camel jockey, and you’re out to bilk James Riddle Hoffa with no compunction.” I leaned close. Hoffa flinched. I ticked points, wham-bam.  Hoffa snapped his waistband and buffed his gold watch. “I want it ugly, Freddy. I want lots of sordid behavior, with an emphasis on sex.” My first thought: Where’s Marilyn’s address book? Where does she list her friends, colleagues, flunkies, ex-husbands, and lovers for real? My second thought: Where’s her received correspondence and fan mail? Where’s her hotsville missives from John F. and Robert F. Kennedy?

My first guess: Stashed on the premises. My second guess: She keeps her address book and all hotsville notes on her person. My third guess: She’s mercurial defined. She dumps boring correspondence and fan mail. She keeps the good stuff in a bank vault. Marilyn justifies her "Got to Give" misconduct. Marilyn calls her work-shirking ailments “manifestations of existential malaise.” Marilyn Monroe’s got a secret life within her overarching life of dissolution. It affirms her resolve to plow a thoughtful and steady course as internal chaos subsumes her. I’m stitching evidential and theoretical links. They encompass her cash stash, her disguises, her surreptitious phone calls and her Valley jaunt. Lawford’s calls out and calls in ran innocuous. He called agents and studio geeks. They called him. The Lawford house was bedlam. Kids ran through and grabbed phone extensions. Lawford was on the outs with the Rat Pack. He was on the outs with June Allyson, who begged Dick Powell forgiveness. Of all people, Dino wanted a piece of Allyson too. But Lawford warned Dino about Powell and Nixon. -The Enchanters (2023) by James Ellroy 

Dick Powell and Ellen Drew, guests at the opening of Preston Sturges´ restaurant The Players, stray into the pantry for a mid-evening snack, 1940. The Great McGinty had won Sturges the Academy Award for best screenplay. His other new project was a rambling former private home at 8225 Sunset Boulevard. It was underneath the Chateau Marmont. Sturges personally oversaw the renovation of his building into a two-level restaurant and supper club. He helped design the interior, hired the chefs, worked on the menus and the menu's design. The menu was strictly American, remembered writer Philip K. Scheuer in the L.A. Times. In 1959 Preston Sturges died penniless in a comped room at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. He was 60 years old. During renovations work crews discovered the revolving stage, the dance floor and the infamous secret tunnel connecting to the Chateau Marmont. 

The film critic Ephraim Katz wrote that Sturges films "...parodied with pungent wit various aspects of American life from politics and advertising to sex and hero worship. They were marked by their verbal wit, opportune comic timing, and eccentric, outrageously funny camo characterizations." In 1942, in his review of The Palm Beach Story, critic Manny Farber wrote: "He is essentially a satirist without any stable point of view from which to aim his satire. He is contemptuous of everybody except the little woman who, at some point in every picture, labels the hero a poor sap. Another phase of his attack is shrouding in slapstick the fact that the godfather pays off not for perseverance or honesty or ability but merely from capriciousness." According to Allan Royle, Christmas in July was one of the most acidic portrays of the double sword within a capitalist system, and his research seems to indicate the stars Dick Powell and Ellen Drew might have had a fling behind the scenes, since Drew was in a process of divorce of her first husband Fred Wallace, which became official on October, 8, 1940, coinciding with the widenation release of Christmas in July on October, 18.  -Affairs to Remember (2016) by Allan Royle

Marilyn Monroe in "The Enchanters" (2023)

Jimmy Hoffa assigns Freddy Otash to get dirt on Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys, who are squeezing the Teamster head’s organized crime scene. Freddy starts his investigation. Then, Monroe is found dead. Bobby Kennedy, his brother John F. Kennedy’s attorney general at the time, wants to know what Freddy knows. So do LAPD Chief Bill Parker and his right hand and intelligence ace, a future chief by the name of Daryl Gates. Bobby the K doesn’t want evidence of his brother’s sexual promiscuity, especially among Hollywood starlets and hangers-on, to fall into the wrong hands. Parker wants to blackmail the attorney general into making him FBI chief. Then there’s the episode that kicks off the novel, in which Freddy and the Hat Squad, a real-life quartet of elite and dangerous LAPD detectives, are called in to solve the kidnapping of a B-movie actress named Gwen Perloff. They end up dropping one suspect off a freeway overpass. 

Freddy Otash: I blew off the floor and vacuumed the rugs. I filled half an evidence sheath with threads and unknown gack. I brush-dusted the touch-and-grab planes on the dresser and got useless partials, smudges, and smears. Monroe was a hoarder. My prior B and E’s taught me that. The dresser drawers deserved a toss. I might find all-new shit. It might be evidentially germane. The bedroom was hot, hot. I was dexedrined and jungle-juiced. This prowl-and-seek gig eroticized me. I penlight-flashed the bed and saw that white-blond hair on the white pillow. I opened the top drawer and viewed the contents. I inventoried nine pairs of nylon stockings and a red crocheted bikini. I photo-snapped said contents and counted off sixty seconds. I pulled the print and dropped it in my evidence kit. The room heat spiked. I broke a sweat. A strong wind rattled the windows. I reached under the bedsheets and touched Marilyn’s leg. It felt dead cold and hot-room warm all at once. Drawer #2 contained assorted slips and Chanel No. 5 sachets. Hot-room air merged with perfume residue. I counted six sachets and slips. The slips were all pale pastel. 

There’s a big sign out front. It denotes the “Loser of the Week.” Eddie Fisher begins his reign tonight. He’s the designated schmuck and all-star attraction. I’m bodyguarding Eddie. We’re perched in the greenroom. There’s a full bar and a deli-nosh spread. Note the goblets crammed with goofballs and bennies. Eddie said, “Nixon’s been Loser of the Week twice. Rock Hudson got the nod last month, but nobody knows why.” I lit a cigarette. “Sheriff’s Vice caught him blowing a quiff in the john at the Hamburger Hamlet. The nod’s to the cognoscenti. The Rock’s got a secret-life scenario going. He’s not a signature loser, like you and Nixon.” The Life pix were a worldwide sensation. 

The pictorial corkboard oozed Monroe. It featured the Polaroids from my 4/11 break-in. The dissolute bathroom and bedroom. The forty grand stashed in the lockbox. The jumbo-girl clothes. The coin stash. The lists of lovers and dope-dispensing physicians. The name-scrawled sheets of paper. Monroe’s nutty screed stuck inside Paul de River’s nutty book. The adjacent corkboard featured the week’s random notes. I unpinned them and typed them into bullet-point briefs. I started with Pat’s emphatic assertion: Jack and Marilyn coupled a half dozen times, from ’54 up to now. They were abbreviated assignations. Always conducted in neutral locations. Calvinist Bobby wouldn’t poke Marilyn with a long stick. Marilyn attended last week’s Lawford-house do. I feigned interest in the Jack/Marilyn rumors. Pat supplied the above tattle. I dissembled my way to Pat’s punch line: Marilyn and the K boys were now kaput. Pat said she encountered Marilyn at the Palisades Gelson’s. Marilyn spun a tale of recurrent break-ins at her new pad. The burglar moved around various objects and left her weirdo notes. 

The burglar besieged her with breather calls. Pat cited Marilyn’s “mystery intruder” on a prior tapped call. I’ve got Marilyn dialed. The “mystery intruder” was Monroe fantasia. I used Pat to get this information. The big reunion went down. I bullet-pointed the week’s legwork. That paper slip in Deedee Grenier’s wallet supplied a solid lead. She’d jotted pay-phone numbers for Barrington and Beverly Glen parks. I spot-surveilled the two locations, all week. Monroe failed to show. The phones never rang. Nobody called out on them. Fox kingpin Darryl Zanuck got tipped off. Some unknown woman called him. She finked Danforth and Stein and spilled one of their two girl-stash locations. Zanuck called his tight pal, Bill Parker. Chief Bill bootjacked the kidnap job. He dispatched Freddy and the Hats to a house off 6th and Dunsmuir. We grabbed Danforth and Stein. 

Gwen Perloff was stashed elsewhere. I held Danforth’s right arm. Max held his left arm. Red jammed his head down and force-fed him look-sees. Max went Where’s the girl? Red went Give it up or you fly. Harry, Eddie, and Pervdog Stein stood ten feet back from the drop. It was August-in-L.A. hot and humid. Max and Red sweated through their shirts and suit coats. Danforth wriggled and squirmed. He dug his feet in and thrashed. Dirt clods skittered off the cliff. The fucking drop loomed. I scoped Max and Red. They looked impatient. I clamped Danforth’s arm. He buckled against me. My hand went numb. My legs fluttered. Max and Red ran six-four and 240. Their legs fluttered. Red said, “You’re wearing us thin, Richie. We can’t keep this up all night. Tell us where the girl is, so we can walk away from here.” Danforth giggled and spit on Red’s shoes. He said, “I’m having fun.” I slid on my brass knucks and kidney-punched Richie. He stifled a screech and dug his feet in. I looked over the cliff. Cars zigged by—fast, with no letup. Max sighed. Red sighed. Max said, “Sink him, Freddy.” They dropped their hands. I shoved Danforth off the cliff. He treaded air for one split second, it came out garbled. I heard him hit a car roof. I heard brakes squeal. I heard wheels thump over him. Crisscrossed headlights lit him up. A mobile Caddy dragged him against a guardrail and sheared off his feet. We dumped Buzzy Stein with the DB guys at Highland Park station. Buzzy saw the drop show and finked a hostage pad in Encino. Gwen Perloff was stashed in a vacant bachelor crib off Woodman. The Fidel Castro dimwits hid her in a broom closet. Max called the lead Sheriff’s IO. He ran the command out of the West Hollywood substation. Six Sheriff ’s cars blew past us. The Ventura Freeway was all siren blare and hot lights. It vibed interagency grief. Bill Parker usurps a county job from Sheriff Pete Pitchess. 

Parker went rogue for Darryl F. Zanuck. Pitchess overplays the rescue of Gwen Perloff. The alley dead-ended at Saticoy Street. Déjà vu ditzed me. I knew I’d been here before. My brain wires fritzed. I couldn’t place the context. This summer was half booze-and-dope blur. It was San Fernando Valley hot. The torches leaked propane. The air reeked. The sky pressed down, explosive. The Hats plus Freddy O. We’re here to observe. We killed one guy and locked one guy up. LAPD came in early. The Sheriff ’s came in late. Let’s watch them save the girl. Crane shot. Motel Mike Bayless and Gwen Perloff walk out. Gwen’s unruffled and unmussed. It’s ninety-three degrees at 10:00 p.m. She’s been locked in a broom closet. There’s no sweat pools on her mint green shift. There’s no tape-gag residue. There’s no wrist-restraint chafe marks. She’s redoubtably composed.She’s an actress walking into a crowd. Some men whistle. Some hopped-up stews jump and wave. My biz phone rang. I grabbed it two rings in. A Brit-voiced man babbled at me. I made the voice. It was Peter Lawford. He was half-gassed and far-gone panicked. I heard “dinner party”/“no show”/“found the body.” I said, “Calm down and make sense.” Lawford wheezed. My phone line staticked up. I heard “late for dinner party”/“oh my God”/“Marilyn Monroe.” Gasps and garbles spelled it out. The line cleared. He went over/he saw the pill vials/there was no housekeeper extant.

"Freddy, she was cold. She was such a talent, the greatest female film star of her era..." Nembutal, Seconal, chloral hydrate. Instant dreamland. Lois twirled her ashtray. “The story’s inevitable. Jack and Marilyn. Bobby and Marilyn, when the wind drifts a certain way. People pick up glimmers or bits of stories, and they embellish like mad.” I feigned a yawn. Jack and Marilyn/Bobby and Marilyn. Nat and Lois talk. Pat confides in Bobby. It’s all extraneous yak-yak. “Let’s change the subject. You’ve got the stewardess-in-love flick, and you’re reading for this schlock guy at Fox, Maury Dexter. I heard he’s a pillhead in the Freddy O. mode. What else? Oh, yeah—he’s got a giant-rat job and a twist flick, and you’ll have to settle for scale.” Miss Lytess sipped champagne. “Marilyn overestimated her sway over people. She played her cards too quickly and desperately, in her efforts to impress and seduce them. If these people you posit were canny and properly reserved, and if she wanted to imitate their self-sufficiency and general hauteur, she would have set out to prove herself to them in most dangerous ways.” I squinted. The camera swung low. I saw legs and feet but no faces. I caught the hemline on the dress. I caught thin ankles and the black pumps Monroe wore as herself sixteen minutes back. She went somewhere. She changed clothes. Why did she do it? 

She switched identities in the middle of a roiling protest gig. She’s got the “dreamy eyes” Doc de River attributes to sex psychopaths. Schizo Marilyn. The ’48 pill vial I saw. The ’62 pill vial I saw. Marilyn crossed out “Norma Jean Baker” on the ’48 vial and wrote “Not my name anymore” beside it. Marilyn crossed out the “Marilyn Monroe” on the ’62 vial and wrote “Not my name anymore” beside it. Akin to the Weimar-era pix that Marilyn Monroe hoarded. The lights went up. Some Pali lettermen chanted, “Sex Creep! Sex Creep! Sex Creep!” Sid pointed Morty to the lectern. Morty ambled up. He said, “Here’s a preview of the next installment in my series. I’ve been in serious consultation with an eminent headshrinker here in the City of the Fallen Angels, and he told me the Creep is living through a ‘declension of fan crushes,’ which is to say that he crushed on the late Carole Landis, then went on to crush on someone like Jane Russell, then went on to the crush object of the era—the late Marilyn Monroe.” On to Marilyn. Her coded sessions file delivered. I got verbatim-transcribed Q and A here. The sessions had been tape-recorded and code-transcribed by de River himself. Marilyn consulted him from ’52 to mid-’54. De River coined the phrase “declension of fan crushes” at that time. It preceded her coupling with Timmy Berlin and her own attribution of the phrase. De River used Carole Landis as an example of a “neophyte crusher’s crush.” Marilyn said, “Oh, I knew Carole all right. There’s stories I could tell you.” De River excoriated Marilyn. 

He considered her to be shallow, vain, impetuous, peremptory, whimsical, usurious, and driven by infantile exhibitionism. The only way that she could successfully revise and shape an all-new persona would be for her to go anonymous and cultivate risk in the real world. And revel in the risk of exposure and punishment. Marilyn cited her “bit actress” friend Gwen. She had accomplished just that. Gwen was Marilyn’s age. They shared a room at Hollygrove. Gwen had taken on The Life. They played girl sleuth games at the Grove. Gwen said The Life meant going native. She set up burglary scores and scored seductress film roles. She comported with burglars, armed robbers, and flimflam men. She started stealing young. She underwent group therapy under his direction. De River was starting to bore Marilyn. 

De River fixated on the bold Gwen at the expense of the grasping “dim bulb” Marilyn. Marilyn talked up Gwen. She was her alter ego, doppelgänger, and amanuensis. Gwen carried the symbolic and metaphysical weight that Marilyn could not hoist to her own frail shoulders. Why mince words? De River packed a torch for Gwen and wrote off Marilyn as “stale goods.” She emitted a stale stench of desperate fear and put her own artistic success above all moral considerations. She could not inhabit any role other than the role of herself, at the risk of grave dissociation. My nerves decohered. I popped two yellow jackets to tamp them down and quash this schizzy limbo. I dialed in, dialed out, stepped back and reframed. The dope hit me. It cocooned me, warm and safe. It resituated the shadows and magnified the candlelight.” -The Enchanters (2023) by James Ellroy

Jim DiEugenio: Mike Rothmiller's book has been destroyed piece by piece by the best guy in the field, Don McGovern. Marilyn Monroe took her own life, either willfully or by accident. And Bobby Kennedy was never in Brentwood that day or night and that is provable. Mark Shaw is another of these gaseous blowhards who preaches this rubbish. Don [McGovern] and I will have a decimating review on his public talk in Allen, Texas soon. And I am prepping a long, intricate overview of this whole morass titled, "Joyce Carol Oates, Brad Pitt and the Road to Blonde." Rothmiller claimed to have heard Lawford's confession in 1982 yet made no mention of such a confession for four decades and produced exactly zero evidence that any such confession was actually made. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but Rothmiller has produced no evidence at all. Don McGovern has read something like 120 books on that case. Plus he went through 1000 pages of documents from the  archives at CSUN from the Capell/Slatzer collection. Plus he helped Gary VItacco Robles write his 1200 page bio on MM, Icon, which is probably the best one out there. The truth is, as Vitacco Robles writes, that Lawford did not leave his house or his guests. And the guests corroborate that. And he was always plagued by guilt about it. DA Ronald Carrol wrote a 641 page report which refuted them specifically and in detail. 

The MM conspiracy nuts only mention a 27 page report. But that was  only the summary. Gary VItacco Robles petitioned the office for the full report. And he uses it in his book Icon. Which is how we know that unlike Rothmiller states, neither LAPD nor FBI, or Spindel taped her house. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Mailer's biography of Marilyn Monroe: "Since Mailer did not have the time to thoroughly research the facts surrounding her death, his speculation led to the biography's controversy. The book's final chapter theorizes that Monroe was murdered by rogue agents of the FBI and CIA who resented her supposed affair with Robert F. Kennedy. Mailer later admitted that he embellished the book with speculations about Monroe's sex life and death that he did not himself believe to ensure its commercial success." Source: https://educationforum.ipbhost.com

Icon: What Killed Marilyn Monroe

Two reliable sources who were also guests at the Cal-Neva Lodge, Betsy Hammes and the actor Alex D’Arcy, told biographer Donald Spoto that Sam Giancana was not present. D’Arcy, a friend of mobster Johnny Roselli, told Spoto: "There was absolutely never any affair between Marilyn and any of these mobsters. In fact, there was no connection between Marilyn and the mob at all! She was in Lake Tahoe that weekend [July 27-29], and I saw Marilyn eating dinner. Giancana and his crowd weren’t there, and I would have known if they were." On December 17, 1982, Assistant District Attorney Ronald Carroll requested information and reverse directories for 1962: •​General Telephone •​Pacific Telephone •​Haines Company, Reverse Directory Publications •​Los Angeles Police Department •​Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department •​Federal Bureau of Investigation •​Los Angeles City Public Library. Investigator Alan Tomich successfully obtained photocopies of Monroe’s telephone records. None of the agencies retained 1962 telephone reverse directories, but telephone companies and the library retained Los Angeles directories. The Los Angeles District Attorney LADA’s investigation confirmed through “confidential LAPD records” that LAPD seized Monroe’s phone records. The seizure included toll records from General Telephone Company covering the period from June 1, 1962, to August 18, 1962. During this period, eight toll calls were placed from Monroe’s residence to RE 7-8200, a telephone number in Washington, D.C. The last of these calls was made on July 30, six days before her death. Using law enforcement resources, LADA investigators determined the number RE 7-8200 in Washington, D.C., was the published number of the U. S. Department of Justice headquarters. The number belonged to the general listing for the main switchboard and not a private line. 

If Monroe had called the Attorney General RFK, she would have been transferred via operator assistance to another number. Newspaper articles placed Robert Kennedy in San Francisco and Gilroy the weekend of Monroe’s death. A review of the toll records indicated that no phone calls were made to San Francisco area during the entire period covered by the records. Message unit records were also secured by LAPD for both phones in Monroe’s residence covering June 1 to August 18. The numbers, 476-1890 and 472-4830 are the same numbers for which the long-distance toll records had been secured. Four calls with message unit billings were placed from the Monroe residence on August 5. Two calls were made from each phone. Two of the calls were for two minutes each and two were for one minute each. These calls could have been placed from one minute after midnight on August 5 to one minute before midnight at the end of the 24-hour day. 

It is impossible to pinpoint the exact time of Monroe’s death from the records obtained by the original investigation. The evidence available regarding the level of drugs in her system and the apparent slow absorption rate indicate she probably died or was comatose around midnight the night of August 4, 1962. The records were secured 15 days after Monroe’s death, and it was during this period that rumors surfaced alleging she died while on the telephone or after fading out during a telephone call. If Monroe’s overdose was intentional, there was a legitimate need to investigate the possibility of her having been triggered to take her life by the content of a recent telephone call. The author cross-referenced the phone numbers appearing in the collection of Monroe’s 1962 account statements with Monroe’s 1962 address and telephone book. The results are as follows: •​TR7-7877 – attorney Milton Rudin’s residence in Los Angeles. •​TR5-1357 – friends Norman and Hedda Rosten’s residence on Remsen Street in Brooklyn. •​TR7-2212 – acting coaches Lee and Paula Strasberg’s residence on Central Park West in Manhattan. •​EL5-0954 – close friend Ralph Roberts’ residence on East 51st Street in Manhattan. •​PL8-0800 – attorney Aaron Frosch on East 56th Street in Manhattan. •​WBURY 263-3500 – Arthur Miller’s residence in Roxbury, Connecticut. •​OR3-7792 –Joan Copeland’s residence on Peter Cooper Road in Manhattan. •​PL9-4014 – Monroe’s private residential line at 444 E. 57th Street in Manhattan. •​MU8-4170 – photographer Richard Avedon’s office in Manhattan. •​LO5-0400 – dress manufacturer Henry Rosenfeld’s office on 7th Avenue in Manhattan. •​PL5-4400 – Joe DiMaggio’s residence in Manhattan. •​K13-1512 – Henry Sabini, driver of Exec-u-Car on West 60th Street in Manhattan, and •​CH2-3655 – poet Ettore Rella’s residence on West 14th Street in Manhattan. 

WHAT WAS DR. HYMAN ENGELBERG’S CULPABILITY? Psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson described internist Dr. Hyman Engelberg as a narcissist, and Engelberg’s wife accused him of overmedicating her prior to their separation. Engelberg prescribed nearly 900 units of medication to Monroe in her last 60 days, giving her an arsenal of lethal substances. Monroe died of an overdose of Nembutal and chloral hydrate, contraindicated medications that should not be prescribed or taken together. Engelberg prescribed both medications and later lied to authorities about prescribing chloral hydrate. His name appears on prescriptions for chloral hydrate issued to Monroe in her last months and on the label of the vial of chloral hydrate photographed in her residence by Barry Feinstein on the day her body was discovered. Engelberg and Greenson recklessly coordinated her treatment. Communication between the medical professionals broke down in Monroe’s last weeks because Engelberg had become preoccupied with his marital separation. In 1982, Engelberg accused Dr. Lou Siegel of prescribing Nembutal and chloral hydrate to Monroe, but the original police investigation documented Engelberg had refilled a month’s supply of Monroe’s drugs two days before her death. 

Engelberg prescribed 25 units of Nembutal to Monroe on July 31, 1962, and refilled the prescription on August 3; a total of 50 pills—and a lethal amount if consumed in an overdose. He also prescribed chloral hydrate to Monroe on July 25 and refilled the prescription again on July 31. These refills, issued less than thirty days apart, may be the “smoking gun” in the case as Monroe died from overdoses of these two contraindicated drugs. Additionally, on July 10, 1962, Engelberg prescribed Monroe the following on one prescription: 50 units of Valmid, 25 units of Seconal, 25 units of Tuinal, and 100 units of Librium. Engelberg’s prescriptions for Nembutal and chloral hydrate in late July and then refilled early on August 3, argues Engelberg’s culpability. In early July 1962, Engelberg prescribed to Monroe Dexedrine, a stimulant drug. This stimulant may have triggered a manic episode or mixed episode of mania and depression, precipitating her overdose death. Although Dr. Engelberg and Dr. Greenson reported to the Suicide Prevention Team their treatment plan to decrease Monroe’s dependence on barbiturates and substitute less dangerous medications in her last two months, Engelberg’s refill of the prescription for a month’s supply of Nembutal only three days after the original prescription contradicts this wildly. 

Marilyn Monroe displayed several symptoms consistent with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), identified but quite misunderstood during the era, and requiring firm and consistent boundaries between the doctor and patient. Dr. Ralph Greenson experienced countertransference feelings in which he found importance and gratification treating and befriending a famous, charismatic female star. He also referred Monroe to his brother-in-law, Milton Rudin, who became her attorney. Greenson’s reactivity triggered Monroe’s feelings of abandonment and behaviors of lashing out at him. In May 1962, Greenson traveled to Europe while Monroe worked on the production of her final, unfinished film. Prior to the psychiatrist’s departure, he prescribed Monroe a combination of a sedative and stimulant which may have contributed to her final decline. The stimulant may have triggered a manic episode or mixed episode of mania and depression, precipitating her death. The mania could have fueled Monroe’s energy, increased impulsivity, and reduced judgement, thus increasing her risk of acting on suicidal ideas.

The Kennedy family had connections to Samuel Rosenman, chairman of the 20th Century Fox studio’s board, and she requested assistance from Attorney General Robert Kennedy in leveraging that connection for her reinstatement in the film production. Änd in the weeks prior to Monroe’s death, the board made significant changes in the studio’s leadership. Greenson stated Monroe appeared depressed and over-medicated when he last met with her on the last day of her life. He instructed Pat Newcomb, a competent woman with a direct communication style, to leave the residence and left housekeeper Eunice Murray, a passive personality, with no specific safety instructions related to monitoring Monroe. Greenson alluded that Monroe appeared angry toward him and often reacted with anger when he disagreed with her. Monroe later called the psychiatrist and asked if he had taken her Nembutal. Greenson did not question her current access to Nembutal. Monroe may have provided a hint that Engelberg had recently prescribed the drug that Greenson later stated he and Engelberg agreed to discontinue and replace. 

Marilyn Monroe clearly had a genetic predisposition for mental illness. Engelberg informed the author and others of her having displayed symptoms consistent with the diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder with mixed episodes of depression and mania making her a high risk for impulsive suicide. Monroe’s maternal grandfather took his own life by hanging; suicide is usually always the manifestation of a psychiatric disorder. Monroe’s maternal grandmother was institutionalized and diagnosed with Manic Depressive Psychosis. Monroe’s mother was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and was institutionalized most of her adult life. Monroe’s complex trauma in childhood may also have led to symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, increasing risk for suicidal behavior to end her severe emotional pain. The forensic evidence points to Monroe having overdosed on approximately 47 Nembutal, pointing to her ingesting 25 pills in the original prescription and its refill. 

Many biographers deny Monroe’s potential for intentional suicide; they may be unaware of Borderline Personality Disorder crises that results in suicide gesturing to communicate emotional pain or to end emotional pain.  Greenson later reported Monroe was “quite upset” and “somewhat disoriented.” It was clear to him that she had taken some sleeping pills during her last day. “Marilyn was talking in a confused way,” Greenson told author Maurice Zolotow, “and it was hard to know what exactly what was bothering her.” If she accidentally overdosed, her condition suggests depression, disorientation, or disorganization. Individuals may take their own lives in a mixed or manic episode of Bipolar Disorder, when the serotonin levels in the brain increase energy and decrease judgement. Was Pat Newcomb concerned about Monroe’s stability and intentionally prevented Monroe’s access to Nembutal by keeping it secured in the bedroom where Monroe had invited her to sleep? Could this be the reason Monroe asked Greenson in their last telephone conversation if he had removed the vial of Nembutal? Had Newcomb indirectly deferred to Greenson’s judgment about granting Monroe’s access to the Nembutal in the room where Newcomb had slept the previous night? The constellation of Borderline Personality Disorder and Substance Misuse Disorder clearly increased Monroe’s risk for intentional or accidental overdose. 

Monroe struggled with sleep disturbances for many years, and according to Joan Greenson, especially in her last months. Monroe routinely took steps to create an environment conducive to falling to sleep and minimizing disturbances to awaken her. The fact that one of the telephone extensions remained in her bedroom suggests Monroe had not prepared for sleep when she ingested the overdose. This clue supports the theory that she intentionally overdosed. Of course, we cannot ascertain Monroe’s intention to die or to end emotional pain by overdosing. Nor can we ascertain if Monroe had acted out by risking her life in a suicide gesture during a Borderline crisis as a cry for help while hoping to be rescued. There is no hard evidence of Monroe and JFK’s involvement in an intimate relationship. Monroe’s friends, Ralph Roberts and Sidney Skolsky, wrote about her disclosing to them a brief affair with the President. But how accurate are these sources? Skolsky had been Monroe’s friend since the early days of her career and reunited with her in Los Angeles during her last year. Probably, Skolsky may have been influenced to write about an affair by his publisher. As a close friend and confidant, Roberts had frequent contact with Monroe in New York and Los Angeles during the last two years of her life. 

There are rumors of Monroe and Kennedy being together at Bing Crosby’s residence in Palm Springs in March 1962. The most compelling source is Monroe’s friend and confidante Ralph Roberts who documented a phone call from Monroe in Palm Springs in March 1962 and claims he spoke to a man with an unmistakable Bostonian accent. However, the phone call alone is not evidence of an intimate relationship with JFK. Monroe met Robert Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy at a reception hosted by Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy Lawford in February 1962 prior to the couple’s departure for a goodwill tour of Asia and Europe and socialized with them again during the President’s birthday gala in New York in May. In June 1962, Monroe declined an invitation from Robert and Ethel Kennedy to attend a reception at their home in Virginia during her negotiations with the studio. Monroe also had brief contact with Robert Kennedy at two social receptions at the Lawford residence in late June and late July. In June, Robert Kennedy briefly visited Monroe’s residence in the presence of Eunice Murray. Monroe contacted Robert Kennedy through the main switchboard of the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, from June 25-30, 1962. These calls were precipitated by her termination from 20th Century-Fox Studios following her appearance in May at the President’s Birthday Salute in New York. Monroe’s calls to the Attorney General were related to Kennedy’s connection to Samuel Rosenman, chairman of the board of Fox in New York. The simple explanation for Monroe’s calls is possibly her efforts to request Kennedy’s leverage of Roseman to support changes which would result in her return to the studio. In the end, Darryl F. Zanuck eventually returned and criticized the studio leadership’s decisions which had included Monroe’s termination. 

There is no evidence of Monroe and Robert Kennedy engaging in an intimate relationship either. Ethel Kennedy’s invitation to Monroe supports this along with Monroe’s reported denial of an affair to close friends such as Norman Rosten and Ralph Roberts. Most likely, Monroe had a social acquaintanceship friendship with both Kennedy and his wife, initiated through mutual friends Patricia Newcomb, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, and Peter Lawford. Ralph Roberts’ published memoir, Mimosa: Memories of Marilyn and the Making of “The Misfits” contains the author’s notes related to Monroe’s last excursion to Lake Tahoe. The notes include a nonspecific reference to “her disagreement with Joe DiMaggio.” Apparently, Monroe quarreled with her former husband leading to increased stress during the weekend. “I didn’t want to go,” Roberts quotes Monroe as telling him. “Pat [Lawford] persuaded me. It turned out to be a complete disaster.” Why was Monroe at the Cal-Neva Lodge? The simplest explanation is that she accompanied the Lawfords to support Dean Martin, her co-star in Something’s Got to Give, who was headlining in the resort’s Celebrity Show Room. The Reno Gazette-Journal promoted Martin’s booking at the Cal-Neva in July 26, 1962.

 

WHO FAILED TO INTERVENE DURING MONROE’S FINAL CRISIS? Peter Lawford called Marilyn Monroe on the last night of her life and after speaking with her, believed she was in danger. He described her slurred speech and voice fading out during the call. When he called Monroe back, her phone was busy. He called an operator who informed him of no conversation on Monroe’s telephone line, indicating her telephone receiver was off its cradle. Intoxicated and unable to drive, Lawford enlisted his friends, Joseph and Dolores Naar and manager Milton Ebbins, to check on her. Dolores Naar Nemiro is the only surviving guest of Lawford’s reception that evening (she is a member of SHARE, the oldest charity in Beverly Hills, started by the wives of the famous Rat Pack). Milton Ebbins went on recording having advised Lawford not to become involved in Monroe’s crisis as Lawford was married to the sister of the President of the United States. Ebbins initiated a series of telephone calls to enlist others in intervening, including his leaving a message with Milton Rudin for a call-back. Robert E. Litman, a psychiatrist who co-founded the nation’s first comprehensive suicide prevention center in 1958 in Los Angeles, examined Monroe's “psychological autopsy,” thinking after a deliberate overdose, she made a call for attention and she wanted to be rescued.

It was a Saturday night, and those involved may have been drinking alcohol and under its influence. First, Ebbins contacted the answering service of Milton Rudin, Dr. Greenson’s brother-in-law and Monroe’s attorney. Ebbins remained at home where he was meeting with comic Mort Sahl. When Rudin returned Ebbins’ call from a dinner party, Lawford’s urgent concern about Monroe may have been minimized. Rudin called Monroe’s residence but did not communicate an urgent concern when he spoke to Eunice Murray, housekeeper/companion. Murray stated Monroe was fine. Rudin did not press the issue with Murray. Murray’s lack of action may also have been influenced by Monroe’s intentions of firing her along with Greenson. After receiving Murray’s feedback, Ebbins called the Naars and told them not to drive to Monroe’s nearby residence to her. In the end, no one checked on Monroe’s safety after Peter Lawford raised the alarm. In this scenario, Murray delayed intervening until it was too late to save Monroe’s life. Toxicological and chemical analysis revealed Nembutal and chloral hydrate were present in high concentration in Monroe’s liver and low concentration in her blood, indicating an oral ingestion and complete metabolism of the drugs. Monroe slipped into coma, and cardiac activity and respiration slowed before ceasing. Time of death is estimated between 12:30 am to 1:00 am on August 5, 1962. Monroe ingested approximately forty-seven units of Nembutal and seventeen units of chloral hydrate. Medical Examiner-Coroner Theodore Curphey informed the press in 1962 that Monroe’s toxicology report indicating 4.5 milligrams of barbiturate poisoning per 100 cc of blood constituted about twice the amount usually considered a lethal dosage. 

Does anyone really want to know what lead to Marilyn Monroe’s death? I think not. That would close the case. It is the retelling of her death story that interests the public, sells books, attracts viewers to documentaries and dramatizations. Monroe is killed in each narrative. Writers recycle information regardless of its accuracy and despite it having been disproven. Marilyn Monroe was a resilient survivor of childhood complex trauma who succumbed to intergenerational mental illness. On August 18, 1962, according to the Suicide Team report, Monroe’s case should be classified as a “probable suicide.” The Coroner’s Office held a press conference to announce the findings during which the Chief Medical Examiner stated his conclusion: Monroe’s death was caused by a “self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death [was] probable suicide.” On October 1, 1983, Simon & Schuster released the first edition of Dr. Thomas Noguchi’s autobiography, Coroner, co-authored by Joseph Dimona. The former coroner went on record to defend his official findings of the cause of Monroe’s death. “In my opinion, the official conclusion stated the situation correctly (if evasively): ‘probable suicide,’” he wrote, “I would call it ‘very probable.’” The cause of death by acute barbiturate poisoning determined to be a “probable suicide” seems an appropriate conclusion based upon the forensic data and psychological history of Marilyn Monroe. —Icon: What Killed Marilyn Monroe, Volume Two (2023) by Gary Vitacco-Robles

Happy 97th Anniversary, Marilyn Monroe!

“I knew and acted with Marilyn Monroe,” Niagara co-star and actor Joseph Cotten later wrote. “I am proud of having had that privilege. May she rest in peace.” “She did an awful lot to boost things up for movies, when everything was at a low state,” remarked actress Betty Grable, co-star of How to Marry a Millionaire. “There’ll never be anyone like her for looks, for attitude, for all of it.” “Nobody discovered her,” Twentieth Century-Fox Studios’ head Darryl F. Zanuck professed, “she earned her own way to stardom… I disagreed and fought with her on many occasions, but in spite of her temperament she never let the public down.” Evidence surfaced in the early 1990s demonstrating Fox was negotiating with Monroe’s attorney to rehire her during the summer of 1962 due in part to Robert F. Kennedy using his influence to get her reinstated by 20th CenturyFox Film studios.

What did Hyman Engelberg report in 1982? On September 27, 1982, Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office investigators Al Tomich and Robert Seiler interviewed Hyman and Miriam Engelberg at Engelberg’s office at 465 N. Roxbury Drive, Suite 1003, Beverly Hills. Engelberg identified himself as Monroe’s physician at time of her death and for approximately the last five years of her life. He directed his wife to retrieve Monroe’s medical file for specific information, but she was unable to locate it. Engelberg stated the file may have been released to the coroner’s office following Monroe’s death. According to Engelberg, he coordinated her treatment and medication with her psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson, who was considered the primary doctor in charge of her treatment. While working on Something’s Got to Give, Monroe suffered from a sinus infection, and Engelberg treated her with liver vitamin injections. He recalled visiting her residence on the evening of August 3, 1962, and administering such an injection, using a small needle on her arm. Engelberg also reported having prescribed Nembutal to Monroe as a sleep aid, regulated at one pill per day. On August 5, 1962, Engelberg was living alone in the West Los Angeles area and received a phone call at approximately 2:30 or 3:00 AM. He was awakened by call, but could not recall the caller’s identity, only that the caller informed him that Monroe had died. Engelberg stated he arrived at her residence about fifteen minutes after ending the call. Engelberg recounts entering Monroe’s residence and entering the master bedroom where he found Greenson. Engelberg observed Monroe “sprawled” on the bed. Monroe’s internist recounts his examination of the body for signs of life by using a stethoscope for heart rate and checking the eye pupils for a reaction to light. He determined she was dead. “Dr. Greenson knew anyway,” Engelberg says in the recording, “but I had to go through the motions.” In the recording of the excerpt of Engelblerg’s interview, the investigator states, “There was apparently quite a volume of pills that were discovered upon her death.” “Yes,” Engelberg affirms. “Do you recall looking at a list of those pills and were they all prescribed by you?” “Only one had been prescribed by me,” Engelberg responds. “I had prescribed Nembutal to help her sleep, but as I recall to the best of my ability, I was surprised to see at the side of her bed a large number of other sleeping pills which looked like Seconal, which she had apparently purchased on a recent trip to Mexico. It is my understanding that in Mexico you could go into any pharmacy and buy any tranquilizers or sleeping pills you wanted.” “Chloral hydrate specifically?” asks the investigator. “I didn’t notice that specifically,” Engelberg responds. “I know that the coroner told me after that they had found evidence of barbiturates and chloral hydrate. I knew nothing about any chloral hydrate. I never used chloral hydrate.” “So, you wrote her prescription for Nembutal only,” the investigator clarifies. “That was it,” Engelberg asserts. “The only prescription I wrote.” This is simply not true. The Los Angeles Coroner’s Report of Chemical Analysis report dated August 6, 1962, listed four vials of medications prescribed by Engelberg in addition to Nembutal (confirmed by prescriptions that subsequently were photographed or went to auction): • Librium 5 mg, 50 units prescribed on June 7, 1962. • Librium 10 mg, 100 units prescribed on July 10, 1962. • Chloral hydrate, 0.5 mg, 50 units prescribed on July 25, 1962, and refilled July 31, 1962. • Nembutal 1.5 gr., 25 units prescribed on August 3, 1962. • Phenergan 25 mg, 25 units prescribed on August 3, 1962. According to the investigator’s summary report of Engelberg’s interview, the physician “further stated he never prescribed chloral hydrate for his patients.” We now know that Engelberg lied about prescribing chloral hydrate to Monroe. The vial of this medication may have been found on her night table, as it was photographed by Barry Feinstein and published in LIFE and Paris-Match in 1962. Engelberg’s name, Monroe’s name, the date, and the name of the medication are visible on the label in the photograph. Additionally, on June 7, 1962, Engelberg prescribed Monroe one hundred units of chloral hydrate. Evidence of this came to light when the prescription was auctioned by Julien’s in Los Angeles on May 7, 2011.

 

An interview with Hyman Engelberg appears in the documentary Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess, which aired on A&E network’s Biography television series on September 29, 1996. On camera, he reported his theory surrounding Monroe’s death, based upon his belief that Monroe called Peter Lawford in a cry for help. However, according to Lawford’s interviews by investigators in 1975 and 1982, Monroe had not initiated a call to Lawford, he called her. Engelberg explained his theory about Monroe’s symptoms of Bipolar Disorder and possible situational triggers in the documentary: "I believe she was in a manic phase and then something happened to suddenly depress her, and she grabbed pills there— she had plenty of pills at the bedside. I think she was suddenly depressed and in that sense it was intentional. Then, I think, she thought better of it when she felt herself going under because she called Peter Lawford. So, while it was intentional, at that time, I do believe that she changed her mind." Engelberg also discussed Monroe’s battle with Bipolar Disorder, which he referred to as manic depression, in the documentary Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days, released in 2001. “I had never given her Seconal,” Engelberg vehemently asserted in The Mortal Goddess. However, a prescription auctioned by Julien’s of Los Angeles on October 21, 2011, proves otherwise. Dated July 10, 1962, the prescription revealed Engelberg prescribed Monroe twenty-five units of Seconal, “one for sleep,” along with fifty units of Valmid, “one for sleep,” twenty-five units of Tuinal, “one for sleep,” and one hundred units of Librium, “as directed.” This totals two hundred pills. Again, Engelberg lied about the medications and quantities of medication he prescribed to Monroe in her final months. In the documentary’s interview, Engelberg denied prescribing Monroe chloral hydrate just as he had denied to Los Angeles District Attorney’s investigators prescribing her Seconal. “I never gave her chloral hydrate,” he asserted, “and I don’t think any doctor in the United States gave it to her.” Of course, we know this is simply not true. 

Following her divorce from Arthur Miller, Pat Newcomb supported Monroe through a major depressive episode resulting in two consecutive psychiatric hospitalizations in New York in early 1961. The publicist also assisted Joe DiMaggio in coordinating Monroe’s discharge from Payne Whitney Clinic in February, transfer to Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital’s Neurological Institute, and discharge from the latter hospital in March. Newcomb maintained an apartment in Los Angeles on South Canon Drive when Monroe returned to the West Coast in the late summer of 1961 to resume her film career. Newcomb also accompanied Monroe to Mexico in February 1962 on a shopping spree for authentic furnishings, décor, and art for her recently purchased Spanish Colonial hacienda. Following Monroe’s termination from 20th Century-Fox Studios, Newcomb assisted her in emotionally rebounding and orchestrated a media blitz to salvage her career. Loyal, stable, and grounded, Newcomb spent Friday night, August 3, 1962, at Monroe’s hacienda. The publicist lounged by her host’s swimming pool beside a medicinal desert-air lamp. The lamp provided relief from bronchitis, asthma, and head colds. According to Newcomb and accounts provided by Eunice Murray and Dr. Greenson, Monroe was irritable on Saturday. Newcomb had slept soundly the previous night, and Monroe’s sleep had been disturbed. Newcomb went on record to state she believed Monroe’s irritability had not been related to the difference in their sleep patterns. In 1969, Newcomb co-founded Pickwick Public Relations with other prominent female agents including Lois Weber Smith (Monroe’s former publicist), Pat Kingsley, and Gerry Johnson. At the time, the motion picture studio system was ending, and studios no longer provided public relations services.

Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office investigator Al Tomich interviewed Patricia Newcomb at her residence on Hidden Valley Road in Beverly Hills on September 7, 1982. Newcomb described Monroe as a “very secretive and suspicious person.” In response to investigator’s questions, Newcomb stated Monroe did not relate to her any romantic relationships with John F. Kennedy or Robert F. Kennedy. Newcomb recounted spending the night at Monroe’s residence on Friday, August 3, 1962, at Monroe’s suggestion because Monroe had a heat lamp to alleviate the publicist’s symptoms of bronchitis. Newcomb recalled accompanying Monroe to a restaurant in Santa Monica or Brentwood. She described Monroe’s mood that night as “very up” and observed her “laughing.” They returned to Monroe’s residence after dinner where Newcomb spent the night. Newcomb surmised Monroe’s anger was clearly not really triggered by the difference in their sleep pattern. On Saturday, August 4, Newcomb utilized Monroe’s heat lamp and also observed Dr. Greenson’s arrival at Monroe’s residence in the late afternoon. When Greenson later exited Monroe’s bedroom, he told Newcomb it would be better if she left. She followed his directive and departed. Newcomb described Eunice Murray as “very strange.” Newcomb also reported no knowledge of Murray being a psychiatric nurse. According to Newcomb, Monroe’s closest confidante was Ralph Roberts. Newcomb told investigators that she believed Monroe’s death was accidental. Newcomb was aware that Dr. Hyman Engelberg was supposed to advise Dr. Ralph Greenson of when Monroe requested medication. Newcomb had heard from an unknown source that Monroe’s last prescription from Engelberg was not reported to Greenson because Engelberg was experiencing “other problems and forgot.” [Engelberg separated from his wife Esther on May 5, 1962, and the couple’s divorce was finalized June 11, 1964.] Monroe and Newcomb were four years apart and became close personal friends outside of their professional affiliation. As a result of this emotional connection, Newcomb was personally protective of Monroe. She took personal offense to the media’s crass exploitation of Monroe’s death after which she immediately left her position at Arthur P. Jacobs Company. Newcomb remained loyal to Monroe by refusing to publish a memoir about her knowledge about Monroe’s life despite multiple lucrative offers. Columnist Dorothy Manners reported in the 1960s that Newcomb refused a sizeable sum to sell her memories of Monroe to the press. The former publicist has been widely criticized for not publicly responding to every inane rumor about Monroe’s life broadcast in the media over the last sixty years. 

Critics fail to consider Pat Newcomb as a member of Monroe’s chosen family who experienced a deep personal loss and labored to achieve healing and closure. Newcomb responded to my calls by defending herself for the first time after three decades of rumors: "The Kennedys never gave me a dime, never offered me anything, and never made a job available to me. On the afternoon of the day Marilyn died, I had been with her, but her psychiatrist advised me to go home, because he wanted to talk with her. I did go home and was awakened at 4 in the morning by the lawyer Mickey Rudin. He told me Marilyn was dead—an overdose. I rushed to Marilyn’s house. The press was there, and I did become overwrought and yell at them, calling them “vultures.” Patricia Newcomb said of Monroe. “But of course, she was under the care of a psychiatrist, and never should have been given as many Nembutal pills as she was given by Dr. Engelberg. Engelberg was supposed to let Greenson know if he gave her such a prescription but that week, he was having trouble with his wife and he forgot about it. It is hard to understand negligence such as that. If there is any doctor to blame, it’s Engelberg.” The author upholds Patricia Newcomb’s privacy and reveals only that she has acknowledged to him her devotion for Monroe and her knowledge of Monroe’s deep emotional pain. 

According to Ralph Roberts, Dr. Greenson appeared heavily influential in Monroe’s life; she seriously considered his recommendation to sever several relationships and placed herself entirely in his hands. Once Greenson secured Eunice Murray as Monroe’s selected companion in the autumn of 1961, he maneuvered Roberts’ distance from Monroe. One November afternoon as Roberts sat in his car parked at the curb outside Greenson’s residence, waiting to drive Monroe home from a session, she climbed into the car sobbing. “Dr. Greenson thinks you should go back to New York,” she wept. “He has chosen someone else to be a companion for me. He said that two Ralphs in my life are one too many…” Trusting Greenson’s judgment, neither Monroe nor Roberts protested. Roberts later described Murray as intimidating, manipulative, and divisive of Monroe and her friends. Roberts and Monroe conspired to maintain their close association by scheduling massage appointments after nine o’clock in the evening, after Murray had gone home. Roberts typically entered the home without ringing the doorbell. On one awkward occasion, Roberts and Greenson accidently confronted each other, and the doctor grimaced with disapproval. Roberts also stated Monroe did not keep a diary in her last year. He described her as sometimes disoriented and disorganized. Roberts denied observing Monroe consuming alcohol except for champagne and never observed her intoxicated. He reported that during Monroe’s last months of life, she took chloral hydrate for sleep. Peter Lawford went on record three times to report his last telephone conversation with Marilyn Monroe in what may have been her last moments of consciousness. This connection has led many to assume Lawford and Monroe were longtime close friends. This simply is inaccurate. 

An attractive and desirable playboy in his youth, Lawford had been romantically linked to Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, and Ava Gardner. According to publicist Rupert Allan, Monroe never truly liked or trusted Lawford but shared a friendly association with his wife. Patricia Kennedy Lawford was allegedly smitten with Monroe’s warm personality and celebrity, and like most of Monroe’s friends, wanted to protect and take care of her. Patricia Lawford was vibrant, lighthearted, and acerbic. She especially enjoyed making Monroe laugh. Eunice Murray, Monroe’s housekeeper/companion in the last nine months of her life, overheard Monroe’s telephone conversations with Patricia Lawford and perceived the President’s sister as Monroe’s best friend. “Marilyn had a quiet voice and she would smile at me and head out to walk on the sand with my mom,” Christopher Lawford wrote in Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption. “My mother told me Marilyn was like her ‘little sister.’ It surprised her that Marilyn was so open with her. My mom didn’t come from an environment where emotions and feelings were openly shared. Marilyn Monroe trusted my mother’s love for her.” Christopher recalled Monroe teaching him to dance the Twist in his living room when he was still a toddler. Peter Lawford reported he had phoned Monroe but she was tired and wasn’t going to be able to come to dinner. From her slurred voice, Lawford recognized that she was nearly asleep from pills… Monroe’s voice trailed off, and the phone apparently dropped from her hand. Lawford wanted to go to Monroe’s home but was dissuaded by agent Milton Ebbins. Rupert Allan never believed Monroe would have called Lawford in an emergency. Allan said that Monroe despised Lawford, and her only connection to him was the close relationship she had with Patricia Kennedy Lawford. Allan asserted Monroe would more likely have turned to Patricia if in crisis. Furthermore, Monroe wouldn’t have tried to reach Patricia at the beach since she was aware her friend was visiting Hyannis Port. In all likelihood, Marilyn’s last contact with a human being was the voice of an operator informing her that Mr. Ralph Roberts was out for the evening. At 7:00 or 8:00 PM, Lawford called Monroe again to ascertain the reason she had not yet arrived. Lawford described her as sounding “very despondent,” and her voice was “slurred.” When Monroe’s voice became inaudible, Lawford yelled into the telephone to “revive” her, describing it as a “verbal slap in the face.” Monroe told him she was very tired and would not be coming to his residence. Lawford told investigators that Monroe said, “Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to Jack, and say goodbye to yourself because you’re a nice guy.” When the phone went dead, Lawford assumed Monroe ended the call. He tried redialing several times, but her phone line was busy each time. Lawford described having had a “gut” feeling something was wrong and said: “I still blame myself for not going to her home that night.” 

Lawford reported first meeting Monroe in 1951 and described her as shy and introverted. He told investigators Monroe experienced episodes of depression during which she withdrew and isolated from others. Lawford was unable to estimate the frequency of these depressive episodes. In her last years, Lawford observed Monroe taking pills but was unaware of the medications prescribed to her. He speculated that she took a sleeping medication named Placidyl. Lawford also stated Monroe drank champagne but was “not a drunk.” According to Lawford, his former wife, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, met Monroe in 1958, and both women became “close friends.” Patricia attempted to help Monroe reduce her intake of pills and suggested Monroe use Dramamine as an alternative to more dangerous drugs. The President and Monroe never engaged in a romantic relationship, Lawford asserted. Also, Lawford told investigators Monroe and Robert Kennedy were not engaged in a romantic relationship either. When Lawford called Monroe at 7:00 PM, her phone was busy for thirty minutes. He called the operator who told him Monroe’s phone was off the hook. Lawford then called Milton Ebbins, his agent, and expressed his concern about her. Lawford instructed Ebbins to contact Monroe’s attorney, Milton Rudin, and psychiatrist Ralph Greenson, to check on her well-being. Lawford consistently reported in interviews documented in 1962 and 1975 that he had initiated the last telephone call to Monroe. “We all knew Marilyn took too many pills and was drinking heavily,” Ebbins recalled. “I suggested we could call Milton Rudin, Marilyn’s attorney, and her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, and ask them to go to her house. I talked to Milton about Peter’s apprehension.” As corroborated by Eunice Murray’ statement to the police, Milton Rudin called Monroe’s house. Ebbins recalled Rudin called him at 7:30 to say he had spoken to Murray “who said she had looked in on Marilyn.” According to Ebbins, “Murray told Milton, ‘She does this every night. She takes the pills, calls somebody and falls asleep. She’s fine.’” Lawford’s telephone calls to Ebbins continued into the night. “Peter called me twice more when he was getting a little drunk,” Ebbins recalled, “expressing his fear that Marilyn was very ill. Peter called me once after midnight and he was bombed.” One can imagine Rudin advising both Dr. Greenson and Dr. Engelberg as the psychiatrist and the internist discussed the medications discovered in Monroe’s home, some of which were contraindicated, and some prescribed by Engelberg without Greenson’s knowledge. The following is a transcription of a recording of Milton Ebbins’ interview with biographer Anthony Summers archived at the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills: "Peter Lawford invited her to dinner that Saturday night. He asked me to come out. I stayed home watching TV. Then he called me and told me that Marilyn was not going to come because she was tired. She wanted to have a sandwich and go to bed. And then he said he got a phone call from her. It was quite a strange phone call. She had obviously taken some medication to sleep which she did whenever she went to bed. It was about 8 o’clock at night and she talked, kind of rambled along, she told Peter how marvelous everybody and the Kennedys were, and she loved his wife Pat. And all of a sudden, the phone went dead. So, Peter called back, and he said he got a busy signal. So, he called the operator, and she said the phone was out of order. I know Jack Kennedy and Robert weren’t going to kill her. That's absurd. They were very fond of Marilyn Monroe."

Monroe reportedly received telephone calls congratulating her on the interview with Richard Meryman on the topic of fame, published in the August 3rd issue of LIFE magazine currently on newsstands. Meryman was clearly touched by the charismatic child-woman he discovered at her home on Fifth Helena Drive. He recorded memories in an article titled “A Last Long Talk with a Lonely Girl” published in LIFE shortly after Monroe’s death and in an HBO documentary Marilyn: The Last Interview (1992). Meryman perceived “the house was saturated in paranoia,” with an eerie “me-against-the-world” quality. Aside from finding Monroe to be surprisingly unsexy, he was astounded by her excellent taste in decorating. Meryman especially admired a Chinese horse carved from wood from San Francisco’s China Town. When he had difficulty setting up his tape recorder, Monroe offered help and the use of the recorder given to her by poet Norman Rosten. At midnight during the interview, Monroe suggested grilling steaks. They searched the refrigerator for food but found it nearly empty. In Dr. Robert Litman’s first interview with Dr. Greenson on the day prior to Monroe’s funeral, Geenson summarized his history of treating her. Monroe’s psychiatrist reported first providing services to her in late 1959, during the filming of Let's Make Love (1960) directed by George Cukor. 

The psychiatrist told Litman that Monroe exhibited “extremely weak psychological structures” and further described her as “extremely impulsive, she felt unimportant and derived self-confidence from her beauty.” Apparently, Monroe shared with Greenson her perception of the most important aspect of her life being her acting profession. Litman went on to document Greenson’s description of Monroe having “neurotic complaints” and “extreme sensitivity to rejection.” In Litman’s second interview with Greenson, one-week later, on August 14, Greenson “made it clear she was not a drug addict.” Engelberg, who was in charge of the prescription of medication while Dr. Greenson handled the psychotherapy, began to cautiously try out Nembutal again to help Miss Monroe sleep.” Interestingly, in the four-page letter, Litman wrote of a third doctor involved in Monroe’s care: “Unknown to Greenson, however, Miss Monroe obtained sleeping pills from two doctors. Furthermore, the two doctors did not know that she was getting pills from the other one. She received a prescription for 25 Nembutal tablets from Dr. Siegel (filled August 3, 1962 and found empty in her bedroom), and 50 chloral hydrate capsules refilled July 31 from Dr. Engelberg. Litman also confirmed that when he interviewed Engelberg in 1962, Engelberg stated he may have prescribed Nembutal to Monroe. Finally, Litman also reported having interviewed Dr. Siegel in 1962, who stated he prescribed more Nembutal. However, only the prescription number on the Nembutal vial’s label #20858 was recorded on the toxicology report. Another prescription number corresponds with prescription #20857, visible on the surviving prescription for Phenergan dated August 3, 1962, and signed by Engelberg. This appears to prove that Engelberg wrote at least these two prescriptions for Monroe on the same day. If Dr. Lou Seigel had also prescribed Nembutal to Monroe around the same time, the vial of this supply of the medication was not documented by the authorities. 

Stanley J. Coen’s article, “Narcissistic Temptations to Cross Boundaries and How to Manage Them” (published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Associate) referenced Dr. Greenson’s apparent countertransference in the life of his arguably most impressive and tempting patient. Without passing judgment on Greenson, Coen identified the warning signs of the amount of time the doctor devoted to Monroe at the expense of other patients and his family, his involvement in her career, and his talking about her with others. In his article, published in 2007, Coen explored the rarely studied danger of an analyst’s narcissistic neediness; steering treatment away from the patient’s needs and toward the analyst’s own needs, seemingly describing Dr. Greenson and Monroe’s dynamic. An analyst may find a patient “impressive” by her celebrity, power, wealth, attractiveness, sexiness, and youth. He may inflate one or more of these features into making the impressive patient and himself somehow special and wanted to share the patient’s world. The analyst may also attempt to manage his own feelings of both envy of and separateness from his impressive patient by overly identifying with her. Coen pinpointed Dr. Ralph Greenson died on November 24, 1979, three years before the Los Angeles District Attorney’s threshold probe into the death of his most famous patient. However, he went on record to discuss his perceptions in two interviews with Dr. Robert E. Litman on August 7 and 14, 1962, and in correspondence with Dr. Marianne Kris dated August 20, 1962. Eleven years after Monroe’s death, in response to Norman Mailer’s explosive mainstream allegation of her murder, Greenson also consented to an in-depth interview with biographer Maurice Zolotow. 

The interview was published in articles titled Marilyn Monroe’s Psychiatrist: Trying to Untarnish Her Memory, and Mailer’s Book Upsets Leading Psychiatrist. Greenson’s letter to Dr. Marianne Kris, dated August 20, 1962, referenced his reported unawareness of Monroe’s internist, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, having recently prescribed a barbiturate to their mutual patient. “On Friday night she had told the internist that I had said it was all right for her to take some Nembutal,” Greenson wrote, “and he had given it to her without checking with me, because he had been upset for his own personal reasons.” Greenson implied that Monroe had successfully manipulated her internist into prescribing medication through deception that Greenson had approved it. Regardless, Engelberg failed to inform the psychiatrist. Greenson’s letter to Dr. Marianne Kris contained additional details of his last or near last interaction with Monroe. “I was aware that she was annoyed with me,” he wrote. “She often became annoyed when I did not absolutely agree with her. She was angry with me. I told her we would talk more, that she should call me on Sunday morning.” Monroe may have indirectly informed Greenson of her access to Nembutal and provided an opportunity for him to further question her. This is likely the main crux of the case and a pivotal moment in the constellation of events that ultimately led to her death. Based on Greenson’s letter to Dr. Kris, he overlooked questioning Monroe about Nembutal in that moment and failed to reconcile her supply and access to dangerous medication. Since Greenson went on record stating he believed Engelberg had discontinued prescribing barbiturates to Monroe, it was incumbent upon him to pause after Monroe’s mention of Nembutal and further assess the situation. Greenson also admitted in the letter to Dr. Kris that he was “being led by countertransference feelings.” 

“She was a borderline schizophrenic. If I behaved in a way which hurt her,” Greenson wrote of Monroe in his letter to Dr. Kris, “she acted as though it was the end of the world and could not rest until peace had been re-established, but peace could mean reconciliation and death.” The last statement is cryptic; what is the meaning of “reconciliation and death”? Maurice Zolotow’s 1973 article also quoted the Greenson’s inference about Monroe’s intent in ingesting the overdose: "I will always believe it was an accidental suicide because her hand was on receiver, her finger still in the dial. I am convinced she was trying to phone me. If only she had reached me! Many times, she called me at 2, 3, 4 a.m.—countless times. She was trying to call me as she had so many times before. I can assure you that, contrary to Norman Mailer’s speculations, Marilyn did not have any important emotional involvement with Robert Kennedy or any other man at this time. Marilyn Monroe died of an accidental overdose of barbiturates. She was a good human being. She was a lost and very lonely woman who had never gotten over being a waif. It is a tragedy that her artistic achievement as an actress, and all the wealth and fame it brought her, did not give her peace. She had a good future ahead of her. She was making progress. If only she had completed that call to me." By 1973, Dr. Greenson had no hesitancy in telling Maurice Zolotow, “I can assure you that, contrary to Norman Mailer’s speculations, Marilyn did not have any important emotional relationship with Robert Kennedy or any other man at this time.” 

Borderline Personality Disorder was a diagnosis first accepted by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980 and first appearing in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders, Third edition. “It was just devastating,” Joan Greenson told Christopher Turner of The Telegraph in 2010 regarding the impact of Monroe’s death on her father. “I don’t think my father ever got over it… He had never had a patient die before that he was taking care of other than from a natural death.” We can only imagine Greenson’s emotional reaction of knowing Monroe had asked him if he had seen her vial of Nembutal and acknowledging his failure to act. Did Greenson and Engelberg realize Monroe had obtained medication from a third physician, Dr. Lou Seigel? We can only imagine Engelberg’s reaction to the consequences of his oversight in informing Greenson of his recent prescription of Nembutal or Greenson possibly confronting Engelberg on his collusion with Monroe and resulting in her death. ―Icon: What Killed Marilyn Monroe, Volume One (2023) by Gary Vitacco-Robles