The mystery of the death of the most famous movie star of the twentieth century, Marilyn Monroe (real name - Norma Jean Baker) continues to thrill the minds more than half a century later. The official version says that the actress committed suicide. But is it?
Fateful night
In 1961, Monroe experienced a series of dramatic events: she divorced her husband, the famous playwright Arthur Miller, her last film was criticized in the press … All this led to depression, the actress almost did not leave her house, located in the Los Angeles area of Brentwood, and constantly took sleeping pills.
In the summer of 1962, Marilyn was supposed to star in the eccentric comedy Something's Got To Happen. However, she repeatedly missed filming, and on June 8, the contract with her was terminated.
Monroe's housekeeper, Eunice Murray, testifies that on the evening of August 4, her mistress complained of fatigue and retired to her bedroom early enough, taking the telephone. Subsequently, many of Marilyn's acquaintances claimed that they talked to her on the phone in the last hours of her life. In particular, the actor Peter Lawford, the husband of President John F. Kennedy's sister Patricia, said that Marilyn said in a tangled tongue: "Say goodbye to Pat, to the President and to yourself, because you are a nice guy."
After midnight, Eunice was alarmed that light was still shining from under the mistress's door. She went out into the garden, from there looked into the window of Marilyn's bedroom and saw that she was lying motionless on the bed. Then Murray called Dr. Ralph Greenson, the psychiatrist whom Monroe was seeing, and her personal physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg. Greenson arrived first. Entering the bedroom, he found Marilyn's dead body. She was clutching a phone receiver in her hands, and an empty sleeping pill was lying on the floor next to the bed. There were fourteen empty vials of other medicines on the night table. No suicide notes were found in the room.
Engelberg appeared soon after, and pronounced death. The body was sent to the morgue for examination. Pathologist Dr. Thomas Noguchi performed an autopsy and concluded that the cause of death was "acute barbiturate poisoning, oral overdose." A police report was drawn up, which recorded: "Probably suicide."
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Sleeping pills, drugs, Kennedy brothers …
The death of Monroe was widely discussed in the press. Unfortunately, hundreds of Americans were so impressed by this event that they decided to follow the example of the star and also committed suicide with various drugs …
Meanwhile, for many, the suicide of the actress did not seem so obvious. For example, it was rumored that the indirect culprit of her death was the psychiatrist Ralph Greenson, who prescribed Marilyn to take chloral hydrate after Nembutal. It was this, they say, that caused the depression, which eventually led the movie star to the idea of suicide … Also, a version was put forward that Monroe died not at all from drugs, but from a drug overdose.
But, perhaps, one should dwell in more detail on the version that Monroe was killed by American intelligence officers on the orders of the Kennedy brothers, John and Robert, with whom the star was in love during his lifetime.
In the documentary book "The Murder of Marilyn Monroe: Case Closed" it is said that Marilyn might have known some information that discredited the president and his brother.
CIA hitman
In April 2015, the confession of 78-year-old ex-CIA officer Norman Hodges caused a real sensation. The old man made it before his death in one of the hospitals in Virginia.
According to Hodges, from 1959 to 1972, on the instructions of his organization, he committed 37 contract killings of people who threatened the security of the United States. Among them was Marilyn Monroe. He was told that due to her close relationship with the Kennedy brothers and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, she received strategically important information, which could, for example, convey to the communists, which would harm American interests.
Hodges' commander Jimmy Hayworth demanded that Monroe's death look not like murder, but like an accident or suicide. On August 5, 1962, between midnight and 1 am, the killer entered the movie actress's bedroom and injected her with a mixture of chloral hydrate and nembutal …
However, there is no reason to believe this information is reliable. After all, there is no other evidence or documents to support Hodges' death story. So the mystery of the death of Marilyn Monroe is still considered unsolved.