Marilyn Monroe
On August 5, 1962, “the world’s most famous blonde” was found dead in her bedroom amongst an arrangement of empty pill bottles (“The Things She Left Behind”) (“Who or What Really Killed Marilyn Monroe?”). The queen of empowering quotes, Marilyn Monroe, was an emotionally unstable, promiscuous actress whose death continues to invoke speculation with respect to the true cause of her absence. Since the night of the tragedy, several key conspiracy theories have arisen: 1. Did Marilyn commit suicide to alleviate her severe depression?
2. Was it merely an accidental overdose?
3. Did Marilyn’s psychiatrist lethally inject her (Lynch)?
4. Was Marilyn murdered by affiliates of the Kennedys? Did they stage her suicide?
Let’s inspect the extent of Marilyn Monroe’s relationships with men, the formulated conspiracy theories regarding her death, and uncover the reason why the most probable explanation is that her “suicide” wasn’t really suicide at all, but rather a cover up of a murder on part of associates of the Kennedy brothers.
The seductress that was Marilyn Monroe was an ironically hopeful and optimistic woman who strove to be happy in spite of her sadness (Saedi). She once proclaimed, “Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about,” which credits the notion that Marilyn was able to look past the adversities in her own life and find solace in the very essence of life itself (“28 Beautiful Marilyn Monroe Quotes on Life, Love, & Happiness”). In addition to her inspiring sanguinity, Marilyn took her philosophy a step further: she never settled. “It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone,” she admitted openly, which explains why her most noted marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller ultimately failed (“28 Beautiful Marilyn Monroe Quotes on Life, Love, & Happiness”). Norma Jean Mortenson, long before she embraced the façade of Marilyn, faced multiple external conflicts throughout her childhood and adolescence that played a significant role in foreshadowing the internal conflicts she faced later on. From the very beginning, she suffered the cruel reality of lacking the love and protection she so desperately craved from her absentee father, and though amongst her several attempts to locate him she actually succeeded, he refused to see her (Doll). Along with this deprivation of a nurturing family and a life void of security and stability, Marilyn lived with a mother whose inability to take adequate care of Marilyn ultimately landed her in an orphanage (Doll) (“Marilyn Monroe Biography”). Now, Marilyn morbidly feared that she would inevitably fall victim and succumb to the “genetic insanity” that had infected her historic bloodline, which could very well be clarified by the family hardships she involuntarily endured as a result of her mother’s mental instability and her father’s selfish nature (Doll).
In retrospect, these adversities Marilyn underwent could very well be indicative of the fact that she was “plagued by anxiety, self-doubt, and low self-esteem” (Saedi). She possessed a “desire to be loved, [but] an inability to find this”, and perhaps she created the façade of Marilyn in attempt to genuinely experience the love and attention she’d been deprived of at such a fragile and vulnerable state in her life (Saedi). From the several notable conspiracy theories surrounding Marilyn’s death, the historical facts and details involved in each of the alleged scenarios shall be assessed in order to determine the most probable occurrence.
The first conspiracy theory elucidates that a severely depressed Marilyn committed suicide in her bedroom on the night of August 5, 1962. She was said to be “found face down with sleeping pill bottles arranged strategically near her bed” as a means to put an end to the emotional distress that had overwhelmed her (Vultaggio). In addition to this, she suffered from bipolar disorder and a history of suicide attempts through the use of narcotics prescribed to her, which certainly swayed the result of her official autopsy report, in which her death was ruled a suicide (Creighton). However, many claim that this is nothing more than “historical fiction”, as it provided a simple explanation at the time of the tragedy’s occurrence, thus preventing a thorough investigation into the true causes of her passing (Creighton). Also, people simply didn’t want to believe that Marilyn had actually committed such a violent act against herself when she was so famously adored for possessing a multitude of talents to share with the world of entertainment. This is certainly understandable, as there were inconsistencies in the story from that night. For one, the official story describes that Marilyn’s housekeeper, Eunice Murray, noticed a light protruding from Marilyn’s bedroom at around 3:30 in the morning, and called Dr. Greenson (Lynch). When he arrived, he “broke the window and entered to find her dead, face down, still holding the phone” (Lynch). However, Murray later confessed that she discovered Marilyn’s body around midnight, and it was revealed that Arthur Jacobs, Marilyn’s publicist, was informed of her overdose hours earlier and that Peter Lawford had learned of her death by one in the morning (Lynch) Apparently, she was taken to Santa Monica hospital, passed away there, and then her body was returned home. (Lynch) This provides basis for the claim that her death was staged, and that it was not a suicide.
The second conspiracy theory claims that Marilyn suffered a mere accidental overdose by means of obtaining an excessive amount of prescribed sedatives. In other words, this “tragic accident” was said to have happened on basis of Marilyn’s “medical negligence”, especially since she’d overdosed on multiple occasions prior to the night of her death (Creighton) (Vultaggio). On a side note, she was also a victim of severe insomnia, which serves to explain the reason behind why she relied on sleeping pills to get by on a remarkably normal basis. In addition, her supplier was believed to have been manipulated by a “powerful, beautiful, and seductive woman, used to getting her own way” and “very difficult to resist”, which would clarify how Marilyn was able to obtain such a lethal combination of drugs when she was supposed to be “reducing her drug dependency” by slowly but surely weeding her way off of them (Creighton). However, this theory proves inefficient in that it serves as an adequate cover story for what actually could have happened, and since Marilyn was involved in multiple sketchy situations, those appear to have been the actual circumstances that premeditated her death. Also, it was discovered that “there wasn’t any vomit, which is usually what happens when a person overdoses” (Vultaggio). “Instead, many believe the fatal dose was administered via enema, suggesting someone else was involved” (Lynch)
The third conspiracy theory contends that Marilyn’s psychiatrist, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, lethally injected her with a fatal prescription of drugs (Vuldaggio). Now, this conspiracy follows the same conclusion as the previous conspiracy, except it regards Marilyn’s death as intentional rather than accidental. Advocates of this conspiracy claim that Dr. Engelberg “lied under oath during the 1982 investigation into Miss Monroe’s death about what drugs he had instructed her to take” (Vuldaggio). This claim is backed by the findings in her medical autopsy that demonstrate that she was administered both “Nembutal and Chloral Hydrates, even though when taken together these powerful sedatives can be lethal” (Vuldaggio). The validity of this discovery only worsens Dr. Engelberg’s reputation, seeing as Marilyn suffered from bipolar disorder and severe depression, which would make these confirmed prescriptions even more reckless and rash in regards to Marilyn’s sustained record of mental health (Vuldaggio). However, Engelberg’s motive for committing such a crime has yet to be discovered. It appears more as if he caved to Marilyn’s continuous demands for drugs, later realizing that he could be the one blamed for her death, so he lied to prevent further investigation into his motives.
The fourth and final conspiracy theory argues that Marilyn was murdered by affiliates of the Kennedy brothers, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. Now, Marilyn did have private affairs with both of these men, who were said to have been “passing her around like a football” (Creighton). In addition to this, she threatened to reveal not only these affairs, but also to expose costly political secrets and Kennedy family secrets, which in itself gives the Kennedys strong motive. “ ‘Bobby Kennedy was determined to shut her up, regardless of the consequences’, Peter Lawford later revealed (Howe). It was later revealed that she showed signs of cyanosis through blue and purple discoloration, which is consistent with needle injection (Howe). This heavily points to the conspiracy that she was ordered to be lethally injected. Furthermore, it is believed that “Bobby” Kennedy either ordered her death, possibly by giving her psychiatrist with whom Marilyn had an affair an ultimatum, or doing it himself and using the delayed notification to the police as a means to escape scot free. (Lynch)
To this day, Marilyn Monroe is still publicly revered as the nation’s most adored blonde and is noted for her depth of character. However, many still ponder the true cause by which she died on that tragic night of August 5, 1962. As a result of this, there are four main conspiracy theories that are contended:1. Did Marilyn commit suicide to alleviate her severe depression?
2. Was it merely an accidental overdose?
3. Did Marilyn’s psychiatrist lethally inject her (Lynch)?
4. Was Marilyn murdered by affiliates of the Kennedys? Did they stage her suicide?
Although Marilyn’s death was initially ruled a probable suicide by overdose, further investigation withdrew that supposition and allowed for these conspiracies to develop and grow throughout society. However, by assessing the motive of the Kennedy family and utilizing a reasonable perception of the situation, there are strong grounds by which to verify that they had a hand in her death as a means to keep her from uncovering dirty political and family secrets and from revealing the secret affairs the two brothers had with her (Howe).
Works Cited
Kashner, Sam. "The Things She Left Behind." Vanity Fair. Web. 24 Sept. 2015. <http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/10/marilyn200810>.
Lynch, Alison. "Who or What Really Killed Marilyn Monroe?" Metro Marilyn Monroe Death Conspiracy Theories Who or What KilledMarilyn Comments. 5 Aug. 2014. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
Saedi, Goal Auzeen. "My Week with Marilyn: A Portrait of Mental Illness." Psychology Today. 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Doll, Susan. "Marilyn Monroe's Early Life." HowStuffWorks. 28 Aug. 2007. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
"Marilyn Monroe Biography." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
"28 Beautiful Marilyn Monroe Quotes on Life, Love, & Happiness." Bright Drops. 25 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Vultaggio, Maria. "Marilyn Monroe Death Conspiracy Theories: How Did Norma Jean Die? [PHOTOS]." International Business Times. 30 May 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
Creighton, Sam. "Marilyn Monroe Died as Result of 'medical Negligence' and Suffered from Bipolar Disorder, Claims New Documentary." Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers, 13 May 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.
Howe, Caroline. "EXCLUSIVE - Bobby Kennedy Ordered Marilyn Monroe's Murder by Lethal Injection to Prevent Her from Revealing Her Torrid Affairs with RFK and JFK: New Book Sensationally Claims to Have Finally Solved the Mystery Surrounding Her Death." Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers, 26 July 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
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