The Killing of Marilyn Monroe

A round-up of the entire series and a look at what action has taken place in the 57 years since Marilyn Monroe's murder, including the 1982 “threshold investigation” and the multitude of books since. The subsequent lives and deaths of JFK, RFK, Giancana, Hoover, Greenson, Sinatra, and Lawford will also be examined for clues. Finally, we ask: is the mounting evidence and newly-released FBI files incentive for the LA County DA’s office to reinvestigate the death of Hollywood’s most tragic star?

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Increasingly concerned about Marilyn Monroe’s erratic behavior and the Kennedy secrets she knew, Bobby Kennedy was sent to LA to control the situation. Whether he turned up at Marilyn’s condo with the intention of killing her will never be known, but when she wouldn’t give up her Red Book, things turned violent. A sedative was administered by Dr. Greenson; it didn’t work. A pillow was placed over Marilyn's head, a shot given, and then a fatal injection directly into her heart. Peter Lawford was called to doctor the scene to look like suicide before the police were called, and the Kennedy cover-up operation swung into action.

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In this episode, we examine the various conspiracy theories surrounding Marilyn Monroe's death, investigating each of the suspects one by one. Was it a mob hit ordered by Giancana in order to get at President John F. Kennedy? Was it J Edgar Hoover, desperate to get his hands on Marilyn's Red Book to gain power over the President? Was the CIA, panicked over Marilyn’s ties to Communists and all the information she knew, spurred into silencing her? Or could it even have been the Kennedy's themselves?

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The official coroner’s report declared Marilyn Monroe’s death “probable suicide”, but that was just one element in an immense cover-up designed to protect her real killer. From the quick disposal of her organs post-mortem, to the conspiracy of silence of her housekeeper and others close to her, the questions keep coming. How was Marilyn's psychiatrist (and lover) Dr. Ralph Greenson involved? What did J. Edgar Hoover’s – and, separately, PI Fred Otash’s – wire taps capture? Why was that information suppressed? And, most crucially, what happened to Marilyn’s Little Red Book?

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Exactly what happened on the night of August 4, 1962? This episode meticulously examines the official version of events – as well as the inconsistencies - that show Marilyn Monroe's death could not have been suicide. The lack of any pill or capsule in her stomach; the absence of vomit; the bruises omitted from the autopsy report; the glass window smashed from inside her room; the four hour gap between her housekeeper finding her body and the arrival of the police.

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The days leading up to Marilyn Monroe's death are crucial to understanding why she died. There was the humiliation at a party held by Frank Sinatra and mobster Sam Giancana, the increasing reliance on alcohol and prescription drugs, heightened surveillance by Hoover, and the growing panic from the Kennedys about the contents of her Little Red Book. The men in her life were suddenly invested in the idea of her death.

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Marilyn’s affair with John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby would prove to be the defining feature of her life and death. It put her at the center of a triangulated power struggle between the President, Hoover’s FBI, and the Mob.

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Marilyn had learned to use her sexuality to great effect. As a 16-year-old, her first marriage (to factory worker Jim Dougherty) helped her escape childhood abuse, and later, she cultivated relationships with powerful Hollywood execs and directors to help kickstart her career. This chapter examines her marriages and sexual partners.

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The glory years: during which Marilyn not only made a succession of smash hit movies, but also enjoyed relationships with a series of high profile men – including Sinatra and his rat pack buddy Peter Lawford. By the time of her marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, she was perhaps the most famous, and most lusted after woman on the planet.

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In this chapter we examine how Marilyn finally escaped a life of poverty, abuse and abandonment she was born into – and how she wasn’t averse to using whatever weapons were in her formidable armory to help achieve her dream of making it big in Tinseltown. With spectacular effect.

From her early modeling career to getting a break in Hollywood, bleaching her hair blonde and changing her name – as Norma Jeane became Marilyn Monroe. The roles were small, until she utilized the “casting couch”, becoming the lover first of influential Fox exec Joseph Schenck and then Johnny Hyde, VP of William Morris.

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