Marilyn Monroe may have been tricked into killing herself as part of a plot hatched with the knowledge of the former US attorney general, Robert Kennedy, according to a secret FBI file.

The document, uncovered by an Australian film director, Philippe Mora, suggests Monroe was “induced” to make a suicide attempt, in the belief she would be found in time, and her stomach pumped. Instead, it suggests, she was left to die by staff and friends, including the actor Peter Lawford, who was married to Kennedy’s sister, Patricia.

The 36-year-old actress was found naked and face down on her bed on 5 August 1962, with a large quantity of barbiturates in her system. For 45 years conspiracy theorists have claimed that her death was not a simple suicide, with some linking it to alleged affairs with Kennedy and his brother, the then President, John F Kennedy.

According to the FBI report, Robert Kennedy called Lawford from a San Francisco hotel that night “to find out if Marilyn was dead yet”. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, Mr Mora, who is based in Los Angeles, says he found the file among thousands of classified documents recently released under freedom of information laws. Compiled by a “former Special Agent” whose name is deleted, it is headed “Robert F Kennedy”.

The FBI received the file on 19 October 1964. It contains a report that claims Monroe was deliberately given the means to fake a suicide attempt. Those in on the conspiracy, as well as Lawford, were her psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, and her secretary and press agent, Pat Newcomb.

Full story

Uncovered by a film director?  Isn’t that about as disreputable a source as you can get?

Yeah. Before you know it a film director claims she was the grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-child of Mary Magdalene and Jezus…

Well, speaking of Dear Marilyn, rent the DVD ‘The Misfits’ with her and Clark Gable.  It was the last movie made by either one of them, and it is a very good movie (although black-and-white).  Marilyn puts in quite an incredible performance.

It is a drama, of course, set in the desert near Reno about horse ‘harvesters’.  Very good story-line, with a moral to it.

And yes, there sure does seem to be a lot of evidence that RFK and JFK had something to do with her rather odd death; funny, isn’t it, that actually, JFK then RFK also had rather odd deaths, too.

Dan, always pointing our the irrelevant, but he has fun doing it, and he is harmless and always means well, so leave him be

I have to agree with Dan here.  We may have been younger than Marilyn, but she was very much a part of our generation.  She was beautiful and charmingly naive.  It was socially more ‘accepted’ during that era (not so very long ago) that men of power were left alone to their exploits and some were even discretely admired because of them. 

Marilyn was a power adornment figure as well, keenly and passionately desired.  Though she, herself, knew the image she projected, she also didn’t quite understand or appreciate that image either in spite of the public’s idea that she did.  There was a side to this young woman that was too easily manipulated because she wanted only to be loved for who she was.

The political struggles during the 60s was ugly and violent and large parts were heavily shrouded in secrecy, a thing that cannot, thankfully, be done so easily today.  The ‘odd’ deaths included not only Marilyn and both the older Kennedy boys, but also Martin L. King and MANY civil rights youths who fought and died civilised battles in the south as well as the north.  Riots and civilian deaths were abundant. 

This was a VERY viscous period.

There’s plenty of evidence, and facts, to show that RFK and JFK had lots to do with Marylin herself, but I’ve never seen anything that convinced me RFK had anything to do with her death.  It’s likely some incriminating evidence of her affairs was covered up, which is in itself a criminal act since it was considered a crime scene, but nothing suggesting involvement with her death itself.

I can see a new movie coming out soon on this.