Random Shocking Details About Marilyn Monroe's Death You Probably Never Knew (12 items)

• 

  (#8) The Case Was Almost Reopened In 1982

  Following the many conspiracy theories published in the 1970s, District Attorney John Van de Kamp ordered a review of the actress’s passing in 1982. It spanned 29 pages and took three-and-a-half months to prepare.

  After a thorough investigation Van de Kamp found that there was no foul play in Monroe’s death, noting:

  Based on the evidence available to us, it appears that her death could have been a suicide or a result of an accidental drug overdose. It is possible that while her ingestion of a lethal quantity of barbiturates was voluntary, she may have been in such a state of emotional confusion that she lacked a clearly formed purpose.

  The district attorney added that no further inquiry was planned into Monroe’s demise and that reopening the case was unnecessary.
• 

  (#5) Conspiracy Theories Did Not Gain Full Steam Until The 1970s

  Norman Mailer’s biography of Marilyn Monroe was one of the first to suggest that foul play was a factor in Monroe’s passing. In the 1960s, a self-published biography by Frank A. Capell made claims that Monroe was murdered as part of a communist conspiracy, but it wasn’t until Mailer’s account was published in 1973 that the conspiracy theories really took hold.

  Mailer was the first to suggest Monroe had an affair with Robert F. Kennedy, and that her involvement with him led to her demise. He was savaged by critics for his implications and later admitted: “I’d say it was ten to one that [Monroe’s death] was an accidental suicide.”

  When questioned as to why he felt the need to bring RFK into it, he said: “I needed money very badly.”

  Following Mailer’s accusations against RFK, biographer Robert F. Slatzer in 1975 further argued that Monroe was killed by RFK, then the attorney general, because she threatened to go public with government secrets RFK had confided in her.

  Also in 1975, journalist Anthony Scaduto published an article alleging Monroe was ordered to be killed by the Kennedy brothers, and that she kept a “red diary” where she supposedly stored secret government information the Kennedys had confided in her.
• 

  (#6) She Went From Happy To Dying In Less Than 30 Minutes

  Monroe took a phone call from Joe DiMaggio Jr. between 7:00 pm and 7:15 pm and by all accounts had a happy conversation with the 20-year-old, during which DiMaggio Jr. told her that he’d just broken up with a young woman Monroe disliked. Housekeeper Eunice Murray also later confirmed that Monroe was “happy, gay, alert - anything but depressed” during the talk.

  Monroe took her last call of the night from Peter Lawford about half an hour later at 7:40 pm or 7:45 pm, during which Lawford noted she sounded slurred and barely audible.

  The coroner later observed:

  Monroe was laughing and chatting on the telephone with Joe DiMaggio’s son, Joe Junior.

  Yet - and this was one of the strangest facts of the case - not thirty minutes after this happy conversation, Marilyn Monroe was dying.
• 

  (#3) Her Housekeeper Was Found Washing Her Bed Sheets The Night Of Her Passing

  Sgt. Jack Clemmons of the Los Angeles Police Department was the first officer to arrive on the scene of Marilyn Monroe’s passing. Later, in his own writings of the event, he recalled that Monroe’s housekeeper Eunice Murray was running the washing machine when he arrived. He also noted that Murray was acting strangely and was evasive when questioned.

  Detective Sgt. Robert E. Byron, who arrived on the scene a few minutes after Clemmons, also noted in his report that Murray was acting like an unreliable witness. He wrote: “It is officer’s opinion that Mrs. Murray was vague and possibly evasive in answering questions pertaining to the activities of Miss Monroe during this time.”

  Conspiracy theorists have used Murray’s behavior that tragic night as proof that there was something inappropriate and fishy going on, and that perhaps the housekeeper knew more than she was letting on.
• 

  (#11) Joe DiMaggio Arranged Her Funeral

  Joe DiMaggio was left devastated by Marilyn Monroe’s death. He arranged the star’s funeral as a very private ceremony with most of her prominent Hollywood friends excluded. People like Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford were deliberately not invited by DiMaggio, who believed that her Hollywood friends and acquaintances had reduced her to the state that led to her untimely demise. Only 30 of Monroe’s closest friends and relatives, including her half-sister Berniece Baker Miracle, were invited.

  Monroe was buried in a green Emilio Pucci dress, and her longtime makeup artist Whitey Snyder made up her face for the last time.
• 

  (#1) Marilyn Monroe Died From A Nembutal Overdose But No Pills Were Found In Her Stomach

  According to the coroner’s report, Marilyn Monroe overdosed on Nembutal pills. However, no pills were found in her stomach. The deputy coroner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, later explained the lack of pills as a result of Monroe’s long history of substance abuse. The pills in her stomach were digested more quickly than they would have been by someone who wasn’t an addict.

  Yet, the fact that no pills were found in her stomach has been used by conspiracy theorists through the years to support their theory that perhaps she did not die of an overdose at all, but instead was assassinated by the CIA, FBI, or her own housekeeper.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking