GREAT DEEDS V: LOVE & REVENGE
Marilyn Monroe was an L.A. woman born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, CA. She came to epitomize Hollywood in both glamour and excess. Men loved and lusted after her, while women admired her independence or hated her as a bad girl. She had many men in her life with some being good and some not. The perception is that men used her more than she used them. In her career and in her personal life, she often swam in shark infested waters with men of pearly white teeth and jack knives. A deadly game of love and revenge was being played. The nature of the game is that of praise and lies being said within the same breath and stabbing in the back for gain. This game killed Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys. No one lives a perfect life and faults can be found and exposed in all lives. However, it is right to find the good: in others and in you and me.
For Marilyn sex could be many things. It was pleasurable and made her feel good for the moment. It was also power, something she could use to sway powerful men. It was like a drug; today she would be labeled a sex addict. As big a star as she was, she was also like a kid in a candy store with a sweet tooth. She was a person of strong personality who loved many and was loved by those who knew her. Like many in the entertainment business, she was an artist who acted out her life as on a stage. Her life was many paintings and portraits and her iconic image is just as popular today as when she was alive. Artists like Andy Warhol tried to capture her image and many others have tried to imitate her.
Marilyn set a standard for Hollywood fame, beauty and tragedy. She can be likened to others who set a standard: Babe Ruth in baseball, Elvis with music and Al Capone amongst gangsters. No one person is all good or all bad, with most somewhere in between. This was true of Marilyn as she lived a life that would be seen as amoral to some and at the same time a person to be admired. It all depends on where the focus of the camera is. If one only looks at the snapshots of a person’s life, they will not see the complete picture. Her story is still being written about and will continue as she is an icon to many. This story is not a biography of her life but of the role that she played on a very big stage.
Is there a connection between the JFK assassination and Marilyn Monroe’s death? The answer is the Mafia. Monroe’s death was declared a possible suicide by overdose of sleeping pills or that of a possible accidental overdose. She was declared dead on Sunday, August 5, 1962, but the coroner placed her death as being sometime between 9:30 and 11:30 PM, Saturday, August 4, 1962, the actual time of death. Her use of sleeping pills was well known and recorded along with accidental overdoses and possible suicide attempts leading up to her time of death. The amount of drugs in her system was said to have been enough to kill three large men or more. She had two doctors that were prescribing her two different drugs along with injections. Given her past history, suicide or accidental overdose seems plausible. But, is this what happened or was she killed by way of a drug overdose?
Marilyn and the Mob may seem like just speculation, but evidence uncovered by many authors in many books clearly documents her close ties to the Mob. Just a quick search will give the details. In presenting this I urge the reader to investigate further as I am only giving a likely scenario. The motive for a Mob hit was to: 1. Shut her up as she knew too much of their activities and she was threatening to blow the lid off of their operations; and 2. Implicate and discredit the Attorney General Bobby Kennedy who was waging a campaign against them.
The background to this story is that the Mob had made some inroads into Hollywood and the movie industry via the unions. It was reported that Johnny Roselli, a mobster under boss Sam Giancana of the Chicago Outfit had helped Marilyn early in her career to get key roles though his influence. This would mean that she owed them and they used her with important people to gain influence and information. She came in contact with the Kennedy’s in part through Frank Sinatra, who had well known connections with the Mob, and actor Peter Lawford, Bobby Kennedy’s brother-in-law. Her affair with Jack Kennedy is of public record. Not as well known was her affair with Bobby Kennedy.
Marilyn’s affair with Jack led her to believe that he would divorce Jackie and marry her. She reportedly had called Jackie to tell her that Jack loved her and that she was to be the next First lady. This was not meant to be and Jack had to cut-off contact with her. He more than likely did love her but his political career came first and he ended the relationship to a much hurt Marilyn. Bobby was dispatched to deal with the fallout with his own affair with her. It is believed that Marilyn was in love with Bobby and had gotten pregnant by him (some believe that it was by Jack). As reporting wasn’t like it is today, it is difficult to know the actual events, one can only speculate. She either had a miscarriage or an abortion. However, it got too hot for Bobby as well and he needed to cut-off the affair.
This is where the major players in this Greek tragedy all come together. The following scenario was culled from known public facts and books like: Double Cross by Chuck Giancana and Sam Giancana; Marilyn Monroe: A Case for Murder by Jay Margolis. It is difficult, if not impossible, to know for certain what took place as there was not the crush of paparazzi recording every detail of a celebrity’s life. But it is possible to come up with a likely chain of events and their natural conclusion. Also, it was a simpler time with most behaving as expected or acting out according to their character. Today’s complicated stories with people acting out of character, is done to surprise an audience and to make them think. But it also gives rise to complicated conspiracy theories that could not take place in real life. I believe that this scenario is what most likely took place.
There were many events leading up to Marilyn’s death. One of the most important was her time at the famous Cal-Neva Lodge & Casino that straddled California and Nevada in Lake Tahoe. The pertinent history of the lodge begins with Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. friendship with the owner and that the Kennedy’s spent time there. Later, Frank Sinatra owned the lodge from 1960 to 1963 and he hosted many celebrities, along with the rich and powerful during this time. It is believed that Sam Giancana was a silent partner as he was often seen there. The events at the lodge on the weekend before her death are an important set-up to the events of the following week and weekend.
Marilyn came to the lodge as Frank’s girl following her break-up with Bobby Kennedy. She was said to have been deeply hurt by the break-up and she was threatening to go public with the affair. She was drinking to excess and was making a scene. She also continued with her normal routine of taking sleeping pills before retiring to her room. While being in this sedative state of passing in and out of consciousness, it was rumored that she was taken advantage of by the mobsters there. This included Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana. There were pictures taken of the events that were later destroyed but not before Frank saw them and was said to be visibly upset. It was later said that Sam was the last person to have sex with Marilyn before she died. It was also said that she had been attracted to Sam and had flirted with him. It is difficult to know the truth based on hearsay, but that all of this could have taken place is not surprising. The reason that this event matters is that Sam would have had a personal motivation for Marilyn to keep quiet: his reputation was at stake.
That Marilyn would have loved Sam doesn’t make sense. It is more likely that she naively respected his Old World charm and believed him to be a big teddy bear. She probably believed that they were wrongly accused of violent behavior as she knew them to be personally charming. But they played by their own set of rules and one of those was silence or be silenced. She also believed that she was too big of a star to be killed gangland style. She had been around them enough to know that they didn’t want to draw any attention to themselves. This was especially true at that time with Bobby as attorney general prosecuting them. If she went public with her affair with Bobby, the Kennedy’s involvement with organized crime would also come out. The Mob’s affairs made public is what would have mattered to Mafia boss Sam. He would have been happy to see Bobby discredited but not in connection with himself. Bobby needed to be stopped, but not in this way.
She is also believed to have had a secret meeting with Sam at the lodge just prior to her death. This came out of recordings made by her hair and make-up stylist, George Masters, just before his death in 1998. Masters is speculating that this was to talk her out of going public about her affairs with the Kennedy brothers. But Sam was trying to stop her from blowing the lid off of his operations, especially his connections to the White House. In this meeting with Sam, he allegedly tried and failed to persuade her. Assuming this to be true, then there was a strong motivation to stop Marilyn from going public. I believe that this recording was made to implicate the Mob in her death and to point the finger at Sam Giancana in particular.
Sam feared any publicity as he needed to operate in the dark. Any light that shone on his operations would be investigated and his operation would suffer. He could have also feared a repercussion from others in the organization that demanded silence. He would have been criticized for his involvement with celebrities and the like. He would have had to assure them that he would take care of the problem in a way that would not draw attention. He intimately knew her and of her weaknesses that could be exploited. Marilyn’s past overdoses and believed suicide attempts could be used to silence her.
A plan was needed to silence Marilyn and to implicate and scandalize Bobby at the same time if possible. This was possible because her house was being bugged by the government and by a private detective to which the Mob had access. They knew of Bobby’s coming and goings at the house and that he was also concerned about her going public. The plan that was hatched was to give her an overdose and to make it look like an accidental overdose or a suicide attempt. The hired assassins would wait nearby for the right time to administer the lethal drugs. They could time this so as not to get caught because her house and phones were bugged.
The book Double Cross implicates the CIA in this plan. The authors claim that the CIA gave the contract to Sam so as to protect the Kennedys. This is unlikely except possible rogue involvement that was not official. This is believed because of the CIA’s working with the Mob to assassinate Fidel Castro. They claim that a Chicago chemist that was used to come-up with ways to kill Castro was employed. The method devised was to use a barbiturate soaked suppository (some say drug enema) to be administered rectally. The barbiturate would go directly into the blood stream similar to an injection, but with no visible needle marks to incriminate. It would appear to be an overdose and death would be swift. Also, Marilyn was known to have a constipation problem and had to be given enemas from time to time. This could also cover their tracks.
The beginning of the end was on the Saturday of her death when Bobby Kennedy came to her house with Peter Lawford and her psychoanalyst Ralph Greenson, carrying a black medical bag. He had come to L.A. to try and talk her out of doing the press conference that Monday. He also came to retrieve a journal (red diary) that she had made of their conversations. They reportedly argued and Marilyn was given a sedative and they left, apparently empty handed. There are many different versions of what happened after this as she was on the phone with friends at various times with much speculation later.
What is confirmed is that Bobby returned later that night with what were described as two detectives. He told Marilyn’s housekeeper Eunice Murray and her son-in-law Norman Jeffries (handyman) to leave and go to a neighbor’s house. He went to the guest bedroom to continue his search for the missing journal and any proof that she might have had in the file cabinet in the cottage. Bobby’s plan was to extract all incriminating papers so that it would just be her word alone. He could then lie and deny and cite Marilyn’s many personal problems to discredit her. An investigation would take time and could be blocked or covered up.
Marilyn was on the phone at the time, put it down and went to investigate the disturbance. They argued again in the guest bedroom this time and then he left with the detectives. What is not known is if he got what he came for. It is possible that she had more than one journal as others would later claim to have found one. Also, the cottage was not bugged and so nothing was recorded. This is likely when the Mob hit men would have entered to do their work. As the main house was bugged they would have known of Bobby’s coming and going. The killers had been listening to wiretaps while they lurked nearby waiting for the right opportunity to ambush her. They had probably already planned to do the hit under the cover of darkness when Bobby gave them an opportunity. With no one in the house and Marilyn alone in the cottage, the timing couldn’t be better.
There are different accounts given by mobsters who claim to have been a part of the hit. Different numbers of hit men are also said to have been there. The different stories probably came out of telling of confidences and second hand information. The most likely scenario is that of two men with a possible ringleader like Johnny Roselli who would have been familiar with the residence. These hit men would have been recruited from outside of Giancana’s organization so that if they were to be caught they would not be linked to Giancana. They could also be eliminated like Oswald.
As there was no one at the house other than Marilyn they could have entered any number of ways. The hit did not take place in her main bedroom but in the guest cottage bedroom. They probably used chloroform to subdue her and to knock her out. They then removed her outer clothes or a robe and laid her face down on the bed. As she rarely wore underwear she would be nude on the bed. They then could rectally administer a drug laced suppository or enema that was given to them for this purpose. The drug would be fast acting given this way and combined with the drugs and alcohol already in her system, she would have been unconscious or nearly comatose. It would have taken little time to do this dark deed and the hit men would be long gone before anyone was the wiser. As she was later seen with a phone in hand, she may have awoken briefly to make a call for help.
The housekeeper and her son-in-law return to the house to find Marilyn lying face down on the bed near death. In a state of panic, she called for an ambulance to come to the house and then made other calls. One of those calls was to Marilyn’s publicist Patricia Newcomb. When the ambulance arrived, a frantic woman, Newcomb, was proclaiming that they murdered her. This testimony was given by James Hall with the ambulance. He would later pass a lie detector test to prove his testimony to the events at the time of her death. Hall would say that she was on her back in the guest bedroom when he and his partner arrived. Marilyn could have turned over or those there turned her to look for foul play. She was still alive and they moved her to the ground so as to perform CPR. This is when she sustained some bruising that was later recorded. The resuscitation seemed to be working, but they were unaware of the amount of drugs in her as they were told of a possible overdose orally and she was not foaming at the mouth. The plan was to stabilize her and then take her to the hospital. If it was a normal overdose, she could have survived.
This is when Dr. Greenson arrived and took over her care. As a psychoanalyst he had medical training and could prescribe medication. He came prepared for the worst with his black medical bag. He lifted up her left breast and gave her a shot of adrenaline into her heart to revive her. It didn’t work and the doctor pronounced that she was dead. Peter Lawford and the Police Chief William Parker came in, took over and told the ambulance men to leave without her body. This is when the cover-up began as they both knew Bobby and that he would be blamed for her death. This was part of the Mob’s plan all along: to implicate the attorney general in his lover’s death. Bobby needed to leave the L.A. area and time was needed to clean-up the crime scene and stage a suicide.
Sometime around midnight a Beverly Hills police officer pulled over a car driven by Lawford with Dr. Greenson and Bobby Kennedy in it. They made excuses for the erratic driving and were let go. Later a helicopter took off near Lawford’s beach residence as reported by angry neighbors. Bobby had made his necessary escape from the danger of incrimination. About that same time back at the house a clean-up was taking place; the housekeeper was doing laundry and the handyman was busy loading up trash to go directly to the dump. Marilyn’s body was moved to her main bed and covered with a sheet. Her pill bottles were lined up to look like she had taken them in an overdose. All they needed to do now was to establish an alibi to cover their time there that night. A story was also concocted to tell the police when called to the house early Sunday morning.
The police were called around three in the morning and given the made-up story about how the housekeeper awoke to find her dead in her room. The police officer that arrived on the scene would later comment that it looked more like a murder scene than a suicide. This is because he had witnessed suicides and a large number of pills ingested would contort the body due to painful vomiting. Higher authorities came on the scene and took over. The cover-up worked and the story stuck and Marilyn was declared dead from a probable suicide on Sunday morning. It would be later that the stories would come into question as people were interviewed and witnesses came forward.
Many things were overlooked: like the lack of a drinking glass in her locked room and that the water in her bathroom was turned off due to repairs. Also, the amount of pills that she was said to have taken would have been too many for her as she had a swallowing problem and would sometimes receive injections instead. The barbiturates found in her system were enough to kill three or more adults. Yet, the autopsy found no pills or pill residue in her stomach. It did note that there was congestion in her colon and a purplish discoloration in the area where a suppository or enema would be used. In the end, it was the barbiturate Nembutal that caused her death.
To add to this, she did not act like someone who was suicidal as she expressed excitement going forward in her life. She didn’t leave a suicide note or express any desire to end her life to those closest to her. She was understandably angry with the Kennedys, but she had a planned press conference on Monday to deal with her anger. A scandal would hurt the Kennedys but not Marilyn given her sexpot reputation. She may also have just been bluffing to win Bobby back to her. Either way, not the actions of someone that was suicidal.
Another possible conclusion was that her psychoanalyst and her primary doctor were not working together and they accidentally gave her an overdose. They were trying to wean her off of one type of sleeping drug for another. This seems unlikely as they were professionals and would not have given her the large amount that was in her system at the time of death. If we rule out accidental overdose and suicide then the conclusion that she was murdered is the logical answer.
The Kennedys would not have planned to kill her to silence her as it was not of their character. Bobby went to Marilyn’s house to warn her to not go public with what she knew. It is entirely possible that he feared Mob retribution and was trying to protect her. Bobby’s actions could be seen as the reason that Marilyn died that night. However, there is no way that he could have foreseen the outcome of his visits to the house as an opportunity for a mob hit. Also, the way that Bobby as the attorney general went after the Mob is what got Marilyn and later Jack killed. Again, he didn’t mean for this to happen, he just underestimated the Mob.
[The cover-up to protect Bobby from taking the rap for Marilyn’s death could have set in motion the need to go after Jack. If Bobby had been discredited and subsequently forced to drop the campaign against the Mob, there likely would have been no need to kill the president to end Bobby’s career as attorney general.]
Marilyn’s death was a warning to the Kennedy brothers by the Mob that went unheeded: the message was that no one was too big for their reach. The Kennedys knew the Mob and the Mob knew them: they personally knew each other. Sam Giancana wanted to use the Kennedys and they pushed back. Sam was a very proud man and was not going to let anyone, not even the president, double cross him. The Kennedys needed to stop the Mob as they were being threatened. The Mob hated them for the heat and wanted to kill them for it.Giancana was central to the Mob's role in the assassination. He was the muscle that could get the job done. He was the key figure.
That she died on the weekend before she was to go public is too coincidental and too suspicious. It stopped her from spilling the beans about Mob involvement with the White House. With her usefulness being trumped by her erratic behavior and threats to go public with dangerous information, it was the Mob that had the strongest motive and the ability to have her silenced.
If those involved were to speak it would be this:
Marilyn Monroe: "They murdered me, I didn't kill myself! The Mob they killed me to shut me up!"
Sam Giancana: "The dame was giving me too much grief, so I wacked her (he had her killed). Yeah, I killed that bastard Kennedy and I would’ve killed his brother too, but the heat on me was too hot. That prick Kennedy cheated me so I had him killed. Yeah, Oswald did it, but I ordered it. You can write this if you want, it doesn’t matter anymore. We're all dead now."
Marilyn: "Sam had me killed because I knew too much."
Giancana continues: "I didn’t love her, Jack loved her. For me, it was strictly business. She was someone that I used. She was becoming a problem for me so I had her killed. You can write all of this, but no ones going to believe you."
Jack Kennedy: "I truly loved her and she deserves better than to be remembered for a suicide."
Bobby Kennedy: "I didn't kill her, the Mob did it. I don't know how. I just went there to warn her not to go public with what she knew, that's all. Like I said, I just went there to warn her not to speak, nothing more, no funny business at all. Jack was heartsick when he got the news that she was dead. We were good men, we wouldn't have done anything like that, what happened. Yeah, we knew the Mob and they knew us. We had to stop them, they were threatening us. Sam wanted to use us and we pushed back. They hated us for it and that is why they killed Jack and wanted to kill me. We thought that we were too big for them to go after us. We were the U.S. government, damn it! But they killed Jack, using that damn Oswald to do it, the little prick. I thought at first the Mob killed me, but it was that damn weasel Sirhan. He wasn't working with anyone that I know of, just a lone assassin. Sam says to write it but ain't no one going to believe it. Jack says that Sam is a proud guy."
Giancana: "That bitch (Marilyn) was going to destroy my whole operation so I had to kill her. I’d whack her again. Write it."
Frank Sinatra: "It was Sam that done it. He was jealous and she was messing with him. You don't mess with a man like Sam." (Frank loved Marilyn. There is bad blood between him and Giancana because of Marilyn's murder by Sam)
Marilyn: "It was the Nebutal enema that killed me. They murdered me! The Mob killed me! I t was that bastard Giancana and that prick Roselli. They f-d me when I was passed out. they f-d me!"
Mob hit men: "We didn't need to know the layout of the house. It was an easy hit to make. Come in, subdue her and then stick her in the butt. It was all over before any one was the wiser."
Jack: "My brother got me killed, the way he went after the Mob. He didn't mean to, it just happened. All of the things that we did back then - that's what got us killed. I had to win and that is why I turned to the Mob for help (it was wrong but he knew that he was losing). It was my time to be president. The Mob was mad because they helped me to win and Bobby went after them. But we had to - they were squeezing us too hard. They (Mob, Giancana) killed me!"
Marilyn: "Jack really loved me, but Bobby was the one for me. I loved both Jack and Bobby, I would have married either one. boy, did I love bobby. he didn't kill me, the Mob did. It was Sam,he did me in (she says this in a sad way). I'm glad you are writing this. I don't care if no one believes you."
Frank Sinatra: "Boy what a dame! I would have married her. I still love her man, man do I!"
Marilyn: "Jackie is Jack's wife, I was his mistress. But I did love him as a wife."
Marilyn Monroe – died: August 4, 1962, Brentwood, CA. Cause of death: acute barbiturate poisoning (by the Mob).
John F. Kennedy – died: November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. Cause of death: political assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald (and the Mob). Shot in the neck and in the back of the head.
Robert F. Kennedy – died: June 6, 1968, Los Angeles, CA. Cause of death: political assassination by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. Shot in the head.
Salvatore (Sam) Giancana – died: June 19, 1975, Chicago, IL. Cause of death: shot in the back of the head and then six more times in the face and neck (by the Mob).
John (Johnny) Roselli – died: August 9, 1976, Florida. Cause of death: found decomposed in a 55-gallon steel drum floating in Dumfoundling Bay, near Miami (by the Mob).
Marilyn Monroe can be viewed only as a prototypical dumb-blonde but in reality she was much more. In 1959 she joined the Hollywood branch of SANE (Sane Nuclear Policy). The group’s aim was to alert Americans to the threat of nuclear weapons. SANE enjoyed cordial relations with the Kennedy White House. As a leader in the struggle for disarmament, SANE’s Norman Cousins acted as an unofficial liaison between Kennedy and Khrushchev on test ban negotiations. The Limited Test Ban treaty was signed in Moscow on July 25, 1963. Kennedy sent a personal thanks to Mr. Cousins and SANE. Marilyn was once asked by an interviewer what dreams or nightmares she had. She responded, “My nightmare is the H-bomb. What’s yours?” One can only speculate if Marilyn played a positive role for the world with the President and his anti-nuclear policy.