Retchel Mae S.

Maribao

MARILYN MONROE’S DEATH: A CASE STUDY

BACKGROUND

On August 5, 1962, movie actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los
Angeles. Surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s poisoning, multiple witnesses said they saw Marilyn
being secretly taken that night by an ambulance to a hospital before being returned again to her
house in Los Angeles. Dr. Greenson, Marilyn’s psychiatrist told the police that Eunice Murray
alerted him around 3:30 a.m. that something might be wrong with Marilyn, the morning
following Marilyn's death. When he arrived at Marilyn's home, he went into her bedroom and
found her lying naked and face down in her bed. On her nightstand he saw many empty bottles
of sleeping pills. She was clutching a phone in her right hand. It was quickly determined that
Marilyn was dead. After a brief investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was
“caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable
suicide.”

MAIN CHARACTERS

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her
mother was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jeane was
reared by a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage. At the age of 16, she married a
fellow worker in an aircraft factory, named James Dougherty, but they divorced a few years
later. She took up modeling in 1944 and in 1946 signed a short-term contract with 20th Century
Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe. She had a few bit parts and then returned to
modeling, famously posing nude for a calendar in 1949.

Marilyn Monroe then began her professional career as a photographer’s model, posing
for nude pinups. Aided by twin assets—”uncommon beauty and driving soon was at the brink of
Hollywood stardom. In 1949, she obtained bit parts in two movies, Ladies of the Chorus and
Love Happy. She won a feature role the following year in The Asphalt Jungle. Her career
included starring roles in twenty-two additional films that grossed a total of $200 million. These
included All About Eve (1950) and Love Nest (1951). By that time, Monroe was a full-fledged
star. In 1952, she made five feature films: Clash by Night, We’re Not Married, Don’t Bother to
Knock, Monkey Business, and O. Henry’s Full House. These were followed by such hits as
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959) and—
her last film, starring Clark Gable— The Misfits (1961), which was a box-office disappointment.

In the meantime, her personal life was coming apart. Her second marriage, to baseball
great Joe DiMaggio in 1954, lasted only nine months. In 1956, she married again, this time
wedding celebrated playwright Arthur Miller. In just four years, that marriage too ended in
divorce. By then, Monroe had become dependent on various drugs and had suffered a
miscarriage. On at least two occasions she attempted suicide.

After midnight on August 5, 1962, her maid, Eunice Murray, noticed Monroe’s bedroom
light on. When Murray found the door locked and Marilyn unresponsive to her calls, she called
Monroe’s psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, who gained access to the room by breaking a
window. Entering, he found Marilyn dead, and the police were called sometime after. An
autopsy found a fatal amount of sedatives in her system, and her death was ruled probable
suicide.

Nevertheless, the world was stunned when, on Sunday, August 5,1962, it was reported
that Marilyn Monroe was dead. A police commander, when logging an early-morning call from
the medical examiner reporting the death, thought it was a joke and went personally to
investigate. Even the pathologist assigned to the case, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, thought the
deceased was another woman of the same name—perhaps, as he later explained, “because to me,
as to almost all Americans, Marilyn Monroe was a phantom goddess of the screen, not a real”

During the day of Marilyn’s death, at around 7 pm, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn’s ex husband,
tried to get in touch with Monroe all day, so Monroe and the two could talk about their broken
engagement. DiMaggio when interviewed said that Monroe sounded cheerful and upbeat. At
7:45 pm, Peter Lawford telephones Marilyn to invite her to dinner at his house. According to
Lawford, Monroe's speech was slurred and was becoming increasingly indecipherable. At 10 pm,
Housekeeper Eunice Murray walks past Monroe's door and said she saw a light on under the
door but decided not to disturb her. At 10:30 pm, According to actress Natalie Trundy, Monroe's
agent Arthur P. Jacobs left a concert at the Hollywood Bowl that he was attending with Natalie
Trundy and with director Mervyn LeRoy and his wife, after being informed by Monroe's lawyer
Mickey Rudin that she has overdosed. Trundy's timeline fits with undertaker Guy Hockett’s
estimation that Monroe died sometime between 9:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. At 12, Murray notices
the light under the door again and knocks but gets no reply. She tells police she immediately
telephoned Dr. Ralph Greenson, Monroe's psychiatrist.

PROBLEMS

Historically, the death of Marilyn Monroe has remained a mystery with numerous
conspiracies surrounding her death. Ideally, Marilyn Monroe was a global icon who was a star
and actress of Hollywood videos (History; Hatter 20). Notably, Marilyn Monroe was not only
beautiful but she was also linked to popular men and people with fame during her time.
However, her untimely death in 1962 was a shock to the world (Wolfe). As such, everybody was
eager to know the exact cause of this heroines’ death because she was a public figure and well
known to many. This study provides a detailed analysis of the two major causes surrounding the
death of Marilyn Monroe which are the drug overdose or a deliberate murder.

THE DECISION TAKEN

Marilyn Monroe died due to drug overdose. According to the announcements made by
coroner in case No. 81128, Marilyn Monroe had died from an overdose of sleeping drugs that
were an overdose (Botello et al. 925; Cates 111). Furthermore, the coroner report was
documented that there were higher levels of barbiturates drugs in her blood but the form in which
the drug was administered has remained a mystery over the last decades. Finally, studies indicate
that Marilyn Monroe had bruises in her abdomen that were not included in the report provided by
the coroner (Nunziato 1261; Rollyson; Simon 240). Therefore, even though there were high
levels of sleeping drugs in Marilyn Monroe blood, her death cannot be considered as a probable
suicide.

Noguchi read the preliminary investigatory report. Marilyn Monroe had been pronounced
dead by her physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg. Several bottles of drugs, including an empty bottle
of Nembutal sleeping pills and a partially empty container of chloral hydrate, were on the table
next to her bed. The report noted that Dr. Engelberg “had given refill on Nembutal day before
yesterday” and that “Psychiatrist talked to her yesterday, very Noguchi searched for needle
marks and found none, noting that fact on the standard body diagram of the autopsy report.
Although he found no visual traces of pills in the stomach, the subsequent toxicologist’s report
showed that the blood contained 8.0 mg. percent of chloral hydrate while the liver had 13.0 mg.
percent of pentobarbital (Nembutal)—both being well above fatal.

THE POSSIBLE SOLUTION

According to the reports provided by Gregory (200), Marilyn Monroe death was a
deliberate murder. Over her past live, studies document that Marilyn Monroe did not claim to
commit suicide to any of her close allies. Moreover, Marilyn Monroe had acted videos that
flagged a revenue exceeding $200 million; hence, the murderers can have a motive to kill her so
as to access Marilyn Monroe wealth (Krysinska 20; Margolis; Markel). Additionally, Marilyn
Monroe had love affairs with top public United States officials including John Kennedy. As
such, the actress had collected numerous government secrets in a “red diary” that could at one
time be released to the public. Therefore, having Marilyn Monroe dead could be the easiest way
to shut her.

Finally, studies indicate that President John Kennedy had informed his lover, Marilyn
Monroe about the 1947 Unidentified Flying Object (UFO), hence, feared she might leak the
information (Churchwell 163; DePaulo). From the CIA document that was found a few days
after Marilyn Monroe death, Kennedy had told the actress about the saucer wreckage. Therefore,
Marilyn Monroe had planned a press conference to inform the world of that entire she was told.
In short, having her dead was the best option for the United States government to keep the
secrets of Roswell.
 Conclusively, even though coroner reports indicate that Marilyn Monroe’s death was a
probable suicide, there is adequate evidence that it was a deliberate murder. Monroe’s close
relationships with top United States figures could be a risk factor that led to her death. Finally,
not all people could complement her work without envying the flagging revenue she was
harvesting. Therefore, her health was a deliberate murder and not an overdose because she had
highly trained medical providers and psychiatrics who could not have allowed her to overdose.
 REFERENCES

Werner U. Spitz, ed. Spitz and Fisher’s Medicolegal Investigation of Death, 3d ed.
(Springfield, 111.: Charles C. Thomas, 1993), 4-9.

Marcella Farinelli Fierro, “Identification of Human Remains,” in Spitz, Medicolegal

Investigation of Death, 71.

Charles E. O’Hara, Fundamentals of Criminal Investigation, 3d ed. (Springfield, 111.:

Charles C. Thomas, 1973), 482-83.

Thomas A. Gonzales et. al., Legal Medicine: Pathology and Toxicology, 2nd ed. (New
York: Appel ton-Century-Crofts, 1954), 30.

Keith D. Wilson, M.D., Cause of Death: A Writer’s Guide to Death, Murder, and
Forensic Medicine (Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1992), 63

O’Hara, Fundamentals, 508. For a photograph of lividity in hanging, see Spitz,

Medicolegal Investigation of Death, 463.

VernonJ. Geberth, Practical Homicide Investigation, 2nd ed. (Boca Raton, Fla.:CRC,
1993), 175.

Joshua A. Perper, “Time of Death and Changes after Death,” in Spitz, Medicolegal
Investigation of Death, 28, 31.

Ibid., 78-81; Kenneth V. Iverson, M.D., Death toDust: What Happens toDead Bodies?
(Tucson, Ariz.: Galen Press, 1994), 130-32.

Ibid., 425; O’Hara, Fundamentals, 547. For a discussion and example of a “psychological
autopsy,” see Joe Nickell with John Fischer, Mysterious Realms: Probing Paranormal, Historical,
and Forensic Enigmas (Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1992), 117-20.
 Except as otherwise noted, information for the discussions of methods of death is taken
from O’Hara, Fundamentals, 511-80; Spitz, Medicolegal Investigation of Death, passim.;
Geberth, Practical Homicide Investigation, 223-31.

Biographical details are taken from her obituary in the 1963 Britannica Book of the Year
and from Thomas T Noguchi with Joseph DiMona, Coroner (New York: Pocket Books, 1983),
62-68.

Marc Mappen, Murder and Spies, Lovers and Lies: Settling the Great Controversies of
American History (New York: Avon Books, 1996), 220.

Michael M. Baden, Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner (New York:

Random House, 1989), 3, 4.

Dr. Sidney B. Weinberg, as quoted by journalist George Carpozi in ibid., 81. Weinberg, a
retired medical examiner, was also quoted by Carpozi as stating: “The evidence points to all of
the classic features of a homicide, much more so than a suicide.” Ibid., 79.