Death of Marilyn Monroe

On August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose in Los Angeles. She was a major sex symbol and one of the most popular Hollywood stars during the 1950s. Although she was a top-billed actress for only a decade, her films grossed $200 million by 1962. At the time of her death, Monroe had suffered from mental illness and substance abuse for several years, and had not completed a film since The Misfits, released in 1961. She had spent 1961 preoccupied by her various health problems, and in April 1962 had begun filming Something's Got to Give for 20th Century Fox, but was fired in early June. The studio publicly blamed her for the production's problems, and in the weeks preceding her death, Monroe attempted to repair her public image by giving several interviews to high profile publications. She also began negotiations with Fox on being re-hired for Something's Got to Give and for starring roles in other productions. Monroe spent her last day, Saturday, August 4, at her home in Brentwood, accompanied by publicist Patricia Newcomb, housekeeper Eunice Murray, photographer Lawrence Schiller and psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson at various times. At Greenson's request, Murray stayed overnight to keep Monroe company. At approximately 3 a.m. the next day, she noticed that Monroe had locked herself in her bedroom and was unresponsive. Murray alerted Greenson, who arrived soon after and broke into the room, finding Monroe deceased. Her death was officially ruled a probable suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner's office, based on precedents of her overdosing and being prone to mood swings and suicidal ideation. No evidence of crime was found, and accidental overdose was ruled out due to the large amount of barbiturates she had ingested. Her funeral was held on August 8 at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, where she was interred at the Corridor of Memories. Despite the coroner's verdict, several conspiracy theories suggesting murder or accidental overdose have been proposed since the mid-1960s. Many of these involve President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, as well as union leader Jimmy Hoffa and mob boss Sam Giancana. Due to prevalence of these theories in the media, the office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney reviewed the case in 1982, but found no evidence to support them and did not disagree with the findings of the original investigation. Background: By the early 1960s, Monroe had abused amphetamines and barbiturates and experienced mental health problems –including depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and chronic insomnia– for several years. She had acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with, as she frequently delayed productions by being late to film sets and often had trouble remembering her lines. By 1960, this behavior was affecting her career, to the extent that Paramount Pictures declined to cast her as Holly Golightly in the film adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's, despite endorsement by its author, Truman Capote. The two films Monroe completed in the 1960s, Let's Make Love (1960) and The Misfits (1961), were both critical and commercial failures, and during the filming of the latter she had had to spend a week detoxing in a hospital. Her third marriage, to author Arthur Miller, also ended in divorce in January 1961. Instead of working, Monroe spent a large part of 1961 preoccupied by health problems, undergoing surgery for her endometriosis and a cholecystectomy, and spending four weeks in hospital care – including a brief stint in a mental ward – for depression. She moved back to Los Angeles after six years in New York, purchasing a Spanish hacienda-style house on 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood. Monroe returned to the public eye in 1962; she received a "World Film Favorite" Golden Globe award in March and began to shoot a new film for 20th Century-Fox, Something's Got to Give, a re-make of My Favorite Wife (1940), in late April. Monroe was absent for the first two weeks of filming due to the flu; biographers have also attributed her absence to sinusitis or her ongoing drug addiction. On May 19, she took a break from filming to sing "Happy Birthday" on stage at President John F. Kennedy's birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York. Most of Monroe's biographers agree that she had an affair with Kennedy at some point in the last two years of her life, although they disagree on its length and timing. After returning from New York, Monroe returned to filming and celebrated her 36th birthday on set on June 1. She was then again absent for several days, which led 20th Century-Fox to fire her on June 7 and sue her for breach of contract, demanding $750,000 in damages. She was replaced by Lee Remick, but after co-star Dean Martin refused to make the film with anyone other than Monroe, Fox sued him as well and shut down the production. The studio publicly blamed Monroe's drug addiction and alleged lack of professionalism for the demise of the film, even claiming that she was mentally disturbed. To counter the negative publicity, Monroe gave interviews to several high-profile publications, such as Life, Cosmopolitan and Vogue, in her last weeks. She also began negotiations with Fox about resuming filming on Something's Got to Give, and made plans for starring in What a Way to Go! (1964) and a biopic about Jean Harlow. Timeline: Monroe spent her last day alive, Saturday, August 4, at her Brentwood home. In the morning, she met with photographer Lawrence Schiller to discuss the possibility of Playboy publishing nude photos taken of her on the set of Something's Got to Give. She also received a massage from her personal massage therapist, talked with friends on the phone, and signed for deliveries. Present at the house in the morning were also her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, and her publicist Patricia Newcomb, who had stayed overnight. According to Newcomb, they had an argument because Monroe had not slept well the night before. At 4:30 p.m., Dr. Ralph Greenson arrived at the house to conduct a therapy session with Monroe, and asked Newcomb to leave. Before he left at around 7 p.m., he asked the housekeeper to stay overnight and keep Monroe company. At approximately 7–7:15, Monroe received a call from Joe DiMaggio, Jr., with whom she had stayed close since her marriage to his father. He told her that he had broken up with a girlfriend she did not like, and detected nothing alarming in her behavior. She telephoned Greenson to tell him the news (about DiMaggio's parting from his girlfriend) at around 7:40–7:45. Monroe retired to her bedroom at approximately 8 p.m. She received a call from actor Peter Lawford, who was hoping to persuade her to attend his party that night. Lawford became alarmed as Monroe sounded like she was under the influence of drugs, and told him to "Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to the president Lawford's brother-in-law, and say goodbye to yourself, because you're a nice guy" before drifting off. Unable to reach her, Lawford called his agent Milton Ebbins, who unsuccessfully attempted to reach Dr. Greenson, and then called Monroe's lawyer, Milton A. "Mickey" Rudin. Rudin called Monroe's house, and was assured by her housekeeper that she was fine. At approximately 3:00 a.m., the housekeeper woke up "sensing that something was wrong", and saw light from under Monroe's bedroom door, but was not able to get a response and found the door locked. She telephoned Greenson, on whose advice she looked in through a window and saw Monroe lying facedown on her bed, covered by a sheet and clutching a telephone receiver. Greenson arrived shortly after. He entered the room by breaking a window and found Monroe dead. He called her physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, who arrived at the house at around 3:50 a.m. and officially confirmed the death. At 4:25 a.m., they notified the Los Angeles Police Department. Inquest and 1982 review: Monroe's autopsy was conducted on the morning of August 5 by deputy coroner Dr. Thomas Noguchi. The Los Angeles County coroner's office was assisted in the inquest by psychiatrists Dr. Norman Farberow, Dr. Robert Litman, and Dr. Norman Tabachnik from the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, who interviewed Monroe's doctors and psychiatrists on her mental state. Based on her advanced state of rigor mortis at the time she was found, it was estimated that she had died between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. The toxicological analysis concluded that the cause of death was acute barbiturate poisoning, as she had 8 mg% of chloral hydrate and 4.5 mg% of pentobarbital (Nembutal) in her blood, and a further 13 mg% of pentobarbital in her liver. Empty bottles of these medicines were found next to her bed by the police. There were no signs of external violence on the body. The findings of the inquest were published on August 17, with Chief Coroner Theodore Curphey classifying Monroe's death a "probable suicide". The possibility of an accidental overdose was ruled out as the dosages found in her body were several times over the lethal limit, and had been taken "in one gulp or in a few gulps over a minute or so." At the time of her death, Monroe was reported to have been in a "depressed mood", and had been "unkempt" and uninterested in maintaining her appearance. No suicide note was found, but Dr. Litman stated that this was not unusual, as statistically less than 40 percent of suicide victims leave notes. In their final report, Farberow, Litman, and Tabachnik stated: Miss Monroe had suffered from psychiatric disturbance for a long time. She experienced severe fears and frequent depressions. Mood changes were abrupt and unpredictable. Among symptoms of disorganization, sleep disturbance was prominent, for which she had been taking sedative drugs for many years. She was thus familiar with and experienced in the use of sedative drugs and well aware of their dangers. In our investigation we have learned that Miss Monroe had often expressed wishes to give up, to withdraw, and even to die. On more than one occasion in the past, she had made a suicide attempt, using sedative drugs. On these occasions, she had called for help and had been rescued. It is our opinion that the same pattern was repeated on the evening of Aug. 4 except for the rescue. It has been our practice with similar information collected in other cases in the past to recommend a certification for such deaths as probable suicide. Additional clews for suicide provided by the physical evidence are the high level of barbiturates and chloral hydrate in the blood which, with other evidence from the autopsy, indicates the probable ingestion of a large amount of drugs within a short period of time: the completely empty bottle of Nembutal, the prescription for which (25 capsules) was filled the day before the ingestion, and the locked door to the bedroom, which was unusual. Due to the claims that Monroe had been murdered that surfaced in the 1970s, Los Angeles County District Attorney John Van de Kamp assigned his colleague Ronald H. "Mike" Carroll to conduct a "threshold investigation" in 1982 to see whether a criminal investigation should be opened. Carroll worked with Alan B. Tomich, an investigator for the district attorney's office, for over three months on an inquiry that resulted in a thirty-page report. They did not find any credible evidence to support the theory that Monroe was murdered. In 1983, coroner Thomas Noguchi published his memoirs, in which he discussed Monroe's case and the allegations of discrepancies in the autopsy and the coroner's verdict of suicide. These included the claims that Monroe could not have ingested the pills because her stomach was empty; that Nembutal capsules should have left yellow residue; that she may have been administered an enema; and that the autopsy noted no needle marks despite the fact that she routinely received injections from her doctors. Noguchi explained that hemorrhaging of the stomach lining indicated that the medication had been administered orally, and that because Monroe had been an addict for several years, the pills would have been absorbed more rapidly than in the case of non-addicts. He also denied that Nembutal leaves dye residue. He noted that only very recent needle marks are visible on a body, and that the only bruise he noted on Monroe's body, on her lower back, was superficial and its placement indicated that it was accidental, and not linked to foul play. He concluded that based on his observations, the most probable conclusion is that Monroe committed suicide.