Marilyn
Monroe
by
TempleofMysteries.com
Copyright 2012
TempleofMysteries.com
Smashwords Edition
The
Un-American Sex Goddess & The Hood
Three
Men and a Not So Little Lady
Eunice
Murray
A
Potted Biography
Nut-Jobs
and Wierdos
The
Divine Plan
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INTRODUCTION
On August 5th 1962 the world was shaken by the announcement that Hollywood icon and universal sex symbol Marilyn Monroe was dead. Apparently she had taken an overdose of barbiturates and was discovered by her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, late the previous night. Details surrounding her death were strangely scant as the media saw fit to celebrate her life rather than mourn her passing. Marilyn had a history of mental health problems, she had had a rough ride recently and to dish the dirt was not befitting of a celebrity of her status. What the media didn't bank on was how much the world actually loved Marilyn. The public wanted details. Besides which something didn't ring true. Marilyn may have been through a bad period but the past few months had seen her life arc take an upward turn. She was once again seeing the love of her life, Joe DiMaggio, and they were planning to be married on August 8th Twentieth Century Fox had reinstated her contract and she had been offered an unprecedented $250,000 to complete her role in Something's Got To Give. Marilyn appeared to be happier than she had been in years.
Slowly the circumstances surrounding her death began to leak into public domain. It simply didn't compute. Firstly if she had taken such enormous quantities of pills - there were at least eight empty containers at her bedside - why then was there not trace of pill residue found in her stomach? Why was there bruising on her body? Why had the body been moved? Why did it take so long before the police were informed. And why when they got there was Eunice Murray already laundering Marilyn's bed sheets? Why were her diaries, letters and telephone tapes all missing? Even her Fox contacts were missing, for God's sake. And, most importantly, why did Robert Kennedy call on her that very evening and reportedly have an argument?
Marilyn's death has been the bane of conspiracy theorists the world over. There are plenty of nut-job theories but even the majority of them share one simple and very important thread - John and Robert Kennedy; both of whom were alleged to have had affairs with Marilyn. They were renowned socialites and enjoyed the company of Hollywood's biggest and baddest stars. Indeed, doomed rat-packer Peter Lawford was an in-law. They partied with the likes of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby and took every advantage of their showbiz connections to enhance their profiles, appearing in photo-spreads in the company of Tinseltown's finest. It was good PR and the Kennedy dynasty needed all the good publicity they could garner. What's more, it was working. JFK was and still is the most popular US President of all time. Having the most beautiful woman in the world at your dinner table or singing Happy Birthday to you in public was surely the icing on the cake. But somewhere along the line things started getting messy. The rumour mill was closing in. Marilyn was suspected of being more than an acquaintance, more than a close friend. Something had to give. Then rumours emerged that Marilyn was calling a press conference and claimed she was going to 'blow the lid off of Washington.' It was time to cut her loose.
In 1985 the US TV programme 20/20 pulled the broadcast of a British-made award-winning documentary, Say Goodbye To The President, and Geraldo Rivera was sacked for protesting against its censorship. The film virtually confirmed that Marilyn Monroe did indeed have affairs with both JFK and RFK. This was twenty-three years after her death, twenty-two years after JFK's assassination and 17 years after the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Need we say more?
THE UN-AMERICAN SEX GODDESS AND THE HOOD
Regardless of the popular image promoted by the studios and the media, Marilyn Monroe was not the platinum haired, dippy, sex kitten of her usual on-screen persona. In truth she was well read, intelligent and financially shrewd ; she was also a staunch campaigner for civil rights. This combined with her marriage to Arthur Miller and her sponsorship of SANE - the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy - was clearly out of line with J Edgar Hoover's McCarthyite witch-hunts. Marilyn claimed that many of her Hollywood acquaintances advised her to steer clear of Miller expressing concern that the relationship would tarnish her career. Marilyn was not about to be pushed around. Her support for the Kennedys pre-election time was based on her dislike for Nixon and his association with the McCarthy/Hoover regime. She stood up for racial equality and world peace - opinions that the media chose to 'edit' from interviews, preferring the bombshell, society girl image they had created to anything with even the slightest political edge. Their reasoning was probably that by showing her allegiances they would only succeed in reducing her appeal to certain members of the public, which could potentially alienate a section of their precious readership. On the other hand criticising her views could have an equally detrimental effect in the wake of swaying public opinion away from government plots. The term 'Un-American' was in itself becoming a potentially volatile phrase. Either way mixing Marilyn with politics was a commercial hot potato.
So Marilyn the political activist was kept as tightly under wraps as possible. She was after all the singular most popular film star on the planet, which even rabid bigots like Hoover and his compatriots recognised as something to treat with a degree of caution. Something had to be done but in the meantime they were quite content to screw the nut and bide their time. Meanwhile they simply dealt with arguably less famous players on the blacklist, hauling them up in front of the 'Committee' in an attempt to trash their careers - Miller was joined by Dashiell Hammett, Charlie Chaplin, Burl Ives, Orson Welles, Dorothy Parker, Paul Robeson, Larry Adler, Larry Parks and over 300 others. Whether they testified or not was immaterial - if you were on the list you could expect a downturn in your career. Many claim it didn't end there. In the case of the more outspoken amongst them ( for instance Ernest Hemingway, who's universal respect by the literary and cinematic community was virtually unequalled ) more extreme action was required. It was relatively easy for the witchfinders to deal with a poorly old man who was a self confessed depressive. On July 2nd 1961 the man whose works included A Farewell To Arms, The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Killers committed 'suicide'. Now that rings a bell, doesn't it just?
It was only a matter of time. Paranoia about the infiltration of commies into the Hollywood mainstream was becoming an epidemic in political circles. Hollywood was split in two with insiders literally spying and 'exposing' suspect pinkos. Ronnie Reagan, the all-American hero and future president, was one of Hoover's most faithful witchfinders who, fuelled by his lust for power, was more than happy to see close friends and colleagues ruined by unfounded allegations and minor closet skeletons. Soon Hoover's mafia connections were getting the heebie-jeebies and joined forces with the CIA in an attempt to flush out the perceived threat to decent society. After all, under communist rule it would be far more difficult to operate covertly let alone lead such openly lavish lifestyles. What's more they were in Hoover's pocket.
So mafia bigwigs like Mickey Cohen had a vested interest in keeping Hollywood as it was. He was renowned for his exploitation of big stars, Marilyn Monroe included. He certainly wasn't above secretly filming stars in compromising situations and blackmailing them. However the association of the mafia with the CIA did not sit well with the Kennedy's vision of a Free America any more than having a Roman Catholic President fitted with Hoover's. The Kennedys were coming down heavy on racketeers and mobsters. The likes of mafia boss Sam Giancana obviously thought this was more than a little hypocritical ; there he was offering muscle to a government department ( albeit a rogue government department ) and in return the government were striving to put him and his peers out of business or at least appeared to be doing so. He decided it was time to do something about it. Fortunately his good friend Edgar was looking for a similar end.
Enter the frame Johnny 'Hollywood' Roselli. Roselli, Chicago's number-one loan shark, mafia talent scout and hitman, had for a short time been the first Chicago boss of the Strip in Las Vegas. Roselli's 'talent agency' claimed to be responsible for furthering or at least extending the careers of such luminaries as George Raft, the Marx Brothers, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and Jimmy Durante to name just a few. He was also alleged to have been engaged by the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro in 1961. This was a guy with the right connections, background and above all experience. If Roselli couldn't rock the Kennedy boat nobody could.