Yesterday Papers

In the early morning hours of August 5, 1962 Marilyn Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood, California home by her live-in housekeeper Eunice Murray. At the time of her death,she was 36 years old.

The .pdf files in this post are photo reproduction of the newspaper articles reporting the death of the legendary blonde bombshell actress.  Although she died on August 5th, news of her death did not reach the general public until August 6th when the morning papers announced the tragedy.

In the days that followed, Marilyn’s death was ruled to be “acute barbiturate poisoning” by Dr. Thomas Noguchi of the Los Angeles County Coroners office and listed as “probable suicide.” Many individuals, including Sgt. Jack Clemmons, the first Los Angeles Police Department officer to arrive at the death scene, believed that she was murdered. However, no murder charges were ever filed.

Marilyn Monroe’s untimely death is probably one of the most hotly debated conspiracy theories of our times.  Although all questions were officially answered after Monroe’s death, many conspiracy theorists feel some questions remain.  Of particular interest are the circumstances and timeline of Monroe’s death after her body was found.

Marilyn Monroe Found Dead

A comparison of the contemporary reports of her death with the facts that later surfaced is quite interesting. Here is the timeline of events, from Wikipedia.

* 7:30pm. Peter Lawford telephones Monroe. Lawford claims she sounded depressed, her speech was slurred and became less and less audible so he had to yell in order to wake her. Monroe’s last words to him were “Say Good-bye to the President and say good-bye to yourself, because you’re a really nice guy”. Some of these elaborate theories arrive from:
* 8-9pm. Henry Rosefeld telephones Monroe and states she sounded normal.
* Around 9pm Monroe telephones hairdresser Sidney Guilaroff to arrange an appointment.
* 9:30-10pm. Former boyfriend Jose Bolanos telephones and states Monroe sounded normal.
* Sometime after 10pm Monroe telephones Jeanne Carmen to invite her over for a talk but due to the late hour Carmen declines.
* 10pm. Housekeeper Eunice Murray walks past Monroe’s door and states she saw a light on under the door but decided not to disturb her.
* Midnight. 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.

Death of Marilyn Monroe, Page 2

* Dr Greenson arrives and tries to break open the door but fails. He looks through the French windows outside and sees Monroe lying on the bed holding the telephone and apparently dead so breaks the glass to open the locked door and checks her. He calls Dr Engelberg.

The carpet in Monroe’s room was a thick pile which made it difficult but not impossible for Murray to have seen light under the door and the French windows had blackout blinds which also made it difficult to see inside the room.

* Police are called and arrive shortly after 4:30am. The two doctors and Murray are questioned and indicate a time of death of around 12:30am.
* Police note the room is extremely tidy and the bed appears to have fresh linen on it. They claim Murray was washing sheets when they arrived.
* Police noted that the bedside table has several pill bottles but the room contained no means to wash pills down as there was no glass and the water was turned off. Monroe is known to gag on pills even when drinking to wash them down. Later a glass was found lying on the floor by the bed but police claim it was not there when the room was searched.
* 5:40am. The undertaker, Guy Hockett, arrives and notes that the state of rigor mortis indicates a time of death between 9:30 and 11:30pm. The time is later altered to match the witness statements.

Page 3, Death of Marilyn Monroe

* 6am. Murray changes her story and now says she went back to bed at midnight and only called Dr Greenson when she awoke at 3am and noticed the light still on. Both doctors also changed their stories and now claim Monroe died around 3:50am. Police noted Murray appeared quite evasive and extremely vague and she would eventually change her story several times. Despite being a key witness Murray travelled to Europe and was not questioned again.
* The pathologist Dr Thomas Noguchi could find no trace of capsules, powder or the typical discolouration caused by Nembutal in Monroe’s stomach or intestines indicating the drugs that killed her had not been swallowed. If Monroe had swallowed the drugs there would have been residue. If Monroe had taken them over a period of time which might account for the lack of residue she would have died long before ingesting the amount found in her bloodstream. Monroe was found lying face down but lividity on her back and the posterior aspect of the arms and legs indicated she had died lying on her back. The body was covered in bruises, all minor except for one on her hip. There was also evidence of cyanosis, an indication that death was very quick. Noguchi had asked the toxicologist for examinations of the blood, liver, kidneys, stomach, urine, and intestines which would have revealed exactly how the drugs got into Monroe’s system. However the toxicologist after examining the blood didn’t believe he needed to check other organs so many of the organs were destroyed without being examined. When Noguchi asked for the samples, the medical photographs and slides of those that were examined and the examination form showing bruises on the body had disappeared making it impossible to investigate the cause of death.
* The toxicology report shows high levels of Nembutal (38-66 capsules) and Chloral Hydrate (14-23 tablets) in Monroe’s blood. The level found was enough to kill more than 10 people .
* An examination of the body ruled out intravenous injection as the source of the drugs leaving only an enema or suppository as a source. These sources were considered unlikely and had no evidence in support so Naguchi reluctantly wrote that the drugs were swallowed.
* The coroner, Dr. Theodore Curphey, oversaw the full autopsy. Apart from the cause of death as listed on the death certificate, the results were never made public and no record of the findings were kept.