Marilyn Monroe: The Biography (115 page)

565

There was too much: Murray, p. 122.

565

Why don’t you come: Regarding MM’s invitation to Pat Newcomb and their dialogue: Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992; also Newcomb quoted in the
New York Journal-American
, Aug. 15, 1962.

566

seemingly without: Quoted in Murray, p. 125.

566

Marilyn seemed angry: Pat Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992.

566

Greenson billed MM’s Estate for a visit to Fifth Helena on August 4.

567

He spent most: Milton Rudin to DS, Oct. 31, 1992.

567
ff

Regarding the telephone calls to MM from Joe DiMaggio, Jr., he described these to the police on August 9, who included them in their 1962 report on MM’s death: “Interview With Persons Known to Marilyn Monroe, Police Follow-Up Report,” August 10, 1962; interviews conducted by Detective Sergeant Robert E. Byron.

567

Regarding Eunice’s shopping, see Murray, p. 128.

567

I was there: William Asher to DS, Sept. 25, 1992. Milton Ebbins confirmed to DS that Asher was at Lawford’s that afternoon and had related MM’s presence to Ebbins shortly thereafter.

568

Although Greenson admitted in his letter to Kris that he arrived at four-thirty, he wrote that this was at MM’s request and gives no indication of the preceding events of the day, much less of his earlier visit.

568

Regarding Greenson’s visit to MM, see his statement to the police, Aug. 5, 1962; Zolotow,
art. cit.;
and Murray, p. 129.

568

In 1975 and 1982, Peter Lawford told police investigators that he placed his first call to MM at five o’clock that afternoon.

568

Oh, Marilyn: Quoted in Robert Welkos and Ted Rohrlich, “Marilyn Monroe Mystery Persists,”
Los Angeles Times
, Sept. 29, 1985, part 2, p. 1.

569

The call from Isadore Miller and Murray’s response are reported in
The Daily Express
(London), Aug. 8, 1962.

569

But it was Greenson: Ralph Roberts to DS, March 2, 1992.

569

Regarding Greenson’s calls to Engelberg: Esther Maltz to DS, Oct. 23, 1992.

570

I asked the housekeeper: Greenson to Marianne Kris. Aug. 20, 1962.

570

this was the
first
: Eunice Murray to Investigator Al Tomich, Sept. 27, 1982: Los Angeles County District Attorney, Bureau of Investigation, Report File No. 82-G-2236; Murray, p. 2.

570
ff

Regarding the younger Joe DiMaggio’s last call to MM, see note to p. 567, above. See also his statement to the
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 8, 1962, that MM was alert and in good spirits.

570

happy, gay, alert: Murray, p. 130.

570

quite pleasant: Greenson to Kris, Aug. 20, 1962; Greenson to Zolotow,
art. cit
., Sept. 16, 1973.

571

The time of Lawford’s call can be precisely fixed because Milton Ebbins recalled that Lawford called him at exactly 7:40 P.M.—a time Lawford later confirmed with William Asher and Joe Naar, among others. Ebbins, Asher and Naar interviews with DS dated, respectively, Aug. 6, 1992; Sept. 25, 1992; July 22, 1992.

571

Lawford’s account as herein related was his consistent account as told in a police interview in 1975, and as reported in the
Los Angeles Times
on Sept. 29, 1985. Lawford was also interviewed by district attorney investigators in 1982, but at that time he changed his story, saying simply that he could not get through to MM’s line at eight o’clock. However, Milton Ebbins reported to DS that Lawford told him the night of MM’s death of his last conversation with the actress at seven-forty. Lawford told the same story, in somewhat less detail, to Bill Asher and Joe Naar. It would have been natural for him to alter the account somewhat in 1982, by which time the unjustly believed rumors of the Kennedy involvement in MM’s death would have led Lawford to remove himself as far as possible from direct contact with her that night. Lawford later reported that he ended his string of fearful phone calls at one-thirty in the morning, after yet another call from Ebbins. Lawford told investigators from the district attorney’s office in 1982 that “Ebbins advised that he had just received a telephone call from Rudin, who stated that he and Dr. Greenson had found Monroe dead in her residence at midnight.” Lawford added that he was sure of the time of the call because he remembered looking at his bedside clock.

    Again, Ebbins denied making the one-thirty call. By his account, following his (roughly) nine o’clock conversation with Rudin, he did not speak with the attorney again until four in the morning, at which time Rudin informed him of the death. “I said, ‘Mickey, what are you doing up at this hour?’ He said, ‘I got problems.’ I asked, ‘How’s Marilyn?’ and he said, ‘Not good.’ He said, ‘Her doctors and I just broke into the bedroom. They’ve been working on her, and they just pronounced her dead.’” This timing (Ebbins to DS, Aug. 6, 1992) seems unlikely, for it contradicts the collective witness of Asher, Naar and Rudin and supports the claims of Greenson and Eunice Murray themselves—namely, that the doctor had to break into MM’s bedroom to gain access to it.

571

Say goodbye: Lawford to Los Angeles Police Department, Oct. 16, 1975; also Lawford to Earl Wilson,
Show Business Laid Bare
, p. 88.

571

Regarding Lawford’s second telephone call: see Harrison Carroll, “Lawford Tells of Phoning Marilyn,”
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
, Aug. 6, 1962: “Lawford may have been the last person to talk to the blonde star before she was found dead in her bed . . . Eunice Murray earlier reported that Marilyn received such a call.”

571

Peter was obviously: Milton Ebbins to DS, Aug. 6, 1992.

571

Monroe was laughing: Thomas T. Noguchi with Joseph DiMona,
Coroner
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 65.

572

That Ebbins reached Rudin’s office at 8:25 P.M. is confirmed by Rudin’s report to the police, based on his office records for that evening. Attorneys’ offices (especially in Hollywood) routinely have round-the-clock answering services for emergencies.

572

I did not call: Milton Rudin to DS, Oct. 31, 1992.

572

Rudin’s account is from this same interview with DS. Also, see Rudin’s account in the police interview dated Aug. 10, 1962.

572

If only: Murray, p. 132.

573

Joseph Naar’s account: to DS, July 22, 1992. George Durgom, who died in 1992, suffered from Alzheimer’s disease the last several years of his life, while this book was being researched, and could not be interviewed.

573

Ebbins denied (to DS, July 22 and Oct 6, 1992) calling Naar that evening. “He must be mistaken,” he said of Naar, who was and remains a friend of Ebbins. Naar, however, was emphatic (to DS, July 22, 1992): “I could swear it was Ebbins who called.” The information Naar received in that call is consistent with what Ebbins affirmed he later learned.

573

had found Marilyn: The entire episode was recounted by Lawford in InvRep (Lawford), p. 2.

574

At about ten: Natalie Trundy Jacobs to DS, Feb. 28, 1992.

574
ff

Murray’s and Greenson’s reports are here represented as given to the Los Angeles police in 1962: report # 62-509 463.

574

for reasons I still: Murray, on Wolper,
Legend
.

575

We’ve lost her: Quoted in Robert Welkos and Ted Rohrlich, “Marilyn Monroe Mystery Persists,”
Los Angeles Times
, Sept. 29, 1985, part 2, p. 1.

575

Murray’s altered account from a “light beneath the door” to a “telephone cord” was made on Wolper,
Legend
, 1964.

575

Murray’s written answer to Roy Turner’s typewritten letter dated Feb. 9, 1987; also Newcomb to DS, Aug. 3, 1992; Ralph Roberts to DS, March 2, 1992; Rupert Allan to DS, June 19, 1992.

Chapter Twenty-three:
August 5, 1962

578
ff

Clemmons’s account is derived from an extended lecture and presentation he gave in Los Angeles on March 22, 1991, before an audience of those devoted to MM called “Marilyn Remembered.” His report is also contained in DA 1982, pp. 7–8, 26–28.

579

It is officer’s opinion: Los Angeles Police Department Report: Re-Interview of Persons Known to MM, dated Aug. 10, 1962.

579

take a look: Don Marshall (Los Angeles Police Department, Retired) to DS, Sept. 2, 1992.

579

a very good: Quoted by Marshall.

580

burning a pile: Peter Brown and Patte Barham,
The Last Take
(New York: Dutton, 1992), p. 322.

580

the locks:
Ibid
.

580

Nobody was destroying: Don Marshall to DS, Sept. 14, 1992.

582

It was obvious: Robert Litman, M.D. to DS, April 23, 1992.

582

Since our studies: Robert Litman, M.D., quoted in Howard Hertel and Frank Laro, “Marilyn Monroe’s Death Listed by Coroner as Probably Suicide,”
Los Angeles Times
, Aug. 18, 1962.

582

an addict among: Norman Farberow, M.D., quoted in the
Hollywood Citizen-News
, Aug. 20, 1962.

583

I did not think: John Miner to DS, June 11, 1992. All further citations of Miner are derived from this interview.

583

not a large: DA 1982, p. 4.

584
ff

Citations from Arnold Abrams, M.D., to DS: Nov. 2, 1992.

584

On the impossibility of an injection, see also DA 1982, p. 4.

584

This leads:
Ibid
.

584

marked congestion: Coroner’s Report, File #81128: autopsy performed on August 5, 1962, signed by T. Noguchi, M.D., Deputy Medical Examiner. See also Noguchi, p. 78.

585

cutting down: To Zolotow, in the
Chicago Tribune
, Sept. 14, 1973, sec. 2, p. 4.

587

Eunice did only: Philip LaClair to DS, July 22, 1992.

588
–
589

Weinstein’s recollections concerning Engelberg’s gastric lavage (stomach-pumping) of MM at Doheny Drive were reported in an interview to DS, Dec. 10, 1992.