The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe (5 page)

In the 1960s, when Marilyn was filming
The Misfits
and was troubled by marital problems with Arthur Miller, she swallowed a number of barbiturate tablets, but she again gagged and regurgitated many of them. When her coach, Paula Strasberg, discovered Marilyn unconscious on a bed, she told of seeing the vomitus on Marilyn's face and described using her fingers to scoop the dissolved capsules out of her mouth. Again, Marilyn's stomach was pumped at the hospital, where she regained consciousness.

These experiences make the absence of vomitus or residue in Noguchi's autopsy even more striking.

Also of significance was the absence of the “odor of pear.” Victims who ingest chloral hydrate emit a strong pearlike odor. However, this is not the case when chloral hydrate is injected directly into the bloodstream rather than ingested through the digestive tract.

When Noguchi and Miner were unable to find an indication that death had resulted from the ingestion of barbiturate capsules, the mode of death became the subject of a toxicologist's laboratory examination, to be conducted by Dr. R. J. Abernethy. Before leaving the morgue, Noguchi prepared the brain, blood, urine, and internal organs for examination. On the bottom of his report, he noted, “Unembalmed blood is taken for alcohol and barbiturate examination. Liver, kidney, stomach, and contents, urine and intestine are saved for further toxicological study.”

The physical autopsy lasted five hours. The remains of Marilyn Monroe's body were returned to crypt #33.

Sometime after ten o'clock Sunday night,
Life
photographer Leigh Wiener snuck into the county morgue. Offering a bottle of whiskey as a bribe, Wiener persuaded a morgue attendant to open up crypt #33 and roll out Marilyn Monroe for a few snapshots. He took a number of photos of the corpse, both covered and uncovered. It was Marilyn Monroe's last photo session.

R
. J. Abernethy, toxicologist for the Los Angeles County coroner, began his laboratory examination at 8:30
A.M.
Monday, August 6, and he quickly concluded that Marilyn Monroe's death was due to a massive overdose of barbiturates. The tests showed 4.5 milligrams percent of pentobarbital and 8.0 milligrams percent of chloral hydrate in the bloodstream. In addition, the liver contained 13 milligrams percent pentobarbital—an abnormally large concentration. Pentobarbital is the chemical nomenclature for the Abbott Laboratories product marketed as Nembutal. Chloral hydrate, sometimes referred to as “knockout drops” or a “Mickey Finn,” is a highly potent sedative hypnotic that quickly renders a person unconscious.

After reviewing Abernethy's chemical analysis, Noguchi prepared his preliminary autopsy report. The facts indicated that Monroe's body had been found in a room locked from the inside. No hypodermic needle had been discovered within the locked room. Among eight prescription containers found at her bedside were item #4, an empty container of twenty-five capsules of 1½ grains of Nembutal (pentobarbital) filled by San Vicente Pharmacy on August 3, 1962; and item #5, a chloral hydrate container filled on July 25, 1962—of which ten tablets remained. The
toxicologist's report of chemical analysis confirmed the barbiturate overdose.

Correlating the forensic evidence with the circumstances filed in the police report, Noguchi concluded that the cause of death was “acute barbiturate poisoning due to the ingestion of an overdose.” Under
mode of death
he circled “Suicide”—writing in the word “probable.” After filing this report, Noguchi assumed that he had done a thorough examination and reported everything accurately; however, disquieting forensic contradictions compelled him to return to the toxicology lab.

Abernethy had furnished laboratory reports on the blood and liver, which indicated death from barbiturate poisoning. However, Noguchi had clearly requested reports on the kidney, stomach, urine, and intestines as well. Examination of these specimens would have revealed how the barbiturate had entered Monroe's system. But the limited toxicology report contained no analysis of these specimens, and therefore there was no confirmation that the barbiturates had been orally ingested. Neither Noguchi's autopsy nor Abernethy's chemical analysis had furnished substantial evidence as to how the barbiturate poisoning took place. When Noguchi again asked for the reports on the kidney, stomach, urine, and intestines, he was amazed to find that the samples he and Miner had prepared under the supervision of Curphey had all mysteriously vanished.

The disappearance of these specimens is perhaps the most disturbing of the long list of irregularities relating to the autopsy. These missing specimens contained vital information definitely determining the mode of death. Laboratory examination of the digestive tract could have confirmed Noguchi's findings that there was no evidence of the barbiturate or its residue in the stomach or intestines—indicating that the fatal dose had not been orally ingested. If examination of the kidneys had shown no barbiturates, that would also have confirmed that Monroe did not die from an oral ingestion.

Recently, it has been discovered that the specimens “disappeared” at the toxicological laboratory established by Abernethy at the UCLA School of Medicine, where Greenson was an eminent member of the faculty. When questioned, Abernethy refused to discuss what became of the missing organ samples. Westwood Village Mortuary attendant Alan Abbott recently stated, “Knowing Coroner Curphey, and that he had supervised the autopsy, it's difficult to imagine that those specimens just disappeared. It wouldn't have happened.”

Miner observed, “In the entire history of the L.A. County coroner's
office there had never been a previous instance of organ samples vanishing.”

 

Noguchi sent his preliminary report to Coroner Curphey, who reviewed it along with the police reports. In coroner's cases where suicide is suspected, friends, relatives, physicians, and colleagues of the deceased are normally interviewed to establish the victim's state of mind. The coroner then decides if the total evaluation of the victim's death supports a final verdict of suicide. If there was any doubt as to the cause of death, Curphey's responsibility was to call for an inquest, subpoena witnesses, and bring about a full-scale inquiry. However, according to coroner's aide Lionel Grandison, Curphey was actually covering up the cause of Monroe's death. “As I analyze my participation, my conversations with other staff members, and the things I've seen,” Grandison stated, “there's no doubt in my mind that the Marilyn Monroe case, as we know it now, is not the true case. Some very sensitive areas have been covered up. Evidence was suppressed, paperwork was taken from the files, and people who have knowledge of what happened have not been listened to or sought out.”

Coroner Curphey was an administrator, without an investigative background, and ordinarily it would have been the job of the coroner's staff to investigate the circumstances of Monroe's death, but on August 6, Curphey announced to the press that he would personally question the star's doctors.

According to Grandison, Curphey's interference with the normal investigative procedure was unprecedented, and the little information he passed on to the staff “changed from day to day, as if it were being tailored to fit a scenario in need of constant revision by its authors.” Grandison also discovered that someone in the department was removing and rewriting key material from the Monroe file. “I observed information leaving the file,” he later stated, “and much of the information taken out of the file was never replaced.” He claims the file was doctored to support “what someone wanted the public to think.”

Not until many years later did Grandison fully comprehend the significance of one item that vanished. This was Monroe's diary, or “book of secrets.” This diary, which was not found among Monroe's effects by the police or by Guy Hockett, was inadvertently obtained by Grandison when he was trying to locate Monroe's next of kin. On Monday, August 6, he sent a driver to Monroe's home to pick up whatever material might give
addresses or phone numbers of relatives. The driver returned with a small red-covered book. The red diary became a matter of controversy, and many have doubted that it ever existed. Only Robert Slatzer and Lionel Grandison claim to have seen it and examined its contents; however, recent discoveries confirm that the controversial diary did exist. In 1994 a CIA document surfaced (see “Appendix”) confirming that Monroe's “book of secrets” was a major national security concern.

Another witness who viewed the diary, or “book of secrets,” was former Los Angeles intelligence officer Mike Rothmiller, who worked under Captain Daryl Gates at OCID, the Organized Crime Intelligence Division. In 1978 Rothmiller was assigned to the OCID file room, where floor-to-ceiling shelves housed confidential files. Among them was the Marilyn Monroe file, which Rothmiller states included a copy of her diary.

“It was more like a journal,” Rothmiller said. “The majority of the entries were notes about conversations Marilyn Monroe had with John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. The subject matter ranged from Russia and Cuba to the Mafia and Sinatra. I remember she referred to Castro as ‘Fidel C.'”

Norman Jefferies also verified the existence of the diary. He recalled that Marilyn kept her red diary either in her bedroom or locked in the file cabinet located in the guest cottage. Jefferies said that on the night she died, her file cabinet was broken into and many of the contents were removed. On Monday, August 6, Jefferies returned to the Monroe residence with Eunice Murray to open the house for Inez Melson, Marilyn's former business manager and executrix of the estate. The driver for the coroner's office arrived while they were waiting for Melson. Jefferies recalled that Murray had the red diary in her possession and gave it to the driver along with one of Marilyn's address books. Jefferies couldn't explain when or how Murray had obtained the diary. Though the diary offered Grandison no clue as to next of kin, he recalled that Bobby Kennedy's name appeared frequently, as did comments about government figures and activities. Grandison remembered seeing the names of both Kennedy brothers, as well as comments about the CIA and the Mafia. He also recalled the names of Jimmy Hoffa, Fidel Castro, and Frank Sinatra. When he left the office that day, he locked the diary in the safe at the coroner's office, but when he opened it the next day, the red diary was gone. According to Grandison only three others knew the combination to the safe: Phil Schwartzberg, the coroner's administrative assistant; Richard Rathman, who was in charge of administration; and Coroner Curphey.

 

In the meantime, a peckish press was grabbing any tidbit of information regarding Marilyn's last days. Dozens of people claimed they were the last person to speak to her by telephone. The police department received letters containing all sorts of wild allegations. One person “knew for a fact” that Joe DiMaggio had killed his ex-wife in a jealous rage. A stuffed animal she received on the day she died was supposedly connected to a “secret message” that drove her into suicidal despondency.

At a press conference held on Monday, August 6, Curphey revealed that “Marilyn Monroe definitely had not died from natural causes,” adding that she may have accidentally taken an overdose of sleeping pills. He announced that her death would be probed not only by the coroner's office but by the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Team, the independent investigating unit of the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, which had its offices on the campus of UCLA. This investigating team consisted of Dr. Robert Litman, a psychiatrist and professor at UCLA; Dr. Norman Farberow, a prominent psychologist; and Dr. Norman Tabachnick. The
Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
's evening edition of August 6 referred to them as the “Suicide Squad.” Normally, coroner's investigations are conducted by official investigators and the information gathered becomes a matter of public record, but by appointing a private group working free of charge, Curphey made the inquiry an unofficial investigation. No one interviewed would be put under oath, and no interview would ever become a matter of public record. To this day nobody has ever read the full report of the Suicide Squad other than Curphey, who took the findings to his grave. There is no record that the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Team ever participated in a coroner's office verdict before or after Case #81128.

Litman, Farberow, and Tabachnick were all associates of Greenson, either as faculty of UCLA, as members and lecturers at the Psychoanalytic Institute, or as fellow committee members at the American Civil Liberties Union. Shortly after the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Team was recruited, it received a sizable grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, under a government welfare program initiated by Robert Kennedy and administered by his intimate friend of many years, David Hackett.

 

On Monday, August 6, the Suicide Prevention Team, headed by Farberow, held a press conference and announced that they would hold “exhaustive
interviews regarding the probable suicide of Marilyn Monroe.” On Tuesday, they held another press conference, during which Farberow and Litman announced, “We're interviewing anybody and everybody.” Responding to reporters' questions, Farberow stated, “We will seek out all persons with whom Marilyn had recently been associated.” On Wednesday, another press conference was held, and Farberow assured the media that there would be “no limitations” to the scope of the inquiry, and that the team would “go as far back in her life as necessary.” Yet another hurried press conference was held on August 14. The Suicide Squad had been on the job for scarcely a week, a week largely spent organizing press conferences, and Farberow announced that the Suicide Prevention Team had concluded that Marilyn Monroe was “an emotionally disturbed person who suffered from deep inner conflicts,” and their investigation supported the suicide theory.

Because the team's files have never been available to the public, there is no record of who they interviewed or what was discovered, but subsequent investigations have revealed a long list of close friends and associates who were
not
interviewed, among them Peter Lawford, Pat Newcomb, Eunice Murray, Arthur Miller, Joe DiMaggio, Robert Slatzer, Paula Strasberg, Natasha Lytess, Frank Sinatra, and Norman Rosten. The Suicide Prevention Team readily admitted that they had not interviewed John or Robert Kennedy.

Today we know the name of only one person who was interviewed—the most important person of all, Dr. Ralph Greenson. As Marilyn's psychiatrist, he presumably knew more about her state of mind than anyone else. She had been his patient for over two years and had visited him practically every day, often twice a day, during the last two months of her life. Greenson was greatly distressed by his patient's death, and he was reluctant to give interviews. However, in order to complete the informal investigation, Curphey knew he had to interview the victim's psychiatrist. Although John Miner was an attorney, he also held a degree in psychology and lectured at the prestigious Psychoanalytic Institute along with Greenson. They had been friends and associates for many years, and Miner became the logical person to conduct the interview. Miner recalled, “I knew Dr. Greenson personally. Dr. Curphey knew that, and so he asked me to interview Dr. Greenson.”

Curphey and Miner expected Greenson to reiterate his opinion that Marilyn Monroe had committed suicide, but Miner was amazed to find that Greenson had totally reversed his opinion. The interview took place
on Monday, August 12, 1962, at Greenson's office. Greenson imposed a condition: “A promise was exacted by Dr. Greenson,” Miner explained. “I would not reveal the content of anything I learned. He imposed this condition by reason of his professional ethics and consideration for Miss Monroe's privacy. I gave him my word that I would not.” However, it was understood that Miner was free to arrive at conclusions and report his opinion as long as he didn't reveal the content of their meeting.