43 years ago, housekeeper Eunice Murray found the body of 36-year-old sex symbol Marilyn Monroe naked and facedown on her bed in her Brentwood home. The autopsy ruled it a "probable suicide." Well, as it turns out, not-so-fast.
Word now that a former Los Angeles County prosecutor, 86-year-old John W. Miner, has come forward saying that immediately after her death he heard secret tapes made by her psychiatrist, and took extensive "nearly verbatim" notes.
The headline of all this as played in the Los Angeles Times is that Monroe was hardly suicidal which means either that she overdosed accidentally (which is possible given her regular use of pills and alcohol at the same time) or that someone killed her. This investigator's theory is that chloral hydrate was given her to render her unconscious and then 30 or more capsules of Nembutal were dissolved in water and the lethal dose was administered by enema. Miner's talking now, by the way, because the psychiatrist is dead and he feels released from his promise to never reveal what was on the tapes.
We'll never know how she died, I suppose. So let's get on to the other good stuff from these transcripts. From Marilyn's own words to her psychiatrist, we now know:
- She thought Arthur Miller was a "so-so" lover.
- She had a one-night affair with Joan Crawford. "The next time I saw Crawford, she wanted another round. I told her straight out I didn't enjoy doing it with a woman. After I turned her down, she became spiteful."
- She never confirmed an affair with President Kennedy but pretty much did regarding his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. "As you see, there is no room in my life for him. I guess I don't have the courage to face up to it and hurt him. I want someone else to tell him it's over. I tried to get the president to do it, but I couldn't reach him."
- "Speaking of Oscars," she says, "I would win overwhelmingly if the Academy gave an Oscar for faking orgasms. I have done some of my best acting convincing my partners I was in the throes of ecstasy."
- On her own attractiveness: "I stood naked in front of my full length mirrors for a long time yesterday. I was all made up with my hair done. What did I see. My breasts are beginning to sag a bit ... My waist isn't bad. My ass is what it should be, the best there is. Legs, knees and ankles still shapely. And my feet are not too big. OK, Marilyn, you have it all there."
Maybe the biggest shockers: despite her ditsy blonde image, Monroe claimed to have read all of Shakespeare and had more than a passing acquaintance with the works of Freud.
Don't take my word for it. Read the transcript yourself.
What with Deep Throat outing himself, now Miner telling what he knows, we can only hope for the trifecta -- JFK's killer makes a deathbed confession!
