What happened with Marilyn Monroe Cold Case Documentary

Happy birthday! Hollywood in the 50s and its biggest female star, Marilyn Monroe. The death of the diva on the night of August 5th, 1962, shook people worldwide. The acclaimed German actress Florence Kazumba takes on the case. She was the female icon of the 20th century and her death a topic of contention for decades. Was it suicide? An overdose of sleeping pills is the official explanation for her death, but many people have doubts and suspect foul play. Decades have passed since then, but the case has never been resolved. Monroe is what dreams are made of. Her sex appeal is undeniable. Her meteoric rise embodies the promise of the successful American way of life. John F. Kennedy has an affair with her, as does his brother, Robert Kennedy. However, the president's infidelity has to be kept from the public. Even the FBI is involved. Secret Service chief J. Edgar Hoover places Monroe under surveillance. It's 1962. The Cold War is driving world politics. The Russians provoke the Americans. Nikita Khrushchev wants to station missiles just outside the gates to America. Kennedy has to react. The world holds its breath. The Second World War is still fresh in everybody's minds. On the night of August 5th, 1962, the Brentwood, Los Angeles police receive an emergency call. The 36-year-old Marilyn Monroe was found unconscious by her housekeeper. Around 4.30am, the police arrive. Marilyn Monroe is dead. Apparently from an overdose of sleeping pills. But an investigation is now going on and no final conclusion has been reached. Ms. Monroe has suffered from psychiatric disturbance for a long time. She has often expressed wishes to give up, to withdraw and even to die. On the basis of all the information obtained, it is our opinion that the case is a probable suicide. Probable suicide. This presumed cause of death is agreed upon in a remarkably short time. Although an autopsy of the body has yet to be completed. Probable suicide is written here on the death certificate. But if it's not certain, wouldn't the correct cause of the death be undetermined? This is a conceivable possibility. The only distinction to be made on this death certificate is that the cause of death is acute barbiturate poisoning resulting from an overdose. That is clearly defined. In another field, the coroner can make specifications, such as accident, suicide or homicide. Now it is not the task of the forensic medicine alone to handle this. One needs to take a closer look at how and where the person lived. Were there already attempted suicides in the past? Were there mood swings? Is there a history of mental or psychological illness? Hollywood in the 1950s. A dream factory. The promise of a better tomorrow. Marilyn is a dazzling star in a glittering world. But this fame comes at a high price. She is addicted to pills. Without tranquilizers and stimulants, she simply cannot cope with the pressures of the film industry. She suffers from depression, has suicidal thoughts, sometimes overdoses on her sleeping pills. Did she also take too many pills on the night of August 5th, 1962? Did she really want to end her life? Now, if you imagine putting an active ingredient, a drug, into your body, this is something you can do yourself in the sense of a suicide, an overdose. Or it can have been administered by a third party in the sense of a homicide. But it can also happen accidentally by perhaps an undetected overdose. The man-eating blonde who wins everybody's heart. This is the role the powerful studio bosses have selected just for Marilyn. This weighs her down. Additionally, she went through three unhappy marriages and several abortions, and her desire to have children was left unfulfilled. Are these reasons to commit suicide? On the day of her death, several members of her immediate family is seen at the Divas' home. Eunice Murray, the housekeeper, will contradict herself in her witness statements. Around midnight, she claims to have found Marilyn. Monroe's press advisor, Pat Newcomb, is seen around noon. There is said to have been an argument. The actor and brother-in-law of JFK, Peter Lawford, is also said to have been there. Then there's Marilyn's psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, who sees this patient in the afternoon. And JFK's brother, Robert, the United States Attorney General, is seen twice at the scene by neighbors. In the University Library of Los Angeles, a box is stored, locked away in a special cabinet. Box number 39. It could shed light on the investigation and provide clues as to how Marilyn really died. She was and is a Hollywood icon. Marilyn's beauty and sex appeal inspires our pop culture to this very day. But who was the woman behind the icon? She was born into the Dream Factory as Norma Jean Baker. Her mother, Gladys, is an assistant editor at one of the big studios. And she is mentally ill. Norma Jean, alias Marilyn, never knew her father. Still a baby, her manic-depressive grandmother is said to have tried to suffocate her with a pillow. As a child, she passes through several foster homes where she was very unhappy. There were 11 foster homes when she was a child. She was a very, how shall I put it, very easily victimized. And so in at least one home, she was sexually victimized. And this is traumatic. It's like a post-traumatic stress disorder cause. Historian Lois Banner has been studying the history of feminism for many years, including the phenomenon of Marilyn Monroe. The 16-year-old teenager has ambitions like no other. She makes a decision that will change her life forever. Marilyn was absolutely, absolutely intent on becoming a great star. And so she did everything to get there. She followed every single path. She went a little too far, but she took singing lessons. She took acting lessons. She took lessons to become a mime. Not without success, a scout discovers the pretty young woman on the street. Overnight, Norma Jean Baker turns into a highly sought-after photo model with the name Marilyn Monroe. The camera loves her seductive look and scantily veiled curves. The spotlight quickly casts its first shadows. The star suffers from depression. She suffered from bipolar condition. And the form of bipolarity that she suffered from, manic depressive disorder, you go up and down very fast. And when you go down, you can go into suicidal thoughts very fast. So you can be really at the top of your achievement, which Marilyn was. And she could have gone way down. In Hollywood, an addiction to prescription drugs is a tolerated side effect of being in the limelight. As long as the box office is thriving, Marilyn Monroe shoots one film after another with John Huston and Billy Wilder. Hollywood's A-list flocks to her. She wants to be desired and plays with her sexuality. There were 100 male photographers there. And every time the wind blew up her dress, you could see her sexuality. And they roared every time. Then, of course, what happened was Joe DiMaggio came and saw, and he said, I'm being cuckolded by 100 men. He got furious. He went back to the hotel room. She went back to the hotel room. And he beat her up. That's why she divorced him. He was a very violent man. More and more, Marilyn resorts to sedatives. The studio bosses are annoyed. The diva is unreliable, regularly arrives late to the set. She needs medical help. After a successful visit to rehab, she confidently takes control of her life and divorces her second husband, Joe DiMaggio. Clean and free, she starts afresh with a new husband, Arthur Miller, and another breakup. However, she shares her plans about her career with her friend, Robert Slatzer, shortly before her death. I thought it was very strange that she would commit suicide after talking with her on that Friday night before she was found dead. Because she had told me the different things that she had planned in her life for the next week, if not a few things, the next month. Becky Altringer has been a private investigator in California and New Mexico for 25 years. Marilyn Monroe has been her case for a long time. Probable suicide on the death certificate. This just doesn't sit right with her, given the lack of clarity regarding the facts. Altringer is convinced that the Hollywood icon was murdered. On the Internet, she collects signatures for her mission. She wants the entry on the death certificate to be corrected. I want to get Marilyn Monroe's death certificate changed from probable... Actually, it just says probable suicide to homicide. Whether I can do that, I don't know, but I'm never going to give up. As long as I'm alive, I'm going to keep pushing, pushing, pushing, because I think she was murdered. I don't think Marilyn Monroe committed suicide. Overdose is the current diagnosis. This, of course, is likely for someone with a previous history of suicide attempts involving prescription drugs. But many have their doubts. There was, after all, a police investigation. And indeed, cases in which no natural death is certified are always dealt with by the police in the form of a death investigation, regardless of whether celebrities are involved or not. How were the facts of the case assessed and evaluated by the local police? When the police officers arrive at Marilyn Monroe's house at 4.30am, everything points to a burglary. The window in the bedroom is smashed. The body is lying face down naked. At the same time, everything seems strangely orchestrated. Marilyn was stretched out, face down, in a soldier's position, catechon of the bed. Obviously, she'd been placed in that position. And I was shown the nightstand by her bed, and it was about eight or ten empty bottles that had contained medicine, all barbiturates. Dr. Greenson said she must have swallowed them all. I looked in the bathroom for a half-empty glass or a glass that had been used. There was none. I asked for, had anybody seen a document, any written statements, and no one had seen any written statements. There was no suicide note. And the only thing we had there at that time was some empty bottles. The official diagnosis is death from an overdose. That seems probable for someone who has attempted suicide several times before. But still, there are many questions. Strangely, no glass of water for taking the pills could be found, and a suicide note, which often accompanies a suicide, is also missing. This is how she is said to have died. On her bed, lying naked on her stomach, still holding the receiver in her right hand. Whom did she call, and why? Did she want help? You can see the empty medicine bottles here on the bedside table. This seems unusual in that, according to the autopsy report, there were no pill remnants or residue from them in her stomach. Another particular detail is that she was not wearing a bra, although she presumably always went to bed with it on. These things should have been investigated. One of the key witnesses is the housekeeper, Eunice Murray. She called the police and an ambulance. What did she notice? Becky Altringer finds Murray's behaviour suspicious. Eunice says that she saw Marilyn Monroe's light on at three o'clock in the morning. You know, my thought is, so what? She's an adult, she has her lights on, then she's obviously doing something. But she says she worried, couldn't open the door. So she calls Greenson and, you know, Laufer, supposedly, and all these people show up, and then before the police ever showed up, Eunice washed all the sheets, put them back. Did she remove evidence? It's said that Marilyn Monroe never locked her bedroom door. Whether or not there were keys to the door is unclear. The scene of death looks like a burglary took place. Laundry being done at 4.30 in the morning. None of this adds up. It certainly raises questions. The housekeeper, Eunice Murray, changes her statement several times. She tells the first police officer on the scene that she discovered Marilyn at midnight. Later, she corrects her statement in the police report to 3.30am. In an interview, she states 2 o'clock, only to correct herself again in 1972, saying it was midnight. Our sense of time is not as reliable at night as it is during the day, but these differences are remarkable. And the smashed patio door? Here, Murray's story is also inconsistent. 20 years later, she states in 2 interviews, contrary to her first statement, that the door to Marilyn's bedroom was not locked. And Dr. Greenson, whom Murray had called, claims that he had to break the window to get into the bedroom. Two very contradictory statements. I have the impression that the police are not really trying to get to the bottom of the inconsistencies. The policeman initially investigating the case is replaced by his boss. His suspicion that something was amiss is dropped. Isn't it notably strange that the theory of the officer who was first at the scene of the crime is simply disregarded? That is odd. Normally, the lead investigator depends on the preliminary work of the first officers at the scene. Based on this, his work continues. He investigates further. A new investigator should scrutinize very carefully, particularly in a case where experienced colleagues have the impression that something at the crime scene has been changed or that evidence has been concealed. Jack Clemens is ignored. On the night of the crime, his superior, Marvin Ionen, takes over the investigation. Clemens is removed. Ionen never spoke publicly about the case. Years later, he is promoted to chief of police of Beverly Hills and later to head of security for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The inconsistencies don't just end with the contradictory witness statements. John Minor is the investigating prosecutor. He is also present during the autopsy. Later, he gave an interview on the Marilyn case in which he struck a different tone than the one in the official report. With that massive amount of intake, there would have been undissolved capsules. She would have died before all of those capsules had been absorbed. So the notion of oral intake of the barbiturate simply does not scientifically stand up. It just didn't happen that way. The colon was exposed to a toxic substance. Now, an enema laden with barbiturate constitutes a toxic solution. Suicide by enema. We know how suppositories work. They dissolve. The substance adheres to the rectal wall from the inside and then the active ingredient is absorbed. It would look like this. You take this enema syringe, dissolve the pills in it and then administer the liquid into the rectum. The liquid and therefore the medication would then be absorbed by the intestinal mucosa. And does that happen often? A suicide by enema is a very rare event. The autopsy report indicated there was a purple discoloration on the intestinal tissue. What does that mean? Well, that can have many causes. First of all, I would think it might even be some kind of putrefaction. It might be a hemorrhage of the tissue. In order to determine this, a follow-up examination is needed, like as a microscopic examination of the tissue. Even the autopsy isn't conducted according to protocol. That is a part of an autopsy, is doing the microscopic slides for diagnostic purposes and evaluation. And why wasn't that done in this case? I don't know. Would you have wished it to be done? Yes, indeed. And Noguchi wished it to be done? Yes. And it would have been normally routine to have made that kind of examination? That's true. What happened to the medical photographs that were taken? I have no idea. But they seem not to exist anymore. That appears to be true. Important medical questions have not been clarified. Listen to what Prosecutor Minor says about the autopsy. All of those tissues that Dr. Noguchi carefully preserved and put into jars, except for the liver and the blood, were thrown away or disappeared. Minor seems completely clueless. What do you think? I am very puzzled by these statements. The public prosecutor is supposed to be the head of the investigation, meaning he is ultimately responsible for ensuring that investigations are conducted in a thorough and flawless manner. And the fact that investigations he considers to be necessary are not carried out is strange. Yes. And the missing photographs of the investigation? This investigation clearly failed in many ways. All steps have to be neatly documented and any evidence must always be fully traceable. We call this the chain of custody. Who had what, when, where, how, with what and why in their hands, examined it and passed it on. This applies to securing the evidence at the crime scene, to its presentation in court, in order to prevent any mix-ups or tampering from happening. All the evidence disappears. Tracks are covered, organ samples are stolen from the laboratory, Marilyn's phone records and her police file are nowhere to be found. All the information about Marilyn's death, investigations, etc., etc., someone destroyed them. So the police have no record of any investigations that they did into Marilyn's death and, frankly, they really almost didn't do any. It's shocking. It's shocking. For that to happen, someone who had a lot of power had to be involved. The puzzle can only be solved by looking into what happened on the day of her death. Around 9am, Marilyn comes into the kitchen and, according to her housekeeper, only drinks a glass of grapefruit juice for breakfast. At around noon, her personal PR consultant, Pat Newcomb, wakes up. She has a cold and has spent the night at her house. The two argue. Only Pat Newcomb knows what they fought about and she remains silent. Around 4.30pm, Marilyn calls her psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson, and asks him to come by. He arrives around 5.15pm and stays in the house for about two hours. After that, Marilyn is said to have spent two hours in her bedroom on the phone. Housekeeper Murray tells the first officer that she noticed something was wrong around midnight when she had to go to the toilet and discovered Marilyn unconscious. During her second interrogation, still at the scene, she corrects this statement to 3.30pm. Doesn't that make her a potential suspect? At night, it is sometimes difficult to know what time it is, especially when you have just woken up. But a time difference of over three hours? That is quite strange. In any case, the housekeeper calls Dr. Greenson and he, in turn, calls Marilyn's general practitioner, Dr. Engelbert, for help. Strange. According to the autopsy, Marilyn died around 10pm. This was estimated based on the level of rib mortis. It wasn't until 4.25am that those present called the police, who arrived five minutes later. What happened between 10pm and 4.30am? The housekeeper, Eunice Murray, states that she found Marilyn unconscious. She therefore calls the family doctor and friend, Dr. Ralph Greenson. Dr. Ralph Greenson is the psychiatrist of the stars, the shrink of Hollywood. His patients include Vivian Leigh, Tony Curtis and, of course, Marilyn Monroe. She is not only his patient. Rumour has it they also had a sexual relationship. Greenson was her therapist the last year or so of her life. He was Freudian, which means a lot of things, and he was probably the most eminent psychiatrist on the issue of patient-therapist relationships. He has been accused of murdering her. Does the therapist have a motive to kill his patient? Yes. If the possible intimate relationship with Marilyn were to become public knowledge, Dr. Greenson would lose his license as a psychiatrist. Why are there so many contradictions, so many recanted or changed testimonies? Doesn't someone like Dr. Greenson raise suspicion? Of course, it looks suspicious at first, when someone keeps changing statements, especially someone who plays such a central role. Yes, Dr. Greenson is not just any witness. In fact, he was a frightening character in the whole story. He certainly wanted to help this woman, but he used methods that are considered massively inappropriate and dangerous from today's perspective. And they were not considered appropriate even in his own time. He called it unorthodox treatment, that he brought her into his family, that he brought her to dinner and told her to befriend his children. These are huge ethical violations, highly unprofessional conduct. Later, he had to justify his methods and behavior. It is interesting that a month before her death, he was consulted by and met her almost every day. He had his wife take her home after their therapy sessions. But he did that because Marilyn was picking up men off the street. She was a sexual addict. And she would pick up men or she would bring cab drivers into her house. So Greenson was doing his very best to help her, but his letters and his files indicate that Marilyn was driving him crazy. Dr. Greenson. His relationship with Monroe was controversial. He was with her the afternoon before her death. However, the housekeeper, Eunice Murray, not only called Dr. Greenson for help, but also dialed 911. The ambulance immediately sets off at around 10 p.m. Paramedic James Hall is on the scene before Dr. Greenson and administers life-saving measures. Marilyn is given artificial respiration, but Dr. Greenson takes over the second he arrives. He took a pharmaceutical bottle out of his doctor's bag, that's kind of a little rubber stopper on the top, and filled the syringe from that. He said, we have to inject this between the... and stuck the needle into her chest. Although he did it wrong, it was at an angle, and the needle stopped. Instead of backing it out and starting over, he just leaned on it and it went snap and it broke her rib. He just shoved it right into her heart. And then the doctor put the stethoscope on her chest and said, you can leave, I'm going to pronounce her dead. And I was sick, I mean, we had her saved. James Hall's testimony is called into question, not taken seriously. He agrees to take a lie detector test several times, and passes. Nevertheless, the investigating committee does not believe him. The suspicions against Greenson hinge on the testimony of the paramedic. According to the polygraph, he is telling the truth. Do we have to believe him? The device is actually called a polygraph, which means multi-channel recorder. It records changes in certain bodily reactions, such as pulse, blood pressure, skin conductance and respiration. How conclusive are these tests? From a modern scientific point of view, this is a very questionable device. After all, stress reactions are not a clear sign of lying. For example, someone who has very little fear of being caught, because they are very sure of themselves, can lie in a totally relaxed way. Or someone who is suspected of having killed someone and is innocent, could be very intimidated and be deathly afraid of going to prison innocently. Hence, they could show major stress when asked, are you the perpetrator, because they are afraid of being wrongfully convicted. And there are many other sources of error associated with this device, so it is not scientifically tenable. What is left now in terms of evidence pointing to a murder? Does Box 39 hold any secrets? Dr Greenson's medical files on Marilyn are stored in it. He gave strict instructions as to when it may be opened. Why? UCLA is one of the most renowned universities in the world and is located in the Westwood district of Los Angeles. Various secret files are stored in the library. There are several boxes located here that belong to Dr Ralph Greenson. And there is a Box 39 that is not allowed to be seen. It's sealed until 2039. And I want to get it unsealed. I think the box is important because it says Marilyn Monroe death right on it. It could be him confessing, it could be anything, but we have a right to know, you know, as citizens. And I don't believe they should keep it sealed. Why are they keeping it sealed? What does Dr Greenson have to hide? Was the adrenaline injection which he gave Marilyn in the heart fatal? Is the testimony of the paramedic James Hall true? He is shocked by the brutality of the doctor's actions. The paramedic testifies that he saw Greenson inject her directly in the heart. What's all that about? Well, the injection directly into the heart, the so-called intracardiac injection, was carried out in the past during resuscitation measures in cases of cardiac arrest. Therefore, an emergency drug, for example adrenaline, was drawn into a syringe. This syringe was then taken, I'll show you here on the skeleton model, and then injected accordingly in the area of the heart. What you then do is to orientate yourself at the sternum and then in the lower areas of the intercostal spaces, where the needle penetrates through the pericardium into the heart, where the drug is administered. Such steps can of course be seen in subsequent post-mortem examinations and are also included in post-mortem reports, which was not done in this case. That means the autopsy is a dead end. The samples and photographs have disappeared. What secrets are stored in the box that it can only be accessed 80 years after Marilyn's death, when all eyewitnesses have also passed on? So what's in the box? Did he confess and put it into this box? And why did he make it to where you couldn't open it until 2039? And my thinking is everybody will be dead by then. Everyone that was involved, so he can go ahead and confess, because I think in the end he was the one who killed her. I think he was the one that pushed that needle in her chest. The box is highly classified. This is evidence that makes Dr. Greenson a suspect. Could she have been dangerous to him if she had made his medical transgressions public? He has a psychological grip on Marilyn. In the bedroom, it looks as though several people have been in the house at or around the time of her death. A conspiracy? Dr. Greenson is privy to Marilyn's secrets. He knows that his patients has contacts in the highest ranks of government. Where is the crime scene? Did a murder take place in the guesthouse? And did Dr. Greenson then drag the body into the bedroom and stage a suicide? In addition to Dr. Greenson, paramedic Hall also encounters Pat Newcomb, the Hollywood icon's press agent in the bedroom. Later he describes her as downright hysterical. So when I asked her, you never spoke to anyone, never did an interview, never talked to the press. You just left the country for three months. And I asked her why and she said, well, she goes out of the country all the time. But I thought it was odd that she left that particular day after Marilyn. And so did Eunice Murray. She left the next day too. So when Pat Newcomb came back, she was given a really good job with the government. The statements around the times that night are becoming more and more implausible. Apparently Pat Newcomb never revealed what she really knew about that night. It looks that way now. Our most important finding from the coroner's report is that Marilyn must have died around 10 p.m., give or take an hour. And by 11 p.m., Pat Newcomb's boss knew she was dead. That's information he could have only gotten from inside the house. And one important piece of the puzzle is still missing. Monroe had an infamous affair. Santa Monica Beach, where the diva often goes. It's where she secretly meets with the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and later with his brother Robert, who at the time was Attorney General. As far as I know, Marilyn Monroe loved the beach. The house of her actor colleague and Kennedy's brother-in-law, Peter Lawford, is right on the beach, the ideal lover's nest. It was Peter Lawford's house, which the Kennedys visited a lot. I just think about Marilyn having sex with some of the people that were here. I know, yes, I would say that that's what this house represents to me. In the late 1950s, Lawford's villa on the beach in Santa Monica is a magnet for the high society. World War II is a thing of the past. It's party time again. It's where the President of the United States secretly meets Marilyn incognito for lover's trysts, until the affair becomes public in Madison Square Garden. Sewn into a seductive dress of satin and diamonds, the mistress breathily sings a birthday serenade to her lover, the young, charismatic head of state of the USA, leaving no doubts about their intimate relationship. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Mr. President. Happy birthday to you. It was Marilyn's performance at JFK's birthday party at Madison Square Garden in 1962 that, in the end, destroyed Marilyn. Because she sang happy birthday to the President in such a sensual way that Dorothy Kilgallen, two days later, said, well, there was Marilyn making love to JFK in front of 40 million people. Avoiding scandal is of utmost national importance. Voters must not lose their confidence in a statesman of integrity who places family welfare at the center of the state doctrine. Family is sacred. Jackie Kennedy, the beloved First Lady and mother of the nation. What does Marilyn have to offer that can beat that? She thought it was a big joke, but it wasn't a big joke because JFK ditched her big time after that Madison Square Garden exposure, because it was really something. Marilyn got involved with the most powerful family in the country and is now becoming a disruptive factor. Reason enough for the Kennedys to kill her? That is one possible reason, but it's also tricky for the Kennedys because Marilyn Monroe is not just any mistress. She is world famous, beloved, and if anything were to come out, the Kennedys would be finished. Marilyn has become a ticking time bomb. Her appearance draws the attention of John F. Kennedy's political opponents to the immoral affair. The FBI bugs the love nest of the President and his mistress. Kennedy's digressions could fuel impeachment proceedings. J. Edgar Hoover eavesdrops on their pillow talk. The footsteps left the living, which I assume was the living room, and went into the bedroom where there was another transmitter, which picked up all the activity in the bedroom, which was cuddly talk and taking off the clothes and the sex act in the bed. National security in the hands of a pill-addicted sex symbol who is having an affair with a married President of the United States of America? The FBI and its big boss J. Edgar Hoover have a field day with the love escapades of the Kennedy brothers, whom he hates. At last he has leverage. Hoover wants a clear path for the Republicans. He wants to remove the Democrat John F. Kennedy from office. The CIA and the Mafia are also interested in the Kennedy brothers' love affairs. They hire Fred Otash, a private detective, to bug Marilyn's house. In 1986, I got a call from Fred. He said, can you come down to the desert? So I went down. He was staying at a friend's house down in Palm Springs. And after dinner, we had some drinks. He said, come in at dinner. I said, you got time? I said, yeah, all night. He said, well, that's what it's going to take. And for 11 hours, I listened to real, to real tapes of Marilyn Monroe. According to his own statement, which, however, is not corroborated by the tapes that have since disappeared, Raymond Strait claims to have gleaned juicy details from Marilyn and JFK's pillow talk. She was having an affair with John F. Kennedy first. Then she started calling the White House, so he sent Bobby to tell her to stop. Well, she ended up with him. And Bobby Kennedy was actually the one that she loved more than anyone. The two see each other regularly and have sex. Allegedly, he had even promised her that he would divorce his wife. Marilyn is in seventh heaven. The lovers also meet on the day of her death. On the tapes, I heard Robert Kennedy, the first time he came to Marilyn's house, was early in the afternoon. And that was a very amiable visit. They were having a good time drinking. And I think they were doing a little bit of smooching that sounded like smooches. But, you know, sounds can be deceiving. Marilyn records all the details of her nights with the President and his brother in her red diary. For Becky Altringer, this diary is an explosive document. Where is it? Also tucked away in box 39? The red diary is like the big, mysterious question everybody has. Because every time she was with JFK or Bobby, she wrote everything they discussed, including the Bay of Pigs. With her intimate knowledge, Marilyn Monroe has power over the most powerful men in the world. And at a time where revealing it could be very dangerous for them. Her friend, Robert Slatzer, claims to have even read the diary. She had entries in there regarding Bobby told me that he was going to have Castro murdered. And the entries, most of them, begin with Bobby told me. Communist Cuba is right on America's doorstep. And it has been dangerously highly armed by the Soviet Union. An invasion is planned with Cuban exiles who are to land in the Bay of Pigs and take over the island. The plans are kept top secret. I told her that walking around with that was just like having a walking time bomb. And not to tell anybody else about it. She declared herself sympathetic to Fidel Castro. In a letter that she wrote to Lester Markell, who was the book editor for the New York Times. So the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, was really upset by her. He was upset by the involvement with the Kennedys. The Cuban Missile Crisis was coming soon and she knew all about what the Kennedys were planning. The Cuban Missile Crisis comes to a head when American reconnaissance planes discover short and medium range missiles on Russian freighters. They are to be stationed on Cuba. The U.S. President won't tolerate this under any circumstances. It seems as if Kennedy is prepared to risk all out nuclear war rather than back down. Does Marilyn know about any details that could threaten national security? When Bob wanted to end that relationship, that's when Marilyn started making threats. She threatened to come out with everything. She was going to do it the next day. She was going to go to the media. And she was talking about holding a press conference the Monday after she died. And she was going to spill everything she knew about the Kennedys, which was a lot. On the day of her death, Peter Lawford and Robert Kennedy are said to have been at her house in the afternoon and demanded that she hand over the diary. A heated argument ensues. Get the hell out of my house. That was Marilyn. She knew too much and made too many threats. And whether or not she would have followed through with them, they couldn't risk it. They return once more in search of the red diary. So Marilyn comes into the scene. You can hear her. And she's been drinking and her voice was kind of slurred. She wanted to know, what are you back here for? I thought you were leaving. And they had a conversation. And she said, oh, you people just use me. That's all you want to do is just use me. You don't care about me. You just use me. And I'm tired of being used. Those were her exact words. I'm tired of being used. And let me tell you something, Buster. What I know would make the headlines. And Kennedy told her, Robert Kennedy told her, he said, you know, you better keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you. I know what's good for me. I'm Marilyn Monroe and you're not messing. She didn't use the word messing. She used the F word with some extra here. And he says, I know who I'm dealing with, but you don't know who you're dealing with. Marilyn got really hysterical with Bobby. You could hear them smother. Don't be too careful with the pillow. Watch out for the shot. And I'm not sure if that was somebody be giving a shot or what was going on. But there was obviously that she was being smothered. I believe they all got together and came up with some story to protect everybody that was involved. I believe Kennedy told Greenson to kill her. And that's exactly what they did. And you're talking the president of the United States. Who's going to go against the president of the United States? No one. The case is a maze of conflicting statements and suspects. When we put it all together, can we see what happened that day at Marilyn's house? In the afternoon, Robert Kennedy is said to have arrived at Marilyn's between 3 and 4 p.m. He sends housekeeper Murray and her son-in-law Jeffries home. Then a heated argument ensues. It's possible that Kennedy wanted to make it clear that she should leave the president, John F. Kennedy, and himself, the attorney general, alone. This must have upset her. When Murray and Jeffries return around 4.30 p.m., they find a completely distraught Marilyn. The housekeeper therefore calls the psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson, to help. Greenson comes to the house and looks after Marilyn from 5 to 7 p.m. Then he goes home again. Jeffries now testifies that Robert Kennedy came back in the company of two men at about 9.30 p.m. This might have further upset Marilyn. Maybe. In any case, if it's true, it's the last thing to happen before her death. Around 10 p.m., Marilyn dies. Whether from a self-administered overdose, a heart injection, an enema caused by a stranger, or the wrong medication being administered. We don't know. The official verdict, probable suicide, fanning flames of doubt. Given the evidence, it seems that calling her death improbable suicide might be just as valid. Cover-up or court case? In 1982, the Los Angeles district attorney reopened the investigation, but to no avail. The circumstances of her death are still in dispute. One thing seems clear. It is unlikely she swallowed a deadly dose of sleeping pills. However, Marilyn's death can't change our fascination with her. In her own words, she just wanted her right to twinkle. And in that she prevailed. Her star over Hollywood twinkles brighter than ever.