Marilyn's final
days...
1962
was not a good year for Marilyn Monroe. She had turned thirty-six on June
1st. She had been fired by her studio for failure to
report
for work. She lived in a small house at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive,
where she had planned to have the home she never had. Shortly after her
birthday, she had been dropped by her lover. Each day she found her only
solace in alcohol and drugs.
From
early morning to late afternoon, Saturday, August 4, 1962 appeared
to be a pretty ordinary day in the life of Marilyn Monroe. Pat Newcomb,
her press agent, had slept over and awakened around noon on Saturday.
Marilyn had not slept well and was, at least briefly, in a crabby mood
when Pat first spoke to her.
Most of the afternoon Marilyn spent with Dr. Ralph Greenson, her
psychiatrist, except for a time in mid-afternoon when Marilyn went for a
ride with Eunice driving.
There was a noticeable difference in Marilyn's condition during the
afternoon. While she had been alert during the morning, she appeared
to be drugged in the afternoon. Her internist, Dr. Hyman
Engelberg, had just refilled a Nembutal (barbituates)
prescription the previous day and it was possible that Marilyn had taken
one or more of the capsules.
Dr. Greenson had been trying to break Marilyn's Nembutal habit
and switch her to chloral hydrate as a sleep aid. However, Marilyn
had various sources of her favorite drug and had plenty of them around her
residence.
Eunice Murray was at Marilyn's home most of the day, arriving at
work early in the morning. Dr. Greenson came to Marilyn's after
lunch. Donald Wolfe quotes Eunice Murray as saying that she
called Greenson after Marilyn asked her if there was any oxygen
around.
Pat Newcomb said that she left Marilyn's house somewhere between
5:30 and 6:00 p.m.
Greenson spent some time with Marilyn alone and then later in the
afternoon asked Pat to leave for a bit since Marilyn had doled out some
sharp words to her that day. Pat left Marilyn's house somewhere between
5:30 and 6:00 p.m.
According to Eunice Murray, Dr. Greenson spent another hour with
Marilyn and then left around 7 p.m.
Joe DiMaggio Jr. called Marilyn around 7: 15 p.m. to discuss with
Marilyn his decision to end his engagement. Both Murray and DiMaggio Jr.
observed that Marilyn was in very good spirits after talking to the young
man. Her elevated mood was confirmed by Dr. Greenson who she
immediately called to tell him about DiMaggio Jr.'s broken
engagement.
About 7:45 p.m., Peter Lawford stated that he called to
invite Marilyn to a party he was having, but said that she sounded
heavily drugged. He claimed that she shouted her name into the phone a
few times when she didn't respond to his conversation. Donald Spoto
writes Lawford as quoting Marilyn, "Say goodbye to Pat, say
goodbye to the president, and say goodbye to yourself, because you're a
nice guy."
She
was alone. She retired early -- around 8 o'clock. Around 3 a.m
in the morning, her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, found her body
and an empty bottle of barbiturates.
At 4:25
a.m. Sunday morning, August 5 Sergeant Jack Clemmons of the
West
Los Angeles Police Department got a call that he would never forget.
Dr. Hyman Engelberg, Marilyn's personal physician, told him that
she had committed suicide. When he and the backup police car that
he had ordered arrived at Marilyn's home, there were three people
Eunice Murray, Dr. Ralph Greenson and Dr. Hyman Engelberg.
They led Clemmons into the bedroom where her nude body was lying
covered with a sheet and pointed out the bottles of sedatives.
Donald Wolfe quotes Clemmons: "'She was lying facedown in what I call
the soldier's position. Her face was in a pillow, her arms were by her
side, her right arm was slightly bent. Her legs were stretched out
perfectly straight.'" He immediately thought she had been placed
that way. He had seen a number of suicides, and contrary to the common
conception, an overdose of sleeping tablets usually causes victims to
suffer convulsions and vomiting before they die in a contorted
position."
The statements taken from the three individuals were very strange
and Clemmons was convinced that he was not hearing the truth.
They claimed that Marilyn's body had been discovered some four
hours earlier, but that they could not contact the police until
20th Century Fox's publicity department had given them permission.
Clemmons also noted that there was no drinking glass in the bedroom
from which Marilyn could have taken the many pills that she was credited
with swallowing.
The preliminary autopsy was conducted by Dr. Thomas Noguchi.
As the results of various tests were analyzed, Coroner Theodore Curphey
determined that Marilyn died from an overdose of barbiturates.
Remnants of the drug pentobarbital (sleeping pills) were found in her
liver and chloral hydrate was found in her blood. He
claimed that there was no distinguishable physical evidence of foul play.
Marilyn's death was listed as a "probable suicide."
Facts
about Marilyn's death....
Marilyn's Funeral the last journey....
Last
Interview
Last
will &
Last photo session
Marilyn's
Personal Belongings.....
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