Marilyn and JFK,” Peter Lawford supposedly said of one of the tapes, “in addition to Marilyn and RFK. In both cases you could make out the muted sounds of bedsprings and the cries of ecstasy. Marilyn, after all, was a master of her craft.” Ignoring the fact that Lawford would never have made such comments—not to mention that the notion of a menage a trois between Marilyn and the Kennedy brothers is preposterous—it’s at long last time to accept the truth: These tapes do not exist.
THE FBI’S FILES ON MARILYN
In October 2006, under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI released a number of new files on Marilyn Monroe, referenced in the text of this book. One is truly extraordinary and has to do with Marilyn Monroe and Bobby Kennedy. This three-page document—called simply “Robert F. Kennedy” and referenced in this book’s chapter “Were Marilyn and Bobby ‘The New Item’?”—has never before been mentioned, despite hundreds of articles, books, and documentaries about Marilyn Monroe’s death. It was written by an unnamed “former special agent” supposedly working for the then governor of California, Democrat Pat Brown, and forwarded to Washington by Curtis Lynum, then head of the San Francisco FBI. Though this paperwork is like all of the FBI’s documentation of Marilyn and the Kennedys in that it can’t be substantiated—and this one even states that the source of the information is unknown and the information can’t be verified—it was circulated to the FBI’s most senior officers, including Director J. Edgar Hoover’s right-hand man, Clyde Tolson. Despite its specious nature, it’s interesting just by virtue of the fact that this report—classified for decades—was written and filed back on October 19, 1964, years before people started gossiping that the Kennedys may have had something to do with Marilyn’s death.
As earlier stated, this file announces that Marilyn and Bobby were having a “romance and sex affair” and that Bobby promised to divorce Ethel and marry Marilyn. However, according to the report, she soon figured out that he was lying. At this same time, according to the report, “Marilyn also had an intermittent lesbian affair with [name deleted] while Robert Kennedy was carrying on his sex affair with Marilyn Monroe,” and also “on a few occasions John F. Kennedy came out and had sex parties with [name deleted] actress.” Moreover, “During the period of time that Robert Kennedy was having his sex affair with Marilyn Monroe, on one occasion a sex party was conducted at which several other persons were present. Tape recording was secretly made and is in the possession of a Los Angeles private detective agency. The detective wants $3000 for a certified copy of the recording, in which all the voices are identifiable.”
The details in the paperwork continue by stating that Marilyn began to call RFK “person-to-person” to complain to him about her problems with Fox and the ill-fated movie
Moreover, the document maintains that Peter Lawford made “special arrangements” with Marilyn’s psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson—who, it says, was treating her to “get her off of barbiturates”—to give her sixty tablets of Seconal on her last visit to him, “unusual in quantity especially since she saw him frequently.” (Note: The truth is that the day before her death she was given Nembutal, not Seconal, and twenty-four of them, not sixty, and by Dr. Engelberg, not Dr. Greenson.) It says that “Peter Lawford knew from Marilyn’s friends that she often made suicide attempts and that she was induced to fake a suicide attempt in order to arouse sympathy.”
The report states that Marilyn’s publicist, Pat Newcomb, and her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, conspired with Peter Lawford and Dr. Greenson “in a plan to induce suicide.” (In return for her assistance, Newcomb was “put on the federal payroll.”) The report suggests that the principals deliberately gave Marilyn the means to fake another suicide attempt by making sure—via Eunice Murray—that the pills were on her nightstand before she went to bed. It’s not clear why they believed she would want to try to kill herself that night, but the implication is that they were going to do or say something that would drive her to want to at least act as if she were going to kill herself, and then “[she] expected to have her stomach pumped out and get sympathy for her suicide attempt.” But this time, she was allowed to die rather than be saved just in time, as had often happened in the past. After the deed was done, RFK telephoned Peter Lawford “to find out if Marilyn was dead yet.” It goes on to state that Joe DiMaggio knew exactly what was going on but was powerless to stop it; he “is reported to have stated that when Robert Kennedy gets out of office, he intends to kill him.”
Bits and pieces and different variations of the above scenario have appeared in a number of books and magazine articles over the years having to do with Marilyn’s death, but none of it is verifiable. Still, it’s very interesting that what was once just gossiped about by secondhand sources and then reported by a slew of biographers turns out to actually be material found in the FBI files. It does give all of those who believe that RFK was involved in the death of Marilyn Monroe a little more certainty in their beliefs.
So, what does all of this mean? Unfortunately, not much. There are a couple of possible scenarios as to why the report exists in the FBI files. It’s well known that J. Edgar Hoover strongly resented Bobby Kennedy and perhaps intended to use the report to discredit him at some point along the way, maybe before the 1968 election. One wonders, though, what might have happened if the document had been leaked in 1968. It might have done some damage just by virtue of the fact that it’s an FBI document. But how seriously anyone would have taken it given its gossipy nature—and the fact that it’s not sourced at all—is questionable. What’s laughable is that the report refers to all of the principal players by their first names; the document reads as if it were written by a Hollywood gossip columnist.
In truth, if in 1965 the FBI truly believed that Robert Kennedy, Peter Lawford, Eunice Murray, and Pat Newcomb conspired in the death of Marilyn Monroe, wouldn’t they all have been charged? Obviously, that never happened. Was it because the FBI didn’t believe its own files?
Also very interesting is that this latest Marilyn Monroe release from the FBI refers to a “sex tape” supposedly featuring Marilyn Monroe. The memo is titled “interstate transportation of obscene matter.” It says, “[Deleted]… at his office ran a French-type movie which depicted Marilyn Monroe, deceased actress, in unnatural acts with an unknown male. [Deleted] informed them he had obtained this film prior to the time Monroe achieved stardom and that subsequently Joe DiMaggio attempted to purchase this film for $25,000. This information should not be discussed outside the bureau.”
In April 2007, someone—not named by any news reports—supposedly purchased this fifteen-minute tape (which allegedly shows Marilyn having oral sex with an unidentified male) for $1.5 million. The anonymous purchaser is quoted by the person who says he brokered the deal—someone named Keya Morgan who was apparently making a documentary about Marilyn—as saying he would not release the tape, and that he only bought it to keep it out of circulation because he is trying to protect Monroe’s legacy. Likely, though, it won’t be shown because it does not exist. The timing is just too convenient. It’s likely that someone came up with the idea of saying that the video described in the latest FBI document actually exists and, not only that, was just purchased? What was the intent of doing such a thing? Who knows? In truth, though, not one shred of evidence has been brought forth to prove that the sale was even made—no seller has been named, no buyer identified, no receipt either. Yet the story received national attention, demonstrating if nothing else that the public’s hunger for interesting stories about Marilyn Monroe has never waned. However, like all of the other audio- and videotapes of Marilyn Monroe supposedly having intimate encounters with the Kennedys or others, if this one ever actually surfaces it’ll be a first.
THE JOHN MINER TRANSCRIPTS
John Miner, now about ninety years old, is the former deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County and the founder and head of the medical-legal section of that office. He claims to have heard hours of secret tapes of psychiatric sessions between Marilyn and Dr. Ralph Greenson, and while doing so took copious, “nearly verbatim” notes—many, many pages—reconstructing word for word every statement she made during the sessions. Entire books have been based on these notes, which include in-depth and very personal comments from Marilyn about her affairs with both Kennedys, her sex life, her career aspirations, and so on. This writer spent six hours with Miner and reviewed all of his handwritten notes.
“You are the only person who will ever know the most private, the most secret thoughts of Marilyn Monroe,” she told Greenson, according to Miner’s transcript. “I have absolute confidence and trust you will never reveal to a living soul what I say to you.” Would Marilyn really speak like that? Would she really find it necessary to make such
