Marilyn Monroe died on August 4, 1962 at the age of 36, but her death continues to be talked about years after the tragedy. Suicide, overdose or murder, what does his autopsy say?
Icon of American cinema, woman of influence, pin-up, singer… Marilyn Monroe has multiplied roles and fascinated millions of fans around the world, enough for Netflix to release a new film on September 23. , Blonde hair, adapted from the eponymous novel by Joyce Carol Oates and starring Ana de Amas as the pin-up. However her brilliant career ended tragically on August 4, 1962, when she was only 36 years old. It was her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, who first realized something was wrong with the movie star who was not answering her calls behind the door. Alarmed, she decided to warn the actress’ psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, who then entered his patient’s room by breaking a window. That’s where he found Marilyn Monroe, tangled in her sheets and holding the phone, dead. And like many stars who died before and after her, it was quickly apparent that the cause of his death would not be easy to understand…
A found culprit
According to New York TimesMarilyn Monroe, or Norma Jeane Mortenson of her real name, had next to her an empty bottle of sleeping pills when she was found dead. At the time, the newspaper also added that 14 other bottles of sleeping pills were on his bedside table. Knowing that a bottle contains between 40 and 50 sleeping pills and that one of them was empty, the cause of death was quickly linked to drugs. During the autopsy performed on August 5, 1962 by Dr. Thomas Noguchi, this conclusion was confirmed. On the documents that have been made public, the coroner wrote that Marilyn Monroe died of severe barbiturate poisoning via an overdose by ingestion. A second doctor, Dr. Theodore Curphey supported this diagnosis with American press agencies. “I have concluded that Marilyn Monroe died of an intentional drug overdose and the cause of death is likely suicide“.
Given the rumors about unstable mental health of the star at the time, the hypothesis of suicide by overdose was quickly accepted by the public. Especially since the young woman had already expressed the wish to die several times, and even made a suicide attempt. According to another hypothesis, Marilyn Monroe would have been found alive in her room and in great distress before being transported by ambulance to a hospital. And it is in this ambulance that she would have died, before being brought back by her doctor to her room and then staged. If this theory already evokes a certain manipulation of events, it also concludes suicide by overdose. But this is not the only hypothesis to have circulated…
another track
Marilyn Monroe’s life was full of twists, scandals and tragedies enough to convince some people that her suicide was staged and the actress was actually killed. It is one of the best known liaisons of the 20e century which would be the cause: that of Marilyn Monroe with the Kennedys. Besides the famous Happy birthday, Mr. President sung on May 19, 1962 a few months before his death, Marilyn Monroe and John Fitzgerald Kennedy would have had a story as sulphurous as it was disturbing for the President of the United States at the time. Author Frank Cappell even returned to the link between this affair and the death of the actress in his book The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe.
This is one of the reasons why, in 1982, the investigation into the death of Marilyn Monroe was reopened because of several elements that do not fit with the thesis of suicide. The first is that during her autopsy, the contents of Marilyn Monroe’s stomach had apparently disappeared. The second is that this same autopsy never proved that the star had digested the drugs she ingested. According to one of the people who pushed for the reopening of the investigation, the stomach of the young woman contained no trace of the ingestion of the sleeping pills concerned. But these suspicions were quickly put aside in the face of lack of credibility of the people supporting them. At the end of the new conclusion of the investigation, it has therefore been confirmed that Marilyn Monroe is indeed dead of a drug overdose inflicted by herself to commit suicide. After a sunny life and dozens of films, each more cult than the next, Marilyn Monroe – declared dead twice – continues to fascinate between glamour, mystery and tragedies.