Sunday, August 5, 2012

Marilyn Monroe: Cold Case or Not?

50 Year Anniversary of Her Death

Questions Still Remain


By: Joseph Giacalone

On August 5, 1962, the world was stunned to find that actress and pin up girl, Marilyn Monroe was dead. 50 years after that dreadful day, her fans question the death investigation and autopsy findings. Books, documentaries and Internet post have examined her death from every typical angle, only to conclude that the manner of death should have been classified as "Undetermined" instead of the famous, "Probable Suicide."

As a former investigator, I have never seen a death conclusion labeled as such. If the Los Angeles Coroner was so unsure, why didn't he use the proper classification? There are only five to choose from: Natural, Accidental, Suicide, Homicide and Undetermined. But here are just some of the points that keep conspiracy theories alive:
  • The detective established the time of death as 12:30 AM by interviewing Monroe's doctors and her housekeeper. The housekeeper later changed her story to 3AM.

Her housekeeper claims she saw her light on at 12 AM, knocked on the door but didn't get a response. The housekeeper said she called Monroe's doctor. Really? If you thought she needed medical attention why wait for over 30 minutes for her doctor to arrive? If Marilyn had dies between 12 AM and 12:30 AM, Livor Mortis (pooling of blood in the dependent areas of the body) would have been evident.was any other methods of estimating time of death used? Rigor Mortis (stiffening of the joints), Algor Mortis (body temperature)? Both of her doctors then change the time of death to 3:50 AM. By that time Rigor Mortis would have definitely begun to settle in. But in my research, I could not find any indications or mentions of Rigor Mortis.
  • Pill bottles are found in the room, but no indication of water or other liquid used to take them?
I don't know about you, but I need water to take one pill, let alone many chalky pills. To confound the situation, the pathologist could not find any indications of capsules in her stomach. To make matters worse, toxicology tests on Monroe's organs were never conducted and later destroyed before they could be. You would think that a high profile case like this would have all the I's dotted and T's crossed.

There are too many inconsistencies in the interviews, police records, autopsy results to even begin to discuss. Volumes of books have been written on the case. So here we are 50 years later and still considering the classification of death of Marilyn Monroe, "Probably Something Else."

Would like to hear your thoughts on the case:


Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

8 comments:

  1. This case may be one of the first famous actress prescription drug - deaths. Similiar to the Anna Nicole Smith "combined drug intoxication" in 2007. Combinations of sedatives and benzodiaepines becoming a increased lethal/toxic dosage. Prescription medications are becoming easily available and are increasingly dangerous to the health of humans beings. *Other types are depressants, pain pills, & sleeping pills. *Anna Nicole had around 11 different prescriptions! 11 too many. Marilyn may have not taken those pills that evening - (no water in sight) or even that day -she could have been taking them all the days before her death - and this was the end result.

    ReplyDelete

  2. This case I believe is similiar to the Anna Nicole Smith "combined drug intoxication" - like Marilyn - too many pills being prescribed. These medications become lethal/toxic, to the body's chemistry - result = death.

    ReplyDelete

  3. The fact of the way the autopsy was done and lack of thoroughly examining all of the organs, toxicology is evident that something was being hidden in this high profile case

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Hi William,
      How could this ever happen?? Too many unanswered questions remain, starting with what happened to the reports?
      Joe

      Delete

  4. There was a book published in 2006 titled: Marilyn, Joe & Me the author is Mary Jane Popp who is friends with June DiMaggio, niece of Joe DiMaggio, and was friends with Marilyn for 11 years, until her death. June's mother, Lee was talking on the phone with Marilyn, they were making plans to go to Mexico, when she suddenly heard 2 men in the background.

    ReplyDelete

  5. There are too many inconsistencies for the original report to be believed. Unfortunately they didn't conduct all the tests needed to determine her exact cause of death. It's sad that she wasn't treated with more respect by those around her.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Hi Laura,
      Unfortunately there are so many that you couldn't list them all in one blog post. Books have been written on the subject matter, but if the most important parts of the investigation are no longer in existence, I'm afraid we're stuck with what we have.
      Joe

      Delete

  6. The investigation of her death certainly raises questions. The lack of competence in investigations (deliberate or otherwise) continue to widen the gap between authorities and citizens in matters of trust. Inevitably, speculation ensues and the friends and family of the deceased are further distanced from closure.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)