Was Marilyn's suicide a colaboration?

Did Monroe fake an attempt at suicide expecting to be found before it was too late?

The star was fooled into killing herself, says a newly released FBI file. Did her friends deliberately let her die? Kathy Marks reports

Published: 18 March 2007

Marilyn Monroe may have been tricked into killing herself as part of a plot hatched with the knowledge of the former US attorney general, Robert Kennedy, according to a secret FBI file.

The document, uncovered by an Australian film director, Philippe Mora, suggests Monroe was "induced" to make a suicide attempt, in the belief she would be found in time, and her stomach pumped. Instead, it suggests, she was left to die by staff and friends, including the actor Peter Lawford, who was married to Kennedy's sister, Patricia.

The 36-year-old actress was found naked and face down on her bed on 5 August 1962, with a large quantity of barbiturates in her system. For 45 years conspiracy theorists have claimed that her death was not a simple suicide, with some linking it to alleged affairs with Kennedy and his brother, the then President, John F Kennedy.

According to the FBI report, Robert Kennedy called Lawford from a San Francisco hotel that night "to find out if Marilyn was dead yet". Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, Mr Mora, who is based in Los Angeles, says he found the file among thousands of classified documents recently released under freedom of information laws. Compiled by a "former Special Agent" whose name is deleted, it is headed "Robert F Kennedy".

The FBI received the file on 19 October 1964. It contains a report that claims Monroe was deliberately given the means to fake a suicide attempt. Those in on the conspiracy, as well as Lawford, were her psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, and her secretary and press agent, Pat Newcomb.

The former agent warns he cannot evaluate the authenticity of the information. Even so, saysMora, his file was circulated to five top FBI officers, including Clyde Tolson, right-hand man of bureau chief J Edgar Hoover.

The report that it cites suggests the motive was to silence Monroe, who had threatened to make public a "romance and sex affair" with Robert Kennedy. Monroe had, it says, realised Kennedy was never going to divorce his wife and marry her, as promised. Kennedy had also reneged on a pledge to "take care of everything" after the actress's contract with 20th Century Fox was cancelled. The pair had "unpleasant words" on the phone.

The file - parts of which were deleted before its release - states that Lawford "knew from Marilyn's friends that she often made suicide attempts and that she was inclined to fake a suicide attempt in order to arouse sympathy". He reportedly made "special arrangements" with Greenson, who was treating her for "emotional problems and getting her off the use of barbiturates". On her last visit, Greenson gave Monroe a prescription for 60 tablets of Seconal, used to relieve insomnia and anxiety. The prescription was "unusual in quantity", the report says. Murray left the pills on Monroe's night table.

That day Kennedy left the Beverly Hills Hotel and flew to San Francisco. The report says: "Robert Kennedy made a telephone call to Peter Lawford to find out if Marilyn was dead yet."

Lawford called and spoke to Monroe, "then checked again later to make sure she did not answer". According to the file, Murray then called Greenson to tell him Monroe had taken the pills. "Marilyn expected to have her stomach pumped and get sympathy for her suicide attempt. The psychiatrist left word for Marilyn to take a drive in the fresh air but did not come to see her until after she was known to be dead."

Officially, Monroe was found dead in the early hours by Murray. Within 48 hours, the report says, Newcomb and Lawford had flown to the Kennedy compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts.

French-born Mora admits he is not sure what to make of the file. He asks: "Is all this the elaborate dirty tricks of Kennedy haters from decades ago, or are we getting closer to the historical truth?"