History Channel Email - This Day In History

[Steely Dan]

 

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August 5: General Interest

1962 : Marilyn Monroe is found dead

 

On August 5, 1962, movie actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los Angeles. She was discovered lying nude on her bed, face down, with a telephone in one hand. Empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around the room. After a brief investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was "caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide."

 

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her mother was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jean was reared by a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage. At the age of 16, she married a fellow worker in an aircraft factory, but they divorced a few years later. She took up modeling in 1944 and in 1946 signed a short-term contract with 20th Century Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe. She had a few bit parts and then returned to modeling, famously posing nude for a calendar in 1949.

 

She began to attract attention as an actress in 1950 after appearing in minor roles in the The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. Although she was onscreen only briefly playing a mistress in both films, audiences took note of the blonde bombshell, and she won a new contract from Fox. Her acting career took off in the early 1950s with performances in Love Nest (1951), Monkey Business (1952), and Niagara (1953). Celebrated for her voluptuousness and wide-eyed charm, she won international fame for her sex-symbol roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). The Seven-Year Itch (1955) showcased her comedic talents and features the classic scene where she stands over a subway grating and has her white skirt billowed up by the wind from a passing train. In 1954, she married baseball great Joe DiMaggio, attracting further publicity, but they divorced eight months later.

 

In 1955, she studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City and subsequently gave a strong performance as a hapless entertainer in Bus Stop (1956). In 1956, she married playwright Arthur Miller. She made The Prince and the Showgirl--a critical and commercial failure--with Laurence Olivier in 1957 but in 1959 gave an acclaimed performance in the hit comedy Some Like It Hot. Her last role, in The Misfits (1961), was directed by John Huston and written by Miller, whom she divorced just one week before the film's opening.

 

By 1961, Monroe, beset by depression, was under the constant care of a psychiatrist. Increasingly erratic in the last months of her life, she lived as a virtual recluse in her Brentwood, Los Angeles, home. After midnight on August 5, 1962, her maid, Eunice Murray, noticed Monroe's bedroom light on. When Murray found the door locked and Marilyn unresponsive to her calls, she called Monroe's psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, who gained access to the room by breaking a window. Entering, he found Marilyn dead, and the police were called sometime after. An autopsy found a fatal amount of sedatives in her system, and her death was ruled probable suicide.

 

In recent decades, there have been a number of conspiracy theories about her death, most of which contend that she was murdered by John and/or Robert Kennedy, with whom she allegedly had love affairs. These theories claim that the Kennedys killed her (or had her killed) because they feared she would make public their love affairs and other government secrets she was gathering. On August 4, 1962, Robert Kennedy, then attorney general in his older brother's cabinet, was in fact in Los Angeles. Two decades after the fact, Monroe's housekeeper, Eunice Murray, announced for the first time that the attorney general had visited Marilyn on the night of her death and quarreled with her, but the reliability of these and other statements made by Murray are questionable.

 

Four decades after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains a major cultural icon. The unknown details of her final performance only add to her mystique.

 

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[LeviF]

 

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August 5: General Interest

1962 : Marilyn Monroe is found dead

 

On August 5, 1962, movie actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her home in Los Angeles. She was discovered lying nude on her bed, face down, with a telephone in one hand. Empty bottles of pills, prescribed to treat her depression, were littered around the room. After a brief investigation, Los Angeles police concluded that her death was "caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide."

 

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her mother was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jean was reared by a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage. At the age of 16, she married a fellow worker in an aircraft factory, but they divorced a few years later. She took up modeling in 1944 and in 1946 signed a short-term contract with 20th Century Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe. She had a few bit parts and then returned to modeling, famously posing nude for a calendar in 1949.

 

She began to attract attention as an actress in 1950 after appearing in minor roles in the The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. Although she was onscreen only briefly playing a mistress in both films, audiences took note of the blonde bombshell, and she won a new contract from Fox. Her acting career took off in the early 1950s with performances in Love Nest (1951), Monkey Business (1952), and Niagara (1953). Celebrated for her voluptuousness and wide-eyed charm, she won international fame for her sex-symbol roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). The Seven-Year Itch (1955) showcased her comedic talents and features the classic scene where she stands over a subway grating and has her white skirt billowed up by the wind from a passing train. In 1954, she married baseball great Joe DiMaggio, attracting further publicity, but they divorced eight months later.

 

In 1955, she studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City and subsequently gave a strong performance as a hapless entertainer in Bus Stop (1956). In 1956, she married playwright Arthur Miller. She made The Prince and the Showgirl--a critical and commercial failure--with Laurence Olivier in 1957 but in 1959 gave an acclaimed performance in the hit comedy Some Like It Hot. Her last role, in The Misfits (1961), was directed by John Huston and written by Miller, whom she divorced just one week before the film's opening.

 

By 1961, Monroe, beset by depression, was under the constant care of a psychiatrist. Increasingly erratic in the last months of her life, she lived as a virtual recluse in her Brentwood, Los Angeles, home. After midnight on August 5, 1962, her maid, Eunice Murray, noticed Monroe's bedroom light on. When Murray found the door locked and Marilyn unresponsive to her calls, she called Monroe's psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, who gained access to the room by breaking a window. Entering, he found Marilyn dead, and the police were called sometime after. An autopsy found a fatal amount of sedatives in her system, and her death was ruled probable suicide.

 

In recent decades, there have been a number of conspiracy theories about her death, most of which contend that she was murdered by John and/or Robert Kennedy, with whom she allegedly had love affairs. These theories claim that the Kennedys killed her (or had her killed) because they feared she would make public their love affairs and other government secrets she was gathering. On August 4, 1962, Robert Kennedy, then attorney general in his older brother's cabinet, was in fact in Los Angeles. Two decades after the fact, Monroe's housekeeper, Eunice Murray, announced for the first time that the attorney general had visited Marilyn on the night of her death and quarreled with her, but the reliability of these and other statements made by Murray are questionable.

 

Four decades after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains a major cultural icon. The unknown details of her final performance only add to her mystique.

 

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Oh Ms. Monroe, our favorite girl was you...

but they pumped you with barbiturates because of what you knew.

[Chandler#81]

"..All the papers had to say, was that Marilyn was found in the nude.."

 

Read/saw somewhere that a lethal cocktail was likely injected via the colon, which at the time, was considered undetectable..

[Steely Dan]

"..All the papers had to say, was that Marilyn was found in the nude.."

 

Read/saw somewhere that a lethal cocktail was likely injected via the colon, which at the time, was considered undetectable..

The evidence of murder.

 

 

Allegedly when Deborah Gould asked her ex-husband, Peter Lawford, how Marilyn had died he told her that, ‘Marilyn took her last big enema.’

 

Oddly enough her colon showed congestion and purplish discoloration and it was shown impossible for her to have swallowed the pills or been injected with them. Evidence of yellow dye should have been found in the digestive tract-especially in an empty stomach. Coroner Nogushi found no trace of yellow dye. Sometimes the residue moves to the duodenum but they found none there either.

 

Marilyn Monroe would have had to of swallowed 52-89 capsules to achieve her percentages of the drug in her blood. No case has yet to be reported in which anyone has swallowed over 12 capsules without leaving any residue in the stomach. Yet Marilyn had no residue at all.

 

Joe Hyams, a reporter, tried to obtain Monroe’s phone records. A employee at the phone company told him “All hell’s broken loose down here. Apparently you’re not the only one interested in Marilyn’s calls. The tapes disappeared…. I’m told it was impounded by men in dark suits and well-shined shoes…. Somebody high up ordered it.”

 

Like any conspiracy site it's hard to tell the truth from the fiction. Interesting stuff though.

[Steely Dan]

Probably her best known picture.

[Chandler#81]

Good stuff, SD!

 

"The Guy said that Marilyn struggled for only a minute or so, and then she stopped breathing. All was quiet. The search for the journal didn't take long; they found it under the mattress. They left in a matter of minutes, making sure that the front door was locked behind them and leaving no evidence of a break-in."

 

So, the 'Guy' got the diary. Why hasn't it's contents ever been released, since it purportedly was Giancana's intent?

[The Senator]

The evidence of murder.

 

 

Allegedly when Deborah Gould asked her ex-husband, Peter Lawford, how Marilyn had died he told her that, ‘Marilyn took her last big enema.’

 

Oddly enough her colon showed congestion and purplish discoloration and it was shown impossible for her to have swallowed the pills or been injected with them. Evidence of yellow dye should have been found in the digestive tract-especially in an empty stomach. Coroner Nogushi found no trace of yellow dye. Sometimes the residue moves to the duodenum but they found none there either.

 

Marilyn Monroe would have had to of swallowed 52-89 capsules to achieve her percentages of the drug in her blood. No case has yet to be reported in which anyone has swallowed over 12 capsules without leaving any residue in the stomach. Yet Marilyn had no residue at all.

 

Joe Hyams, a reporter, tried to obtain Monroe’s phone records. A employee at the phone company told him “All hell’s broken loose down here. Apparently you’re not the only one interested in Marilyn’s calls. The tapes disappeared…. I’m told it was impounded by men in dark suits and well-shined shoes…. Somebody high up ordered it.”

 

Like any conspiracy site it's hard to tell the truth from the fiction. Interesting stuff though.

Fat Ted's not the only murderer the Kennedy family; Jack, Bobby, Michael Skakel, rapist William Kennedy Smith - there's a special place in Hell for all of 'em.

[Steely Dan]

Good stuff, SD!

 

"The Guy said that Marilyn struggled for only a minute or so, and then she stopped breathing. All was quiet. The search for the journal didn't take long; they found it under the mattress. They left in a matter of minutes, making sure that the front door was locked behind them and leaving no evidence of a break-in."

 

So, the 'Guy' got the diary. Why hasn't it's contents ever been released, since it purportedly was Giancana's intent?

 

I wondered that too! You have to remember the dude was in an asylum.

 

Here's a link to the autopsy report.

[Steely Dan]

Fat Ted's not the only murderer the Kennedy family; Jack, Bobby, Michael Skakel, rapist William Kennedy Smith - there's a special place in Hell for all of 'em.

 

Well thanks for trying to turn this into a political axe to grind thread.

[The Senator]

Well thanks for trying to turn this into a political axe to grind thread.

Yeah...sorry for posting that conspiracy link mentioning the Kennedys.

 

Hey wait a minute...you posted that

 

 

Anyway, was just watching...

 

 

...the other night - she was such a nice girl. Too bad they killed her.

[Steely Dan]

Yeah...sorry for posting that conspiracy link mentioning the Kennedys.

 

Hey wait a minute...you posted that

 

 

Anyway, was just watching...

 

 

...the other night - she was such a nice girl. Too bad they killed her.

 

In relation to the Marilyn Monroe murder. Nothing else. What this has anything to do with that is confounding;

 

Fat Ted's not the only murderer the Kennedy family; Jack, Bobby, Michael Skakel, rapist William Kennedy Smith - there's a special place in Hell for all of 'em.

 

Please stay on topic. Thanks.

[The Senator]

In relation to the Marilyn Monroe murder. Nothing else. What this has anything to do with that is confounding;

 

 

 

Please stay on topic. Thanks.

I thought the topic was, on this day in history, Marilyn Monroe died under very mysterious circumstances.

 

Guess I got that wrong?

[Mark Vader]

Probably her best known picture.

No doubt. Even though her skirt did not get blown up as high, as this pic indicates, in the actual movie.

[Steely Dan]

No doubt. Even though her skirt did not get blown up as high, as this pic indicates, in the actual movie.

 

And this is relevant to my libido how?

[Nanker]

Fat Ted's not the only murderer the Kennedy family; Jack, Bobby, Michael Skakel, rapist William Kennedy Smith - there's a special place in Hell for all of 'em.

I'll drink to that.

[Nanker]

And this is relevant to my libido how?

Well, it affected Joltin' Joe, who's a lot more relevant to MM than you are.

And it's probably you that Jesus would waterboard, if you need to know.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

Well, it affected Joltin' Joe, who's a lot more relevant to MM than you are.

And it's probably you that Jesus would waterboard, if you need to know.

 

Offending Christians is one of the last acceptable methods of offense in this country, unfortunately. Imagine if you sustituted "mohammed" or "buddha" in that sentence. Some limpwrist in Berkely would start a riot.

[Steely Dan]

Well, it affected Joltin' Joe, who's a lot more relevant to MM than you are.

And it's probably you that Jesus would waterboard, if you need to know.

 

How do you rectify your Christian beliefs with waterboarding? That's all I'm asking. If you believe Jesus would be all for waterboarding and would participate in them himself then that's your belief. I don't think it fits into Jesus' teachings but if you do then you're entitled to your belief system.

 

If you don't believe Jesus would waterboard anyone or support waterboarding then you need to question how your political ideals mesh with your religious ideals.

[Mark Vader]

And this is relevant to my libido how?

I do'nt know.

[The Senator]

I'll drink to that.

Well just be careful - the most dangerous place in the world to stand is between Fat Ted and a bartender...

 

Fat Ted