"Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know yourself..." According to the National Institute For Mental Health, suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S. Someone ends their own life in the United States approximately once every 17 minutes. Each year there are more suicides than homicides recorded. On the night of August 4, 1962, Marilyn Monroe ended her life filled with depression, failed marriages, babies lost to miscarriages, heavy use of dangerous prescription drugs, and a personal unhappiness the world would not see beneath the glamorous surface. She ended it by her own hand. MENTAL ILLNESS: Suicide is most often related to a very common condition known as depression. Depression can range in individuals from a moderate range to Major Depressive Disorder and depressive phases associated with Bipolar Disorder. It is well known that mental illness ran in the family of Marilyn Monroe, especially in the women of her family. Her mother spent most of her life in an institution. Recent research shows, according to the Archives of General Psychiatry, that Affective (or mood) Disorders are genetic and do run in families. It is very possible that Marilyn inherited a lesser form of the mental illness from which her mother, Gladys Baker, suffered. Marilyn's psychiatrist at the end of her life, Dr Ralph Greenson, is said to have suggested to colleagues that he believed Marilyn was schizophrenic. It has been said that Marilyn appeared to have "two people inside her." If indeed Marilyn had some personality disorder through which she housed two personalities, it becomes possible that one personality prompted the suicide in order to kill the other personality. In other words, Norma Jeane may have, in effect, killed Marilyn. Many modern psychiatrists believe that Marilyn suffered from what is known as Borderline Personality Disorder, symptoms of which include identity issues, addictive behaviour, and suicidal behaviour. This disorder most often appears in adults who suffered from feelings of abandonment as a child. Throughout the last seven years of her life, Marilyn underwent heavy psychiatric evaluation, and became extremely dependent on her psychiatrist, Dr Ralph Greenson, during the last months of her life. She even saw him on the last day of her life, apparently at her request. He was very worried about her, worried enough to ask the housekeeper, Eunice Murray to spend the night. CONDITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED RISK OF SUICIDE: Marilyn fits the list of conditions (courtesy of Suicide Prevention Resources) very well. Of the six conditions listed below, Marilyn, at the end of her life, fits four of them extremely well, and a fifth quite well also. 1. Death or terminal illness of a relative or friend. 2. Divorce, separation, broken relationship, stress on family. 3. Loss of health (real or imaginary). 4. Loss of job, home, money, status, self-esteem, personal security. 5. Alcohol or drug abuse. 6. Depression.

Depression that seems to quickly disappear for no apparent reason is cause for concern. The early stages of recovery from depression can be a high risk period. Recent studies have associated anxiety disorders with increased risk for attempted suicide. Marilyn had been ill (# 3) during the filming of Something's Got To Give, and indeed suffered health problems all her life, especially gynecological problems. Marilyn had recently lost her job (# 4) and was being sued by the studio. Twentieth Century Fox was also attempting to manipulate the press to make Marilyn look bad. Marilyn may also have had money problems. Sometime near the end of her life she borrowed $5,000 from Joe DiMaggio, as shown on the listing of her debts after her death, a list that was extremely long. She died with very little money in the bank. Marilyn had a well known problem with prescription drugs and was known to flirt with the lethal combination of alcohol and sleeping pills (# 5). Marilyn was very likely depressed during the last few months of her life (# 6). Although many reports say she was starting to feel better at the time of her death, I would draw your attention to the statement above that the "early stages of recovery from depression can be a high risk period." Marilyn had also been through three failed marriages, which very likely still weighed heavily on her mind, her last divorce having occurred just a year and a half before her death (# 2). And there is also the affair with JFK that had just ended badly. So we can see that Marilyn was a high risk for suicide in the last months of her life, fitting the conditions frighteningly well. PREVIOUS SUICIDE ATTEMPTS AND TALKING ABOUT SUICIDE: People who commit suicide often have a record of previous suicide attempts. Numerous suicide attempts by Marilyn are recorded at various times of her life. Some of the reported suicide attempts include: - Two attempts by age of twenty, as told by Marilyn to friends. - After death of Johnny Hyde, Marilyn swallowed twenty Nembutal capsules and left a suicide note, was saved when acting coach Natasha Lytess found her. - Possibility of up to three suicide attempts during her marriage to Arthur Miller, due to depression over miscarriages - Miller documents these in his play, After The Fall. - Taken to hospital during filming of Some Like It Hot, due to a sleeping pill overdose. - Possibility that the reason for Marilyn leaving the set of The Misfits to "rest," at Westside Hospital was a suicide attempt. - Dr Hyman Engelberg pumped her stomach after an overdose when the Miller marriage broke up, also shortly after the death of Clark Gable. - Suicide attempts are even reported in the weeks just prior to her death. Whether or not all of the reported suicide attempts actually occurred, there is enough evidence to suggest that Marilyn had been suicidal on more than one occasion throughout her life. She was clearly at a high risk for one of her attempts to finally be successful. Marilyn also talked of wanting to die on more than one occasion, especially in the poetry that she wrote over the years. THE VERDICT: Marilyn's death was officially pronounced a probable suicide by a Suicide Investigation Team set up by the Los Angeles Coroner's Office. They did a psychological profile of Marilyn and concluded in an agreement with the Coroner and the toxicology reports: Marilyn ended her own life. They also stated that in NO known cases had anyone unknowingly committed suicide by use of barbiturates. Various professional sources, Medical Doctors and Doctors of Psychiatry, all come to the same conclusion. Marilyn Monroe's death was a probable suicide. THE INCONSISTENCIES: Why was Marilyn's body moved? What happened to the vomit that would have been present? What about the time discrepancy? It is well known that Marilyn was very concerned with her public image. Her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, would have known this very well. Upon discovering her body in such a state, Eunice may very well have done what she believed her employer would have wanted her to do ... cleaned up the body and the room, and then placed the body back on the bed, now clean. This would explain why Eunice was washing sheets when the police arrived, why the body was moved, why there was no vomit present, and why the body was in such an improbable position. It is likely that Dr Ralph Greenson was present and helped Mrs Murray complete what she felt was the final duty to her employer.

Furthermore, people within the Kennedy circle may have moved in (as explained below) to hide any evidence of a relationship. Threats from that camp would have been enough to keep Eunice Murray and Dr Ralph Greenson quiet. WHAT ABOUT THE EVIDENCE OF A COVER-UP: Marilyn was known within certain circles to have had a relationship with John F. Kennedy, and possibly Robert as well, although there is not enough evidence to say for sure that this relationship occurred. These people would have had JFK's reputation as their first priority. The relationship had to be hidden ... and no one knew what kind of evidence Marilyn had in her home. Thus a sweep was likely made of Marilyn's home to ensure that no evidence could be found that would even remotely point to a relationship with JFK and his reputation would remain intact. The intention was to cover up a relationship between the two, not a murder. WHY WAS THERE NOT A SUICIDE NOTE? Statistics show that only about a third of suicides leave notes, according to the National Centre for Injury Prevention and Control (U.S). In the light of this the lack of a note becomes a non-issue. WHY WERE THERE NO PILLS FOUND IN HER THROAT OR MOUTH? As part of their efforts to clean Marilyn up, Murray and Greenson may have also pumped her stomach. Dr Hyman Engelberg, who had pumped Marilyn's stomach on a previous occasion, was at the scene and pronounced her dead. He may very well have helped remove the pills from her body. Part of his motivation for doing this may have been guilt over his own involvement in providing Marilyn with the drugs that allowed her to end her own life. WHY DIDN'T EUNICE MURRAY AND DR RALPH GREENSON LATER CONFESS TO HAVING MOVED THE BODY WHEN QUESTIONS WERE RAISED? Psychological studies show that people are likely to continue to back up and support a lie once it has been told, even when there is no rational reason for doing so. The bigger the lie and the longer it goes on, the stronger the resistance is to telling the truth. Also, if there was pressure from the Kennedy's to keep their part in the clean-up that night quiet, fear of reprisal can be a very strong force. WHERE DID ALL THE THEORIES ABOUT A MURDER COME FROM? There was and has been ever since a lot of money to be made for anyone with intimate knowledge of Marilyn's life and especially her death. Many of the sources for "facts" that lead to murder theories are shaky at best, such as Robert Slatzer or Jeanne Carmen, neither of whom can even prove that they actually HAD a relationship with Marilyn, never mind know what happened the night she died. The Marilyn murder theory is nothing but a money-making scheme. A lot of the claims just don't make sense. The Kennedy brothers were highly intelligent men, it is extremely doubtful that they ever told Marilyn any sort of government secrets as some have claimed. Marilyn too, was an intelligent woman. She was not stupid enough to have written down secrets in a diary. Nor was she stupid enough, even drunk, to spill the secret of her relationship with JFK to a mob boss. Marilyn's connection to the mob? She was friends with Frank Sinatra, Sinatra was friends with Sam Giancana. So she may have come into contact with him. This doesn't mean she told him anything personal about her life. Infact Marilyn was such a private person that it seems highly unlikely she would have told him anything private, let alone her biggest secrets. CONCLUSION: When someone like Marilyn Monroe dies, there is a panic on the part of a lot of people. No one wants to be blamed. People take actions that may not make sense to those outside the situation, but made sense to the person at the time. People involved in high-stress traumatic events can not always explain what caused them to do a particular thing, just that they felt at the time it was the right thing to do. Some things may have been done by various parties on the night of Marilyn's death that do not make sense now, but did at the time to the people involved. Marilyn Monroe was, throughout her life, a high risk for suicide. She faced a great deal of difficulty with personal relationships, and dealt with a legacy of mental illness, both heavy factors in depression. At the end of her life, Marilyn had lost her job, gone through three divorces, failed to give birth to the child she so badly wanted, and attempted to end her own life on numerous occasions. After many years of fighting depression, on the night of August 4th, 1962, Marilyn's fight came to an end when she tragically ended her own life.


Marilyn - forever