The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe (53 page)

On Friday morning, Marilyn called the Rostens in Brooklyn to ask their opinion concerning the
Life
article. Norman Rosten recalled that he told Marilyn how much he and Hedda had enjoyed reading the interview, and how great she looked in the pictures. Marilyn invited the Rostens to join her theater party at the
Mr. President
gala in September.

Later in the day, Marilyn spoke to Newcomb, who said she was suffering from a bad head cold. According to Newcomb, it was Marilyn who suggested she come by and relax around the pool and use Marilyn's heat lamp. However, Newcomb knew that Dorothy Kilgallen was trying to reach Marilyn, and it was incumbent upon Newcomb to ensure that Kilgallen and Marilyn didn't speak.

Marilyn was led to believe that Bobby Kennedy might arrive at Lawford's on Friday evening for a last-ditch attempt at an understanding, but when he failed to arrive Newcomb and Lawford took Marilyn out to dinner at La Scala in Beverly Hills, one of Marilyn's favorite restaurants. Billy Travilla had a vivid recollection of seeing Marilyn at La Scala with Lawford and Newcomb that night. He recalled that Marilyn appeared to be so intoxicated or drugged that she didn't recognize him when he came over to the table to say hello. “She looked up at me with no recognition at all,” Travilla remembered.

Newcomb returned home with Marilyn, where the evening ended in an argument. Still intent on having her confrontation with Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn again called the St. Francis Hotel and left another message. Newcomb slept over in the telephone room, which was near Marilyn's bedroom door. At night, Marilyn went through the ritual of closing the blackout
curtains on her windows and placing her private phone near her bedside before retiring.

That weekend the Los Angeles basin was going into one of its hot, dry “Santa Ana” conditions, when the winds blow in from the Mojave Desert. Sometimes Maf, Marilyn's poodle, would bark when wind rustled through the trees, and after dark he was kept out in the guest cottage, where his bark wouldn't interfere with her sleep.

In her last months, Marilyn still suffered from night terrors. Eunice Murray recalled Marilyn frequently “awakening from sleep with a small shriek shortly after falling asleep…. She awoke each time shivering with fright and bathed in perspiration. She would then get up and sit in a chair until the bad feeling left.”

In a sense, Marilyn's home on Fifth Helena was a bulwark against the outside world and her fears. The walls were made of two-foot-thick cement blocks, and the windows were protected by decorative wrought iron. The thick hand-carved doorways and gates spoke of permanence and protection. Outside, high stucco walls ensured seclusion, and the towering eucalyptus trees served as a curtain of privacy. When Marilyn had moved in, she described her home as “a fortress where I can feel safe from the world.” But the enemy was her loveless, terrifying childhood, and no matter what she built around her—her career, her startling success, her accumulated knowledge, or her “fortress”—the night would usher in the demons of her childhood. They came with the dark. When she was alone. When she was afraid. Nobody but Norma Jeane would ever know the remarkable courage it took for her to live each day.

Outside, the antique wind chimes, which had been the gift of Carl Sandburg, tolled in the tall trees as she waited for the prescribed sleeping tablets to have their merciful effect. Norma Jeane needed her sleep so that Marilyn Monroe could be reborn with the dawn.

Eunice Murray said, “It's my feeling that Marilyn looked forward to her tomorrows.”

Tomorrow would be her last day.

T
he dry desert winds had warmed the L.A. basin and by 9
A.M.
, August 4, 1962, it was already eighty degrees.

Marilyn got up early, wrapped herself in her robe, and made some coffee in the kitchen. Pat Newcomb was still asleep in the telephone room. Marilyn had been up most of the night. With the blackout curtains closed, her room had been stifling—and then there were a series of disturbing phone calls. Jeanne Carmen related that Marilyn woke her at 6
A.M.
to tell her about strange calls she had received during the night. A woman whose voice Marilyn wasn't sure she recognized had called a number of times between midnight and dawn, telling her to “leave Bobby alone” and calling her a “tramp.” Carmen wondered if it could have been Ethel Kennedy.

“Marilyn sounded nervous and exhausted,” Carmen stated. “She begged me to come over and keep her company.” Marilyn had things she needed to talk to Carmen about—things she knew she couldn't say over the phone. But Carmen wasn't fully awake or aware of the anxieties she sensed in Marilyn's voice. She remembered Marilyn saying, “Bring over a bag of pills,” and thought Marilyn was referring to “uppers” to help her
through the day after a bad night. She told Marilyn she didn't have time to come over that day because it was her birthday, and she had a series of engagements that would keep her busy until late that night. They planned to see each other on Sunday.

Eunice Murray had spent the night at her own apartment on Ocean Avenue and arrived at approximately 8
A.M.
Her car was being serviced at the nearby garage of Henry D'Antonio. He had driven her to Marilyn's house and was to deliver her car in the late afternoon. Shortly after Mrs. Murray arrived, Norman Jefferies drove through the newly installed wooden gates and parked his red pickup next to Pat Newcomb's car.

By 8:30
A.M.
Jefferies had begun working on the new kitchen floor. He remembered seeing Marilyn walk into the kitchen shortly after nine o'clock. She was wrapped in a huge bath towel, and Jefferies stated that she didn't look well. “She looked sick,” he said. “She was pale and looked tired. I thought there must have been something wrong with her.”

During the course of Robert Slatzer's interview in 1974 with Eunice Murray, Slatzer asked what Marilyn ate that day, and she replied, “We sat down at the table and had some grapefruit juice. Marilyn liked juice, as you know…but she didn't have an appetite that day. She didn't have anything to eat.” Slatzer added that Mrs. Murray seemed quite firm about this. She stated, “Marilyn did not consume any food or liquor that day.”

Marilyn's lack of appetite on Saturday is in keeping with Dr. Engelberg's comment to Sergeant Clemmons, “I only recently gave her an injection because she was suffering from diarrhea.” The autopsy, which revealed an inflamed lower colon, would corroborate the statements of Engelberg, Clemmons, and Murray. The diarrhea Engelberg cited may have been an episode of the colitis diagnosed in 1961 by her New York physician, Dr. Richard Cottrell, who noted that Marilyn suffered from an ulcerated colon. He attributed the problem to “a chronic fear neurosis,” and stated that on occasions when his patient was “highly nervous, frightened and confused,” her emotions brought on episodes of colitis.

During the morning, Marilyn spoke on the phone to Sidney Skolsky and mentioned that she planned to see Bobby Kennedy later that day. In the mid-morning, Ralph Roberts called to check on a tentative dinner date with Marilyn. He recalled that she wasn't sure if she could make it, and she suggested he call back in the afternoon.

According to Mrs. Murray, around 9:30 or 10
A.M.
, photographer Larry Schiller stopped by to talk to Marilyn about photographs for
Playboy
magazine. Schiller recalled that from the gate he saw Marilyn kneeling beside
the flowers bordering the guest cottage. She was pulling weeds or plucking flowers, he thought. When he called to her, she turned and walked across the lawn. Schiller said that Marilyn was having second thoughts about the value of being on the cover of
Playboy
, where she would again be promoted as a sex object. They decided to talk about it again on Monday.

Mrs. Murray observed that Pat Newcomb, who had spent the night in the telephone room, rose close to noon. She walked into the kitchen, where she encountered Marilyn; an argument ensued. In a rare interview granted to Robert Slatzer in 1974, Newcomb stated, “The small argument that day was because I had been able to sleep all night and Marilyn hadn't.” But the “small argument” was a continuation of the quarrel that had begun Friday night when Bobby Kennedy didn't show up, and on Saturday they had a bitter disagreement that led to Newcomb's dismissal.

According to Norman Jefferies, the argument was over Pat Newcomb's loyalty to the Kennedys. It was a loud, vitriolic confrontation that Eunice Murray initially claimed not to have heard. Later, Murray would admit that there had been a major disagreement.

Despite the conflict and being told to leave, Newcomb stayed on at Marilyn's, hovering around the telephone room—the self-appointed Marilyn monitor until Bobby arrived. Newcomb told the press that she had started to leave after the “small argument,” but was stopped by Mrs. Murray, who asked her to stay for lunch. However, Murray and Newcomb had never been friendly and scarcely spoke. In fact, they had an intense dislike for one another.

In speaking of Eunice Murray, Newcomb stated, “Marilyn sought her advice because she was supposed to be this wonderful housekeeper Greenson had found for her. But from day one, I did not trust Eunice Murray, who seemed to be always snooping around. I tried to stay out of her way because I just didn't like her. She was sort of a spook, always hovering, always on the fringe of things…. I think Mrs. Murray should have been hung up by her thumbs.”

In her 1974 interview with Robert Slatzer, Newcomb said, “Mrs. Murray fixed Marilyn and I [sic] lunch. They were [sic] hamburgers.”

“But you definitely remember that you and Marilyn ate together?” Slatzer asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “About lunchtime.”

However, Mrs. Murray clearly stated that Marilyn went to her room and Pat Newcomb ate alone, and she was very firm about the fact that Marilyn didn't eat anything that day—a fact confirmed by the autopsy.

Early Saturday afternoon, the roar of a helicopter echoed off the soundstage walls at the Fox studios. A Fox security guard squinted into the bright blue sky as it began its descent into the heliport near Stage 14, the same heliport Marilyn had used when she flew off to the president's birthday gala. As noted in the studio's security log, the helicopter had received approval to land shortly after 11
A.M.
A dark gray limousine waited in the shade as the helicopter touched down in a whirl of dust. Studio publicist Frank Neill, who was working on the lot that Saturday, knew that Darryl Zanuck had shelved
The Enemy Within
, and he was surprised to see Bobby Kennedy leap from the helicopter and dash to the limousine. As the limousine door opened and Bobby jumped in, Neill caught a glimpse of Peter Lawford. Frank Neill's observation of Bobby Kennedy's arrival was corroborated by former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, who stated, “The truth is, we knew Robert Kennedy was in town on August 4.”

Former Los Angeles mayor Sam Yorty also confirmed the attorney general's presence in Los Angeles on the day Marilyn died. Yorty stated, “I had a conversation with Chief Parker, and he told me himself that Robert Kennedy had arrived in Los Angeles that day and checked into the Beverly Hilton Hotel.”

Retired police chief Tom Reddin, who in 1962 was an assistant to Chief Parker, recently stated, “It was reported to me by security officers that the attorney general was in Los Angeles on the weekend when Marilyn Monroe died.”

And after twenty-three years of denials, Eunice Murray admitted in 1985 that Bobby Kennedy was in Los Angeles and visited Marilyn Monroe's home on August 4, 1962. During the interview for the BBC documentary
Say Goodbye to the President
, she said, “I was not supposed to know the Kennedys were a very important part of Marilyn's life, but over a period of time, I was a witness to what was happening.” Asked point-blank if Bobby Kennedy had been present at Marilyn's house that Saturday, Murray stated, “Oh sure, yes, I was in the living room when he arrived. She was not dressed.”

In 1993 Norman Jefferies also confirmed the attorney general's visit to Marilyn Monroe's residence on Saturday, August 4, 1962. Jefferies revealed that he had never left the vicinity of Marilyn's home that Saturday, and he was at the side of his mother-in-law, Eunice Murray, until she left in her car on Sunday morning. He was a witness to Marilyn Monroe's death and the cover-up that ensued.

Jefferies recalled that on August 4, he had planned on leaving earlier
in the day. He was loading tools into his truck when Eunice Murray came out of the house and told him that she had been dismissed: “I wasn't aware of a big disagreement between Eunice and Marilyn, but Eunice said she had been told by Marilyn to pack her things and leave. Marilyn expected Eunice to be gone by the end of the day. So I agreed to stay on and help her pack and get her things together. I asked Eunice if it meant that I had been fired too, and she said I'd have to ask Marilyn, but Marilyn had gone to her room.” Murray had called Dr. Greenson, but he wasn't able to come over and mediate the problem until later in the day. Murray's car was being serviced, so Jefferies began putting Eunice's belongings into his truck.

Jefferies stated that sometime between three and four in the afternoon Robert Kennedy arrived with Peter Lawford. Though Marilyn had told Pat Newcomb she was no longer welcome, she was still at the house when the attorney general and Lawford arrived.

“Mr. Lawford made it very clear that he wanted Eunice and I [sic] out of there, and he told us to go to the market. He gave me some money and said to buy some Cokes. When we came back—maybe it was an hour later—their car was gone, and when we went into the house Marilyn was hysterical and looked awful. Something terrible had happened—she was scared out of her mind.”

Newcomb tried to calm Marilyn, but there was nothing she could say or do. “It's something I'll never forget,” Jefferies stated. “Marilyn was having this hysterical rage. It was like nothing I've ever seen. She was scared and at the same time she was terribly angry.” Murray then called Dr. Greenson for the second time that day, conveyed that it was urgent, and Greenson said he'd be right over.

Jefferies's revelations were corroborated by Sidney Guilaroff. In 1984, Guilaroff told Anthony Summers he had spoken to Marilyn on that Saturday, but he refused to reveal the contents of the conversation beyond saying that Marilyn was “upset and depressed.” In a 1995 interview he stated for the first time that he had spoken to Marilyn twice on Saturday. The first occasion was in the late afternoon or early evening. “Marilyn telephoned me and was in an absolute state,” Guilaroff said. “She was in tears, and I had difficulty understanding her. After I calmed her down and said something like, ‘Now, what's the matter, dear?' she said ‘Bobby Kennedy was here, and he threatened me, screamed at me, and pushed me around!' I think I said something like ‘What was Robert Kennedy doing at your house?' because I couldn't believe my ears. I knew absolutely
nothing about her affair with Bobby, and I thought I knew everything. I knew about Jack, but she told me she had an affair with Bobby as well as Jack, and everything had gone wrong. Now she was afraid and felt she was in terrible danger. Bobby felt she had become a problem and had said to her, ‘If you threaten me, Marilyn, there's more than one way to keep you quiet.'” After Marilyn had calmed down and became more coherent, Guilaroff suggested she should get some rest and they would talk again later in the evening.

Guilaroff's revelation coincides with statements made by Fred Otash to the
Los Angeles Times
and his suppressed interview on ABC's
20/20
. Otash stated that the surveillance tapes recorded a running quarrel between Marilyn and Bobby Kennedy as they moved from room to room during their violent quarrel: “Marilyn and Bobby had a very violent argument and she told him, ‘I feel used; I feel passed around.'” Earl Jaycox, Bernard Spindel's assistant, confirmed that they were shouting at each other. Marilyn was screaming, while Kennedy was yelling, “Where is it? Where is it?” She shouted that she was being treated “like a piece of meat.”

In 1985, Anthony Summers was led by NBC News executive Mark Monsky to a government contact who had heard some forty minutes of the Otash-Spindel tapes, all of it covering activity at Marilyn's home on the day she died. The tape recorder had been sound-activated and revealed two visits by Robert Kennedy. On the first visit Summers's source related, “You could hear Marilyn and Kennedy talking. It was kind of echoey and at a distance, as though the sound was in a room next to the site of the transmitter, perhaps in some sort of hallway.” The tiled entry of Marilyn's home was in fact just beyond her bedroom. The tape then recorded the conversation turning into a heated argument. “Their voices grew louder and louder,” he recalled. “They were arguing about something that had been promised by Robert Kennedy. As they argued, their voices got shriller. If I had not recognized RFK's voice already, I'm not sure that I would have known it was him at this point. He was screeching, high-pitched, like an old lady.” It became evident that Kennedy was looking for something: “He was asking again and again, ‘Where is it? Where the fuck is it?'”

Summers's source told him he wouldn't have identified the third voice on the tape, but had been told it was the voice of Peter Lawford. Lawford was saying, “Calm down! Calm down!” and he recalled Robert Kennedy saying words to the effect, “We have to know. It's important to the family.
We can make any arrangements you want!” The voices then came closer to the location of the transmitter. “There was a
clack, clack, clack
on the tape which Bernie said he thought was coat hangers being pushed along a rail…and there was a banging and flopping sound…. Monroe was screaming at them, and ordering them out of the house.” The episode ended with the sound of a door slamming.
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