‘The Mystery Of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes’ Explained: What Are The Suspicions Around Monroe’s Death?

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Marilyn Monroe’s demise gained worldwide attention. It was a huge loss for Hollywood’s stars and personalities. Through cassette conversations between herself and her psychiatrist, this documentary offers some deep insights into Marilyn’s inner circle and what she reasonably suspected. Anthony Summers is a reporter who investigates her life. We examine the dark side of Marilyn Monroe through these taped phone interviews.

Fame has two sides, with heads representing glamor and tails representing the darkness. While everything appears glamorous, those close to Marilyn need not believe she embodies the concept. She was naïve, petite, and gentle, yet she had a way with her body that most people found electrifying. She had a knack for expressing her sexuality in an animalistic manner luring the person next to her regardless of their gender. She boldly donned temptation as a sex symbol of America at the time. But, as a waif (a destitute child forcibly separated from their surroundings caused by poverty, grief, or other helpless situations), she fought many actual struggles with herself on the verge of dissociation. Let us examine the legend about her death and the circumstances surrounding her demise.


Marilyn Monroe Documentary that Touches Upon Dangerous Ideas.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Marilyn Monroe seems to be: why would someone kill themselves at the epitome of their career, at the age of 36? In 1984, the  Attorney General of Los Angeles asked Anthony Summers, an investigative journalist, to look into the circumstances surrounding her death. His inquiry lasted three years, despite him expecting it would take a year. These are recordings of conversations between Anthony Summers and Marilyn’s inner circle. Directors, friends, performers, and agents, as well as hairdressers and photographers, were among her crew members.

In every aspect, Marilyn Monroe was unique. The idea of a woman in Hollywood at the time was to become the ultimate sex symbol if you were a famous actress. If you were one of her close friends or acquaintances, you would know that she earned people’s trust and carried herself with dignity. Love, on the other hand, was never a happy prospect for her. She considered herself a waif because her mother was committed to a mental institution when she was a small child, and she moved about from home to home as a foster child.

When Anthony tries to talk to individuals about her death as he explores deeper into her life, he runs against many roadblocks. He decides to take a different path and start from the beginning and work his way through. He comes across cassette recordings of Dr. Ralph Greenson’s sessions with Marilyn, in which she speaks in her voice about her greatest fears. Greenson took a different approach to Marilyn. Because she lacked a family, the trust would be tough to win because no one had ever made her feel at ease. He befriends her and decides to make her feel at ease in his home by first introducing her to his family before starting treatment.

This gives her a sense of security and allows him to go to work faster. As his sessions progress, the family comes to accept her, and both of Greenson’s children grow to like her and see her in a more genuine light. She mentions to Joan, Greenson’s daughter, that there is a man in her life that she is pleased to have. ‘The General,’ she refers to him. Anthony’s investigation comes to a halt as a result of this. He finally gets the major break he needs in the case. The title ‘General’ is an insider’s reference to someone in a very high position in the administration. For the first time, he realizes there might be a link to the Kennedys. However, he is unsure. It would require that he dig a little further.

Marilyn experienced miscarriages after two exhilarating marriages that ended as abruptly as they began, causing her to collapse hard. Peter Lawford of Frank Sinatra’s band Rat Pack hosted raunchy and legendary parties at his beach mansion in the early 1950s. It was a place where women could meet exclusive males. President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert ‘Bobby’ Kennedy used Peter as a pimp. Marilyn’s life was about to take a hazardous turn. During her marriage to Arthur Miller, her third husband, she was heavily addicted to drugs. As her marriage with Arthur nears its end, she decides to move closer to entities in the White House. A storm begins to brew.


‘The Mystery Of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes’ Ending Explained: What was the exact time That Marilyn Died?

During the Kennedy presidency, the Cold War reached its pinnacle. With Russia’s Soviet Union Communist schemes coming to the forefront in the thoughts of the American people, nuclear war was always a concern. It was regarded as a serious threat to America’s sovereignty. Any American who was even suspected of being a Communist would be deported with no questions asked.

Marilyn Monroe was a part of a thriving social scene. This did not improve her situation as she neared the end of her life. She would be deeply associated with one party and then freely discuss these encounters with another party that was the country’s opponent, putting her in danger. Her leftist views began to form here, thus changing her life for the worse.

After a few weeks of her third marriage to Miller, she discovered some notes in which he said Monroe was an Angel at first, but he was mistaken. He was dissatisfied with her. She became pregnant during her marriage to him and lost the baby. This had a significant impact on her as a person behind the camera. With her life moving at breakneck speed, many chastised Miller for allowing her to use so many drugs, and some predicted she would end up in rehab or die of an overdose. With her attendance at Peter Lawford’s events that remained constant, it was there that she met both Kennedy Brothers.

Robert F. Kennedy was Attorney General in 1961 before becoming a Senator in 1964. Marilyn Monroe was able to pursue a connection with both the Kennedy brothers because of Peter Lawford’s beach house gatherings. While John reveled in the attention and fervor of favoritism, Jimmy Hoffa of the notoriously corrupt Trucker’s Union plotted to topple the Kennedys. He orders Marilyn’s house to be wired by Fred Otasch, an ex-cop who drew the line at Communists. Four bugs are hidden in the ceiling fittings, under the carpet, and on the phones in the bedroom and living area. Fred’s private investigator was John Danoff. He claimed that there were more tapes of Bobby than those of John. Robert Kennedy’s secretary, Angie Novello, would tell Anthony that Marilyn would contact her as a way of reaching out, and Bobby would then call her back and chat with her.

Later, the FB would open a file on Marilyn Monroe that contained a wealth of information and intelligence on her whereabouts and interactions with others. SM-C was the designation (Security Matters-Communist) of her file. According to a 1962 document, Marilyn traveled to Mexico with a couple of known acquaintances who were American Communists and Left-wingers who had been kicked out of the country. She discussed something she suggested to Bobby Kennedy with Fred Vanderbilt Field. On overhearing this conversation as it took place, the FBI discovered Marilyn to be a reckless speaker and an attempted influencer of the incumbent President.

On July 13, 1962, Marilyn had lunch with the then-President at Peter Lawford’s beach house and discussed the risky topic of the morality of atomic bombing, only to realize that she was a staunch lefty. Even though Marilyn sang for President John F. Kennedy on his birthday, Bobby contacted her a month later to tell her that she would no longer be able to speak to both Kennedy brothers. While nuclear weapons posed a severe international threat, Marilyn’s last talk with John F. Kennedy put her in grave danger. When Bobby ended their relationship, she entered a perilous downward spiral. 

She was discovered deceased in her house about a month later. At 4:25 a.m., a death report was filed for her. There was a lot of debate over the precise moment of death and what happened at that time. Bobby Kennedy was rumored to have hushed it up, but Anthony did his own investigating and made a discovery. The world believed the version that Murray, the Housekeeper, and Dr. Greenson narrated that she was found dead after Greenson shattered her window to gain entry and then realized they had lost her.

Meanwhile, Anthony called Marilyn’s Public Relations Manager, Arthur Jacobs’ widow, who said he had to ‘fudge everything and keep the press in the dark.’ with this occurring well before 12 am since the concert she and her husband attended was around 10 pm. Anthony also discovered an ambulance driver who confirmed that two ambulance staff removed Marilyn’s body out of the house around 20:00 and transported her to the hospital, where she was likely pronounced dead or died on the way back. She was alive and maybe comatose on the way to the hospital. These contradictory stories of her death would raise the possibility of murder, even if all indicators pointed to an overdose.


Final Words

Marilyn was throwing a tantrum at both the Kennedy brothers during the month before she died, according to Reed Wilson, a surveillance expert at the time, about how she was feeling exploited and thrown around between the brothers when she didn’t like it. While her affections for Bobby grew stronger, Bobby thought it was too risky and called it off. That moment gave everyone in Marilyn’s inner circle the impression that Marilyn’s Last Day had begun. While naïve, she was certain of her feelings for Bobby, who would reject her at the last minute, destroying all of her faith in him and costing her life.

Journalists at the time verified Bobby Kennedy’s flight log and concluded that he was present at her residence when she died, but the White House expressed a calm request that it not be written. The press agreed, but the truth is that when Anthony called Peter Lawford many years later to speak with him about her death, he reminisced that he should have gone to see her as the final polite thing to do while he cried on the phone. The film ties our emotions to a soul as lovely as Marilyn’s, who lived on the edge and felt passionately and profoundly. The only difference this time is that nobody was there to catch her as she fell.


‘The Mystery Of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes’  is a 2022 Documentary film streaming on Netflix.

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Anushka Rao
Anushka Rao
Anushka is a Storyteller and a Painter. She is still looking for a silver lining in any situation and figuring how innovative she can be to make the world a better place. Charisma and mystery with a spark of genius. A true Believer that films are our strongest power yet, for change.

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