hexafu

The Final Verdict

R. J. Abernethy, toxicologist for the Los Angeles County coroner, began his laboratory examination at 8:30 A.M. Monday, August 6, and he quickly concluded that Marilyn Monroe’s death was due to a massive overdose of barbiturates. The tests showed 4.5 milligrams percent of pentobarbital and 8.0 milligrams percent of chloral hydrate in the bloodstream. In addition, the liver contained 13 milligrams percent pentobarbital—an abnormally large concentration. Pentobarbital is the chemical nomenclature for the Abbott Laboratories product marketed as Nembutal. Chloral hydrate, sometimes referred to as “knockout drops” or a “Mickey Finn,” is a highly potent sedative hypnotic that quickly renders a person unconscious.

After reviewing Abernethy’s chemical analysis, Noguchi prepared his preliminary autopsy report. The facts indicated that Monroe’s body had been found in a room locked from the inside. No hypodermic needle had been discovered within the locked room.

After filing this report, Noguchi assumed that he had done a thorough examination and reported everything accurately; however, disquieting forensic contradictions compelled him to return to the toxicology lab.

Abernethy had furnished laboratory reports on the blood and liver, which indicated death from barbiturate poisoning. However, Noguchi had clearly requested reports on the kidney, stomach, urine, and intestines as well. Examination of these specimens would have revealed how the barbiturate had entered Monroe’s system. But the limited toxicology report contained no analysis of these specimens, and therefore there was no confirmation that the barbiturates had been orally ingested.

Neither Noguchi’s autopsy nor Abernethy’s chemical analysis had furnished substantial evidence as to how the barbiturate poisoning took place. When Noguchi again asked for the reports on the kidney, stomach, urine, and intestines, he was amazed to find that the samples he and Miner had prepared under the supervision of Curphey had all mysteriously vanished.

The disappearance of these specimens is perhaps the most disturbing of the long list of irregularities relating to the autopsy. These missing specimens contained vital information definitely determining the mode of death. Laboratory examination of the digestive tract could have confirmed Noguchi’s findings that there was no evidence of the barbiturate or its residue in the stomach or intestines-indicating that the fatal dose had not been orally ingested. If examination of the kidneys had shown no barbiturates, that would also have confirmed that Monroe did not die from an oral ingestion.

Recently, it has been discovered that the specimens “disappeared” at the toxicological laboratory established by Abernethy at the UCLA School of Medicine, where Greenson was an eminent member of the faculty. When questioned, Abernethy refused to discuss what became of the missing organ samples. Westwood Village Mortuary attendant Alan Abbott recently stated,

“Knowing Coroner Curphey, and that he had supervised the autopsy, it’s difficult to imagine that those specimens just disappeared. It wouldn’t have happened.”

Miner observed, “In the entire history of the L.A. County coroner’s office there had never been a previous instance of organ samples vanishing.”

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If there was any doubt as to the cause of death, Curphey’s responsibility was to call for an inquest, subpoena witnesses, and bring about a full-scale inquiry. However, according to coroner’s aide Lionel Grandison, Curphey was actually covering up the cause of Monroe’s death.

“As I analyze my participation, my conversations with other staff members, and the things I’ve seen,” Grandison stated, “there’s no doubt in my mind that the Marilyn Monroe case, as we know it now, is not the true case. Some very sensitive areas have been covered up. Evidence was suppressed, paperwork was taken from the files, and people who have knowledge of what happened have not been listened to or sought out.”

Coroner Curphey was an administrator, without an investigative background, and ordinarily it would have been the job of the coroner’s staff to investigate the circumstances of Monroe’s death, but on August 6, Curphey announced to the press that he would personally question the star’s doctors.

According to Grandison, Curphey’s interference with the normal investigative procedure was unprecedented, and the little information he passed on to the staff “changed from day to day, as if it were being tailored to fit a scenario in need of constant revision by its authors.” Grandison also discovered that someone in the department was removing and rewriting key material from the Monroe file. “I observed information leaving the file,” he later stated, “and much of the information taken out of the file was never replaced.” He claims the file was doctored to support “what someone wanted the public to think.”

Not until years later did Grandison fully comprehend the significance of one item that vanished. This was Monroe’s diary, or “book of secrets.” This diary, which was not found among Monroe’s effects by the police or by Guy Hockett, was inadvertently obtained by Grandison when he was trying to locate Monroe’s next of kin. On Monday, August 6, he sent a driver to Monroe’s home to pick up whatever material might give addresses or phone numbers of relatives. The driver returned with a small red-covered book. The red diary became a matter of controversy, and many have doubted that it ever existed. Only Robert Slatzer and Lionel Grandison claim to have seen it and examined its contents; however, recent discoveries confirm that the controversial diary did exist. In 1994 a CIA document surfaced confirming that Monroe’s “book of secrets” was a major national security concern.

Another witness who viewed the diary, or “book of secrets,” was former Los Angeles intelligence officer Mike Rothmiller, who worked under Captain Daryl Gates at OCID, the Organized Crime Intelligence Division.

In 1978 Rothmiller was assigned to the OCID file room, where floor-to-ceiling shelves housed confidential files. Among them was the Marilyn Monroe file, which Rothmiller states included a copy of her diary.

“It was more like a journal,” Rothmiller said. “The majority of the entries were notes about conversations Marilyn Monroe had with John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. The subject matter ranged from Russia and Cuba to the Mafia and Sinatra. I remember she referred to Castro as ‘Fidel С.’”

Norman Jefferies also verified the existence of the diary. He recalled that Marilyn kept her red diary either in her bedroom or locked in the file cabinet located in the guest cottage. Jefferies said that on the night she died, her file cabinet was broken into and many of the contents were removed On Monday, August 6, Jefferies returned to the Monroe residence with Eunice Murray to open the house for Inez Melson, Marilyn’s former business manager and executrix of the estate. The driver for the coroner’s office arrived while they were waiting for Melson. Jefferies recalled that Murray had the red diary in her possession and gave it to the driver along with one of Marilyn’s address books. Jefferies couldn’t explain when or how Murray had obtained the diary. Though the diary offered Grandison no clue as to next of kin, he recalled that Bobby Kennedy’s name appeared frequently, as did comments about government figures and activities.

Grandison remembered seeing the names of both Kennedy brothers, as well as comments about the CIA and the Mafia. He also recalled the names of Jimmy Hoffa, Fidel Castro, and Frank Sinatra. When he left the office that day, he locked the diary in the safe at the coroner’s office, but when he opened it the next day, the red diary was gone. According to Grandison only three others knew the combination to the safe: Phil Schwartzberg, the coroner’s administrative assistant; Richard Rathman, who was in charge of administration; and Coroner Curphey.

In the meantime, a peckish press was grabbing any tidbit of information regarding Marilyn’s last days. Dozens of people claimed they were the last person to speak to her by telephone.

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Today we know the name of only one person who was interviewed – the most important person of all, Dr. Ralph Greenson. As Marilyn’s psychiatrist, he presumably knew more about her state of mind than anyone else. She had been his patient for over two years and had visited him practically every day, often twice a day, during the last two months of her life. Greenson was greatly distressed by his patient’s death, and he was reluctant to give interviews. However, in order to complete the informal investigation, Curphey knew he had to interview the victim’s psychiatrist.

Although John Miner was an attorney, he also held a degree in psychology and lectured at the prestigious Psychoanalytic Institute along with Greenson. They had been friends and associates for many years, and Miner became the logical person to conduct the interview. Miner recalled, “I knew Dr. Greenson personally. Dr. Curphey knew that, and so he asked me to interview Dr. Greenson.”

Curphey and Miner expected Greenson to reiterate his opinion that Marilyn Monroe had committed suicide, but Miner was amazed to find that Greenson had totally reversed his opinion. The interview took place on Monday, August 12, 1962, at Greenson’s office. Greenson imposed a condition: “A promise was exacted by Dr. Greenson,” Miner explained. “I

would not reveal the content of anything I learned. He imposed this condition by reason of his professional ethics and consideration for Miss Monroe’s privacy. I gave him my word that I would not.” However, it was understood that Miner was free to arrive at conclusions and report his opinion as long as he didn’t reveal the content of their meeting.

According to Miner, they met for several hours, during which Greenson discussed “not only Marilyn’s habits, but also the private confidences she shared with her psychiatrist.” Greenson expressed his firm opinion that Marilyn Monroe had not committed suicide. Then he played a half-hour tape that Marilyn had made at her home on her own tape recorder. The contents of this tape also led Miner to conclude she had not committed suicide.

Miner later recalled, “Dr. Greenson was very strongly of the opinion that Miss Monroe did not commit suicide. He was very much distressed by her death. The notion that she committed suicide added to that distress, because he firmly felt that she did not commit suicide – very much so, very much so. That I can state. He did not bar me from saying that.”

Of all the circumstances, contradictions, and puzzles regarding the death of Marilyn Monroe, perhaps this Greenson interview is the most mind-boggling. It poses two unalterable questions: Why did Greenson reverse his opinion, and what was on the tape played for John Miner?

After the interview, Miner left Greenson’s office a shaken man. He too became convinced that Marilyn Monroe had not committed suicide, and he filed his opinion in a memorandum to the district attorney as well as the coroner’s office.

When investigative journalist Anthony Summers asked about the contents of the memorandum, Miner recalled that it stated: “As requested by you, I have been to see Dr. Greenson to discuss the death of his late patient Marilyn Monroe. We discussed this matter for a period of hours, and as a result of what Dr. Greenson told me, and from what I heard on tape recordings, I believe I can say definitely that it was not a suicide.”

Before signing the death certificate Grandison recalled,

“I asked Dr.

Curphey about the missing paperwork… This was maybe the third or fourth time I had called the missing items to his attention.” Grandison also noted that the autopsy report had been altered. “I had seen the initial autopsy report, and this wasn’t the same report. The report had been completely changed.” When Grandison asked about this, Curphey lost his temper. “He got very angry,” Grandison vividly remembered. “He said,

‘Listen, you sign the death certificate…or else I’m gonna do something!’” At the time Grandison was a young man with a wife and children, and he believed he would lose his job if he didn’t follow Curphey’s orders.

Reluctantly, he signed the death certificate.