The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe (11 page)

W
hile researching
Goddess
, Anthony Summers crossed investigative paths with Ted Landreth, a former CBS executive who had tried for over three years to convince an American television network to document the true Marilyn Monroe tragedy. The executive seers of network television were reluctant to touch the subject.

In 1983 Summers and Landreth joined forces in an attempt to coordinate their investigative efforts. Summers, with his background in British journalism, persuaded the BBC to produce the documentary
Say Goodbye to the President
, which contained interviews with Jack Clemmons, Robert Slatzer, Eunice Murray, and many of the other principals involved. A totally unexpected revelation occurred following Murray's interview in 1985.

“Initially the interview was quite conventional, in that Mrs. Murray never departed from the story she had recited through the years,” Ted Landreth recalls. “However, after the last of the interview and the camera and the lights were turned off, Mrs. Murray made some astounding remarks. Fortunately, the sound tape was still rolling, and we included her comments in the documentary.”

Summers, who conducted the interview, recalls, “As the camera crew were starting to clear up, she said suddenly, ‘Why, at my age, do I still have to cover up this thing?' I asked her what she meant, and she then astonished us by admitting that Robert Kennedy had indeed visited Marilyn on the day she died, and that a doctor and an ambulance had come while she was still alive.”

Asked specifically if Marilyn was still alive when Dr. Greenson arrived, Murray responded, “When he arrived she wasn't dead, because I was there then—in the living room.”

Mrs. Murray was then queried about the Kennedy-Monroe relationship.

 

M
URRAY
: Well, over a period of time I was not at all surprised that the Kennedys were a very important part of Marilyn's life…and, eh…so that I was just a…I wasn't included in this information, but I was a witness to what was happening…

S
UMMERS
: And you believe that he (Bobby) was there that day?

M
URRAY
: At Marilyn's house?

S
UMMERS
: Yes.

M
URRAY
: Oh, sure!

S
UMMERS
: That afternoon?

M
URRAY
: Yes.

S
UMMERS
: And you think that is the reason she was so upset?

M
URRAY
: Yes, and it became so sticky that the protectors of Robert Kennedy, you know, had to step in and protect him…

 

When Summers asked Murray why she hadn't told the truth to the police in 1962, she responded, “I told whatever I thought was good to tell.”

The highly praised BBC production
Say Goodbye to the President
won numerous awards and was nominated in England as the best television documentary of 1985, but American networks refused to broadcast it. Eventually
Say Goodbye to the President
was syndicated across the United States to wide critical acclaim.

In 1985, Stanhope Gould, a producer for ABC's
20/20
, read the early proofs of
Goddess
and concluded that the Monroe-Kennedy story would make an excellent
20/20
segment. He and executive producer Av Westin assigned Sylvia Chase, Geraldo Rivera, and a large staff of researchers to the TV newsmagazine project. Several months and several hundred thousand dollars later, the
20/20
team had completed a half-hour segment,
which Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters considered a stunning piece of investigative journalism.

When Sylvia Chase asked Eunice Murray if Marilyn Monroe was romantically involved with Robert Kennedy, she responded, “I would call it a romantic involvement—yes,” and cited the details of one of Bobby Kennedy's visits to Marilyn's residence in June 1962. Senator George Smathers told Chase that President Kennedy had told him about Bobby's relationship with Marilyn. Smathers stated that he had learned from the president of problems with Marilyn when she became intoxicated on a flight to meet Bobby Kennedy. Former Los Angeles mayor Sam Yorty disclosed that Chief Parker had told him “that Bobby Kennedy was supposed to be north of Los Angeles in some city making a speech, but that actually he said he was seen at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on the very day she died.”

The segment's most stunning revelations came from celebrated Hollywood private eye Fred Otash. Once a Los Angeles police investigator, Otash had gained an international reputation as a private detective and surveillance expert. He said he had been hired by Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa to place bugs in both the Lawford beach house and Monroe's Brentwood residence. Otash stated the tapes proved that Bobby Kennedy had been at the Monroe residence on the day of her death.

A week before the segment was to air, ABC News president Roone Arledge told Gould and Westin that the thirty-minute segment was to be cut in half. Working day and night, the
20/20
team cut the story to thirteen minutes. Rumors began circulating that the entire segment would be canceled. On October 2, 1985, syndicated columnist Liz Smith wrote, “I just hope ABC isn't going to let itself be a party to suppressing the history of 1962…. That, in my opinion, is not the function of a network with a great news gathering arm…”

Westin retorted, “I don't anticipate not putting it on the air. The journalism is solid. Everything in there has two sources. We are documenting that there was a relationship between Bobby and Marilyn and Jack and Marilyn. A variety of witnesses attest to that on camera.”

Hours before the October 3 air date, Roone Arledge canceled the segment. The Monroe story was replaced by a segment on police dogs.

The decision created a tumult in the press. Roone Arledge stated that the segment was canceled because it was “a sleazy piece of journalism—gossip column stuff.” Outraged by the cancellation, the
20/20
team—Walters, Downs, and Rivera—were bitterly outspoken. Publicly taking issue with Arledge's judgment, Hugh Downs stated to the press, “I am
upset about the way it was handled. I honestly believe that this is more carefully documented than anything any network did during Watergate. I lament the fact that the decision reflects badly on people I respect…. The Monroe segment was accurate.”

Segment producer Stanhope Gould stated, “It was the documentation, coupled with the mob angle, that made it a story—the fact that the president and the attorney general of the United States had put themselves in a position to have the nation's most powerful criminals eavesdrop on their affairs with the nation's most famous actress, and were exposed to blackmail. That was one hell of a story.”

Sylvia Chase resigned, Hugh Downs elected to go cable, and Geraldo Rivera was fired for his vitriolic protest.

ABC News President Roone Arledge had often been seen at social functions as Ethel Kennedy's escort, and there were rumors of a romance. Arledge's assistant, David Burke, had been a former Kennedy strategist; and Jeff Ruhe, an Arledge aide, was married to one of Bobby and Ethel's children. Denying that his friendship with Ethel had anything to do with his killing the segment, Arledge stated, “I wouldn't censor anything because it would offend a friend.”

However, when Kennedy family member Kerry Kennedy McCarthy appeared on the
Geraldo
show in 1995, she stated, “Quite honestly, Geraldo, you were a victim of the family…. The family had become used to hearing the truth about Jack—but when it was Bobby? You see, Ethel had a very close relationship with Roone Arledge….”

Though no copy of the full Marilyn Monroe segment exists outside the ABC vaults, a copy of the thirteen-minute edited version was secreted from the network following the cancellation. Among the surviving elements is a section of Chase's interview with private investigator Fred Otash:

 

C
HASE
: How did you get involved in this?

O
TASH
: Hoffa was very interested in developing a derogatory profile on Bobby Kennedy—not so much Jack Kennedy, but Bobby Kennedy.

C
HASE
: And then what followed?

O
TASH
: Bugs were installed in the Lawford house—in the bedrooms and on the phones. There were four bugs all together installed out there.

C
HASE
: Why the Lawford house?

O
TASH
: Well, because the information we had was that it was the Kennedy playhouse—that's where Bobby and Jack played…. There were numerous tapes made of Marilyn and Jack in the act of love.

C
HASE
: But you were really trying to obtain information on Bobby Kennedy.

O
TASH
: Sure.

C
HASE
: Did you hear Bobby Kennedy on an eavesdropping tape?

O
TASH
: Yes.

C
HASE
: Do they confirm that Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn also had an affair?

O
TASH
: Of course…sure…Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn were recorded many times.

C
HASE
: Were there tapes recorded at Marilyn's house right up until Marilyn Monroe's death?

O
TASH
: They were recorded the day of her death—the night of her death.

C
HASE
: A conversation with Kennedy?

O
TASH
: A conversation with
Bobby
Kennedy.

C
HASE
: And what were they talking about?

O
TASH
: They had a very violent argument. She was saying, “I feel passed around! I feel used! I feel like a piece of meat!”

C
HASE
: And this conversation took place on the day of her death?

O
TASH
: That's right.

 

Otash described a struggle in the Monroe bedroom and Kennedy yelling, “Where is it? Where the hell is it? I have to have it! My family will pay you for it!” At the conclusion of the struggle, Otash heard physical blows and a door slamming. Later, there was a phone call to Marilyn from Bobby Kennedy, who was at the Lawford beach house. “He tried to reason with her,” Otash recalled, “and she angrily shouted, ‘Don't bother me! Leave me alone—stay out of my life!' before hanging up the phone.”

Hearing of the revelations, the
Los Angeles Times
interviewed Otash, who revealed to the
Times
that shortly after 2
A.M.
on the night Monroe died, Peter Lawford drove to Otash's Hollywood apartment. Describing Lawford as drunk, distraught, and very nervous, Otash stated, “He [Lawford] said he had just left Monroe, and she was dead, and that Bobby had been there earlier. He said they got Bobby out of the city and back to Northern California, and would I go out there and remove anything that may be incriminating.”

Otash said that Lawford told him Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn had a fight—a violent struggle. “He [Bobby] then went over to Lawford's and was very upset,” Otash told the
Times
. “Lawford described Bobby as panicky and quoted him as saying, ‘She's ranting and raving. I'm concerned about her and what may come out of this.'” Lawford told Otash that “Marilyn had had it and didn't want Bobby to use her anymore.” She had tried to reach Jack Kennedy at the White House, but was told he was in Hyannisport. She kept trying to reach him, but wasn't able to.

Lawford revealed to Otash that Marilyn had called him later Saturday night and was still angry that Jack Kennedy wouldn't talk to her. “Look, do me a favor,” she had told Lawford, “Tell the president I tried to reach him. Tell him good-bye for me. I think my purpose has been served.” This may have been the 7:30
P.M.
telephone call mentioned by Lawford's dinner guests, but hardly the “say good-bye to the president” call Lawford had described to the press. It was the angry good-bye of a woman finalizing a relationship.

Otash told the
Times
that he had remained silent over the years because “I didn't see any purpose in getting involved…but I feel it's time for the truth to come out…. I'm not getting paid, I'm not writing a book, I'm not making a point. If I wanted to capitalize on my relationship in this matter, I would have written my own book.” At the time of the interview Otash was sixty-three, a retired man of wealth with homes in Los Angeles, Palm Beach, and Cannes. Otash died in Los Angeles in October 1992, leaving an estate appraised in excess of one million dollars. At the time of his death the surveillance tapes had not been discovered.

 

Learning of the revelation on the BBC documentary and the suppressed
20/20
segment,
New York Post
correspondent Jack Schermerhorn arranged an interview with Eunice Murray, which took place at a table in the gardens of the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica in October 1985.
^*
Murray told Schermerhorn about Bobby Kennedy's visit to Marilyn's house on August 4, 1962, stating that Kennedy had arrived with Lawford in the late afternoon. Revealing that Kennedy and Marilyn were having a disagreement, Murray told Schermerhorn that she was told to leave. She stated that Kennedy and Marilyn were arguing in the rear garden when she left. “I went to the market, and when I returned he was gone. Marilyn was very upset, and I called Dr. Greenson.”

Twenty-three years after the fact, Eunice Murray had finally explained why Dr. Greenson had made his unusual visit to Marilyn's residence that afternoon. It wasn't because Marilyn had asked, “Do we have any oxygen around?” It was because Marilyn Monroe had a violent argument with
Bobby Kennedy and she was emotionally upset. Murray's statement, preserved on the Schermerhorn tape, confirms Fred Otash's assertion that an argument took place between Kennedy and Marilyn at her residence and Sidney Guilaroff's disclosure of Marilyn's hysterical call in the late afternoon.