The Murder of Marilyn Monroe (4 page)

The four card-playing ladies, including hostess Mary W. Goodykoontz Barnes and guest Elizabeth Pollard, earlier witnessed Bobby Kennedy go into Marilyn’s house and subsequently saw him leave and, shortly thereafter, reenter with one of his two long-time personal bodyguards from the LAPD, Archie Case or James Ahern. Case or Ahern gave Marilyn an intramuscular pentobarbital (Nembutal) shot in the armpit to calm her down, shortly after Lawford and Kennedy had confiscated the knife from her.

“[Pathologist Thomas] Noguchi admitted there was a needle mark under one of her armpits,” says funeral director Allan Abbott, who was one of the pallbearers when Marilyn was laid to rest. “Of course, with a star like Marilyn Monroe who was taking prescription drugs—the doctors agreed to give her those injections so it wouldn’t show on camera. It was very common to have shots given in the armpit.”

When asked if Noguchi admitted there was a needle mark in Marilyn’s armpit, Abbott replied, “That was the word I got from one of his deputies,” confirming this relates to the Nembutal injection that Case or Ahern gave Marilyn during the last afternoon of her life.

A confidential source revealed, “Bobby said in his deposition that he and Peter Lawford went to Marilyn’s house late in the afternoon of August 4. There was a violent argument, and Marilyn was grabbed by Bobby and thrown to the floor . . . Then she was given an injection of pentobarbital in her armpit, which settled her down . . . RFK said in his statement that the doctor [Case or Ahern] gave Marilyn the shot under her left arm. He even named the artery on the tape. He said the shot that went into her was pentobarbital.”

Talking with Jay Margolis about an event that took place in 1986, George Barris recalled, “Gloria Steinem and I were signing the book we did together in Brentwood in a big book store, and a woman came up to me. She was elderly. She wanted me to autograph a book. She said, ‘Mr. Barris, I was a neighbor to Marilyn. I was playing bridge with my friends, and there were people coming and going. That afternoon was Saturday. I saw someone who I believed was Bobby Kennedy and another man go into Marilyn’s home and they came out a short while later.’ She could see people who came and went. She didn’t know who the other man was but she assumed he was a doctor and he had a little black case. Doctors carry it . . . It probably was not Greenson because the psychiatrist came later to her house.”

Since the bridge party hostess Mary W. Goodykoontz Barnes and guest Elizabeth Pollard were not the only two ladies at the bridge party, there must be another neighbor of Marilyn’s who spoke with George Barris in 1986. This third woman only identified herself to Mr. Barris as Marilyn Monroe’s neighbor. All that is known about her is that she was a guest at the bridge party at 12304 Fifth Helena Drive that last Saturday. In addition, there must have been a fourth person as a guest or an additional neighbor because including the hostess Mrs. Barnes, it takes four people to play bridge. The names of the third and fourth guest may never be known.

It was in 1974 when Elizabeth Pollard’s daughter Betty relayed her mother’s story about the Saturday afternoon card party and the sighting of Bobby Kennedy. Biographers Brown and Barham wrote: “The Attorney General and another well-dressed man [Case or Ahern] came to the house sometime late in the afternoon. Women at a card party were able to see the man from an upstairs window. One of them, referring to Kennedy, said, ‘Look, girls, there he is
again
.’”

Mrs. Murray explains how an author “related sensational rumors about Bobby Kennedy’s arriving at the house that afternoon with a physician, reportedly to sedate a hysterical Marilyn.” Mrs. Murray continues to comment how the “story stems from reports of a card party on Fifth Helena that afternoon at which the ladies were supposed to have looked out the window and seen Kennedy walking through Marilyn’s gate with a man carrying a doctor’s black bag.”

Anthony Summers wrote, “I tracked that story to its source, a woman called Betty Pollard. She says her mother [Elizabeth Pollard] was playing bridge at a neighbor’s home that day, when her hostess drew the players’ attention to a car parking outside. Kennedy, immediately recognizable, emerged from the car and went into Marilyn’s house.”

That afternoon, the card-playing friends saw Kennedy bring Case or Ahern. They did not see Greenson. Importantly, Greenson was not qualified to give intramuscular injections. The ladies witnessed Bobby Kennedy leave Marilyn’s, then quickly return again with “another well-dressed man” [Case or Ahern] carrying a black bag. Furthermore, the unidentified neighbor who spoke with Mr. Barris said she saw “Bobby Kennedy and another man go into Marilyn’s home and they came out a short while later.” In fact, since Greenson arrived nearly an hour later, it simply couldn’t have been him. Logistically, what the four ladies saw was Bobby retrieve Case or Ahern from the white Lincoln convertible parked out front. Bobby Kennedy borrowed the car from FBI agent William Simon whenever he visited Marilyn.

From the window of Mary W. Goodykoontz’s home on 12304 Fifth Helena Drive, looking over the gates, a person could easily see cars parked up the driveway and anyone who entered or left Marilyn’s house.

Kennedy instructed Case or Ahern to give Marilyn the Nembutal shot in order to stun her, while he and Lawford searched the house for her little red diary.
Goddess
author Anthony Summers wrote that a confidential source heard tapes capturing the August 4 afternoon visit by Kennedy and Lawford to Marilyn’s home:

The source says both Marilyn’s and Kennedy’s voices were easily recognizable. Like Otash—and it is worth noting that the source and Otash do not know each other—the source says there was a heated argument.

According to Summers’ confidential source, the voices of Marilyn and Bobby Kennedy increased in volume as she challenged him to explain why he was reneging on his promise to marry her while Bobby several times demanded to know where “it” was located. Following the sound of a door being slammed, Kennedy could then be heard returning with Peter Lawford. “We have to know,” the highly agitated Attorney General screeched at the actress. “It’s important to the family. We can make any arrangements you want, but we must find it.” As Kennedy searched for “it,” Lawford tried to calm him down. Meanwhile, Marilyn screamed at the men to leave. Next, there were “thumping, bumping noises, then muffled, calming sounds. It sounded as though she was being put on the bed.”

“Bobby came back with Peter,” Marilyn wrote in her little red diary. “Shook me until I was dizzy and threw me on the bed. Should call the doctor.”

As noted earlier, it was Lawford who called Dr. Greenson to the home. However, Kennedy was looking for Monroe’s diary. It was the diary that Bobby could make “arrangements” for and which would be “important to the family.”

In the documentary
Marilyn: The Last Word
, Anthony Summers stated: “Robert Kennedy is demanding for her to give him something. He keeps demanding, ‘Where is it? Where is it, Marilyn? You’ve got to tell me where it is! We’ll come to some arrangement but the family must have it.’ Perhaps he was asking about the diary.”

This was confirmed by Marilyn herself, who wrote in that diary, “Bobby was really mad. Acted crazy and searched all my stuff. Told him it’s mine. I’ll never let him have it.”
⁵

Norman Jefferies, Marilyn’s handyman who also happened to be Eunice Murray’s son-in-law, gave a chilling account of that last afternoon to biographer Donald Wolfe. Murray and Jefferies both recalled that Marilyn, not dressed when Bobby and Peter arrived, was still wearing her white terry-cloth robe. “Mr. Lawford made it very clear that he wanted Eunice and I [sic] out of there” Jefferies stated. “When we came back—maybe it was an hour later—their car was gone . . . Marilyn was hysterical and looked awful . . . She was scared and at the same time she was terribly angry.”

It was in light of Joe DiMaggio recently asking her to remarry him that Marilyn wanted to bitterly remind Bobby Kennedy about his pledge to marry her. By now, Marilyn had come to terms with the fact that Bobby was not going to divorce his wife Ethel. However, infuriated by his desire to still sleep with Marilyn, she wanted to nail him about his broken promise and total disregard for toying with her emotions. Indeed, the only thing he cared about—and the only reason for him showing up—was for her red diary. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered.

“Marilyn had done a turnabout,” noted one of private eye Fred Otash’s employees. “Lawford said Marilyn had called the White House, trying to reach the President, saying, ‘Get your brother away from me—he’s just using me.’”

John Miner, the Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who was an investigator into Marilyn’s death, claimed to have heard something similar on one of the free-association tapes she recorded for Dr. Greenson: “I want someone else to tell him it’s over. I tried to get the President to do it, but I couldn’t reach him.”

That afternoon, she felt very upset, used, and betrayed after Bobby had been the one to tell
her
, “It’s over.” Marilyn shot back, “But you promised to divorce Ethel and marry me.” According to Fred Otash’s recollection of what he heard on the covert recording set up by wiretapper Bernie Spindel, Marilyn said, “I feel passed around—like a piece of meat. You’ve lied to me. Get out of here. I’m tired. Leave me alone.”

Later, when Bobby tried to persuade Marilyn to visit Peter Lawford’s house, she told him over the phone, “Stop bothering me. Stay away from me.”

“She was convinced that not Jack but Bobby would leave Ethel and all their kids,” remarked Michael Selsman from the Arthur P. Jacobs public relations firm when asked by Jay Margolis whether one of the brothers had promised to marry Marilyn. “And they were heavily Catholic. She was under the impression that Bobby would marry her.”

Marilyn phoned hairstylist and trusted friend, Sydney Guilaroff, twice on that final Saturday. The first call was immediately after Bobby Kennedy’s departure. Guilaroff told Wolfe, “She was in tears, and I had difficulty understanding her.” In his own book, Guilaroff detailed their exchange as follows:

Marilyn relayed to Guilaroff that Bobby had then responded, “If you threaten me, Marilyn, there’s more than one way to keep you quiet.”

Asking if Bobby was still there, Marilyn told Guilaroff, “He left—with Peter Lawford.” Guilaroff recommended that Marilyn get some rest and they would discuss this further in a few hours. As Peter Lawford’s friend, producer George “Bullets” Durgom, told Fred Otash in 1985, “Bobby was very worried about Monroe getting spaced out and shooting her mouth off.”

According to Anthony Summers (who didn’t know about that first phone conversation), Marilyn’s last call to Guilaroff was at 9:30 p.m. Guilaroff told Wolfe this final call was between “eight and eight-thirty” and that “she was feeling much better and had met with her psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson.” Guilaroff informed Wolfe that they ended the call with the following exchange:

After that, Marilyn hung up. According to Morris Engelberg, Joe DiMaggio told his son Joe Jr., “The Kennedys killed her.” In his book,
DiMaggio: Setting the Record Straight
, Engelberg recalled Joltin’ Joe telling him he’d given his son a manilla envelope containing a statement regarding Marilyn’s death, to be opened after the Yankee Clipper’s own death. “Something the world should know about is in there,” the elder DiMaggio had announced. Engelberg subsequently wrote:

After his father’s funeral, I asked him about that envelope. He had given me an opening by volunteering that he had talked with Marilyn the night she died—he said “murdered.” He claimed he hadn’t opened the envelope because he already knew the message his father had left behind . . .
⁶

A SURPRISE EVENING VISIT FROM BOBBY KENNEDY AND GANGSTER SQUAD LAPD PARTNERS ARCHIE CASE AND JAMES AHERN

Norman Jefferies, who witnessed Bobby Kennedy and Peter Lawford earlier in the afternoon, said he watched television with his motherin-law Eunice Murray later that night. Jefferies was surprised when, “between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m.,” the Attorney General and two men dressed in suits ordered him and Mrs. Murray out of the house. In the documentary
Say Goodbye to the President
, Mrs. Murray revealed more than she had previously claimed to have known about that tragic night, when she eerily recalled, “It became so sticky that the protectors of Robert Kennedy, you know, had to step in there and protect
him
. Doesn’t that sound logical?”

The men with Bobby Kennedy were identified as veteran LAPD partners Archie Case and James Ahern, members of Chief William Parker’s notorious Gangster Squad. The Squad performed illegal activities for the LAPD, strictly off the books. Other Gangster Squad members included its leader Lieutenant William Burns, Sgt. Conwell Keller, Sgt. John O’Mara, Officer Donald Ward, Officer Loren K. Waggoner, and Detective J. Jones.

Fred Otash: “I worked undercover in Hollywood. I worked Vice. I first met Peter Lawford when I was on the LAPD in 1949 when I worked the Gangster Squad.”

Former Police Chief Daryl Gates added, “I think Bobby always had an affection for LAPD because of the help we gave him.”