In the early hours of 5 August, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her bedroom in Brentwood, California. Following an investigation, the Los Angeles County Coroners Office ruled Monroe’s death a probable suicide. A toxicology report released shortly after revealed that the actress had taken a lethal dose of acute barbiturate poison. In the 55 years since, Monroe’s on screen legacy has lived alongside several conspiracy theories about why and how she died. Her rumoured close ties to the Kennedy family played a large role in these theories, along with Monroe’s history of mental illness and drug abuse. Here are some of the theories that just won’t go away:

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1. The CIA did it

It was the ‘60s and political tensions were at an extreme. One theory suggests that Monroe’s death was ordered by the CIA to get revenge on the Kennedys for the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba. But why Monroe? As Matthew Smith notes in his 2003 book Victim: The Secret Tapes of Marilyn Monroe, based on tapes the actress made with her psychiatrist weeks before her death, the CIA likely knew about Monroe’s affair with Robert Kennedy and saw her death as a blow to the Kennedy family. In 2015, the theory picked up again for a hot second after a retired CIA officer reportedly admitted on his deathbed that he killed Monroe. It turned out to be a hoax, courtesy of a fake news website.

2. Robert F. Kennedy did it

One of the first conspiracy theories to emerge after Monroe’s death was that Robert F. Kennedy had her killed in fear that she would expose their rumoured affair and put his political career and image in danger. This was first suggested by Frank A. Capell in The Strange Death of Marilyn Monroe in 1962. Capell, who never received serious backing for his theory, also went on to accuse Monroe, her doctors, and ex-husband, playwright Arthur Miller of being communists. (Capell was an anti-communist activist.) In 1973, Norman Mailer lit more fuel to this claim in his biography of Monroe, before admitting he did not have any hard evidence and that he only made the allegations for book sales. Two years later, rock journalist (and later, crime expert) Anthony Scaduto, who like his predecessors, used little to no sources to make his claims, wrote an article detailing how Kennedy had Monroe killed for knowing too much political information and had kept record of it in a secret diary.

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Marilyn Monroe with RFK (left) and JFK (right) at a party in NYC on May 19, 1962.

3. RFK did it, but it was an accident

In his 1985 book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Anthony Summers, tabloid journalist (keyword is “tabloid” here) claimed that RFK and his brother-in-law Peter Lawford encouraged Monroe’s drug and alcohol use after she threatened to make her affair with RFK public. Monroe’s death, according to Summers, was an accidental overdose and she died on the way to the hospital, which led to RFK and Lawford staging the death as a suicide. Summers states in his book that then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover helped with the cover-up. Summers’s theory, while not the strongest of the bunch, is supported by an interview he conducted in 1983 with Monroe’s housekeeper Eunice Murray. According to Summers, there was a moment Murray “said words to the effect of, ‘Oh, why do I have to keep on covering this up?’” When probed further, Murray allegedly said, “Well of course Bobby Kennedy was there, and of course there was an affair with Bobby Kennedy.’” (via People)

4. Her doctors did it, but it was an accident

In yet another book about Monroe, Donald Spoto suggested in 1993 that Monroe suffered an accidental overdose after lying to her doctors about her medication. With the help of a housekeeper, the doctors staged her death as a suicide, which Spoto claimed was unlikely since Monroe had signed a new movie deal with 20th Century Fox that year and reportedly had intentions to remarry Joe DiMaggio. Spoto sourced police reports and statements given by Monroe’s staff, her publicist, but his theory hasn’t picked up any traction in the years since.

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An aerial shot of Monroe’s Brentwood estate, 2002.

5. Marilyn knew too much about UFOs and was murdered

First, you have to be someone who believes that the US government has long been hiding information about the existence of aliens. Second, you have to believe extraterrestrial conspiracy theorist Dr. Steven Greer’s claim that Monroe had access to information about aliens when she was having a rumoured affair with President John F. Kennedy around the time of her death. Greer discusses this in great detail in the 2017 documentary Unacknowledged and suggests that Monroe had plans to leak top secret details about the Roswell crash of 1947, among other things. In an effort to stop the leak and her rumoured affairs with both Kennedy brothers, the CIA ordered to have her killed, according to the doc.

6a. The mafia did it

In 1982, private detective Milo Speriglio made the stunning accusation that Monroe had been murdered by labour union leader Jimmy Hoffa and Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana so that the Kennedy family would leave the mafia alone. Speriglio explained his findings in Marilyn Monroe: Murder Cover-Up, citing an individual who worked at the coroner’s office in LA and was later accused of stealing from dead bodies. Despite having a weak source, Speriglio’s book led to a re-opening of the case. The Los Angeles District Attorney found nothing new and Monroe’s cause of death remained on paper a probable suicide by barbiturate poison.

6b. The mafia did it based on orders from the Kennedys

In 2012, biographer Darwin Porter suggested in the book Marilyn at Rainbow’s End that the actress was murdered by mob boss Sam Giancana, who received orders from one of the Kennedy brothers to silence the actress and anything she was going to say about her affair. Believe what you will, but Porter claims five Mafia hitmen entered Monroe’s home and administered a chloroform-soaked washcloth on her face, injected her with barbiturates, and moved her to her bedroom to make the scene look like a suicide.

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From: Cosmopolitan US