Marilyn Monroe: Murder - by Consent: a Psychologist's Journey with Death

By Jack V. Hattem

Dr. Jack Hattem first became interested in Marilyn Monroe's death at the Suicide Prevention Center in Los Angeles in 1962. After three decades as a Clinical Psychologist he decided to write a factual account of the real circumstances in which she died.

This book is a unique view of Marilyn Monroe, despite the millions of words written about her. It is the result of a research study into toxic relationshops exactly like Marilyn's, where one person tries to drive another to kill themselves.

It is about Marilyn's psychiatric condition and how her psychiatric mistreatment led to her death.

The author, for the first time, offers a psychological view of Marilyn Monroe's life which explains most of her troubled relationships and her addictions.

This book is about the author's need to understand why people choose to kill themselves. It ends with a conspiracy hidden over forty five years.

This book is about why Marilyn died, how she died, and who was directly responsible for her death! Even the Cuban missile crisis played a role in her death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Dec 21, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466905115

Jack V. Hattem

The author is a first generation American, with both parents speaking five languages fluently. He spoke only French until he was five years old. Unfortunately for him, he lived in Brooklyn, New York at the time. The family moved to Long Beach, Long Island, a reclaimed sand bar south of the main island, separated by one bridge. A nearby neighbor was the Godfather, Frank Costello. Our city was advertised as The Safest City In The U.S.A. The author left home for the army and Virginia Tech. Marching out of step for the rest of his life, he attended six universities thereafter, until becoming a psychologist. Continuing his need for multiple experiences, he worked for the Veteran's Administration a Peace Corp. project, taught at four colleges and started a labor union for psychologists which still exists. He taught first year medical students about sex and interviewing and psychiatric residents about diagnosing and group therapy. He supervised two private counseling centers, trained two hundred psychiatrists and numerous other mental health professionals. He remarried and currently has six children and grandchildren. After retirement, he used his early experiences to manage money for select clients. Writing this book was a labor of love. I have had an enduring interest in Marilyn Monroe and the Suicide Prevention Center for forty five years.

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe

The Author’s Journey

Is This Anyplace to treat Suicide?

WHO WE WERE

The Unknown Marilyn Monroe

DEPRESSION AND MURDER

Suicide and Murder

WHO COMMITS SUICIDE

MARILYN’S PSYCHIATRIC MISTREATMENT

ABOUT DOCTOR GREENSON

Please Don’t Hang Up! I Love You!

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

BEING A DEPUTY CORONER

A DETERMINED DEATH

Why Can’t People Be More Like Rats

The Path To Death

HOW RELATIONSHIPS CAN KILL

THE CONSPIRACY OF DEATH

MURDER—BY CONSENT

Jean M. Hattem, PH.D

A Complete History of Suicide

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Acknowledgements

There are always a number of people who help in the writing of a book,and this one is no exception.

First and foremost is my wife Jean, a psychologist in her own right, who read every line of the book and made significant changes as my major editor. Her critiques were always right, even when I didn’t want to hear them.

Also directly contributing was my friend, Dr. Mark S. Kosins M.D.,a professional expert in both Neurology and Psychiatry. He is also a very funny human being.

I also borrowed a quote from a former student of mine,James Kehr, Ph.D. who went on from graduate school to being a friend.

I managed to enlist the help of some of my family, including my daughters,Michele and Shauna and her children, Jonas and Adrienne. My son-in-law Ted Michaels was very helpful in suggesting I drop redundant material.

Two other individuals helped me by reading the book and commenting. I am grateful to Donna Bradshaw and my oldest friend Joseph Palumbo for their insightful comments. Joe said I was being a little too technical at times and he was right.

I also want to thank Jerry Seiden, former editor and current publisher for his guidance and direction. He encouraged me and made invaluable suggestions. He even sent the manuscript to other publishers he knew.

My physical trainer, Jerry Owens, actually started this book when he casually mentioned that everyone knew the Kennedy’s murdered Marilyn. I thought at the time that he was totally wrong and set out to prove it.

Finally, I would like to thank the scientists-professionals at the Suicide Prevention Center in 1962. They were the most dedicated and fascinating people I have ever met. Together, they fought death in ways relatively rare in our professions.

If I have left anyone out, please forgive me the lapse of memory.

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Introduction

Death is not a very pleasant area of study, and suicide is in some ways an even nastier subject. Professionals who choose to study it are often looked upon rather suspiciously, even by their colleagues. The question, Why suicide? is frequently asked of researchers in this field in a way which implies that we must either have tried it ourselves at some time, or are feeling guilty about having driven someone else to it. Explanations never really help either. The questioner simply narrows his eyes, bobs his head, and says, Oh, in that damning way people have of seeming to accept what you say while clearly disbelieving every word.

At the Suicide Prevention Center in Los Angeles, all of us did have something in common. We were all extremely curious to know Why suicide? For us it was a baffling solution to the problem of living. Some of us couldn’t understand the logic, or illogic, of it. Some of us couldn’t understand the ethical, religious, moral, or psycho-logic of it. We were all there to find answers and perhaps raise some more specific questions.

During the year I was at the Center, its staff expanded and its momentum as a research and clinical center was accelerating at an extremely rapid rate, through the dedicated work of the co-directors, Doctors Edwin Schneidman and Norman Farberow. New funding that year had expanded its services in many directions. The atmosphere of this setting was further stimulated by periodic visits from suicide researchers from all over the world.

This book is partially about that year and some of what was discovered. It is also about people, both suicidal and non-suicidal, who traveled on a journey together so that others might also learn some answers to that baffling question, Why suicide?

I have wanted to write this book for a long time. Yet even now, forty-five years later, it may be too soon. The patients still alive may feel personally insulted by a retelling of their stories.

I am uniquely qualified to write this story because, not only was I part of the group of professionals present at the Suicide Prevention Center in Los Angeles, where the details of Marilyn Monroe’ death were determined, but also because research I did proved a conspiracy of murder, and the real motive behind Marilyn’s tragic death. In the years to follow, the research I was involved in has proven that Marilyn was not alone, but countless others suffer from these conspiracies as well.

Did Marilyn Monroe commit suicide or was she murdered? Lingering questions still remain about her death. The fact is that Marilyn was indeed murdered, though this manner of crime is not legally punishable. However, the people who appeared responsible were those privileged to the highest courts of power: the former Attorney General of the United States, Robert Kennedy, and, oddly enough, her psychiatrist, Ralph R. Greenson, M.D., who ironically, claimed he did everything he could to save her.

For each of my research subjects studied after Marilyn died, a suicidal person believed they were being driven to suicide by their significant others. Marilyn was a heartrending example. Such individuals felt compelled into killing themselves. Their loved ones became accessories to their deaths. This is the story of Marilyn’s death as it really happened. It is a story of a conspiracy by five people, four of whom wanted her dead.

Everything I have written in this book is true. However, I have tried to conceal the identities of the research subjects to protect their privacy. All of the public figures are portrayed as I knew them, or as I knew of them. Where information was inconclusive, it is clearly stated as either rumor or speculation.

This has been a very difficult book to write, because I was so personally involved. I want to write not only about suicide and death, and the circumstances of Marilyn Monroe’s journey to her demise, but about what it is like to become a clinical psychologist, a psychotherapist, a researcher and, maybe, a little more of a human being. In order to explain the events of my year at the Suicide Prevention Center, I may seem to digress a bit, or talk about things that are not directly related to what you are expecting, but becoming anything doesn’t happen in an orderly way, and especially not in the confusing, uncertain world of treating and investigating human behavior. In this case, the joy of discovery was considerably mitigated by the horror of what I was discovering. This was especially true in the aftermath of Marilyn Monroe’s death, where so much of what was discovered related so directly to her poignant life.

While many books have been written about Marilyn Monroe, to my knowledge, there have been none that have had a strictly scientific approach to her death. More than that, I have rarely read a book in any scientific field which tells the reader how the author really discovered what he discovered. He tells us how his project and research was carried out. Sometimes he tells us how he got the idea. But nobody writes of the near frauds sometimes perpetrated in doing research, or of the thrown away data which didn’t happen to apply, or the heartbreak of negative results. After all, sometimes your best rat dies in the middle of an experiment.

This book is an attempt to portray the behind the scenes view of a special world. That world is very serious, often funny, and sometimes outrageous. I hope this book is all of that, and informative as well. Perhaps the speculation of conspiracy and murder can end here and Marilyn can rest in peace.

Jack V. Hattem, Ph.D.

I wish I hadn’t broken that dish,

I wish I was a movie star,

I wish a lot of things,

I wish that life was like the movies are

A.P. Hubert – It May Be Life, But Ain’t It Show?

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to any one else.

Marilyn Monroe

1

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The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe

Thousands of books have been written about Marilyn Monroe and new ones pop up yearly. What is there about this young woman that is so beguiling, so compelling and so unusual that the public continues to be fascinated with her 45 years after her death?

Perhaps it is the fact that everything we believe about her and has been written about her is flawed in some ways. From Twentieth Century Fox’s studio description of Marilyn in 1946 to the most recent books, new information keeps coming up to confound the old or make what is commonly believed about Marilyn turn out to be completely wrong. So too with the circumstances of her death, which, depending on who one believes, was either suicide or homicide by the Kennedy government, or an accident.

The scientific investigation of her death by appointed deputy coroners from the Suicide Prevention Center in Los Angeles decided suicide was the reason for her death. Several authors claim murder¹, with considerable evidence gleaned after her death, which was unknown by the professionals who investigated her death. Even Marilyn’s name is controversial, not to mention her childhood, her mother’s illness, her foster home experience, and even whether she had a sexual relationship with Robert Kennedy. This relationship, in fact, may have been larger and more intense as later information suggests. Her relationship with Jack Kennedy is generally accepted as fact.

Earlier versions of her life pictured her as an orphan, raised in foster homes and orphanages. A small portion of that seems true. Part of the problem was that, reasonably, authors tended to rely on Marilyn’s own versions of her life and these were not always accurate. For example, most biographers, based on Twentieth Century Fox’s initial description of Marilyn, felt that her father had died in a motorcycle accident. Many years later, Susan Strasberg² wrote that Marilyn visited her father and his new family many times, in her and others’ presence, only to be rejected when he refused to talk to her. To make matters worse, many writers³ made things up to meet their literary needs, or created what appeared to be fictional stories⁴ based on few facts.

The real Marilyn was born out of wedlock as a result of an affair her mother had with her married boss. His name was Stanley Gifford. This information comes from a video tape⁵ purporting to be from Marilyn’s diary. This same diary was stolen from her deathbed and disappeared for five years. It contained evidence against both Jack and Bobby Kennedy. It was undoubtedly one of the causes of her death. When Marilyn said her father’s name, it was usually followed by a string of swear words. This was especially true after her visits to his home ended in failure.

One example of the fictional writings is the imaginary number of abortions Marilyn is supposed to have had. Churchwell⁶ discusses several biographical writers⁷ who claimed she had dozens or one or perhaps none. Marilyn herself apparently claimed she had fourteen abortions. According to Steinman⁸, she had one ectopic pregnancy, one miscarriage and one pregnancy ending in abortion. Despite many stories about her damaged womb, Marilyn’s autopsy report indicated she was relatively healthy. Churchwell reports that Marilyn had endometriosis. This may have led to all the stories of abortions rather than the likely need for medical treatment that prevented a normal pregnancy.

What is known about Marilyn that is true? Everyone seems to agree that she was born in 1926. The most definitive description of her childhood has recently been written by Marie Clayton⁹, which, while not documented, contains specific information not normally shared in other biographies. She writes that Marilyn was born out of wedlock to Gladys Pearl and that she had a step-sister and brother from her mother’s earlier marriage to John Baker. Then her mother married again, very briefly, divorced, and then had Norma Jeane. Her father, whose name no one knew except Marilyn and, of course, her mother, had his own family but refused to ever talk to Marilyn, even after she had become famous. Marilyn’s grandmother was apparently a woman named Della Monroe. Some authors, including Marilyn herself, claim the grandmother was a manic depressive. She was also said to have suffered irrational rages. Her grandmother was not unlike Marilyn herself, always having many, many men in her life. Some writers claim Marilyn felt that her grandmother, her grandfather and her uncle were all mentally ill. Her mother was not able to support herself and take care of Marilyn, so arranged for care from a religious couple who took in children for money. As a child, Marilyn was apparently well cared for, even having her own dog. Most writers agree that Marilyn was in contact with her mother during these years, but so infrequently she didn’t understand who she was.

At the age of seven, her mother