Biographer Exposed Who Was in the Room When Marilyn Monroe Died | Imogen Edwards-Jones

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]It is the true American story, in a way.

[00:00:02]You know, she's rags to riches. She's from orphan to, you know, everyone's uh everyone's everyone's lover, I suppose. Everyone's She's She's so beautiful. Uh she's vulnerable. She's incredibly sexy.

[00:00:21]She's uh sweet. She's kind, talented.

[00:00:27]And she dies young in this terrible mystery of which which who nobody really has ever got to the bottom of. I mean, the files are still shut in most in uh and they're impossible to get open.

[00:00:41]Uh and also nobody nobody ever ever was held responsible for her death.

[00:00:48]They all disappeared.

[00:00:50]I mean, half of them flew out the next day. Nobody was ever questioned.

[00:00:54]Uh and she it was it was written off as suicide uh I think 2 days after she died. And in the uh the law in California is I discovered that in order to get a case reopened if it's suicide, you have to have a serious change in circumstances, i.e., some incredible um a piece of evidence that comes in order to reopen the case. And nobody's ever managed to get it reopened.

[00:01:20]Mhm.

[00:01:22]So, yeah, that's it's Well, that's the Also, it was just before the era where things could be so much more easily swept under the rug and just like nobody asked questions and we move on. And I heard in the newspaper and that must be true and all that, you know.

[00:01:35]>> Yes. Yes. Yeah. But yes, and I think, you know, as an icon, I think she's she's that perfect sort of untouchable beauty that, you know, she's very like Princess Diana, I suppose, in that you know, that beauty is held in aspect forever.

[00:01:51]You know, she's and James Dean is another one. All these beautiful people who who died young.

[00:01:58]Uh You know, there's nothing more awful than getting old in front of the world.

[00:02:03]Um but and these they these guys didn't.

[00:02:06]I mean, she didn't. She stayed forever young and forever beautiful.

[00:02:09]Yeah. Yeah. And she you know, she she talked about It was fascinating that even as she was very successful, she you know, she talked about wanting her life to end kind of openly. Like maybe not in public, but to people she knew.

[00:02:25]Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She was always frightened about being found dead alone.

[00:02:30]Uh which is exactly what happened. I mean, she basically predicted her own death. Yeah.

[00:02:34]>> Uh about 15 or 20 years previously. I mean, it's desperate. Yeah. It's >> sort of girl who ends up dead alone or something. I mean, she said.

[00:02:44]Um I mean, yeah.

[00:02:46]It's um Yes. And it is a proper tragedy. And I have to say you know, researching her and and writing about her, I really did rather grow to love her.

[00:02:57]And uh you know, I do have two children of my own. So, there's a sort of maternal part of you that comes out and goes, "Oh my god, if only somebody looked after you."

[00:03:05]If only somebody did, you know, tucked you in bed at night and give you some cocoa and brushed your hair. Uh and you might have been all right. Yeah.

[00:03:15]>> you had so little love and affection and so little intimacy and so little um nurturing as a young child that she was you know, she couldn't cope with the with the brutality of the of the world.

[00:03:30]Well, I appreciated the fact I mean, when you look at the title that you know, it's talking about the last days of her life, but I do feel like for some people who who especially when they're ending in in tragic or or mysterious circumstances, there's so much of an over focus on their death. Um and I loved the fact that this book isn't just I mean, I'm sure there's great books that could be chronicling the one day and that's it, you know, or whatever.

[00:03:54]But it really it it is important, I think, to remember figures like this uh as it more total with more totality and they are they are not just a set of circumstances that led there to their death. They are a whole person that had all these things that led to it, the ups and downs, and and their own thoughts, and uh so I I I think that it's important and I'm glad this book really chronicles that as opposed to just a hyperfocus on this tragic event. Um did you ever was there ever discussion of like what should the scope be? Were you back and forth about that? Yeah, with with James, yes. Yeah, yeah, a lot.

[00:04:28]Yeah, and uh I was quite keen to say how she'd lived.

[00:04:32]Uh and obviously everyone really wants to know who killed her. Right.

[00:04:36]>> So uh yeah. Yeah, who do you think killed Uh and I've got my theory. What what's your theory? What did you What was your takeaway at the end of it? Who did you think Who did you put in the frame? I mean, you know, it seems the fact that all those clues you're talking about, the lack of any blue dye, and the lack of water, and it the potentially moved body, it's it's hard not to think of it as at least foul play. It seems unlikely that she killed herself or I don't know that that it was an accident. I suppose if you're at someone who constantly takes a ton of pills and alcohol, there's always the chance that there was an accidental overdose. Even if it didn't happen there, she was with people where she took too many pills and they were like, "We got to get her out of here. Let's bring her to, you know, home." You know, that's a possibility, but yeah, this it's hard not to especially as it relates to the that era of assassinations and not quite being able to figure out all who was behind all these things and the power of the mafia and the power it's just yeah, I I I definitely uh am open to the notion that somebody did this to her.

[00:05:38]Um it seems like it leads there, but you know, I don't know.

[00:05:42]Yeah, yeah. I I always think that life is nowhere near as glamorous as everyone hopes it is.

[00:05:50]So, uh I I sort of when I was writing it, I kept on thinking, "Yeah, I think it's I think it's the housekeeper."

[00:05:57]I think it's an >> Yeah. I think it's an accidental overdose from the housekeeper because there's all that stuff of her washing sheets.

[00:06:08]If you remember in the book, washing sheets. I don't think the Kennedys had anything to do with it, but I think they helped cover it up. Mhm. Okay.

[00:06:15]But, uh but I think um she's So, she she was obsessed with having enemas, Marilyn. So, I think she was given a barbiturate enema.

[00:06:27]Which is what I think the autopsy concluded, right?

[00:06:30]Uh no. No, it I don't think it concluded anything. It just concluded that she'd that she'd taken an overdose and and but but she'd done it herself. Got you. Okay.

[00:06:40]>> So, obviously she committed suicide.

[00:06:41]That's what what they >> Right. They put right. Right.

[00:06:43]>> Yeah. So, you think the housekeeper did it for like upon request kind of thing?

[00:06:48]>> Upon request, yeah. Yeah. Interesting.

[00:06:50]And then just changed her story as I Oh, I discovered her.

[00:06:53]>> Yes. Yeah. That's what I think. But, I mean, you know, Yeah.

[00:06:57]That's I know. I know. It's It's also the least sexy option, by the way.

[00:07:01]>> Right.

[00:07:02]>> [laughter] >> I know, right? And it just I mean, talk about the timing that RFK was there, you know, and she had this book and she was had been sworn by both Kennedys and she was going to come forward and then Sinatra and the mafia. So, it's like the timing of that is remarkable. Yes, exactly. Exactly. And there is the other thing called the hot shot theory, obviously, which is that she was injected in the hip by uh by some nefarious CIA agent or other.

[00:07:30]Right.

[00:07:31]>> And uh that, you know, there is a sort of supposedly a tiny little injection mark in her hip. Mhm.

[00:07:38]But, you know, uh I I'm I'm Hopefully one day we'll we'll actually know. But I mean that's my theory and also Eunice Eunice Murray whatever her name's disappeared uh overnight and was never ever ever questioned. Mhm.

[00:07:54]So that's better, isn't it? Yeah, that's interesting.

[00:07:57]>> sexy theory. I know, but still a fascinating one.

[00:08:00]>> Well, that's my personal theory. I mean that's that's not not what I wrote Well, I give you loads of options in the book.

[00:08:05]I know. Well, that's the end of I said earlier on that is the beauty of it where you just kind of like "Ooh, you really lay a lot of tracks."

[00:08:11]>> Yeah.

[00:08:11]>> Yeah. Um well, thank you so much. This has been so great.