A podcast featuring experts and biographers is bringing out dark revelations about Marilyn Monroe in a mental institution. An A-List Hollywood career is thought to bring happiness and success. Yet it becomes all too obvious the good life has some deep and major pitfalls. Monroe is a case in point.
Despite being one of the most talented and beautiful stars in Hollywood, her life was conflicted. She was dedicated to the craft of acting, and even today her admirers run into the millions. Privately however, she felt trapped by her own image and eventually her time on Earth came to a stark end.
Books have been written and movies made on what drove the iconic star to despair. And in a 21st century twist, a podcast has been exploring the darker side of Marilyn. “The Killing of Marilyn Monroe” is a 12 part investigation that further explores the circumstances leading up to her demise, supposedly a suicide.
Upsettingly, the podcast has outlined evidence that Marilyn Monroe was placed in a mental health institution against her will. With her 1961 divorce from playwright Arthur Miller leaving her devastated, she was brought to the facility by “her inner circle”, according to Celebrity Insider.
They refer to the views of journalist and author Charles Casillo, author of 2018 Monroe biography The Private Life of a Public Icon, who is featured on the podcast. Publisher Danforth Prince also goes on the record to say Marilyn underwent “electroshock” therapy. Former husband and friend Joe DiMaggio bailed her out after 24 hours. He was reportedly begged to do so by Monroe.
While all this was happening, she worked on Something’s Got to Give, a movie she was later fired from. Following various absences which were attributed to fever, bronchitis and other conditions, studio 20th Century Fox decided enough was enough. After being abandoned and reworked, the project arrived in cinemas as Move Over, Darling in 1963.
Fox were angry with the star but soon regretted their decision and wanted to work with her again. It appeared she was getting things back on track. She was then found dead in August 1962 at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
Ever since the terrible news was announced to an unbelieving world, many have struggled to accept that such a bright light snuffed herself out.
Google podcasts bills “The Killing of Marilyn Monroe” as focused on “shadowy conspiracies and unanswered questions” which “continue to linger over what happened in the hours, days and weeks before the blonde bombshell took her final breath, naked on her bed and surrounded by a deadly cocktail of prescription pills.”
Were the elites of politics and show business working on dark deeds behind the scenes? Powerful men she was associated with included Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack and President Kennedy. The podcast suggests Monroe found out something she shouldn’t, and paid the ultimate price as a result.
Attention is paid to her notorious Red Diary, which has been much-talked about but never found. In 1982 UPI reported claims it “proves she was murdered to keep her from exposing a CIA plot to kill Fidel Castro”. A private detective named Milo Speriglio had offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could find the volume.
A treasure trove of Monroe’s other writings were released to the public in 2010, though these were more poetic and self-analytical than anything relating to international intrigue. The papers ably demonstrated there was more to her than a gorgeous poster girl.
Looking back at the discovery in 2016, BBC Culture wrote they shone a light on “the legend of Monroe as a tragic victim: a girl born on the wrong side of the tracks, with a childhood in and out of foster homes, and an adulthood of exploitation by the men she craved affection from and who eventually led to her lonely, mysterious death.”
Related Article: Joe DiMaggio and the Mysterious End of Marilyn Monroe
No matter how well-substantiated the stories, Marilyn Monroe will always fascinate her fans and those in the media. The scrutiny of her was unrelenting, and is thought to have played a role in shaping the tragic individual she was to become. Such is its power, the focus continues many decades after her death.