Mark Shaw’s journey into the intertwined deaths of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Marilyn Monroe began not with a grand theory, but with a single haunting quote. Shaw, a former criminal defense lawyer and network television analyst, first became interested in the Kennedy assassination while writing a biography of Melvin Belli, the famous San Francisco attorney who represented Jack Ruby. Belli’s representation of Ruby, the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, struck Shaw as inept. Ruby never testified, was made to look crazy, and the defense never truly challenged the official narrative.
Shaw’s investigation then led him to Dorothy Kilgallen, a famous reporter and panelist on the CBS show *What’s My Line?* Kilgallen was the only reporter at the Jack Ruby trial who openly challenged J. Edgar Hoover’s insistence that Oswald acted alone. She interviewed Ruby and traveled to New Orleans, where she began investigating the possibility that mobster Carlos Marcello orchestrated the president’s death. Marcello had been deported by Robert Kennedy shortly after Kennedy became attorney general, a double cross after the mob helped JFK win the presidency. Kilgallen wrote columns claiming Marcello was responsible for killing JFK to render Bobby Kennedy powerless.
Shortly after her investigation, Kilgallen told her hairdresser that if the wrong people knew what she knew about the assassination, it would cost her her life. She was found dead in her Manhattan townhouse, a staged death scene. Shaw argues she was murdered, not a suicide, and that she was a Catholic who would never have taken her own life. This led Shaw to his bestselling book *The Reporter Who Knew Too Much*.
Shaw then began to look for a connection between the deaths of Marilyn Monroe, JFK, and Kilgallen, who all died within 40 months of each other. Monroe died in August 1962, JFK in November 1963, and Kilgallen in November 1965. He found a photograph of Monroe and Kilgallen together and a column Kilgallen wrote shortly before Monroe’s death. The column described Monroe as being on the upswing, attending parties, and attracting a gentleman bigger than Joe DiMaggio. That did not sound like a woman about to commit suicide.
The official verdict in Monroe’s death was “probable suicide,” a term Shaw says a leading forensic scientist had never seen in 16,000 autopsies. Shaw points to a CIA document, issued two days before Monroe died, that he says contains wiretap conversations between Monroe and Robert Kennedy, as well as Monroe and Kilgallen. According to Shaw, the document reveals that Robert Kennedy had a romantic and sexual affair with Monroe and repeatedly promised to divorce his wife to marry her.
The document also states that Monroe repeatedly called the attorney general, complaining she was being ignored by the president and his brother. She threatened to hold a press conference and tell all. She made references to bases in Cuba and knew of the president’s plan to kill Fidel Castro. Shaw argues this was the motive for silencing her. If Monroe went public, it would have ruined the Kennedy brothers’ careers.
Shaw believes Robert Kennedy was in Los Angeles on the day Monroe died, despite an alibi that placed him in San Francisco. He cites a 20th Century Fox studio ledger showing a helicopter landing with Bobby Kennedy and Peter Lawford on the day she died. He also cites a police account placing Kennedy in a limousine at midnight. Shaw’s theory is that Kennedy went to Monroe’s home, begged her not to go to the media, and when she refused, orchestrated her death. He claims the death was caused by rectal insertions of barbiturates, not by swallowing pills, which he says was impossible in the timeframe.
Shaw also criticizes the autopsy performed by Thomas Noguchi, who later admitted he forgot to examine Monroe’s inner organs. By the time the mistake was discovered, the organs had been destroyed. Shaw says Monroe never received a fair investigation, just like Kilgallen. He draws more than 50 similarities between the two women’s deaths.
Shaw is clear that he does not use the word conspiracy. He prefers “plot to kill the president.” He argues that Carlos Marcello, the New Orleans mob boss who controlled drugs, prostitution, and gaming, had the motive to kill JFK. Marcello had been deported by Bobby Kennedy and returned to the country with a grudge. Shaw says Marcello had connections in Dallas, including to Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald. He believes Oswald was a convenient patsy, a red herring, and that Ruby was brought in to cover up the situation.
Shaw also suggests that Sirhan Sirhan, the man convicted of killing Robert Kennedy in 1968, was likely not the one who actually shot him. He argues that Marcello had the greatest motive to get rid of RFK, because Bobby had said he knew Marcello was responsible for JFK’s death. If RFK became president, he would have gone after Marcello.
Shaw’s body of work is being archived at Purdue University. He says he receives nasty emails from people who want to preserve the Camelot image of the Kennedys. He acknowledges they did some good things, but insists they were womanizers and that Bobby cheated on his wife. He believes the distortions of history are dangerous.
Shaw’s latest book, *Fighting for Justice*, expands on these theories. He encourages readers to visit his website, markshawbooks.com, and says he answers every email. His motivation for this work, he says, comes from a quote from a friend of Melvin Belli, who told him, “They’ve killed Dorothy, now they’ll go after Jack Ruby.” Shaw could never get that quote out of his mind. He believes that if the right questions had been asked back then, history would have been changed for the better.