Mark Shaw’s investigation into the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Marilyn Monroe began with a chance connection to a famous lawyer. Shaw, a former criminal defense attorney and network television analyst, practiced law with Melvin Belli in San Francisco. Belli represented Jack Ruby, the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald.
Shaw’s interest in the JFK assassination grew when he wrote a biography of Belli. He found Belli’s defense of Ruby to be inept and suspicious. Ruby never testified, and Belli made him look unstable. That led Shaw to question the official narrative that Oswald acted alone.
A key figure in Shaw’s research is Dorothy Kilgallen, a famous journalist and panelist on the CBS show *What’s My Line?* Kilgallen attended the Ruby trial and was one of the few reporters who challenged J. Edgar Hoover’s insistence that Oswald was a lone gunman. She investigated the possibility that New Orleans mobster Carlos Marcello orchestrated the assassination.
Marcello had been deported by Robert Kennedy shortly after Kennedy became attorney general. The mob had helped JFK win the presidency and expected to be left alone. Instead, RFK went after them. Kilgallen wrote columns claiming Marcello had JFK killed to render Bobby Kennedy powerless.
Kilgallen died in her Manhattan townhouse shortly after her investigation. Shaw believes she was murdered. She had told her hairdresser that if the wrong people knew what she knew about the assassination, it would cost her her life.
Shaw then turned his attention to Marilyn Monroe. He found a CIA document dated August 3, 1962, two days before Monroe died. The document was a wiretap transcript of conversations between Monroe, Robert Kennedy, and Kilgallen. It described a romantic and sexual affair between RFK and Monroe.
According to the document, Robert Kennedy repeatedly promised to divorce his wife Ethel and marry Monroe. The document also revealed that Monroe threatened to hold a press conference and reveal what the Kennedy brothers had told her. She knew about plans to kill Fidel Castro and had been privy to sensitive information through pillow talk.
Shaw argues this gave the Kennedys a motive to silence Monroe. He believes she was murdered, not a suicide. The official verdict was "probable suicide," a term Shaw says is almost unheard of in forensic medicine.
Shaw points out that Monroe was on the upswing in her life. She was planning to remarry Joe DiMaggio, had Broadway offers, and was hoping to make films in London. He says the narrative of a troubled, suicidal Monroe was constructed after the fact to fit the verdict.
Shaw places Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles on the day Monroe died. He cites a 20th Century Fox studio ledger showing a helicopter landing with RFK and Peter Lawford on board. He also cites a police account placing Kennedy in a limousine near Monroe’s home at midnight.
Shaw believes Monroe was killed with barbiturates administered rectally, which would explain the lack of a glass or pill residue. He also notes that the autopsy was flawed. The coroner, Thomas Noguchi, admitted he forgot to examine Monroe’s internal organs, and by the time he realized the mistake, they had been destroyed.
Shaw connects the deaths of Monroe, JFK, and Kilgallen. They all died within 40 months of each other: Monroe in August 1962, JFK in November 1963, and Kilgallen in November 1965. Shaw says there are more than 50 similarities between the deaths of Monroe and Kilgallen.
He also argues that Carlos Marcello had the greatest motive to kill Robert Kennedy in 1968. RFK had said he knew Marcello was responsible for JFK’s death. If RFK became president, he would have gone after Marcello again. Shaw believes Sirhan Sirhan was a convenient patsy, much like Oswald.
Shaw’s research has been compiled in several books, including *Collateral Damage* and the upcoming *Fighting for Justice*. He says his work is archived at Purdue University. He encourages readers to visit his website, markshawbooks.com, and to question the official narratives they are given.
Shaw’s central message is that history has been distorted. He argues that the Kennedys were not the noble figures of Camelot. They were womanizers who made dangerous enemies and silenced those who threatened them. He believes the truth about these deaths has been hidden for decades, and he is determined to bring it to light.