The relationship between Robert F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe has fueled conspiracy theories for decades. At the center of the speculation is a simple question: was Bobby Kennedy involved in Monroe's death?
Robert F. Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was fiercely loyal to his brother, President John F. Kennedy. He was not, however, loyal to his wife.
Bobby married Ethel in 1950, when she was 22. Together they would have 11 children. Despite this, Bobby was a notorious flirt who went through women "like a hot knife through butter."
His father took him to hookers to lose his virginity at 21. Describing that first experience, Bobby said it "wasn't bad but it wasn't fabulous either." What followed was a lifetime of insatiability when it came to women.
His high-profile dalliances allegedly included Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak, Lee Remick, and Claudine Longet. Ethel knew everything her husband was up to. She closed herself off to it, accepting that it was the Kennedy tradition to wander.
There was one suspected infidelity that made Ethel mental. It was when rumors surfaced that Bobby was having an affair with Jackie Kennedy, JFK's wife.
When JFK was assassinated, the Kennedy household was shaken. It was the third such loss for the family. Joe Kennedy Jr. was a World War II casualty, and their sister Kathleen died in a plane crash.
Bobby felt the loss deeply. When FBI Director Edgar Hoover called to inform him of his brother's death, Bobby told his wife. He immediately went to claim his brother's body and be there for his widow.
Bobby grieved the hardest. He would lock himself away and cry, his ribs cracking with sobs. In his book "Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon," Larry Tye wrote that Bobby had lost his best friend and the reason for everything he had done.
He became depressed, lost weight, didn't sleep, and regularly visited his brother's grave, sometimes twice a day. The only person who truly grasped what Bobby was going through was Jackie. This led to many rumors that the two were unnaturally close.
Bobby became like a father to his brother's children. Many felt he was like a husband to his widow too. At least Ethel felt this was the case.
For the first time, Ethel tried to find out if the rumors about her husband were true. She made calls to the British ambassador to the United States, David Ormsby-Gore, to ask if he knew anything about the relationship. There are no verifiable reports that it happened.
Authors who wrote about the family were careful to avoid asserting a relationship, except for the discredited David Heymann. He alleged that Jackie told doctors to turn off Bobby's life support when he was near death after his assassination. Heymann also claimed that JFK's son was his friend before the plane crash that killed him. This was debunked.
Bobby would heal and become a senator after leaving the office of Attorney General. He had an eye on the presidency, but death had other plans. Just five years after his brother's death, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.
Conspiracy theorists would have you believe Bobby Kennedy killed Marilyn Monroe. Looking at the series of events before her apparent suicide, it may be easier to scream murder.
Marilyn was having an affair with two powerful men in the United States. Someone was bound to get hurt, and it wouldn't be the two men. They had the full might of the most powerful men behind them.
Fidelity was not a virtue of the Kennedy family. Bobby came from a family where marital infidelity was not necessarily a virtue and wasn't practiced a whole lot. Larry Tye wrote that the two brothers had an affair with Marilyn Monroe.
It is not surprising that it was with Monroe. She was the biggest female actress in Hollywood at the time. It was a situation of go big or go home, and the Kennedys went as big as they could.
The tragedy ended with Marilyn Monroe raving to her hairdresser about betrayals from men in high places just hours before her death. It began when the trio met at one of the many beach parties their brother-in-law Peter Lawford organized.
That particular phone call stuck with her hairdresser. Recalling the call, the hairdresser said Marilyn's voice was laden with despair as she went on about clandestine love affairs. Marilyn genuinely believed she was surrounded by danger.
Peter Lawford was something of a pimp for the Kennedy brothers, according to Jean Martin. Peter was a short-time member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack and no stranger to the evil at the core of Hollywood.
He and the Kennedys had a long-standing friendship. His parties meant they could be with the cream of the crop. According to Jean, the men were brazen with how they behaved at those parties, not minding that their wives were in the next room.
Every woman there was fair game. Jean claimed she had had John F. Kennedy's hands on her breasts while his wife was just in the next room.
It was during a party at Peter's Malibu beach house that John F. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy met Marilyn. She was initially drawn to the president, whom she lavished attention on. But it would be Bobby whom she told her friend Ann Karger she would marry.
Her attention switched to Bobby when President Kennedy was sworn in. What the trio didn't know was that Fred Otash, a renowned private investigator, was on to them. He had hired John Danoff to help him bug Marilyn's home and Peter's beach and Palm Springs houses.
Otash claimed the bugs were placed under the carpets, chandeliers, and ceiling fixtures. The intention of the bugging was to take down Bobby, who was on the verge of taking down Jimmy Hoffa. Jimmy needed dirt that would make Bobby back off.
Men tend to say things they shouldn't when they are on the brink of an explosive orgasm or after one. But of all the recordings Danoff and Otash made, none made it to the media. We have to go by the words of their mouths.
The two aren't exactly believable model citizens. However, they believed Monroe knew things an average citizen had no business knowing. Danoff claimed in the recordings that they had many materials proving President Kennedy had sex with Marilyn. Otash revealed there were more tapes of Robert Kennedy and Monroe than of Jack Kennedy and Monroe.
How do we know there truly was a relationship between Bobby and Marilyn, if at all? There are recordings no one but two men have supposedly heard. But there is a two-page letter written by the hand of a Kennedy that offers more solid proof.
Jean Kennedy Smith wrote to Marilyn: "Understand that you and Bobby are the new item. We all think you should come with him when he comes back East." So the Kennedys knew about what was going on, and presumably President Kennedy knew that he and his brother planted their seed in the same soil.
The letter ordinarily would have been trashed, but Marilyn had a big hoarding habit. She had a couple more items that should have found their way to a trash bin rather than stayed in her drawers.
Bobby and the enthralling Monroe had made multiple public appearances together. Still, appearing with someone isn't conclusive. "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," Ethel Kennedy told her husband when they got home after President Kennedy's birthday party. She said this in response to how brazen Monroe was acting toward Bobby.
Out of all the guests in the house, Marilyn chose him. She wouldn't do that if there wasn't something deeper between the two of them. However, Bobby Kennedy began to withdraw from Marilyn.
The exact reason is unknown. It could be that Kennedy realized going on with Monroe would end up hurting him. He may have been briefed by confidence or state operatives that it would be dangerous to continue. Maybe they had even told him of the recordings Otash claimed he made.
The day Marilyn Monroe died, she was meant to spend the evening with Bobby, who was to watch the testing of an atomic bomb. Bobby wouldn't show up, and it sent the already fragile woman completely over the edge.
On the day of her death, Saturday the fourth, she had called columnist Sidney Skolsky. She had revealed her relationship with President Kennedy to him initially. When Sidney saw her, he found Marilyn was upset and expressed considerable dissatisfaction that she did not have a date for Saturday night.
She had made similar calls in the week leading to her death. She called Dr. Leon Krohn, a gynecologist who treated her for a previous miscarriage, and asked if the doctor was angry about the miscarriage. Monroe also called a friend and told her she was carrying either the president's or Bobby's baby but was forced to lose it.
The actress also called people in Washington a day to help her get across to Bobby. The day she died, she called Gene Carmen and told her that some woman had been calling all night harassing her and calling her names. The woman called her a slur and told her to leave Bobby alone.
She called her psychiatrist at around 9:30 a.m. She called her hairdresser and phoned Balanos, a screenwriter. Hours later, she was found dead in what was ruled a suicide.
Many people felt there was foul play. On the night of her death, she requested painkillers and wine from her friend Carmen. Perhaps she got the drinks and truly did overdose on the pills.
When the Los Angeles District Attorney tried to review her cause of death, the FBI wouldn't let them. This has created further doubts, especially as Monroe herself has 105 files with the FBI. That file was for persons who held views contrary to the spirit of America.
Marilyn had married Arthur Miller, and Arthur was suspected of having communist links. Her speaking strongly against the United States nuclear deal and her relationship with the Kennedys all contributed to the FBI file on her.
When the file was released to the public, it was extremely redacted. Pages were censored, and conspiracy theorists began to fill in the gaps. Some theories emerged that her death was because of something she knew and that the Kennedys killed her using FBI agents.
Other theories emerged that the U.S. government killed Monroe because she had been told government secrets. One of them being about crashed UFOs and strange dead bodies held at military bases.
The relationship Monroe had with Bobby was a big scandal. But for some reason, everyone seems to accept it in good stride. Perhaps people had been desensitized to his sexual shenanigans.
What would have completely tattered his career was the alleged recordings, which never saw the light of day. People guessed maybe Bobby found the recordings and crushed them. We'll never know, as like his older brother, Bobby was also assassinated.
So did Bobby kill Marilyn? The truth is he withdrew from her and rejected her. That act of rejection sent the already fragile Monroe over the edge. Even if it was truly suicide, it came as a result of her being rejected by Bobby, the man she felt she would eventually marry.