Marilyn Monroe's Therapy Tapes Suggest She 'Definitely' Didn't Die of a Suicide: "She Had Plans..."

Trigger Warning: This article contains themes of suicide that some readers may find distressing.

Marilyn Monroe, the late actress and model, was declared dead on August 4, 1962, with an apparent suicide. However, a new book, Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed, by author and Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan raises questions about whether Monroe actually committed suicide or was the cause of death was something else. 

The book sheds light on the conversation Former LA County Deputy District Attorney John Miner had with Monroe's psychoanalyst Dr Ralph Greenson following the deceased star's death. As part of the investigation, Dr. Greenson allowed Miner to listen to a 40-minute-long audio clip in which Monroe was "sharing her plans for the immediate future." 

Miner was reported to have said, "As a result of what Dr Greenson told me and from what I heard on tape recordings, I believe I can say definitely that it was not suicide." In addition, he insisted, "Here is a person stigmatized by the diagnosis of suicide, when that is an absolutely wrong, false, erroneous diagnosis." According to Miner's transcript of what Monroe had said, the actress was looking forward to polishing her acting career that involved performing Shakespeare. She said on one of the tapes, "I've read all of Shakespeare and practiced a lot of lines. … I am going to do Juliet first. Don't laugh. What, with what makeup, costume, and camera can do, my acting will create a Juliet who is 14, an innocent virgin." Ans based on these words, Miner argued that "no reasonable person could possibly think that the person who made those tapes killed herself," as per ABC News.

Meanwhile, she also discussed her tumultuous love life in the tapes that involved the 35th President of the US John F. Kennedy, and a lesbian encounter. Actress Joan Crawford approached Monroe and she recalled it in the tapes, "Next time I saw Crawford she wanted another round. I told her straight out I didn't much enjoy doing it with a woman." 

As for her romance with Kennedy, Monroe noted, "There is no room in my life for him. I guess I don't have the courage to face up to it and hurt him. I want someone else to tell him it's over. I tried to get the president to do it, but I couldn't reach him." 

Matthew Smith, the author of Marilyn's Last Words: Her Secret Tapes and Mysterious Death, paid an undisclosed fee to Miner to hand him down Monroe's transcript so he could use it in his book. Smith, too, echoed Miner's opinion on the actresses' cause of death, claiming, "The important thing about it was that she wasn't suicidal." 

The blonde bombshell, who was barely 36 years old, was found dead in bed in her Brentwood home, per Variety. Her body was discovered by her housekeeper in the early hours of August 1962 as Daily Mail's columnist Callahan wrote, "She [Marilyn] was face-down on her bed, nude, with her phone still in her hand." Though it was said that she died due to an overdose of sleeping pills, several conspiracy theories suggest otherwise. 

If you are having thoughts about taking your own life or know of anyone who is, please contact The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433)