Not only has poor Marilyn been mentally abused in the film, “Blonde,” where the director Andrew Dominik admits “we didn’t give a damn about the truth,” but in my latest book, “Fighting for Justice,” only Dorothy Kilgallen defended Marilyn against Anthony Summers wrote in his 1985 book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe that became
the Netflix documentary The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe – The Unheard Tapes where he portrayed the legendary film star in a manner that was unjustifiably malicious, vindictive, defamatory, and downright degrading. While insisting that she committed suicide, Summers had as his agenda that pre-determined conclusion and then worked to fit an assorted set of facts to it while excluding significant evidence to the contrary. The result: An ill-advised documentary resulting in distortions of history about Marilyn’s life and times and her death excluding the fact that she was murdered in August 1962 and that RFK had the strongest motive to have orchestrated her death so as to silence her.
Adding confusion to the documentary was Summers’ comment toward the end. He told viewers: “I did not find out anything that convinced me that Marilyn had been deliberately killed.”
Why the confusion? Because Summers and director Emma Cooper actually provided some compelling evidence to the contrary from audiotaped interviews that the Kennedys, specifically Bobby were concerned with Marilyn’s potential to cause a scandal enveloping JFK and RFK. The sound bites chosen from various sources indicated they were “playing with fire,” “that we can’t deal with Marilyn anymore,” and that “she was raising a stink” during the months leading up to her death.
This said, to lead viewers away from such matters, Summers unnecessarily did everything possible to demean Marilyn including depicting her, based on interviews with unsavory sources, as a slut, a whore, crazy, a drug addict, one who used “sugar daddies” to get ahead, that she was “animal like,” “a Communist” and one who enjoyed orgies with both Kennedy brothers. In his 1985 book, Summers even included a grainy post-autopsy photo of Marilyn, disgraceful conduct for sure.
To then seal the “verdict” they were seeking, that Marilyn was suicidal, Summers and Cooper violated Marilyn’s rights to privacy by utilizing the substance of conversations she had with her psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson. In the documentary, Summers admitted that Greenson’s wife Hildi “allowed [me] access to many of Dr. Greenson’s papers, his letters, which were gold dust.” Common sense dictates that Summers and Cooper must have known (most likely), or should have known, based on numerous years of research for the various editions of his book and the documentary that included a thousand interviews and discovery of numerous government documents that Hildi would not have had the right to do so unless Marilyn gave her permission. That is virtually impossible yet Summers used the “gold dust” to damage Marilyn’s persona, her reputation, in tandem with his suicide conclusion.
To confirm that only the patient can provide permission for any disclosure of conversations or notes regarding conversions Marilyn had with Dr. Greenson while she was in therapy, I interviewed noted psychiatrist Dr. Jacob Towery. He is a private practitioner who has written for The New York Times and the Washington Post as well as being Adjunct Clinical Faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Towery, after reviewing Summers conduct, told me,
Within the field of psychiatry, it is agreed that the standard of care is to maintain the confidentiality of our patients at all times. This extends even after a patient has died. Patients often place a great deal of trust in their psychiatrist, revealing things they may not reveal to anyone else, and it is our duty to protect that confidentiality including notes we take about a patient. If Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatry notes fell into the hands of her psychiatrist’s wife, it would not have been appropriate for her to release these notes and violate Ms. Monroe’s privacy.
Since the psychiatrist/patient privilege continues after the death of the patient, whatever Marilyn said to Greenson is confidential and any notes about those conversations privileged as well. Multiple emails sent in early May 2022 to both Summers through his book agent Olivia Edwards at Curtis Brown UK and Cooper through her website asking whether either had permission from Monroe to expose her confidential discussions with Greenson or permit his thoughts about them to be included in a book or documentary, went unanswered leading to the belief no such permission exists. The result: Marilyn’s right to privacy via the psychiatrist/patient privilege was apparently violated.
Nevertheless, in a highly unprofessional and unethical manner, Summers actually revealed many of Greenson’s conclusions regarding Marilyn’s mindset based on their privileged conversations. No explanation, no context was provided by Summers as to when and exactly what Marilyn told Greenson leading to the conclusions. This is quite unfair to her, for him to cherry pick certain opinions the psychiatrist had about Marilyn in the documentary (none are included in Summers’ book). Marilyn thus has no way to defend herself against the potentially misleading portrayal of her mental state and documentary viewers have no idea what observations Greenson may have had about Marilyn’s upbeat behavior perhaps in the days just before she died.
This said, what strong evidence did Summers and Cooper leave out of the documentary? Many examples exist but three major ones are of paramount importance.
Regarding Dorothy Kilgallen, recall that she penned one of her New York Journal American articles about Marilyn just two days before her death.
It read:
Marilyn Monroe’s health must be improving. She’s been attending select Hollywood parties and has become the talk of the town again. In California, they’re circulating a photograph of her that certainly isn’t as bare as the famous calendar, but is very interesting. And she’s cooking in the sex-appeal department, too; she’s proven vastly alluring to a handsome gentleman who is a bigger name than Joe DiMaggio was in his heyday. So, don’t write Marilyn off as finished.
To deal with Kilgallen’s sunny words about Marilyn’s mindset in the first two sentences (followed by a sure reference to RFK based on his being “a bigger name than Joe DiMaggio”), Summers took the approach, misleading for sure in the 1985 edition of Goddess by leaving out the words, “Marilyn Monroe’s health must be improving. She’s been attending select Hollywood parties and has become the talk of the town again.” In the updated paperback edition (2022), the same exclusion of Kilgallen’s first two sentences occurs at page 441 and in the documentary, no mention whatsoever is made of any part of the column. This is deception for sure since Summers had to leave part of the quote out since it doesn’t fit the mold of a woman being suicidal, one whose “health must be improving.” In fact, Kilgallen, who was aware that Marilyn had Broadway offers, a dream of hers, later wrote of suspicions she had about Marilyn’s death, stating, “the real story hasn’t been told, not by a long shot.”
Shame on Dominik and Summers and bless you Dorothy for printing the truth, that Marilyn was murdered and according to my research, at the hands of Robert F. Kennedy. More about “Fighting for Justice” on my website, www.markshawbooks.com .