Shaw Letter to LA District Attorney George Gascon Demanding Re-Investigation of Marilyn Monroe Death as Anniversary Nears (August 4)

Mark Shaw

Author/Attorney

1085 Santa Clara Street, #7

Santa Clara, CA 95050

www.markshawbooks.com

mshawin@yahoo.com

415.940.0827

July 27, 2021

Personal and Confidential

Mr. George Gascón

Los Angeles County District Attorney

211 West Temple Street
Suite 1200
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear Mr. Gascón,

Having not received the courtesy of a response to the June 1^st letter I sent to you, the very date that would have been Marilyn Monroe’s 95^th birthday (June 1), I once again am strongly requesting that your office re-open the investigation into her tragic death on August 4, 1962, the anniversary of which occurs in a few days. My demand is based on compelling new primary source evidence compiled based on fifteen years of research for my latest book, “Collateral Damage: The Mysterious Deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Dorothy Kilgallen and the Ties That Bind them to Robert Kennedy and the JFK Assassination” which was published on June 1 and sent to you along with a lengthy “Evidence Report” and a list of the many witness still alive who may be interviewed.

Before repeating the substance of the first letter I sent long in June, here are some important updates regarding what has occurred since the book’s release indicating widespread interest in a re-investigation. For your interest are two YouTube videos, the first one of a lengthy Zoom interview I gave at the prestigious Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on June 10. It was projected onto a large screen and to date, both the non-edited and edited versions (some new slides were included), have garnered nearly 200,000 YT views, a record for the club, in less than 50 days. Here is the link to the video and if you look closed at the more than 3000 Comments, most deal with the need to re-investigate Marilyn’s death.

The second video captures a presentation I provided at the Allen Public Library near Dallas on July 8. In just seven days since it was posted on YT, there are more than 40,000 views and a considerable amount of Comments. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkjiFJrC_mg

By having you or one of your staff watch the videos, or any one of a number of podcast, radio and television interviews available on YT, you will get a sense of the outrage existing due to the injustice involved with Marilyn’s death when the Medical Examiner’s office concluded she killed herself. Regarding the cause of death, nothing could be further from the truth as I wrote in my letter of June 1^st. Here is the body of that letter:

Since the book is lengthy (600+ pages), and the text chronicles not only the life and times and deaths of Marilyn but connects them for the first time with the deaths JFK and revered journalist Kilgallen, I am including an “Evidence Report” that I believe you convince you that the film star did not commit “probable suicide” but was murdered. And that the man responsible was then attorney general Robert F. Kennedy who also covered up the truth in an abuse of power that included “persuading” his friend, LA Police Chief William Parker, to conduct no real investigation into her death even after Deputy Medical Examiner Thomas Noguchi bungled Marilyn’s autopsy to the tune of never even examining vital organs he misplaced, accidentally or more likely, on purpose, that could have exposed how she died.

Of vital importance here is your office conducting a re-investigation sooner than later since many of those who knew Marilyn, or may shed light on her death are up in age including Dr. Noguchi and revered forensic scientist Dr. Cyril Wecht with the latter having been this author’s expert regarding Marilyn’s demise but also the deaths of JFK and Dorothy Kilgallen. As this book, and two I have written about her before, the bestseller, “The Reporter Who Knew Too Much,” and “Denial of Justice,” prove, she did not die of an accidental overdose of barbiturates combined with alcohol, “Circumstances Undermined,” in November 1965, but was silenced based on her threats to expose those who orchestrated the JFK assassination and those who cover-up the truth in a book she was writing for Random House shortly before she died.

My research has indicated more than 50 similarities between these two remarkable and inspiring women’s life and times and especially their deaths. They were friends and by employing a unique research method, investigating JFK’s death (1963), then Kilgallen’s (1965) and finally Marilyn’s (1962) in reverse order, I believe I have provided the trail for you and your investigators to follow so as to clear Marilyn’s reputation by proving she did not commit suicide but was the victim of a homicide.

With this in mind, I trust your credo will parallel mine based on a quote from acclaimed novelist Lois McMaster Bujold, who wrote, “The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so for them.” Thus I have had the duty, and now you do as well, to sort out justice for Marilyn who may not defend herself but relies on you and a private citizen like me to do for her.

Since, as you will read, LA police malfeasance ran rampant regarding Marilyn’s death, I am contacting you instead of LAPD or the Sheriff’s Department as I fear a cover up if either of these agencies handle the re-investigation involving inept police conduct regarding this cold case. Instead, I am counting on you to assign it to your Bureau of Investigation (BOI), so no conflict of interest may be evident. Marilyn deserves a fresh, independent probe of her death unlike the one undertaken in 1982, nearly 40 years ago, that was based on speculation, questionable witnesses, and did not at all include the fresh, primary source evidence presented in “Collateral Damage” pointing to complicity by Robert F. Kennedy when her demise is considered in the context of both the deaths of JFK and Dorothy Kilgallen, with the result an historical one of enormous consequences:

That the JFK assassination could have been prevented in 1963 if Robert Kennedy was prosecuted for complicity in Marilyn Monroe’s murder with the result that Bobby’s abuse of power as attorney general would have been neutralized and his enemies would not have killed the president in 1963 changing the course of history.

Such a statement, as you will read, makes good sense in lieu of the evidence presented based on my research as not only an historian of note but a bestselling author, a former criminal defense lawyer, and a legal analyst for the Mike Tyson, O. J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant cases for USA Today, CNN, ABC, and ESPN. Most recently, I have been quite honored that my alma mater, Purdue University, requested to be the archival repository of my body of work, my nearly 30 published books, research books, articles, and so forth with more than 1000 items to be preserved alongside those of Amelia Earhart and Neil Armstrong. Here is a link to the October 2020 press release which validates my credibility. (https://tinyurl.com/yyth7afp).

As you proceed with your office’s investigation, please keep in mind that if Marilyn’s last name had been “Doe,” and she hadn’t been a movie star known around the world, the chances are that she would have been treated to a full investigation of her death based on all of the obvious evidence pointing to her homicide. When you read the portion of the book focused on humanizing this amazing woman, please keep in mind that she was a kind and gentle soul, one who overcame gender discrimination from the days when she grew up basically motherless to when she became a star all while being labeled a “dumb blonde,” a characterization that evidence indicates was totally uncalled for.

Mr. Gascón, at the very least, the ME “verdict” must be altered since there is no evidence that Marilyn committed suicide based on all of the factors you will read about in the “Evidence Report.” This said, attached is the pertinent, confidential material from “Collateral Damage” for your review. I trust you and your colleagues will do what has never been done before, provide Marilyn with justice as a victim, one whose life was terminated by a powerful man who then used that power to cover up the truth based on the following conclusions:

• Marilyn Monroe, whose love affair with attorney general Bobby Kennedy is little known to this day, did not commit “probable suicide” in 1962 and might have celebrated her 95^th birthday on June 1^st if she had not been the victim of verbal abuse  and then set up for the kill on August 4, 1962 by Bobby following Marilyn’s brief sexual affair with JFK. (CD pages 277-281, 502, 503, and throughout book);
• RFK’s motive to silence Marilyn was based on her threatening him with a “tell-all” disclosure to the mediaof matters of national security leaked to her by the Kennedy brothers and Bobby treating her like “a piece of meat, facts  never fully explored before. (CD pages 496-503);
• Marilyn’s murder by RFK’s operatives was covered up by LA Police Chief William Parker, a close friend of the attorney general who never considered the forensic evidence but instead took the word of three psychiatrists who misreported  Marilyn’s mental state. (CD page 539);
• The truth about Marilyn’s death has never been fully investigated triggering this author’s demand for your office to re-investigate;
• More than 50 similarities exist between the life and times and deaths of Marilyn Monroe and her friend, Dorothy Kilgallen including each being victims of gender discrimination and denied justice when they died;
• Three clues heretofore ignored regarding Marilyn’s cause of death point to murder: Her housekeeper doing “dirty sheets” laundry when police arrived, a “fresh” bruise on her hip mentioned in the bogus autopsy report but dismissed as unimportant by researchers, and a mixture of Chloral Hydrate and Nembutal discovered in Marilyn’s blood stream prove the  that barbiturates were  ingested but inserted rectally. (CD pages 544-546);
• A damaging mid-1962 letter from Jean Kennedy Smith to Marilyn (“understand that you and Bobby are the new item!”) proves Marilyn/RFK tryst, and “The Rothberg Report,” a secret government document, connects Marilyn, JFK, and revered journalist Dorothy Kilgallen with RFK the common denominator. (CD pages 438 and 497).

Your investigation will, I believe, cement these conclusion, permitting you to be part of destroying distortions of history perpetuated for six decades and counting. Since you have a reputation as a man of the truth, I am confident in your ability to discover that truth and let the world know that Marilyn, a victim of gender discrimination and viscous rumors during her entire life, was a woman to be respected, one who may be an inspiration to young folks looking for a hero.

Thank you for the consideration. A list of the available witnesses as noted in the Evidence Report is included at the end of the text.

Based on the substance of that letter and your reputation as a man of the truth who deeply cares about crime victims, I am asking, along with thousands of others who deeply care about Marilyn, to immediately announce to the media your intention to provide a thorough re-investigation of her death, perhaps on August 4, the anniversary of that death. On my end, I promise to cooperate fully by assisting your investigators with witness contact including one who recently provided a chilling account as to the means by which Marilyn died confirming my analysis in the book.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Mark Shaw

cc: Ms. Celia Zavala, Executive Director, Los Angeles Board of County     Supervisors