The Mysterious Death Of Marilyn Monroe: Suicide Or Murder?

She was probably the most iconic sex symbol of the 1950s.  Born Norma Jean Mortenson, Marilyn Monroe is best known for her roles in film classics like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot and the Seven-Year Itch. The latter film features one of the star’s most memorable images: Marilyn standing on top of a subway grate wearing a flirty white dress that she attempts to hold down as it blows around from a passing subway car.

The events surrounding her death added to her iconic mystique. Was it a suicide, or was it something worse?

Marilyn was found dead on August 5, 1962, naked and face down on her bed inside her Los Angeles home. Empty pill bottles surrounded the dead 36-year-old star. A telephone was in her hand. Her psychiatrist broke in and discovered her body, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Police Department came to the conclusion, according to the History Channel, that the icon’s death was “caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide.”

However, conspiracy theories about her death have circulated for decades. One theory is that she was murdered by someone to keep quiet rumors that she had affairs with both former president John Kennedy and his brother Robert. According to USA Today, the trove of “JFK files” recently released included an FBI memo warning Robert Kennedy in July of 1964 about an upcoming book that contained information about his alleged “intimate relationship” with Marilyn.

Other conspiracy theories include allegations that either the C.I.A. or the mafia killed her to hurt the Kennedys. Perhaps the oddest of the conspiracty theories came about in a documentary, "Unacknowledged," which alleges Marylyn was killed because she threatened to leak classified information about aliens. 

[Photo: Getty Images]