Here’s What Tied Marilyn Monroe To The Mafia

Voluptuous. Beautiful. Iconic. There are few stars in history who have even come close to replicating the kind of influence that Marilyn Monroe had on popular culture. The blonde belle was a bona fide Hollywood superstar in the 1950s and is still a cultural touchstone to this day. Her tragic death has always been surrounded by the murky waters of conspiracy, though. Many people believe the mob and perhaps even members of the highest levels of American politics were involved in her passing. But were they? Let’s find out...

Monroe led a tumultuous life in the years leading up to her death in 1962. Three years earlier she had starred in the now-classic comedy Some Like It Hot – giving a hugely celebrated performance. Her final movie ended up being The Misfits, and it was written by her third husband Arthur Miller. Though she divorced him soon after it was released and then spent much of ’61 as a recluse in her Los Angeles home under the watchful eye of a psychiatrist.

August 5, 1962, was the date Monroe reportedly died from an overdose of barbiturates at the age of only 36. The L.A. County coroner’s office labeled the death as a probable suicide, and over the years a number of theories about the “true” cause of death have been proffered by heartbroken fans and historians. Incredibly, one of the main theories involves the Kennedy family.

You see, around the time she died, Monroe was rumored to have been engaged in affairs with John F. and Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy. JFK was President of the United States at the time, and his brother Bobby was the U.S. Attorney General. As a result, Monroe was allegedly linked to two of the country’s most powerful men.

But how did a young woman – born Norma Jeane Mortenson and raised in an orphanage and foster care – become a movie star allegedly romantically linked to the president? Well, after a difficult childhood in which she had no contact with her father and the star’s mother wound up institutionalized, she went to work in a munitions factory. And it was here that a photographer first caught a glimpse of the future star.