- 13 hours ago
Dr. Richard Shepherd explores the sudden death of the iconic actress using her autopsy report as well as her recently released private medical records.
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#autopsy #tv #actress #marilyn Monroe
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00:04This is the secluded Spanish cottage in the exclusive Brentwood section of Los Angeles
00:09where actress Marilyn Monroe died. A bottle of sleeping pills near her bed.
00:17In the golden age of Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe eclipsed all others.
00:23Through a series of hit films in the 1950s, her looks made her one of the most photographed
00:28women on the planet.
00:31I just love finding new places to wear diamonds.
00:34But at 3.40 a.m. on the 5th of August 1962, Marilyn was found dead in the bedroom of
00:41her Los Angeles home.
00:46That's when those remains were first removed to a mortuary, then to the county Marge for autopsy.
00:52After 12 days, the coroner faced the world's press, but his findings were inconclusive.
00:58On the basis of all the information obtained, it is our opinion that the case is a probable suicide.
01:05The word probable opened the door to a host of conspiracy theories, including claims that she was murdered.
01:14Now, leading forensic pathologist Dr. Richard Sheppard is using Marilyn's autopsy report and recently discovered private medical records to get
01:24to the truth behind her mysterious death.
01:26With the new medical evidence I've collated, I think I can end the rumour and speculation that surrounded Marilyn's death
01:35for over 50 years.
01:39World-renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Richard Sheppard has been conducting high-profile autopsies for more than 25 years.
01:48His expertise has been called on for the Bloody Sunday inquiry, the aftermath of 9-11 and the inquest into
01:55the death of Princess Diana.
02:00This is Marilyn Monroe's autopsy report. For its time, it's impressive in its detail. And if you know how to
02:07read it, it provides clues about what was happening in the days, hours and minutes before her death.
02:13And Dr. Sheppard now has access to her private medical records to make his a unique new investigation.
02:28August the 4th, 1962, Brentwood, Los Angeles. Marilyn's at home during downtime on her new movie, Something's Got to Give.
02:38After a string of broken relationships with powerful men, including the president, John F. Kennedy, her life is now at
02:46a crossroads.
02:47At 36, she longs to be taken seriously as an actress, but Hollywood is not interested, casting her again in
02:55a familiar role, the dumb blonde.
02:599 a.m. Larry Schiller, a photographer from her new movie, arrives.
03:03The last time I saw her, which was the morning of the day she died, she was in a serious
03:09mood, not a playful mood. She didn't want to mince around with any words.
03:14Marilyn had allowed Schiller to photograph her on set in a series of revealing poses.
03:21Marilyn said, what would happen if I jumped into the swimming pool with the bathing suit on, but I came
03:27out with nothing on?
03:28I said, but Marilyn, you're already famous. Now you're going to make me famous.
03:33Her body was in fantastic shape.
03:37And of course, you name it, we had the cover of every magazine in the world in the month of
03:41June, 1962.
03:46Now, two months later, Schiller wants to know if Marilyn will agree to some of the pictures being published in
03:53Playboy.
03:54She actually turned on me a little bit, saying, am all I good for is my body? Is that what
04:01it's all about, just my body?
04:07The autopsy report shows that Marilyn had kept herself in great physical shape.
04:12This is the unembalmed body of a 36-year-old, well-developed, well-nourished Caucasian female.
04:19It says the scalp is covered with bleached blonde hair, and the eyes are blue.
04:23And of course, that confirms the iconic Marilyn image, the blonde bombshell.
04:30Here comes the girl who put mmm into movies.
04:35Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortensen in 1926.
04:41The person Norma Jean was kind, gentle, sweet, very, very smart, and rather shy.
04:49And she created Marilyn Monroe as a different persona that was extremely sexual.
04:56After a short career as a model, in 1946, a 20-year-old Norma Jean broke into Hollywood with this
05:03screen test.
05:06She was determined to become a star.
05:10It was a great fixation with her.
05:13She realized that Hollywood needed a new sex symbol.
05:19After signing a six-month contract with 20th Century Fox, she started creating a new persona,
05:26and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
05:29Marilyn defines the word sexuality.
05:33She knew exactly how to part her lips.
05:35She knew exactly how much of a smile to give.
05:38She knew exactly how much to look over her shoulder.
05:41Marilyn would use her body with no real sense of shame or guilt.
05:48At the age of 23, she posed for her first nude photograph.
05:53That nude photo circulated among the troops,
05:58and she became the largest pin-up of the Korean War.
06:04The U.S. Army asks Marilyn to fly to Korea to entertain the troops.
06:08Marilyn puts on ten shows.
06:10In two days, she appears before a hundred thousand soldiers and Marines.
06:17Back in Hollywood, Marilyn soon worked her way up the billing with a series of hit films including Gentlemen Prefer
06:23Blondes.
06:24I just love finding places to wear diamonds.
06:27The Marilyn Monroe persona, the dumb blonde, I regard as being one of the greatest comic characters of the 20th
06:35Century.
06:37But with fame came the realization that her success was almost entirely dependent on her looks and the character she
06:44had created.
06:44She was a product of publicity.
06:47She was totally aware of her image.
06:50She knew exactly how she wanted to look.
06:55She would spend hours making herself up.
06:58Sometimes she would take it all off and put it back on again because she didn't like the way it
07:04looked.
07:06Marilyn was very good at constructing her image and she worked at it all the time.
07:13Even the most routine operation was not allowed to jeopardize her perfect image.
07:19We know that she'd had her appendix removed but there's no scar in the typical appendix area.
07:24But there is a scar lower down in the pubic area.
07:28And it seems to me that the surgeon has taken an unusual approach to preserve her good looks and made
07:34the incision below the bikini line.
07:37This wasn't the only time Marilyn had the help of surgery to improve her look.
07:42A note from her visit to Hollywood plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Gurdon reveals she had cosmetic surgery at the age
07:49of 24.
07:51Only recently has the medical information become available that Marilyn actually had a chin implant to change the shape of
07:57her chin.
07:58Presumably to make her look more beautiful as part of the development of this Hollywood image.
08:07And just months before her death Marilyn visited Dr. Gurdon again.
08:12After a fall at home leaves her worried she has broken her nose.
08:19He examined her and he found there was a small cut, there was some bruising, but x-rays showed no
08:25evidence of a fracture.
08:27However they did reveal that the cartilage implant in her chin was dissolving and she would need to go under
08:33the knife again.
08:36But by June 1962 it wasn't just her looks that were in danger of crumbling.
08:45Marilyn's personal life was coming apart at the seams.
08:49Based on the medical documentation I can see that Marilyn has had some plastic surgery.
08:54But to all intents and purposes she was a physically fit and healthy young woman.
08:59And I can see no immediate cause for her death.
09:04But the autopsy report does show some changes in her stomach.
09:09Which are described as marked congestion with submucosal patechial haemorrhaging.
09:14And this means the lining of the stomach is reddened and angry looking.
09:20And that's entirely consistent with someone taking a drug a short time before their death.
09:25But when the pathologist looks in the stomach there's no drug left present for him to identify at that time.
09:33Evidence suggests Marilyn had taken drugs shortly before her death.
09:37But what those drugs were and how they came to be in her stomach is the key to the mystery.
09:45Examination of the scene shows that there were eight different types of drugs around her as she died.
09:53What I want to know is what role did these drugs have, if any, in her death?
10:13One of the major causes of Marilyn's stress is her inability to sleep.
10:20One of the major causes of Marilyn's stress is her inability to sleep.
10:20An issue she has frequently sought medical help to combat.
10:27The toxicology report shows that a prescription was given to Marilyn four days before her death for 50 chloral hydrate
10:34capsules.
10:36Chloral hydrate is a sedative.
10:38And like all sedatives it acts by depressing the central nervous system causing you to become drowsy and fall asleep.
10:46But chloral hydrate can have a fatal effect on the respiratory system.
10:51Marilyn's battle with sleeplessness goes right back to her chaotic childhood.
10:58At the age of two she was given up by her mother for adoption and grew up in a series
11:04of orphanages.
11:07As a child she was beautifully spoken, she played and was happy.
11:12After she went into the orphan asylum, she began stuttering, she became very unhappy, she didn't sleep well, she cried
11:24all the time.
11:26She was also cared for by a number of foster families.
11:31She was in at least nine foster homes and Marilyn claimed, and I believe her claims, that she had been
11:39physically, sexually abused in at least one of the homes.
11:46You cannot get away from the fact that such beginnings in a person spells trouble further down the line.
11:54And this could have had an effect on fearing going to sleep, fear about what happens at night.
12:02By adulthood, her insomnia was a chronic condition.
12:09In 1961, 18 months before her death, Marilyn revealed the extent of her anguish in a private letter.
12:19Last night I was awake all night again.
12:22Sometimes I wonder what the night time is for.
12:25It all seems like one long, long, horrible day.
12:31With chronic insomnia, it goes on for weeks and weeks and months.
12:35It affects people on every level.
12:37How they think, how they feel and how they behave.
12:40She may have been on that awful treadmill of just not getting sufficient rest.
12:51So Marilyn took chloral hydrate to try to beat her insomnia.
12:56But it only made it worse.
12:59The problem with these drugs is they have a hangover period.
13:02The person has difficulty then in waking up and starting the next day.
13:07And so what often happens, they will then take another drug to start the day.
13:14And the drug that Marilyn used was a drug called dexedrine, an amphetamine type drug.
13:20The prescription for dexedrine, dated just a month before her death,
13:25is amongst Marilyn's private papers sold at Julian's Auction House in 2013.
13:32But the trouble then with taking dexedrine is you are wide awake.
13:36And the whole thing becomes a vicious cycle.
13:41Sedatives at night to go to sleep, amphetamines in the morning to wake up.
13:46To counter the effects of dexedrine, Marilyn was taking more and more chloral hydrate.
13:52She was prescribed four capsules of chloral hydrate per day.
13:57But the autopsy report shows there were only 10 left in that bottle.
14:01So 40 had been taken in the four days before her death.
14:06Could Marilyn have died from a simple overdose of sleeping pills?
14:11We know from the toxicology that the level of chloral hydrate in her bloodstream was raised at 8 milligrams per
14:18cent.
14:20But that that level is not in the lethal range.
14:23And so it wasn't what killed Marilyn.
14:27And so I'm looking for another reason for her death.
14:3412 a.m., 4th of August 1962.
14:39Marilyn is joined in the garden by her publicist Pat Newcomb.
14:44Who has stayed at the house overnight and has woken up late.
14:50Despite taking a number of sedatives, Marilyn has been awake most of the night.
14:55And she's angry with Pat for sleeping in.
14:57Marilyn suffered from a huge amount of anger.
15:02She calls it a demon and a monster.
15:05But anger is not the only negative emotion she is suffering.
15:11Another of the drugs found in Marilyn's bedroom was Librium.
15:15It's a drug that is commonly used to treat anxiety.
15:19The autopsy reveals the drug was prescribed on the 7th of June 1962,
15:23less than two months before her death.
15:27But significantly, it's also the date she was fired from her latest Hollywood movie.
15:36Did this rejection cause her to take her own life?
15:43Marilyn began working on Something's Got to Give in April 1962, again as the dumb blonde.
15:51Now in her mid-30s, she's tired of playing the role and wanted to be cast in more serious parts.
15:58But she was locked into a contract with her studio, 20th Century Fox, who insisted.
16:05Something's Got to Give was a movie that she didn't want to make.
16:08What you could see in Marilyn was that she was tired.
16:11She was tired of trying to prove to the world that she was a fine actress.
16:19Everybody kind of thought of her as a joke.
16:23Marilyn did feel trapped by being Marilyn Monroe.
16:29She can't get away from what she had created.
16:34It had become her reality.
16:37And her anxiety was playing havoc with the production.
16:42Marilyn was so distressed that in the first two months,
16:45she'd had to cancel her filming on 17 separate occasions.
16:49She was also using alcohol to help manage her feelings.
16:54I think she was under enormous stress.
16:57And the fact that she was drinking a lot negatively affected her performance.
17:03The final straw for 20th Century Fox came 10 weeks before her death.
17:08When she flouted studio orders and flew to New York to be with her lover on his birthday.
17:15The President, John F. Kennedy.
17:18Well, Marilyn Monroe didn't care what the studio said.
17:21She just walked out of the studio one day, got on a plane and left.
17:25Marilyn was attracted to older and powerful men.
17:29Her second marriage had been to the baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.
17:34Just 18 months before her death, her third marriage to playwright Arthur Miller had ended in divorce.
17:42Her relationship with Kennedy began shortly afterwards.
17:46She'd known JFK for years and had seen him occasionally.
17:51The last year or so, it became very hot.
17:55It was a risky and dangerous affair.
17:58Mr. President, the late Marilyn Monroe.
18:03May the 19th, 1962.
18:06Madison Square Garden, New York.
18:12Happy birthday to you.
18:18Happy birthday.
18:20I remember watching it live and wondering just what influences she was under.
18:27Mr. President, happy birthday to you.
18:36She seemed to be either drunk or on pills.
18:40She didn't seem quite real.
18:44Marilyn's overtly sexual performance backfired.
18:48John Kennedy really disliked the birthday celebration the May before she died.
18:53When she did the very sexual presentation of herself and that's when John Kennedy ditched her.
19:0120th Century Fox decided to ditch her too.
19:04The sensational news was leaked in a Hollywood gossip column on the 7th of June.
19:11There's evidence in the autopsy report that it caused a great increase in her level of anxiety.
19:16And on that day, her doctor prescribed her five milligrams of Librium.
19:22Next day, Marilyn Sacking was confirmed by the studio.
19:28And the medical records show she returned on that day and her doctor doubled the dose of Librium.
19:35The key feature is that the dosage of the drug she was being given by the doctor is increasing.
19:41And this points very strongly to someone who is suffering greater levels of stress and anxiety in the final months
19:49of her life.
19:51Rejected by her lover and Hollywood.
19:54A week later, Marilyn returned to her physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg.
19:59But this time, he describes her something even stronger than Librium.
20:06I can see here in Marilyn's medical records, she goes back to her doctor and he prescribes her Parnate, a
20:14strong antidepressant drug.
20:16And the significance of this is that it shows that Marilyn's mental health is spiralling downwards.
20:23Marilyn's personal and professional life are in ruins.
20:27She's locked into a vicious cycle of sedatives to make her sleep and amphetamines to wake her up.
20:36She's drinking heavily and is clinically depressed.
20:41With her bedside table now stocked with potentially lethal drugs, did Marilyn give up and deliberately take her own life?
20:50Marilyn had been suffering from depression for most of her life.
20:53And so I'm not convinced that her depression was so severe that it would have caused her to commit suicide.
21:01There's no evidence in the autopsy report to show that she'd taken enough Librium or Parnate to have killed her.
21:08In spite of her mental distress, Marilyn began a fight back against the studio.
21:13She rallied and she called her press agent and she got her publicist there.
21:20And then she launched a campaign against 20th Century Fox.
21:25They fought through lawyers and through the press for several months.
21:30And finally, 20th Century Fox capitulated.
21:35Five days before her death, 20th Century Fox reinstated her on Something's Got to Give and signed her to a
21:42new $1.2 million two picture deal.
21:494.30 p.m. Marilyn's last day.
21:54After a row with her publicist a few hours earlier, her mood has darkened dramatically.
22:01Her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, is so concerned that she calls Marilyn's psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson.
22:11was one of the most famous psychiatrists in the nation.
22:14He was the psychiatrist for the Hollywood stars.
22:18Marilyn thought that he could help her to get over all of her fears, her insecurities,
22:25and help her to become a whole human being.
22:30By the time Greenson arrives half an hour later, Marilyn is visibly distressed.
22:38He found her to be hysterical.
22:41He felt as though he was being completely overwhelmed by her.
22:47Greenson spends over an hour trying to calm her.
22:50According to the police report, before leaving, Greenson asks Marilyn's housekeeper, Eunice Murray, to stay overnight to keep an eye
22:58on her.
23:00This is the first time he's ever made such a request.
23:087 p.m.
23:11It's Joe Jr.
23:13Marilyn takes a phone call from her former stepson, Joe DiMaggio Jr.
23:18Her mood has significantly altered.
23:22Eunice Murray told investigators that Marilyn spoke in a loud and happy manner and was in very good spirits.
23:328 p.m.
23:34Marilyn tells Eunice Murray she is going to bed.
23:37I think I'll turn in now. Good night.
23:40This is the last time Marilyn is seen alive.
23:47The autopsy report contains a psychological history of Marilyn, which provides evidence to explain her regular, damaging mood swings.
23:57It says, Miss Monroe suffered from psychiatric disturbance for a long time. She experienced severe fears and frequent depressions.
24:08Mood changes were abrupt and unpredictable.
24:14Marilyn was suffering from a form of depression that today we'd call bipolar disorder.
24:20The exact cause of bipolar disorder is unknown, but it's widely believed to be due to imbalance of chemicals in
24:27the brain.
24:28The brain's functions are controlled by chemical neurotransmitters like noradrenaline, serotonin and dopamine.
24:36And it's the imbalance of one or more of these chemicals that may be the cause of bipolar disorder.
24:44Bipolar is a serious mental disorder characterised by extreme shifts in mood and a person can go from being very,
24:52very high and have feelings of grandeur to very, very low and feeling very deeply depressed.
24:59In a very low mood, a person may even have thoughts of suicide.
25:06And Marilyn was no stranger to suicidal thoughts.
25:12February 1961.
25:15Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, New York.
25:19Recently divorced from her third husband, Marilyn was at rock bottom.
25:24She was in a bad state after the divorce from Arthur Miller.
25:28She was heavily into drugs and alcohol and her psychiatrist decided that she needed to go to the hospital.
25:36She was considered to be a risk to herself and was locked in a secure ward.
25:41It's clear that Marilyn Monroe was suffering from severe psychiatric illnesses and was in need of psychiatric help.
25:48Emotional stress can trigger suicidal thoughts in bipolar patients.
25:53And now, 18 months on from hospital, was the abrupt ending of her affair with John F. Kennedy the trigger
26:00for her suicide?
26:078.30 p.m.
26:10Marilyn takes a call from John F. Kennedy's brother-in-law, actor Peter Lawford, who invites her to dinner.
26:18Lawford later states that Marilyn sounded groggy.
26:22She declines the invitation and ends cryptically.
26:26Say goodbye to the president.
26:30We know from the autopsy report, the toxicology and the examination of her stomach, that at about this time Marilyn
26:36had started taking sleeping pills.
26:39And the quantities of those drugs found in her blood and her liver mean that her speech would have been
26:45increasingly impaired.
26:5010 p.m.
26:53Marilyn makes one final telephone call to her close friend, Ralph Roberts.
26:58But he never picks up.
27:04According to the operator who answered the call, Marilyn is barely capable of speech.
27:09She fades out on the phone.
27:15Nobody knows what happens next.
27:223.30 a.m.
27:26Eunice Murray goes to check on Marilyn.
27:30Marilyn's light is still on.
27:33Marilyn.
27:35Marilyn.
27:38Marilyn.
27:38But unusually, the door is locked.
27:41From outside Marilyn's bedroom window, Marie sees her lying face down on the bed.
27:48She calls Marilyn's psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, saying she looks strange.
27:58At 3.40 a.m., Greenson forces entry to Marilyn's room.
28:07According to the police report,
28:10Greenson tells Eunice Murray a few moments later,
28:14quote,
28:15we've lost her.
28:21Minutes later, Marilyn's physician, Hyman Engelberg, arrives and checks for vital signs.
28:29But at 3.50 a.m., he pronounces Marilyn dead.
28:384.35 a.m.
28:4145 minutes later, Engelberg and Greenson alert the emergency services.
28:47They later claim they were too stunned by Marilyn's death to make an earlier call.
29:00You know, when I was called and told that Marilyn had died, I didn't believe it.
29:08I hurried over to Marilyn's house and got there at 5.45 in the morning.
29:16I was there at the time that they wheeled her lifeless body out on a gurney and into the coroner's
29:24van.
29:27All the reporters were shouting at me all sorts of questions like,
29:32how did she die? Was she murdered? Did she commit suicide?
29:36I said I didn't know because we didn't know.
29:40The press, picking up on the bottles of pills found by her bedside,
29:44quickly report a suicidal overdose as the most obvious cause.
29:50This is not the first time Marilyn has tried to kill herself, as the autopsy reveals.
29:57The psychological autopsy report also tells us that Marilyn had made several previous suicide attempts using sedative drugs.
30:07But on each occasion had called for help and was rescued.
30:12So was Marilyn's final call to Ralph Roberts a failed cry for help?
30:17The psychologist concluded that on the night of her death, quote,
30:21the same pattern was repeated, except for the rescue.
30:25After 12 days, the LA coroner announced his official findings.
30:31The basis of all the information obtained, it is our opinion that the case is a probable suicide.
30:39At first sight, there is compelling evidence for this official verdict.
30:44There are multiple pill bottles on the bedside table.
30:47And there's a strong psychiatric history of depression.
30:52And evidence in the autopsy report suggests this is an unanswered cry for help.
31:00But there's been speculation since her death that Marilyn was actually murdered.
31:06One of the suspicions is that the Kennedys had her killed.
31:11John F. Kennedy had ended his affair with Marilyn.
31:14But a new powerful suitor within the Kennedy clan was waiting to pick up where the president had left off.
31:21Jack would start with a woman and then, when he got bored, pass them on to Bobby.
31:28So Marilyn began an affair with Bobby Kennedy, the president's brother.
31:33She was under the mistaken impression that Bobby Kennedy would leave Ethel and his seven children and marry her.
31:43But Bobby, like his brother, dumped her just weeks before her death.
31:49And it's believed she was about to blow the lid on her affairs with the Kennedys in a kiss-and
31:53-tell press conference.
31:55She was known as a loose cannon in Hollywood.
31:59And knew a lot of things that the Kennedys wished they hadn't told her.
32:03And I think they simply wanted her to go away.
32:13If 50 years of rumour are to be believed, Marilyn's death may have been a carefully covered-up murder.
32:23I've investigated thousands of suspicious deaths, and I know that it's often the tiniest clues that reveal whether someone was
32:31murdered.
32:32Hollywood private investigator Fred Otash claimed he'd been bugging Marilyn's house and overheard an argument and a violent struggle.
32:44He alleged that Bobby Kennedy smothered Marilyn with a pillow and left her dead.
32:55The marks from smothering can actually be quite subtle.
33:00I'd be looking to see if there were any pinpoint hemorrhages in the eyes or on the face associated with
33:05asphyxiation.
33:07I'd be looking at the mouth and the gums to see if there was any bruising or small cuts associated
33:12with the pressure from a pillow or a blanket.
33:15And we know from the autopsy report in this case, there were none.
33:20Otash's allegations have never been corroborated, and tapes of the murder he claimed to have have never been produced.
33:26There's nothing to support the theory that Marilyn was smothered.
33:31But in 1991, another theory emerged.
33:35Implicating the Kennedys in another version of events.
33:42Emergency responder James Hall says he arrived to find Marilyn unconscious.
33:51He claimed he was bringing her round when her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, intervened,
33:57produced a syringe of phenobarbital and plunged the needle into her heart, cracking her ribs.
34:07Hall says she died shortly afterwards.
34:10A declaimed Greenson was acting on Bobby Kennedy's instructions, but offered no evidence in support.
34:20The autopsy is quite clear.
34:22There is no injection site on the front of the chest, and there is no fractured rib.
34:27And this theory, like all of the conspiracies, can be discounted.
34:33But Dr. Shepard has now pieced together all the evidence in the autopsy report and Marilyn's medical records, so he
34:41believes he can now finally reveal who was responsible for the death of Marilyn Monroe.
34:49The toxicology report shows there is another drug present in Marilyn Monroe's bloodstream the night that she died.
34:56It's a drug called Nembutal.
35:00And it's the presence of an empty bottle of this drug by her bedside that leads me to what I
35:06believe is the real story of her death.
35:11Nembutal is a powerful barbiturate drug that is used to treat insomnia.
35:15Marilyn had previously used barbiturates to combat her sleeplessness.
35:21But the psychological report commissioned with her autopsy reveals that there had been a concerted effort by her doctors to
35:28tackle this dependency.
35:31It says here, one of the main objectives of her psychiatric treatment was the reduction of her intake of drugs.
35:38This has been partially successful over the last two months.
35:44In particular, Ralph Greenson, with the help of her physician Hyman Engelberg, was weaning Marilyn off her reliance on Nembutal.
35:52The plan was to substitute Nembutal with the less addictive and faster acting sedative Chloral Hydrate.
35:59The doctors were under pressure by the studios for her to show up and act like a normal person.
36:08But the toxicology report provides evidence that this plan had fallen apart two days before her death.
36:17Marilyn was prescribed 25 1.5 grain capsules of Nembutal on the 3rd of August 1962.
36:26But Marilyn was already being prescribed Chloral Hydrate for her sleeplessness.
36:32And the autopsy shows that Marilyn had taken a large dose of Chloral Hydrate the night she died.
36:38Chloral Hydrate and Nembutal taken together can have a fatal effect on the respiratory system.
36:47And it's curious that she should be given both drugs together.
36:51It's possible that Marilyn demanded the barbiturate and one of her doctors simply caved in.
37:00She was a powerful, beautiful and seductive woman who was used to getting her own way.
37:05And I can imagine she would have been really hard to resist.
37:11But prescribing Nembutal on top of the Chloral Hydrate was like signing her death sentence.
37:25Marilyn's prescribing doctor, Hyman Engelberg, denied this double dosing of sedatives.
37:31It's a denial he repeated under oath in 1982.
37:35This is the original recording of his interview.
37:39The coroners told me after that they had found evidence of barbiturates and chloral hydrate.
37:46I knew nothing about any chloral hydrate. I never used chloral hydrate.
37:50So you wrote her prescription for Nembutal on it?
37:54That was it. It's the only prescription I wrote.
37:57But Dr. Shepard has found evidence in Marilyn's recently disclosed medical records
38:02that shows Dr. Engelberg's statement that he didn't prescribe chloral hydrate was false.
38:09Amongst the prescriptions I have one for chloral hydrate written out by Hyman Engelberg on the 7th of June 1962.
38:17And this is one of the three prescriptions for chloral hydrate that he gave to Marilyn in the two months
38:22before her death.
38:24Further evidence of Engelberg's double dosing is provided in this photo.
38:30The significance of which was previously ignored.
38:34It's a bottle of chloral hydrate found on Marilyn's bedside table the day she died.
38:41And it clearly shows Engelberg's name and the date 25th of July 1962,
38:47a prescription just 10 days before her death.
38:52The new prescription evidence shows clearly that Dr. Engelberg prescribed chloral hydrate in addition to the Nembutal.
39:00This is a damning piece of evidence and it's the final piece in the true story about the death of
39:06Marilyn Monroe.
39:07No evidence of either drug was found in her stomach.
39:10But in the long hours between when she was last seen alive and when she died,
39:15the drugs would have been absorbed into her bloodstream.
39:19And the autopsy report shows clearly there were high levels of both of those drugs in her system at the
39:25time she died.
39:27Marilyn had not taken a lethal dose of chloral hydrate the night she died.
39:31But in low doses the sedative can adversely impact the short term memory.
39:38The effects on the short term memory of chloral hydrate might mean that Marilyn simply forgot she'd taken a Nembutal
39:44and so took another dose.
39:55There was an empty bottle of Nembutal at her bedside and the toxicology report shows there was a large quantity
40:02of the drug in her body,
40:034.5 milligrams per cent in her blood and 30 milligrams per cent in her liver, which represents a lethal
40:09dose.
40:10So it's clear that Marilyn did take the drugs and it's most likely that she did so with the intention
40:15of calling for help.
40:21But the combined effects of the chloral hydrate and the Nembutal were so quick in their action that she was
40:28unable to make that call.
40:32Marilyn's body had been affected by two powerful sedative drugs that would have depressed parts of the brain.
40:38At a high level, the parts of the brain that are affected are the control centres, including the part of
40:45the brain that controls respiration.
40:48And once that happens, breathing becomes slower and shallower and eventually stops.
40:55And once the breathing is stopped, the body is deprived of oxygen and Marilyn would have died.
41:06Prescribing Nembutal and chloral hydrate together was an obvious risk given Marilyn's history of suicide attempts and cries for help.
41:14And my opinion is that it is a combination of those two drugs that killed Marilyn Monroe.
41:22It was not a suicide attempt, but it was an accidental death associated with medical negligence.
41:34Tragically, sleep was Marilyn's safe haven.
41:38And, you know, she would go into that harbour of sleep to run away from all of her problems.
41:45Tragically, one night she went into that safe harbour but didn't come out.
42:02We're all heaps inok the family sentence.
42:06Nippoese A remain acute.
42:06We gotta go to that safe got him up here.
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