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Marilyn and the Mob 2026 Season 1 Episode 1
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00:02There, glittering on the screen, I can see my town in its potty dress and see again, shown so vividly
00:09across the horizon.
00:12Marilyn Monroe. One of the most iconic movie stars of the 20th century.
00:18You mix everything about Marilyn Monroe together like a cocktail. Her physical beauty, her wit, her talent for acting.
00:27Adored for her beauty, Marilyn was also a performer of remarkable depth and charisma.
00:35Marilyn is a perfect movie star. You watch her repertoire really expand throughout the course of her career.
00:43To the world, she was the picture of glamour and success. Yet behind the facade lay vulnerability, turmoil and danger.
00:55From Marilyn's earliest days in Hollywood.
00:57On the surface, she seemed to have such a zest for life.
01:01To her untimely death, aged 36.
01:05Marilyn Monroe was found dead in bed.
01:07Under circumstances that were...
01:08Powerful and ruthless men tried to possess and control her.
01:13These were people that Marilyn will have at some point or another come into contact with.
01:17Some speculates left with.
01:20Celebrities.
01:22Politicians.
01:24And violent figures from the world of organized crime.
01:28Everyone in the mob knew that John F. Kennedy was sleeping with Marilyn Monroe.
01:34What were Marilyn's connections to the mob?
01:37And did they play a role in her mysterious death?
01:40Box office favours.
01:42Motion picture hit.
01:57Norma Jean Mortensen was born in California in 1926.
02:04Unfortunately, her mother suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was eventually institutionalized for it.
02:10Which meant that Marilyn had very little contact with her mother.
02:15She was almost immediately after birth put into foster care with a family.
02:22They were very religious.
02:23And it was a very strict upbringing on her.
02:28She spent her early years, her childhood years, in many different foster homes and for a while in an orphanage.
02:36Marilyn is exploited by cruel and manipulative people from an early age.
02:40A pattern that will repeat throughout her life.
02:45There are various sources that say that she may have suffered some sexual abuse in her childhood.
02:52By the time she was 16, she had lived quite a rough childhood and quite a rough upbringing.
03:00When she was a child, in all her loneliness and unhappiness, her one escape was the movies.
03:07She always said that.
03:08She'd go to the movies early in the morning and sit at the movie theater all day long watching whatever
03:14was playing over and over again.
03:16And I think that started to look to her as an escape.
03:21She could be other people.
03:22She didn't always have to be Norma Jean.
03:25I think that that was the seeds in her wanting to become an actress.
03:35The Hollywood Strip is not a burlesque, but a section of Sunset Boulevard flanked by celibacy.
03:41By the time that Norma Jean is growing up in the 20s and 30s, Hollywood has established itself as the
03:48kind of primary form of entertainment.
03:50It's the American public who are looking to the screen for solace during difficult times and a sense of hope.
04:00And so young Norma Jean was another kind of person who was going to the movies, loving Jean Harlow, another
04:06great blonde bombshell.
04:08She looked to these stars and saw something to emulate or to admire.
04:20Women are employed as never before.
04:22More than 19 million at the war's peak.
04:25When World War II breaks out, Norma Jean takes a job in a munitions factory.
04:31After a short-lived marriage in her teens, the factory offers stability.
04:36Until a chance encounter changes her life and sets her on the path towards Hollywood.
04:43There was a photographer.
04:45David Conover was assigned to basically take photographs of the attractive young women working to encourage other women to join
04:54up the war effort.
04:57He saw immediately that she was very photogenic and they immediately saw her potential and she started working right away
05:04as a model.
05:06That world sort of introduced her into the acting world.
05:10In 1946, she changes her name.
05:15She takes her first name from a Broadway actress, Marilyn Miller, and she takes her surname, Monroe, which is her
05:20mother's maiden name.
05:23So in this middle 40s, late 40s period, she meets a series of photographers, agents, acting coaches.
05:32And begins to sculpt an image which is different from this kind of sweet strawberry blonde.
05:39And she starts to really lean into the voluptuous blonde.
05:49As Marilyn Miller tries to make it as an actress, she soon discovers that Hollywood has a dark side.
05:56From the early years of Hollywood, there was a connection between organized crime and some of these studios.
06:05If you wanted to be successful in Hollywood, you had to know organized crime figures.
06:10Across America, organized crime is thriving.
06:13From mobsters in New York to gangsters in the Midwest controlled by mob boss Al Capone.
06:19The next frontier for these mobs is California.
06:24It came from the outfit in Chicago, which was Al Capone's organization.
06:29There are lots of ample opportunities for them to extort and racketeer across the state and particularly across Los Angeles.
06:37They were sent to shake down the movie studios and extort a tremendous amount of money from them on an
06:44annual basis.
06:47Most of the big movie studios had to pay $100,000 a year.
06:53So the studios hand in hand are very much linked into the mob.
06:57The mob was able to control Hollywood.
07:04The attraction with Hollywood, it looked easy, the glamour.
07:08It's a very misogynistic kind of environment.
07:13And you've got all these powerful people, head of studios or casting directors.
07:19It's an open secret in Hollywood.
07:22The casting couch.
07:23A polite phrase for a dark and abusive practice.
07:28Girls were asked for sexual favours in return for parts in movies.
07:35It was one of the only ways to really break in.
07:39It was almost like an initiation.
07:41Casting couch plays, it still does.
07:45It played an enormous role in the stars' kind of rise to fame.
07:53You're selling sex for a job.
07:57Sex to get on.
07:58Sex for status.
08:01And often I would think sex for absolutely nothing at all.
08:04Because as soon as you've had the sex, there's no interest anymore.
08:10Certainly in the 30s, 40s, 50s, you have this truth amongst actresses that there are certain things that must be
08:17done in the name of advancing one's career.
08:35You've got Marlon Monroe coming into this world as a hugely attractive girl, willing to help everybody, troubled by her
08:44own upbringing, wanting to get on, seeing other people getting on.
08:49Wanting to be a star.
08:53Marlon used whatever she had to get ahead.
08:56She famously said, Hollywood is a place where they pay you $1,000 for a kiss and 50 cents for
09:01your soul.
09:02She desperately wanted you to be taken seriously as a serious actress.
09:06She's going to have the best care a car ever had.
09:09And I think sometimes her looks actually went against her.
09:13She sees the casting coach for what that is.
09:15She's quite willing to lie on that casting coach.
09:18She's quite willing to move up the studio system through connections with studio bosses.
09:24She wrote a piece called The Wolves I Have Known.
09:27She talked about all the different men that had sort of tried to take advantage of her throughout her career.
09:32She was very conscious of that.
09:35In 1949, Marlon was actually signed to a small contract with 20th Century Fox.
09:51At 20th Century Fox, Marlon's beauty and charm don't go unnoticed, especially by legendary studio boss Joseph Skank.
10:01Joseph Skank is an important money man and one of the original founders of 20th Century Fox and Hollywood as
10:08an empire.
10:11He's a much older man by the time Marlon is on the scene.
10:15Sort of a symbiotic relationship where he's impressed by her beauty and her sexuality and she knows that this is
10:22a good man to have helping her.
10:25And he must be late 60s, 70s.
10:29She's early 20s, so there's a relationship which is beneficial to both.
10:34He's a studio head, he can help her in her career, she can make him feel better.
10:40He became extremely fond of her.
10:43He's the one that actually got her the role in Ladies of the Chorus, her first speaking role.
10:51But he's a very powerful man to have in her corner and he starts to invite her to his parties,
10:55to his poker games and things of that nature.
10:59At Skank's exclusive poker parties, Hollywood's elite rubbed shoulders with the underworld's most notorious figures.
11:08You have Marlon there, you may have other starlets there, all sitting on their knees.
11:12They were sexual favors.
11:15Now, Skank had a bit of a checkered past.
11:18He'd been in prison.
11:21He had long had relationships with gangsters like Sam Giancana and Johnny Rosselli, who was another very powerful figure.
11:29These were people that Marlon will have at some point or another come into contact with.
11:35Some speculate, slept with.
11:37But she would have known and been aware of these people and how powerful they were from quite an early
11:41point in her career.
11:45Marlon's career takes her to a new studio, one which had alleged ties to organized crime.
11:54One of the studios, Columbia Pictures, was run by a man named Harry Cohn.
11:59The mob invested so much money in Columbia Pictures that they were able to control who appeared in movies, who
12:07didn't appear in movies, and even in some cases what movies were made and not made.
12:12Harry Cohn was known as, quote unquote, the meanest man in Hollywood.
12:18He was notorious for not at all soft-pedaling his critiques of his stars and his employees.
12:26He fired people at the drop of a hat.
12:28He was a notorious tyrant.
12:32Cohn was very severely connected to the mob and very, very powerful man.
12:39Quite a frightening man, I think, too, because, I mean, he was vicious.
12:44He was blood brothers, in a sense, with Johnny Rosselli, who was the Mr. Fix-It in Hollywood, with a
12:51mob.
12:52And Rosselli even gave him a sapphire ring, and he had one for himself, and these were his and her
12:57rings, if you like.
12:58Studio had one, and the mob guy had one.
13:02Actresses who wanted to star in a Harry Cohn movie at Columbia Pictures often had to sleep with Harry.
13:10And there were a couple of actresses who refused to do it and went to other studios where they had
13:14successful careers.
13:17Powerful and sometimes dangerous men like Joseph Skank and Harry Cohn shape Marilyn's early career.
13:24But it's a man named Johnny Hyde who truly sets her on the road to superstardom.
13:35Johnny Hyde was the president of William Morris Agency, one of the most powerful acting agencies in Hollywood at the
13:42time.
13:42And he was mad in love with Marilyn.
13:45He met Marilyn at a New Year's Eve party.
13:50And he actually left his wife to devote himself totally to Marilyn in her career.
13:58And together, they kind of form the Marilyn that we see and recognize today.
14:05She becomes fully platinum blonde.
14:09She has very slight corrective surgery to fix a little bump on her nose.
14:16She has electrolysis to change her hairline.
14:19She starts to be sewn into her dresses.
14:22She mixes Vaseline in with her foundations so that she has this kind of incredible glow on the screen.
14:28So it's very much a moment of persona creation.
14:33And he got her the two roles that really jump-started her career.
14:38All about Eve and the asphalt jungle.
14:42And she really got a chance to shine in them.
14:47Unfortunately, he didn't live very long after that.
14:49So he never got to see what he accomplished in really being the springboard for one of the greatest stars
14:55in Hollywood history.
15:00I like to think that Marilyn was aware of the fact that these men were often, quote-unquote, wolves.
15:07That they treated Hollywood like an open brothel.
15:10So I don't think that she was this stereotype of a little girl lost who was so innocent and naive
15:17that she just was stumbling around looking for a daddy.
15:20I think that's quite a reductive and ultimately not very empowered way to see Marilyn.
15:28For Marilyn, Hyde's sudden death from a heart attack at 55 is devastating.
15:34But her career is now unstoppable.
15:37By the early 1950s, the age of Marilyn Monroe has begun.
15:43Now, here comes a young lady who has created a real sensation in the picture business.
15:47That's Marilyn Monroe.
15:53The public started noticing her.
15:57And the fan mail started coming in.
15:59Who's the blonde?
16:01You know, I know Marilyn.
16:02When's the first time we met?
16:03Well, once you almost gave me a job.
16:05There was an excitement about her.
16:07Everybody in the industry felt it now.
16:10They knew she was going places.
16:11So they put her on the cover of Life magazine with the headline, The Talk of Hollywood.
16:17She's become a huge pinup for Korean war veterans.
16:20Marilyn Monroe arrives in Korea to tour the front lines for four days.
16:24Live with troops as Marilyn puts on her act.
16:28Officers estimate that she plays to about 60,000 men in her first two days in Korea.
16:37People are coming out in their droves to see her, to see her appearances at things.
16:44She's really become this kind of cultural phenomenon.
16:48Marilyn was a sort of supernova by this point.
16:50She was this glittering blonde diamond of a star.
16:54And everyone was incredibly in love with her.
16:58She was magnetic.
17:01Marilyn's rise is meteoric.
17:03In 1953 alone, she stars in Gentleman Prefer Blondes,
17:09How to Marry a Millionaire,
17:11and Niagara.
17:15They put her in full technicolor glory.
17:19And wow, the impact she had on audiences.
17:23Seeing Marilyn Monroe flesh come to life on the screen,
17:27she bowled everybody over.
17:28At this point, there was no other blonde in Hollywood.
17:31It was only Marilyn Monroe.
17:43As Marilyn's stardom soars,
17:45so does the public's fascination.
17:47Especially when she falls for one of the most famous athletes in the world.
17:52One of baseball's all-time greats, Joe DiMaggio.
17:55Joe DiMaggio slams what looks like a sure homer.
17:59Joe DiMaggio had just retired.
18:00He was one of the greatest baseball players.
18:03for the Yankees in history.
18:05He met Marilyn.
18:06And he asked some friends to pull some strings to get a date with her.
18:11He was very taken with her right away.
18:14And she was taken with him.
18:16They have a brief marriage.
18:19Nine-month marriage.
18:20Former baseball star Joe DiMaggio,
18:22wed screen star Marilyn Monroe.
18:25They kept the nation...
18:27The level of fame that was afforded to them
18:30as this enormous celebrity couple.
18:38I think she was always in search of the father that she never knew.
18:43There was something of a father figure in the relationship.
18:46She needed a protector.
18:48And Joe DiMaggio offered that.
19:03They were actually filming on a subway grate,
19:06and there was a man underneath the grate with a fan.
19:10And the dress was going way up in the air.
19:15As funny as it is to believe today,
19:16that was quite a shocking thing to do.
19:19And a lot of people complained about it.
19:23There's an open set on The Seven Year Itch
19:26where the famous shot of the white dress
19:29blowing up over the subway grate
19:30is then attended not only by the cast and crew,
19:33which is already a lot of people,
19:35but by people in New York who just want to come
19:37and flock to see Marilyn maybe show her underwear.
19:41Joe DiMaggio was watching it with several other people,
19:45and that was his wife.
19:48He was mortified at that.
19:50But, you know, you marry Marilyn Monroe,
19:52that's part of the bargain.
19:56He's aggressive to the point of violence,
19:59jealousy, and protectiveness around her.
20:02So The Seven Year Itch kind of comes as a final straw for DiMaggio
20:05that they got into such a violent fight
20:07after that she shot the scene that he struck her.
20:11The marriage was effectively over and on its way out
20:15by the time The Seven Year Itch comes out.
20:20Joe DiMaggio believed that Marilyn Monroe left him
20:25not because he was abusive to her, which he was,
20:28but because she was having an affair with another man.
20:31And he hoped that if he hired a private detective,
20:35to film her, that that would bring her back to him.
20:41Joe DiMaggio turns to a close friend for help,
20:44a man with mob connections,
20:46who also happens to be the most famous singer of the age.
20:50Mr. Swoon himself, the old Collapso singer, Frank Sinatra.
20:58Sinatra, for all of his great talent,
21:01does sometimes fancy himself as a bit of a tough guy
21:04and does like to pal around with gangsters.
21:09And so him and DiMaggio run in the same circles
21:12as tough-guy Italian-Americans,
21:13and they know each other, they're friendly.
21:16Frank Sinatra had quite a few ties to the mob.
21:19DiMaggio asked Sinatra, with the connections that Sinatra has,
21:22to burst in on Marilyn having an affair.
21:26Mr. Swoon himself,
21:26Sinatra suggests they all go over there
21:28with one of their heavies to Marilyn Monroe's apartment
21:31to catch her in the act.
21:34And instead, they went to the wrong door.
21:39And with sledgehammers and axes,
21:41they hacked down some woman's apartment door,
21:44and she was screaming and yelling,
21:46and she didn't know what was happening.
21:49And when they realized they had knocked down
21:52the wrong door of the wrong apartment,
21:53they all took off running.
21:56It's a very, very ugly event.
21:59But what it does show is a very depressing degree
22:02to which that patriarchal chumminess
22:05and male chumminess meant that they felt
22:06they had complete carte blanche and ownership over her
22:09to do something like that,
22:10which is a pattern you see again and again
22:12in her life, unfortunately.
22:15By 1955, Marilyn is one of 20th Century Fox's biggest stars,
22:21her films grossing tens of millions.
22:24But with superstardom comes relentless pressure.
22:30Marilyn was always very nervous on set.
22:33She often requested many retakes.
22:35She sometimes forgot her lines.
22:38Some of her early acting coaches,
22:40a woman called Natasha Laites that she worked with,
22:43used to say sometimes for close-ups,
22:45she would ask to hold Natasha's hand on the set.
22:48She always felt she had to either live up to her image
22:52or better it.
22:53And it put a tremendous strain on her to face the camera.
22:58She had become this otherworldly kind of person,
23:02this phenomenon.
23:05And so the appeal of a little bit of something
23:09to take the edge off,
23:10a little bit of second all,
23:13some barbiturates,
23:14a little bit of champagne,
23:15which was her drink of choice,
23:17would just relax her a bit.
23:19It starts out as a relatively innocuous habit
23:22that many other stars have.
23:24But it does grow over time,
23:27and fame mounts and pressure mounts.
23:31Feeling suffocated by Hollywood,
23:33Marilyn escapes to New York,
23:35determined to reinvent herself.
23:38There, she studies acting to hone her craft
23:41and begins to move in more liberal intellectual circles.
23:50She's hanging out in these New York circles,
23:52and she meets the great playwright of The Crucible,
23:54Arthur Miller,
23:56who is very taken with her.
23:59And he will become her third husband.
24:02Actress Marilyn Monroe and playwright Arthur Miller
24:04are married,
24:05climaxing days of worldwide speculation.
24:08The happy couple poses for a battery of feverish photographers
24:11at their honeymoon retreat
24:12at the Miller Farm in Roxbury, Connecticut.
24:15Arthur Miller is a left-wing firebrand.
24:18Were you actually a member of the Communist Party
24:20at the Earth one time?
24:21I attended several meetings
24:23that were meetings of Communist Riders.
24:25And soon, Marilyn finds herself
24:27caught in the political crossfire of 1950s America.
24:33As his wife,
24:34and as someone who very, very strongly supported that position,
24:38there's a question mark over her.
24:40And so J. Edgar Hoover,
24:41who's the head of the FBI,
24:43opened a file on her.
24:45It does put her in the position
24:46to be accused of communist leanings.
24:56It's a bit of a mixed bag for Marilyn in the late 50s.
25:00Her career is doing phenomenally well.
25:03Marilyn's brilliance shines brighter than ever
25:05in the smash hit comedy Some Like It Hot.
25:10Some Like It Hot,
25:11along with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
25:13it's the quintessential Marilyn Monroe movie.
25:16I mean, it became a smash hit.
25:18I think it was the biggest hit of her career.
25:22And she wins the Golden Globe in 1959 for that performance.
25:26But unfortunately, same time,
25:29her personal life is unraveling.
25:32She's not having a lot of luck in her marriage
25:34to Arthur Miller.
25:36That's not helping with her ongoing substance abuse.
25:40By the end of the 1950s,
25:42where she was personally and where she was professionally
25:45were pretty much at odds.
25:48In 1960, Marilyn stars in The Misfits,
25:52a powerful drama penned by her husband, Arthur Miller.
25:56Though hailed as one of her finest performances,
25:59the production itself is plagued by tension and turmoil.
26:04She was addicted to sleeping pills.
26:07If it was difficult for her to face the camera before,
26:10now it was nearly impossible.
26:12Eventually, they had to shut down the production.
26:15Her eyes weren't focusing when they were shooting.
26:18She was just too sort of zonked out on the sleeping pills.
26:22Her marriage with Arthur Miller was unraveling at that time.
26:26He left his diary out for her to see,
26:28and it was saying what a disappointment
26:30she turned out to be to him.
26:33It devastated her.
26:35And I think that was the moment that started
26:38the house of cards collapsing.
26:41It's a tragically familiar pattern in Marilyn's life.
26:45From mob-linked moguls in Hollywood
26:48to writers and intellectuals in New York City,
26:52her search for love and stability
26:54repeatedly collides with men who exploit and control her.
26:58When she separates from Arthur Miller,
27:00she really takes a sort of a downhill slide.
27:05She ends up going into a psychiatric institution
27:08called the Pain Whitney in New York.
27:12She ended up having some terrible sort of existential crisis
27:15while she was there.
27:17Eventually, she's heavily sedated
27:18and put in a sort of padded cell.
27:22It probably was one of the most terrifying experiences
27:25of her life.
27:26And she finally got one call through,
27:28and she called the one person
27:29she knew she could count on.
27:31It's quite an interesting story
27:33of who she relies on when she's at her lowest ebb,
27:36and it's not Arthur Miller,
27:37and it's not anyone who you would have thought.
27:40It's Joda magic.
27:44And he got her out of there.
27:50After leaving the hospital,
27:52Marilyn doesn't return to Joe DiMaggio,
27:55but reputedly finds comfort
27:57in the arms of his close friend, Frank Sinatra,
28:01beginning a risky new affair.
28:06Frank Sinatra has always been in and around
28:10the glitz and glamour of Marilyn's life.
28:13He bought her a dog
28:15when he heard news of her and Arthur Miller's divorce
28:18in order to console her,
28:19which she then nicknamed Moffs,
28:22as in Mafia.
28:24She was always aware of what was going on,
28:27if nothing else.
28:29Frank Sinatra had an on-again, off-again relationship
28:34with Marilyn Monroe.
28:35He was attracted to Monroe.
28:38He liked Monroe.
28:39He respected Monroe.
28:43Marilyn has long known men with ties to organized crime,
28:47but Sinatra now brings her even closer to the mob.
28:51He's been friends with gangsters since his childhood in New Jersey.
29:00Frank Sinatra was born into the mob in Hoboken.
29:05His mother ran a bar
29:07where all the mobsters hung out.
29:09He was kind of adopted by them.
29:12When Frank's mother asked the Mafia boss
29:15to help get her son singing engagements,
29:18Willie did,
29:19because the mob controlled just about all the nightclubs
29:22in New York and in New Jersey.
29:24It was no big deal for him to get that to happen.
29:28His career was managed.
29:34He was organized by them
29:35in a big way from the very early days
29:38all the way through.
29:41Marilyn started dating Frank Sinatra seriously in 1961
29:46after her divorce.
29:49Their relationship, more hush-hush.
29:51He had been good friends with Joe DiMagino,
29:54and he knew that it would hurt him.
29:58Marilyn's affair with Sinatra is brief but intense.
30:01And even after it ends,
30:03their friendship endures.
30:05Yet she remains connected to Sinatra's world.
30:07A glittering circle where Hollywood stars,
30:10politicians, and mobsters allegedly mingle,
30:13including the notorious Sam Giancana.
30:28Sam Giancana is a Chicago gangster
30:31who came up in the 1920s in Chicago.
30:35He gained this reputation of being the toughest guy.
30:39He made money for the Chicago mob.
30:42He took care of those who opposed the Chicago mob.
30:46I think with Giancana, he was so psyched about it.
30:49He killed so many people he thought entitled to get what he wanted.
30:53I haven't got away with it.
30:54I've got away with it for so long.
30:56He loved being around celebrities.
30:59When Frank Sinatra meets him in the early 1950s,
31:03he finds a bit of a fellow traveler in Giancana.
31:06He's a tough guy.
31:09Giancana was attracted to the fame,
31:12the accoutrements of fame,
31:14the women, the jewelry, the swagger.
31:17If you haven't got your own swagger,
31:18borrow somebody else's.
31:22Frank Sinatra and Sam Giancana
31:24are rumored to have been close for years,
31:26sharing a taste for nightlife,
31:28gambling, and beautiful women.
31:31But politics soon joins the list
31:33when they come into the orbit
31:35of a promising young senator
31:36with presidential ambitions,
31:38John F. Kennedy.
31:40Announcing my candidacy
31:41for the presidency of the United States.
31:43John Kennedy made no bones
31:46about the fact that he had high ambitions,
31:48politically speaking.
31:51His father was a powerful corporate figure,
31:56Joseph Kennedy.
31:58Beneath John F. Kennedy's
32:00immaculate public persona,
32:02historians have long pointed to rumors
32:04of a covert alliance
32:05tying the Kennedy family
32:06to organized crime.
32:08Though disputed,
32:10some argue that Sam Giancana
32:12played a role in John F. Kennedy's
32:14election victory
32:16by leaning on mob-controlled unions
32:18to deliver votes.
32:20With Frank Sinatra acting as a middleman
32:22between the Kennedys and the gangster.
32:26One of Sinatra's daughters,
32:29Tina,
32:29who wrote a biography of her father,
32:31she asked him point blank,
32:34is there evidence
32:35that the Kennedy family
32:37asked you to intervene
32:38with Sam Giancana
32:40to help win the 1960 presidential election?
32:42To her surprise,
32:45he said yes.
32:47In 1960,
32:49there shot a lot of votes.
32:52Gerald Kennedy Sr.
32:54meets Sam Giancana
32:55for a meeting orchestrated by Frank Sinatra.
32:59They agree that Sam will buy
33:01the election for Kennedy.
33:03You've got Hollywood,
33:04you've got the mob,
33:05you've got Kennedy,
33:07and you've got a deal done.
33:09Do John Fitzgerald Kennedy
33:11do solemnly swear...
33:13I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
33:15do solemnly swear...
33:16...that you will faithfully execute
33:18the office of President
33:19of the United States.
33:20I will faithfully execute
33:22the office of President
33:23of the United States.
33:24The public know nothing
33:26of John F. Kennedy's
33:27alleged connections to the mob.
33:30Nor do they know
33:31of his many vices,
33:32including an appetite
33:33for womanizing,
33:34which is assisted by his friend
33:36and brother-in-law,
33:37Peter Lawford.
33:38But as far as I'm concerned,
33:40it hasn't changed me.
33:40I'm still looking for a job.
33:43Peter Lawford was an English actor,
33:47an old aristo,
33:48who went to Los Angeles
33:50to become famous,
33:51and he married Patricia Kennedy,
33:55who is the sister of Jack Kennedy.
33:58He was very good friends
33:59with Frank Sinatra.
34:01He had huge pool quarters
34:02in his house in Santa Monica.
34:05He was one of the big
34:06sort of social hubs.
34:08He knew everybody.
34:11Lawford, as well as Frank Sinatra,
34:13another friend,
34:14were there to supply women
34:16to Kennedy.
34:17John F. Kennedy loved women.
34:21He had an unending round
34:22of affairs with women,
34:23and he was really excited
34:25about being around
34:26Hollywood starlets.
34:28There are numerous stories
34:30about Marilyn Monroe and JFK,
34:33and how they met,
34:35and how their affair began.
34:37In the 1960 Democratic Convention
34:40in Los Angeles,
34:41they have photographed together
34:42with Frank Sinatra
34:44and Peter Lawford,
34:45and they're flirting away heavily.
34:48Then he invites her
34:49to go and stay with him
34:51at Bing Crosby's house.
34:53It was supposed to be
34:54Frank Sinatra's house.
34:56Robert F. Kennedy
34:57said to his brother,
34:58I don't think you should go there.
35:00Sinatra is too closely associated
35:02with the mafia,
35:03and it's not good
35:04for your reputation,
35:05and it's not good
35:06for what I want to do
35:07in terms of prosecuting the mob.
35:12In an unusual move,
35:14John F. Kennedy
35:15has appointed his own brother,
35:17Robert F. Kennedy,
35:18as Attorney General,
35:19the nation's top legal authority.
35:22Attorney General,
35:24in the appointments I have made,
35:26I have sought
35:27the most qualified men.
35:30Robert Kennedy was,
35:32in many ways, a crusader.
35:35That he saw one
35:36of the greatest threats
35:37to the United States
35:38was organized crime.
35:40Whether it was in New York City
35:42or Chicago,
35:43in Las Vegas,
35:44no matter who it was,
35:46he took it as a mission
35:47to go after organized crime.
35:50Joseph Kennedy, Robert's father,
35:52asked him not to go after the mob,
35:54that it could be
35:55a dangerous thing to do.
35:58Sam Giancana hated the Kennedys
36:00because he thought
36:01he had done everything
36:02he was asked to do for them,
36:04and the reward for doing that
36:06is that Robert Kennedy
36:08is going after him
36:09in the Chicago outfit.
36:11They had back-and-forth arguments
36:14on camera.
36:15Is it because you got
36:16the $500?
36:17No, sir.
36:18And with Sam Giancana,
36:19who almost always pled
36:21the Fifth Amendment,
36:22Kennedy actually humiliated him.
36:24He said,
36:25you know,
36:25you seem,
36:27when you answer that way,
36:29sometimes you giggle.
36:30You know,
36:31I thought only little girls
36:33giggled
36:34when they answer questions.
36:37It was a public humiliation
36:39of Giancana.
36:40He had an absolute hatred
36:41of Robert F. Kennedy
36:43and John F. Kennedy.
36:44Do you plan to have
36:45any committees,
36:46any witnesses, rather,
36:47from New York
36:48for the committee?
36:49Yes,
36:49there'll be a number
36:50of witnesses
36:50from the New York City area
36:52and a number of witnesses
36:53from New Jersey.
36:54He got over 400 indictments
36:57against mobsters
36:58and sent many of them
36:59to prison
36:59for very, very long
37:00prison terms.
37:01Is that the reason
37:02that you didn't take
37:03any action?
37:04Don't you know
37:05that was the reason?
37:06No, I know it was not.
37:07Why didn't you take
37:08any action
37:08the following morning?
37:12As Robert F. Kennedy's
37:14crusade against the mob
37:15draws dangerous attention,
37:18Marilyn and JFK
37:19reportedly continue
37:20their secret rendezvous
37:21at the Los Angeles
37:22home of Peter Lawford.
37:28Peter Lawford's house
37:30in Santa Monica
37:31was absolutely glorious
37:33and right on the beach.
37:34It was famous
37:35for its fantastic parties.
37:39JFK stayed there
37:40quite a lot
37:41because obviously
37:41his sister was married
37:43to Peter Lawford.
37:44So therefore
37:45it was a family house
37:47and a sort of safe space
37:49I suppose
37:50for him to meet up
37:53with Marilyn.
37:55So Marilyn would come
37:56over for dinner
37:57and would often
37:58stay the night.
38:00Peter Lawford's house
38:01was bugged.
38:02So therefore
38:04we have stories
38:04about her having sex
38:06with JFK
38:07in the shower
38:08and her staying
38:10the night with him
38:11and then them going
38:12for a walk
38:12along the beach.
38:15Word spreads
38:16in powerful circles
38:17that Peter Lawford's
38:18home has become
38:19a playground
38:20for Hollywood stars
38:21and Washington insiders.
38:23Making it
38:24and its guests
38:26including Marilyn Monroe
38:27and John F. Kennedy
38:28prime targets
38:30for surveillance
38:30and blackmail.
38:33One person
38:34allegedly watching closely
38:36is a man named
38:37Fred Otash.
38:44Fred Otash
38:45was a private eye
38:47who said
38:49that at various points
38:50he had worked
38:51wiretapping
38:52and trailing people
38:53for the FBI,
38:55the CIA,
38:56the mafia.
38:59tapping phones,
39:01bugging rooms
39:02and reporting
39:03on celebrities
39:04and reporting
39:05on politicians.
39:06He was known
39:07to Sinatra.
39:08He was known
39:09to DiMaggio.
39:11He was likely
39:12a known associate
39:13of some gangsters
39:13like Sam Giancana.
39:16Fred,
39:17I learned quite early on
39:19how to wiretap.
39:20He bugs everybody.
39:22He bugs me
39:27from Alan Munro's
39:28apartments.
39:30He's a major player
39:32feeling information.
39:34Fred Otash
39:35apparently could make
39:36a microphone
39:37the size of a grain of rice.
39:39He was the one
39:40who put all the microphones
39:41in Marilyn's house.
39:42He was supposedly
39:44sitting outside
39:44most of the time
39:45in some small van
39:46listening to what was
39:48going on in Marilyn's house
39:49with great big tapes
39:50whirring.
39:51There are lots of stories
39:52about whether
39:52it was the mob
39:53who'd paid for him
39:55to bug Marilyn's house
39:57or whether it was
39:59the Kennedys
40:00in order to
40:01get information
40:02or whether it was
40:04the FBI
40:04or the CIA.
40:06There were hundreds
40:07of people
40:08who had interest
40:09but nobody quite knows
40:11who actually
40:11came up with the cash.
40:17Marilyn Munro
40:18now finds herself
40:19unknowingly trapped
40:20in a web of intrigue.
40:22Caught between
40:23organized crime
40:24and the president
40:25of the United States.
40:32He was the most
40:33powerful man in the world.
40:34He was a very charismatic man.
40:37She was the most
40:38desirable woman
40:39in the world.
40:41She was 35
40:43going on 36.
40:45The newspapers
40:46were already saying
40:48how much longer
40:49could she go on?
40:50How much longer
40:50could she be
40:51the great sex symbol?
40:52they were very
40:53derogatory towards her.
40:55The press was talking
40:56about how she's finished,
40:58this is the end for her,
41:00which she read,
41:01which she saw.
41:03So she was in an emotionally
41:05very dark place.
41:13on the set of something's got to give,
41:15she flits off to New York
41:17for a public televised event
41:21for President Kennedy's birthday,
41:24in which she, of course,
41:24famously sings
41:25happy birthday, Mr. President.
41:29The famous episode
41:31where she sings happy birthday
41:33to the president
41:33was embarrassing
41:34to almost everyone involved.
41:39Marilyn's entanglement
41:40with the Kennedys
41:40may have gone deeper
41:41than anyone imagined.
41:43And rumors persist
41:44to this day
41:45that Marilyn also had an affair
41:47with the president's brother,
41:48Robert.
41:50There is a story that
41:52when she's just about
41:54to go on stage
41:55before she goes
41:56to sing happy birthday,
41:57Mr. President,
41:58that Bobby Kennedy
41:59goes into her dressing room
42:01and they supposedly have sex
42:04before she goes on stage
42:06to sing happy birthday
42:07to his brother.
42:09Other salacious stories
42:11arise from that night.
42:14The actress Shirley MacLaine
42:15did once say in an interview
42:17that the night
42:18of the birthday celebrations
42:20for JFK,
42:21she saw Marilyn in a room
42:22at the after party
42:23in a hotel room
42:24and she saw both brothers
42:26coming in and out of the room
42:27and sharing her.
42:31Despite the importance
42:32of the occasion,
42:3320th Century Fox
42:35had explicitly forbidden Marilyn
42:37from traveling
42:37to New York for the event.
42:39There was messages sent,
42:41you know,
42:41the president would really appreciate
42:43if you let Marilyn Monroe
42:45go to New York
42:46for a couple of days
42:47to sing happy birthday.
42:49The studio feels
42:51that they have grounds
42:53to drop her.
42:54It seems strange
42:55to fire the most famous woman
42:58in the world,
42:59someone who is still clearly
43:00liked by the public.
43:03She was getting
43:03a little bit older,
43:05as ridiculous as it might seem.
43:06she's dropped
43:08by the studio.
43:18There was a party
43:19after the Madison Square Garden.
43:23A lot of photos
43:24were being taken
43:25at this party.
43:26A few nights later,
43:28the Secret Service came
43:29and wanted to look
43:30at the photos,
43:31and they took all the photos
43:33where Marilyn Monroe
43:34appeared with JFK.
43:36There's only one
43:37now in existence.
43:37They only didn't take
43:38one of them.
43:41What we know
43:42about JFK,
43:44he was very casual
43:45and blase
43:46about the affairs
43:46he was having.
43:48I mean,
43:48we know now
43:49the many women
43:50that he was seeing
43:50and he wasn't always
43:52discreet.
43:55Everyone in the mob
43:57knew that John F. Kennedy
43:59was sleeping
43:59with Marilyn Monroe.
44:01They also knew
44:02that he was sleeping
44:03with Judith Exner,
44:04who had been
44:05a girlfriend
44:06of Sam Giancana.
44:09So all of this
44:10was known
44:10within the mob.
44:12I don't think that,
44:13you know,
44:14it crossed his mind
44:14that it was going
44:15to be any trouble for him.
44:17I think he was fond
44:18of Marilyn,
44:19but, I mean,
44:19he wasn't going to
44:20break up his marriage
44:21over her.
44:21There was really
44:22no place for it to go.
44:26When it started
44:27to become too serious,
44:29he was warned
44:30that he had to back off
44:31and it was not a good time
44:32for her to be rejected.
44:35Though her affair
44:36with the president
44:37has ended,
44:38rumors swirl
44:39that Marilyn
44:39is still involved
44:40with his brother,
44:41Robert.
44:43Again,
44:44it took much
44:45more importance
44:46in her mind
44:47than in his.
44:51They'd been advised
44:52to sort of stay away
44:53from her
44:53because she was
44:54very famous
44:54and very volatile.
44:57Robert Kennedy
44:58started backing
44:59away from her.
45:01She was desolate
45:03at the idea
45:03that both Bobby
45:04and his brother
45:06had kind of dropped
45:07her like a sack
45:08of potatoes
45:09because they felt
45:09that she knew too much.
45:11She was just
45:12not in a good place.
45:13it made
45:15a dark summer
45:17even darker.
45:22Heartbroken,
45:24Marilyn once again
45:25seeks solace
45:26with Frank Sinatra.
45:27He invites her
45:29to his Lake Tahoe resort,
45:30a glamorous retreat
45:32he reputedly co-owns
45:33with a dangerous
45:34business partner.
45:38Sinatra connected
45:39as he is
45:40to Vegas
45:41and both
45:42as an entertainer
45:43and in terms
45:43of the nightclub
45:44underworld
45:44is good friends
45:45with Sanji and Kona
45:46and they co-own
45:47a Lake Tahoe
45:48ranch together
45:49which actually
45:49is divided
45:51by the Nevada
45:51California border.
45:53Which is great
45:54because you have
45:55the legal gambling
45:56on one side
45:57and there's this
45:58kind of real
45:59anything goes
46:00wild west
46:01lawless frontier town
46:02vibe to it.
46:03all sorts
46:04of degenerate
46:05behavior
46:05went on there.
46:07That was
46:08a favorite place
46:09for an awful
46:10lot of gangsters.
46:12Marilyn has been
46:12fired from
46:13something's got to give
46:14and Frank Sinatra
46:14is supposedly
46:15giving her
46:15sort of a weekend
46:16jolly
46:17to cheer her up
46:18from having had
46:19a run of very
46:19bad luck.
46:20It turns out
46:20to be the absolute
46:21opposite of that.
46:23When Sinatra
46:24brings Marilyn
46:26to this Lake Tahoe
46:27ranch
46:28it is ostensibly
46:29one would assume
46:30with the desire
46:31to sort of
46:32shield her
46:34but he is kind
46:35of bringing her
46:35into the hornet's
46:36nest.
46:38The sum total
46:39of it is
46:40that she comes
46:40back and she
46:41lands in Los
46:42Angeles
46:42looking absolutely
46:43terrible.
46:44She's barefoot
46:45distressed
46:47disheveled.
46:49She's clearly
46:50had something
46:51really terrible
46:52happen to her.
46:54instead of a
46:55glittering escape
46:56from the turmoil
46:56of Marilyn's
46:57life
46:58the infamous
46:59Cal Neva weekend
47:00is long rumored
47:01to have been
47:02a chaotic collision
47:03of entertainers
47:04and organized crime.
47:06It remains
47:07one of the most
47:08scandalous weekends
47:09in Hollywood history
47:10and just days later
47:12Marilyn Monroe
47:14will be dead.
47:15in Hollywood history
47:42You
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