The Murder of Marilyn Monroe (17 page)

Franklin glanced at Dr. Greenson in the front passenger seat.

Aiming his flashlight at the back seat, Franklin was surprised to see Bobby Kennedy.

Kennedy nodded.

Kennedy became mad at Lawford.

Kennedy then turned to Detective Franklin.

Lawford turned the car around and drove away.

In the hours before Marilyn’s death was announced, Franklin did not make the connection between Marilyn and Bobby Kennedy who, he told biographers Brown and Barham, “was wearing chinos and a tattered dress shirt.”

If we look back at Heymann’s interview with Peter Lawford, the British actor mentioned himself along with Bobby Kennedy and Greenson as co-conspirators responsible for Marilyn’s death. These were the same three men pulled over by Detective Franklin who, in his book, noted: “The significant thing that might be related to the hit attack on me was that I . . . could testify . . . Robert Kennedy had been in Los Angeles . . . in the company of a doctor [Ralph Greenson] who had treated Monroe that same night and who . . . may have been responsible for her death.”

In fact, Lynn Franklin met Schaefer Ambulance attendant James Hall in 1992 during the filming of
The Marilyn Files
documentary and took special interest in what Hall had to say about Dr. Greenson. Franklin subsequently deduced, “I’m not trying to cover the case here, but for my money, she was murdered and Robert Kennedy at least knew about it, maybe ordered the killing, and certainly tried to cover it up.” On September 26, 2010, retired OCID detective Mike Rothmiller responded to a phone call from Jay Margolis:

Lawford’s best friend Joe Naar told biographer James Spada, “Peter wouldn’t dare go over there. He made sure it was me who was going to go over there.” Confirming what he’d told biographer Donald Spoto, Naar assured Margolis he answered a call from Peter Lawford at 11:30 p.m., about forty minutes before Lawford was pulled over by Detective Franklin.

When informed about Lynn Franklin’s recollection, Naar exclaimed, “He is so full of shit. That is the most insane thing I have ever heard. I’ve
never
heard that one. Bobby was in the back seat? Peter was driving? I was on the phone with Peter most of that night. How in the world could he be in the car driving and drinking? He hadn’t had a drink. That’s one-on-one with me at 11:30 at night. Now who’s telling the truth?

“What asshole would believe that jerk-off cop who’s trying to get his name in the papers? Don’t even repeat that story. You say it once and it gets out there and somebody repeats it and ten times later someone thinks it’s the truth. If they had any idea of the truth it’s not even one thousand percent close. It’s somebody’s imagination. What are they, writers or something? I mean that’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard. You’re giving them too much respect. You’re interviewing the wrong people. They know shit about it. Why would you talk to these assholes?”

After Margolis pointed out that Lynn Franklin was a well-decorated officer who had received the prestigious CHA Award, Joe Naar remarked, “If you’re the highest decorated officer, you don’t need that kind of publicity. He wouldn’t talk like that. And of course, they’re gonna put medals after his name . . .

“People like Warren Beatty think I know exactly what happened. That I’m covering it up because I’m a friend of the [Kennedy] family, and that what really happened is that Bobby came down and killed her. It’s such bullshit. Warren heard all sorts of things. In those days, everybody was talking about how Bobby killed her. ‘Bobby had her killed.’”

Refuting Joe Naar’s insistence that Peter Lawford wasn’t drunk on the night of August 4, Officer Lynn Franklin stated to Brown and Barham that the British actor “appeared drunk, terrified, and coming apart at the seams.” Furthermore, Fred Otash confirmed that Lawford “looked like hell, trembling in the manner of a junkie going through cold turkey withdrawal. He was drunk, stoned, and an emotional basket case.”

Lawford’s close friend Milt Ebbins recalled, “I spoke to Peter at his house at one-thirty that night. Bullets Durgom told me he was there until one-thirty. At three o’clock I called Peter and there was no answer. He always disconnected the phone when he went to bed. He was very drunk when I spoke to him at one-thirty, and he couldn’t have driven in that condition. I’m sure he passed out and that was that . . . Peter was getting drunker by the minute . . . He’d be coughing then be silent.”

So, while Naar recalled spending most of the night talking with Lawford, Ebbins was adamant that Lawford had his phone disconnected. Never mind that a police officer (Franklin), a former police officer (Otash), and a best friend (Ebbins) all attested that Lawford was inebriated that night.
¹⁷

DETECTIVE FRANKLIN CONNECTS THE DOTS

In the documentary
Marilyn Monroe: A Case for Murder
, Marilyn’s next-door neighbors to the west, Abe Charles Landau and his wife Ruby Landau, placed the sighting of an ambulance close to midnight:

In 1992, during and after the filming of
The Marilyn Files
TV special, Detective Lynn Franklin talked to James Hall and Fred Otash. The two men reported remarkably similar observations. They each independently placed Sgt. Marvin Iannone at the scene with Peter Lawford. After speaking with Otash, Franklin noted in his book how “at about 11:45 p.m. on the night of her death, the place had been bustling with activity. An ambulance was at the scene.”

Franklin wrote that, in addition to Fred Otash, he “got another witness to verify Iannone’s presence at the Monroe residence, well before he was officially dispatched. James Hall . . . an attendant with Schaefer Ambulances that night, told me that Sgt. Iannone and Peter Lawford had been present in the home when Dr. Greenson injected Marilyn with the fatal heart needle.”

Detective Lynn Franklin placed the pieces together, pointing toward Kennedy involvement in Marilyn’s death. “Fred Otash . . . told me that he had bugged the homes of Peter Lawford and Marilyn Monroe,” Franklin wrote. “‘I’ve got something you must hear, Lynn,’ he told me. ‘Iannone is dirty as hell . . .’ His wire-taps had recorded a conversation between Peter Lawford and Marvin Iannone at five to midnight on August 4, 1962.” Franklin also relayed how Otash recorded and made note of a failed attempt by Peter Lawford to phone Sgt. Marvin Iannone at LAPD’s Purdue station at 1:45 a.m. on August 5, 1962.

Sgt. Marvin Iannone’s presence at the house around 11:45 p.m. suggests he was stationed at the Monroe residence on orders from the Attorney General. As Greenson injected the heart needle into Marilyn’s chest, James Hall saw Lawford and Iannone enter the guest cottage. Iannone had done this kind of detail for the Kennedys several times before. As biographer Donald Wolfe noted, “Iannone was known to work for Hamilton in Intelligence, and whenever the President or the Attorney General visited the Lawfords, Iannone received the special duty assignment from Hamilton to work the Lawford beach house.”
¹⁸

GREENSON’S MOTIVES FOR KILLING HIS PATIENT

As a March 2, 1961, letter to Ralph Greenson proved, Marilyn Monroe was simultaneously carrying on trysts with Frank Sinatra and her former co-star Yves Montand, a French actor, although according to Marilyn, Montand eventually begged off.

Hildi Greenson addressed the rumors that her late husband had bedded his star patient, “It’s just ludicrous. It’s so dumb.” But Peter Lawford said Greenson
was
sleeping with her. This is something Lawford claimed he didn’t know until after Marilyn’s death when he heard Mafia-Teamster tapes and listened to “sounds of their lovemaking.” Since her home was bugged, one of the places where Marilyn and Greenson slept together was on 12305 Fifth Helena Drive. Ralph Greenson himself relayed, “I always had a weak spot in my heart to rescue damsels in distress. But I learned from that. Don’t trust it, boy, don’t trust it.”

But this damsel in particular was the quintessential sexy woman. Greenson’s daughter Joan remembered how everything Marilyn did unconsciously radiated sex like a force in her body.

“Why was it that no matter what she did she was striking?” Joan Greenson asked. “Why was it that she could just sit still on a bench, or in a chair, and you would end up staring? . . . There have been many sexy ladies in Hollywood but nothing like Marilyn. I was fascinated to see the way she sat. She would cross her legs at the knees, and lean forward; her left elbow was on top of her knee; her right elbow in the palm of her hand; her chin resting on her right palm.

“This seemed like a very natural and easy pose for her. She often would listen in that position. I had a chance to watch someone move around who was totally at home with their body. And I never tired of watching . . . Marilyn wore nothing under her clothes. She didn’t wear underpants or stockings or bra for the most part. I must admit when I first realized this, I found it shocking. Marilyn really hated to have anything that restricted any of her natural movements . . . She could also be extremely exhibitionistic.”

Mansfield’s former press secretary Raymond Strait told Jay Margolis, “Women like that who are very lonesome and feel like they’ve been abandoned are always trying to find some man that will love them and they think that sex is the way they do it. Nine times out of ten, they’re looking for a father image. Jayne Mansfield, same way. She was three years old when her father died of a heart attack. The difference between Jayne and Marilyn is Marilyn was used by men while Jayne used men. Just a reverse.”

Greenson once told a candidate in training, “There is the problem of a change in motivation that happens when, for example, the patient develops an acute sexual transference. Instead of coming for treatment because they want to get rid of symptoms or neurosis, they come out of love for you . . . This happens almost routinely with women patients.”

Some of Greenson’s colleagues bitterly called him on what seemed like reckless actions on the psychiatrist’s part. Dr. Leo Rangell, a rival of Greenson’s said, “This was seductive behavior, not therapeutic behavior . . . We all have very needy, traumatized patients. Very few of them end up in our families . . . She did because she was Marilyn Monroe! Even ‘family therapy’ doesn’t mean therapy in the analyst’s family . . . His earlier writings would never condone what he did.”

Dr. Melvin Mandel relayed, “If it was true that she came from a tremendously deprived background, you couldn’t go on with her in a strictly analytic way. It wouldn’t work . . . If an analyst . . . has an unconscious wish to be on stage (and Greenson
was
a superb performer), he may . . . identify himself with prominent people.”
¹⁹

Peter Lawford mentioned to Heymann that Marilyn’s free-association tapes referenced the affair with her psychiatrist and how Mafia-Teamster tapes recorded “sounds of their lovemaking” at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive. In fact, Marilyn Monroe’s aggressively seductive behavior is documented in full bloom in a paper Greenson wrote on January 12, 1964, entitled, “Drugs in the Psychotherapeutic Situation.” It is safe to assume Ralph Greenson was writing about his star patient in this work because the descriptive characteristics fit her perfectly.

He wrote, “Sometimes all that is necessary is time; just waiting without interfering will give the patient the opportunity to recover his reasonable ego. Sometimes it may be necessary to interfere quite drastically, psychologically or even by introducing drugs . . . For example, an hysterical-depressive-impulsive woman patient became furious with me when she felt I was rejecting her sexual wishes and stormed out of the office. She was an intelligent woman . . . with a history of promiscuous behavior prior to her unhappy marriage to an austere academician [Arthur Miller].