Bizarre Conspiracy Theories About Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe is one of the most famous people to ever live. She also has one of the most discussed and debated deaths as well. The model-turned-actress became a true Hollywood icon after being discovered by a photographer named David Conover in 1944. Conover photographed Monroe and other female factory workers during World War II, and helped her start her career as a pin-up model. She later changed her look and her name before making her Hollywood debut. During her career, Monroe starred in several films including "How to Marry a Millionaire," "Gentleman Prefer Blondes," and "The Seven Year Itch."

During her time in the spotlight, Monroe also had several high-profile relationships such as marriages to Yankees baseball player Joe DiMaggio and playwright Arthur Miller, as well as romances with Marlon Brando, Milton Berle, and Frank Sinatra. After becoming a superstar, the entertainment industry was stunned when Monroe was found dead in her Brentwood, California home on August 5, 1962 at the age of 36. Monroe's housekeeper became alarmed when the star wouldn't answer door, and called the starlet's psychiatrist, who broke a window and found the actress unresponsive. 

Monroe was later pronounced dead from an overdose of sleeping pills. However, decades after her death, the rumors and conspiracy theories are still plaguing fans who believe there's more to the story.

Following Marilyn Monroe's tragic and heartbreaking passing, the coroner ruled the actor's death an overdose and possibly suicide. Monroe was found dead in her bed with a bottle of sleeping pills next to her. Her telephone, which was left off of the hook, was also nearby. According to Newsweek, the icon was "being treated for depression" in the days before her death, leading to her being prescribed medications that were thought to ultimately end her life.

Questions about whether or not Monroe had accidentally taken too many pills or really chose to end her own life have remained a hot-button topic among fans to this day. There are so many mysteries and questions surrounding the circumstances behind the actor's death that the case was reopened decades later in 1982. However, after further investigation, Monroe's cause of death is still considered an overdose with suicide unable to be ruled out.

Conspiracy theories began to swirl, claiming that the star's death was something much more sinister than what was being reported, though, and through the years, those theories have only gained more traction with fans who love to dig deep into the mystery behind her death.

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One conspiracy theory that has popped up in the years since Marilyn Monroe's death is that her doctors played a huge role in her passing. Monroe was being treated for mental health issues, and in the 1993 book "Marilyn Monroe: The Biography," author Donald Spoto claims that the actor may have been lying to her doctors in order to get more medication. The theory also suggests that after Monroe's accidental overdose, it was staged to look like a suicide by her housekeeper and doctors, per Yahoo.

However, at the time, Monroe had just signed a big contract with 20th Century Fox, which wouldn't align with the suicide theory. Spoto also points out that she was allegedly wanting to remarry her former love, Joe DiMaggio, as well. This theory that her doctors covered up their part in her overdose has also not been widely recognized, either, unlike many other theories that include sex, politics, and a huge government cover-up that may have been responsible for the star's untimely demise.

Marilyn Monroe was thought to have had illicit affairs with both President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy during the height of their political careers. In 2021, Frank Sinatra's former manager Tony Oppedisano wrote a book about his time with the legendary singer and revealed conversations that the pair had about Monroe and the Kennedy brothers. Before her death, the book claims that Monroe told Sinatra that she was upset about the Kennedys shutting her out of their lives after ending their affairs. The book also details that Monroe was set to hold a press conference to announce that she and Joe DiMaggio were getting back together. However, the news sparked rumors that Monroe was ready to dish on her affairs with the Kennedys, which allegedly may have caused her to be murdered as part of a cover-up.

"Frank said she'd never have spilled about the Kennedys because she still had feelings for [Jack]," Oppedisano wrote (via People). "Frank believed if the press conference hadn't been announced, she would have lived a lot longer." According to a Netflix documentary, Robert Kennedy may have been one of the last people to see Monroe alive, as the actor's housekeeper Eunice Murray claimed the politician visited the star on the day of her death. "What the evidence suggests is that [her death] was covered up because of her connection with the Kennedy brothers," author Anthony Summers stated, per The Daily Beast.

It's been a long-running theory that Marilyn Monroe may have died at the hands of the mafia. In 1982, private investigator Milo Speriglio claimed that union leader Jimmy Hoffa and mobster Sam Giancana killed the actor to threaten the Kennedy family, per Parade. Speriglio's book led to the reopening of Monroe's case, and later more mafia rumors surfaced.

In 2012, author Darwin Porter wrote in the book "Marilyn at Rainbow's End" that Giancana allegedly murdered Monroe, but for the opposite reason. According to Porter, the hit came from the Kennedy family after they allegedly believed she was going to go public with her rumored affairs with John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. Porter claims that five mafia members broke into the actor's California home, knocked her out with chloroform before injecting her with barbiturates, and then placing her in the bedroom. From there, Porter suggests that the hitmen staged Monroe's bedroom to look like she had overdosed on medication and may have committed suicide.

Another biographer, Danforth Prince also revealed that he believed the mafia had murdered Monroe after spending 20 years looking into the details of the starlet's death (via Us Weekly).

In the book "Diary of Secrets: UFO Conspiracies and the Mysterious Death of Marilyn Monroe" by Nick Redfern, a conspiracy theory suggests Monroe was killed by the government due to all of the knowledge she had about UFOs and the existence of alien life. Redfern claims that because of the actor's involvement with the Kennedy family, she was told government secrets that put her life in danger. "One of them being about crashed UFOs and strange dead bodies held at military bases," the author previously told WFMZ-TV, per The U.S. Sun. Author Donald Burleson who wrote "UFOs and the Murder of Marilyn Monroe" also claims that the star was killed because of her knowledge of extraterrestrial beings.

In 2017, a documentary titled "Unacknowledged" also dove into the theory of Monroe's UFO knowledge, claiming that she knew government secrets and even threatened to leak classified documents to the public. The doc also suggested that Monroe had been speaking to Dorothy Kilgallen, a reporter investigating Roswell, before her death (via The New York Post).

While fans will likely never know exactly what happened to Marilyn Monroe, the theories have kept her death in the media for decades after her passing, and new ideas about what ended the actor's life are being born all the time.