The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe Read Free Page A

book states:
    A highly intuitive and gentle woman, born under a Piscean sign, she [Murray] seemed to sense that nightmare awaited not in sleep, but beyond her bedroom door. She recalls that night vividly:
    â€œThere was no reason I knew of for waking, for turning on the light and opening the door to the hall. There was no evidence of anything amiss until I saw the telephone cord at my feet. I knew then that something was terribly wrong. The cord ran from the spare bedroom [telephone room] across the hall and under Marilyn’s closed door. There was no sound from within her room, and thick carpeting made it impossible to tell if her light was on or not…. Cautious of awakening her unnecessarily, I did not tap on the door or call her name. Very much alarmed, however, I dialed her psychiatrist on the other line.”
    In the altered version, Murray tells her readers it was the sight of the telephone cord running under the door that compelled her to call Marilyn’s psychiatrist at 3:30 A.M. However, the telephone cord running from the telephone room and under the door into Marilyn’s bedroom was not an uncommon sight after midnight; in fact, it was quite routine.
    Two telephone lines ran to Marilyn’s residence. Her house number, GRanite 24830, was connected to a pink phone in the telephone room and an extension in the guest cottage. Her private number, GRanite 61890, led to the white phone in the telephone room. The pink and the white phone each had a thirty-foot extension cord, allowing Marilyn to take either one into her bedroom. Though Marilyn put the pink house phone under a pillow in the telephone room so its ring wouldn’t disturb her, her friends knew that Marilyn kept the private white phone in her bedroom at night. To the annoyance of many, she was a notorious night caller. On sleepless nights she often called people in the small hours of the morning to dispel her anxieties. Her friend Norman Rosten recalled being awakened on numerous occasions in the predawn hours and hearing the whispery voice on the phone saying, “Guess who this is.” When thephone rang at 2 A.M. and he fumbled in the dark for it, it didn’t take clairvoyance to know that Marilyn was calling. On the night before she died, her friend Arthur James stated that Marilyn left a message at 3 A.M. with his answering service. Obviously, the telephone cord of the private line leading under the door into Marilyn’s bedroom was the rule, not the exception.
    If neither of Mrs. Murray’s stories regarding her suspicion that “something was terribly wrong” had plausibility, the question remains: What did occur in the middle of the night that motivated her to call Dr. Greenson?
    Lieutenant Armstrong indicated in his report, “Mrs. Murray was vague and possibly evasive in answering questions pertaining to the activities of Miss Monroe during this time. It is not known whether this is or is not intentional.”
    In statements made to the press on Monday, Pat Newcomb stated that she had been awakened at her Beverly Hills apartment at approximately 4 A.M. Sunday by a call from attorney Mickey Rudin. According to Newcomb, Rudin told her, “Marilyn has accidentally overdosed.” “How is she?” Newcomb inquired. “She’s dead,” Rudin replied. Newcomb said she then rushed from her Beverly Hills apartment to the Monroe residence, where she met her boss, publicist Arthur Jacobs. Although the police were officially notified of Marilyn’s death by Engelberg’s call at 4:25 A.M. , it becomes evident from Newcomb’s statement that both Rudin and Arthur Jacobs had been informed of her death prior to the police. The driving time from Newcomb’s Beverly Hills apartment to Marilyn’s on a Sunday morning is approximately fifteen minutes. Yet during the time that Clemmons was at the Monroe residence—from 4:40 A.M. until approximately 5:30 A.M. —he didn’t see Pat