In the aftermath of Marilyn Monroe’s death, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) conducted an investigation, even though the scene of her death indicated suicide as its cause. Sgt Robert Byron, an LAPD homicide detective, marshaled the investigation. So far as I know, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office was not involved in the original investigation; and the Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Theodore Curphey, did not convene a coroner’s inquest. Instead of an inquest, Dr. Curphey ordered the preparation of a psychological autopsy to examine Marilyn’s general mental health, and specifically, her mental health during the time immediately prior to her death. On Friday, August the 18th in 1962, a throng of television technicians and cameramen, and approximately fifty reporters, crowded themselves into the Coroner’s Inquest Room as Dr. Curphey, seated between doctors Norman Farberow and Robert Litman, members of the team who performed Marilyn’s psychological autopsy, read the following statement:

Now that the final toxicological report and that of the psychiatric consultants have been received and considered, it is my conclusion that the death of Marilyn Monroe was caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide (Vitacco-Robles ICON: What Killed Mari-lyn Monroe [WKMM], v1:149).

With Dr. Curphey’s edict, the case of and the investigation into the untimely death of the beloved and inordinately famous actress reached its official termination. One of the reporters present asked Dr. Curphey: Does this report, today’s report, does this conclude the case?  Accompanied by a smattering of subdued laughter and smiles, Dr. Curphey responded: I sincerely hope so (Vitacco-Robles ICON:WKMM, v1:149). Regrettably, such would not be the case.

Gary Vitacco-Robles reported, in the first volume of ICON: WKMM, that four official investigations into the circumstances revolving around Marilyn’s death have been conducted by various agencies of Los Angeles County (WKMM, v1:259). Subsequent to the initial investigation performed by the LAPD and the CME’s Office in 1962, thirteen years later in 1975, due to accusations of incompetence and malfeasance leveled by some journalists, but especially and particularly Anthony Scaduto, the LAPD conducted a second investigation. By that time, the police department’s records pertaining to the original investigation had been purged, destroyed, standard operating procedure for the LAPD. Seven years later, in 1982, due to the provocative and sensationalized press conferences held by Robert Slatzer and Milo Speriglio, a private detective hired by Slatzer to investigate Marilyn’s death, the District Attorney’s Office ordered a threshold re-investigation to determine if the original 1962 investigation contained misleading or false evidence or if new evidence uncovered during the two decades that had elapsed since Marilyn died indicated that she was a homicide victim. Such a monumental finding would have automatically triggered a new and detailed examination of her death.

As the Friday press conference neared its end, obviously seeking a clarification for the attachment of the word probable to Marilyn Monroe’s evident suicide, a reporter asked Dr. Curphey: Why wasn’t the verdict simply suicide? Dr. Curphey answered: Because she didn’t leave a note (WKMM, v1:148). It must be noted here that not one of the official investigations resulted in a formal alteration of Dr. Curphey’s original 1962 edict: the mode of Marilyn Monroe’s death has remained probable suicide.