In 2012, Samir Muqaddin published Memoirs of a Deputy Coroner: The Case of Marilyn Monroe, his account of Marilyn’s alleged murder and the circumstances surrounding the investigation thereof, or in Muqaddin’s expressed opinion, the lack of one. Muqaddin frequently referenced and directly quoted both Robert Slatzer and Jeanne Laverne Carmen, whose last name the deputy coroner’s aide frequently spelled “Carmine”. Prior to 1975, the year he converted to Islam, Samir Muqaddin was known as Lionel Grandison, Sr.

The former Lionel Grandison, Sr. asserted, in his memoir, that he inadvertently discovered Marilyn’s little red diary in a purse recovered from Marilyn’s hacienda; and in that small red book Marilyn had memorialized her life’s events in detail. Over a two day period, Muqaddin claimed, he read Marilyn’s diary and recorded some of its contents. He intended to read more and record more of the events described by Marilyn; but, unfortunately, the diary disappeared from a safe in the coroner’s office where he locked the little red book one night at the end of his shift. Muqaddin never saw the red diary again; but he vividly remembered the explosive nature of Marilyn’s entries. He recalled comments about President Kennedy and the FBI along with references to the Spyboys, the CIA, Communism, assassinations, Fidel Castro and the leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa.

Vulnerable is the adjective usually employed to characterize Marilyn Monroe; but for Mu­qaddin, her diary entries revealed a Marilyn that was a completely different kind of woman. She was, in fact, an agent of espionage spying for the US Government; she was a weapon of the US intelligence community deployed during a cold war being fought by the opposing armies of Communism, Socialism and Capitalism. Marilyn was recruited originally by an FBI operative, Iron Bob, who wanted her to do something for her country, who wanted her to spy on Arthur Miller, entice and cajole him, help the FBI determine if the playwright was, in fact, a communist. She advised Iron Bob that she and Miller were not that close; but Iron Bob asserted, after laughing at Marilyn’s quaint and demure assertion, that they could certainly get closer (Muqaddin 39).

Sensual and sexy are two more adjectives employed by many to describe Marilyn Monroe, adjectives arguably used even more often than vulnerable; so as you might expect, Marilyn’s Red Book of Secrets eventually gravitated to her sexy romances with the middle Kennedy brothers. She became involved with John Kennedy; she was always in his company; and she attended kinky parties, some graphic descriptions of which Marilyn wrote in her diary. Oddly enough, however, Muqaddin did not reveal any of the details about those kinky parties that Marilyn memorialized; but she allegedly wrote the following: I met Jack at Peter’s house. It lit a fire. We started seeing each other. […] I was with the next President and we made violent love (Muqaddin 46-47: emphasis mine). Based on that alleged entry, we can conclude that Marilyn’s romance and her violent love-making affair with the next president began sometime prior to November of 1960, at least according to Muqaddin.

And yet, Ralph Roberts’ recently published memoir, Mimosa, presented a direct and unquestionably reliable and thus believable challenge to Muqaddin’s assertions regarding Marilyn and then presidential candidate, Senator John Kennedy. On July the 13th in 1960, technically the 4th day of the Democratic National Convention, Marilyn located Ralph playing poker in Manhattan, participating in the weekly game […] at Maureen Stapleton’s. Marilyn informed Ralph, with a telephone call, that she sure could use a mas­sage. When the masseur arrived at Marilyn’s NYC apartment, twenty minutes later, he found her watching the DNC on television. According to Ralph: […] as it became increasingly clear that Stevenson was losing to Kennedy, she became more and more tense. “I worship Mr. Stevenson,” she said. “I know practically nothing of Mr. Kennedy” (Roberts 32). If Marilyn knew practically nothing about John Kennedy in mid-July of 1960, then she certainly was not making violent love to him at Peter Lawford’s beachside mansion prior to the November presidential election. Additionally, from mid-July until early November of 1960, Marilyn filmed The Misfits in the sweltering Nevada desert; and clearly, and in fact, Marilyn did not meet the president elect until early December of 1961 at a Manhattan dinner party sponsored by the wealthy widow, Fifi Fell.

Robert Kennedy does not appear in Marilyn’s diary, and therefore in her life, until she appeared at Madison Square Garden and sang “Happy Birthday to You” and “Thanks for the Memories” to John Kennedy. According to Muqaddin, it was during that event when Marilyn initially encountered the attorney general, an odd assertion, since Marilyn conclusively met the diminutive Kennedy brother for the first time in October of 1961.

Almost immediately, Marilyn fell for Bobby. While John Kennedy lit a fire inside Marilyn, Muqaddin explained, Robert Kennedy caused a nuclear explosion; and she fell deeply in love with the attorney general. After the nuclear love explosion, Marilyn and Bobby began acting like teenage lovers and Marilyn’s diary entries were steamy with conversations of love and marriage on almost every page (Muqaddin 57-58). Oddly enough, once again, Muqaddin did not offer any direct quotations from Marilyn’s diary regarding her steamy, teenage romance with Bobby or their intimate love conversations.

Muqaddin asserted that Marilyn divorced Arthur Miller because John Kennedy was elected president of the US; and soon thereafter, she embarked on the final phase of her involvement with America’s intelligence community: she began to appear at meetings with President Kennedy, which were also attended by agents of both the FBI and the CIA. Mafia high rollers, Sam Giancana and Johnny Roselli, entered Marilyn’s life along with the CIA’s plot to assassinate Fidel Castro. Giancana and Roselli attended three meetings that were also attended by Marilyn, alleged Muqaddin. Those meetings also involved President John Kennedy and various unnamed Central Intelligence Agents. During one of those sessions, a man Marilyn identified as Big Jim and another fellow name Eduardo, along with Johnny Roselli, discussed previous attempts to assassinate Castro. Roselli even boasted that the mafia could circumvent any type of security system and kill anybody. According to Marilyn’s entries according to Muqaddin, one of the mafia’s murder schemes involved jamming a poisonous pill into Castro’s rectum. Offering an apparent contradiction to several of his other assertions, Muqaddin was not sure if Marilyn participated in the sensitive discussions or if she was merely silent but beautiful window dressing.

Even so, by way of her diary entries, Muqaddin connected Marilyn with the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, even asserting that she met with that revolutionary group during her trip to Mexico City in 1962. Marilyn wrote about that meeting this way: At the meeting, I heard the Cubans were being pushed into the Soviet Bloc by American policy. They love Castro. I don’t think Big Jim will ever get him (Muqaddin 52).

A four page report sent to J. Edgar Hoover by a senior FBI official from Mexico City, Muqaddin declared, alerted Hoover to Marilyn’s close association with certain members of the American Communist Group and her visits to the Cuban and Soviet Union Embassies while she was visiting Mexico City; and in the end, geez Louise, Samir Muqaddin makes one last sensational connection, a connection to the man who assassinated John F. Kennedy, according to the official Warren Report, Lee Harvey Oswald (Muqaddin 53).

I hasten to denote that the preceding account represents assertions tendered by Muqaddin in his memoir; and I have only included a fraction of what he alleged therein. It is clear, however, that Muqaddin was, and probably still remains, a man with an agenda, one made perfectly clear by the following proclamation:

The early 20th Century had laid the foundation for an advanced society ready to reach an unlimited potential and become the greatest country on Earth. However, entrenched in this foundation full of promise was a dark side. This iniquity was an untested concept that without proper monitoring and oversight could lead to an abuse of power like nothing else, and it was called Capitalism (Muqaddin 268).