Jay Margolis and Richard Buskin were not that interested in the helicopter log allegedly discovered by photo-journalists Joe Hyams and William Woodfield; we are left to wonder why: did they distrust the journalist’s stories? At any rate, the co-authors tossed their chestnuts into Detective Lynn Franklin’s traffic stop basket and dedicated two brief chapters to the testimony of the former detective. As asserted by Margolis and Buskin, they depended on two of Detective Franklin’s three publications along with an interview co-authors Peter Harry Brown and Patricia “Patte” Barham allegedly conducted with the decorated police detective, certainly peculiar assertions by Margolis and Buskin. The peculiarities will soon become evident.

Detective Franklin’s first literary effort reached publication in 1976 under the title, Sawed Off Justice. Ten years later, that narrative was folded into his second book and published as The Beverly Hills Cop Story; then twenty-three years later, in 1999, the former detective’s third and final book, The Beverly Hills Murder File, reached the bookshelves of Main Street book­sellers. In Franklin’s 1986 Cop Story, Marilyn Monroe does not appear. Her name is not mentioned anywhere within the narrative.1In his 1986 narrative, Franklin declared: All the events described herein actually happened, but many of the names have changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty, certainly a curious but also an interesting declaration.Franklin’s recollections regarding his encounter with Peter Lawford, Ralph Greenson and Robert Kennedy appear only in the writer’s 1999 Beverly Hills Murder File.

Co-authors Peter Brown and Patte Barham, along with Dutton Books and the Penguin Group, published Marilyn–The Last Take in the United States during July of 1992. Michelin House, London, published an edition with the same name in the United Kingdom under a different cover, also in 1992. In 1993, Mandarin published a paperback edition in England. No additional book about Marilyn Monroe has since been written or published by either Brown or Barham of which I am aware or have been able to locate; and even though the page numbers differ in each published edition of Marilyn–The Last Take, all three published editions of Brown and Barham’s last take are textually identical.

Detective Lynn Franklin published his Murder File six years after Brown and Barham’s paperback edition appear-ed; and the policeman’s Murder File was re-issued three years later in 2002. Therefore, is it not reasonable and logical to expect that the book written by the involved policeman, describing his encounter with Lawford, Greenson and Robert Kennedy, would be more accurate and reliable than the book written by Brown and Barham several years earlier, considering that Brown and Barham apparently did not interview Detective Franklin? An explanation to follow.

The Margolis and Buskin case closing book, based allegedly on Franklin’s publications, along with Brown and Barham’s purported interview, appeared for sale twelve years after Officer Franklin’s third and final book and twenty-two years after Brown and Barham’s last take on the last days of Marilyn Monroe. Within Brown and Barham’s source listings in each book’s published edition, Lynn Franklin’s name does not appear; and within the long litany of interview acknowledgments, Franklin’s name does not appear, either; and within a chapter that Brown and Barham dedicated to what transpired the morning after Marilyn’s murder, an encounter by Detective Franklin with an automobile of any make or model―to be explained later in this section―does not appear; and oddly enough as well, or perhaps predictably, there are considerable differences between what Margolis and Buskin reported regarding the policeman’s encounter with the white Lincoln and what the policeman actually wrote; and if those differences were contained and thereby explained in the Franklin interview allegedly conducted by Brown and Barham, the one mentioned by Margolis and Buskin, that interview was not memorialized anywhere in the two hardcover editions of the last take on Marilyn published by Peter and Patte―at least not in the two editions that I have―and the alleged interview is not memorialized in the paperback edition, either. The differences between accounts follow hereafter.

Firstly, Margolis and Buskin reported that Peter Lawford was driving in a severely intoxicated condition that Sunday morning when Officer Franklin stopped the Lincoln Continental. However, the police officer did not mention in his book that Lawford was intoxicated or even that he suspected Lawford was driving under the influence of alcohol. Odd to say the least: why would Officer Franklin omit that important detail from his written account?

Secondly, Margolis and Buskin reported that Lawford was driving with his headlights off, another important detail strangely omitted from Officer Franklin’s 1999 narrative. Was Lawford driving without headlights because he was intoxicated? Or perhaps he hoped his white Lincoln Continental, with its headlights off, would thereby be, both mysteriously and magically, rendered invisible? Again, strange, to say the least, when a fellow considers that the absence of headlights would have called attention directly to the Continental.

Thirdly, Margolis and Buskin reported that Lawford partially identified the mystery man seated in the front passenger seat, identified him as a physician who was simply accompanying them to the airport. According to Detective Franklin’s account, he did not learn the profession or the identity of the mystery passenger until several hours later. In the detective’s narrative, the mystery man in the passenger seat was summarily ignored during the alleged traffic stop.

Fourthly, the account offered by Margolis and Buskin included considerably more dialogue between the COP and the Lincoln’s passengers. The COP’s account, however, reported only a brief verbal exchange with Pete. Also, in the COP’s account, Robert Kennedy spoke only to Lawford, tersely called him stupid; but Robert did not speak to the COP and the COP did not speak to the attorney general. Margolis and Buskin asserted that Robert spoke to the COP and in return the COP spoke to Robert. The attorney general asked the COP: Can we go now? The COP responded: Sure. Just don’t take it at seventy-five miles an hour. (Margolis/Buskin KE:”Detective Lynn Franklin Pulls Over A Very Drunk Peter Lawford”). Officer Franklin failed to mention in his 1999 book that verbal exchange with the Attorney General of the United States. Another oddity and we are left to scratch our heads.

Fifthly, Margolis and Buskin reported that Franklin allowed the very drunk Pete Lawford to continue along his merry way despite the actor’s drunkenness. Lawford then turned the Lincoln around and directed it westward on Olympic Boulevard. Detective Franklin’s 1999 account, though, did not include any change of the Lincoln’s direction after he allowed Lawford to proceed without even suggesting that headlights might be required when driving at night. Remarkably enough, Franklin did not issue Lawford a citation for DWI, Driving While Intoxicated, as drunk driving was then called; and the policeman did not even conduct any field sobriety tests. Apparently, Officer Franklin never even considered arresting Actor Lawford or at least directing one of the car’s other passengers, Doctor Greenson or Attorney Kennedy, to relocate into the driver’s seat. I suppose it is possible that a Beverly Hills’ police officer would allow an extremely drunk movie star, at least in 1962, perhaps, to continue driving an automobile containing two other men, one of which was the Attorney General of the United States; but I must confess to a certain incredulity. Still, if true, a fellow could certainly question Officer Franklin’s judgment. I mean, all things considered, he jeopardized the lives of each man in that Lincoln, one of which was allegedly Robert Kennedy, once again, I repeat, the Attorney General of the United States, not to mention other souls possibly driving automobiles along what more than likely was a busy boulevard.

Olympic Boulevard, with a posted speed limit today that is still 35 MPH, extended, and still extends, from Century Park East, the western border of Beverly Hills, to Robertson Boulevard, the eastern border, a distance of approximately two miles through primarily a residential district. Today, traffic signals control the movements of cars and people at about two block intervals. Perhaps in 1962, early on that Sunday morning, the boulevard was deserted enough for a severely drunken Peter Lawford to drive 70 MPH, headlights off, encounter green lights on each and every traffic signal that might have existed then, avoid what traffic there might have been driving on the asphalt pavement along with him and also avoid striking nearby utility poles, fire hydrants or possibly a few less than fortunate pedestrians. I, however, have serious doubts. Based on Internet viewable YouTube videos depicting the driving conditions in Los Angeles in the nineteen sixties, Los Angeles was extremely congested and cars crammed the surface streets even then; and the driving conditions during the night time were just as congested as the day time. Certainly, Pete Lawford was one lucky drunk-driving-movie-star! As an aside, I must note: the air quality in Los Angeles at that time was incredibly poor, even gross, brown and clouded with pollution.2In 1964, when I was fourteen years old, my family made a cross country trip to California to visit relatives then living in Sunnyvale, northwest of San Jose. On the way, we spent a night and a day in Los Angeles. I distinctly remember the smog and my burning eyes. I remember that I also developed a shallow cough. I assume the persons living in LA at that time no longer noticed the smog or the pollution. The conspiracist’s books never mention that existential LA reality.

Finally, the direction in which the Lincoln was allegedly speeding during the first hour of August the 5th, westward on Olympic, represents a real curiosity and a novelty, a veritable riddle. Here’s why. At 12:10 AM that Sunday, Marilyn had not yet been murdered by Dr. Ralph Greenson in the account as presented at various times in various publications and during various television programs by ambulance attendant James Hall. He stated that he and his partner arrived at Marilyn’s hacienda after 4:00 AM that Sunday, followed by Greenson’s arrival and Marilyn’s cardiac-piercing-barbiturate-murder; therefore, why speed with the Lincoln’s headlights off and draw attention directly to it? If the murderous trio was speeding merrily on their merry way to the murder scene and the gruesome task yet to be accomplished, as they must have been, they were speeding merrily in the wrong direction; and if the Lincoln was, as alleged by Officer Franklin, Robert Kennedy’s getaway ride, then the time of 12:10 AM misfits with Hall’s account; and, too, Pete was drunkenly aiming the Lincoln Continental away from the getaway site, putatively Peter Lawford’s mansion and Santa Monica Beach where a Hal-Conners-piloted whirlybird waited, at least so alleged by Woodfield and Hyams and dutifully reported by Anthony Summers. In short, why was the Lincoln traveling westward away from both Santa Monica and Brentwood? And too, why was Pete attempting to get Robert Kennedy to the airport if a helicopter was waiting for the attorney general on the sands of Santa Monica Beach. Besides, Los Angeles International Airport was, even in 1962, south of both Brentwood and Santa Monica, not west. Confusing, even inexplicable, to say the least.

Donald Wolfe reported two details regarding Officer Franklin’s traffic stop; and Wolfe’s details interjected additional contradictions. In Wolfe’s account: 1) the murderous trio escaped justice riding in a dark Mercedes, not a white Lincoln; and 2) Robert Kennedy along with Ralph Greenson were both seated in the rear of the Mercedes Benz. Both Margolis and Buskin dismissed Wolfe’s identification of the car’s manufacturer as simply an unfortunate error by the author. Perhaps. It is interesting, on the other hand, that Ward Wood identified the car in which Robert Kennedy arrived at the Lawford’s mansion on August the 4th as a Mercedes Benz; and if you recall, Summers specifically noted that Wood was a former denizen of the automobile trade, meaning Wood obviously knew and recognized the differences between automobile makes and models; and regarding the seating arrangement noted by author Donald Wolfe, I must confess, to me, for Ralph Greenson to ride in the backseat along with Robert Kennedy while Pete Lawford acted as a sort of chauffeur seems more than peculiar; and the only way a reasonable person can view all the peculiarities, misfitting details and nonsensical contradictions surrounding Robert Kennedy’s alleged multiple visits to Fifth Helena on August the 4th in 1962 is with reasonable doubt, if not extreme and understandable skepticism.