April 27, 2022 – 14:06 BST

Nicky Morris


Netflix’s new documentary, The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, looks into the life and death of Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe. Find out what the film revealed about her death here…

Netflix‘s brand new documentary, The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, takes a deep dive into the life and untimely death of Hollywood actress and cultural icon, Marilyn Monroe. 

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Using archive footage and unseen interviews, the film has unearthed a startling revelation about the facts surrounding the star’s death from a barbiturate overdose at the age of 36. 

WATCH: Will you be watching the new Netflix documentary?

At the time of Marilyn’s passing in 1962, it was reported that the star was found dead in her bed by her psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, who was forced to break into her bedroom window following a phone call from her concerned housekeeper, Eunice Murray. Eunice had been unable to get a response from her, nor could she open the locked door. 

Marilyn’s physician, Hyman Engelberg, reportedly arrived at the scene soon after and the actress was pronounced dead before a call to the LAPD was made. 

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However, according to interviews included in Netflix’s new documentary, that’s not exactly what happened. 

Marilyn married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956

“No, she wasn’t [dead at home],” said ambulance company owner Walter Schaefer. One of his former drivers, Ken Hunter, had arrived at Marilyn’s home on the night of her death and said that she was comatose, but alive, when he began transporting her to a hospital in Santa Monica. 

Walter’s account was then corroborated by writer John Sherlock, who claimed that Marilyn’s psychiatrist, Ralph, told him that she was alive before being transferred to Saint John’s Health Center in an ambulance, where she died en route.

The new documentary claims that Marilyn died on her way to the hospital

“She died in the ambulance,” he explained. “Then they took her back to the house. [Ralph] told me he was in the ambulance.”

Almost six decades after the icon’s death, the circumstances surrounding her sudden passing still remain clouded by conspiracies, including the rumour that she was killed due to her relationships with President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. 

Marilyn died aged 36 in 1962

Anthony Summers, an investigative journalist and author who spent years looking into Marilyn’s death in the 1980s, narrates the new film. He can be heard saying in the documentary: “What I learned was information that changed completely what we thought we knew about her mysterious death and suggests that the circumstances of her dying were covered up.”

He went on to say: “The truth and Marilyn, it’s like going into the lion’s den. If there’s any mystery about Monroe’s death, powerful and important eminent men seemed to me to be central,” he added. 

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes is available to stream on Netflix.

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