Norman Mailer and the Monroe murder conspiracy
In 1973 a coffee table sized book largely of photographs of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 appeared. Titled Marilyn, it contained text of approximately 93,000 words written by Norman Mailer. Mailer claimed in his “biography” that Monroe had been involved in a long-term affair with Robert Kennedy, and that Kennedy had her killed when she threatened to go public with the story. Mailer cited no evidence, other than having learned the story from an earlier biography of Monroe.
In July 1973, Mailer sat for an interview by Mike Wallace for CBS’s news magazine program 60 Minutes. Wallace asked Mailer to describe what the writer believed to have been the circumstances of Monroe’s death. “I’d say that it was a 10-1 that Marilyn’s death was an accidental suicide”, Mailer stated. Pressed on why he had written otherwise in Marilyn, Mailer responded. “I needed money very badly”. The book, with its allegations about RFK, remained in print for decades despite its author’s recanting his own work.