Marilyn Monroe has captivated the public imagination for decades with her instantly recognizable blonde bob and iconic hourglass figure. The woman seemed to have it all: fame, beauty, money, power. So, when the actress, a mega-sensation and sex symbol of the 1950s, died suddenly at the age of 36, everyone was left wondering what in the world happened to Marilyn. 

For such a public figure, she led a relatively private life. Now, Marilyn’s the subject of a new Netflix documentary, The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes, which came out on Wednesday and delves into the details of her death.

Through never-before-heard interviews with friends and acquaintances, the documentary challenges the story of Marilyn’s death, bringing to light new information and calling the official, 60-year-old record into question.

So, how did Marilyn Monroe die, exactly? Well, here’s what to know.

Warning: The following contains references to suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

What was initially reported about her death?

In the early morning hours of August 5, 1962, Marilyn was found dead of an apparent sleeping pill overdose in her modest Los Angeles home, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

Reporters from The New York Times wrote that Marilyn had gone to her bedroom around 8 p.m. the night before, and was eventually found “nude, lying face down on her bed and clutching a telephone receiver in her hand when a psychiatrist broke into her room at 3:30 a.m.” The initial news story said she had been estimated to have died six to eight hours prior to being found.

Eunice Murray, Marilyn’s housekeeper, told the Times that she became worried when Marilyn didn’t respond to knocks on her bedroom door. Murray had seen a light go on in Marilyn’s room around 3:25 a.m., but found the door locked. She reportedly called Marilyn’s psychiatrist Ralph Greenson, who came to the house and broke a window to access Marilyn’s room.

Inside, Greenson found her lifeless, with one hand clutching a phone. Another doctor was called. Marilyn was pronounced dead, but police weren’t called until 4:20 a.m., about an hour after Murray had initially called Greenson. (Doctors said they needed permission from Marilyn’s movie studio before alerting the authorities.)

Marilyn didn’t leave any notes behind, the Times reported.

What new evidence is revealed in the documentary? 

The documentary raises doubts about when and where Marilyn actually died…and who she might have been with that day.

The film suggests she might have actually died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, instead of in bed. “No, she wasn’t [dead at home],” ambulance company owner Walter Schaefer says in the documentary. According to Schaefer, Marilyn was comatose but alive when the ambulance arrived and took her to the ER.

Writer John Sherlock also says in the doc that Greenson told him Marilyn was alive at home and died on the way to the hospital. “She died in the ambulance,” Sherlock says. “Then they took her back to the house. [Greenson] told me he was in the ambulance.”

But there are photos of her body being wheeled out of her home, making the whole thing incredibly confusing. 

So, why is this such a big deal? 

“What I learned was information that changed completely what we thought we knew about her mysterious death,” author Anthony Summers says in the documentary. The changing story, he says, “suggests that the circumstances of her dying were covered up.”

Where, exactly, was Robert F. Kennedy the night she died?

Marilyn was reportedly romantically involved with both Robert F. Kennedy (then the U.S. Attorney General) and his brother, President John F. Kennedy. 

The doc argues that RFK might have been in touch with Marilyn around the time of her death (a.k.a. he was in California, and possibly even at Marilyn’s house at one point that day), and that the delays and timeline changes allowed him time to get out of town, The Hollywood Reporter explained. 

In the tapes, Murray says that RFK was actually at Marilyn’s home on the day of her death, putting him in Los Angeles the night she died.

“Bobby Kennedy called her the night of her death from [his sister’s] house. She said, ‘Don’t bother me, leave me alone, stay out of my life.’ A very violent argument. ‘I feel passed around, I feel used, I feel like a piece of meat,'” says private detective Fred Otash in the documentary.

Robert Kennedy at a press conference

So why does it matter that RFK was apparently in LA? Well, over the years, a theory has circulated suggesting that the Kennedys may have been involved in covering up Marilyn’s death to keep RFK’s name out of the whole situation.

Another, more far-fetched conspiracy theory suggests that the family may have feared that Marilyn had learned (and would share) government secrets through her relationships with the brothers. Summers says in the documentary that it’s possible that “the Kennedys said, ‘Sh*t, she can make public that we’ve been discussing nuclear matters’….[and] thought, ‘We’ve got to stop all this. We can’t deal with Marilyn Monroe anymore.’” 

Either way, it seems like no one wanted people to know where RFK was on August 5.

Did Marilyn really die of an overdose?

The official word is that Marilyn died of an overdose. And an autopsy report found that Marilyn died from acute combined drug toxicity, chloral hydrate (a calming medication usually used on patients before surgeries), and Nembutal (a sedative and anticonvulsant), according to People, and pill bottles were found by her bed.

However, no water glass was found in her room, which she would have likely needed to swallow all those pills, and there was no pill residue in her stomach. Cyril Wecht, a prominent forensic pathologist, told People that this suggests that “she might have been injected” with the drugs. 

The coroner also allegedly took samples from Marilyn’s stomach and small intestines and asked the toxicologist to do tests on them, but they were never done.

Some details remain a mystery.

There’s actually a lot of, well, mystery that still surrounds Marilyn’s death. 

According to People, Summers did a 1983 interview with Murray where he says there was a “moment where she put her head in her hands and said words to the effect of, ‘Oh, why do I have to keep covering this up?’ I said, ‘Covering what up, Mrs. Murray?’ She said, ‘Well of course Bobby Kennedy was there [on Aug. 4], and of course there was an affair with Bobby Kennedy.'” 

The doc raises almost as many new questions as it answers. But I, for one, know what I’ll be watching tonight.

KORIN MILLERKorin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more

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