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Looking to quell a quarter-century of rumors that Marilyn...

By ELLIS E. CONKLIN

LOS ANGELES -- Looking to quell a quarter-century of rumors that Marilyn Monroe was murdered and her homicide covered up, police released a report Monday reaffirming their original finding that America's greatest sex symbol committed suicide.

'It was a very straight suicide,' Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said.

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The once-confidential report was made public to dispel 'speculations and just plain lies' that have long surrounded the actress's 1962 drug-overdose death, police Lt. Dan Cooke said.

The half-inch-thick report counters -- point by point -- charges raised in an October 1975 article in Oui magazine that suggested Monroe, 36, was murdered with a lethal injection of barbiturates.

A tangential theory also held that the Police Department, in collusion with the coroner's office, distorted evidence to protect Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who, the article claimed, was present at Monroe's residence when she administered the drugs to herself.

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The report released Monday did not dwell on the Kennedy angle, however. It focused, rather, on the magazine's murder theory.

The article, titled 'Who Killed Marilyn Monroe?' asserted that Monroe 'may have been injected with a fatal dose of drugs,' and was given at least two injections 'in the days before her death.'

The police report stated that such injections would have caused puncture wounds and needle marks, which were not found during the autopsy.

Another section of the report was devoted to a finding made by then-Coroner Theodore J. Curphey, who maintained that Monroe was subject to abrupt mood changes and had a history of ingesting barbiturates.

'On these occasions, she had called for help and had been rescued,' Curphey said in the report. 'From the information collected about the events of the evening of Aug. 4, it is our opinion that the same pattern was repeated -- except for the rescue.'

Curphey said massive doses of Nembutol and chloral hydrate 'gulped within a minute or two' killed the glamor queen.

The coroner's office listed her death as a 'probable suicide,' but controversy continued -- partially because the official files were destroyed in accordance with standard police policy in 1973, Cooke said.

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'In general terms we're hoping it clarifies a lot of information previously released by a number of authors on a number of innuendos, speculations and just plain lies,' Cooke said.

Chief Gates said he decided to make the internal report public because the department recently received numerous requests for access to the information.

'I don't think it's going to change anything,' Gates said. 'The legend of Marilyn Monroe will continue.'

The Oui article was written by Anthony Scaduto, who based much of it on a book by Robert Slatzer, who was once married to Monroe and claimed to have lived on and off with her for 16 years.

In the book 'The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe,' Slatzer concluded Monroe was happy with a bright financial and professional future at the time of her death.

'It is inconceivable that an internationally celebrated star like Marilyn Monroe, who was well aware of the importance of playing to an audience, would have committed suicide without leaving a word to the world about why she wanted to take her life,' Slatzer wrote.

In July 1974, Slatzer, who insists the coroner's office was enaged in a coverup to protect Kennedy, who had 'spurned her,' asked a grand jury to re-investigate Monroe's death. The grand jury denied the request, saying it was satisfied the actress swallowed a fatal dose of barbiturates.

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In his article, Scaduto wrote, 'The finger points to Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker.... He told journalists that the records showed Marilyn had called Bobby (Kennedy) repeatedly during the last week she was alive, making eight calls to the Justice Department office.'

The report released Monday counters:

'They (phone records) reveal all such calls made from a phone in Miss Monroe's residence for the period June 1, 1962, through Aug. 18, 1962. Eight calls were reportedly made from her residence to a Washington D.C. number during this period.

'Assuming this was RFK's number, as these were the only calls to Washington D.C., only one was made within seven days of Marilyn Monroe's death.'

The report said although the official files had been destroyed, copies of most, if not all, of the relevant reports were found in the private archives of deceased Detective Thad Brown, Cooke said.

Portions of the internal report were edited to maintain the confidentiality of some people interviewed about Monroe's death, Cooke said.

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