Some speculate that Marilyn Monroe was murdered by the Kennedys to keep quiet about the affair, but I’ve heard that it was pretty much common knowledge at the time anyway, which clobbers that particular conspiracy theory.
But how well known was the affair? Was it just known by the press who kept it under wraps (unlike todays press), or did the public know and joke about like we do with Lewinsky?
As far as I know, there still isn’t any real evidence that there was an affair at all, only that the two of them moved in the same circles.
James Elroy wrote in his novel “American Tabloid” that the whole thing escalated out of prank pulled on J. Edgar Hoover by one of his agents. Granted, that was fiction, but I think that scenario is no less unsupportable than is the one of an actual affair.
“Common knowledge” is often found to be faulty. I think the theory of an affair has been around so long and so often repeated that most people take it as undisputable fact.
I’m anxious to see if anyone here posts any convincing evidence.
Well, the TV show that was on about MM that spurred me to ask the question said that phone records on the day of her death show that she called or tried to call both John and Bobby Kennedy.
Certainly, that’s not proof, but decent evidence toward. Maybe if I payed closer attention to the show I would have heard better reasons to believe the affair.
Ellroy also tells of a former private dick he knows who allegedly taped JFK and MM having sex. The private dick dubbed the president “Thirty Second Man.”
Tim
“My hovercraft is full of eels.”
On a show (I don’t recall the name) on the History Channel recounting many of the hidden aspects of Kennedy’s administration. This included an interview with a secret service agent how felt very uncomfortable when John would insist on meeting certain ladies (assumedly prostitutes) alone. It also included an interview with a press person who said that when the press saw Marilyn or Jack at an event, they would watch for the other one as their appearances supposedly often coincided. I definitely got the impression that the press at least believed in the existence of such an affair.