Expert: Yvonne - 6/30/2006

Question
Do you know where her house staff was that day? Why was she there alone that particular day? Who exactly "ordered" all the house staff off for the rest of the day/night? Has all the house staff faculty been throughly interrogated if not questioned at all? Where are they now?

Answer
Hi there Nicolle,

Marilyn's house staff (consisting of housekeeper, Eunice Murray, and gardener/caretaker, Norman Jeffries) were in the house that day. Eunice Murray slept there as she was a live-in helper (something Marilyn wanted to change as she felt that Eunice was spying on her for her psychiatrist, Dr. Greenson. In fact she fired Murray in May 1962 but shortly afterwards rehired her. That month, when Murray requested a month's holiday, Marilyn agreed, paid her, and asked her not to return.), but Norman Jeffries did not live in at Marilyn's Brentwood home. He called in later in the day to do some chores.

Marilyn was therefore not alone at any point on the day she died. Eunice was there all day, and her personal assistant, Patricia Newcomb, slept over from the night before but left during the early afternoon.

No one ordered her staff off for the night. Eunice Murray never left.

Eunice Murray was questioned by the police at the time and again over the years by numerous investigators, writers, and documentary makers, and during the 1982 reopening of the case. Her story has changed a number of times. For instance, her description of waking up in the early hours of the morning with a sixth sense that something was wrong with Marilyn, changed to the fact that she was alarmed by the fact that Marilyn's light was still on (not unusual for an insomniac like Marilyn). During an interview in the eighties, when she thought the cameras had stopped rolling (but hadn't) she exclaimed, "why at my age, do I still have to cover up this thing?"

She published a book in 1975 called, "Marilyn: The Last Months". Needless to say it didn't mention a cover-up.

As regards a 'where is she now' for Mrs Murray, Wikipedia tells us the following: "After Monroe's death, Murray lived quietly in various locations in West Los Angeles. For many years she rented a guest cottage in Santa Monica from relatives of the late actor, Richard Cromwell from the mid-1960s until the mid-1970s. There, she pursued her many interests, including sewing, macrame, horticulture, Astrology and letter writing. In the mid-70s she married Franklin Blackmer, a Swedenborgian minister, and moved east with him to Bath, Maine. After his death, she returned to her family in Southern California, living close to Monroe's former home on Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood. Later, she lived with her family in Tucson, Arizona, until her death in 1992."

Should you wish to know more about Mrs Murray, simply email me again through allexperts.

Best regards,

Yvonne