MARILYN MONROE’S FINAL DAYS The last few weeks of Marilyn’s life were not just a straight drug-induced run to the grave. Some days she was able to pick herself up, and Truman Capote, lunching with her early in June, was surprised to note, “There was a new maturity about her eyes. She wasn’t so giggly anymore and she had never looked better.” Marylin had two last public engagements, a photo session for Vogue and the interview with Life. Nobody knows what it is like to have all that I have and yet not be loved or know happiness. All I ever wanted out of life is to be nice to people and have them be nice to me . It’s a fair exchange. And I’m a woman. I want to be loved by a man from his heart as I would love him from mine. I’ve tried but it simply hasn’t happened yet. I really resent the way the press is now saying that I’m depressed and in a slump, as if I’m finished. Nothing’s going to sink me although it might be kind of a relief to be finished with moviemaking. You think you’ve made it. But you never have. There’s always another scene, another film, and you always have to start all over again…. I want to be an artist and an actress with integrity; I really don’t care about the money, I Just want to be wonderful. She was dead less than a week later. Of the 300 books that have been published about Marilyn since her death, fifty are full-length accounts of only the last week in her life and the multiple, conflicting, contradictory and often downright fantastical conspiracy theories that have grown up around her demise. One of these claims that she was killed by the Mafia because she knew too much about a possible relationship with Frank Sinatra; another that the Kennedys somehow had her killed before she could spill the beans on the brothers’ sexual antics, time and again the CIA has been cited as a possible murderer murderer because her loose-cannon sexuality meant that she was altogether too directly plugged into the innermost secrets of the United States; and there are many who believe that the shadowy cares of her last weeks killed her for the contents of her jewelbox and safe. The following facts, however, are indisputable. At about midnight on 4 August 1962, Marilyn went to her room, taking her personal telephone with her. She bade Mrs Murray goodnight and shut her door. When Marylin’s lawyer called he was told that Marilyn was in her bedroom but the light was still on. Mrs Murray says At about 2 a. m., she noticed that the light was still on and she became concerned. She knocked but could get no response and finally called the ambulance service to effect a forced entry. At 3:30 in the morning of 5 August, Marilyn was found dead, nude on her bed, one arm stretched out towards the telephone. The first coroner’s report declared that her death was due to “presumed suicide caused by an overdose of barbiturates.” Marilyn went down like a battleship. Firing on her rescuers; it must also be admitted, though, that among those rescuers were doctors and nurses anxious to deep her totally dependent upon them and therefore inclined to allow her to abuse herself with whatever substance was available on or off prescription. The most likely cause of death, on balance and with the wisdom of almost forty years’ hindsight, seems to be that Marilyn did indeed swallow, quite possibly unintentionally in her already drugged state, the overdose of hoarded Nembutal barbiturates which rapidly killed her before she could once again rescue herself by calling either Mrs Murray or a friend by telephone. However, this verdict does not rule out the fact that there were a large number of people who by now wanted her out of the way for one reason or another. In that sense, her suicide was one of the most welcome and well-timed acts that Marilyn ever succeeded in carrying through. 瑪麗蓮生命的最後幾周不單單是由於毒品誘發走向死亡的。有些日子她還能振作一下，何況在六月初，當杜魯門·卡波特與她共進午餐時，還驚訝地注意到，“她的眼神中有一種全新的成熟。她不再動輒傻笑而且看上去從沒有這麼完美。”瑪麗蓮有兩次最後的公開約會，一次是參加《時尚》的拍照，一次是接受〈生活〉的採訪： 沒人知道我不愁吃穿但不爲人愛、不知快樂是什麼滋味。我只求在生活中能善待他人，他人也同樣善待我。我是公平交換。我是個女人，我需要被一個男人真心地去愛，同時我也會真心地愛他。我做過嘗試，但這種事壓根兒就沒有發生過。 我的確不滿媒體現在的說三道四，說我情緒低落而且生活頹廢，好像是我要完蛋了。儘管不拍電影了可能會是種解脫，但任何事情也不會使我消沉。你覺得可以不拍電影了。但你是拍不完的。總會有另一場，另一部電影，而你總是要從頭開始····· 。我想當一名正直的藝術家和演員；我真的不在乎金錢，我只求美好。 不到一週後她離開了人世。 自從瑪麗蓮去世後，出版了300部有關她的書籍，其中五十部通篇講述的僅僅是她生命最後一週的經歷以及圍繞她的死編造出的許許多多自相矛盾的、茺唐的、卑鄙的猜測。 其中一種說法宣稱她被黑手黨所殺，因爲她對弗蘭克·西奈特可能有的風流韻事知之太多；另一種說法是在她行將泄露肯尼迪弟兄們的性醜聞時，肯尼迪家族的人派人殺害了她，更有甚者有人說中央情報局可能是殺害她的兇手，因爲她放蕩的性生活意味着她曾直接觸及到美國最深層的機密；還有許多人認爲她在最後幾周對珠寶盒及保險箱中的財寶憂心忡忡有關。然而，以下是不爭的事實。 1962年8月4日午夜時分，瑪麗蓮拿着她的私人電話走進房間。她向默裏夫人道了晚安便關緊房門。當瑪麗蓮的律師來電話時，他被告知瑪麗蓮呆在臥房，但燈卻亮着。默裏夫人說凌晨兩點她發現燈還亮着隨即就開始擔心起來。她敲了敲門，但沒有迴音，最後打電話給醫療救護隊才硬撞進去。8月5日凌晨3：30，人們發現瑪麗蓮已死，赤裸在牀上，一隻胳膊朝電話方向伸着。首次驗屍報告稱她的死是由於“過量服用鎮靜類藥物引起的假定性自殺。” 瑪麗蓮像一艘向營救者開火的戰艦慢慢下沉；但是，也必須承認，在這些救援者中，醫生和護士們都希望使瑪麗蓮完全依賴他們，從而傾向於讓她隨意服用處方中或處方外的任何藥物。最有可能的死因，總的說來並憑着近四十年的事後分析，瑪麗蓮似乎的確吞食了過量的家裏儲存的耐波他牌的鎮靜類藥，這很有可能是在她已吸食毒品的情況下無意之中所爲，但她沒來得及打電話給默裏夫人或朋友去求救，這藥就很快使她送了命。 然而，這個判斷並不能排除一個事實，即有許多人當時出於這樣那樣的理由希望她退出歷史舞臺。在這個意義上，瑪麗蓮的自殺是她所曾完成的一種最受歡迎和合時宜的舉動。
