Eunice Murray

Eunice Murray is the name of the woman who to this day is shrouded in controversy. She was the "hired psychiatrict aide" who discovered screen legend Marilyn Monroe dead in August of 1962. Mrs. Eunice Murray discovered Marilyn's body that fateful night, and stories persist today about the veracity and timing of Murray's account of what happened. Murray was acting as live-in housekeeper, and as a psychiatric aide to Dr. Ralph Greenson, Marilyn' psychiatrist. Murray, who with her husband had formerly owned the five-bedroom Monerey-style home on a hill in Santa Monica where Dr. Greenson then lived, had, after her divorce gone on to make a career for herself by using her many home-making and people-related skills to aid pychiatriests in caring for patients in their homes.

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Some believe that the night Monroe died, as many as five hours may have elapsed from Monroe's death before the authorities were called in. One allegation is that Marilyn's body may have been taken by someone St. John's hospital in Santa Monica in this interim, but the hospital may have refused the body because of concerns about notoriety. But it is highly unlikely that a hospital of this calibre, which deals with many celebrities, would have done so. This uncertain timeframe, that some people cite, about Monroe's passing versus the arrival of the police to the house on Fifth Helena later in the wee hours has led over the years to speculation that Murray may have known more than she ever divulged. In fact, over the years Murray's story seemed to some to have developed inconsistencies as she retold it, but the senility of old age and the many mistruths told about her in ensuing books may have been the reason her family finally refused reporters further interviews.

Related Topics:
St. John's hospital - Santa Monica

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Interestingly, Murray had a check made out to cash which was her last paycheck which is today on display in the Monroe exhibit at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum.

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In the Fall of 1962, Murray, a frequent traveler, was invited to accompany her sister and brother-in-law on a vacation in Europe. Some reporters tried to make much of that trip, but it had been planned for months.

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Eventually in 1973, Murray, who had been misquoted in many of the interviews she gave to reporters and would-be biographers, decided it was time to tell her own story of that fateful night on August 5, 1962. She had been invited to appear on the Mike Wallace show around that time to set the story straight. In the Wallace interview, she told how both Norman Guiles and Norman Mailer had written about her but their descriptions of her appearance and former occupation as a "designer" had been totally incorrect. To his credit, Mailer later visited Murray in her Santa Monica home and profusely apologized for having depended upon another biographer for his information.

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That year, Eunice Murray called upon a professional writer, Rose Murray Shade, who was a relative of hers by marriage, to write her story for publication. MARILYN: The Last Months was published in February 1975 by Pyramind Publications, New York. It sold more than 100,000 copies in paperback. Shade,who dropped her former married name in 1979, has since written extensively on astrology and other topics, including the biographies of many celebrities in numerous books, articles and on the web.

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Many of the allegations about Eunice Murray during the years have been not only untrue, but ridiculous in character. Those who made them realized that the woman was coming down with the infimities of age by the 1990's and could not easily refute them. In the late 1970's, Murray married Dr. Franklin Blackmer, who has since passed away as has Murray.

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A formal investigation in 1982 by the Los Angeles County District Attorney came up with no credible evidence of foul play, but the stories persist. Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who performed the autopsy (and the autopsies of Robert F. Kennedy, Natalie Wood and William Holden, among other celebrities), wrote in his book Coroner that Marilyn's death was a highly likely suicide.

Related Topics:
1982 - Los Angeles County - Thomas Noguchi - Robert F. Kennedy - Natalie Wood - William Holden

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