Marilyn Monroe - The Kennedy Connection

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Marilyn’s friends agreed that her heart was set on winning the affections of John F. Kennedy. He would often visit her at her home or see her at the Lawfords, where they were said to have conducted their affair. Twenty-two years later, author Anthony Summers conducted an interview with Lawford’s widow, Pat Seaton, who claimed that Kennedy and Marilyn frequently made love in one of the baths at the Lawford home. On one occasion they were caught by a former Kennedy advisor, Peter Summers, who saw them come out from the bathroom together. Marilyn was wearing just a towel. Summers was quoted as saying, “She had clearly been in there, in the shower, with him. It was obvious, but neither of them seemed worried about it.”

The Lawford home was not the only place where the two would spend time with one another. Sometimes, Marilyn and John would secretly meet during Kennedy’s travels and on one occasion that March, they spent a weekend alone together in Palm Springs, Florida.

John also spoke frequently to Marilyn on the phone during the beginning to mid 1962. He even gave her a private number so that she could reach him through the Justice Department. Marilyn’s hopes for a future with the president began to soar during this time and she believed that he would someday divorce Jackie Kennedy and marry her. Summers states that according to Marilyn’s friend, Terry Moore, Marilyn naively “imagined herself as a future First Lady.”

I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. Read more Marilyn Monroe quotes

In April 1962 Marilyn began work on Something’s Got to Give. It seemed as if her career and life were slowly moving back on track. The following month she performed for John Kennedy at a birthday tribute in his honor at Madison Square Garden. Marilyn emanated sex as she breathlessly sang “Happy Birthday” to the president. It was a performance that sent ripples of gossip through the crowd because her desire for Kennedy was publicly displayed for the first time. According to Summers, the president chidingly thanked Marilyn for singing to him in “such a sweet and wholesome way.”

The rumors about Marilyn and the Kennedys were beginning to circulate with fury. There was fear that John in particular would be caught up in a whirlwind scandal if his relationship with Marilyn continued at its pace. In the summer of 1962, Marilyn had become a security risk and was told to cease all contact with the brothers. The relationships came to an abrupt end and Marilyn was shattered. During that time, Marilyn was said to have become severely depressed. She even told several friends that she would come clean about the relationships in retribution for the pain that was inflicted on her by the brothers.

But in the weeks just before Marilyn's death, her career and personal life were in a definite upswing. There were a number of new valuable film projects that she was working on and she was very excited about being involved in these films.

There was also the weekend before she died that was spent at Lake Tahoe. Spoto says she spent that weekend with Joe DiMaggio and that they planned to remarry. This is disputed by Wolfe, who says that Frank Sinatra had set up the weekend at the Cal-Neva Lodge at the behest of the Kennedys who wanted to make sure that Marilyn did not leak to the press the details of her relationship with the President.

Wolfe writes that DiMaggio came to Tahoe unexpectedly and arrived late Saturday night, perhaps because Marilyn asked him to come. Wolfe's research also indicated that the brutal mobster Sam Giancana was also there to ensure that Marilyn did not create a problem for the Kennedys.

Wolfe says DiMaggio was furious with Sinatra and the Kennedys for luring Marilyn there, plying her with drugs and then taking compromising photos of her to be used as blackmail if she threatened to expose the Kennedys.

The following weekend Marilyn was found dead in her Brentwood home. Her death appeared to be a suicide resulting from an overdose of sleeping pills. However, there were many who believed that she was murdered because she simply knew too much.