Marilyn Monroe's chilling last words before her death are truly heartbreaking: "Say goodbye..."
The blond diva, Marilyn Monroe, is one of the few stars who continue to dominate gossip columns decades after their demise. Renowned for her fashion and style, Monroe ruled hearts with her blonde bombshell persona. However, everything changed on August 4, 1962, as the news of Monroe's tragic passing at 36 years started doing the rounds. While the tragedy is still feeding the speculation theories, Monroe's final 18 words to a friend on a phone call are chilling. In addition, this friend also noticed Monroe struggling, as the actress sounded "despondent" about her personal life and career.
Actor Peter Lawford, who was married to Bobby Kennedy's sister, Pat Lawford, revealed that he spoke to Monroe on August 4, 1962, inviting her to dinner. When she didn't show up, he called again and noticed that her speech was "slurred" and that she sounded "despondent" about her personal life and career. Monroe told him she was "tired and would not be coming" to dinner, as per The Mirror. The actor further shared about Monroe's final 18 words, saying, "Say goodbye to Pat. Say goodbye to Jack [President Kennedy]. And say goodbye to yourself because you're a nice guy." Lawford later admitted in a police report that he had a "gut feeling" something was wrong and blamed himself for not going to her home.
The actress was found dead in the early hours of August 5, 1962. Monroe's housekeeper, Eunice Murray, grew alarmed after noticing the light still on in the actress's bedroom at 3 am. When knocking yielded no response and the door was locked, she called Monroe's doctors in a panic, as All That's Interesting reported. Psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greenson arrived and broke through the bedroom window, finding Monroe "naked in bed — a telephone clutched tightly in her hand."
Assessing the situation, he calmly stated, "She appears to be dead." Shortly after, Dr. Hyman Engelberg pronounced Monroe dead at around 4:30 am and alerted the police. Meanwhile, her lawyer, Milton 'Mickey' Rudin, handled initial legal matters over the phone, and her publicist, Arthur Jacobs, rushed from a concert at the Hollywood Bowl to the scene. Jacobs never spoke about the night of Monroe's death, refusing to recount the details. Years later, he explained that the scene in her bedroom was "too horrible to talk about." By dawn, reporters crowded the bungalow's yard as Monroe's body was transported to the Los Angeles County coroner's office for an autopsy. Toxicology results revealed high levels of chloral hydrate and Nembutal in her blood, likely from sleeping pills.
Despite this, the coroner ruled her death a "probable suicide" in the official death certificate, stating that the lethal dose must have been ingested "within a very short time," about one minute. However, authorities noted in their police report that Monroe's death "might have been accidental." Meanwhile, her friends struggled to accept that the vibrant star had died so suddenly. All That's Interesting further reports that, despite the official report, many of Monroe's friends believed there was an effort to cover up her murder. Actor Henry Bacon, who had seen her just days before, insisted, "She wasn't the least bit depressed. She was talking about going to Mexico." Pat Newcomb, another close friend, recalled seeing Monroe the night before her death. He insisted she "was in perfect physical condition and was feeling great," possibly due to rekindling her romance with ex-husband Joe DiMaggio.