FBI probed Marilyn Monroe’s ties to suspected communists

PanARMENIAN.Net - Newly-unsealed FBI files on Marilyn Monroe have been obtained by The Associated Press, 50 years after her death. In the documents that began in 1955, it's revealed that the Bureau kept tab on the actress because they were concerned about the actress' ties to some suspected communists, AceShowbiz reported.

One of her pals with leftist views mentioned in the file was Frederick Vanderbilt Field. She reportedly met him in Mexico on shopping trips. The encounter was described in a chapter titled "An Indian Summer Interlude" by Field himself in his autobiography "From Right to Left".

"She talked mostly about herself and some of the people who had been or still were important to her," he wrote. "She told us about her strong feelings for civil rights, for black equality, as well as her admiration for what was being done in China, her anger at red-baiting and McCarthyism and her hatred of (FBI director) J. Edgar Hoover."

Though mentioning about Monroe's linkage to some lefty people, FBI which also kept close eyes on some other celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Charlie Chaplin under Hoover's watch couldn't find any evidence that the actress who died in 1962 was a member of the party.

"Subject's views are very positively and concisely leftist; however, if she is being actively used by the Communist Party, it is not general knowledge among those working with the movement in Los Angeles," the file stated in a July 1962 entry.

Regarding her death, AP reported the FBI was aware of theories that she might be killed, "but they do not show that any effort was undertaken to investigate the claims. Los Angeles authorities concluded Monroe's death was a probable suicide." One of the rumors suggested she was murdered by government due to her political leanings.

Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who performed autopsy on her body, said in his book that he "would call Monroe's suicide 'very probable'." He, however, added, "But I also believe that until the complete FBI files are made public and the notes and interviews of the suicide panel released, controversy will continue to swirl around her death," referring to the heavily-censored documents.