Crypt 33: The Saga of Marilyn Monroe - The Final Word - Hardcover

Gregory, Adela; Speriglio, Milo

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559721251 ISBN 13: 9781559721257

Publisher: Birch Lane Pr, 1993

Synopsis

An examination of the hotly debated death of Marilyn Monroe chronicles Monroe's life, clears the CIA of conspiracy in the crime, and indicts previously unnamed Mafia killers, verifying the claim with well-connected sources. 70,000 first printing. $70,000 ad/promo.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Criminologist Speriglio's third book on the Marilyn Monroe question (Marilyn Monroe: Murder Cover-up, 1982; The Marilyn Conspiracy, 1986--neither reviewed), rounding up what's new since 1986. Speriglio makes the hardest case yet that Marilyn was the victim of foul play carried out by a Mafia hit team from Chicago, masterminded by mobster Sam Giancana at the behest of Joseph Kennedy, Sr., and JFK but unbeknownst to Bobby Kennedy. If you find it hard to believe that a President and his father could be behind the murder of a film star, Speriglio presents the means and motive to make your disbelief waver strongly. But first he offers a dull biography with barely a new word anywhere, aside from an interview with the actress's close friend and makeup artist Whitey Snyder, who was her first cosmetician at Fox and did the grisly, postautopsy face-and-wig prep for her funeral. The bio--apparently by coauthor Gregory--also is deaf, dumb, and blind about Laurence Olivier, indicating that he was a humorless bumbler of no comedic talent when he directed Marilyn in The Prince and the Showgirl--in which, arguably, she gives her best performance outside of Bus Stop. Moreover, the bio calls Olivier's supporting cast of accomplished British stage players ``insecure'' and ``easily threatened'' by Marilyn's proven comedic talents. The book comes into bloom only with the alleged murder and cover-up. The two hit men are said here to have chloroformed the actress and then, with a bulb syringe, squirted a chloral hydrate/Nembutal solution into her bowel are named--and their subsequent history is followed closely: One discussed the hit with his lover, Eugenia Pappas, who, upset by the knowledge, was soon shot through the chest and dumped into the Chicago River. Pappas's brother came forward in 1986 to reveal what his sister had told him about her ``killer fianc‚''- -leading to this book. Brainless bio followed by riveting murder investigation. (Sixteen pages of photographs--not seen) (Film rights sold to Adona Productions) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

L.A. private investigators Gregory and Speriglio recount anew the almost mythic tale of Marilyn Monroe's rise to stardom, her marriages and affairs. The familiar story is well and sympathetically told, with the addition of contentions about her liaisons with John and Robert Kennedy. But readers will take special notice of the arguments that the actress was murdered. The authors claim to have identified the friend (Johnny Roselli) who, visiting her on the evening of Aug. 4, 1962, knowingly opened her door to the Chicago hit men sent by Mafia chief Sam Giancana. Monroe had to be silenced, according to the authors, because, stung by her rejections by the President and the Attorney General, she had threatened to publicize her affairs with both and to reveal that RFK had leaked security secrets to her (e.g., that the Mafia and the CIA together planned to assassinate Castro). The authors discuss photos they vaguely maintain "were released to the press" of JFK and Monroe having sex. (Although PW has not seen the book's pictures, we're told that these are not included). The authors also allege that a tape recording was made of the murder. Speriglio and Gregory are fluent, convincing writers, but their most damning charges--for example, that JFK and his father complied with Monroe's killing--smack of gratuitously savage hearsay.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Birch Lane Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1559721251
• ISBN 13: 9781559721257
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 310