Customer Reviews

The Men Who Murdered Marilyn

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If I read once in THE MEN THAT MURDERED MARILYN that Marilyn had been re-hired by 20th Century Fox at three times her previous salary, I read it at least six times. This book has the distinct feel of an article padded out to make a book-length (and therefore profitable) treatise on the mysteries surrounding the icon's 1962 death. The salacious title and the promise of new insights are all that are required to make a sale in a market still obsessed with the beloved star more than 45 years after her death.

Smith takes us through all the research that he did, reviews and discards various theories, and then shares his own conclusion with us (which isn't much of a conclusion, frankly). Most has been heard before and presented more intelligently. Further, the fact that he relies most heavily on Robert Slatzer and Jeanne Carmen, two people whose claims to be "best friends" with Marilyn are dubious, at best, opens the whole thing up to deep skepticism.

In addition to all of this, the book is absolutely chock-full of typos (I expect much better of this particular publisher) and so incredibly repetitive that certain episodes were repeated word for word no less than ten times. There are excellent books on Marilyn Monroe out there - this one cannot be counted among them.