Marilyn Monroe wasn’t just a bombshell known for her “ditzy blonde” persona and her tumultuous love life. She was also, for 10 years, a possible subversive person with communist ties, according to the FBI, which kept tabs on the actress and her whereabouts with the help of secret informants, press reports, and anonymous letters sent to agents.
This was the era of McCarthyism. The Soviet Union was expanding into Eastern Europe, heightening the Cold War tension between the U.S. and the USSR. Anyone suspected of harboring communist sympathies was vulnerable to falling under the watchful eye of the FBI and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, charged with rooting out Soviet spies in the U.S.
The federal government finally released the FBI papers related to Monroe in 2012, in response to a FOIA request by the Associated Press. Timestamps on the documents start around 1955, the year she began dating suspected commie and playwright Arthur Miller.
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By the early 1960s, the bureau made it clear that Monroe wasn’t working with the Communist Party USA. “Subject’s views are very positively and concisely leftist; however, if she is being actively used by the Community Party, it is not general knowledge among those working with the movement in Los Angeles,” one agent said in a letter to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
But that didn’t stop the FBI from continuing to investigate Monroe. The most recent documents in the trove are dated 1973, more than a decade after her death from a barbiturate overdose on Aug. 4, 1962.
The FBI’s fascination with Monroe, her whereabouts, her relationships, and her political affiliation was nowhere to be seen in Netflix’s recently released film Blonde, though documents show the government spared no resources in tracking the icon around North America. Below are a few highlights from the 85-page nothingburger that took the FBI a decade (and God knows how much money) to compile.
The FBI Was Really Into Gossip
At times, the Monroe file reads more like a vintage Deuxmoi blind item than an official dossier.
It’s filled with second-hand and third-hand accounts, anonymous tips, press clippings from dubious newspapers, and unidentified sources.
One would think the backing of the federal government would come with some special insight, but it seems like the agents working on Monroe’s case often relied on the same media reports everyone else was reading. Among the newspapers cited in the file are The Washington Star, the Communist Party USA’s The Daily Worker, and the New York Post.
Arthur Miller Was the Big Prize
Many of the documents are not even about Monroe herself, but about Arthur Miller, the New York City playwright who wrote 1953’s The Crucible, a thinly veiled allegory for McCarthyism.
In fact, the FBI only became interested in Monroe after her relationship with Miller blossomed in 1955.
“They start following her right after he gets involved with Arthur Miller,” retired UCLA history professor Lois Banner, author of Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox, told The Daily Beast. “She’s married to this person they think is proto-communist.”
A document dated June 13, 1956, describes how Miller attended a Communist Party seminar for writers in the fall of 1946. The same document cites a report from the communist Daily Worker newspaper claiming that Miller issued an “angry retort” to the NYC Youth Board for bowing to a “red baiting attack” when it shelved his script for a planned film about juvenile delinquency in New York City.
Another news clip claimed Miller had turned down a free trip to Moscow from a Soviet official.
All of this laid the groundwork for the House of Representatives’ persecution of Miller, who was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee after he tried to renew his passport in 1956. The writer told lawmakers that he had signed appeals and protests issued by “Red front groups” in the 1940s, according to FBI documents, but he denied being under “Communist discipline.” When he refused to name other writers who had done the same, a judge held him in contempt of Congress. According to a 1958 news clip collected by the bureau, an appeals court ruled that the HUAC chairman “failed to make definitely known to Mr. Miller that he was being commanded to answer the question” and ordered the district court to acquit him.
She Was Probably Involved With Robert Kennedy
An FBI field representative received a long letter in 1964 claiming that Monroe and then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy were involved in an “affair” from late 1961 to early 1962.
“Robert Kennedy was deeply involved emotionally with Marilyn Monroe and had repeatedly promised to divorce his wife,” the letter reads.
The agent who sent it to headquarters advises that “he does not know the source and cannot evaluate the authenticity of this information.”
The notion that Monroe was involved romantically with both Kennedy and his brother, President John F. Kennedy, Jr., is now widely accepted.
“A lot of people have testified to this,” says Banner, who herself interviewed dozens of people who knew Monroe personally.
In a Netflix documentary about the actress released earlier this year, Jeanne Martin, the wife of Dean Martin, who used to attend many of the Kennedys’ parties, unequivocally confirmed that Monroe was involved with both brothers.
Rumors that the Kennedys were involved in covering up the investigation into Monroe’s death have continued to surface for years. Brenner says the investigation remains the source of speculation because of the lack of documentation.
“They got rid of all the records,” she says. “If you go to the police department or the district attorney’s office, it’s empty. There’s nothing there.”
She May Have Applied For a Visa to Go to Moscow
The FBI cites an article from the Daily Worker (one of the FBI’s favorite sources on commie activity) reporting that Monroe applied for a visa to visit the Soviet Union, according to Dr. Carleton Smith, head of the advisory art committee of the National Art Foundation, who said it was all part of a cultural exchange program. The article quoted Monroe as saying, “I am looking forward to visiting Russia and other countries. I have not applied for a Soviet visa but there is a possibility I may visit there some time in the future.”
In 1955, J. Edgar Hoover wrote a letter to the Department of State saying that an “informant” told him that the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C. got a letter from Monroe’s manager requesting an application for a visa to visit the USSR. The letter was allegedly received on Aug. 12, 1955. At the time, the Soviet embassy said the visa request was under consideration.
She Was Friendly With Leftists and Communists in Mexico
Much of the trove of documents focuses on Monroe’s trips to Mexico, where she allegedly mingled with members of the American Communist Group in Mexico (ACGM).
There, she reportedly spent a lot of time with Frederick Vanderbilt Field, a descendant of the railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, known for his radical leftist politics. He was living in exile in Mexico, where Monroe visited him and became enamored with him.
According to the FBI, she arrived in Mexico on Feb. 19, 1962. No longer with Miller, but still influenced by him and his politics, her entry into the country was reportedly arranged by Frank Sinatra.
One source “advised that during the course of the visit a mutual infatuation arose between the subject and Frederick Vanderbilt Field. This situation caused considerable dismay among Miss Monroe’s entourage and also among the ACGM,” the report states.
The FBI names Eunice Murray, Monroe’s housekeeper, as a source, though Banner disputes this. The author tells The Daily Beast that Murray, identified as Eunice Churchill in FBI records, was paired up with Monroe by the actress’ psychiatrist Ralph Greenson. She was a good friend of Monroe’s, she says, and had leftist ties of her own.
“The FBI is not completely trustworthy,” Banner says. “They sometimes make things up.”
Either way, according to the bureau, Churchill said that Monroe felt like a “negated sex symbol” after Miller’s third marriage that year, and that “a lot of leftist rubbed off from Miller.”
“She said subject is very vulnerable now because of her rejection by Arthur Miller and also by Joe DiMaggio and Frank Sinatra. She telephoned Sinatra to come comfort her and he would not do it,” the report states.
There May Be (but Probably Isn’t) a Marilyn Monroe Sex Tape Somewhere
In a memo to J. Edgar Hoover dated Feb. 15, 1965, a special agent notes that an informant had seen “a motion picture which depicted deceased actress Marilyn Monroe committing a perverted act upon an unknown male.” The person in possession of this supposed sex tape claimed that Monroe’s ex-husband Joe DiMaggio offered him $25,000 for the film.
A follow-up memo appears to suggest that the FBI and its informants acquainted with the “Italian Hoodlum element” have no knowledge of such a video.
“I remember that I was researching that when I was writing this book,” Banner tells The Daily Beast, “and I think it’s hooey.”
