Darwin Porter has given us another gift: The biggest, juiciest, hottest icon of 20th-century icon, Marilyn Monroe.
In Marilyn at Rainbowâs End: Sex Lies, Murder and the Great Cover-Up (Blood Moon Productions) Porter brings his talent for linking the obvious to the obscure, his memory for the most microscopic detail to the most comprehensible headline. And, in choosing Monroe, Porter has chosen a greater than life contemporary figure who touched every one of us, some more intimately than others.
As always, the genius is in the detail. And Porter has all of them. Porterâs honesty could rip the skin off of any figure, and give the reader the reality of all he writes about. Lust and fear---with a little greed and a touch of egotismâmotors this work. Marilynâs climbâstep by step, bed by bed (until she reaches the White House, Nikita Khrushchev and the heads of the Mafia)âis laid out in all its fantastic particulars. To be sure, there are other power mad fiends along the way, such as Sinatra, most of the Kennedy clan, Albert Einstein (!), sundry mobsters and monsters and politicians and pundits, all whom Marilyn used on her way up the ladder. Unfortunately, when you reach the tipity top of the ladder, the next step is down. And self-destruction. The more power you have, the more enemies you create; the more you know, the greater the danger. And Marilyn accumulated more power and knowledge than anyone else. That she would be murdered is obvious; the shock and surprise comes in how many people wanted her dead for so many reasons. Success in America comes with an awful price, and there really is such a thing as being too smart. Anyone who has ever believed the suicide theory must also believe in the Easter Bunny and Santa. The four-hour clean up after the body, not quite but pretty much dead, was discovered was clumsier than the Harlow clean up, with witnesses appearing and disappearing, stories changing and entire locations re-dressed for the occasion. At times, the cast of characters rivals any assembled by DeMille, with everyone from Peter Lawford to Robert Kennedy to a myriad of police officials. At other times, it was a very lonely place. It all depends on who you believe. With scrupulous research, Porter pretty much sums up the underside of American entertainment, political and criminal activities in middle of the twentieth-century. He does not paint a pretty sight, but Porter does present, with scathing honesty, the Monroe death lies and cover-ups, stopping just short of JFK and RFK. And for those who still believe that lone gunmen were responsible for the deaths of the Kennedy Brothers, is that the sound of sleigh bells on the roof?
Porter is fearless, honest and a great read. He minces no words. He wouldn't suggest that a certain star was caught in flagrante delecto with an unnamed canine; he would simply state that that star was seen being screwed by a dog. Zing! Right to the point. If the truth makes you wince and honesty offends your sensibility, stay away.
Itâs been said that Darwin Porter deals in muck because he canât libel the dead. Well, itâs about time someone started telling the truth about the dead and being honest about just what happened to get us in the mess in which weâre in. If libel is lying, then Porter is so completely innocent as to deserve an award. In all of his works he speaks only to the truth, and although he is a hard teacher and task master, heâs one we ignore at our peril. To quote Gore Vidal, power is not a toy we give to someone for being good. If we all donât begin to investigate where power and money really are in the here and now, we deserve what we get. Yes, Porter names names. The reader will come away from the book knowing just who killed Monroe. Porter rather brilliantly points to a number of motives, but leaves it to the reader to surmise exactly what happened at the rainbowâs end, just why Marilyn was killed. And, of course, why we should be careful of getting exactly what we want. Itâs a very long tumble from the top.
--Alan W. Petrucelli, THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT, www.examiner.com, May, 13, 2012
In 1950, while a schoolboy, Darwin Porter was introduced to Marilyn Monroe by his mother, Hazel Triplett, a manager at Miami Beach's Helen Mar Hotel, where Marilyn was staying. Mrs Triplett had been instructed by a fabled B-movie star, Ronald Reagan, who was picking up the tab, to
MARILYN'S DEATH ELICITED OUTRAGE FROM EVERYBODY.
Here's how it was reviewed by some of her contemporaries:
*****
"A simple, decent-hearted kid whom Hollywood brought down, legs parted." (Director Elia Kazan)
"More and more, Marilyn was involving herself with some of the most dangerous men on the planet, power figures who played rough and would stop at nothing. What did a blonde sex goddess mean to them? Some of them regarded her as no more than a whore, an easy lay for them to pick up and discard." (Shelley Winters)
"Marilyn's death is of historical interest. There is no statute of limitations on murder." (L.A. District Attorney Ira Reiner in 1985)
"They murdered Marilyn. The amazing thing is why after all these years they didn't find a reason to murder me, too." (Frank Sinatra)
"The title of the movie we were going to make said it all: Something's Got to Give" (George Cukor)
"It is doubtful that either Kennedy saw past the beauty and the intelligence to the truly shattered nature of her personality--one which, as her psychiatrist later admitted, would have made her a candidate for an institution had her name not been Marilyn Monroe." (Anthony Summers)
"Clues that pointed to foul play vanished. Once cleaned up, the death scene indicated suicide. All of Monroe's bed linen and personal laundry had already been washed and put carefully back in cupboards. By sealing the crime scene, Fox was merely adhering to the tradition of studio policy, sanitizing real-life Hollywood murder scenes." (Patte B. Barham, veteran Hollywood reporter)
"You might call it a convenient death. She died just before the shit was about to hit the fan." (J. Edgar Hoover to Guy Hotell)
Part Two-NIGHTMARE IN THE DREAM FACTORY
Part Three-LET'S MAKE LOVE
Part Four-TWILIGHT OF A GODDESS
Part Five-MARILYN AT RAINBOW'S END
Part Six-THE FINAL DAY (August 4, 1962)
Part Seven-THE MURDER THAT NEVER DIES
Part Eight-THE AFTERMATH
--AUTHOR'S BIO
--INDEX