The Country Curmudgeon — A shadow of doubt
By Roy Hicks
Thursday, October 15, 2009 11:22 AM PDT
I recently wrote of my former political allegiance to both John F. and Robert Kennedy. I was formerly a hardcore Democrat loyalist during the 1960s and wept at the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers. Only by 1972 did I begin to change my political orientation from the New Deal to the staunch conservatism later personified by Ronald Reagan.
Now I’m beginning to wonder if my former loyalty to the older Kennedy brothers was misplaced. This was recently brought home in a TV documentary: “The Death of Marilyn Monroe.”
Anyone my age doubtless remembers Monroe’s startling pubic appearance at JFK’s birthday party in 1962 (“Happy birthday, Mr. President!”) In retrospect, it was clear she’d been having an affair with the late president since perhaps 1960 whom she’d met through his brother-in-law Peter Lawford.
It’s equally clear that after her fling with JFK she next had an extramarital affair with JFK’s brother Bobby. Bobby came to her California home in 1962 to persuade her to break off with JFK, and she immediately fell for the handsome younger man.
In the meantime, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was relentlessly tracking her affairs and warned both Kennedy brothers these involvements could mean nothing but trouble. They eventually broke off all communications with her.
Angry and rejected, Marilyn threatened to expose her relationship with the Kennedy brothers to the whole world. Two days later she was dead: allegedly by “suicide,” but in a case that stinks of coverup to this very day.
It’s reported Monroe kept a diary of her relationships and conversations with the Kennedy brothers, often referred to as the “red book,” of which Bobby Kennedy was aware and which mysteriously disappeared from her house.
There is a great deal of testimony by numerous former cops, personal witnesses and former LA coroner Thomas Naguchi suggesting (a) the means of her death were not suicide; (b) the scene and the body had been rearranged after her death; and (c) Bobby Kennedy was deeply involved in the flurry of coverup and disinformation that followed.
If any of this is true, perhaps my former loyalty to both the older Kennedy brothers has been misplaced: both of them married Catholics, to whom the notion of adultery should have been abhorrent. Yet it has long been rumored both of them were notorious womanizers, as was their younger brother Teddy whose political career almost ended with the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick.
Were the older Kennedy brothers involved in the death of Marilyn Monroe? This is a dreadful secret we will probably never know.
Roy Hicks, a Payette resident, writes a weekly column for the Argus Observer. Comments or questions for Mr. Hicks can be directed to: Roy Hicks, Argus Observer Newsroom; 1160 S.W. Fourth St., Ontario, OR 97914 . The views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of the Argus Observer
