Marilyn Monroe's Final Terror: Hollywood Icon 'Screamed for Help' as Kennedy Brother 'Held a Pillow Over Her' While Frantically Searching For Her Diary Full of 'Political Secrets'
Robert F. Kennedy allegedly tried to silence Marilyn Monroe to keep her from screaming on the night of her death.
Dec. 2 2025, Published 6:30 p.m. ET
Author James Patterson paints a chilling picture of Marilyn Monroe's last hours on the day of her death in his new true-crime thriller, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
In The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, released on Monday, December 1, Patterson claims Robert F. Kennedy tried to silence the silver screen siren with a pillow while searching for her diary full of scandalous "political secrets," before a devastated Monroe took pills to calm down, dying hours later.
RFK Breaks Things Off
RFK and Monroe had a torrid affair while he was married with seven children.
Patterson begins the passage by writing how then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover received a report on July 13, 1962, naming Monroe as a "security matter" and a possible "Communist." Days after the report, then-Attorney General Kennedy "stopped taking" Monroe's calls following their torrid affair.
Monroe was left furious by the "sudden cold shoulder – so reminiscent of what happened recently with Jack," Patterson writes, referring to how RFK's brother, John F. Kennedy, cut off his brief affair with the movie star months earlier.
After trying to reach RFK on his private phone line, his home phone, and at the Justice Department, Monroe was livid about his ghosting.
Patterson writes Monroe went on to tell her friend, director Bob Slatzer, that if RFK kept "ignoring" her, "I might just hold a press conference. I've certainly got a lot to say!"
'Violent Argument'
Monroe was furious she was 'was passed around like a piece of meat' by the Kennedy brothers.
The chapter goes on to discuss how investigator Fred Otash planted a "grain of rice" microphone in Monroe's telephone at her own request. Upon reviewing 40 minutes of tape recordings from the night of her death, "Seems like Marilyn was right about seeing a Kennedy tonight. Only, not in the way she had planned," Patterson writes.
"The recordings place both Peter Lawford and Bobby Kennedy at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, deep in conflict with a highly emotional Marilyn, who's demanding 'an explanation as to why Kennedy was not going to marry her," he continues about how RFK and his brother-in-law visited the actress' home.
"It was a violent argument about their relationship and the commitment and promises Bobby made to her," Patterson says about how Otash took notes on the call where the Hollywood goddess claimed, "She said she was passed around like a piece of meat."
Search for Monroe's Diary Turns Terrifying
RFK allegedly muffled Monroe with a pillow to silence her screaming.
RFK lost control and began "screeching" in a "high-pitched voice."
"He's not leaving without finding what he came for, Marilyn's diary. The little red book where she kept all her notes about 'political things.'" Patterson dramatically writes.
"'Where is it? Where the f--- is it? We have to know. It's important to the family. We can make any arrangements you want, but we must find it," RFK is believed to have demanded.
Not only did Marilyn refuse to answer, "She was really screaming… Bobby gets the pillow, and he muffles her on the bed to keep the neighbors from hearing. She finally quieted down, and then he was looking to get out of there," Patterson claims.
Calming Herself With 'Pills'
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Monroe's cause death was acute barbiturate poisoning
Following the harrowing encounter with RFK, Patterson writes, "Marilyn lies in bed with her white telephone. She's calmed herself with some pills. Talking to friends might make her feel better."
Monroe "holds it together" when her former stepson Joe DiMaggio Jr calls." But by the time she rang up her friend and hairdresser Sydney Guilaroff after 8 pm, "she's rambling."
"'Danger… betrayals… men in high places... clandestine love affairs,' she says, before finally declaring, 'I know a lot of secrets about the Kennedys. Dangerous ones," she allegedly told Guilaroff.
Monroe was supposed to go to Lawford's home for dinner, but he told guests, "Marilyn's not coming, she's not feeling well."
"Now Lawford is alarmed by the drifting quality of her voice on the phone. He shouts at her, desperately trying to draw her focus," Patterson writes. "Marilyn answers sweetly: 'Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack, and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy."
"Is he?" the author asks. Because "Silence is his only answer. Marilyn is too far gone."
Monroe was found dead at her Brentwood, California, home on August 4, 1962, with the cause of death ruled to be acute barbiturate poisoning.
