"Does anyone really want to know what caused the death of Marilyn Monroe?"

The long afterlife of cultural and cinematic icon Marilyn Monroe has created a tragic paradox.

In this post-truth era, Monroe has been recast as a victim of powerful men, a virtual simulacrum of desire and death. The sensational narrative constantly regurgitated in media reports, books, and documentaries rests on a stacked deck of hearsay and outright lies. Conspiracy theories offer a

simplistic, yet tantalizing, framing device for the abundance of information hurled at us by global mass media.

In an explosive takedown, Gary Vitacco - Robles - author of Icon: The Life Times, and Films of Marilyn Monroe - unpacks the falsehoods perpetuated by a rogues' gallery of shadowy opportunists. With surgical skill, he separates fact from fiction, probable theory from outlandish rumor. As a practicing psychotherapist, the author is uniquely qualified to re-examine Monroe's lifelong struggle with mental illness and spiraling addiction to medications liberally prescribed by successive doctors.

In this definitive study - based upon decades of research, legitimate sources, the never-before-released Los Angeles District Attorney's investigation, and police investigations from 1962, 1975, and 1985 - the reader is presented with facts to finally learn the truth about how Monroe died and who was responsible.