The Marilyn Tapes

Questions Still Remain About The Movie Star's Death

(CBS) 
Which brings us back to Aug. 4, 1962, the last day of Marilyn's life. While there is no clear proof of a cover-up, there are troubling conflicts, and unanswered questions surrounding the events of that night.

On August 4, the president was on the East Coast; Bobby Kennedy was in Northern California, and according to his host that weekend, remained there the entire time.

But former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates says, according to his sources, the attorney general traveled to L.A.

"Our records show that he was in Los Angeles and probably that information came to our intelligence function through the FBI," says Gates.

He does not believe Bobby Kennedy saw Marilyn that day. Had he gone to see Marilyn that day, I think we would have known it," he explains.

However, Peter Lawford's third ex-wife, Deborah Gould, says Bobby did visit Marilyn. Gould, who was briefly married to Lawford in the 1970s, told the BBC that he went to Marilyn's that day to end the relationship with the Kennedy brothers.

"Marilyn was, from what Peter told me, knew then that it was over. That was it, over. Final. And she was very, very distraught and depressed," Gould told the BBC.

That explains what Lawford eventually told police: He described a very disturbing phone conversation with Marilyn that final evening.

"She sounded groggy and depressed, and she said, 'Say goodbye to Jack,' meaning Jack Kennedy and 'Say goodbye to yourself 'cause you’re a nice guy," Summers explains.

According to Lawford, that call took place at 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. By 9 p.m., according to police documents, the message had spread that Marilyn might be in trouble. What is unknown is whether word reached Bobby Kennedy.

"To be associated with the last hours of her life was a political nightmare," says Summers. "So it may be that there was what you might call a benign cover-up, not a cover-up of a murder, but a cover-up to protect prominent people."

Carmen says Marilyn kept a diary, which kept tabs on what JFK and Bobby Kennedy said to her, but Marilyn herself once denied that she had a diary. In any case, Carroll says no diary was found by police or employees from the coroner's office at the death scene.

According to Gould, years after Marilyn's death, Lawford told her he had made an early morning sweep through Marilyn's house.

"He said he went there, he tidied up the place and did what he could before the reporters found out about the death," Gould told the BBC.

Most mysterious of all these clues was that Marilyn was found clutching her telephone. It is known that in the weeks leading up to her death, she called the justice department, where Bobby Kennedy worked, eight times. What is not known is who she was calling the night she died.

"It is very clear, and from excellent sources that we don’t have the full record of calls made from Monroe’s residence in the hours before she died," says Summers.

Summers was told by his sources that some of the records were seized. "A senior former FBI agent has told me that J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, ordered the seizure from the phone company of the long-distance phone tickets, which would show who she had called, or tried to call in the hours before her death," he explains.

Asked about missing phone records, Carroll says, "We never learned that if it is true."