Monroe Investigation Interviews
and read the transcript of investigation interviews with ambulance attendant Ken Hunter and physician Dr. Hyman Engelberg. Both were in Marilyn Monroe's home after the movie star was found dead in her bed. These recordings were made in 1982.
Interview with Ken Hunter, an ambulance attendant.
Investigator: What happened?
Hunter: What do you mean?
Investigator: Well, I mean, what occurred?
Hunter: I don't know. Nothing really occurred. She was dead and they wouldn't let us take her….
Investigator: Did you see Monroe's body?
Hunter: Yeah.
Investigator: Where was it at the time?
Hunter: She was on the bed, hanging off the bed or something….
Investigator: Do you recall whether she was on her back or her stomach?
Hunter: Side…
She was on her side?
Hunter: I believe she was on her side…Let's see…yeah….It seems to me she was on her side….
Investigator: Did either one of you touch her body?
Hunter: I didn't…
Investigator: Did you know if your partner did?
Hunter: Seems to me he did…. Checked her just to see if -- dead or whatnot…I think she was…I think she was pretty cold at the time….
Hunter: Well, she was blue….the throat, you know, like she had settled, like she had been laying there a while…Ya know what I mean?
Investigator: Was she blue in any particular portion of her body?
Hunter: I don't really remember if it was her neck or her side…Well, lets put it this way…I could look across the room and tell that she was dead….
Investigator: An ambulance attendant who was summoned to the residence that…when the ambulance, his partner arrived, the only person there was a female standing outside screaming…And that the attendant went in and found Marilyn Monroe on the bed, removed her from the bed and began CPR or closed chest massage…And that in the process of doing that that she came around, ya know, to regain consciousness…and the doctor came in and plunged a needle into the area of her heart and thereafter, pronounced her dead…Does that sound familiar at all?
Hunter That's b***s***.
Interview with Dr. Hyman Engelberg, Marilyn Monroe's physician.
Investigator: There were apparently quite a volume of pills that were discovered at her death, at her bedside….
Engleberg: Yes.
Investigator: Do you recall looking at a list of those pills? And were they all prescribed by you?
Engleberg: No. Only one had be prescribed by me. I had prescribed Nembutal to help her sleep. But as I recall, to the best of my ability, I was surprised to see at the side of her bed a large number of other sleeping pills, which looked like Seconal, which she had apparently purchased on a recent trip to Mexico. It's my understanding that in Mexico in those days you could walk into any pharmacy and buy, you know, any tranquilizers or sleeping pills you wanted. There were certainly lots of other sleeping pills I had not prescribed….
Investigator: Chloral Hydrate specifically?
Dr. Engleberg: I knew nothing about any Chloral Hydrate. I never used Chloral Hydrate….
Investigator: So you wrote her a prescription for Nembutal only?
Dr. Engleberg: That was it. That was the only prescription I wrote for sedatives.
Investigator: Did you go to her house?
Dr. Engleberg: Oh, sure.
Investigator: Do you recall the time?
Engleberg: What?
Investigator: Do you recall the time?
Engleberg: I don't think, you know, of looking at the exact time….But I recall that it must have been in the general area of 3:00am…maybe 2:30. Somewhere in that area….
Investigator: The reason I'm asking is as you probably know is the discrepancies in the time that you were called. One person saying it was around midnight, an other one was saying it was around 3am…
Engleberg: Dr. Greenson was called first. And he got there first. I think I was called around 2:30 to 3 o'clock….
Investigator: It wouldn't have been around midnight?
Engleberg: Oh, no. No, no, no. Absolutely not.
Investigator: Okay. Did you then go into Marilyn's bedroom?
Engleberg: Yes.
Investigator: What did you see there?
Engleberg: She was sprawled over the bed and she was dead.
Investigator: When you say sprawled, what position was she actually in?
Engleberg: I don't recall exactly what position she was in. I knew that I had to be since I was the internist. I took out my stethoscope and listened to make sure her heart wasn't beating. Checked her pupils because that's one of the sensitive ways to tell if a person is dead r not. I said she was dead. Which of course, Dr. Greeson knew anyway, but I had to go through the motions….
Investigator: Was there a reason there was a delay of half hour or do you consider it was a delay?
Engleberg: We were stunned. We were talking over what happened, what she had said. Ordinarily, when you pronounce somebody dead, you don't call the police, you call the mortician. I was the one who I guess eventually said, gee, I think in this case, we'd better call the police.