My Very Belated Reply to Anthony Summers

Dear Mr. Summers:

If you recall, when the book The Assassinations, edited by Lisa Pease and myself, was released back in 2003 you wrote me a letter.

The composition of that book--addressing all four major assassinations of the sixties--made your letter rather surprising. You were objecting to an article that had been published years before in Probe. It was called “The Posthumous Assassination of John F. Kennedy.” In that article I went through some of the mythological elements that had attached itself to the very conscious effort to smear JFK’s legacy. And how his enemies had been a part of this. One of the topics I reviewed was the whole Marilyn Monroe fracas. You had already written me a similar letter about that piece when it was originally published in the magazine. (Vol. 4 No. 6) We then printed your letter and I replied to it. But let us review to delineate my objections.

In that piece, one of the most popular ever printed in Probe, I reviewed some of the authors in the MM area. From the rightwing libel convict Frank Capell, to Norman Mailer’s derivative, diaphanous but best-selling coffee table book, to the blatantly mendacious work of the infamous Robert Slatzer.

I then briefly discussed your book on the subject, Goddess. I said that you had jumped into what I considered a quagmire. Why did I say that? Because you clearly bought into a man who I thought then--and believe even more strongly now--was a con artist, namely Mr. Slatzer. As I wrote about your book Goddess, Slatzer “…is profusely mentioned in both the index and his footnotes.” (DiEugenio and Pease, p. 363) Later on, a foremost authority on the subject, Don McGovern, wrote that you referred to him literally dozens of times in your Monroe book. I should note in this regard that, even when Slatzer was discredited, you continued to stand by him.

When I say discredited, what am I referring to? In 1972 Slatzer told journalist Will Fowler that he was at work on an article about the Monroe case based on a conspiracy angle. Fowler read a draft. He was not impressed. He told Slatzer that, if he had been married to Monroe, now that would make a real story. A short time later, Slatzer got in contact with Fowler again. He now told him he had been married to Monroe. The marriage took place in Mexico and, according to Slatzer, it only lasted 72 hours. (ibid, p. 362). How he forgot about something like that it is confounding.

But its not. Because it never happened. On the day of the alleged vows, Monroe was not in Mexico. She was in Beverly Hills on a shopping spree, and we have the check she signed to prove it. (ibid). Also, April VeVea proved that, on the day Slatzer said they left for Mexico, Monroe attended a party for Photoplay Magazine. (See her blog, 4/10/18 ‘Classic Blondes’ )

And that is just the beginning of Slatzer’s deceptions.

In his 1974 book, Slatzer wove ersatz tales of a secret Robert Kennedy deposition, forged autopsy reports, 700 pages of top-secret LAPD files and more. And then there was the matter of Slatzer paying people to lie for him. As he did with actor/boxer Noble “Kid” Chissell, who you used as another source. (Goddess, p. 77) This was before Chissell confessed about being enlisted in Slatzer’s perfidy. Slatzer also paid Allan Snyder, Monroe’s make-up artist, to say he had seen Slatzer with Monroe. Which, according to author Gary Vitacco Robles, he had not. (James DiEugenio, “Brad Pitt, Joyce Carol Oates, and the Road to Blonde”, at Kennedysandking.com 2/22/24)

Then there was Slatzer’s invention of Jack Quinn. (Slatzer, The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe, pp. 249-53) This was Slatzer’s secret informant inside LA County officialdom. According to Quinn there was a hidden disclosure inside LAPD which said the original autopsy report had been disposed of, and that the police knew that RFK and Peter Lawford had been at Monroe’s house the day she died.

This story also fell apart under questioning by DA Ron Carroll in 1982. Slatzer could not even keep his locations straight about his meetings with the mythological Quinn. But now he added that police official Ed Davis flew to Washington to interview RFK. Which Davis denied. And Carroll could find no Jack Quinn anywhere in official employment records. Even though Slatzer said he had a badge with his name on it. Nor could he find the secret report with sensational disclosures Quinn had seen and copied.

To dismantle in detail all the lies Slatzer enunciated would take a long pamphlet. A much shorter pamphlet would be titled: What did Slatzer not lie about? Yet this is the man you used as a major source for Goddess. And you continued to vouch for him later, both in print and on TV. Slatzer went on to write another book and had two films based on his MM fairy tales.

Then there was another quite dubious source you used, namely Jeanne Carmen. Again, she is often mentioned in your index and footnotes. Later on, this woman became almost comical in another separate set of fairy tales. But even in your 1985 book it was hard to keep a straight face about her pronouncements. Carmen said that she and Marilyn would accompany Jack Benny to a nude beach near Malibu in disguise: Monroe in a black wig and Benny with a false beard. But that was not enough for Carmen. She then said they did the same with Bobby Kennedy! The Attorney General of the USA cavorting around a beach at Malibu with two nude women? Except for RFK, they added sunglasses and a baseball cap. This is in your book. (Goddess, pp. 226-27).

But Carmen went on to distribute more wares. For David Heymann, Carmen would later add that she had an affair with John Kennedy. (RFK: A Candid Biography, p. 313) Maybe this is something she did not think was important enough to reveal to you. She also told you that Monroe attended a gathering at Peter Lawford’s after JFK accepted his nomination at the Democratic Convention in LA. (Goddess, p. 221) Yet, according to Don McGovern-- an eminent Monroe authority--Monroe was not on the West Coast at that time. She was in New York with her then-husband, Arthur Miller. (Murder Orthodoxies, p. 208). This is also supported by Gary Vitacco Robles in his book Icon. (Vol. 2, e-book version, p. 479) There, the author states that Monroe watched the convention on TV while preparing for hair and makeup tests for The Misfits.

In a memoir entitled Jeanne Carmen: My Wild, Wild Life as a New York Pin Up Queen, published by her son the year before she died, she said that Monroe and JFK had another dalliance in New York after she sang for his birthday party at Madison Square Garden. Again, this is not supportable. As Vitacco Robles proves with rental car receipts and eyewitness testimony, Monroe drove her former father-in-law home, talked to a fan outside her apartment, and then got a massage from her regular masseuse, Ralph Roberts. No mention of JFK by anyone. (Ibid, pp. 502-08)

Carmen ended up making 31 TV appearances. (April VeVea’s Blog, ‘Classic Blondes’, 4/9/18) Monroe authority Greg Schreiner told this author that she was often paid for these. (4/26/25, discussion of Carmen) According to Carmen, there was a film being planned about her at the time of her death. (China Daily.com 12/4/07)

And what were the merits of these numerous appearances and this prospective film? How about this one? Johnny Roselli killed Sam Giancana at Sam’s home in Chicago. As he shot him, Johnny said, “Sam this is for Marilyn.” And Carmen somehow knew that, at this exact moment, Sam was thinking of Monroe. This is how her memoir opens.

Problems galore. First, no one really knows who shot Giancana. For the simple reason that the killer was the only other person in the house, and his identity was never ascertained. Secondly, according to biographer Lee Server, Roselli was living in Florida at this time, to be near his sister. To my knowledge, no investigation of Giancana’s murder ever turned up Roselli on their target list, even as a person of interest. The main suspect, talked about by writers like Buddy Roemer and William Brashler, was Dominic ‘Butch’ Blasi. Blasi was Giancana’s driver and confidant who had been at the house that day. He was brought in for questioning, and the police also suspected him, but there was never enough evidence to indict him. The probable reason for the murder was on orders of Chicago Mob kingpin Tony Accardo, due to Giancana’s refusal to share his profits from offshore gambling he developed in Mexico. (William Brashler, The Don, p. 321, Susan McNicoll, Mafia Boss: Sam Giancana, p. 98) There also may have been a supplementary reason: Giancana was being summoned to Washington to testify about his role in the CIA/Mafia plots to kill Fidel Castro.

Many writers, like VeVea, have stated that it was you who brought Carmen to prominence in the Monroe field. (Op Cit, VeVea, 4/9/18) For whatever reason, you found her credible. Don McGovern credits her with bringing in the RFK angle, and also Monroe’s alleged associations with gangsters. (McGovern, p. 132)

You also found Senator George Smathers convincing. (Goddess, p. 225, 240) Smathers said that Monroe was around the White House. Smathers ended up telling so many whoppers that he could not keep them straight. (McGovern, pp. 204-05) And there is no evidence Monroe was at the White House while Kennedy was president. (McGovern, p. 209)

Donna Morel is an experienced and accomplished attorney who practiced out of San Diego. She furnished the data for an expose by David Cay Johnston on David Heymann for Newsweek. In a recent email exchange with this writer, Donna said she had once been in contact with you. And also with another witness you used, Arthur James, a quite successful real estate developer. In a past email communication, you told her that, after publication, Deborah Gould--who was once briefly married to Peter Lawford--revealed to you that she made up the story about her former husband telling her that RFK had an affair with Monroe. Which you had originally placed in your book. (Goddess, pp. 349, 351) You properly omitted it from future editions. James, another prominent witness in Goddess, made numerous claims about his friendship with Monroe. Morel points out that none can be verified. When she taped a conversation with him—with his permission—James admitted he had no evidence of this relationship with the film star: not a note, letter, or picture. James claimed that Monroe was calling him from a pay phone in a park in LA, when she was actually living in Connecticut with her third husband, Arthur Miller.

But further, James is not able to pinpoint a date when Monroe stayed at his Southern California beachfront property. He also told Morel that he was invited to Monroe’s funeral. But he said he did not attend because his mother was ill. So his sister Bunny went in his place. Morel checked. Bunny was not there. And there is no evidence that Arthur James was invited.

I would prefer to not even address your use of the likes of Bernie Spindel and Fred Otash. (Goddess, pp. 262-63, p. 348) I will just say this: In your book, you tend to dismiss people who, in your view, defend the Kennedys as being biased or loyalists. But here you had two people who were being paid to bring them down--but that is irrelevant? For the record, Spindel worked for Bobby Kennedy’s dreaded enemy, Jimmy Hoffa. According to an FBI report attained by McGovern, Otash was trying to hire a high-class call girl to wear a wire and approach JFK. She refused. (FBI report of 7/26/60)

You rather quickly disposed of Dr. Boyd Stephens’ autopsy review of the case for DA Ron Carroll’s inquiry in 1982. He agreed with the original verdict that Monroe took her own life, which she had tried to do four times previously. (Goddess, pp. 321-22) You wrote, in reference to housekeeper Eunice Murray’s declaration that the light was on in Monroe’s bedroom and that is why she knocked and called to her, that this was not the case. Because the carpet was too high for her to see under. (ibid, p. 332) In Vitacco Robles’s book, he used pictures from the LAPD inquiry, and also witness testimony, which proved that you could see light under the door. (Icon, Pt. 1, p. 255, p. 380)

I could go on for pages more. But I will halt on one final point. In your book, you cast doubt on the words of those in the San Francisco area who say that Bobby Kennedy was at the John Bates ranch continuously on the day Monroe passed. You then state that he was likely in Brentwood, at Monroe’s house. (Goddess, pp. 348-54) This underlying tenet was broken in half by Susan Bernard in her 2011 book Marilyn: Intimate Exposures. She secured photographs from that day. The pictures cover from morning to dusk, and also include additional witness testimony. This proves RFK was at the Bates ranch all day. (pp. 184-87)

For the above reasons, and many more not dealt with, I do not ever plan on removing or curtailing what I wrote about Goddess from any edition of The Assassinations. For one simple reason: today, I think it’s an even worse book than I thought it was then. And I am not alone. April VeVea once called Goddess atrocious. And since that time, there has been a new corps of Marilyn Monroe writers who agree with her. To give you one example, I attended a Marilyn Monroe fan club meeting in LA this year. I made many of these same comments about your sources, Slatzer and Carmen. No one objected and, in fact, they concurred.

One last question I got went something like this: Did Summers really believe all that conspiracy stuff? I replied: “That is a really good question.”