Marilyn went down like a battleship. Firing on her rescuers; it must also be admitted, though, that among those rescuers were doctors and nurses anxious to deep her totally dependent upon them and therefore inclined to allow her to abuse herself with whatever substance was available on or off prescription. The most likely cause of death, on balance and with the wisdom of almost forty years’ hindsight, seems to be that Marilyn did indeed swallow, quite possibly unintentionally in her already drugged state, the overdose of hoarded Nembutal barbiturates which rapidly killed her before she could once again rescue herself by calling either Mrs Murray or a friend by telephone.

However, this verdict does not rule out the fact that there were a large number of people who by now wanted her out of the way for one reason or another. In that sense, her suicide was one of the most welcome and well-timed acts that Marilyn ever succeeded in carrying through.  

玛丽莲生命的最后几周不单单是由于毒品诱发走向死亡的。有些日子她还能振作一下，何况在六月初，当杜鲁门·卡波特与她共进午餐时，还惊讶地注意到，“她的眼神中有一种全新的成熟。她不再动辄傻笑而且看上去从没有这么完美。”玛丽莲有两次最后的公开约会，一次是参加《时尚》的拍照，一次是接受〈生活〉的采访：

没人知道我不愁吃穿但不为人爱、不知快乐是什么滋味。我只求在生活中能善待他人，他人也同样善待我。我是公平交换。我是个女人，我需要被一个男人真心地去爱，同时我也会真心地爱他。我做过尝试，但这种事压根儿就没有发生过。

  我的确不满媒体现在的说三道四，说我情绪低落而且生活颓废，好像是我要完蛋了。尽管不拍电影了可能会是种解脱，但任何事情也不会使我消沉。你觉得可以不拍电影了。但你是拍不完的。总会有另一场，另一部电影，而你总是要从头开始····· 。我想当一名正直的艺术家和演员；我真的不在乎金钱，我只求美好。

 不到一周后她离开了人世。

 自从玛丽莲去世后，出版了300部有关她的书籍，其中五十部通篇讲述的仅仅是她生命最后一周的经历以及围绕她的死编造出的许许多多自相矛盾的、茺唐的、卑鄙的猜测。

 其中一种说法宣称她被黑手党所杀，因为她对弗兰克·西奈特可能有的风流韵事知之太多；另一种说法是在她行将泄露肯尼迪弟兄们的性丑闻时，肯尼迪家族的人派人杀害了她，更有甚者有人说中央情报局可能是杀害她的凶手，因为她放荡的性生活意味着她曾直接触及到美国最深层的机密；还有许多人认为她在最后几周对珠宝盒及保险箱中的财宝忧心忡忡有关。然而，以下是不争的事实。liuxuepaper.com