For over six decades, the circumstances surrounding the death of Marilyn Monroe have remained cloaked in secrecy, suspicion, and contradiction. As a seasoned private investigator, I have spent years studying the case in depth, and I am convinced that the official cause of death—suicide—does not align with the facts. It is long past time that Marilyn's death certificate be corrected and a new, independent criminal investigation be opened.
The Suicide Narrative Falls Apart Under Scrutiny
The official story—that Marilyn took her own life—is not supported by the available evidence. On the contrary, it is contradicted by the following critical points:
Unquestioned Witnesses with Suspicious Behavior: Two key figures—Sgt. Marvin D. Iannone and Pat Newcomb—were present at the scene of Marilyn’s death, yet neither has ever been thoroughly investigated. Both left the country for extended periods shortly after the incident. Pat Newcomb’s subsequent employment with the U.S. Information Agency raises further questions about her potential role in a cover-up.
Law Enforcement Complicity: Iannone, then a police officer, was reportedly seen assisting Peter Lawford in cleaning up the scene of Marilyn’s death. His known connections to Bobby Kennedy deepen concerns that her death may have involved powerful individuals—and that a conspiracy to obstruct justice took place.
A Failure to Investigate: Despite the disturbing inconsistencies, law enforcement never conducted a complete and impartial investigation. Key witnesses were never interrogated under oath, forensic evidence was compromised or ignored, and crucial timelines were altered or left unexplained.
The Evidence Points to Murder
Despite the passage of time, the core facts remain unchanged—and they point not to suicide, but to homicide. The individuals involved, the sequence of events, and the glaring inconsistencies in the investigation all demand renewed scrutiny. This is not speculation. This is a call for truth.
A Moral and Legal Imperative
Correcting Marilyn Monroe’s death certificate is not merely symbolic—it is a necessary first step toward justice. Those responsible for her death, as well as those who helped conceal the truth, must be held accountable—regardless of their status or whether they are still living. History deserves accuracy. Marilyn Monroe deserves justice.
I am calling on the United States Attorney General to open a new, full-scale criminal investigation into the death of Marilyn Monroe. This is not only a matter of historical significance—it is a moral obligation. We owe it to Marilyn, to her legacy, and to the pursuit of truth.
Do you really think this looks like Marilyn Monroe? NO!
The concept of beauty is being redefined—not by genetics or societal consensus, but by algorithms, filters, and the cold precision of artificial intelligence.
For many, the perfect face is no longer born; it is built—designed by AI, refined by cosmetic surgery, retouched on photo-editing apps, and approved by dating algorithms.
In this landscape, even global beauty icons of the past—Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Cleopatra—are suddenly being called "mid," a Generation Z insult that translates to plain or average.
In this candid, Marilyn Monroe, clad in a matching red ensemble and diamonds, is caught in a moment of laughter while relaxing in her dressing room. We can’t help but wonder what was so funny!
Grable, Bacall and Monroe are absolutely charming in an off-the-cuff black-and-white-turned-color portrait from the set. Look at those perfect pearly whites!
Bacall and her husband, Humphrey Bogart, get maybe a little too cozy with Monroe at the film’s premiere. (Where are those eyes going, Bogie?) Bogart and Monroe never acted together, but he and his wife famously met during the making of To Have and Have Not (1944) and went on to costar in The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948).
In a cute meta moment, Bacall refers to Bogart in How to Marry a Millionaire when she says, “I've always liked older men... Look at that old fellow, what's-his-name, in The African Queen. Absolutely crazy about him!"
Monroe looks stunning in this promotional pin-up.
There’s that red diamond get-up again!
Given the loneliness and sadness Monroe notoriously felt for much of her short life, there’s something poignant about seeingher smiling with a gaggle of adoring fans, as seen in this photo from the film’s premiere.
Monroe, 26, and Betty Grable, 36, look like they’re having fun in this set photo, and their chemistry was real. Contemporary viewers assumed that because Grable was a sex symbol of an earlier era, she’d view Monroe as a rival, but this was hardly the case. In fact, she reportedly told the star 10 years her junior, “Honey, I've had mine—go get yours,” and the blondes became offscreen friends.
Monroe and Lauren Bacall are stylishly spectacled during a break in filming. The two stars were friendly, but in a 1994 NPR interview, Bacall quipped, “My only complaint about her was that she was late all the time, but she was late out of fear as much as anything else, but it was hard to sit around and wait. She was usually an hour or two late every morning.”
Bacall also acknowledged that she and Monroe were very different, and spoke candidly of her impressions of her, telling radio listeners, “I wish I had been as photogenic as she was, but she was very sweet, kind of far away, very self-involved, but no meanness. She was not bitchy, she was not strident in any way, she just always seemed a little lost to me—wistful, kind of, just kind of not quite there.”
In 1953, Marilyn Monroe starred in not one but two classic Technicolor rom-coms, Gentlemen Prefer Blondesand How to Marry a Millionaire. Both films featured the blonde icon as an effervescent young woman looking to marry rich men, and in How to Marry a Millionaire, she’s part of a power trio, playing a lovable, occasionally bespectacled ditz opposite veteran stars Lauren Bacall and Betty Grable.
More than 70 years after How to Marry a Millionaire was released, Monroe, Bacall and Grable remain a true pleasure to watch, and the film’s witty humor, colorful costumes and evocative New York setting have inspired many a comedy in its wake. Take a look at 10 rare photos from behind the scenes of the beloved ’50s hit and learn what Bacall and Grable really thought of Monroe.
Everyone wants to marry a millionaire, but maybe not as much as Pola Debevoise, Loco Dempsey and Schatze Page in the hit 1953 Marilyn Monroe film How to Marry a Millionaire. In it, those ladies do everything they can to try marrying a rich man of New York City with William Powell playing one of them.
One day after Clint Eastwood's 95th birthday came what would have been No. 99 for Marilyn Monroe.
This is said about one who has been dead longer than she lived. She was not the most bankable, certainly not the most dependable, of Hollywood actresses. But from the first time she appeared on screen until she passed this life in 1962, age 36, she was a star.
Dial the time machine back to August 1962, when Monroe's body was found early on a Sunday morning in Los Angeles.
Dorothy Kilgallen, the most quotable Broadway columnist of Monroe's time, was working on a lead that Monroe, once married to a superstar in baseball (Joe DiMaggio) and another in literature (playwright Arthur Miller), had caught the eyes of someone in politics emitting even higher wattage.
It was common knowledge in the White House -- though perhaps not to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy -- that Monroe had the 35th U.S. president's work phone on speed dial. Kilgallen, a panelist on CBS' weekly Sunday-night game show "What's My Line," all but dropped John F. Kennedy's name in a column released the week of Monroe's death.
But what if it was not the president but his brother Robert, the U.S. attorney general? Biographer Donald Spoto, in his 2001 book about Monroe, puts RFK in the bedroom with the fallen star, whose death was ruled a probable suicide almost before the body was cold.
Another hot item then concerned wedding bells for DiMaggio and his second wife. That rare man to succeed at two national pastimes (baseball and sex), as one wag put it, DiMaggio immediately took charge of her burial, first eliminating perceived undesirables from the guest list: the Kennedys and singer Frank Sinatra among them.
Norman Mailer wrote a book about Monroe -- but who didn't? -- terming the actress as the American man's "sweet angel of sex."
All this for one unlikely to be included with Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor on any career top-10 list of Hollywood actresses.
If Hollywood producers then ever looked at something besides the bottom line or casting couch, they might have perceived something immediately recognized by A-list directors. That one Norma Jean Mortenson lit up the screen whenever photographed, often for great effect in some classic movies of the 1950s, her peak period.
Early in the decade, she stole scenes in "All About Eve," the Joseph L. Mankiewicz-written-and-directed inside look at Broadway. Davis and Anne Baxter received Best Actress Oscar nominations though there was nothing for Monroe, who holds her own in a party scene with 1950's Best Supporting Actor, George Sanders.
At decade's end, she appeared in perhaps Hollywood's greatest comedy, "Some Like It Hot," opposite Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in a film written and directed by Billy Wilder with a closing line for the record books.
Wilder, who in 1950 evinced an Oscar-worthy performance from silent star Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard," filmed the scene that effectively sundered DiMaggio's marriage to Monroe.
The indelible image from 1955's "The Seven-Year Itch" is that of Monroe's skirt top flying high in the air as she stands over a New York subway grating at night. DiMaggio, among the onlookers, might well have engaged in domestic violence on that occasion, historians note.
Miller wrote the screenplay for 1961's "The Misfits," the last major Hollywood effort for Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. John Huston directed what Monroe dismissed as a scorecard of Marilyn's private life. Gable, too old to play the lead as an aging cowboy in a new-age Western, died shortly after the film's release; Monroe got bad press for all but shooing Gable into the grave with her erratic shooting schedule.
In the end, Kilgallen wrote that the LA coroner's autopsy was pretty accurate, that her whole life amounted to a "suicide note." Another view was that she knew too much about certain people to live long and that the list of her possible slayers is lengthy, inside and outside government.
Elton John later wrote a song about Monroe, with "Candle in the Wind" modified after the 1997 death of Princess Diana, another luminary who died young and tragically. As Monroe nears her centenary, can any current entertainment stars expect such tribute when they pass this earth?
Bob Wisener
The Sentinel-Record
What this article doesn't tell you is Dorothy Kilgallen died on November 7, 1965, with the cause was ruled an overdose of barbiturate and alcohol. It didn't take long before the first ripples of innuendo about possible foul play begin to spread, and they would soon become wider concentric circles. Much of the speculation centered around Kilgallen's journalistic investigation of and commentary on the JFK assassination. The conspiracy theory goes that many people associated with Kennedy--or just those who had some information about the assassination--tended to turn up dead before long. Dorothy died not long after writing about the Warren Commission report. Some conspiracy theorists felt that some parties who wanted the president dead would want Dorothy dead for the same reasons.
When will people stop writing negative stories of Marilyn?
As one of the most iconic and indelible stars in Hollywood history, it’s an understatement to say there will only be one Marilyn Monroe. Unfortunately for her, she was so popular that studio executives across town desperately tried to rustle up a pretender to the throne.
During her career, Monroe was one of the most famous faces on the planet. What often goes overlooked or unmentioned is that she was also a method actor, even if she didn’t quite nail the technique to a similar extent as some of the actors she studied with, which included Jane Fonda.
Not everyone masters the method, though, as Billy Wilder discovered when it took her 80 takes to recite a simple line of dialogue in Some Like It Hot. It wasn’t Monroe’s dramatic heft and natural talent for thespianism that made her a superstar, but that didn’t mean that the bigwigs in Tinseltown could simply create a blonde bombshell in her image and expect the same results.
Then again, it didn’t stop them from trying. Jayne Mansfield was immediately singled out as a competitor and heir apparent, with 20th Century Fox signing the actor to a six-year contract in 1956 specifically to position her as the studio’s version of Monroe, who’d recently delivered the most acclaimed performance of her career in the same year’s Bus Stop, with a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actress – Musical or Comedy’ marking her first major awards season recognition.
Fox even began promoting Mansfield as “Marilyn Monroe king-sized” as if the intentions couldn’t be any more obvious, but there remained fundamental differences between the two that prevented her erstwhile replacement from reaching the same levels.
Monroe was a better actor who generated publicity wherever she went, regardless of what she was doing. In contrast, Mansfield was more limited as a performer who willingly gave up her privacy and transformed her personal and professional lives into an open book to add more shine to her star. They always had an underlying competitiveness, which saw the former contemplate taking legal action.
Everyone knew that Fox engineered Mansfield to become the 1B to Monroe’s 1A, but she couldn’t do anything about it when blonde bombshell actors were hardly an archetype that could be owned and sold as intellectual property.
When Lawrence Quirk interviewed Monroe, he opened up a can of worms when he mentioned Mansfield. “All she does is imitate me,” the star raged. “But her imitations are an insult to her as well as to myself. I know it’s supposed to be flattering to be imitated, but she does it so grossly, so vulgarly. I wish I had some legal means to sue her.”
Understandably, that begged the question about how Monroe could possibly drag Mansfield into the courtroom for ripping her off; she had an answer, albeit one that wouldn’t stand up under scrutiny in front of a judge: “For degrading the image I worked for years to construct.”
Whenever severe weather strikes — blizzards, heavy winds, or the recent devastating fires in Los Angeles — you can bet scammers are following the news to target people affected. So, how do you protect yourself against weather-related scams?
Weather-related disasters mean big bucks for scammers. They’ll appear right after an emergency and offer to get your power back on, make essential repairs, or help with whatever you need. But if you pay them, they’ll take your money and disappear, charge you for things you don’t need, or leave before completing the work you paid them to do.
It’s hard to anticipate the damage a weather emergency can cause. Here are four ways to avoid the weather-related scams.
Spot utility imposter scams. Utility imposters work year-round, but after a weather emergency, they might call or knock on your door saying they need to repair or replace equipment. Then they’ll ask you to pay. Don’t give them money. But do ask for identification and verify who you’re dealing with.
Hire only contractors who are licensed and insured. Check with your state or county government to confirm a contractor’s license. Ask the contractor for proof of insurance and get a written contract.
Never pay for repairs or debris removal in cash.Paying by credit card offers you some protections. And only pay in full after the work is done and you’re satisfied with it.
Read about other weather-related scams at ftc.gov/WeatherEmergencies. Then share the information with friends and family to help them avoid losing money, too.
When DeAnna LeTray, a trans woman in New York, was arrested after she called the police during a domestic incident at her home, authorities at the county jail tore her wig off, subjected her to a cavity and strip search, sexually abused her, and housed her with male inmates.
She was arrested, she said, after the responding cops misgendered and verbally abused her, stating, “We can’t let you walk the streets looking and dressed like a woman.” “That night, when that happened, it completely changed my life,” LeTray told City & State. “When I was in the jail cell after the assault, I wanted to die. That’s how horrible it was.”
She’s won a landmark lawsuit in the aftermath.
After her arrest and assault in 2017, LeTray filed a lawsuit against the Watertown Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office. Under terms of the settlement, both entities have been mandated to prevent discrimination and violence against transgender, gender non-conforming, nonbinary, and/or intersex (TGNCNBI) people.
“I was abused because of who I am by those who were supposed to protect me, and I don’t wish that on anyone,” said LeTray, who was represented by the New York Civil Liberties Union and Legal Services of Central New York. “These settlements make me feel heard and will allow me to move forward with my life, despite the trauma I endured. Most importantly, they will put other counties and police departments on notice so that the abuse I endured never happens to anyone again.”
“I was lucky enough to survive this,” she said. “But other trans people might not be as lucky.”
The settlement mandates the Watertown Police Department adopt clear guidelines to ensure the proper treatment of TGNCNBI people, including the appropriate use of their names, titles and pronouns. It also says the department must ensure that searches and booking procedures are done in a way that respects a person’s gender identity and that disciplinary action be taken against officers in the case of sustained complaints of gender-based discriminatory profiling.
The Jefferson County Correctional Facility must also house TGNCNBI people consistent with their gender identities, with limited exceptions; conduct searches consistent with their gender identities, with limited exceptions, and ensure that jail staff respect a person’s gender identity in other contexts, including name and pronoun use.
Also mandated is medical and mental healthcare free from discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, including access to medical care for treatment of gender dysphoria and gender-affirming items.
“It’s our position that every county and every police department should have a policy like this,” NYCLU staff attorney JP Perry said. “They really should be standard practice in this day and age in New York.”
The settlement comes as state lawmakers try to approve a long-stalled bill that would enact uniform training policies statewide addressing the treatment of trans, nonbinary, and intersex people in custody, but the legislation has not yet passed.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Julia Salazar (D), would require correctional facilities across the state to implement policies similar to those that Jefferson County agreed to adopt.
Salazar said a resurgence of anti-trans rhetoric, inspired in part by the Trump campaign and his Republican allies, has made reform even more urgent, and she had a message for people who support other fundamental rights like reproductive freedom but oppose bills helping trans and gender conforming people.
During the holidays, adding a dog, cat, or other adorable animal to the family is top of mind for many, and scammers know it. While there are lots of fur babies waiting for their forever home, scammers try to take advantage of the situation by posting fake ads for pets — all designed to take your money and leave you in the doghouse. Here’s what to know.
Scammers are posting ads (particularly for puppies), pretending these precious pooches are for sale. You might see these ads online or on streetcorners — sometimes advertising purebred puppies for a few hundred dollars when they often cost thousands — pushing you to act fast before they’ve gone to other homes. The scammer hopes the irresistibly cute puppy picture they posted will be enough to draw you in, and they’ll insist you pay for it up front. But if you pay, not only will you never see that puppy (who might not even exist), but you might also never see that money again.
If you’re thinking of getting a furry friend for yourself or a loved one:
Do some research. Search online for the name of the seller or business and words like “review,” “scam,” or “complaint.” See what others are saying.
Consider a local rescue or animal shelter. Animals of all breeds and ages are waiting to be adopted. An online search will point you to them, where you’ll be able to adopt for a small fee.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum JFK’s sister Rosemary Kennedy, the oldest daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, in 1938, several years before her lobotomy.
Though John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie Kennedy might be the most recognizable members of their family, the Kennedys were famous long before John became the president of the United States. John’s father, Joe Kennedy Sr., was a prominent businessman in Boston and his wife, Rose, was a noted philanthropist and socialite. Together they had nine children, three of whom went into politics, leading some to describe them as America’s version of a royal family.
But, like every family, they had their secrets. And perhaps one of their darkest secrets was that they had forcibly lobotomized their eldest daughter, Rosemary Kennedy, and institutionalized her for decades.
The Early Life Of Rosemary Kennedy, From Her Mishandled Delivery To Her First Behavioral Troubles
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumThe Kennedy children in 1928. Rosemary Kennedy is pictured third from the right.
Born on September 13, 1918, in Brookline, Massachusetts, Rosemary Kennedy was the third child of Joe and Rose and the first girl in the family.
During her birth, the obstetrician who was supposed to be delivering her was running late. Not wanting to deliver the baby without a doctor present, the nurse reached up into Rose’s birth canal and held the baby in place.
The actions of the nurse would have serious consequences for Rosemary Kennedy. The lack of oxygen delivered to her brain during her birth caused lasting damage to her brain, resulting in a mental deficiency.
Though she looked like the rest of the Kennedys, with bright eyes and dark hair, her parents realized that she was different right away.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumJohn, Eunice, Joseph Jr., Rosemary, and Kathleen Kennedy in Cohasset, Massachusetts. Circa 1923-1924.
As a child, Rosemary Kennedy was unable to keep up with her siblings, who would often play ball in the yard, or run around the neighborhood. Her lack of inclusion often caused her to experience “fits,” which were later discovered to have been seizures or episodes relating to her mental illness.
However, in the 1920s, mental illness was highly stigmatized. Fearing repercussions if her daughter couldn’t keep up, Rose Kennedy pulled Kennedy out of school and instead hired a tutor to teach the girl from home. Eventually, she sent her to a boarding school in Pennsylvania, in lieu of institutionalizing her.
When she was 16, Rosemary Kennedy transferred to the Sacred Heart Convent in Providence, Rhode Island. There, she learned mathematics, reading, and writing and even attended school social functions. When she was with her family, Kennedy frequently attended social events and appeared to enjoy them.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumThe Kennedy family at Hyannis Port on September 4, 1931. From left to right: Robert, John, Eunice, Jean (on lap of) Joseph Sr., Rose (behind) Patricia, Kathleen, Joseph Jr. (behind) Rosemary Kennedy. Dog in foreground is “Buddy.”
In 1928, Joe Kennedy was named an ambassador to the Court of St. James in England. The entire family moved across the Atlantic and was soon presented at court to the British public. Despite her intellectual challenges, Kennedy joined the family for the presentation in London.
On the surface, Kennedy was a promising debutante, and she clearly put forth an effort to make her parents proud. Her mother once described her as “an affectionate, warmly responsive, and loving girl. She was so willing to try to do her best, so appreciative of attention and compliments, and so hopeful of deserving them.”
Of course, most people did not know the extent of Kennedy’s personal troubles, as the Kennedys had worked hard to keep it all quiet.
Why Rosemary Kennedy Was Lobotomized
Keystone/Getty ImagesRosemary Kennedy (right), her sister Kathleen (left), and her mother Rose (center) being presented in London.
In England, Rosemary Kennedy gained a sense of normalcy, as she had been placed in a Catholic school run by nuns. With the time and patience to teach Rosemary, they were training her to be a teacher’s aide and she was flourishing under their guidance. Sadly, this situation would not last long.
In 1940, when the Nazis stormed Paris, the Kennedys were forced to move back to the United States, and Rosemary’s education was all but abandoned. Once back stateside, Rose placed Rosemary in a convent, but it reportedly did not have the same positive effect as the school in England.
According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Rosemary’s sister Eunice would later write, “Rosemary was not making progress but seemed instead to be going backward.” Eunice continued, “At 22, she was becoming increasingly irritable and difficult.”
She was also reportedly causing trouble for the nuns in the American convent. According to them, Rosemary Kennedy was sneaking out at night to go to bars and meeting strange men. They told her parents that they worried she would catch a venereal disease or become pregnant.
At the same time, Joe was grooming his two oldest boys for careers in politics. Because of this, Rose and Joe worried that Rosemary’s behavior could create a bad reputation not just for herself but for the whole family in the future, and eagerly searched for something that would help her.
Dr. Walter Freeman appeared to have the solution to their problem.
Freeman, along with his associate Dr. James Watts, had been researching a neurological procedure that was said to cure people who were physically and mentally disabled. That operation was the controversial lobotomy.
NTB/Alamy Stock PhotoA lobotomy is performed on an English mental hospital patient in 1947.
When it was first introduced, the lobotomy was hailed as a cure-all and was widely recommended by physicians. Despite the excitement, however, there were many warnings that the lobotomy, though occasionally effective, was also destructive. One woman described her daughter, a recipient, as being the same person on the outside, but like a new human on the inside.
Despite the ominous stories about the lobotomy, Joe needed no convincing to sign Rosemary Kennedy up for the procedure, as it seemed like this was the Kennedy family’s last hope for her to be “cured” of her mood swings and erratic behavior. Years later, Rose would claim that she had no knowledge of the procedure until it had already happened. No one thought to ask if Rosemary had any thoughts of her own about what would happen to her.
The Botched Lobotomy Of Rosemary Kennedy And The Tragic Aftermath
In 1941, when she was 23 years old, Rosemary Kennedy received a lobotomy.
During the procedure, two holes were drilled in her skull, through which small metal spatulas were inserted. The spatulas were used to sever the link between the pre-frontal cortex and the rest of the brain. Though it is not known whether he did so on Rosemary, Dr. Freeman would often insert an icepick through the patient’s eye to sever the link, as well as the spatula.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumRosemary Kennedy was lobotomized by her father at age 23 to keep the family name clean and allow her brothers, including JFK, to succeed in politics.
Throughout the entire operation, Rosemary was awake, actively speaking with her doctors and even reciting poems to her nurses. The medical staff all knew that the procedure was over when she stopped speaking to them.
Immediately after the procedure, the Kennedys realized that something was wrong with their daughter. Not only had the operation failed to cure her intellectual challenges, but it had also left her extremely disabled.
Rosemary Kennedy could no longer speak or walk properly. She was moved to the Craig House, a private psychiatric hospital outside of New York City, and spent months in physical therapy before she regained normal movement, and even then it was only partially in one arm. In 1949, she was moved to the St. Coletta School of Exceptional Children in Jefferson, Wisconsin and would remain there for the rest of her life.
JFK’s Lobotomized Sister Is Locked Away And Cut Off From Her Family
Keri Kelly / FacebookThe St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children in Wisconsin where Rosemary Kennedy lived after her lobotomy.
Her family did not visit her for 20 years while she was shuttered away in the institution. The family made excuses for her absence, stating that Rosemary was reclusive, and later, that she was mentally ill. However, they did provide Rosemary Kennedy with a few benefits at St. Coletta School of Exceptional Children, including her own private house near the school called “The Kennedy Cottage” as well as a dog and a car.
It wasn’t until after Joe suffered a massive stroke in 1961, at the dawn of JFK’s presidency and the “Camelot” era, that Rose went to go see her daughter again. Additionally, the rest of the Kennedy siblings were made aware of Rosemary Kennedy’s whereabouts. In a panicked rage, Rosemary attacked her mother during their reunion, unable to express herself any other way.
@historyphotographed/InstagramAn image believed to be of Rosemary Kennedy with her nurses decades after the lobotomy.
At that point, the Kennedy family realized what they had done to Rosemary. They soon began to champion rights for disabled people in America.
John F. Kennedy would go on to use his presidency to sign the Maternal and Child Health and Mental Retardation Planning Amendment to the Social Security Act. It was the precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which his brother Ted pushed for during his time as a senator.
Eunice Kennedy, John and Rosemary’s younger sister, also founded the Special Olympics in 1962, to champion the achievements and accomplishments of disabled people. As reported by the History Channel, Eunice denied that Rosemary was the direct inspiration for the Special Olympics. Still, it’s believed that witnessing Rosemary’s struggles played a role in Eunice’s determination to improve the lives of those with disabilities.
Rosemary Kennedy’s Lobotomy Finally Comes To Light In The Last Decades Before Her Death
Rosemary Kennedy’s lobotomy was not revealed to the public until 1987, when historian Doris Kearns Goodwin debuted the information in her book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and MuseumWhen she was just 23, JFK’s sister Rosemary Kennedy was forcibly lobotomized by her father, then sent away to a facility and isolated from her family.
By then, the Kennedy family had already spent nearly two decades trying to reintegrate Rosemary Kennedy into their lives. Kennedy would travel to Florida, Washington, D.C., and Cape Cod to spend time with her family. Eventually, she learned how to walk again, albeit with a limp.
After being reunited with her family, Rosemary Kennedy lived out the rest of her days in Saint Coletta’s, a residential care facility in Jefferson, Wisconsin, until her death on January 7, 2005 at the age of 86. She was eventually buried alongside her family at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts.
California Attorney General
