Eunice Murray

Eunice Murray Blackmer (née Joerndt) (March 3, 1902 – March 5, 1994) was the housekeeper and assistant of actress Marilyn Monroe. She was the key witness to the events surrounding Monroe's death in August 1962, officially ruled a probable suicide.

Early life Eunice Murray was born Eunice Marjorie Joerndt in Chicago, Illinois, on March 3, 1902 to William Karl Henry Joerndt and Mary Miller. She had several siblings, including a sister named Carolyn. She was married to John Murray in 1924. They had three daughters: Patricia, Jacqueline and Marilyn.

Career Before working for Monroe, little was publicly documented about Murray's career. It is believed she was trained as a psychiatric nurse. She worked with a Santa Monica, California-based psychoanalyst, Dr. Ralph Greenson, as a support worker for his clients. On Greenson's recommendation, Monroe hired Murray in November 1961. Murray served as Monroe's assistant and housekeeper at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Murray lived nearby but occasionally stayed over in Monroe's house.

Murray accompanied Monroe on what would be her last trip to Mexico, as her personal assistant, on a publicity tour between 20 February and 3 March 1962, along with Monroe's hair stylist George Masters and her press officer Pat Newcomb.

In May 1962, Monroe became concerned that Murray had been appointed by Greenson to supervise her and briefly released Murray before re-hiring her.

Marilyn Monroe's death Being present from the discovery of Monroe's body until its removal by the authorities makes Murray the principal witness to her death. Although the testimonies she related to biographers and historians are largely consistent, some inconsistencies have contributed to speculation that either Monroe's death was a homicide or its circumstances were tampered with to protect Monroe's political associates.

While the precise details and timing of the events leading up to and following Monroe's death have been disputed, it can be established that Murray spent the nights of Friday, August 3, 1962 and Saturday, August 4, 1962 with Monroe at her home and discovered Monroe dead in the early hours of Sunday morning, August 5, 1962. Receiving no response, she telephoned Greenson, who suggested she perform a welfare check and go outside to look through Monroe's bedroom window. Murray did so, and seeing Monroe nude and unmoving, felt enough concern to summon Greenson to the house at 3:35am.

In the same documentary, Walter Shaeffer, founder of the Schaefer Ambulance Service serving Southern California, recalled that his services were called to Monroe's house shortly after 12:00am where they found her alive but unconscious from a drug overdose. He maintains she died during transport or shortly after arrival at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. In response to this, in her interview for the same BBC crew, Murray changed her story that she had indeed become concerned around midnight, and summoned a doctor who examined Monroe while she was still alive. For the first time, she said Bobby Kennedy was at Monroe's house on the afternoon of her death, leaving Monroe upset, and that his aides instructed the delay after Monroe was found dead in order to allow Kennedy to leave the area. Murray later recanted this as her own confusion.

Considering that Murray was in her 80s when she was interviewed, it is reasonable to allow the details of her testimony may reflect age-related memory loss, rather than indications of involvement in illicit activity. In her 2004 study, The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, Sarah Churchwell concludes the inconsistencies are the combined results of fallible memories, celebrity gossip, ineffective information gathering and politically-motivated distortions.

In 1982, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office reviewed the death of Marilyn Monroe and found no evidence to support a suggestion of foul play, though noted 'factual discrepancies' in the original investigation.

Later life Sometime after 1972, Eunice Murray married her brother-in-law Rev. Franklin Henry Blackmer, following the death of her sister Carolyn Blackmer (née Joerndt).

Murray co-authored a book with Rose Shade, entitled Marilyn: The Last Months, published in 1975, that detailed her year living with the star. She appeared in several documentaries about Monroe's life and death. She was never formally interviewed by police as a suspect.

Death Eunice Murray lived in an apartment in Santa Monica, California in 1983 when BBC documentary director Christopher Olgiati and his crew interviewed her for The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe, also known as Marilyn: Say Goodbye to the President.

Later in life, Murray lived with one of her daughters in Tucson, Arizona. Murray died there on March 5, 1994, at the age of 92.

Filmography Television series

Film