ABC News canceled documentary on JFK's role in Marilyn Monroe's death

ABC News canceled a documentary about the Kennedys' 'involvement in Marilyn Monroe's death' to protect their reputations, a new book reveals. After a 'years-long' affair with both John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby, Marilyn, 36, was found dead on August 5, 1962, at her home in Los Angeles.

'Those who knew and loved her best blamed Jack and Bobby Kennedy,' author and DailyMail.com columnist Maureen Callahan writes. In her new book, 'Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed' — which is being exclusively serialized by the Mail — Callahan explosively reveals that, in the 1985, ABC News had planned to air a TV special about the brothers' potential involvement in Marilyn's death, but 'hours before the broadcast was due to air, ABC pulled the plug'.

The man responsible for canceling the show, ABC News president Roone Arledge, 'was a longtime friend of Ethel Kennedy [Bobby's wife]', Callahan writes. After first meeting JFK at a Hollywood party in 1954 and then meeting Bobby through him, Marilyn fell in love with both men. They both had overlapping affairs with her — and, on the night she famously sang 'Happy Birthday' to JFK at Madison Square Garden in May, 1962, Marilyn slept with Bobby backstage in her dressing room before the performance.

Later that evening, the only known photo of the three was taken. 'Marilyn stood between them, in profile, looking serious. Bobby and Jack had turned themselves away from the camera,' Callahan writes. Marilyn died of a barbiturate overdose and her body was discovered in the early hours of August 5, 1962.

The day before, Bobby had visited Marilyn at her home in Los Angeles. 'The FBI and the CIA, Bobby and Jack discovered, had bugged Marilyn's house and phone line without her knowledge... Bobby wasn't leaving without the tape recordings,' Callahan writes.

'Where the f*** is it?' Bobby demanded. But Marilyn had 'no idea' what he was talking about. Bobby left empty-handed and Marilyn's body was found early the next morning by her housekeeper. 'She was face-down on her bed, [naked], with her phone still in her hand,' Callahan writes.

'Former senior FBI agent James Doyle later admitted that the Bureau had been ordered to remove certain phone records [from Marilyn's home],' she adds. 'Recovered in the 1980s, Marilyn's logs showed she'd called Bobby's workplace eight times between June 25th and 30th... Reports suggest she'd had an abortion on July 20, and that the baby may have been Bobby's.'

Marilyn's second husband Joe DiMaggio (pictured together) banned both Kennedy brothers from Marilyn's funeral. 'I always knew who killed her, but I didn't want to start a revolution in this country,' DiMaggio reportedly said years later. 'She told me someone would do her in, but I kept quiet. The whole lot of Kennedys were lady-killers, and they always got away with it. They'll be getting away with it a hundred years from now.'

ABC News' cancellation of the planned documentary in 1985 was met with huge public backlash. At the time, ABC News President Roone Arledge defended his decision saying the special was 'gossip-column stuff' and 'does not live up to its billing'. The documentary has never aired.

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