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Marilyn Un-Redacted

Marilyn with Jean Pierre Piquet, manager of the Hilton Continental, during her trip to Mexico in 1962

Writing for the Associated Press, Anthony McCartney reports that previously redacted FBI files relating to Marilyn have been released in full by the FBI after a request was made under the Freedom of Information Act.

The new information refers mostly to the FBI’s monitoring of Marilyn’s allegedly left-wing colleagues in her production company, her Jewish wedding to Arthur Miller, and her friendship with Fred Vanderbilt Field, the expatriate communist whom she met on a trip to Mexico.

“For all the focus on Monroe’s closeness to suspected communists, the bureau never found any proof she was a member of the party.

‘Subject’s views are very positively and concisely leftist; however, if she is being actively used by the Communist Party, it is not general knowledge among those working with the movement in Los Angeles,’ a July 1962 entry in Monroe’s file states.”

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Marilyn: The Missing FBI Files

The Associated Press has been investigating missing FBI files on Marilyn, as reported in the Washington Post.

“Like many of the stars of her era, Marilyn Monroe’s movements, relationships and comments weren’t just devoured by fans — they were followed closely by the FBI.

Records kept on Monroe, many of which were filed under “Foreign Counterintelligence,” have intrigued many who have sought to learn more about the film star, including those who investigated her death.

In connection with the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death on Aug. 5, The Associated Press has attempted under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the most complete record of the bureau’s monitoring of Monroe.

Nearly nine months later — after several requests and an appeal — obtaining a more complete record of how the FBI investigated Monroe in the months before she died have been stymied by an effort to simply find the files.

The FBI says it no longer has the files it compiled on Monroe; the National Archives — the usual destination for such material — says it doesn’t have them either.

Finding out precisely when the records were moved — as the FBI says has happened — required the filing of yet another, still-pending Freedom of Information Act request.

The most recent version of the files, all heavily redacted, is publicly available on the bureau’s website, The Vault, which periodically posts FBI records on celebrities, government officials, spies and criminals.”