Books

My Maril: Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan, Hollywood, and Me

Terry Karger is the one living person who intimately knew Marilyn Monroe and Ronald Reagan.

“Looks will get you far, but not as far as a good education.”
—Marilyn Monroe to Terry Karger

Terry Karger is a child of Hollywood: the granddaughter of Metro Pictures cofounder Maxwell Karger, and the daughter of Fred Karger, a vocal coach at Columbia Pictures. Terry’s story revolves around Fred and a trio of silver-screen legends: her stepmother Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan, and, primarily, Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn, recently evolved from Norma Jeane Mortenson, was an unknown starlet when, as a twenty-one-year-old, she first met six-year-old Terry—and began dating her dad—in the spring of 1948. The orphaned, emotionally fragile actress initially babysat Fred’s daughter while turning to his family for support. Although the Marilyn-Fred romance lasted just over a year, her close friendship with the Kargers, including Fred, continued for fourteen years until the end of Marilyn’s life.

While Fred was Marilyn’s first true love, his mom, Nana, was the mother she never really had. “Maril,” as they fondly called her, was allowed to relax and be herself. It also enabled Marilyn to appease her own unfulfilled maternal instincts, acting as a cross between a sweet, playful big sister and generous, caring surrogate mom to Terry.

This memoir also reveals privately taken, previously unpublished photos of the iconic superstar with her adopted family and friends.

Marilyn Monroe: a Case for Murder

It is one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century. How did Marilyn Monroe die? Although no pills were found in her stomach during the autopsy, it was still documented in the Los Angeles coroner’s report that she had swallowed sixty-four sleeping pills prior to her demise. In Marilyn Monroe: A Case for Murder, biographer Jay Margolis presents the most thorough investigation of Marilyn Monroe’s death to date and shares how he reached the definitive conclusion that she was murdered.

Margolis meticulously dissects the events leading up to her death, revealing a major conspiracy and countless lies. In an exclusive interview with actress Jane Russell three months before her death, he reveals Russell’s belief that Monroe was murdered and points the finger at the man she held responsible. While examining the actions of Peter Lawford, Bobby Kennedy, and Monroe’s psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, Margolis establishes a timeline of her last day alive that leads to shocking revelations.

In August 1962, Marilyn Monroe’s lifeless body was found on her bed, leaving all to wonder what really happened to the beautiful young starlet. Marilyn Monroe: A Case for Murder provides a fascinating examination of one of the most puzzling deaths of all time.

The Murder of Marilyn Monroe: Case Closed

The New York Times BestsellerAccepted into The National Press ClubMarilyn Monroe died under suspicious circumstances on the night of August 4, 1962. Now, New York Times bestselling authors Jay Margolis and Richard Buskin finally lay to rest more than fifty years of wild speculation and misguided assertions by actually naming the screen goddess’s killer. At the same time, they use the testimony of eyewitnesses to describe exactly what took place inside her house on Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, California.

Implicating Bobby Kennedy in the commission of Monroe’s murder, this is the first book to name the LAPD officers who accompanied the attorney general to her home, provide details about how the Kennedys used bribes to silence one of the ambulance drivers, and specify how the subsequent cover-up was aided by a noted pathologist’s outrageous lies. It also exposes the third gunman in the kitchen pantry who delivered the fatal bullet to the back of RFK’s head – and the third gunman’s female accomplice who, until now, has only been known to the LAPD and the FBI as “the girl in the polka-dot dress.”