I doubt Marilyn Monroe was anything but a confused star-struck drug-using individual with some gifts and talents that the Kennedy boys enjoyed. But she may have been so obsessed with them that she would have threatened to tell some of what she knew and she did have the attention of the people and media. There was a general lack of knowledge about the nature of JFK's drug use and sexual shenanigans even after his death. It would not surprise me if this was managed and agreed to, or asked for by the Kennedy clan. They still value their image even though Old Joe has been exposed on Arts & Entertainment. Maybe Maria Shriver and Arnold will make a run for the Presidency. It is important to note that Mary Jo Kopechne figures into the issue in a big way however. Maybe she intended to leak a lot more about the Kennedy clan.
"Smathers also betrayed JFK over Marilyn Monroe. According to Sarah Churchill's recently published book, The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe (2004), it was Smathers who first leaked the story to the press about the affair. The story first appeared in an article by Dorothy Kilgallen the day before Monroe died (Kilgallen was herself to die in similar circumstances as Monroe on 8th November, 1965).
Why should Smathers do this? One possibility is that Smathers was trying to link JFK with Monroe's death. According to Matthew Smith's Victim: The Secret Tapes of Marilyn Monroe (2003) the CIA was involved in a plot to implicate the Kennedys in Monroe's death as punishment for the Bay of Pigs disaster.
If Smathers was involved in any conspiracy to kill JFK one would expect those close to him like Grant Stockdale {Mobbed-up vending-machine owner who was in a position to expose many things after JFK's death and who was eliminated.} to find out about it. One person who might have discovered what was going on was his secretary, Mary Jo Kopechne, and her flat mate, Nancy Carole Tyler, who was Bobby Baker's secretary. According to Penn Jones, it was Kopechne and Tyler who leaked the story about JFK replacing LBJ by Smathers as vice president. {I have no doubt about LBJ's involvement in the assassination of JFK.}
Nancy Carole Tyler died in a plane crash, near Ocean City, Maryland, on 10th May, 1965.
Kopechne went on to become Robert Kennedy's secretary. She was to die in Edward Kennedy's car on 18th July, 1969." (1)
Author of Diverse Druids, Columnist for The ES Press Magazine, Guest writer for World-Mysteries.com