ABC News documentary about JFK and Bobby Kennedy’s involvement in Marilyn Monroe’s death was canceled to ‘protect their reputations’

ABC News canceled a documentary about the Kennedys’ “involvement in Marilyn Monroe’s death” to protect their reputations, a new book has revealed.

After a “years-long” affair with both John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby, 36-year-old Marilyn was found dead in her Los Angeles home on August 5, 1962.

“Those who knew and loved her best blamed Jack and Bobby Kennedy,” writes author and DailyMail.com columnist Maureen Callahan.

In her new book, ‘Don’t Ask: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed’ – which is broadcast exclusively by the Mail – Callahan explosively reveals that in 1985 ABC News planned to air a TV special about the brothers’ possible involvement in Marilyn’s death, but “hours before the broadcast was broadcast, ABC pulled the plug’.

In her new book “Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed,” Maureen Callahan reveals that in the 1980s ABC News planned to air a TV special about JFK and Bobby (left and center) and their possible involvement in Marilyn’s death, but “hours before it was scheduled to air, ABC pulled the plug.”

The man responsible for canceling the show, Roone Arledge, president of ABC News, ‘was an old 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 sang the famous “Happy Birthday” to JFK at Madison Square Garden in May 1962, Marilyn slept with Bobby in her dressing room backstage 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 away from the camera,” Callahan wrote.

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 CIA, Bobby and Jack discovered, had tapped Marilyn’s home and phone line without her knowledge…Bobby did not leave without the tape recordings,” Callahan writes.

“Where the hell is it?” Bobby asked. 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 lying face down on the bed, naked, with her phone still in her hand,” Callahan wrote.

“Former senior FBI agent James Doyle later admitted that the Bureau had been ordered to delete certain phone records [from Marilyn’s home],” she adds. “Marilyn’s logs showed that she called Bobby’s workplace eight times between June 25 and June 30…” Reports indicate she had an abortion on July 20 and the baby may have been Bobby’s.”

Marilyn’s second husband Joe DiMaggio banned both Kennedy brothers from Marilyn’s funeral.

The only known photo taken of Marilyn with both Bobby, left, and JFK, May 19, 1962.

“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 was going to arrest her, but I kept my mouth shut.

‘Many Kennedys were murderers of women, and they always got away with it. In a hundred years they’ll get away with it.’

The cancellation of the planned documentary by ABC News in 1985 was met with enormous public backlash.

At the time, ABC News president Roone Arledge defended his decision, saying the special was “gossip column stuff” and “doesn’t live up to the billing.”

The documentary was never broadcast.