Anna Nicole & Monroe’s Drug Uses Spark TV Debates
Saturday, March 24th, 2007 | Categories: Entertainment, New Media, Film, Internet News, Actor, Celebrity, Hollywood, Society, Crime
Anna Nicole Smith & Monroe’s Drug Uses Spark TV Debates on Murder versus Suicide
Los Angeles,CA (rushprnews) March 24th, 2007 -Overdose from same drug as Marilyn and new reports have observers arguing whether murder or suicide
By Jeffrey Jolson for HOLLYWOOD TODAY
The Anna Nicole Smith circus tent is on fire as reports of toxic levels of sleeping medication chloral hydrate in her body, the same drug found in her hero Marilyn Monroe, have sparked rage and outrage in a furious debate over whether her death was murder, suicide or overdose.Criminal culpability may be one step closer when the official toxicology finally report comes out Monday, partially stalled until now to allow for police investigation, according to Broward County medical examiner Dr. Joshua Perper.
“The finger is pointed at her entourage… They all stood by and watched her die slowly,” said Nancy Grace on her Headline News show, tinged with her trademark anger over developments. “She was not in any shape to inject herself or take her own nighttime medication.
The choral hydrate, along with a raging infection will be the cause of death according to the Star and the National Enquirer, not our usual source for any news whatsoever. Nonetheless they appear to have used their hefty checkbooks to pay for a leak of Anna Nicole’s toxicology report. The National Enquirer made its name with the death of Elvis Presley by bribing a relative to photograph the King in his coffin.
Specifically the papers say on Feb. 5 Anna received an unsterilized injection before boarding a plane from the Bahamas to Florida and later developed a painful abscess, not uncommon with junkies and others who take injections with less care and precaution than medically advised. She also reported a bad flu and experienced vomiting, severe diarrhea and couldn’t urinate.
On the day before she died, Wednesday Feb. 7, she reportedly took the choral hydrate at toxic levels with the infection still going — and supposedly never regained consciousness. At 1:33 pm the next day, Thursday Feb. 8, she was reported “unresponsive,” leaving huge questions about the activity of Howard K. Stern as well as her nurse and bodyguard during that time.
More ominous is that the drug was allegedly delivered by injection into her right buttocks, a task likely done by one of the entourage. “Somebody has to help you do that,” according to Dr. William Moroni, a medical examiner in Michigan. “You can’t get the angle. The hand is reversed, thumb position is wrong and you can’t see. You need help.”
James Neaviitt, attorney for Stern, not to be confused with radio personality Howard Stern, said “Speculation running rampant and we will have to wait and see. Dr. Joshua Perper said there were no injection marks on her body last month. On Monday we will find out.”
“Somebody is going to end up paying for this,” said family law attorney Rene Rockwell. “She had a nurse there, she had a bodyguard, she had a boyfriend/lawyer.”
“I think that Howard and the doctors Anna was seeing were keeping her in a stupor” said Dr. Carole Lieberman. “When you consider she had a history of substance abuse and had such psychological problems, the (prescriptions) were particularly dangerous,” the psychiatrist said on Showbiz Tonight.
She noted that many of the laundry list of drugs that were prescribed for Smith in the day’s after her son’s death, including anti-anxiety Lorazepam were in liquid form, fairly unusual. “Since this is a medication that is tasteless and colorless, Whether this was put in her food, in her drink, without her knowledge (is a question).”
Son Daniel allegedly went to a private investigator prior to her death to say he was worried about Stern who was acting like “some Svengali” and administering “mind-bending drug” to her, the PI said on Showbiz. The fact that Stern is also a figure in the inquest into the overdose death of Smith’s son Daniel and had a role in supplying drugs to both of the departed, has Smith’s mother Vergie Arthur crying murder, most foul. Some of our readers agree and vehemently say so in comments to previous articles. Yet the suicide possibility looms larger, if Perper confirms the choral hydrate presence on Monday.
Since chloral hydrate was the drug found in Monroe’s bloodstream (a form on Nembutal was found in Marilyn’s liver, too) there is a chance Smith was doing yet another imitation of her idol’s habits and affectations. The usually-liquid substance is a fairly uncommon and old-fashioned sleep drug, given more popular new alternatives like Ambien and Lunesta.
This, along with testimony in Florida court last month that she had a “death wish,” sparked a debate on the possibility of suicide, or assisted suicide. David Caplan at Star said that on Oct. 18 after her son’s death, she set emails to several friends saying “I want to die, I wish I could be in a better place.”Author Susan Lipkins argues that the recent news reports surrounding her death reveal suicidal thoughts. “She had a suicidal plan to the extent she knew what she wanted to cover the coffin with.” I wonder if she came to Florida with knowledge of that. I don’t think she knew about her infection, I’m not sure this was part of a plan for herself.”
As for how Star/Enquirer got the toxicology report, it was only a matter of time till someone succumbed to the tens or hundreds of thousands likely offered for a quick photocopy of the long-delayed report. The leaker “could be prosecuted for leaking out of the medical examiner’s office,” said one attorney. However, the report might also be in the hands of investigating officers in multiple jurisdictions, so they would know what to look for. Furthermore, the two papers are headquartered in Hollywood, FL where Anna was found dead.
Meanwhile, two purloined diaries sold for over $500,000 on eBay, with sex outselling Jesus by a small margin. The 1992 diary, which has the words “I follow my own star” on the cover, Smith confesses: “I hate for men to want sex all the time. I hate sex.” This diary sold for about $285,000. In the second diary Smith writes about the illness of her billionaire husband Howard Marshall, who died in 1995 at age 90, with a religious awakening and featuring lots of references to Jesus. This sold for about $230,000.Dr. Perper promised a surprise when he announces his autopsy results on Monday and the twist may be that the infection or a blood disease stopped her heart, and not the drug. But whatever the specific cause, her weakened state of health was all part of her spiraling drug use as was the actions and inactions of those around her in the time leading up to her death. So the autopsy is likely to raise as many tough questions as it answers. Especially for Howard K. Stern.Reprint from Hollywood Today at www.hollywoodtoday.net-end-