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FAMOUS JFK-MARILYN-UFO WIRETAP MEMO

IS A HOAX

(originally published Aug 2014)

Marilyn and JFK

In 1994 it was revealed that a mysterious document had surfaced that appeared to be a CIA wiretap memo summarizing an intriguing phone conversation between journalist Dorothy Kilgallen (a prominent reporter in the ‘50s and ‘60s) and a close friend.  It was learned from this 1962 wiretap that President John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe had, during a tryst, discussed subjects relating to the extraterrestrial and to Kennedy’s planned inspection of “things from space” that were located at a “secret air base.”  Kilgallen and her confidant Howard Rothberg are then heard discussing things that Kilgallen had learned about crashed spacecraft and bodies from another world and their recovery by the military. The memo has been touted by prominent Ufologists and conspiracy writers such as Nick Redfern, Jim Marrs and Don Burleson (as well as JFK and Marilyn biographers). It has been featured in books, magazines and on websites. Twenty years later it can now be revealed that this potentially explosive piece of documentary evidence is a hoax. How this was discerned- and the people who created this con- are revealed here and now:

 

THE DOCUMENT
 
Marilyn-JFK secret memo
CIA Phone Tap Memo as Received by Milo Speriglio
(click to enlarge)

The document was first revealed to the world by a man named Milo Speriglio, who passed in 2000. He was a noted private detective and author on the subject of Marilyn Monroe. His book “The Marilyn Conspiracy” was a bestseller, and his other two books, “Crypt 33: The Saga of Marilyn Monroe” and “Marilyn Monroe: Murder Cover-Up” sold moderately well. When he died at age 62, the New York Times obituary was not kind and noted that Speriglio was a publicity hound who tried to insert himself into celebrity cases, including in the OJ case. They added that, to Speriglio, all publicity was good as long as the name was spelled right. Speriglio- despite his being a detective- was a notorious gossip. And he was rather gullible. For instance, he endorsed the tall tales of a lackluster Hollywood writer, the discredited Robert Saltzer (who pathetically claimed he was briefly married to Marilyn). Speriglio, fond of the California good life, was dollar-oriented. He was known to receive tabloid money. Though he must have known Saltzer was a fraud, he accepted money from him to finance the investigations into Marilyn’s death that led to the publication of Speriglio’s Marilyn books in the 1980s. By the 1990s however, Speriglio’s celebrity-detective star status that he had fashioned for himself had faded.

 

In 1994 Speriglio received a poorly reproduced copy of an ‘official’ document relating to Marilyn Monroe, from what one site calls “an unknown well-wisher.” This CIA document seemed to be a Top Secret report dated August 3, 1962. A phone tap had yielded the

astounding fact that Marilyn Monroe and John Kennedy had discussed recovered flying saucers! They were being stored at a secret military base and the President was going there to inspect them!

 

Here is the text of the memo for ease of reading:

 

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

TOP SECRET NOT FOR PUBLICATION

COUNTRY: New York, US

SUBJECT: Marilyn Monroe

REPORT NO. [blacked out]

DATE DSTR: 3 August 1962

NO. PAGES: [blacked out]

REFERENCES: MOON DUST Project [illegible]

 

Wiretap of telephone conversation between reporter Dorothy Kilgallen and her close friend, Howard Rothberg (A); from wiretap of telephone conversation of Marilyn Monroe and Attorney General Robert Kennedy (B). Appraisal of Content: [blacked out]

 

  1. Rothberg discussed the apparent comeback of subject with Kilgallen and the break up with the Kennedys. Rothberg told Kilgallen that she was attending Hollywood parties hosted by the "inner circle" among Hollywood's elite and was becoming the talk of the town again. Rothberg indicated in so many words, that she had secrets to tell, no doubt arising from her trists [sic] with the President and the Attorney General. One such "secret" mentions the visit by the President at a secret air base for the purpose of inspecting things from outer space. Kilgallen replied that she knew what might be the source of visit. In the mid-fifties Kilgallen learned of secret effort by US and UK governments to identify the origins of crashed spacecraft and dead bodies, from a British government official. Kilgallen believed the story may have come from the New Mexico story in the late forties. Kilgallen said that if the story is true, it would cause terrible embarrassment for Jack and his plans to have NASA put men on the moon.
     

  2. Subject repeatedly called the Attorney General and complained about the way she was being ignored by the President and his brother.
     

  3. Subject threatened to hold a press conference and would tell all.
     

  4. Subject made reference to "bases" in Cuba and knew of the President's plan to kill Castro.
     

  5. Subject made reference to her "diary of secrets" and what the newspapers would do with such disclosures.

DIST
54-12 / MJ-12

 

The memo is signed by James Jesus Angleton, then CIA Chief for Counterintelligence. Above Angleton’s signature appears a second Top Secret stamp. The reference to Project Moondust is interesting in that this acknowledged military program retrieves downed space debris, satellites, and some say, UFOs.

Speriglio maintained that his contacts within the intelligence community had confirmed its authenticity. Desperate to re-enter the limelight, Speriglio released the document with fanfare, offering up his opinions and analysis. The document has since been mentioned not only in many UFO books, but also in mainstream books on the lives and deaths of JFK and Marilyn.

 

A CLUE TO THE HOAX

 

HOWARD PERRY ROTHBERG

Rothberg was a close associate of journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. He owned an antique shop on 3rd Avenue in New York City and also acted as a designer to NY elite. He provided many leads and tips to Kilgallen. However, despite the memo mentioning that Rothberg knew about Marilyn’s social activities and “inner circle", Howard Rothberg was in reality far removed from any such association. Donald Spato, author of the definitive “Marilyn Monroe: The Biography” (2001) addresses this directly: “Howard Perry Rothberg was a New York interior designer with no connection at all to Marylyn’s inner circle.” The contrary ‘fact’- as reported in the alleged CIA report- is simply not true. For that reason, the whole JFK-Marilyn-ET scenario rings hollow.

 

THE MEMO’S TRUE ORIGIN AND A CONFESSION

 

Speriglio was never precise in explaining the who/what/when and where about just how he came to possess the copy of this CIA memo. But buried in a multi-section website called The Majestic Documents, we find the answer. Run by Robert Wood, PhD and his son Ryan, a former McDonnell-Douglas executive, they write: “In the spring of 1992 Tim Cooper received the Marilyn Monroe document from what Tim believes to be a former CIA employee, most likely an archivist. The document arrived in the PO box as normal mail. Later, Tim provided it to Milo Speriglio who ran the Nick Harris detective agency where Milo first published it.”

Who is Tim Cooper? He is employed full time as a security officer in California. Very interestingly, I found that he is a graduate of the Nick Harris Detective Academy, which was owned and operated by Milo Speriglio! The two were close and had apparently known one another for some time. In 1988 Cooper began investigating and researching military and intelligence UFO operations. Some years later, he began to receive various UFO documents of seemingly historic value from a former CIA officer who Cooper said called himself ‘Thomas Cantwheel.’ Among these documents was the Marilyn Monroe document. Many other Cooper-contributed documents are shown on the Wood's Majestic Documents website.

 

Little-known however, is that nearly a decade after Milo Speriglio passed away, Cooper disavowed all such documents he had provided- including the Marilyn document- as frauds. In an April 3 2009 email to respected long-time UFO researcher Robert Hastings (archived on The UFO Chronicles website as "UPDATE 1: Operation Bird Droppings--The MJ-12 Saga Continues"), Tim Cooper makes an astonishing confession. He admitted that he no longer had faith in any of the documents on UFOs and Roswell that he had previously promoted. Cooper confirmed that all of the “documents” that he was previously associated with are either questionable or outright fabrications.

 

Cooper recants his prior work to Hastings and states in the email: “The MJ-12 documents...are a hoax and those who promote them as reality know this, or should know this.” Of the supposed ET agreement called Project Serpo (now believed to be inspired by former AFOSI agent and prankster Richard Doty) he says, “It is pure science fiction.” He speaks disparagingly of “documents” found in the book “Exempt from Disclosure” by Robert Collins and Richard Doty to which Cooper contributed. He said that he has since ceased his association with Richard Doty and Collins. Cooper admits that articles that they had authored about James Jesus Angleton’s supposed UFO involvement were only what he called “speculative pieces.” When Hastings emailed Collins back with additional questions on this confession, Collins declined to respond and never commented on the matter again.

So we now know that the very individual who introduced Milo Speriglio to the Marilyn document (and who in turn introduced it to the world) has now vehemently disavowed and discounted its authenticity (among many other such documents he released.)
 

And Cooper’s mention of both MJ-12 and Richard Doty is revealing. If one looks very closely at the document copy in the link above, you will see, at the bottom left of the page (after the Top Secret stamp and to the left of Angleton’s signature), three code words. The last one is faint, but reads: '54-(illegible)/MJ-12'. Of course MJ-12  is a hoax (which many today believe to have been inspired by William Moore and Richard Doty.) So goes the Marilyn document by its mention of MJ-12 as a code word.
 

The document’s signature by James Jesus Angleton is also telling. In Doty’s book Exempt From Disclosure he repeatedly brings up wild  tales that relate to Angleton’s knowledge of the extraterrestrial visitors and their crashes. Tim Cooper now concedes that all of this is simply BS.
 

Yet another interesting item is the misspelling of the word “trysts” as “trists,” in Section 1 of the document, which alludes to the JFK-Monroe relationship. Doty is a notoriously poor speller. The arch-skeptic the late Phil Klass noted this, and Doty’s emails and writings make this point evident.

 

THE HOAXERS
 

 

It becomes clear that the Marilyn document involved people who created the deception as well as those who perpetuated it. Richard Doty and Timothy Cooper fed a tall tale to a fading star, Milo Speriglio, so that he could shine again. He did shine by sharing it- and the hoax story about the Marilyn document has ever since been uncritically repeated from book to book, site to site, year after year. Until today.

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