http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/ ... e-film.php
How to Create A Marilyn Myth
Let's say you wanted to lure a scoop-horny, gullible media into promoting your upcoming documentary on Marilyn Monroe. But you didn't want anyone suing you later. Here's how:
Seed your hoax with a kernel of truth. Mine the recently unsealed FBI files (part 2, pages 68-70) you ran across in your research for your Marilyn-murder-conspiracy theory piece. You'll find mention of a 15-minute, 8- or 16-millimeter "'French-type' movie which depicted Marilyn Monroe, deceased actress, in unnatural acts with an unknown male." Around that nugget, craft a myth about a confidential FBI informant who blabbed about the alleged BJ reel. Say he made a copy for himself then left it to his son (also anonymous) when he died. Say you found the son with the help of an 80-year-old retired FBI agent and your lawyer (both anonymous). Say you brokered a deal between the son and a wealthy (anonymous) businessman who promised to lock up the film forever. If asked how you, the only named person to have seen the reel are sure it's Marilyn, explain that the woman in the film was blonde and had a mole in the right place. Say some other anonymous FBI agents saw it and confirmed it. Say she was "radiant ... She was known for being radiant." (Watch the interviewer eat that one up.)
You know, like, Keya Morgan said.
Half-cocked, weirdly biased barb-trading aside, Morgan, who claims to have brokered the $1.5 million sale of a 15-minute Monroe oral sex film to protect her image is a liar—at least when it comes to the details in his so-called unearthing of the reel. All he had to do was make available one of his sources, show five minutes of the film to a select reporter or two who'd signed a confidentiality agreement. But he couldn't.
In an interview with Radar, Morgan declined to name any of his sources—the FBI's confidential informant, his son, the alleged buyer, or the 80-year-old former FBI agent, whose alleged position camped outside of Monroe's place in a van all those years ago somehow put him in the position to lead Morgan to find the owner of the inherited film. When we asked how Morgan knew the tape was real, he didn't go with the hair color, mole, and radiance argument, to his credit. "The FBI agent told me so," he said. Plus, he added, "nine agents analyzed it in a room without air conditioning over and over again." He said the recently unsealed FBI documents on the FBI's website indicate this. But they don't. Agents were focused on trying to identify the man in the video (as JFK—they were unsuccessful).
"Joe DiMaggio saw it and he verified its authenticity and he offered $25,000 back then," Morgan told Dan Abrams on MSNBC. "Now, Joe DiMaggio is no fool." Morgan repeated the same claim to Radar. "Joe DiMaggio had 100 percent seen it," he said. But the FBI documents don't say that, either.
What the report does say, in part two, page 69, is this:
[Redacted] Top Echelon is an informant of [redacted]. The Laboratory has no information concerning Marilyn Monroe's participation in a film as described in the attached communication. Since dissemination may compromise the informant, it is recommended this information not be disseminated outside the Bureau.
Morgan's response after being presented this by Radar: "You don't have the same documents I do." In other words, he said, his source provided him with sealed documents that backed up what he said, documents no one but he has. Seeing a pattern?
Whether the FBI itself even has a copy of the film is up for debate (The Smoking Gun just posted a pretty thorough investigation of this particular point.)
Lots more will come out about Morgan's character and his attackers will be attacked too. But here's the beauty behind his ruse: There's no victim. Other than those who, for their own special reasons, feel it their charge to protect the legacy of Marilyn Monroe, no one lost anything in this hosejob. No credible evidence exists of a seller or buyer or even of the film copy (or original, for that matter—the FBI told Abrams they had no recollection of it). Morgan told Radar he received no commission for brokering this sale. He only stands to benefit from the press he's garnered. And the only ones potentially harmed by this hoax are already dead—or the suckers who pay to see his forthcoming documentary. If that even exists.