Marilyn's back door murder: News. 13 years ago.

So Playboy has Marilyn Monroe on the cover of its December issue, calling for an exhumation to prove she was murdered with a Nembutal enema.

And CBS’s tabloid newsmagazine 48 Hours is taking up the rear, prepping a story on the same. That’s because the LA Times already did their legwork back in August, when it ran the original interview with former LA County prosecutor John Miner, who attended Marilyn’s autopsy. Miner claimed he had transcripts of tapes of private conversations between Marilyn and her psychiatrist. Of course, he says the transcripts were based on notes. And he didn’t tell anyone about the transcripts for 43 years.

The LA Times noted that “to accept Miner's story, one must make a leap of faith — he is the only one still alive who claims to have heard the tapes. Greenson died in 1979, and Miner believes that he destroyed the tapes.”

The late, lamented A Current Affair interviewed Miner shortly after the LA Times segment (all TV news shows rip off stories from newspapers. You didn’t think they have imaginations and original ideas, did you?). Put it this way. He’s an old, old man. And he comes off much better in print.

Sorry, 48 Hours.

And, oh yeah. All you newsbreakers. You’re only THIRTEEN YEARS late on the story.

The “Marilyn backside murder” story was broken by Peter Brennan and the crew at Hard Copy. It ran over three consecutive nights in February 1992, and was a big production, shot on film, full of lavish re-enactments, a great actress playing Marilyn, and scenes shot in the actual house-- and bedroom-- where Marilyn died. The series got Hard Copy its highest ratings ever.

And it wasn’t an enema. It was a suppository.

See Tabloid Baby for details. Read the chapter, “A Fatal Suppository,” starting on page 209.

Back then, the news nabobs at 48 Hours and the LA Times thumbed their noses because it was a "tabloid story." I guess times change. Well, we know times change, don't we.

By the way, the entire Hard Copy series has been available on video since 1994. “Marilyn-- The Last Word” is on sale at Amazon.com. Joe Tobin directed the dramatized scenes.

Tabloid Baby author Burt Kearns co-wrote the series with Brennan. No, he didn’t get a writing credit or any residuals. He gets a “managing editor” credit on the video.