Latest / DISGRACELAND / Brittany Murphy: The Suspicious Death of a Starlet or an Unsolved Murder?

Transcript

Brittany Murphy: The Suspicious Death of a Starlet or an Unsolved Murder? · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
0:12
Speaker 2: This is a.
0:12
Speaker 1: Story about Britney Murphy, an incredibly charismatic actress who shined
0:17
Speaker 1: in numerous roles and left an acting legacy that is
0:20
Speaker 1: perhaps outshined by the questions surrounding her suspicious death of
0:25
Speaker 1: supposed pneumonia at just the age of thirty two. And
0:29
Speaker 1: this is also the story about a controlling and abusive husband.
0:34
Speaker 1: It's about drug abuse, poor health, two parents with very
0:38
Speaker 1: different agendas following the death of their daughter, and about
0:43
Speaker 1: highly suspicious details surrounding that death, toxic mold, anemia and poison.
0:50
Speaker 1: Dramatic details surrounding an actress who participated in popular works
0:54
Speaker 1: of drama. Eminem's film eight Mile among her best work,
0:59
Speaker 1: a film that, of course featured great music. Unlike that
1:03
Speaker 1: music I played for you at the top of the show.
1:06
Speaker 1: That wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from
1:10
Speaker 1: my mellotron called Hysteria Dance MK one. I played you
1:17
Speaker 1: that loop because I can't afford the rights to empire
1:20
Speaker 1: A State of Mind by jay Z featuring Alicia Keys,
1:24
Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
1:27
Speaker 1: New York cheese? Could I afford it because that was
1:32
Speaker 1: the number one song in America on December one, two
1:35
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, and that was the day that Britney
1:38
Speaker 1: Murphy walked the Red Carpet for the final time.
1:42
Speaker 2: On this episode, a controlling and abusive husband, drug abuse,
1:47
Speaker 2: toxic mold, poison, a highly suspicious cause of death, and
1:52
Speaker 2: an actress gone too soon Britney Murphy.
1:56
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan in this discreen. It's an experimental treatment.
2:27
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've never heard of it. Smoke trailed from
2:30
Speaker 1: Simon Monjack's cigar. As he spoke. The dinner guests gathered
2:34
Speaker 1: around the table, leaned in, hanging on his every word,
2:37
Speaker 1: until each person was suspended in an unflattering slouch. The
2:42
Speaker 1: clinking of crystal champagne glasses quieted the murmurs of side
2:46
Speaker 1: conversations long since trailed off. A selection of cheesecakes were
2:51
Speaker 1: plated and ready to serve, and no one seemed interested
2:54
Speaker 1: in cheesecake at the moment. So you're telling me a
2:57
Speaker 1: shark saved your life? One guest challenged, cells from shark fins, yes,
3:02
Speaker 1: Simon answered, very expensive, but it cured the cancer. So
3:06
Speaker 1: who m I to complain? He chuckled with an air
3:09
Speaker 1: of false modesty, and the girl sitting beside him rubbed
3:12
Speaker 1: his arm affectionately, soothing him from the potential sting of
3:16
Speaker 1: the memory. It wasn't even Simon's party. It was the
3:20
Speaker 1: turn of the century and the fledgling filmmaker was a
3:23
Speaker 1: special guest in the home of established filmmaker Alison Burnett.
3:28
Speaker 1: Alison had heard things about the new brit On the
3:30
Speaker 1: block that his grandfather founded British Steel, that he was
3:34
Speaker 1: worth a billion dollars, and now he learned that Simon
3:39
Speaker 1: was apparently a cancer survivor too. But there was more.
3:44
Speaker 1: Simon locked eyes with everyone in the room as he
3:46
Speaker 1: unveiled each new detail of his story, and no one
3:49
Speaker 1: dared interrupt him. Simon kept regaling and for starters. His
3:54
Speaker 1: so called gripping debut film in two Days, Nine Lives
3:58
Speaker 1: was receiving the best reviews in the history of independent
4:01
Speaker 1: filmmaking in England. He also dated supermodel Ellen McPherson, then Madonna,
4:07
Speaker 1: or was it the other way around? Didn't matter. He
4:11
Speaker 1: boasted a collection of seventeen ferraris. Better yet he owned
4:15
Speaker 1: more pieces by Dutch painter Johannes Vermier than anyone in
4:19
Speaker 1: the world. You know, the girl with the pearl earring,
4:22
Speaker 1: that's the guy. Simon's tails were unreal, but this was Hollywood, hollyweird.
4:28
Speaker 1: At the time, there was no fact checking websites to summon,
4:30
Speaker 1: no Wikipedia that other guests could glance at, during a
4:33
Speaker 1: quick smoke outside between courses. Hell. Nobody could even reach
4:37
Speaker 1: into their phone and ask Syria yet, because smartphones were
4:39
Speaker 1: still a few years off. Simon's googly at girlfriend, who
4:43
Speaker 1: made glued to his side, hanging on his every word
4:46
Speaker 1: like she was hearing these tales for the first time too.
4:49
Speaker 1: Simon had every guest spellbond. Alison Burnett had forfeited control
4:54
Speaker 1: of his dinner party, but he didn't care. Didn't care
4:57
Speaker 1: until an email hit his inbox roughly month later. It
5:01
Speaker 1: was from Simon's girlfriend, now ex girlfriend. She wrote Alison
5:06
Speaker 1: to inform him that every word of Simon's tales had
5:10
Speaker 1: been false. He had lied through his cigar chomping teeth,
5:14
Speaker 1: the cancer, the car collection, the art collection, all bogus.
5:19
Speaker 1: She had believed him too, believed him so well that
5:21
Speaker 1: she never saw their breakup coming, nor did she see
5:24
Speaker 1: his subsequent hookup with her best friend it's what Simon
5:28
Speaker 1: Monjack did. He lied, he schemed, he conned people, and
5:33
Speaker 1: that's exactly how he found his way into Britney Murphy's life.
5:42
Speaker 1: He didn't screw it up at all. He didn't screw
5:44
Speaker 1: it up at all. He didn't screw it up at all.
5:47
Speaker 1: Britney Murphy repeated the line in her mind over and
5:50
Speaker 1: over again, so she couldn't have the chance to forget it.
5:55
Speaker 1: She spat it out right on queue. He didn't screw
5:57
Speaker 1: it up at all, she recited aloud, trembling through tears.
6:02
Speaker 1: A sniffle made her button nose wrinkle. She locked her
6:05
Speaker 1: big brown eyes with her co star Mike Vogel. Her
6:08
Speaker 1: lips pursed into a pout. Then her perfect delivery was broken.
6:14
Speaker 1: Shit line. Brittany maintained the perturbed look plastered on her
6:19
Speaker 1: face as she barked for her next words. By now,
6:23
Speaker 1: the production staff working on the film across the hall
6:26
Speaker 1: was used to it. It had been a tumultuous time
6:29
Speaker 1: on the set with Brittany. Perhaps it was more accurate
6:32
Speaker 1: to say it was a tumultuous time on set with
6:34
Speaker 1: Brittany and her husband, Simon Monjack. As the crew fed
6:40
Speaker 1: Brittany her line. She struggled to retain it. Her thoughts slogged,
6:44
Speaker 1: her mind moved in its lowest gear, fumbling with what
6:48
Speaker 1: emotion she should evoke next. Fuck, she was tired. Simon
6:53
Speaker 1: kept her up late last night again. Her husband of
6:56
Speaker 1: one year had a tendency to push her boundaries mentally
7:01
Speaker 1: and physically. He'd often deprive her of sleep for activities
7:05
Speaker 1: like late night photoshoots. For her career, he promised, and
7:09
Speaker 1: that's what he always said. Their formal relationship began in
7:13
Speaker 1: early two thousand and seven when Britney first clutched the
7:16
Speaker 1: script for The White Hotel, slated to be Simon's second movie.
7:21
Speaker 1: She was so intrigued by the project that she phoned
7:23
Speaker 1: Simon from Tokyo straight from the set of the cornball
7:27
Speaker 1: comedy The Ramen Girl. When they met in the States
7:30
Speaker 1: to discuss the movie, Simon promised her the leading role.
7:34
Speaker 1: Except the White Hotel never opened, never materialized. What Britney
7:39
Speaker 1: got instead was a new relationship followed by a sudden proposal,
7:44
Speaker 1: and after two failed engagements with two separate men before
7:47
Speaker 1: the age thirty, Britney Murphy was beyond ready to play
7:51
Speaker 1: the role of a bride. She and Simon tied the
7:58
Speaker 1: knot in a private ceremony that spring. No big media announcements,
8:02
Speaker 1: no press coverage, private quiet, intimate and the fact that
8:06
Speaker 1: their marriage came on the heels of a nine day
8:08
Speaker 1: prison stay for Simon's American visa expiring was merely a coincidence,
8:13
Speaker 1: Britney sore so anyways, just a very unimportant detail in
8:17
Speaker 1: the life of her new filmmaker husband. Simon's own credits
8:21
Speaker 1: at the time were limited to two days, nine lives,
8:24
Speaker 1: and a credit for a two thousand and six film
8:26
Speaker 1: called Factory Girl, all about the life of Yetie Sedgwick
8:29
Speaker 1: and her entanglement with Andy Warhol. Upon its release, Simon
8:34
Speaker 1: sued the filmmakers, claiming they stole the script and the
8:37
Speaker 1: filmmakers had never heard of a quote unquote industry professional
8:41
Speaker 1: named Simon Monjack. They dismissed him as a nuisance, but
8:44
Speaker 1: granted him a writing credit for the sake of shutting
8:47
Speaker 1: him up. In two thousand and eight. That unearned credit
8:51
Speaker 1: remained Simon's biggest claim to fame, while Britney's biggest success
8:55
Speaker 1: is slipped farther and farther into the rear view. Eight
8:59
Speaker 1: mile felt like eight eternities ago. The teen dream of
9:03
Speaker 1: Clueless was over ten years old now. In fact, Brittany
9:07
Speaker 1: hadn't starred in a major studio production since two thousand
9:10
Speaker 1: and four's Little Black Book That made two careers Teetering
9:14
Speaker 1: on the brink of obscurity in Brittany Murphy teetering on
9:18
Speaker 1: the brink of losing her mind. Simon so called helping
9:22
Speaker 1: hand was his excuse for the late nights or hovering
9:25
Speaker 1: on set, for micromanaging the final fragments of his wife's career.
9:30
Speaker 1: Simon's behavior ran Britney down and kept her run down,
9:33
Speaker 1: kept her in a tizzy calling out for his help
9:36
Speaker 1: right now on set. It kept her calling out for Lyne.
9:39
Speaker 1: She knew, damn well, she should be able to memorize.
9:42
Speaker 1: What was she some sort of mentally challenged airhead. Fortunately,
9:47
Speaker 1: across the hall, director Alex Murkin could handle repetition. He
9:51
Speaker 1: could handle reminding Brittany to get back in the frame.
9:54
Speaker 1: He could even deal with the peanut butter and jelly
9:56
Speaker 1: sandwich's cross cut off cut diagonally that she requested every
9:59
Speaker 1: hour on the hour and inevitably barely touched. What he
10:03
Speaker 1: couldn't handle was the resistance. Today, Brittany wasn't getting in
10:09
Speaker 1: bed for Across the Hall's love scene. She was beyond
10:12
Speaker 1: that kind of acting, she insisted. How could she shine
10:15
Speaker 1: when the low budget sets and low browsed scripts didn't
10:18
Speaker 1: give her room to when she had to bring her
10:20
Speaker 1: acting skills into a prop bed. Alex sensed a stalemate.
10:25
Speaker 1: He sighed and waved everyone off set. No sense prolonging
10:29
Speaker 1: the inevitable, he thought. As the staff dispersed, he meandered
10:33
Speaker 1: outside with select members of his crew for a private
10:36
Speaker 1: conversation about the situation. Alex spotted Simon milling about outside.
10:42
Speaker 1: He cleared his throat and chose his words carefully. We're
10:47
Speaker 1: going to just have to go with somebody else, he
10:49
Speaker 1: said a little too loudly, hoping Simon's ears would perk up.
10:53
Speaker 1: But Simon's ears were already perked up. They always were,
10:57
Speaker 1: especially when he lingered awkwardly on set, waiting for Brittany
11:01
Speaker 1: to take a break or glance in his direction for
11:03
Speaker 1: some sort of guidance. And that's what he was there for,
11:07
Speaker 1: to guide her, to nudge her back on the right
11:10
Speaker 1: path in her career, to make sure she nailed this
11:12
Speaker 1: role so well that the rest of the industry wouldn't
11:15
Speaker 1: be able to turn their backs on her anymore, and
11:18
Speaker 1: by association, on him either. Alex had to fight off
11:23
Speaker 1: a snicker when he saw Simon rushing over. We can
11:26
Speaker 1: work this out. She'll do whatever you want, he said
11:28
Speaker 1: at Alex, failing to hide the panic in his voice.
11:32
Speaker 1: Let me go speak with her and we'll get this
11:33
Speaker 1: all worked out. He darted over to Brittany. Alex observed
11:36
Speaker 1: them from afar, Whisper said distrap frown from her, some
11:40
Speaker 1: stern words from him, and the unspoken truth. She couldn't
11:44
Speaker 1: afford to lose this role in the unspoken agreement, She'd
11:48
Speaker 1: do the scene and she'd like it, or at least
11:50
Speaker 1: should pretend to. And that's what acting was all about.
11:53
Speaker 1: Right after the break, Britney shimmied under the sheets and
11:57
Speaker 1: glanced at her co star. Her dough eyes went glass.
12:00
Speaker 1: Only for now, she thought, only until my next big break.
12:05
Speaker 1: She didn't know that the next big break would never come.
12:39
Speaker 1: A shiver shot up Britney Murphy's spine. It started in
12:42
Speaker 1: her abdomen and then crawled up to her chest, where
12:46
Speaker 1: it hammered on her rip cage and clawed at her lungs.
12:50
Speaker 1: She tried to breathe through the sensation, but she could
12:53
Speaker 1: barely breathe at all. She knew the feeling well by now,
12:56
Speaker 1: over a week into a mystery illness that left her
12:59
Speaker 1: shuddering in the sun on the December weather in Los
13:02
Speaker 1: Angeles wasn't warming up her thin frame, no matter how
13:05
Speaker 1: long she lingered near the rays of the sun pouring
13:08
Speaker 1: into her private bathroom. A breeze cut through her skin
13:12
Speaker 1: as she pulled a towel over her shoulders like a
13:14
Speaker 1: blanket and called out for her husband, Simon Monjack, through
13:18
Speaker 1: chattering teeth, a blanket, please. She just needed a blanket.
13:23
Speaker 1: She knew she wasn't strong enough to fetch one herself.
13:25
Speaker 1: Short walks weakened her. Anything more adventurous, like climbing a
13:30
Speaker 1: single story of stairs, left her gasping for air. If
13:34
Speaker 1: Simon had heard her request and the death rattle of
13:36
Speaker 1: her clicking teeth, he didn't acknowledge it. He was off
13:40
Speaker 1: in his own little world, thinking about his own dreams
13:43
Speaker 1: of being famous, no doubt. As she turned the page
13:47
Speaker 1: of a fashion magazine from her cruch position on the floor,
13:50
Speaker 1: her chilly hand shook so fiercely that it ripped the
13:52
Speaker 1: bottom page. Britney grimaced and pulled her knees tight to
13:56
Speaker 1: her chest, one last attempt at salvaging anybody. She could
14:01
Speaker 1: be at the beach right now, about the pool, flagging
14:04
Speaker 1: a pool boy for another lemonade, sweating off her suntan
14:07
Speaker 1: lotion instead of begging her husband for a fucking blanket.
14:14
Speaker 1: Only a few days earlier, Brittany was all smiles overseas
14:19
Speaker 1: alongside Simon and her mother Sharon. She had landed another
14:23
Speaker 1: leading role, this time for a thriller titled The Caller,
14:27
Speaker 1: set to be filmed entirely in Puerto Rico. Her hopes
14:30
Speaker 1: were high, Simons might have been even higher. She landed
14:34
Speaker 1: safely in Puerto Rico in November of two thousand and nine,
14:37
Speaker 1: and those high hopes for the Collar crashed and burned
14:40
Speaker 1: shortly thereafter. Brittany had lasted no more than two days
14:44
Speaker 1: on set. That's all it took for her to sever
14:47
Speaker 1: herself from what she saw as a B movie horror
14:50
Speaker 1: catastrophe that in Simon's helicopter mentorship accelerated her departure. Her
14:57
Speaker 1: soul souvenirs in the trip were dash streams and wounded pride.
15:01
Speaker 1: Simon and Sharon, on the other hand, a part of
15:04
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico with a nasty case of pneumonia, which they
15:06
Speaker 1: passed to Brittany after their return to California. As if
15:11
Speaker 1: losing the role wasn't enough, now she had more reasons
15:14
Speaker 1: to sniffle. How many more hits could she take? She
15:18
Speaker 1: wouldn't be returning as a member of the voice cast
15:20
Speaker 1: for Happy Feet two. Her much anticipated role in The
15:23
Speaker 1: Expendables was written out of the script, and she lost
15:26
Speaker 1: her role as tinker Bell for a straight to DVD
15:28
Speaker 1: Disney movie. And now now she couldn't last two days
15:32
Speaker 1: on set for a movie she didn't even want to
15:34
Speaker 1: be in. This was an unprecedented low for her, an
15:38
Speaker 1: unprecedented low that directly contradicted everything else Simon demanded from her.
15:44
Speaker 1: Simon says she needs to make a real Hollywood comeback.
15:47
Speaker 1: Simon says she needs to be thinner. Simon says, these
15:51
Speaker 1: roles are better than those roles. Simon says He'll always
15:54
Speaker 1: take care of it. Simon says. Simon says, if Simon
16:02
Speaker 1: spoke it, Brittany absorbed it as gospel. She assumed it
16:05
Speaker 1: was the truth because there wasn't anyone else around her
16:07
Speaker 1: to tell her otherwise. In two thousand and nine, Brittany
16:10
Speaker 1: had no direct access to her email, no direct access
16:14
Speaker 1: to her personal cell phone. Anyone who wished to speak
16:17
Speaker 1: with Brittany had to go through Simon first and then
16:21
Speaker 1: speak with her on Simon's terms. Friends and family couldn't
16:25
Speaker 1: even reach her via landline. Simon cut the phone surface
16:28
Speaker 1: in her house that she bought with her movie star money.
16:34
Speaker 1: Brittany thought Simon was just good at taking charge. Her
16:38
Speaker 1: friends thought he was downright controlling. There were some things
16:42
Speaker 1: that he legitimately assisted her with. Simon had a set
16:45
Speaker 1: of simple life skills, so that Britney lacked the price
16:48
Speaker 1: she paid for spending her adolescence on TV in movie sets.
16:52
Speaker 1: She couldn't balance a checkbook, she couldn't drive, no driver's
16:56
Speaker 1: license met. Brittany relied on Simon to get out of
16:58
Speaker 1: her house, a high level Mediterranean mansion nestled in West Hollywood,
17:03
Speaker 1: but Simon wasn't keen on joy rides. Upon their marriage
17:08
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven, Britney Murphy's life shrunk to
17:11
Speaker 1: a claustrophobic eight thousand square feet, but that didn't stop
17:16
Speaker 1: the tabloids from talking, from typing their nasty, nitpicking headlines.
17:21
Speaker 1: Britney devoured them all, often crouched in her private bathroom
17:25
Speaker 1: as she was now, she bassed in the warm comfort
17:28
Speaker 1: of its pink peach walls as she absorbed each article's criticisms.
17:32
Speaker 1: The one suggesting she had an eating disorder cut the
17:35
Speaker 1: deepest ha What happened to the days when she was
17:38
Speaker 1: huggable not fuckable? And that's what a powerful, anonymous figure
17:42
Speaker 1: in Hollywood once told her she was She wanted to
17:44
Speaker 1: be a leading lady. Those same powerful types advised her
17:47
Speaker 1: to loose some pounds, so she trimmed herself down, clipped
17:51
Speaker 1: in hair extensions, upgraded her appearance. She made herself quote
17:55
Speaker 1: unquote fuckable in no time flat. And now people had
17:58
Speaker 1: the audacity to quot bullshit. It was all unrealistic beauty standards, bullshit,
18:07
Speaker 1: But it was bullshit that weighed on her. Nonetheless, when
18:10
Speaker 1: Brittany retreated to her bathroom, she did more than indulge
18:14
Speaker 1: in tabloids. She tested out hair treatments and perfumes, skin
18:18
Speaker 1: creams and lip tints. She tore pages from fashion magazines,
18:22
Speaker 1: pinched skin between her thin fingers, in the mirror. A
18:25
Speaker 1: little voice in her mind repeated what she read in
18:27
Speaker 1: the papers, repeated what Simon said to her. Change yourself,
18:31
Speaker 1: shrink yourself, make yourself smaller so you can make your
18:34
Speaker 1: career bigger. Brittany was sick of the superficial life out West.
18:39
Speaker 1: Twenty ten would be different. It had to be different
18:43
Speaker 1: for her own sanity. She'd pack up with Simon and
18:47
Speaker 1: jet to New York and rehabilitate a reputation by starring
18:50
Speaker 1: in some independent films, maybe even start a family. Six
18:55
Speaker 1: years in her current living situation, Sandwich between Simon and
18:58
Speaker 1: her mother Sharon had been more than an enough. Britney
19:01
Speaker 1: purchased the home for three point nine million dollars from
19:04
Speaker 1: Britney Spears in two thousand and three, six years ago.
19:08
Speaker 1: Now one Brittany had moved on from it already, it
19:11
Speaker 1: was time for another Brittany, herself to fall sup Except
19:16
Speaker 1: Britney Spears was still hot in two thousand and nine,
19:18
Speaker 1: and Britney Murphy was not. Brittey Murphy was cold, ice cold,
19:24
Speaker 1: colder than her skin even as she tried to warm
19:27
Speaker 1: herself in the California sun, and Brittany Murphy needed to
19:31
Speaker 1: nurse herself and her career back to health. Immediately, Brittany
19:41
Speaker 1: Murphy's body laid limp on the floor. Cold water from
19:45
Speaker 1: the shower head. Heelt at her face, droplets collected on
19:49
Speaker 1: her face and in her hair, and Brittany did so
19:51
Speaker 1: much as flinch. Her blue lips remained slightly parted, indifferent.
19:57
Speaker 1: That's when Sharon really started to panic. She clasped her
20:00
Speaker 1: daughter's I see body with one hand and used the
20:02
Speaker 1: other to dial nine one one with her thumb. Please
20:05
Speaker 1: get here quick, please, she's not moving. Simon helps Sharon
20:09
Speaker 1: hoist Brittany out of the shower and onto the bathroom floor.
20:13
Speaker 1: As they maneuvered her body, bottles in Britney's private bathroom,
20:16
Speaker 1: tuckled over hair spray, skinny creamy's face mask, lip mass, perfumes,
20:20
Speaker 1: some jars fell into shallow pools of vomit on the floor,
20:24
Speaker 1: and Brittany been throwing up all morning, expelling water like
20:27
Speaker 1: it was poison, tons and tons of it. Sharon informed
20:30
Speaker 1: the dispatcher she was dizzy, she couldn't walk right. She's
20:33
Speaker 1: had a cold, she explained, through tears. Can you feel
20:37
Speaker 1: or hear any breathing? The dispatcher asked, he heard Simon
20:40
Speaker 1: relay the message to Sharon in the background. No. Then
20:45
Speaker 1: Sharon's answer more of a blubbering howl than a word.
20:48
Speaker 2: No.
20:50
Speaker 1: As an ambulance race to one eight nine to five,
20:52
Speaker 1: rising Glen Road in Los Angeles, the dispatcher explained how
20:56
Speaker 1: to do compressions. A last ditch effort to get Britney
21:00
Speaker 1: breathing again, Simon placed the heel of his hand on
21:03
Speaker 1: Britney's breast pawn. The dispatcher calmly but sternly ordered him
21:07
Speaker 1: to pump her chest hard and fast, at least twice
21:10
Speaker 1: per second. Simon counted his compressions out loud, pushed down
21:16
Speaker 1: hard on her dainty rib cage like her life depended
21:19
Speaker 1: on it. Because it did. Simon wasn't fast enough. Eight
21:25
Speaker 1: nine ten, the dispatcher said. He scolded again when he
21:31
Speaker 1: heard no change in Simon's pacing. Britney, please come back,
21:35
Speaker 1: Sharon howld over the phone. But Britney didn't come back.
21:39
Speaker 1: After an ambulance brought her to Cedars Sinai Medical Center,
21:42
Speaker 1: it wasn't long before doctors delivered the grim news, and
21:45
Speaker 1: there was nothing they could do. Britney Murphy died just
21:49
Speaker 1: after ten am that morning, on December twentieth, two thousand
21:53
Speaker 1: and nine. She was thirty two years old. The media
21:58
Speaker 1: swarmed around one eight nine to five, rising Glenn Road.
22:01
Speaker 1: They had pressing questions, questions that were somehow bolder than
22:05
Speaker 1: their previous queries, asking if she was addicted to drugs
22:09
Speaker 1: or if an eating disorder lurked under that limber frame
22:12
Speaker 1: of hers. Now the question was, how does a thirty
22:16
Speaker 1: two year old seemingly die from a cold. Everyone wanted
22:19
Speaker 1: to know, everyone except Simon Manjak Simon publicly and unabashedly
22:26
Speaker 1: opposed an autopsy. He didn't want his wife to be
22:29
Speaker 1: carved like a Thanksgiving turkey for some science experiment. The
22:33
Speaker 1: idea of his wife's body being sliced up was too
22:36
Speaker 1: much to bear. It was curvy in all the right places.
22:39
Speaker 1: He told Larry King about his dead wife on national television. Fortunately,
22:45
Speaker 1: what Simon said didn't have any sway to the Los
22:48
Speaker 1: Angeles Coroner's office. To halt the autopsy. Simon had to
22:52
Speaker 1: either send the Coroner's office a court order or a
22:55
Speaker 1: religious reason, and he provided neither. Over the course of
22:59
Speaker 1: a few months, the Los Angeles Coroner's Office and so
23:02
Speaker 1: called Hollywood's Corner at Winter, searched for answers to the
23:06
Speaker 1: public's pressing questions about Britney's sudden death. While they did
23:10
Speaker 1: their medical digging, there was plenty of time for things
23:13
Speaker 1: to get even weirder at the Murphy Monjack residence. When
23:18
Speaker 1: investigators searched Britney's mansion in the days after her death,
23:22
Speaker 1: they uncovered roughly ninety bottles of prescription pills in Simon's nightstand,
23:27
Speaker 1: some in his name, some in Britney's name, some of
23:30
Speaker 1: the names of unidentified third parties. Investigators all noticed that
23:34
Speaker 1: Simon and Britney's bed appeared to have been recently disturbed
23:38
Speaker 1: by two people, except Britney was already long gone. When questioned,
23:44
Speaker 1: Simon confessed that Scherer would often climb into bed with
23:47
Speaker 1: him so they could tearfully console each other and share
23:50
Speaker 1: the burden of their grief. Simon's truth telling track record
23:54
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly stellar, and Sharon vehemently denied this gross version
23:59
Speaker 1: of events. Simon raised eyebrows again when they sent out
24:03
Speaker 1: invitations to a memorial for Britney scheduled for February twenty ten.
24:08
Speaker 1: The event launched the Britney Murphy Foundation, a nonprofit organization
24:12
Speaker 1: dedicated to helping children pursue the arts. Simon requested one
24:16
Speaker 1: thousand dollars donation from each attendee, or a sum of
24:20
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars for organizations to attend a memorial service.
24:24
Speaker 1: Sharon was Britney's sole beneficiary. It wasn't a secret that
24:28
Speaker 1: Simon hadn't inherited a cent, but many were unaware that
24:32
Speaker 1: Simon had spent three million dollars of Britney's money in
24:35
Speaker 1: three years, effectively draining eighty percent of her assets. Coincidentally,
24:42
Speaker 1: at the time of the memorial, the foundation's official status
24:45
Speaker 1: as a charity had yet to be approved. Those donations
24:49
Speaker 1: weren't going to a nonprofit. They were lining Simon's pockets.
24:53
Speaker 1: In the interim. At least Hollywood got wise when attendee
24:58
Speaker 1: started asking for more information, Simon pulled the plug on
25:01
Speaker 1: the event with only one day to go. He blamed
25:03
Speaker 1: a family illness for the sudden cancelation, and no one
25:07
Speaker 1: bought it. The Britney Murphy Foundation evaporated before it could
25:10
Speaker 1: even be deemed a legitimate nonprofit, and by February twenty ten,
25:16
Speaker 1: it felt like there couldn't possibly be any more peculiar
25:18
Speaker 1: angles to the Britney Murphy story. Then her autopsy results
25:24
Speaker 1: came back, We'll be right back after this.
25:29
Speaker 2: We're we're, we're.
25:36
Speaker 1: Pneumonia. The answer was so anti climactic that it didn't
25:40
Speaker 1: even sound real. An affluent, thirty two year old woman
25:43
Speaker 1: had succumbed to fucking pneumonia. The LA Coroner's office ruled
25:49
Speaker 1: Britney Murphy's death accidental on February twenty fifth, twenty ten,
25:54
Speaker 1: citing pneumonia as the culprit, along with two smaller contributing factors.
25:59
Speaker 1: Test reveal that Brittany had life threateningly low levels of hemoglobin,
26:03
Speaker 1: far worse than a quote unquote regular case of anemia,
26:06
Speaker 1: and there was also a loaded cocktail of medications in
26:09
Speaker 1: her system at the time of her death. Migraine tells
26:12
Speaker 1: cough medicine, over the counter, nasal spray, antibiotics, prozac, klonopin,
26:17
Speaker 1: an anti inflammatory, a beta blocker from Simon, the painkiller
26:21
Speaker 1: like a profen prescribed by her doctor. It was a
26:24
Speaker 1: long list, but a legitimate one. None of the drugs
26:27
Speaker 1: were illegal. There was no illicit substance aha moment, no
26:31
Speaker 1: prescription pill smoking gun for her destitute vagrant living outside
26:36
Speaker 1: in the tent. The cause of death made perfect sense
26:39
Speaker 1: for an actress living in a three point nine million
26:41
Speaker 1: dollar home with two loved ones. It was nearly unheard of.
26:45
Speaker 1: At long last, the public had their unsatisfying answer to
26:49
Speaker 1: what now came the follow up? Why Why didn't Sharon
26:55
Speaker 1: and Simon take her symptoms seriously as she gasped for
26:59
Speaker 1: air at the time the staircase or wabbled around the
27:02
Speaker 1: house like a newborn fawn. Why didn't they rush her
27:05
Speaker 1: to the hospital themselves the moment she struggled to breathe
27:08
Speaker 1: days before her death. Why did they think hot tea
27:11
Speaker 1: with ginger and lemon was all they needed to soothe
27:13
Speaker 1: her parched blue lips as she gasped for air and
27:16
Speaker 1: pleaded for oxygen. Why would a mother and a husband
27:21
Speaker 1: wait so long to call nine one one? And would
27:26
Speaker 1: they be foolish enough to make the same mistake twice?
27:32
Speaker 1: It seems so familiar that Sharon thought she was dreaming
27:35
Speaker 1: From across the bedroom. She could hear it, the sound
27:38
Speaker 1: of silence, more specifically, absence of breathing. Simon Monjack's chest
27:44
Speaker 1: wasn't moving. It wasn't rising and falling, not even for
27:47
Speaker 1: the most shallow breaths. Instead, he lay motionless in bed
27:52
Speaker 1: while a brown foam like liquid spewed from his lips,
27:56
Speaker 1: A gurgling sound erupted from his mouth. Sharon's sight nearly
28:00
Speaker 1: went dim. This couldn't be happening, no way, not again.
28:04
Speaker 1: Five months after her daughter gasped for her final breass,
28:08
Speaker 1: her son in law was doing the same, And just
28:11
Speaker 1: like Brittany, Simon was sick with some mystery illness that
28:15
Speaker 1: left him coughing, sweating, shaking. Pain radiated from his lungs
28:19
Speaker 1: and into his chest. At times. His fever reached a
28:23
Speaker 1: frightening hive nearly one hundred and six degrees. He was tired,
28:26
Speaker 1: His body was leading lethargic. The illness weighed him down
28:30
Speaker 1: with an intensity that even trumped the burden of his grief.
28:34
Speaker 1: He was immobile, He was dying. Despite all this, Sharon
28:38
Speaker 1: didn't call for help until forty five minutes after first
28:41
Speaker 1: attempting to wipe Simon's mouth clean from the mystery fluid.
28:47
Speaker 1: She dialed nine one one at nine fifteen pm on
28:50
Speaker 1: the evening of May twenty third, twenty ten. The rapid
28:54
Speaker 1: fire Questions from dispatch were like deja vu? What his age?
28:57
Speaker 1: Did he awake or not awake? Is he breathing or
28:59
Speaker 1: not breathing. Sharon was told to move Simon's body from
29:03
Speaker 1: the bed to the floor for compressions. She balked, no
29:06
Speaker 1: way she could get him on the ground, he was
29:08
Speaker 1: too big. She compromised by delicately removing his massive melon
29:12
Speaker 1: of a head from his pillow. She began chess compressions
29:15
Speaker 1: right in the bed, following the same step Simon had
29:18
Speaker 1: once done for Brittany. Now it was Sharon's turn. Emergency
29:23
Speaker 1: services rushed to one eight nine to five, rising Glen
29:26
Speaker 1: Road for the second time in six months. This time
29:29
Speaker 1: there was no need to rush back to the hospital.
29:32
Speaker 1: Unlike Brittany, Simon did not have a pulse when the
29:35
Speaker 1: paramedics arrived, no lung sound either. He was declared dead
29:39
Speaker 1: in their bedroom at nine to forty five PM. He
29:43
Speaker 1: was forty years old. In the following days, investigators didn't
29:49
Speaker 1: need a second tour of the eight thousand square foot mansion.
29:52
Speaker 1: The homes layout remained fresh in their minds from their
29:55
Speaker 1: last visit. Certain sections of the Mediterranean try level had
29:59
Speaker 1: to deteriorated from disorderly to disgusting. The wreckage of the
30:04
Speaker 1: past few days stained Simon's bedsheets, which were covered in
30:08
Speaker 1: brown black splotches of mucus used tissues spilled from the
30:12
Speaker 1: trash can next to the nightstand. Investigators revisited Simon's nightstand
30:17
Speaker 1: and were greeted by the same stash of prescription pill bottles,
30:21
Speaker 1: with an added surprise, some bore the name Sharon Monjack,
30:27
Speaker 1: much like the climbing in bed together tidbit. Sharon also
30:31
Speaker 1: denied any allegations here, but there was one detail that
30:34
Speaker 1: aroused more suspicion than anything else, Even more so than
30:38
Speaker 1: the puzzling pill bottle situation. The house had quite literally
30:42
Speaker 1: developed a new feature since investigator's previous visit. Mold. Mold
30:48
Speaker 1: coating the picture window in the living room. Mold sprouting
30:51
Speaker 1: on the French doors. Not a few specs, not a
30:55
Speaker 1: minuscule amount easily missed during spring cleaning. It was a
30:59
Speaker 1: plague of It didn't matter that it was disgusting, and
31:03
Speaker 1: not because it demonstrated in neglectful housekeeping. The mold mattered
31:07
Speaker 1: because inhaling spores come with a certain set of symptoms,
31:11
Speaker 1: the same symptoms as pneumonia, headaches, congestion, lung irritation, sneezing, wheezing,
31:17
Speaker 1: the same symptoms Britney Murphy had in December, the same
31:21
Speaker 1: symptoms Simon Monjack had in his final days. Coincidentally, Britney's
31:26
Speaker 1: autopsy revealed multiple areas of inflammation or granny lomis and
31:30
Speaker 1: her lungs. The most common cause of this kind of
31:34
Speaker 1: irritation is fungal infections. Then, the most common fungal infection
31:38
Speaker 1: in the United States is caused by histoplasma, a species
31:42
Speaker 1: of mold, specifically a species of mold that, if inhaled,
31:48
Speaker 1: can lead to death. So you're telling me there's ten
32:14
Speaker 1: different metals in my daughter's hair. Angelo Bertolotti stared at
32:19
Speaker 1: the toxicology report in his hands. His eyes ran down
32:23
Speaker 1: the massive list again. Ten selenium, barium, aluminum, uranium, copper, silver, platinum, antimony,
32:31
Speaker 1: ten different heavy metals in total, all present in a
32:35
Speaker 1: sample of Britney Murphy's hair, nine times the normal level
32:39
Speaker 1: according to the World Health Organization. The pathologist on the
32:43
Speaker 1: phone said he'd never seen anything like it in his life.
32:47
Speaker 1: Angelo couldn't fathom how the LA coroner had missed something
32:50
Speaker 1: so obvious. So bizarre. After years of tussling with an
32:55
Speaker 1: unsatisfying ending, Angelo finally requested a sample of Britney's hair
33:00
Speaker 1: in the La Coroner's office to use for his own investigation.
33:03
Speaker 1: In twenty thirteen, he shipped off her locks to a
33:07
Speaker 1: toxicology lab in Colorado, and they sent back a case
33:11
Speaker 1: for murder. It had been years since Angelou had dug
33:18
Speaker 1: this deep into his daughter's life. On paper, Angelo was
33:21
Speaker 1: Britney's father, but he only played that role for two
33:24
Speaker 1: years before Britney's mother, Sharon, divorced him and took Brittany
33:28
Speaker 1: to Edison, New Jersey to start a new life together
33:30
Speaker 1: as a twosome. The split kept Brittany away from her
33:34
Speaker 1: father's world, the sleazy Florida clubs he owned, and his
33:38
Speaker 1: involvement with organized crime that earned him roughly a decade
33:41
Speaker 1: in prison for dirty deeds like racketeering and a counterfeiting scam.
33:46
Speaker 1: His relationship with Sharon had played out like a movie
33:49
Speaker 1: script from the start. Girl meets mobster. Mobster hires girl
33:53
Speaker 1: to dance at his clubs, mobster marries girl, girl, divorces mobster,
33:57
Speaker 1: and runs far, far away. Britney could have shined in
34:00
Speaker 1: a role like that only a few years ago. But
34:03
Speaker 1: Brittany wasn't here anymore, and Angelo wanted to know why.
34:08
Speaker 1: Angelo used to mingle with criminals. For christ say, he
34:10
Speaker 1: knew a lie when he heard one and two adults, not
34:13
Speaker 1: even in middle aged dying from pneumonia was the biggest
34:15
Speaker 1: heap of steaming bullshit he had ever heard in his life.
34:19
Speaker 1: Simon's autopsy results came back nearly identical to Britney's. The
34:23
Speaker 1: cause of death community acquired pneumonia and severe anemia. Bullshit,
34:28
Speaker 1: Angelo thought, mighty suspicious bullshit. The distance between Angelo and
34:35
Speaker 1: his daughter didn't matter at the moment. Didn't matter that
34:38
Speaker 1: Britney changed her legal name from Bertolotti to Murphy to
34:41
Speaker 1: match her stage name, placing a further distance between Angelo
34:44
Speaker 1: and his low brown dealings. Didn't matter that Angelo wasn't
34:47
Speaker 1: even listed as Brittany's father on her death certificate. His
34:51
Speaker 1: daughter was dead and he wanted answers. The mold theory
34:56
Speaker 1: was compelling, but ultimately a dead end. Despite the aligning
35:00
Speaker 1: symptoms and irritation in Britney's lungs, there was no sign
35:04
Speaker 1: of spores in her lungs, which would have been the
35:06
Speaker 1: true dead giveaway. Also, had mold been the culprin, surely
35:11
Speaker 1: it would have also affected Sharon, a two time breast
35:14
Speaker 1: cancer survivor and thus the most susceptible person in the family. No,
35:18
Speaker 1: Angelo had a different theory. Altogether, He had every reason
35:22
Speaker 1: to believe that Brittany and Simon have been poisoned, poisoned
35:26
Speaker 1: by the one other person in the home who would
35:28
Speaker 1: have access to their food and drinks. Angelo thought the
35:32
Speaker 1: couple was poisoned by Sharon. Much like inhaling mold spores,
35:38
Speaker 1: heavy metal poisoning reveals itself through pneumonia like symptoms, dizziness, sweating, cramps, lethargy,
35:44
Speaker 1: and coughing. Angelo wasn't shy. He named names. He claimed
35:48
Speaker 1: it had to be Sharon. He found it suspicious that
35:51
Speaker 1: Sharon wouldn't allow Britney's body to be exhumed for further testing.
35:55
Speaker 1: Sharon dismissed Angelo's claims as fraudulent, but in Angelo's eyes,
35:59
Speaker 1: there was no other logical explanation. Coroner ed Winter disagreed
36:05
Speaker 1: he didn't see anything logical about Angelo's claims at all.
36:09
Speaker 1: Ed had tested Britney's skin, tested her blood, tested her urine,
36:14
Speaker 1: and there was no sign of anything unusual in any
36:16
Speaker 1: of the samples, Nor were their thin lines running across
36:19
Speaker 1: Brittany or Simon's fingernails the hallmark of heavy metal poisoning.
36:24
Speaker 1: And just like the mold theory, and just like Simon's
36:26
Speaker 1: incessant bragging, Ed thought it was bocus. Instead, he suggested
36:32
Speaker 1: a far more likely source of the metals, sprays, dyes,
36:36
Speaker 1: and other hair treatments. The chemicals bottled up in every
36:40
Speaker 1: corner of Britney's private bathroom, the same ones that surrounded
36:44
Speaker 1: her when she slipped from her final moments of consciousness.
36:48
Speaker 1: Angelo hadn't found a clue. He found another symptom of
36:51
Speaker 1: Britney's insecurity, another display of her white knuckle determination to
36:56
Speaker 1: better herself while the person closest to her insists on
37:00
Speaker 1: tearing her down. It wasn't just the chemicals and hairspray
37:04
Speaker 1: that led to her downfall. It was a dependency on
37:07
Speaker 1: other people to feel secure. Such a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan,
37:17
Speaker 1: and this is disgrace.
37:18
Speaker 3: Sign All right, guys, thanks for listening to this week's
37:33
Speaker 3: episode on Brittany Murphy, whose suspicious cause of death has
37:36
Speaker 3: me wanting to know which celebrity cause of death is
37:39
Speaker 3: most suspicious to you guys? Is it this Britney Murphy
37:42
Speaker 3: story is at Elliott Smith? Is it Brian Jones of
37:44
Speaker 3: the Rolling Stones? And why why aren't you buying the
37:47
Speaker 3: official cause of death for these guys? You can hit
37:50
Speaker 3: me up let me know your answer six one seven
37:52
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37:56
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37:59
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38:01
Speaker 3: leave a review for us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify,
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Speaker 3: and you know the drill.
38:05
Speaker 1: You can win some free merch.
38:06
Speaker 2: All right, here come some credits.
38:11
Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
38:13
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38:17
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38:21
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39:05
Speaker 1: bad man.