Marilyn Monroe closely monitored by FBI, new data shows

FBI files show the bureau was heavily monitoring Marilyn Monroe's ties with communist-leaning acquaintances, according to the Associated Press.

The AP reported the files, which they obtained through a Freedom of Information Act, were "previously heavily redacted" but the new updated and re-issued version reveal that the government was monitoring her friends, acquaintances and members of her entourage they believed were sympathetic to communism.

The AP found news clippings and letters in Monroe's files.

The movie star died 50 years ago on August  5, 1962. Her mysterious death was ruled a suicide, however, there has been debate about her connection to President John F. Kennedy and if something more illicit was involved.

CBS News reported according to the new information, Monroe's inner circle were concerned about her association with Frederick Vanderbilt Field, "who was disinherited from his wealthy family over his leftist views."

An entry from Field's autobiography said "she told us about her strong feelings for civil rights, for black equality, as well as her admiration for what was being done in China, her anger at red-baiting and McCarthyism and her hatred of J. Edgar Hoover."

Hoover, who was the FBI director at the time, also monitored celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin and Monroe's ex-husband the author Arthur Miller, CBS News said. Miller infamously refused to name names of writers with ties to the Communist Party to Congress in 1957.