Marilyn Monroe spent her last night alive at Frank Sinatras lodge with a Mafia boss, according to extraordinary new claims.
The Hollywood actress is said to have spent the evening with Sam Giancana after taking the singers private jet to Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
There the gangster with whom she was allegedly in love apparently tried to persuade her not to go public about her affair with President John F Kennedy.
She flew home to Los Angeles early the following morning and was found dead that night. Later a coroner ruled that the death was a probable suicide.
The claims are the first time that any mention has been made of such a trip in the days before Monroe died in 1962. If true, they would rewrite the final act in the actresss life and raise fresh questions about her death.
The disclosure was made by George Masters, Monroes hair and make-up stylist, in recordings he made a month before his death in 1998.
The cassette tapes were found by his nephew, Jeff Platts, and have now been made public. In a frail voice, Mr Masters can be heard on the recordings saying: The night before she died, the last time I saw her, was in Lake Tahoe at the Cal-Neva Lodge. She was there with Sam Giancana, who was the head of the Mafia.