Courtesy of American Academy of Forensic Sciences/YouTube
Coroner to the Stars Dr. Thomas Noguchi Got a Lot of ‘Pushback’ From Officials, Author Says
There’s a saying that “dead men tell no tales.” But Thomas Noguchi, once hailed as Los Angeles’ “coroner to the stars,” knows that’s not true.
“In my memory…there is a montage of tragic scenes,” he wrote in his 1983 memoir. “The body of the beautiful Marilyn Monroe, her hand outstretched in death toward the telephone by her bed. Robert F. Kennedy, so vibrant and active in life, felled by an assassin’s bullet….”
As Los Angeles’ chief medical examiner from 1967 to 1982, Noguchi relied on the bodies of Hollywood’s rich and famous to reveal the truth — and not everyone welcomed it. During his tenure, Noguchi investigated some of the most sensational deaths of the era, including Marilyn, RFK, Sharon Tate and Natalie Wood.
The growing obsession with celebrity and true crime fueled public demand for his autopsy reports. But his insistence on following the science — no matter how controversial — put him at odds with politicians and his superiors.
“Even then, there was a lot of pushback against science,” Anne Soon Choi, author of L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood, exclusively tells Closer.
Now 98, Noguchi remains steadfast.
“It’s important to tell the truth — so that no person will be victimized by rumors — and deal with the facts,” he said in 2021. “Certain information must be told.”
That principle guided him in 1962 when he performed Marilyn’s autopsy. Rumors swirled about her death — claims of RFK’s involvement and theories that she was injected with drugs.
“There was this kind of new ownership of celebrities [emerging],” says Choi, and the public demanded answers.
Noguchi sought them but was denied a full toxicology report. With only her liver and blood tested, his official ruling was suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills. But even decades later, he admitted, “I cannot say, actually, [if it was] an accident,” or if the act was “a clear expression of self-destruction.”
As Choi notes, Noguchi “is forever linked with all the controversy and misinformation around Monroe’s death.”
Dr. Thomas Noguchi’s Search for Answers
His findings in RFK’s 1968 assassination also sparked controversy. During a six-hour autopsy — which set a new standard for high-profile deaths — Noguchi found gunpowder burns behind RFK’s right earlobe, suggesting the fatal shot came from behind. But convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan had been standing in front of Kennedy.
Noguchi still stands by his work: “Once I form an opinion, [it] stays with me.”
Despite being hit with a “storm of criticism” after publicly calling alcohol consumption a factor in actor William Holden’s death, “He strongly believed that these kinds of things should be public because they were a matter of public health and public sense,” says Choi. “His position always was in the service of the living.”
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