ETERNAL NEIGHBORS: THE SURPRISING STORIES BESIDE MARILYN MONROE

Marilyn Monroe’s final resting place at Westwood Village Memorial Park features two crypts with incredible backstories. One neighbor ended up above her by coincidence, while the other paid seventy-five thousand dollars to lie directly beside her forever.

In 1954, Los Angeles businessman Richard Poncher purchased two cemetery crypts from baseball legend Joe DiMaggio during his divorce from Marilyn, who was still very much alive. Poncher could not have known that eight years later, following her tragic passing, Monroe would be buried in the vault directly beneath his. As Poncher approached the end of his life in 1986, he made a bizarre final request to his wife, Elsie: he asked to be buried face-down above the Hollywood icon, half-jokingly threatening to haunt her if she refused. According to Elsie, she instructed the funeral director to honor his wish during the burial.

Marilyn’s other famous neighbor chose his spot far more deliberately. In 1992, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner purchased the crypt adjacent to hers, declaring that spending eternity next to Marilyn was an opportunity too sweet to pass up. When Hefner passed away in 2017, he was laid to rest there.

Their permanent connection remains deeply controversial. Monroe and Hefner never actually met in person. Her famous photograph was used on the cover and centerfold of the debut issue of Playboy in 1953 after the rights were bought from a 1949 photoshoot for which Marilyn was originally paid just fifty dollars. She received no additional compensation or say in the matter. Today, her quiet crypt rests between two men who tied their legacies to hers in ways she never could have anticipated.