Petra Mathers and Her Michael | From Death of an Artist

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“On August 4th, 1962, Marilyn Monroe died.”

Then, the rumors started, and she died again.

And now, we're going to set the record straight, and learn about the way Marilyn Monroe actually died. The third way. I'm Jake Brennan, and on my podcast Hollywood land, I revisit some of the biggest stories from Hollywood history.

Separating the myths people want to believe from the reality underneath them. Hollywood land is part of the exactly right network. Listen to new episodes every Monday on the "I Heart Radio" Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Pushkin. Hey listeners, it's Leon Naifok. And Alice Gregory. We're dropping into your feed today to bring you a preview of our podcast "Death of an Artist." We think you'll love it.

It's about a beloved children's book author

and her photographer has been, whose joint suicide left behind an uneasy fraternity of friends and family who are copped between grief, confusion, anger, and admiration. We hope you enjoy it.

And if you do, please find "Death of an Artist" wherever you listen to your podcasts. Pushkin plus subscribers can hear each episode "Add Free." Sign up and save on the "Death of an Artist" on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.

Use the code "Artist 25" for 25% off an annual subscription. This podcast is about suicide. Listen to our discretion as advised. Hello, you've reached my quarantine term as a student as a message.

Thank you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to your liking.

Happy birthday to you. Hope you're well. Take care of yourself. Hope to talk to you soon. Bye-bye.

Unless I'm misleading my calendar,

“I believe two three four five is your birthday”

and I'm calling the wish you were happy one. I'm thinking of you and just know that I love you both, and that's it. Bye-bye. Michael, you may call, please, the funny.

We're worried about you. Hey, Michael, I just talked about you. Please, give me a call, please. I was really impatient. Mike, I got to swear, Nick and Clark,

you can't be serious about this. What's happening? Somebody's got a call. Michael is calm. Hello?

He's closest. My name is Patty, and I'm a friend of the madness. The phone has been arranged quite a bit, but I saw your name and I thought this person has called before, and I will pick it up.

I'm so glad you didn't. We're also a friend of the madness. We received a letter from them, and it's quite alarming. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for you.

I don't know. They took their lives, and that's the way they wanted to do it.

“They wanted to go together, and that's what they did.”

End of final message. What are you scared of? You're hiding behind mom. Remember when we recorded you, and you listened to yourself? Yeah.

This is just that. This is a toy. You make any sound you want into this. Ah. I don't know. I don't know.

This is just that. This is a toy. You make any sound you want into this. Ah. That was a funny sound.

Test, can we show you a video? We're going to show you a video that starts with the most beautiful song you've ever heard. Then we're going to read a book. You want to see it? Ready?

Yeah. A call.

It's kids, yeah. Oh, kids. Who is that? A-A-Wall. A-A-Wall.

Wait there. That is a rainbow right there.

“Here's a story about someone who's life took a wonderful turn when she learned to dance.”

It's called "Sophie and Lu." "Sophie and Lu." "Don't touch your nose." Test, look. What do you see?

This is the same book. I remember this book from when I was little. When Auntie Gracie was your age, she had this book. Yeah. See, Test, "Patremeathers" is the author.

She's the person who wrote the book and drew the pictures. Do you get that? She's the lady that mommy and daddy are so curious about. She also wrote all these other books you have. You remember Laudian Herbie?

Yeah. She wrote Laudian Herbie, too. Hopping for her? Yeah. Okay, I'm going to start reading this book.

It's called "Sophie and Lu" by "Patremeathers." Yeah. "Sophie was shy." So shy, she did a shop in during the low hour, so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone. One morning, she heard pounding and shouting across the street. What are they up to over there?

Look, and they opened a dancing studio right across the street from her house, and she's looking in. All those animals are running to dance, and Sophie's curious, looking in, but still pretty shy.

“Sophie and Lu, I think, to this day, I think, is a classic jazz book.”

Still much. Yeah. And that's Sophie and Lu, our patron Michael. Sophie and Lu. Sophie.

No, that's Lu. What's this? That's you. It's Lu. For free and you.

You look as face, she got all the way home. She danced inside. You want to go first? I'm Michael Brasky, and Michael Mathers was one of my best friends.

I'm Michael Koy, and Patrick was my best friend, and she's always said I was her best friend.

Do you each call each other, Michael? Yes. You do. Your friends have nicknames for you? No.

We're just nervous, the Michaels. People think it's our last name. He's Michael number one, and Michael number two. That's true. What does that make Michael Mathers?

He could be number three other Michael. Yeah. Yeah. The other Michael? No.

Patre's Michael. Yeah. Patre's Michael.

He was my Michael to her always.

Yeah.

“That's what she referred to as my Michael.”

Do you know about when Patrick met Michael in a bookstore? We're not there yet. You're jumping way ahead. Yeah. Well, why don't you just tell us how you met Patre?

Yeah. Just start the beginning. I can't remember now where I was, but I met Patre. But I moved to Portland in 1975. January of 1975.

I was working for a chain of bookstores. When I was 27, 28, something like that. She was like no one I had ever met before. I have the sense of how I felt which was Gobsmacked. Tell how you hired her.

Your interview with her. Patre, someone came up to me in the store when other people that worked there and said there's a young woman downstairs that was to work in the book department. You go down and interview her. So I went down and Pedro was there.

She was on a beige sweater set with a matching skirt. And she touched me and she said, I'm really good. I want to work here. And I said, well, that's good enough for me. I said, you have a background in books.

She had a degree in bookselling from a school in Germany. And she had a pretty thick accent. And she was beautiful. So I went up to my partner in the book department. I said, go downstairs and interview a Patre.

And then tell her she's hired. One weekend, I stopped by Patre's. And I went in. And there was art all over her kitchen.

And they were little postage stamp paintings that I'd never seen anyone do before.

They were just beautiful. They would be a rather large 18 by 24 watercolor. And it was filled with tiny little pictures. And I said, I didn't know you were an artist. And she said, oh, that's, yes, I am.

And then we discovered in Portland that she had created a whole wall. And the children's bookstore with large paintings that filled the whole wall. A lot of them were based on nursery rhymes. Or just anything that came to her head.

I remember for $25 a piece.

Still have one. And that's when we discovered that she was an artist. And we thought she was really good. And she wanted to do children's books. Don't get hit of yourself.

Okay. You're jumping. Okay, I'm sorry. You take over with you. At some point, Patre and her then has been David.

We're living down at the Oregon Coast in a house that they had built. And we knew that she wasn't happy with David. He was a very nice, very ordinary kind of a rubbish guy.

“And definitely, I mean, we never thought he was in her league, right?”

Well, yeah. We didn't realize he was even home sometimes when we visited. It was just the three of us. But David was there.

She really married him to stay in the country.

I don't think she ever loved him. He was madly in love with her. Michael had published a book. And it was a book of photographs. And I met Michael.

I took him to lunch to talk to him about promoting the book. And he presented himself as a sort of just sharks. Didn't know one end of the book business from another. Plyd me for all sorts of. Played me for a fool, so I have, you know,

because it only later that I discovered that you know, he was very sophisticated. But anyway, we had a lovely lunch. I liked him a lot. And he was scheduled to have a book signing at a small bookstore in Portland. And it was one of the times when Pedro was staying with us.

And I asked her to come along.

“But she would like this just something to do.”

And she met Michael. I introduced her. And the look between the two of them. They were just completely immobile. Yeah.

They were, it was truly, truly love it for a side of it. That was it. She was getting divorced. She made her decision. Just like that. That's full feet, though. So he's right there.

And just who's that? In the window. There's a window looking. Let's live. Yeah, what is he carrying in the sand? Yeah.

No, what? The flower. My name is Lou. He said bowing from the waist. May I have this dance? Oh, half the dance.

You bet, so Sophie, and stepped into his arms.

“Look, there they are. What are they doing?”

Hi. Hugging. Yeah, they're hugging. They're dancing and hugging. Do you know what the end means? One.

The end. The end. What does the end mean? Yeah. No, what does it mean?

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. All done. Bye, Bob.

You see, yeah. Bye, Bob, Molly. Bye, Bob. Bye, Bob. Bye, Bob.

Hello, we're back. Hello, boy. Yesterday, I brought a pregnancy test. And today, I'm going tampon. There you go.

Yeah. You want to get to the phone for me? Sure. No. I want to show you.

Hi, you're my drug. Yeah. We do have it ready. They did call it in. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. See you when you get here. Mm-hmm. Okay. Bye, bye.

I really just feel like I don't have anything to say. Well, could we start with this simple thing? Just tell us who you are. Okay. My name is Marcia Eptro.

I work at Paramount Drug in Astoria. Michael and Petra came in here a lot. Seemed very sweet.

She was always dressed so cute and proper and her hair plain.

Very plain, but yet very pretty. And always upbeat and happy. And Michael was more serious. But funny, always talked.

Michael and Petra would come in here. I don't know, once a week or something like that. And then get little boxes of candy and split it.

And you know, always made a, like, a fun thing out of it.

Like, "Ooh, we've got candy in." You know, that kind of stuff. That last time I saw Petra, Michael came in, he was kind of ticked off. Like, "What are you doing? Come on." You know, I don't know if they had to go somewhere, get somewhere.

I don't know. He was very in her a lot. Yeah, that he was kind of like, "Come on." You know, and I could tell she sort of went, "Oh, well, I was just talking." But they, you know, she rushed off with him.

“Do you know how long it was before you received the letter?”

I don't think it was too long after that. And, you know, just came here. You know, started looking at it thinking, "Wow, that's weird." You know, it's all her writing. So, she wrote it to us.

She probably liked us more than he did, I don't know. Would you mind reading it to us? Hmm. When Michael and I got together, some 40-plus years ago,

we'd always planned on checking out together.

When the time comes, it did. And our resting place is in the graveyard in Oysterville. Always a favorite destination for a fair weather outing. Which really, that's not so depressing over there in the winter. Come see us sometime.

Quiet, beautiful old trees. You can even hear the ocean sometimes.

“We've had a great run, especially after moving down here.”

And all this time, you took care of us. The more years, the more pills. But it was always fun to see you all. Thank you for everything. We wish you the best there is in our grateful for your care.

See you sometime somewhere. And then she wrote her name and he wrote his. And, you know, kind of thought something had happened. They've done something. What did you do?

I just got my coat and went up to their house. But I never saw anybody. And went around and knocked all over. No answers. And I could see how their little shoes were out front of the door.

So they were in there. I don't know that I would have noticed that. You're like Sherlock Holmes. The shoes are outside the house. Yeah, they were there.

What did you do after that?

“I came back and I don't know, I think we talked.”

And I think we'd called the police. I'm Jake Brennan and on my podcast Hollywood land, I revisit some of the biggest stories from Hollywood history. Separating the myths people want to believe from the reality underneath them. Like how the story of Marilyn Monroe isn't just the story of a Hollywood icon. Marilyn Monroe has become so iconic that her death can only be explained through conspiracy theories.

And for some fans who can't let go, these stories have metastasized from conjecture to accept it fact. So on August 4th, 1962, Marilyn Monroe died. Then the rumors started and she died again. And now we're going to set the record straight and learn about the way Marilyn Monroe actually died. The third one.

Learn more about what happens when fame, media obsession and conspiracy collide. Listen to Hollywood land on the IHR radio app or podcast or wherever you get your podcast. My name is Cory Gary and I'm a police officer here with the City of Astoria. How did you intersect with the story that we're talking about today? I just, I guess I just happened to be working that day and it was a call that was assigned to me through our to our dispatch.

Had you heard of the matter of your work?

No, this is the first time I heard of them.

And so walk us through sort of the stuff you got the call and then you go to the pharmacy first. I went to the pharmacy first and talked to them. See what this letter was that they had and what was raising the concern. It was concerning. Got up to the house. I didn't see any cars. They're in the driveway.

Most of the windows the covering is on the windows were open.

“The only place that I couldn't see is kind of that top upper corner on the far back end.”

I tried door and it was locked so I couldn't get in. I tried to look into the garage. My partner that was with me actually noticed in one of the cars. Like near the center console was a set of keys. And the car was unlocked so I didn't try to get into the house. My main thing I wanted to look at was that upper back corner that I couldn't see from the outside.

When I got to that area, the door to that room was closed mostly. It was open just a couple of inches. As I started opening the door, the door opens to the right. And I could see there's some stuff on the ground, plastic bags, tubing. Like a canister bottle, almost like a helium tank.

They had a couple of camp chairs set up, like folding chairs. So one of the camp chairs was empty. And just the bottle and the tubing and the plastic stuff on the floor around that chair. He was sitting in the other chair still. And then her body was laying on the couch.

So he still had everything attached to him. Dressed in regular dress clothes, slacks, a button up shirt.

“I think she was wearing nice pants and like a sweater.”

She looked like she was sleepy.

I was pretty safe to assume that she had done first.

And then he paid her more presentable than light her on the couch. And then he went himself afterwards. Mary Calverson, the deputy chief of police for the story police department. Officer Gary called and let me know what was going on. And I went up there along with my chief.

He came up there as well. And then we go into the bedroom. I think in my report, I wrote that it sort of looked. But we call it almost like staged. I used to nitrogen gas and they basically had plastic bags that were over their heads

with the tube running up into the covering.

They left us at the scene.

It was on a table inside the bedroom there. With the box set out for the ashes for the mortuary. All right, so this is a legal pad. What does it say? All bill mortuary.

Dear police department, we apologize for this unpleasant task. But since we wanted to quietly die together at home, we seem the only solution. Thank you for this and not alarming the neighbors. Please contact our friend in Portland.

Please let her know when we are out of the house. So she can bring the cats home. Their identification cards are laid out with the note to us. They even write a little note on a post it saying, "Oh, by the way, our plumbing isn't that great."

So you know, flush the human things, but the other things need to go in a trash can. And they had left instructions for safety instructions for this is nitrogen. It was left there with the canister on the floor. We went down into Petra's work area. There was things laid out with people's names on them.

There was stuff on the bed. It was wrapped to be sent to different places. I don't understand there were some things that were sent to like some museums and stuff. They even left a note on a pile of dirty clothes that said, "Last minute, work closed. Please dump these."

I don't know. That's strange, but yeah, I mean, you know, get a little smirk when you see it and note like that. They also mail this a note. Most of this one's typewritten. This is not must be Michael. Okay. Here you read. You read.

All right. To your story, a police department, this is too informed you that Michael and Petra Mathers have committed suicide on February 4th. We've been married for 44 years and this is not a rash decision and has been thoroughly thought out and prepared.

“They had written the key to the house's under the mat and then they crossed it out.”

You will find this in the bedroom having used nitrogen. Our sincere hope is that you will honor our request to respect our neighbors by showing up discreetly no signs or lights. You'll need to wake the dead. Also, would you contact our executive Patty Flynn and let her know?

She's aware of our decision, but not of the timing.

and needs to return to their home. Thank you.

“When it's signed in Penn, Michael Mathers, Petra Mathers,”

and then pencil, PS, the key is in the left boot, top pair, left of the front door. Please call Patty Flynn as soon as you can, so she can get the animals and get settled because she now owns the house. I'm curious what you make of it of this choice. I don't know. There's a part of it that seems like a real sweet commitment to one another

and there's a part of it that is not a typical of human nature to want to survive. And maybe the drought or one another was stronger, I guess, than the individual nature to survive. After this shift, I was off for at least two days, maybe three. And then when I came back, I had learned that there had been multiple calls from all over the country.

“Those people were receiving these letters, so yeah, I think it was a very opposite.”

They had planned it, or let everybody know. Dear lockerer, by the time you get this letter, both Petra and I will be dead. Dear Patty and Tim, when you receive this, we will be in a different sphere.

Dear Holly and Matt, Michael and I have always planned to leave Earth together.

Deva Karin, the time of our friendship was beautiful, precious and unforgettable. I embrace you. Dear Nick, by the time you get this, we will be in our grave in Oysterville, Washington. You can hear the ocean and the cows often come to graze early evening. Dear Richard, you are a friend of a guy, and we are lucky people to have you in our life.

“Deva's Leantian, Leber Gerou, side Michael and I are together.”

We have been together for a few years. Jim, by now you may have heard of our departure. I apologize for misleading you. Dear Cory, the train has left the station. Next stop, Wonderland.

I'm Jake Brennan, and on my podcast Holly with Land, I revisit some of the biggest stories from Hollywood history, separating the myths people want to believe from the reality underneath them. Like how the story of Marilyn Monroe isn't just the story of a Hollywood icon. Marilyn Monroe has become so iconic that her death can only be explained through conspiracy theories. And for some fans who can't let go, these stories have metastasized from conjecture to accept it fact.

So on August 4th, 1962, Marilyn Monroe died, then the rumors started, and she died again. And now, we're going to set the record straight, and learn about the way Marilyn Monroe actually died. The third way. Learn more about what happens when fame, media obsession, and conspiracy collide. Listen to Holly with Land, on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Oh wait, Tess, we skipped over the first page of the book before, the dedication page.

It's a dedication where the author says, "Who the book is for?" Okay, it says, "Two love." And those who dare to put all of their eggs in one basket. Aren't you all of a egg in my back friends? Yeah, she didn't draw that part.

What did she draw Tess? What are those? What do you see? What is it? What are these? I don't know, a dad. You don't know what that is. What are these? Harts. Harts. With wings.

With wings. Two harts with little wings. Two harts flying away. In her ladder, she said that we're moving to a new sphere, and who knows what it is.

Yeah, yeah.

We're sitting in this laryon.

“Or we usually read the paper every morning.”

This is goodbye, time to close shop. Michael Redlanders started dialing the phone immediately. And, of course, nothing. You'll kept calling. I read it, and I guess I read what I wanted to read.

And so I immediately took it as this is something that we are planning. Yeah, yeah. And so I immediately called and couldn't get through and called Michael's number. And it couldn't get through. And I left, you know, plenty of messages.

So, you know, please call, if you're thinking of doing this, please call. So, we can say goodbye. And, of course, it was no call back. Are we calling anyone else? No, then.

A couple of days later, we got to call from Patty Flynn, telling us that the bodies had been found. And that was indeed what we knew by that time. Yeah. So, yeah. Michael, I know you expressed a lot of some hesitation about sharing the letter.

“Is there any part of it that you would be comfortable sharing with us?”

How does it start? Sorry, I don't mean to laugh. Does it start dear Michael and Michael? Dear honeys. Dear honeys.

Yeah, always. Dear honeys. This is goodbye. Time to close shop for us.

We've always planned to check out together.

Michael, as a true gentleman, has taken everything in hand, having done research for quite a while. You're my most significant, dearest, longest friends. Many turns and directions were based upon knowing you, having your support, suggestions, and so much fun in these many years has made all the difference. Without question, my life would not have been so rich and joyful since I wouldn't have met Michael. And through you, I was able to find a way into children's books.

Thank you for everything and sending much love, Petra and Michael. Yeah. Okay, so she credits you with the best parts of her life. All true. We were there for each other.

Yeah. She was a huge part of our lives, then likewise. Yeah. I talked to Petra on the phone about every week or so. And I had spoken to her just with less than a week before they killed themselves.

And we had a normal conversation we talked about. I traveled on about the opera that I had just listened to. And she talked and it was no not a pin drop to about their plans. And then when I was rereading her letter to us, something that I had missed in the readings before. I'm writing this now months before months before.

I missed that. So they planned, this is an incredibly well planned. I'm just, yeah.

“How does it feel if you don't mind me asking, knowing that this was in the back of her head?”

Oh, we're pissed. Yeah. I know I'm pissed because because we have so many good years left. I think a lot of anger. We're supposed to, you know, go all together. I mean, I am old, but you know, she was ten years younger than me, perhaps, or five anyway.

It was just deemed so of senseless. And we had no, we had no indication that she was slipping at all. I mean, I think she was in her first language after all, sometimes she had the search for the word. Yeah. My feeling is, I mean, I support their decision.

I have other, we have friends who have taken themselves out. We have one of our very best friends has, you know, she has a stock pile of medications, and she has very elaborate plans if she isn't capable of administering them. She has two other friends who will come in. She's also 90. Anyway, we, and we have talked about it, but we hadn't talked.

Pedro had never broached the subject of this, this being imminent.

She was able to send us a letter and tell us how much we had meant in her life, but we didn't have, you know, there's a selfishness that,

is, is really hard to let, to let go of the anger about that. Yeah. I mean, I think about her hundreds of times every day, now, and it's been two years. Yeah. It's hard not to hard.

Our house has filled with her. We have 50 or 60 pieces of her work out and displayed her house. Yeah. She had a chance to write you guys this letter and say goodbye. And you didn't, and I'm wondering if you could now, what would you say?

Don't do it.

“No, I, you know, what I would say is that my life is so much richer for having known you and for the time that we spent together”

and that you brought more joy and ways of seeing things that I would not have known otherwise. And I'm so thankful and so. I would have tried to talk her into post-planning, until you could go to Paris together, so that I would have done. Oh, that's someone else's, sorry. That's mine.

That's yours. So it meant one of those. Yeah. That's 10 and there's 20. Do you keep track even sort of unconsciously in the back of your head, your various customers?

Yeah.

“What's that like kind of knowing all that about so many different people in town?”

It's, as I get older, I think it's getting more kind of depressing. But, you know, because you do care about people and you think, wow, they're not looking so good. Something's up and then pretty soon it's something and something else and then, you know, they're gone. That wasn't them. No.

They were both healthy. He kind of had some stuff with maybe skin stuff because he was one of those red head, very pale skin. You know, that, that looks that gets kind of ready as you get older, you know. I think they could have had a good probably 10 more years. That's a lot of years.

So, I felt sad at first and kind of hurt and then I just got mad.

Disgusted. You know, they didn't have to struggle. They didn't have to, I don't know, just made me angry because of how some people would like to have another day. Another week, maybe they didn't want to get old. Maybe they didn't want to have a cane or, you know, hard time getting out of your chair.

I don't know. That's only thing I can think of. I mean, usually people when they commit suicide or something, they've got, you know, many problems or they have issues or things happen. They're very sick.

Not them. [Music] I'm Leon Naifak. And I'm Alice Gregory. This is death of an artist, season three.

Her mother's and her Michael.

Coming up on this season, to know that you wouldn't flinch at the last minute and you've sent out whatever 40 letters, that to me is incredible.

The impetus to think about the end of life, my end of life was that letter. Yes. I wrestled with it. Was it current or was it tolerance? Oh, you know, I don't think it was cowardice.

It's like, well, except they were afraid of what the future was.

“I think people hear the word suicide, and I actually haven't liked to use that word.”

Like, I want something different or better.

I mean, I felt jealous of them.

“People can get photos and I never even have them.”

Oh, thank you, Alice. Yeah, so you were appreciate what I mean. Okay, you're there at the Grand Canyon. There they are making out. Oh, you're there at the cemetery again.

Oh, my goodness.

Something like pretending to hang himself.

“Should it be interpreted as an indication that he had a long standing fascination with death?”

Oh, yeah, I mean, I think he did. I mean, that and the fact that he drove a hurts for a while. He drove a hurts for a while? She told me she was Libuskunk, Love Sick, like a disease. I just, I truly, truly hope that Pedro was a 1,000% on board with the plan.

Do you think if he was having killed her? Yes. I do.

“I hold my correspondible front of another staff.”

Death of an artist, season three, is reported and produced by me, Alice Gregory. And me, Leanne Focke. Our supervising producer and editor is Diane Hudson. Our producer is Sonya Gerwitt. Our showrunner is Alexander Garatin.

Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Original music and sound design by Evan Biola. Our fact-checker is Monica Robbins. Additional production support by Julian Colet. And our showart was designed by Sean Carney. This episode featured interviews with Michael Koy, Michael Braski,

Marsha Atro, Corey Garig, and Eric Halverson.

Special thanks to Sarah Vittak, Nevada Soul, and third-wheel podcast studio in Seattle, Washington.

Death of an artist is a production of pushkin industries. To find more pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. On August 4th, 1962, Marilyn Monroe died. Then the rumors started and she died again.

And now, we're going to set the record straight and learn about the way Marilyn Monroe actually died, the third way. I'm Jake Brennan, and on my podcast Hollywood Land, I revisit some of the biggest stories from Hollywood history, separating the myths people want to believe from the reality underneath them. Hollywood Land is part of the exactly right network. Listen to new episodes every Monday on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This isn't iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.