She was tragedy personified. There is something about her that affects people. I've never been a big fan, but as I get older, I learn to appreciate her talent... her wit.. she was a very funny lady. She was also very sad. A set of tapes were released a couple of years ago, called Judy Speaks. It was Garland herself, dictating into a tape recorder what was to be her autobiography. These tapes should never have been made available to us, but historically, they are fascinating. To hear her go on - in anger about the different people that had screwed her over in life... well... its nice to know now at least they can hear it now from her own mouth. It's unsettling.
In march of 1969, Judy married her fifth husband, Mickey Devinko, better known as Mickey Deans, a gay night-club promoter. Judy had an unfortunate habit of marrying gay men. They lived together in a tiny mews house in Chelsea, London. For a look inside, click here. The evening of Saturday June 21 1969, Judy and Mickey were watching a documentary, The Royal Family, on television, when they had an argument. Judy ran out the door screaming into the street, waking the neighbors. Several versions of what happened next exist, but the fact remains that a phone call for Judy woke him at 10:40 the next morning, and she was not sleeping in the bed. He searched for her, only to find the bathroom door locked. After no response, he climbed outside to the bathroom window and entered to find Judy, sitting on the toilet. Rigor Mortis had already set in. Judy Garland was dead at the age of 47.
Official cause of death: Barbituate Poisoning (quinalbarbitone), incautious self-overdosage, accidental.
The day Judy died, legend has it, there was a tornado in Kansas.