Swamp Murders

Celebrity grave sites are often marked with flowers and photos to mark a birthday or death anniversary ... but the memorial park that is home to Marilyn Monroe says they were completely overrun yesterday by fans of the late blonde bombshell.

A spokesman for the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery tells TMZ there was an "abnormally large" crowd on Friday -- her 86th birthday -- with people leaving items such as cards, photos, candles, statues, and flowers.

The spokesman tells TMZ they usually try and leave the items on the grave site for as long as possible (until they start to overrun neighboring spaces) but the clean-up yesterday for Marilyn went down faster than usual.

The Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is also the final resting place of Janis Joplin, Peter Falk, Rodney Dangerfield, Natalie Wood, Farrah Fawcett ... and the list goes on.

There is a VERY good chance Tupac Shakur is alive and well ... and hiding ... this according to the man who was with him during the supposedly fatal shooting in Vegas, Suge Knight.

Knight just appeared on 93.5 KDay in L.A. with Tattoo and Cee Cee ... and pumped some major fuel into the biggest urban legend in hip hop ... that Tupac FAKED his own death.

Knight says his theory explains why cops never found his murderer -- because there was no murder.

"Maybe the question is ... Pac's not really dead ... pac's somewhere else," Knight says.

When asked if he ever saw Tupac's body following the 1996 shooting, he adds, "Nobody seen Tupac dead. "

Knight explains, "The person who supposedly cremated Tupac ... this guy got about 3 million dollars .. personally from me ... cash ... and next thing I know I never heard from the guy or seen him again ... he retired and left."

Natalie Wood was wearing a red down jacket when authorities discovered her body 30 years ago ... and her wardrobe could prove she floated alive in dark water for hours while Robert Wagner allegedly stalled rescue efforts.

Marti Rulli -- the author of the book that triggered cops to re-open the investigation into Wood's death -- performed a forensic test on down coats similar to Natalie's ... which proved a down jacket acts like a life preserver in water ... "it will not sink, but instead remains floating."

Rulli's finding completely contradicts the opinion of the coroner in the case -- who insisted the jacket would have sapped Natalie's strength and weighed her down in the ocean.

Wood's body was discovered in the ocean off Catalina Island -- hours after she went missing from a cruise with her husband Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken.

Originally, law enforcement believed Wood slipped off the boat while trying to tie down a dinghy. But now, cops have doubts ... after the captain revealed Wood and Wagner had been arguing intensely before she went missing.

A task force made up of local and federal law enforcement agencies is actively pursuing new leads, according to the network, but no further details are known.

The investigation reportedly includes the Los Angeles Police Department, L.A. County District Attorney's Office and the FBI.

Former judge Larry Seidlin, who authored "The Killing of Anna Nicole Smith," tells TMZ, there is no way the Seminole Police Department was sophisticated enough to properly investigate Anna's death. As Seidlin put it, "They can tell you how to get to Elm Street or the public library, but this case was too much for them."

Seidlin says, "I think there was foul play and it should be investigated by an independent agency."

Seidlin claims Anna died under "highly unusual circumstances." As he put it, "She never left her room. She checked into room 607 at the Hard Rock and never left. When she was checking in she couldn't even stand up."

According to a memorabilia dealer's upcoming book, O.J. spilled the juicy details of what happened on the night Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered.

Mike Gilbert claims that O.J. had smoked pot, took a sleeping pill and was drinking beer when Simpson told him he didn't bring a knife to his ex-wife's apartment on June 12, 1994 -- and that, "If she hadn't opened that door with a knife in her hand ... she'd still be alive."

Gilbert also claims he helped Simpson avoid the murder charges by telling him how to bloat his hands so they wouldn't fit in the infamous Isotoners, according to the AP.

Simpson's current lawyer said that none of the claims are true and that Gilbert is "a delusional drug addict who needs money."