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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
* *
* Issue 6 -- June 1993 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
* All reprinted material is in the public domain *
*****************************************************************************
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
Why Taylor's Servant Thought Mabel Normand was the Killer
1929 Interview with Charlotte Shelby
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder" Part 3:
Mabel's Reading Matter, The Funeral, The Investigation, The Law
Index to A CAST OF KILLERS
*****************************************************************************
What is TAYLOROLOGY?
TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
Taylor, a top film Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
murder on Hollywood and the nation. Primary emphasis will be given toward
reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it for
accuracy.
Reader input is welcome, in the form of "Letters to the Editor," short
articles, and contributed source material.
*****************************************************************************
Why Taylor's Servant Thought Mabel Normand was the Killer
Henry Peavey was certain Mabel killed Taylor for the following reasons.
Bear in mind that Peavey was illiterate (undoubtedly the main reason Taylor
hired him--after the bad experience with Sands he wanted a valet who wouldn't
be reading his mail, snooping in his private papers, etc.), so Peavey knew
almost nothing of the material appearing in the press about the murder--all
he really had to go by was his own senses: what he saw, heard, and felt.
1. On the murder night, "Howard Fellows, Taylor's chauffeur, says he was to
call Mr. Taylor at 7:30 o'clock. He declares that he called him by phone at
that time and got no answer. Twice more he called, with the same result;
then he drove the car around into Alvarado Street, parked it near the court
and rang the front doorbell. The lights of the house were lit, but no one
answered the door. The chauffeur put the car in the garage and went home."[1]
Fellows likewise told Peavey that his first unanswered telephone call to
Taylor's had been at 7:30, which was during Mabel Normand's visit.[2]
Peavey knew and trusted Fellows, and had no reason to doubt his word, whereas
he did not know Davis (Normand's chauffeur), who was Mabel Normand's primary
alibi witness. For all Peavey knew, Davis could be lying to protect Mabel
Normand, and Taylor could have been dead at 7:30. Why else would the
telephone call at 7:30 not be answered? Mabel said that she and Taylor only
stood at the curb talking for a few minutes before she departed at 7:45.
2. During his kidnapping by Hearst reporters, Peavey described an incident
that had taken place during a previous visit of Mabel's:
(Quoting Peavey) "Some time before this, however, this same actress came
over one night and, after looking around, picked up a scissors, pulled down
three or four of her pictures from the wall and sat right down on the floor.
She then began to cut up her pictures into small bits. Taylor noticed her and
said, 'What's the idea?' So she answered, 'I guess I can cut up my own
pictures if I want to, can't I?' and he said he guessed she could. I don't
know why she cut up her own pictures, but I suppose she had some reason." [3]
The act of cutting up her pictures did not seem, to Peavey, to be the
act of a stable person.
3. Because of strong circumstantial evidence, Peavey was certain that Mabel
had visited Taylor's home on Tuesday night, the night before the murder.
(Quoting Peavey) "...She was there the night before the murder and again
the night that Mr. Taylor was killed. I know that she was with Mr. Taylor on
Tuesday night before the Wednesday that he was killed, because she told me
so. Wednesday night when she came in Mr. Taylor asked her to have some
pudding. She said while I was in the room that she did not care for any
pudding that night, but had enjoyed the pudding that she had the night
before. Then I learned for the first time what had happened to some pudding
that I had left in the ice box on Tuesday night and that was gone Wednesday
morning when I arrived at the Taylor home." [4]
That Tuesday visit of Mabel Normand was confirmed by one of the
residents of the apartment complex, who saw Taylor and Normand leave together
that night. [5] Yet in her post-murder interviews and statements to the
investigators, Mabel steadfastly denied having been with Taylor on Tuesday
night. Peavey's probable thoughts: If Mabel lied about that visit, she may
be lying about much more.
4. The Taylor home was ordinarily a very quiet and tranquil place. Peavey
had only seen one person shatter that peace; one person raise her voice to
Taylor and argue with him; one person fail to treat Taylor with respect and
consideration at all times. The most recent outburst took place less than an
hour before Taylor was killed. What Peavey called an "argument" between
Mabel and Taylor was referred to by Mabel in one of her statements to the
press, recalling her last visit with Taylor:
(Quoting Mabel) "I said to Mr. Taylor, 'Oh, why does your company always
produce the stories that are my favorites. Why I would gladly have played in
"The Little Minister" or "The Morals of Marcus" because I love them so.'
"It seems curious that part of our last talk should turn on my little
disappointment, which seemed so important then, as to be almost a little
tragedy of my own, when this great tragedy of Mr. Taylor's life, and mine,
too, was to follow right after." [6]
Mabel had a well-known reputation for being feisty and profane. If her
"disappointment" truly "seemed so important" at the time, she certainly would
have strongly expressed her feelings to Taylor regarding this "tragedy."
Peavey called it an argument; it was certainly more than just a friendly
discussion. Of course, it was probably not an argument in the sense of a
heated exchange of words--it was one sided and not taken seriously by Taylor.
It was also defused when Peavey entered the room and Mabel was amused at
Peavey's attire. I would imagine Mabel's words to have been something like
this:
("Damn it, Billy, why is it that every time a really good story comes
along Lasky's grabs it first? Just look at The Little Minister and The
Morals of Marcus--you know goddamned well that either of those would have
been just perfect for me--admit it! But what chance does one little girl
like me have when competing against a giant fucking corporation like Lasky's?
It's not fair, Billy! It's just not fair! You're supposed to be my friend--
why don't you do something about it? You know how shitty story material
almost wrecked my career when I was with Goldwyn! You bastards at Paramount
released over 100 films last year--you gobble up all the good stories like
they were peanuts! How's about leaving something for me, huh, Billy?")
The profanity which was a normal part of Mabel's conversation
undoubtedly led Peavey to believe the tirade was more serious than it was,
but to him it certainly was an argument: "The woman was doing most of the
talking. She was mad." [7]
5. Peavey told Woolwine about the argument he had heard. (He did not know
what it was about, only that Mabel was giving Taylor hell about something.)
Woolwine told Peavey to keep quiet about the argument and to tell no one:
"Mr. Woolwine has told me not to talk to nobody." [8] This led Peavey to
believe that the argument must have been very important evidence--indeed, it
burned at his conscience until he came clean about it in 1930. So Peavey
knew there was a cover-up designed to protect Mabel; if his statement had
been silenced, how much other evidence against Mabel had also been covered
up?
"(question by a reporter) You told Dr. Filben that when the district
attorney was questioning you, you said repeatedly 'Why do you pick on me? You
know who killed Taylor.' Is that right?"
"(answer by Peavey) Yes, it sure is...They made me think, at the time
Mr. Taylor was killed, that if I didn't keep my mouth shut about this quarrel
and get out of Los Angeles that they might accuse me of the murder." [9]
Viewed from the perspective of those five points, Peavey's certainty
about Mabel Normand's guilt is very easy to understand.
*****************************************************************************
1929 Interview with Charlotte Shelby
December 26, 1929
A. M. Rochlen
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
In a remarkable interview, given exclusively to the LOS ANGELES
EXAMINER, Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, last night for
the first time revealed hitherto unknown phases of the William Desmond Taylor
murder case.
From the wealth of memories so closely associated with the career of her
talented daughter she brought forth details that shed a new light on the many
investigations that sought to unravel the tangled threads of the murder of
the film director -- a case famous the world over.
"The time for action has come. I'm not going to sit idly and be a
target for base rumors and vicious innuendo. there must be some justice in
this world -- even for a helpless woman."
Breaking a silence of more than seven eventful years, Mrs. Shelby, one
of the dramatic and ever-interesting figures of the Taylor case, thus struck
back at the endless chain of "whispers and theories" linking her, as well as
others, in the events of that baffling mystery.
Of Mary Miles Minter, who was a film star under Taylor's direction, she
had little to say.
What here is disclosed would remain forever in her own heart, she said,
were it not for the rumors, reports and insinuations that are making her life
a dreadful dream.
Desiring only to be left alone, Mrs. Shelby now feels that she must cut
through the web of whispers and suspicions to bring to an end the repetitions
of her name in connection with the case.
And she wants to serve notice that every recourse of law will be brought
to bear to stop unwarranted bantering of her name and to force those who have
used it to come out in the open.
"I have made complete statements to the proper authorities in the past
and I stand ready to do it again if it will help in a sincere and honest
effort to solve the mystery of Mr. Taylor's death," Mrs. Shelby said in the
interview.
"But somewhere, somehow, this thing has got to stop. I demand it. We
cannot go through life like this -- I and my daughter, Margaret. We are not
hiding from anyone one anything. All we ask is to be left alone, and
somebody has got to help us fight this terrible thing."
For the purpose of an earnest and legitimate investigation, Mrs. Shelby
revealed for the first time to THE EXAMINER last night that --
She was not in love with William Desmond Taylor.
She did not make threats against the famous director.
She did not go to Taylor's bungalow at 404B South Alvarado Street at an
early morning hour several weeks before the murder, armed with a revolver.
She did not, shortly before the murder, purchase a gun and practice with
it.
"I know that some of these things, with many vicious details added, had
been whispered around," Mrs. Shelby said.
"How most of them originated, no one knows. Some, I'm sure, were spread
by a person formerly in my employ. I know that person and I know the motive.
At the proper time and place I shall make known this motive, but in the
meantime I am interested in just this:
"I want to find out who circulates these rumors. I want to get definite
information of definite statements against me, and then I am going to take
definite action to the limit of my ability and the law."
Mrs. Shelby's blue eyes lost some of their softness as she spoke. Only
a few minutes before she came into the room to greet the visitor. Attired in
a soft, clinging Viennese gown of golden brown, with brown suede shoes to
match, she sat near the window of her charming apartment in a court that
looked like a corner of some far-away nook in old Granada.
Outside Christmas crowds and laden automobiles moved back and forth.
Margaret Shelby Fillmore, always a close pal and companion of her mother, sat
nearby.
The two had but recently returned from Europe. France, Belgium,
Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Paris, London, Vienna -- art museums and
Florence -- and then all the crash and cruel reverberations of the old Taylor
case.
"We arrived in California November 17. For more than three years we
lived in Europe. You know, there are many things we do not discuss with the
outside world. There are many sorrows one must always bear alone or with
those who are very near and close.
"My daughter and I (to Mary Miles Minter, Mrs. Shelby never alluded as
"my daughter") traveled and saw everything that was beautiful in old Europe,
but now we are back -- and to all this."
As Mrs. Shelby talked, framed against the deep window and the dazzling
white walls of the courtyard, there flashed before the interviewer another
occasion, almost eight years ago, when Mrs. Shelby was an actress in a drama
in which Mary Miles Minter was playing the leading part.
It was in the artistic living room of their home, on North Hobart
boulevard, in February 1922. William Desmond Taylor, a man of mystery and
romance, a leading figure in the motion picture world, was murdered in his
home a few nights before. One by one several beautiful women -- names known
throughout the world -- were brought into the case. And Mary Miles Minter,
young, vivacious, and then at the height of her artistic career, was one of
these.
Mary, her face like a Greek profile of exquisite marble, sat on a couch
and told of her last visit with Taylor -- in the darkened chamber of the
undertaking parlors. She had gone there alone to place a beautiful dark red
rose on the body of the man who was her director, friend, ideal.
And Mrs. Shelby, close by, listened to the story and watched over Mary.
But yesterday, as the brilliant Christmas afternoon was changing into
evening, it was a different story.
"Yes, I remember that night, nearly eight years ago," Mrs. Shelby
replied, and paused. "I want to forget it. Of Mary I shall have nothing to
say. She is in good hands and can take care of herself, I'm sure.
"In those days my whole life was wrapped up in her. It was my work.
Now I must fight for vindication. I've had enough of this, and I am going to
ask that they put an end to the case once and for all."
Throughout the entire discussion Mrs. Shelby was careful not to express
any opinion on who killed Taylor.
"Mr. Taylor is dead. My daughter Margaret and I are still alive. We
must be protected and not crushed by this gossip.
"That's why," she continued, "the truth must be revealed, the truth must
be spoken, the truth must be printed.
"Of course I have heard the dastardly whisperings about me and my
connection with the case. I have heard them all -- that I was in love with
Mr. Taylor, that I owned a gun and used to practice on a target a short time
before the murder, that I went to Mr. Taylor's apartment early one morning
searching for Mr. Taylor and threatening him with death, that I had made many
other threats, and so on and on.
"Each and every one of these rumors and whisperings is ridiculous.
"Let us take them one by one and see," she declared.
"I did have a gun."
"It was given to me by a jeweler friend of ours in Santa Barbara, way
back in 1916. That was a long time before Mr. Taylor was killed.
"We were living in Santa Barbara. I was Mary's business manager. I had
to read the stories for her pictures, work on the scenarios, watch over her
clothes, the cast, everything.
"We lived alone. No men folks in the household. Our friend brought the
gun to the house one night. He said I must keep it.
"'But I don't know how to use it. I never held one in my hand before,'
I told him.
"'Well, let's learn,' he replied."
Mrs. Shelby smiled.
"You know, this really bears a strange element of humor, now that I look
back on it.
"We went out to some open spaces and I took this gun in my right hand.
It was a pretty little thing -- had a pearl handle and all that. I pointed
the gun at something or other, shut my eyes and pulled hard. The thing went
'boom' and threw my arm back.
"I did that several times in succession. That was all."
"Still, they call it target practice."
Mrs. Shelby said she did not remember what had become of the gun. She
says she has no recollection of bringing it back to Los Angeles when the
household moved from Santa Barbara.
"That much for target practicing," she declared.
"Now about that visit to Mr. Taylor's house.
"To understand it, I must take you back a few years. I must ask you to
keep in mind the fact that Mary was at the height of her career, was making
big pictures. We had been in New York. I negotiated new contracts. There
were trips and conferences and all that. Many, many details that play no
part here, except incidentally as they relate to the contacts made with a
former employee for whom I sent to New York and who later figured in the
visit story.
"We were back in California. Mary's contract originally called for
pictures to be made in New York. One day Mr. Adolph Zukor held a conference
with us. It was decided that climatic conditions were better out here on the
Coast for the type of picture Mary was making. So we came out.
"Mr. Taylor was Mary's director.
"About the time of this much-discussed visit Mary bought a new car. It
was a big, fast roadster, and Mary liked speed. She used to go out, tearing
along the roads at 60 and 70 miles an hour. I was her mother and it worried
me -- naturally.
"We were living on Fremont place. At that time of the year there was
lots of fog at nights.
"One night Mary did not come home to dinner. We waited and waited. She
did not call. We began to worry.
"Perhaps she went to dinner at someone's house, it was suggested to me.
We tried to reassure ourselves of this, but somehow I kept worrying about
getting no telephone call and about that big, fast car and the foggy roads.
"We began to call up persons at the studio. We called the cameraman and
the assistant cameraman. The cameraman, a big, jolly Irishman, was a
favorite of Mary's. He was married and had small children. She was fond of
children and occasionally stopped at his house. The cameraman told us Mary
had not been there. No one could remember seeing her leave the studio.
"We thought Mr. Taylor perhaps would know. But we did not have his
phone number. No one seemed to know it.
"Then we remembered that one day Mary and her grandmother, Juliette B.
Miles, went to Mr. Taylor's home for tea.
"Chauncey, our chauffeur, drove them, so we called Chauncey and asked
him if he knew where Mr. Taylor lived. He said he thought he could find the
place but did not know the address.
"So we started out, Chauncey, my secretary and I.
"We drove around and around. the chauffeur said he knew the
neighborhood but was not certain of the exact location. Finally he
remembered it. We stopped at the corner of Fourth and Alvarado streets. It
was close to midnight then.
"Chauncey said he did not know which bungalow was Mr. Taylor's. There
were a number of them," Mrs. Shelby went on, making a wide sweep with her
right arm. "As I remember it, there were some on the left, some on the right
and some bungalows in the back.
"I saw a light burning in a window on the right, so I rang the bell, or
knocked, I don't remember which. Some one answered and I asked them if they
knew where Mr. Taylor lived. They pointed to a house on the left side of the
court, the last one in the back. I went there and rang the bell. The house
was dark.
"Mr. Taylor's voice came from the second story window.
"'Who is there?' he asked."
"'This is Mrs. Shelby, Mr. Taylor,' I answered.
"'I'll be right down,' he replied and in a short time opened the door
and asked me to step in.
"I entered the room, a sort of combination living and dining room. Mr.
Taylor showed much interest. He, too, appeared worried over Mary's absence.
Then he suggested some more persons to call. I waited while he used the
telephone.
"I remember that he stepped into a sort of a telephone room -- an out of
the way nook, and called. He talked to an assistant director, I think his
name was Frank O'Connor, and he called several others. None had seen Mary or
knew where she had gone.
"By this time we both were considerably worried.
"After some conversation, in which I mentioned my fears of an accident,
I left."
"'Be sure to call me and let me know if anything had happened,' Mr.
Taylor said as he bade me goodbye. I went to our car, where Charlotte
Whitney, the secretary, waited for me, and we went home.
"I do not now remember the time of this visit. It was not, as has been
whispered around, shortly before Mr. Taylor's murder. I did not 'storm' into
the house, with a loaded revolver in hand, as has been whispered around. I
did not threaten Mr. Taylor, as has been said."
Miss Minter, Mrs. Shelby said, came home some time later.
"She never told us where she had been that night. We were relieved to
learn that there had been no accident and that she was well.
"But months later we learned about that trip. Frank Urson, a dear
friend of the family, and an old associate from Santa Barbara days, told me
that he had run across Mary, driving her big roadster at 55 miles an hour and
that he took her in tow and finally sent her home. He told me he feared she
would meet with an accident and warned us against her habit of speeding.
"Certainly," Mrs. Shelby declared, "this incident is not a hot murder
mystery clue. Certainly, had there been anything sinister in that night
visit, I would not have taken two witnesses me or made public inquiry for Mr.
Taylor's residence.
"And yet," Mrs. Shelby went on," some one related this story and some
one has been keeping it alive, until today it is one of the endless chains of
clues and rumors that keep bobbing up on the least provocation.
"What's more," Mrs. Shelby declared, this story, along with all sorts of
others, was related to former District Attorney Asa Keyes.
"I made a complete statement to Mr. Keyes after he returned from New
York. I held back nothing. Why this 'mystery' should be resurrected ever so
often, is beyond me."
"To the world in general the Taylor murder case brought thrills, mystery
and the glamour of big names, but to others it brought tragedy and sorrow,"
she said.
There was a long pause.
Perhaps the hectic days of the first Taylor case investigation were
ringing through Mrs. Shelby's mind. Perhaps there came a train of thought
that carried swiftly the amazing story of Mary's rise and the events that
followed her famous director's unexplained murder.
If Mrs. Shelby thought about the $1,000,000 suit filed by her daughter
in 1926 and of her demand for accountings, for audits and for return of money
earned in the films, she gave no indication of this.
And if the drama of that intense recital of Mary's visit to the body of
Taylor, recalled to her a few minutes before, took her back to memories
tinged with the romance of her beautiful daughter, Mrs. Shelby managed to
hide her emotions.
Earlier in the interview some allusion was made to Mary Miles Minter's
glowing account of the slain director and to the love letters and tokens,
most of them unidentified, found in his apartment after the murder.
"I'm sure, Mr. Taylor was a gentleman," Mrs. Shelby said.
She hesitated a little, and then went on.
"I'm going to rip all this innuendo wide open -- there is no other way,"
she went on.
"I know that there have been reports that I was in love with Mr. Taylor
and that I was jealous of my daughter and also feared that Mary's career
would suffer, and that I killed Taylor to preserve my love and Mary's film
future.
"I am repeating these things just to show the absurdity of them. How is
it possible to have such a double motive? The mere repetition of it shows
the absurdity of the whole thing. Killing Mr. Taylor would have wrecked
Mary's career instead of saving it.
"But aside from that, the whole thing is ridiculous -- and vicious.
"I am a woman who has always stood alone.
"I was not in love with William Desmond Taylor. I was not in love with
anyone. And no one was in love with me. I never held a purely social
conversation with Mr. Taylor in my life. He was always aloof, a man of
mystery, polished, distant and reserved.
"In those days my tasks and interests were few. I lived, talked,
planned and worked only for Mary and her pictures.
"How utterly ridiculous, how unjust and criminal, to cast accusations of
such flimsy nature, merely on 'clues' of such thin stuff. A crime without a
motive, or reason."
Mrs. Shelby's references to Taylor were most impersonal. In fact, she
said during the interview, Taylor himself was impersonal.
She came back to the night of February 1, 1922, when Taylor was shot and
killed only a few minutes after the vivacious Mabel Normand, his dinner guest
that night, left the bungalow of the man she, along with many others,
admired.
She talked of Sands -- Edward F. Sands, the butler-valet of the slain
director who robbed and flaunted his employer because he knew of his
checkered past.
Of the incidents leading up to and following the actual slaying of
"Bill" Taylor, Mrs. Shelby said but little. She refused to express an
opinion. And of Henry Peavey, the colored house boy and cook, who served
dinner on the night of the murder and left just before Miss Normand, Mrs.
Shelby also had little to say.
"I do not remember seeing him at the Taylor bungalow the night I called
to see Mr. Taylor," was all she said.
"But this point seems to be overlooked generally when these vicious
whispers are passed about," Mrs. Shelby added.
"The time of the murder was pretty well fixed. Mrs. Douglas MacLean,
who heard the shot, saw a man leave the Taylor bungalow. Mrs. MacLean was in
her own apartment, and from the front door, only a short distance away, saw
this man and described him.
"Do I answer that description?" Mrs. Shelby said smilingly as she rose
to her feet and held out her silk-encased arms.
"Dressed in men's clothes? But why" Why would a woman run the extra
risk of being detected by wearing clothes in which she at once would become
conspicuous?
"This whole affair, however, is far from a jest to us. As I have said
before, I have made complete statements and stand ready to make them if
needed and if they can be of any use.
"But I will not remain idle and be a target. From now on I am going to
seek out those who circulate these rumors.
"I am back in California, the land I love. I am not in seclusion, as
has been printed, nor am I hiding from any one or anything. There are some
things that I must reserve for the future. Some of them may hold the
solution to the motive for the circulation of these cruel rumors."
Mrs. Shelby rose to bid her interviewer good-by.
"You may add," she said smilingly, "that I will remain right here and
that if I do move from this charming apartment to our own home, I will not be
in seclusion or in hiding."
*****************************************************************************
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder", Part 3
Mabel's Reading Matter
February 18, 1922
FARGO FORUM
Mabel Normand gave us the best laugh of the week. Did you note the
dispatch telling of the fact that a copy of the POLICE GAZETTE was "on the
seat of her limousine" while she and her chauffeur were at the curb in front
of Mr. Taylor's house?
The laugh comes when you consider that this country rewards, with
chauffeurs and limousines, movie actresses whose literary tastes run to the
POLICE GAZETTE.
There is a good secondary laugh in Miss Normand's statement that she
respected Mr. Taylor and liked "his views on philosophy." It seemed that he
discussed Freud, Haeckel and Nietzsche with her. But that copy of The Police
Gazette convinces us that Mr. Taylor did most of the discussing, while Mabel
concealed her yawns as best she could. Freud and the POLICE GAZETTE! We'll
say that Mabel is certainly catholic in her literary tastes.
If you insist on getting excited about the situation, the thing to get
excited about, to our way of thinking, is not the fact that Hollywood stages
some "wild parties"--they can be found on every Main Street--but the fact
that a chit of a girl with a pretty face and an intellect that aspires no
higher than the POLICE GAZETTE can earn more in a year than we pay the
President of the United States. Surely our standards of values are all
wrong.
Maybe we ought to pass a law about it, or have a congressional
investigation, or something.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
Joe Webb
AUSTIN AMERICAN
Mabel Normand has a copy of the Police Gazette in her car the night she
called on Director Taylor, just before he was killed. And that's the first
time we ever heard of a POLICE GAZETTE being anywhere except in a barber
shop.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 24, 1922
CINCINNATI TRIBUNE
Why did Mabel Normand have a copy of the POLICE GAZETTE with her when
she called on the slain director? Does not this indicate that she had been to
a barber shop immediately before? And if so, could she have taken a copy of
The Police Gazette without first slaying the barber?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
H. G. Salsinger
DETROIT NEWS
Magazines devoted to motion picture plays and players do a great deal of
harm by the nauseating drivel that they print. The silly prattle that is put
into the mouths of screen players who are "interviewed" for these magazines
and then pen pictures drawn of them are beyond reason. Rex Ingram, a
scholar, is not given any better "boost" than a former salesgirl who has
suddenly become a headliner. The same superlatives that are used to discuss
Ingram are used to describe the brainless cutie whose face is her fortune and
whose brain is still in the kindergarten age.
It is a long jump from paperbound novels and chewing gum to Plato and
Thoreau, but the facile writer of the screen monthlies blithely makes this
leap. It must have been with pain and anguish that the screen fans read how
Mabel Normand, pictured as a devotee of Voltaire and Nietzsche, testified
that on her way to William Taylor's house on the fatal night she stopped at a
newstand to buy a bag of peanuts and a copy of the POLICE GAZETTE.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 21, 1922
Scotty
FRESNO REPUBLICAN
When anybody talks about sounding the heights and depths of well read
accomplishment they must be familiar with the literary tastes of Miss Mabel
Normand. There is a young lady who reads 'em high and reads 'em low. We
read in the public prints that she graciously allowed a reporter to interview
her about the visit she made to that movie gentleman out in Hollywood and
told the young lad that she had gone there for some reading matter to take
home with her, the same being a treatise by a gentleman named Nietzsche who
writes long paragraphs full of long words and hard to pronounce. About
philosophy, and all such like. Then we are assured by Mabel's chauffeur that
another treatise which she had obtained on her visit was a copy of the POLICE
GAZETTE. And instantly, and at once, and even sooner we say to ourselves
that Mabel is there when it comes to literature. She doesn't cultivate one
portion of her brain cells at the expense of the others. She is not going to
be the possessor of a single track mind. That her mind shall not be a Jack
Spratt and his wife sort of mind, but rather a combination of the Spratt
variety wherein both fat and lean shall be furnished. When her eyelids droop
over the "will to conquer" sort of highbrowism that Nietzsche deals out she
can lightly turn to the POLICE GAZETTE and there fill up on beauty unadorned
on the outside cover and learn how Kilrain nearly licked old John L., down on
the hot sands of the Gulf of Mexico in the long ago. [10] And view the
picture and get the name and address of the most popular barber in Lilliwaup
Falls, Wash. Or it may even be that she may send a postal to Box, number
something somewhere or other, and beg back word where to send five dollars
for a deck of marked cards. Between old Mister Nietzsche and the POLICE
GAZETTE it's no wonder that Mabel is nervous and confined to her bed.
The Funeral
February 8, 1922
KANSAS CITY TIMES
(Los Angeles. Feb. 7.)--Laughter and screams and prayers marked the
funeral here today of William Desmond Taylor, murdered motion picture
director.
With two thousand notables of the screen world and their friends seated
within St. Paul's Episcopal Pro-Cathedral, a crowd of thirty thousand without
fought for admittance. Failing to gain entrance the vast majority of those
left on the outside hemmed the streets and overflowed Pershing square. The
police were powerless.
And while the Rev. William McCormick, dean of St. Paul's was reading the
service and speaking the prayers for the dead prince of Shadowland, shouts
and laughter from the jostling, hysterical, riotous throng echoed through the
Pro-Cathedral.
"Five a bag, they're hot," yelled peanut vendors. Lemonade stands,
hastily constructed, were doing a thriving business.
As the pallbearers, all men mighty in the film world, carried the casket
up the aisle and the great organ began the impressive Handel's "Largo," by
some curious irony of fate the strains were mingled with those of a jazz band
playing in the Philharmonic auditorium a few hundred feet away.
Some of the stars turned their heads at the sound of the jazz, but not a
face brightened. This was not a jazz day for them and messengers were
quickly sent to the auditorium and the dance music halted.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
OMAHA BEE
Proceedings at the funeral of a murder victim indicate that there are at
least 30,000 unemployed in Los Angeles.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
BOSTON GLOBE
In California a moving picture producer was murdered under circumstances
of mystery. His funeral was held in a church. Inside were gathered a party
of famous moving picture actors and actresses, and a throng which packed the
church to its doors. Outside, in the street, was a crowd of 30,000 people,
which the police were powerless to manage. They fought to get into the
church, and the reading of the funeral service by the dean of the cathedral
was to an accompaniment of the cries of the women caught in the crowd-pack
outside. One of the actresses [11] fainted at the end of the funeral, but the
crowd was too dense to allow her to be removed from the church. The negro
valet of the deceased had a ^t of hysterics.
There was evidently some misunderstanding about this funeral. It seems
to have been mistaken for a moving picture scenario. Such a mistake was
perhaps natural, what with the stars, the mob, and the emotional scenes.
Yet, however much like a scenario this funeral may have seemed, it was not a
scenario--it was a real funeral. And in this fact lies its importance.
Try to construct a world conducted according to the principles which
seem to govern life in a moving picture scenario, and what would you have?
Well, it might be something like society in the moving picture town of
Hollywood, Calif,; but it would hardly be like any other place under the
moon, unless it were two or three of the livelier circles of Inferno as
described by Dante.
A world where love-making is the leading industry. Where the souls of
gentleman crooks are saved by a species of sex evangelism. Where the poor
girl invariably marries the millionaire and experiences no discomforts from
the sudden change in her social status. Where every second policeman is a
crook; and all rich men's sons are idle and vicious; and every mother-in-law
is a she-dragon; and waiters throw pies at complaining diners; where, if a
stranger looks squint-eyed at your girl, the correct thing is to paste him
one in the eye; and where, if your sentimental affairs get into a snarl, you
take poison or else shoot the gentleman who has incurred your displeasure.
Try living in such a world--even, if it be only a world of the
imagination--for a while, and see the frame of mind you fall into. Is it so
strange that the gentleman whose funeral was turned into a movie mob scene
should have met such an end? Suppose, innocently or otherwise, he had given
offense to an emotional person living in such an hysterical world: what more
natural than to translate the scenario into reality, as was done at the
funeral itself?
The fact is that few worlds have more influence over our conduct than
this world of imagination. It is there that we make or unmake ourselves.
With our imaginations under the spell of such a fantastic world as that in
the scenarios of filmdom, is it any wonder that so many of the daily events
which startle and shame us should seem, like this funeral, to have been
translated out of that world of riotous imagination into a world of more or
less riotous reality?
The Investigation
February 4, 1922
LONDON TIMES
(Los Angeles)--What the police regard as an important clue was
discovered this afternoon. Detectives are investigating a "dope party" given
at Hollywood recently, at which cocaine and other drugs were served instead
of drinks. Two women, both film actresses, stated that they quarreled over
Taylor and fought, ripping the clothes from each other's bodies. Taylor was
not present at the party. The police theory is that Taylor's murder was
contrived by one of the women, to whose advances he had refused to respond.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 6, 1922
LONG BEACH PRESS
"Comb the dope dens of Hollywood!"
This terse order was issued today by Detective Captain David L. Adams,
following a conference at police headquarters of all agencies working on the
William Desmond Taylor murder mystery.
It was understood that a new clue had been received connecting the
supposed slayer of the famed motion picture director with the operations of a
well-organized Hollywood "snowball" ring.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 14, 1922
CLEVELAND PRESS
(Los Angeles)--"The queen of the drug fiends" was hunted today in the
William Desmond Taylor murder mystery.
This woman, head of a powerful drug ring operating in Hollywood, knows
the circumstances of Taylor's killing, in the belief of county officials.
Efforts to locate the "drug queen" have brought about a thorough search
of Chinatown where the "hop" was prepared for the orgies in which its
customers indulged. Habitual hangouts of drug addicts were deserted today
and all known members of the ring, including its queen, have gone into
hiding.
Her last place of residence has been searched. A number of interesting
names are understood to have been found on her books. The "queen" is
described as a woman of beauty who does not show the ravages of the drugs she
distributed to the ring's victims.
Tracing the woman's movements during the last few months, officers have
found she frequently changed her place of residence but that she always lived
near Taylor's home.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 17, 1922
NEW YORK NEWS
Frisco Jimmie O'Neill, as he described himself to the police, an ex-
pugilist and movie actor of Hollywood, Cal., was picked up last night in
Chatham Square by Detective Samuel Massam of the Narcotic Squad. O'Neill,
the detectives said, had a "deck" of heroin with him which he had just
purchased.
"I've been in the movies three years," O'Neill told Massam, "and out
there at Hollywood the dope got me for fair. We used to go out on the lots
and shoot ourselves full of dope. It was the regular thing.
"I could get the stuff easy, and the stars and dames used to come to me
and beg for it. Many a swell star I've handed a deck of dope to. I knew
Taylor, the director, very well, but never worked under him. I left
Hollywood the day before he was killed and came East.
"I've been getting morph right up to now, but today I fell down and had
to make a break for the heroin. The dope has got me for fair, just like it's
got a lot of the rest of us that played in the lots out Hollywood way."
O'Neill was locked up and will be examined again today by Special Deputy
Commissioner Dr. Carleton Simon, in charge of the Narcotic Squad, who
questioned him last night about his methods of getting dope both here and in
California.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
NEW YORK HERALD
William Davis, Mabel Normand's chauffeur, was questioned again today.
He told of driving Miss Normand to the apartment court in South Alvarado
street, of reaching there about 7:15, of seeing Miss Normand disappear into
the court in the direction of Taylor's home, of her reappearance with Taylor
after about half an hour, of her chatting with Taylor for a moment at the
curb and of the actress's waving good-by as the car moved off.
He also told how Henry Peavey, Taylor's butler, left the house while
Miss Normand was still there, and of stopping to pass a word with him beside
the automobile. This conversation, Davis said today, was brief, for as he
comes from the South, he explained, it is not his habit to exchange idle
gossip with Southerners of darker hue.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
NEW YORK EVENING WORLD
District Attorney Woolwine said today that none of the principles in the
case has been exonerated. "I refuse absolutely to go into the question of
why numerous persons brought into the case have not been exonerated, in view
of their apparent satisfactory statements," he said.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 18, 1922
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
They're now trying to work out the Taylor mystery by following leads
given by an income tax expert and a drug peddler. If that combination won't
work, the case is hopeless.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO CALL-POST
Scores of persons, both in and out of filmland, are being quizzed daily
by the district attorney without apparent results. One reason cited for the
lack of an arrest was that "You've got to be sure of your ground when you
jail a movie celebrity."
There is an ever growing tendency among those close to the case to
marvel at the histrionics displayed by some of those questioned. One
investigator today explained the lack of progress by proclaiming almost
admiringly and with no little awe, "They lie so beautifully."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
CLEVELAND PRESS
"Well, have they got you yet?" is now a frequent greeting in the
studios. Some of the stars laugh when asked and some don't.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 24, 1922
SAVANNAH NEWS
Great progress is reported in the untangling of the Taylor murder case.
It has been rather definitely determined that in all probability there seems
to be enough evidence, of a circumstantial if not substantial kind, to
believe with some show of moral certainty that there was somewhere, either
before or after or during the time of the crime, a woman, in some way,
directly or indirectly, mixed up with some of the elements connected with the
life of the man who was killed. Probably, more startling still, more than
one woman!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 6, 1922
Edward Doherty
NEW YORK NEWS
A dainty pink silk nightie which adorned one of the drawers of Taylor's
bureau was missing. Nobody could tell who had it. It was hinted, however,
that a policeman is keeping it, saying it will bring him good luck.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 7, 1922
DES MOINES REGISTER
A dainty pink silk nightgown, bearing three initials of a motion picture
star of the first magnitude, is held at police headquarters as the latest
clue in the William Desmond Taylor murder case. The gown had been in
possession of a police detective who has been quietly working along lines of
his own.
The little star to whom the garment is said to belong is not a
comedienne. She has gained much publicity during the last year because of
numerous wealthy and prominent young men who have been seen in her company
and to whom she was variously reported as engaged.
Hollywood was shocked by the disclosure. The name of the star involved
was on every tongue. Taylor's closest friends professed amazement. They
were utterly confused, they said, by the discovery and by the facts now
coming to light which indicate the complexity of the dead man's past.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 4, 1922
MOVING PICTURE WORLD
(reprinted from OTTAWA JOURNAL)
It is probable that a fair percentage of those who are most closely
following the Los Angeles murder case are more anxious to learn the identity
of the owner of the nightdress found in the dead man's apartment than that of
the murderer.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
The belief of detectives that if Edward F. Sands, valet-secretary to
William D. Taylor, killed his employer, he was insane, was bolstered last
night by information tending to show that the missing fugitive was mentally
deranged.
"I don't know what I'd do if I lost my job and didn't have any money,"
Sands is reported to have said. "When I get to be 35 years old I'm going to
blow my head off. I don't see any use of people living after that age.
They're not good for anything."
Sands always carried a .45-caliber Colt revolver, Mr. Brettner said.
One morning Mr. Brettner went to Sands's room and found him asleep. He
touched him on the shoulder to awaken him. Sands turned over like a flash
and pressed the weapon against Mr. Brettner, but when he saw who it was he
turned over and went to sleep again without saying a word.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 6, 1922
AUSTIN AMERICAN
Army and navy desertion descriptions of Edward F. Strathmore, who is
believed to be the same man as Edward F. Sands, missing valet of William D.
Taylor, murdered motion picture director, were obtained from the two
departments today.
Strathmore is abnormally marked with double nipples on each breast.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
ST. LOUIS STAR
A handkerchief, initialed "S," picked up near the body of Movie Director
Taylor, is held as evidence against his former valet, Sands. Without
decrying the general case against Sands, we submit that this handkerchief is
evidence in his favor. What man ever succeeded in getting or keeping a
handkerchief with his own initial on it? The editor of the Star has a dozen
or more initialed sneeze-cloths, with letters at intervals from A to W, and
not one in the lot could be used as evidence against him if he yielded to his
occasional inclination to commit murder.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 14, 1922
LOS ANGELES RECORD
This startling story laid before District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine
by a bootlegger was under investigation Tuesday:
"I was delivering liquor in half-pint bottles at the Taylor bungalow. I
was carrying it in two cases used to pack automobile tire inner cases. I
approached the front door from the side of the house. As I reached the
shrubbery at the front of the house I heard the shot.
"I stood for three or four seconds--maybe 10--and I saw a woman leave
the Taylor bungalow. She hurried away.
"I said to myself: 'This is no place for me,' and I hurried back to my
car. I threw the cases into the automobile with such force that I broke a
half dozen of the bottles.
" 'Let's go' I told my chauffeur and we beat it east down the street."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 12, 1922
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
(Los Angeles)--A group of investigators tonight went to dig up the
cellar in the Taylor home. They had been told by an anonymous informant that
something of great value was hidden in the cellar; something not money, but
which would show a connection between certain persons and the slaying.
They went out armed with picks and shovels and spades, only to find
there was no cellar.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 14, 1922
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
(Los Angeles)--No official connected with the William Desmond Taylor
murder mystery is willing today to declare that any actual progress had been
made toward its solution. The officers are at work and still express
determination to do their best to find the slayer of the film director, but
found themselves confronted with "too many wild tips," they say, and too few
genuine clues. Many of these "tips" live through one edition of a newspaper-
-and disappear.
The detectives of the Police Department still declare their belief that
the case never will be cleared up until Edward F. Sands, the missing former
butler-secretary to Taylor, has been discovered. And the Sheriff's deputies
are still firm in their contention that Sands had nothing to do with the
case.
The air is filled with rumors of "mystery men," "mystery women,"
"mystery witnesses," "drug peddlers," "jealousy motives" and "revenge
theories," but back of them all the fact that Sands had not been found: that
the murderer has not been arrested, and that the case is still unsolved.
The investigation has reached a stage which is described by officials
directing the inquiry as of "waiting for the unexpected."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
After a pitched battle last night between officers and a band of
suspected blackmailers and professional gunmen at College Street and North
Broadway, eight men were lodged in the County jail where they will be held
for investigation and subjected to a severe grilling for possible implication
in the William Desmond Taylor slaying.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
LONG BEACH TELEGRAM
After grilling the eight blackmail suspects captured yesterday in a gun
fight with federal officers and deputy sheriffs, post office inspectors today
decided they had no connection with the Taylor case.
"We established the fact that these men, who are Russians, did not even
know that Taylor had been murdered," the inspector's office told the United
Press.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 6, 1922
ARKANSAS GAZETTE
(Los Angeles)--Henry Peavey, by the way, put all his sewing into a
satchel this afternoon, his beautiful pillow tops, his exquisite doilies, his
crochet work and his tatting, and prepared to depart from the city.
He called on Captain Adams to let him know of his intentions. "Not so,"
said Adams. "You will stay in Los Angeles until released."
"I can't stay, captain," said the negro. "I'se very lonesome without
Mr. Taylor. I'll sure miss him, captain. Got no one now to squz oranges or
lemings for. Got no nice room to do my sewing in. Please let me go."
The captain explained that he wanted Peavey to remain as a material
witness, and declared that if he tried to go away he might find himself in
another nice sewing room, with free board.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 21, 1922
DENVER POST
The startling report that a detective has been employed by a big moving
picture man to "gum up" the investigation of the murder of William Desmond
Taylor, gained circulation late Monday following the latest fiasco in the
case.
There have been more blunders in the Taylor case than there have been
theories--beginning with the doctor who said Taylor died of stomach trouble.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 24, 1922
KANSAS CITY STAR
The Hollywood sleuths are now searching the hidden secrets of Los
Angeles's Chinatown in the effort to find Taylor's murderer. It would seem
that after three weeks of continuous smoke screens, the Hollywood hush squad
might have chased the investigators farther from the scene of the murder than
that.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 17, 1922
CHICAGO AMERICAN
(Chicago)--Lou Mary Snyder is a seamstress, ladies' and men's tailor,
and can make anything from a handkerchief to a suit of clothes. She was
busily stitching away today in her home at 1334 N. Dearborn St. when the
telephone rang.
"This is the state's attorney," said a voice. "We would like to
interview you concerning the Taylor case--"
"Yes, I'm a tailor," cut in Miss Snyder.
"If it suits you come down to see us at once," the voice continued. "It
is in accordance with the request of Mr. Woolwine in Los Angeles."
Miss Snyder hurried to the state's attorney's office. She laid out her
cloth, got her tape measure and started to fit the state's attorney in a
suit. But they insisted on questioning her concerning the murder of William
D. Taylor.
"Why, I thought you wanted a tailor to make a suit out of wine-colored
wool," said the surprised seamstress. She was dismissed as the possible
Margaret Snyder the state's attorney's office is seeking.
The detectives renewed their search and found the woman Mr. Woolwine was
seeking at Rockford, Ill.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 22, 1922
PASADENA STAR-NEWS
District Attorney Woolwine's office was in the midst of a probe into the
Taylor murder mystery. The telephone ball jangled. W. C. Doran answered.
"I gotta hunch on this here murder case!" the mysterious informant told
him. "They've got a serum [12] down in Dallas, Texas, that makes people tell
the truth. Give 'em a shot in the arm, and veracity spouts like a gusher.
Why not give some of those dumb witnesses of yours a dose of that?"
Mr. Doran, after some moments of concentrated effort to grasp the idea,
burst into laughter.
Whereupon the amateur scientist on the other end of the wire, highly
indignant, slammed down the receiver.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
Wallace Smith
CHICAGO AMERICAN
(Los Angeles)--It is now believed that the slayer, before he left
Taylor's study, straightened up the room and "laid out" Taylor's body. It
was even suggested that a woman may have helped.
"She may have been very fond of him," remarked one of the detectives,
with a serious face, "and so tried to leave his body as neat as possible.
Also the room. You know how women are."
The Law
February 14, 1922
CLEVELAND PRESS
The Los Angeles police have the Taylor murderer in a net.
They are tightening the net.
They are not certain of the man's name. They do not know what he looks
like.
But he is somewhere between New York and Los Angeles and he cannot
escape.
The police may catch him any hour. But what year, they cannot say.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
A man was murdered one week ago in Los Angeles. Since then the police
authorities have given the most exemplary imitation of polite and tender
dealing yet recorded in the annals of crime. The only judgment one can form
is that the police are afraid to discover the responsibility for the
murderer. The campaign to corral all the tourist trade on the Pacific Coast
was not supposed to lead Los Angeles to such lengths.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 12, 1922
PORTLAND OREGONIAN
Edward "Hoot" Gibson declared that the Taylor murder and subsequent
publicity would eventually cost the film industry millions of dollars. He
charged the police of Los Angeles with "four-flushing" and "keystone cop
antics."
"The real murderer has fooled them and to make a showing they are
dragging in the names of famous stars to divert public attention," he said.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Los Angeles Police declare they see signs of a plot to defeat justice.
Chances are they've also heard the signs clinking.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 17, 1922
SEATTLE STAR
We don't believe anybody is spending a lot of money to thwart the Los
Angeles police. Why go to such unnecessary expense?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 17, 1922
G. K. Hanchett
BOSTON ADVERTISER
Studios in Hollywood are closely guarded during the Taylor probe. Even
the police can't seem to get an admission.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 25, 1922
RUTLAND HERALD
Practical detectives do not take much stock in the Sherlock Holmes
methods of detecting crime, but there is one thing in such stories that must
be agreed to, and that is that meddling amateurs or stupid professionals
sometimes "mess up" crime clues beyond all finding.
Just as Dr. Doyle's fiction detective used to anathematize the bunglers
who destroyed foot-prints, removed clues or allowed priceless indications to
pass unobserved, just so, we imagine, the officers concerned in the Desmond
Taylor case must feel toward a few score of amateurs, reporters and "nuts"
who have messed up the hot trail of the killer.
If the murderer of Taylor is ever apprehended, it will be because some
skilled and experienced officer, discarding all vague, wild, fantastic and
fabricated theories, starts at the ghastly beginning and works forward
soberly and carefully toward the end. And in doing that it is almost certain
that he will be immensely hampered by the mess of the bunglers who have gone
before.
It has been stated that clever criminals keep out of the way of the
police by reading the newspapers. Certainly if some officers tell as much
about their plans as some newspapers would have us believe they must warn
their quarry a long time in advance.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 24, 1922
NEW YORK EVENING WORLD
"Bluecoats are running wild in Hollywood these days," says the First
National praise agent in boosting Buster Keaton's new film "Cops." The daily
news stories would go to prove the same contention.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 17, 1922
New York Herald
A third of the detectives hunting for the criminal in a sensational
murder case have the grippe, [13] thus winning relief from the ancient jest
which represents a detective as unable to catch even a disease.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 21, 1922
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
The Taylor Case in Los Angeles Shows Incompetency of Police
The search--if one can call it a search--being made for the slayer of
Motion Picture Director Taylor in Los Angeles is getting on the nerves of
everybody, and the police should either produce the killer or turn the job of
hunting for him over to competent persons. It seems as if every one who knew
Taylor or could in any fashion be connected with the case has been
interrogated at least a half dozen times. The police and the fame-seeking
District Attorney of the California metropolis apparently have questioned
persons who had no more to do with Taylor's murder than the residents of the
Canary Islands. One Woolwine, District Attorney, made what he called an
independent investigation, with a camera-man tagging him around and reporters
in his following. Woolwine posed in the Taylor house with an assistant
taking the part of the picture director--this being done to "reconstruct the
crime." How would that help find the criminal? In their efforts the police
and the Woolwine force have sent several reputable actresses into retirement,
suffering from nervous prostration, and have cast some slight suspicion on a
few persons who could not possibly kill another. The time has come for these
Los Angeles sleuths and Woolwine and his actors to get off the job, and
devote their time to whatever business may be at hand. Skilled detectives
should take over the case and follow it to the end. Motion picture makers of
Hollywood have raised a fund to hunt down Taylor's slayer, and they can put
it to good use by dealing with a reputable detective agency and ignoring the
incompetents of the police force and the District Attorney of Los Angeles.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 23, 1922
TAMPA TRIBUNE
This isn't the silly season; then why in the name of decency and common
sense are the incompetent officials of California undertaking to excuse their
own failure by talking of a conspiracy to shield a murderer?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
Tom Cannon
GARY POST-TRIBUNE
What is needed, perhaps, is an investigation of the investigators.
(Continued next issue)
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Index to A CAST OF KILLERS
The first book-length examination of the Taylor case was A CAST OF KILLERS by
Sidney Kirkpatrick. Although it contains some interesting information, the
book lacks an index, which is frustrating for serious researchers. The
following index was hastily complied and pertains to the major characters in
the murder and investigation.
Berger, Marjorie 7, 33, 90, 116, 124, 177, 181, 189, 191, 213-4, 237, 245,
253, 256-7, 267
Blue, Monte 52, 145, 187
Cato, Ray 215-22
Dumas, Verne 23, 165
Eaton, Chauncey 154, 186-7, 191-2
Eyton, Charles 22, 27, 33, 57-8, 66, 89, 165-7, 216-8, 227, 229-30, 231
Fellows, Harry 165, 166-7
Fellows, Howard 75, 89, 165, 167, 179, 181
Fields, Harry 194
Fitts, Buron 191, 234-9, 243-5, 258-9, 268-70, 285
Flynn, Emmett 258-9, 286
Gerber, Neva 52, 166
Gillon, Hazel 5, 22, 142, 166, 268
Green, Tom 30
Harrington, Neil 165
Harrison, Ethel May 19-21, 44, 46-8
Hartley 5, 194
Heffner, Otis 32, 194
Henry, Leslie 245, 251-5, 258
Hopkins, George 61-2, 102, 223-32, 281, 283, 287
Hoyt, Arthur 165, 184
Ivers, Julia Crawford 61, 89, 165-6
Jessurum, E. C. 22, 164, 167
Jewett, Christine 165, 180, 267
Keyes, Asa 33, 186, 188, 191, 204, 239, 244, 254-5, 269-70
Kirby, Walter 31-2, 193
Kirkwood, James 50, 52, 59-60, 89, 122-3, 145, 180, 227, 253, 265-6, 280
Knoblock, Edward 73-5, 179
MacLean, Douglas 5, 59-62, 74, 96, 164-7, 169
MacLean, Faith 5, 22-3, 31, 33, 80, 142-3, 150, 166-7, 169, 180, 219
Maigne, Charles 165
Miles, Julia 190, 256-7, 267, 269
Minter, Mary Miles 7-8, 15-6, 20, 28-30, 33, 52, 59, 64, 71-2, 89, 102, 115-
6, 123, 125-33, 136-41, 143-51, 153, 159, 166, 169-70, 172-3, 179-81, 183-91,
194-5, 203-6, 212-4, 221-2, 225-7, 230, 235-9, 244-9, 251-3, 255-8, 265-70,
275-83, 286
Moreno, Antonio 59-61, 78-80, 89, 95, 122-3, 154, 180, 185
Neilan, Marshall 16, 50, 58-61, 89, 105-6, 130, 137, 180, 185, 227, 237, 266-
7
Normand, Mabel 3-4, 7, 15, 22, 26-9, 33, 51, 71-3, 87-8, 90-1, 106-11, 113-
18, 120-24, 139, 140, 153-4, 165-6, 169, 173, 178-80, 194-5, 210-14, 235,
237, 267
Peavey, Henry 3-4, 7, 15, 22, 26, 33, 75, 88, 139, 163-4, 167, 176-7, 179-80,
191, 230-1, 287
Purviance, Edna 22, 27, 80, 110, 165
Reid, Wallace 58
Sands, Edward 8, 20, 26, 30, 54-5, 74-6, 79-80, 90, 95, 140, 150, 153, 157-8,
160, 175-6, 179-80, 194, 218-22, 230, 234-5
Sennett, Mack 107, 115-8
Shelby, Charlotte 8, 15, 26, 33, 126-32, 136-46, 154, 166, 181, 184, 186-92,
194-5, 203-6, 212, 221-2, 225-6, 228, 230, 236-9, 244-9, 251-9, 264-70, 280-
82, 285-6
Shelby, Margaret 126-31, 144, 188-9, 191, 251, 254, 257-9, 264-9, 277, 286
Smith, Jim 189, 257, 268
St. Johns, Adela Rogers 102, 131, 141-7, 149, 166, 226, 268, 278, 281, 288
Stockdale, Carl 131, 189, 190, 254, 257, 266, 268, 270
Swanson, Gloria 15, 56-62, 102, 123, 178, 185, 223, 266, 288
Tanner, Ada 19-20, 90, 175
Tanner, Denis Deane 19-20, 54-6, 68, 95, 157, 175-6, 227
Tanner, Ethel Daisy 15, 21, 166, 176
Tiffany, Earl 74-5, 179
Van Trees, James 165-6
Whitney, Charlotte 186-8, 190
Windsor, Claire 16, 60, 102, 119-24, 166, 180, 266, 288
Woolwine, Thomas 27, 33, 185-6, 188, 190-92, 194-5, 203-6, 206, 212, 219-22,
234-8, 244-5, 248, 254-5, 257, 269-70
Wright, Alfred 160
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NEXT ISSUE:
The Case Against Thomas Dixon
Fragments from the Police File
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder" Part 4:
Love Letters, Frozen Horror, Untamed Hollywood, Frank Mayo vs. The Press
*****************************************************************************
NOTES:
[1]NEW YORK NEWS (February 9, 1922)
[2]See LOS ANGELES RECORD (January 7, 1930)
[3]SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER (February 21, 1922)
[4]LOS ANGELES TIMES (February 6, 1922)
[5]LOS ANGELES EXAMINER (February 12, 1922)
[6]LOS ANGELES EXAMINER (February ?, 1922)
[7]LOS ANGELES RECORD (January 7, 1930)
[8]LOS ANGELES RECORD (February 13, 1922)
[9]LOS ANGELES RECORD (January 7, 1930)
[10]Kilrain vs. Sullivan was the last world championship bareknuckle
prizefight.
[11]Mabel Normand.
[12]Scopolamine.
[13]"grippe"- influenza.
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For more information about Taylor, see
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
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Back issues of Taylorology are available via Gopher or anonymous FTP at
uglymouse.css.itd.umich.edu
in the directory pub/Zines/Taylorology