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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
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* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
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* *
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* Issue 5 -- May 1993 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
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* All reprinted material is in the public domain *
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What is TAYLOROLOGY?
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TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
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Taylor, a top film Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
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death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
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scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
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(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
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murder on Hollywood and the nation. Primary emphasis will be given toward
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reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it for
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accuracy.
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Reader input is welcome, in the form of "Letters to the Editor," short
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articles, and contributed source material.
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*****************************************************************************
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
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The Connette Episode
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Deposition by Leslie Henry
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"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder":
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Wild Hollywood Parties--Fact or Fiction?, William Desmond Taylor
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The Connette Episode
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Shortly after Taylor's murder, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford took a
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business trip to New York. At every trip along the way they encountered
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reporters asking their reactions to the Taylor case. One newspaper reported:
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'All this talk about Hollywood is a joke, anyway,' Doug said.
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'Why, say, do you know there was a prominent minister and--oh,
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me--oh, my--a prominent newspaper editor seen hiding around the
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Taylor house just before the murder? They're expected to be
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arrested at any minute. Strait stuff! This is the real inside
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story of Hollywood.'
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Doug winked. [1]
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Doug was, of course, joking. But within a few months a former newspaper
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editor would indeed find himself the center of suspicion in the Taylor case.
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Honore Connette was telegraph editor of the LOS ANGELES TIMES until June
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of 1920 when he went to work for the LONG BEACH PRESS, where he remained
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until January 1922. On January 11, Connette's mother died. He began
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drinking heavily and became addicted to Veronal, a barbiturate. He left Los
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Angeles the day after Taylor was murdered, and sailed from San Francisco on
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February 7, bound for Honolulu aboard the Sonoma.
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While the ship was anchored at quarantine outside Honolulu he approached
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the waterfront reporter for the HONOLULU ADVERTISER with many questions about
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the Taylor mystery. He asked if anything new had developed since the liner
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left San Francisco. He took the reporter to a corner of the deck to ask his
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questions and finally said, after looking around, in a quiet voice:
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"I'll tell you one thing, that was not a woman case. You can be sure of
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that."
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He was asked what he meant by this and said that he had been a newspaper
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man a long time, and knew lots of people in the "movie village," and had
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reached that conclusion.
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The HONOLULU ADVERTISER reporter then consulted the local Chief of
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Detectives, informing him what Connette had said. The detective took down in
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his notebook details of Connette's name, his occupation and the questions
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which he had put to the reporter.
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After the boat docked Connette applied for a job on the Honolulu
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newspapers, but was turned down. He went to Hilo, where he was hired by the
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HILO TRIBUNE.
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On March 14, that newspaper published an article written by Connette
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suggesting that Taylor's killer was hiding in Hilo. Connette also wrote
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'...that the slaying was of the vendetta type, and that the man who did
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the killing did so from a revenge motive. I believe that at some time in
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Taylor's life he may have wronged some one and that this person or possibly
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some near relative, a brother or father maybe, settled the account.'
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Connette's article also expressed the firm belief that Sands was
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innocent.
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On April 25, 1922, the following statement was issued by Harry Irwin,
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Attorney General of Hawaii:
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The matter was called to my attention when I was in Hilo
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recently at a conference held between the governor, Mr. Green and
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Mr. Stevenson of the HILO TRIBUNE, and myself. They reported that
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from the time of Connette's arrival at Hilo he seemed to be very
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much interested in the Taylor murder case and it formed the chief
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subject of his conversation during the whole time he was here.
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Mr. Greene and Mr. Stevenson soon became impressed with his
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interest in the case and began to observe more accurately his
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actions and his statements.
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Connette, upon his arrival at Hilo, made a statement to Mr.
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Greene to the effect that in his opinion it would be easy for the
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person who murdered Taylor to come to Hawaii, lay low for awhile
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until the excitement died down, and then skip out to the orient.
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He had obtained a passport to the orient before leaving
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Honolulu for Hilo. One night in the office of the HILO TRIBUNE he
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described in detail to Mr. Greene the way in which Taylor was
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murdered. He also described details which were subsequently shown
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to be substantiated at the time, but which were not published in
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newspaper accounts of the Taylor murder.
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Connette seemed to be worried about the whereabouts of one
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Gareth Hughes.
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Finally one day one of the police officers of Hilo found in
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the street a partially written letter which was addressed to
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Hughes.
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It was shown that the letter was written on TRIBUNE bond
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paper and undoubtedly written by Connette. Connette's later
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stated to Mr. Greene that 'everything was all right now' because
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of the fact that Hughes had gotten into Mexico and was then in a
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place called Ensenada, and that he could not be extradited because
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of the fact that the Obregon government had not been recognized by
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the United States.
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This information was all transmitted by the attorney
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general's department by letter and wire to Mr. Woolwine, the Los
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Angeles district attorney, who requested the attorney general's
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office obtain a statement in detail from Connette. This request
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was forwarded by the attorney general's department to Hilo by wire
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and the reply came the same day to the effect that Connette was
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leaving that day for Honolulu by the steamer Maui.
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The attorney general, with the aid of Detective Captain
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McDuffie and members of the detective force, then attempted to
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locate Connette in Hololulu. On his arrival in Hololulu from Hilo
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he left his trunk on the wharf and went away with a handbag.
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Every effort was made to locate him, but without success. It
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was found that he had purchased a ticket for San Francisco on the
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steamer Maui. He evidently went aboard the Maui a few moments
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before that vessel sailed for the coast.
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His acquaintances here, as far as the office of the attorney
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general is able to ascertain, saw nothing of him during that time.
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The fact that he was on his way to San Francisco was wired to
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District Attorney Woolwine in Los Angeles. Subsequent to this, the
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attorney general's office received a wire message from Attorney
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Woolwine stating that Hughes had appeared in his office, made a
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full explanation of his whereabouts, and had been freed from any
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suspicion as to being connected with the Taylor murder. [2]
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The letter supposedly written by Connette was typewritten and not signed. It
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read:
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My Dear Gareth,
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This may possibly be the last letter you will have from me,
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and so I will be quite frank and clear things up so you will
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understand when the crash comes. I expected to be well out of
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this mess before this and my previous letters have led you to
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believe that everything was clear sailing.
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I did not want to worry you. What I did back there I have
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never regretted. Always remember that I acted to an impression
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stronger than faith or this thing they call religion. As I told
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you in the house at San Jose, I believe in the Mosaic law: 'An
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eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' I cleared on your score.
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I did what any brother would have done if he had any red British
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blood in him.
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I thought we could get away with it all. On the ship was a
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man who kept trying to make friends with me. You know I was ill
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with the worry of it all, but I had reasons enough not to meet
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this man's advances, for something warned me. You know the old
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superstition of our country, the thing that comes like a shadow
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and tells of approaching death. [3]
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When Connette arrived in San Francisco on the Maui he was taken into custody
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by L.A.P.D. Detective Sergeant Jesse Winn. Among Connette's effects was
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found a .38 calibre revolver with one shot fired. Winn took a long statement
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from Connette and escorted him back to Los Angeles where he was held in jail
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as a "material witness."
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Meanwhile, back on Hilo, the HILO POST-HERALD reported:
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According to his associates while in Hilo, Connette, during
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periods of being under the influence of either liquor or drugs
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made statements that would give his hearers the impression that he
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was connected in the famous Los Angeles mystery.
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On one occasion he gave a vivid pantomime of the murder to
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one of the members of the house where he was stopping. Going
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through the action of Taylor bending over a table signing his
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income tax return and showing how the murderer stepped out of the
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closet, steadying his revolver on a table and firing the fatal
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shot that sent Taylor to his death. Again taking up the role of
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the murdered man, he showed how the stricken man staggered and
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fell, indicating the place where he dropped the fountain pen he
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was using and other small details.
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At another time after receiving a letter from the mainland he
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stated to another member of the household, 'Well, I don't care
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what happens now, the boy has reached a country where the United
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States has no treaty, they will never catch him now.'
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On another occasion he said to the same party, 'Well, I
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suppose I may as well go back and face it, like a man. I can
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never escape anyway and it won't make any difference as I won't
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live long anyway.'
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Connette kept a loaded, cocked thirty-eight revolver in his
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rooms at all times and sometimes carried it on his person. When
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asked why he had the revolver cocked, he replied, 'Oh some day I
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may want to commit suicide and I don't want to change my mind
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while I am cocking the gun.' [4]
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After this story appeared in print the reporter who wrote it was taken
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into custody by the Hilo Sheriff Department and questioned for several hours
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regarding his sources of information. Then several other people were
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summoned to verify his statements.
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Back in Los Angeles, Connette stated,
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"I never saw the letter until it was shown to me by Sergeant Winn. The
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letter was apparently built upon things I said in a moment of levity in the
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presence of a newspaper rival in Hilo. I know absolutely nothing about the
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Taylor murder other than the facts that are common knowledge. A newcomer in
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Hilo is a target for either fair or unfair treatment and I stirred up
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considerable animosity owing to newspaper rivalry there. I suppose I drank a
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bit and said things while under the influence of liquor upon which the
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preposterous situation in which I now find myself, could have been built.
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Another motive on the part of the newspaper rival in making the charges, is
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the fact that he desired to return to California. He thought if I were held
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for trial on the charge of killing Taylor, he would secure free
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transportation as a witness."
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Connette did admit once working in one of Taylor's films as an extra,
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and having a casual conversation with Taylor about a book.
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When Connette's explanation was relayed to his acquaintances, back in
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Hilo, he was not believed. They stated Connette had no known enemies in the
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newspaper profession and several people living in the boarding house where he
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made his home also heard him make incriminating statements on the Taylor
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case. He had described the murder in detail on several occasions and stated
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that he witnessed it from a point in Taylor's study. Hilo Sheriff Sam Pua
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sent a cable to Woolwine stating:
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"Important evidence is in my possession concerning H. C. Connette. The
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evidence includes a signed statement in which Connette declared he killed a
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man a short time ago in defense of his honor. He also gave a description of
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Taylor's room at the time of the killing."
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In Los Angeles, Connette denied he ever killed anyone. He was taken to
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the Taylor residence and paraded before Faith MacLean; she said he did not
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resemble the man she saw leaving Taylor's home the night he was killed.
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Connette was then taken to a Turkish bathhouse on Fourth Street, reportedly a
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hang-out for drug addicts. He stated he had been there on the night of the
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murder, registered under the name of Donald MacDonald. The name was found in
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the registry and several attendants stated they remembered him being there on
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that night. Actor Gareth Hughes was summoned to police headquarters,
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questioned again and released. Connette was also released. The District
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Attorney's office stated that no charges had been placed against Connette or
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Hughes and that none would be. On April 29, THE HILO TRIBUNE headline
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blared:
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CONNETTE CASE TO BE HUSHED UP BY WOOLWINE
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On that note, the Connette episode faded from public view.
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*****************************************************************************
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Deposition by Leslie Henry
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Extracts from deposition by Leslie B. Henry, given July 11, 1933:
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A: (By Leslie B. Henry) Some time within a month or two of Mrs. Shelby
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leaving, I think it was along in March or April, 1926, Mrs. Shelby called me
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and asked me to come to the house; that a situation had developed that was of
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a very serious nature, and to please not fail to come.
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Q: (By Mr. Schwartz) Did you go?
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A: I did.
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Q: What was your conversation, if you had one?
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A: To the best of my recollection, Mrs. Shelby told me that District
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Attorney Keyes was on his way to New York in connection with the Taylor
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murder case, and that she was convinced that Mary -- She told me that Mary
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would probably lie about her, and wanted to know what she should do under the
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circumstances. I asked Mrs. Shelby, had she talked to Mr. Mott about it, and
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she told me that she had not talked to Mott, and told me that, "A friend of
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mine on the Examiner" had given her the information.
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Q: A friend of yours?
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A: I mean a friend of hers. I told Mrs. Shelby I saw nothing that could be
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done about it until Mr. Keyes' return. She was in a hysterical state -- I
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cannot describe it. She told me, "This will kill me." I told Mrs. Shelby,
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"You haven't anything to fear in this. You need feel no sense of guilt."
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She said, "I don't know what Mary will tell him." And whether it was just
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that conversation or a series -- I don't know. This thing occupied weeks in
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there.
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Q: You mean you had a number of conversations on the subject?
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A: Yes. I had conversation after conversation with Mrs. Shelby about this
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particular incident, and it became absolutely critical -- well, Mrs. Shelby
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told me, "I can't wait for this thing. I have got to get out, and get out
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now." I told Mrs. Shelby that if there was any information got out that
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Keyes had gone to New York for the purpose of making an investigation of this
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matter, that for her to make a move at that particular time would probably to
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be caught, and put in an absolutely impossible position, so far as the Taylor
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case and other matters were concerned. The matter got into the newspapers.
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Q: Did you see articles appearing in the newspapers at that time?
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A: I did.
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Q: Did you discuss any of those articles with Mrs. Shelby?
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A: On the appearance of any article that had any new development in that
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case Mrs. Shelby would call me and have me come to the house to talk with her
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regarding the new phases of it.
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Q: Will you go ahead and give us your best recollection of the conversations
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you had in the series of talks, when you say you went out there frequently,
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when the matter was under discussion?
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A: The question of the passport, and the citizenship and everything came
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very much to the front in connection with this. I am trying to segregate
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them. I can only tell this, that Mrs. Shelby called me to her house many
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times during the period I believe of I think it was March, April and May --
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it was right near the time of sailing, in connection with, as I said, new
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developments in the case. Mrs. Shelby would call me and tell me, "The papers
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called up today and asked me" such and such a question, and among other
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things they asked her whether she was a crack shot with a revolver, and
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whether she had a revolver in the house, and Mrs. Shelby said, "The only
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revolver that ever was in the house as far as I know was one that Mary one
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time tried to get to shoot me."
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Q: Shoot whom?
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A: Mrs. Shelby. She on some of these occasions asked me -- on all
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occasions, asked me how she was going to stop this situation from the papers,
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particularly just before Mr. Keyes got back, and I told her on each occasion,
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"Mrs. Shelby, you are going to have to wait until the District Attorney is
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here." She told me she had talked with Mr. Mott, and Mr. Mott had told her
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the same thing.
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I talked with Mr. Mott, and Mr. Mott said the same thing. "There is not
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a thing that can be done on this until Mr. Keyes is here, and we can talk to
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him."
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I said to Mrs. Shelby on one occasion, "You are perfectly convinced that
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you can tell a connected and witnessed story of what you were doing on that
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night?" She told me -- I can't repeat it, but it was exactly the same story
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she told me right after the Taylor murder, of what she had done that night.
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I said, "I can't see why you should continue to worry about it." She was
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just distraught upon each of those occasions.
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I said, "Put faith in your own innocence in the situation." She said,
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"I don't know what that girl will tell Keyes." I told her that after all
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there was nothing she could tell Keyes that must not be subjected to
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investigation and study and search. She said, "All Mary is doing is trying
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to ruin me, in addition to the financial situation." Mrs. Shelby said, "And
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after all she may be lying for herself." I said, "You don't mean, Mrs.
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Shelby, that Mary had anything to do with that?" And she said, "She may have
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been damned fool enough to have done it."
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Incidentally there was a similar remark made after the actual death of
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Taylor. In trying to relieve her of fear I told her, "You have just got to
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stand on your own consciousness of your innocence, and the nature of the
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story that you have told me, and if it will stand up the district attorney
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will do nothing to you."
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When Mr. Keyes returned --
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Q: Did you have any further conversation with Mrs. Shelby on this same
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subject after Mr. Keyes returned?
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A: Yes, I did.
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Q: At the same place?
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A: Yes.
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Q: Will you give us the conversation? First did Mrs. Shelby, if you know,
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remain in the city during this period of time, or did she go out of the city
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at any time?
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A: During this period of February until June, 1926, I was going to tell you
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that I am trying to place the time --
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Q: (by Mr. Lewinson) That is not a complete answer. Trying to place the
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time, of what?
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A: Oh, I had not answered the question. No, she did not remain in the city.
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Q: (Mr. Schwartz) Do you know where she went?
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A: Mrs. Shelby told me when Keyes was expected here, and that she was not
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going to stay here and be indicted for the murder of Taylor. That she was
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going to get out then. And I told Mrs. Shelby, "If you leave under these
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circumstances it will be quite possible in my estimation for you to be
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indicted. If ever there was a time when you should be on the ground, this is
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it, at this time."
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She told me that to follow that kind of advice would be just to "Sit here
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and not only be indicted but probably find myself confronted with framed
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testimony." She said, "I can show legitimate reasons for leaving the city.
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They can't indict me on the score of a departure, because if either you or
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Mr. Mott get any inquiry you can tell them I am away on business relating to
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my mother's affairs, my mother's estate.
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Mrs. Shelby told me she was having absolutely no contact with the
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newspapers, and hid herself away from any association with anybody.
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Q: You mean this was in a conversation?
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A: Yes, and Mrs. Shelby told me, "I am going to get out of here, and
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whatever has to come through you or through Mr. Mott it can be stated that I
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am out of the city in connection with my mother's affairs." To the best of
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my knowledge Mrs. Shelby -- She told me that she was going down to Louisiana,
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and that in the small towns there it would not be possible for anybody to
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locate her.
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Q: Do you know how long she remained away?
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A: I don't remember whether it was several or three weeks. I cannot tell
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you.
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Q: Did you see her when she came back?
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A: I did.
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Q: Did you have any conversations with her?
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A: Yes.
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Q: On this same subject matter in connection with the death of Taylor?
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A: Yes.
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Q: Go ahead and give us your best recollection of any conversations she had
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in the period before she left for Europe.
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A: After I returned there was a constant rehash of this same situation, of
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apprehension, not knowing what was going to happen, and she told me that Mr.
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Mott assured her that if the matter had not been taken up with the grand jury
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it was not going to result, in his estimation, in any action at that time.
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That Keyes was apparently not prepared to go ahead with it.
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Mrs. Shelby told me that Mr. Mott told her that Keyes had, I believe,
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told him that he had insufficient evidence, despite what he had learned in
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New York, to bring an indictment without further investigation.
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Mrs. Shelby told me, "I am going to demand that the district attorney's
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office make a statement exonerating me in this and call this thing off now,
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or it will surely be reopened again, and it may stop me from going abroad, or
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bring me back when it would be to my greatest embarrassment." I asked her
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how she was going to get that kind of a statement. She said, "I have
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demanded of Mott that he talk with Keyes and get that kind of a statement
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from him." She said, "Don't you think I should be exonerated?" And I said,
|
|
"Unquestionably. If there is any possible way of getting you clear on this
|
|
thing I would surely leave no stone unturned in order to get it." She asked
|
|
me if I knew Keyes, and I told her that I did not. But I told her that I
|
|
knew a deputy in the district attorney's office, Fitts, and she said, "Can't
|
|
you talk to him and see whether he can -- You tell Fitts what kind of a man
|
|
I am" -- beg pardon, "what kind of a woman I am, and let him carry that word
|
|
to his superior." I told her I would do that if Mott was unsuccessful with
|
|
Keyes.
|
|
Mrs. Shelby told me that she felt very certain that Mr. Mott could get
|
|
that kind of a statement from Mr. Keyes. I asked her whether Mr. Mott had
|
|
given her that kind of an assurance, and she said she was confident that by
|
|
reason of Mr. Mott's position in the community that he could obtain such a
|
|
statement.
|
|
I told Mrs. Shelby that I could not believe that Mr. Mott had made any
|
|
such assurance to her, because I could not conceive of the district attorney
|
|
coming out with a public statement, or even a secret signed letter to her
|
|
exonerating her of a crime, especially in a situation where they evidently
|
|
were all at sea, where new developments might at some future time make the
|
|
district attorney appear in an absolutely impossible position.
|
|
I told her that seeing Mr. Fitts was just about as purposeless, and that
|
|
I would be very much surprised if Keyes signed any such statement.
|
|
I cannot differentiate these conversations. Mrs. Shelby told me on more
|
|
than one occasion after that, in conversations at her home, that she had not
|
|
been able to get anything out of Mott. That Mott had not gotten this
|
|
statement which he had promised to try to get for her. And finally, I
|
|
believe it was within a month of the time she sailed, she told me that Mott
|
|
had told her that Keyes would not sign such a statement, and she told me,
|
|
"Without that exoneration I cannot stay in this country safely. You must
|
|
speed up everything for me to get away from here before something happens."
|
|
That was about the substance of those conversations at that time.
|
|
|
|
Q: Did you have conversations with her in New York on that same subject?
|
|
|
|
A: That was in New York, when that came up. I am trying to place --
|
|
|
|
Q: (by Mr. Lewinson) Mr. Schwartz, I don't understand whether that question
|
|
has been answered yes or no, whether he had conversations in New York?
|
|
|
|
Q: (by Mr. Schwartz) He said yes. Did you answer, Yes?
|
|
|
|
A: Yes.
|
|
|
|
Q: You say you are trying to place when and where it occurred?
|
|
|
|
A: Yes, whether in the express office, or coming away from the express
|
|
office -- I don't remember.
|
|
|
|
Q: Was there anyone present besides the two of you?
|
|
|
|
A: I don't remember whether Barbara was with me or not. I cannot really
|
|
place Barbara in that picture. Mrs. Shelby asked me, did I think that she
|
|
could be caught before she left on the boat, by a warrant from the district
|
|
attorney's office in connection with the Taylor murder case. She said, "I
|
|
seem to have gotten by the Government as far as my passport is concerned, but
|
|
can the district attorney at Los Angeles pick me up here in New York on a
|
|
warrant for my arrest?"
|
|
|
|
Q: On a "warrant for my arrest?"
|
|
|
|
A: Yes. I told her that I did not think a warrant could be issued against
|
|
her unless she had been indicted, or a complaint had been filed, and it had
|
|
been very evident before she left Los Angeles, from information Mr. Mott had
|
|
given her, and from what Mr. Mott had told me, and that I told her, that they
|
|
were not going to take any chances on indicting Mrs. Shelby without better
|
|
evidence than they had, or they would have done it when they came back from
|
|
New York. She said, "They might do it, if it is found out in Los Angeles
|
|
that I am out of the city with this property, because no action can be taken
|
|
by Mr. O'Melveny against me here. Mr. O'Melveny might use the district
|
|
attorney's office to stop me in some way." I told her I though that was
|
|
ridiculous, and not to worry herself in the few hours before she was to sail,
|
|
over a matter of that kind.
|
|
One of the last things she asked me in New York was, "Can they extradite
|
|
me in Europe without indicting me?" I told her I was certain they could not.
|
|
She said, "Well, I can't get caught off-guard," and I told her if there was
|
|
any indictment developed in the case that I was certain that Mr. Mott would
|
|
have early acquaintance with it, and that while he would on discovery that
|
|
she was in Europe be very, very angry over having been left in a somewhat
|
|
embarrassing position of he as her attorney not having been informed of her
|
|
departure; that I though Mr. Mott would be the first one to be informed as to
|
|
anyone that could reach her, telling her of any danger of that nature, and
|
|
that it would probably be in the newspapers, and certainly there would be
|
|
speedy enough information to inform her, so that before the service of a
|
|
warrant, or any extradition proceedings she would know what her situation
|
|
was. She told me, "Well, they will have to find me if you or Margaret get
|
|
word to me that an indictment has come." I told her to forget the
|
|
indictment. That was about the substance of the talk.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder", Part 2
|
|
|
|
Wild Hollywood Parties: Fact or Fiction?
|
|
|
|
March 12, 1922
|
|
CHATTANOOGA TIMES
|
|
(Chattanooga)--Declaring that he had recently been in Hollywood and
|
|
other points in Southern California, and was thus informed of conditions
|
|
there, evangelist John Brown told his congregation of women that what little
|
|
they may have read of the degradation and vice existing in the motion picture
|
|
colonies had but touched at the edges of things as they are. One hundred of
|
|
the leading actresses have organized as the "Nude 100," he said, and the
|
|
fetes of the organization could not have been surpassed in wicked Sodom and
|
|
Gomorrah of old.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 13, 1922
|
|
Lindsay Denison
|
|
NEW YORK EVENING WORLD
|
|
(Los Angeles)--There was a "party" which was raided by the police though
|
|
nothing came of the raid. After a commonplace entertainment remarkable only
|
|
for stupid vulgarity, "refreshments were served." But the servants had not
|
|
food and drink on their trays--they had hypodermic needles, papers of "snow"
|
|
and opium layouts. There was a "pill cooking contest" between noted
|
|
headliners. It was at this point that the police broke in. The host broke
|
|
out at the same moment and a few minutes later appeared at his front door in
|
|
his palatial car, demanding to know "what had been going on his absence."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
Edward Doherty
|
|
NEW YORK NEWS
|
|
(Los Angeles)--William Desmond Taylor would have been a Patrician had he
|
|
lived in Rome when it was at its greatest and wickedest. Taylor's ghost
|
|
might boast to the other ghosts of having been at better parties than any
|
|
that they had seen. He might tell them, for instance, that little tale told
|
|
by an humble Jap. [5]
|
|
The Jap served as valet to half a dozen stars; was butler at a number of
|
|
houses. Let him, for the story's sake, relate his tale in English.
|
|
It was the Jap's first time in the mansion--the home of one of the most
|
|
beautiful and famous actresses in the world.
|
|
"They asked me serve the dinner for them last night. I was delighted
|
|
when they asked me. I said to myself, 'I will really see this angel-like
|
|
creature, this woman that has filled my life with beauty.' I was exhalted. I
|
|
tread reverently in that house.
|
|
"The guests came, two by two, man and wife, in great automobiles. They
|
|
came in laughing, full of happiness. I had seen them all. The greatest
|
|
stars in the world!
|
|
"A dozen of them there were. And how I admired them!
|
|
"One of them sang while the dinner was getting ready; one of them played
|
|
the piano. Then one of them danced. I peeked through the door, which I held
|
|
open just a little--so. The dinner was ready. The guests sat down at the
|
|
table. Such silverware! Such wonderful linen! Such great heaps of food!
|
|
Lamps were burning everywhere, and there were many flowers.
|
|
"I served the cocktails. I brought on the courses. I brought on wine
|
|
and highballs, and green drinks, and yellow, and orange, and purple drinks.
|
|
"I was bringing in the coffee service on a cart when the big man threw a
|
|
plate of food at me. He hit me with it. He hit me in the face. The gravies
|
|
trickled down my vest and on to the rug--the rug worth thousands of dollars.
|
|
"They thought it fun. They shouted. Men commenced to throw things at
|
|
the women. The women threw things at the men.
|
|
"Soon the food was flying all over the room. Costly china plates were
|
|
smashed against the walls. Statues were thrown down and broken, pictures
|
|
were ruined. Flowers were strewn everywhere, mashed under heels.
|
|
"They got up, drunk, most of them. They threw whisky and wine at each
|
|
other. One man poured a bottle of champagne down the front of a sweet little
|
|
girl's neck and the language she used! Never have I heard such words!
|
|
"The victrola was turned on; the big man yanked the tablecloth from the
|
|
table and put it on him and gave a war whoop like the Indians, and danced
|
|
around, making gestures that were nasty.
|
|
"Everybody followed him. They yelled. They whooped. They threw chairs
|
|
at mirrors. One man, very graceful he was, turned cartwheels, and his feet
|
|
struck a woman and knocked her down. She put her arms around him and kissed
|
|
him and bathed his hair with half a tumbler full of whisky.
|
|
"Then the big man jumped on the table and pulled open his shirt and
|
|
exposed his stomach. He held his stomach with his big left hand, and with
|
|
the other he plunged a hypodermic needle into it. [6] It sickened me, but
|
|
everybody laughed.
|
|
" 'This is the life!' he shouted, and jumped down and took a lady in his
|
|
arms and went into another room. She was not the lady he came in with.
|
|
Everybody left the room too, with everybody else's wife, except the lady that
|
|
owned the house; and she laughed, and told me to get busy and clean up the
|
|
place."
|
|
Perhaps the ghost of the murdered Taylor may come back to the scene of
|
|
these old revels and visit with the blades that still hold orgies in the
|
|
palaces of Hollywood.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 7, 1922
|
|
Adela Rogers St. Johns
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
I spend eleven months of the year in Hollywood. And I give you my
|
|
personal word of honor that I've never seen anybody sticking hypodermic
|
|
needles in their tummies yet.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 13, 1922
|
|
Lindsay Denison
|
|
NEW YORK EVENING WORLD
|
|
It was under such influences as the unlimited supply of intoxicants and
|
|
narcotics that a "distinguished gathering" (speaking filmily) at the mansion
|
|
in a village near Hollywood became a "menagerie party." The guests got down
|
|
on all fours and proceeded to conduct themselves each as he conceived the
|
|
animal he was imitating would act in his native jungle or sty. As the
|
|
festivities became "jazzed up" the terrific noises and the squeals and
|
|
screams of some of the women, who didn't like the playful tricks of the human
|
|
wild beasts, caused quieter members of the community to violate their usual
|
|
reticence and call the police. The Chief of Police undertook the errand
|
|
himself. The noise died down for a time; about daylight it became so
|
|
outrageous again that a committee of scandalized outsiders gathered at the
|
|
front door. They were just in time to meet the Chief of Police coming out,
|
|
hatless, with his hair tousled, blood running from a torn ear and with an
|
|
"extra" girl hanging unconscious in his arms. He declared he was "the
|
|
original Borneo organ-outang returning to the jungle with the fairest of the
|
|
villagers." The sight of the horrified neighbors sobered him into releasing
|
|
the fair villager, but he isn't Chief of Police in that suburb any more.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 19, 1922
|
|
Frank O'Malley
|
|
NEW ORLEANS ITEM
|
|
For many weeks past, the news from California as published in the public
|
|
prints would lead us to believe that the chief indoor sport of the movie
|
|
folks was setting fire to all the child movie actors at the end of the day--
|
|
just to see the children burn with a clear blue flame.
|
|
We have been led to believe that all those lads and girls cavorting
|
|
before the movie camera in Hollywood and vicinity are daily guilty of more
|
|
rascality than all the deviltries ever charged against John Doe and his
|
|
degenerate relative, Richard Roe, put together.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 3, 1922
|
|
TACOMA LEDGER
|
|
If all those stories told of the Los Angeles movie colony are true, why
|
|
do the sensational film producers go to all the trouble of scenarios and
|
|
posed pictures? Why not just turn their cameras on Hollywood from day to day?
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
Edward Doherty
|
|
NEW YORK NEWS
|
|
(Los Angeles)--The "love cult" angle was introduced into the case late
|
|
in the day through the troubled conscience of a resident of Chinatown. This
|
|
man through an intermediary communicated with the District Attorney's office
|
|
and asked that he be given immunity in exchange for information in his
|
|
possession.
|
|
He had supplied the opium for the members of this cult, all men, of
|
|
which, he says, Taylor was a member. He declares the men would lie in silk
|
|
kimonos, smoke the essence of the poppy flower and so commence their ritual,
|
|
old as Sodom.
|
|
The Chinese asserted that the members of the cult were held together by
|
|
a bond, unthinkable, unnameable, unbelievable, and that each had sworn an
|
|
oath of undying affection for the others.
|
|
He believes the jealousy of one of these degenerate cultists may have
|
|
caused him to slay the movie man.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 22, 1922
|
|
Herb Westen
|
|
SAN FRANCISCO CALL-POST
|
|
(Los Angeles)--There seems to be a concerted move to muffle the reports
|
|
of Hollywood vice. The Chamber of Commerce has taken it up and a petition,
|
|
it is understood, is now being circulated to prevail upon a Chicago
|
|
newspaperman to "go away from here."
|
|
Local interests charge that he has painted the colony too black--that
|
|
his imagination has run away with his judgement.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 25, 1922
|
|
Rob Wagner
|
|
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
|
|
Eastern newspapers now are painting pictures of a "movie colony" that
|
|
surpass anything our wildest directors ever put on the screen to show
|
|
decadence and crime.
|
|
This modern Gomorrah is known the world over as Hollywood, and,
|
|
according to population imagination, its streets are lined with dance-halls,
|
|
cabarets, magnificent gambling joints and opium dens, the denizens of the
|
|
film colony working but one or two temperamental hours a day, devoting the
|
|
other twenty-three to delicious sin. Movie queens, in inlaid limousines,
|
|
roll through the golden avenues to meet wicked directors intent upon their
|
|
happy ruin, bathing parties nightly plunge into tanks of eau-de-cologne,
|
|
while beautiful "snow birds" attend cocaine parties at which the Japanese
|
|
servants administer drugs from silver needles; while every morning the
|
|
police, seizing the blonde curls of your beautiful film favorite, drag her
|
|
from some subterranean hop-joint. [7]
|
|
One eastern paper goes so far as to say that "the needle-hounds of
|
|
Hollywood order their drugs over the telephone like groceries." [8]
|
|
No, puzzled reader, these tales of "love cults" and "dope rings" are
|
|
just good old newspaper hokum. The only real evidence I can offer in the use
|
|
of narcotics is the hectic nonsense emanating from the drugged sconces of the
|
|
newspaper fellows, who have been looking at Hollywood through dope rings of
|
|
their own blowing.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 25, 1922
|
|
Baxter
|
|
MOVING PICTURE WORLD
|
|
In Hollywood the poppies blow,
|
|
Tall columns rise of poppy smoke.
|
|
The correspondents snuff the "snow,"
|
|
Then write in dreams that come from "coke."
|
|
The hop pipes glow, the stories grow--
|
|
Old heroin provides the facts--
|
|
Imaginations slumming go,
|
|
And twist the simple, kindly acts.
|
|
The hemp, the hashish and the dope
|
|
Arrange that blameless folk bear blame.
|
|
Fake interviews with shadow ghosts
|
|
Are easy when you use no name.
|
|
The orgies that they write about
|
|
Are brain creations of their own.
|
|
The lethal fumes arising high
|
|
Come in rings that they have blown.
|
|
It matters not how wild the lie.
|
|
If readable "It's fit to print."
|
|
The buzzards to their carrion fly
|
|
And gorge their public without stint.
|
|
In Hollywood the poppies blow,
|
|
They will continue so to do
|
|
Until the voice of Truth prevails
|
|
And tells the liars they are through.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 6/7, 1922
|
|
Edward Doherty
|
|
CHICAGO TRIBUNE/DENVER POST
|
|
|
|
Writer Answers Screen Defense of Soiled Nest
|
|
|
|
"How can there be men and women writers anywhere on earth base enough to
|
|
invent any or all of the lurid stories that have been printed so generally
|
|
about Hollywood and the film people?"
|
|
The question was asked in an article by Frank Woods, president of the
|
|
Screen Writers' Guild of the Authors' League of America, and Thompson
|
|
Buchanan, chairman of the Writers Club, which was printed in the CHICAGO
|
|
TRIBUNE of March 1 and in other papers throughout the country.
|
|
The article, a defense of Hollywood and the film people, is in reality
|
|
an attack upon Wallace Smith of the CHICAGO EVENING AMERICAN and myself--and
|
|
Mr. Woods and Mr. Buchanan mentioned our names, branding us as liars, fakers,
|
|
slanderers, dealers in scandal.
|
|
Mr. Smith and I have been warned repeatedly that gangs of men employed
|
|
in the studios have sworn to "get us." [9] We have been called "space
|
|
writers," representatives of the "scurrilous eastern press," and it has been
|
|
intimated that we are users of drugs ourselves--we who complain that a few
|
|
movie actors ease their worries with a sniff or a shot in the arm. But the
|
|
movie people who have threatened violence have taken the more prudent method.
|
|
They have not come near us. They have left the matter to their writing men--
|
|
and these have attacked us in the newspapers.
|
|
I should not have replied to these articles had the TRIBUNE, for which I
|
|
write, not printed the Woods-Buchanan article. The TRIBUNE printed it
|
|
because the TRIBUNE believes in fair play. Had there not been a reference to
|
|
Mr. Smith and myself I should not have challenged a single statement of these
|
|
two Hollywood writers.
|
|
In the first place let me explain that neither Wallace Smith nor Edward
|
|
Doherty is a space writer. [10] Both of us, writing space, could have made
|
|
thousands of dollars; neither of us made a cent. We wrote what we pleased,
|
|
spending extra hours to send it, merely because we were assigned to the story
|
|
and felt it our duty to tell the world about Hollywood.
|
|
Not a line of what we wrote was faked. Not a story was invented; not
|
|
one article that either of us wrote contained a single thing that was untrue.
|
|
[11] Both of us know that if we did print anything untrue there would be libel
|
|
suits. There have been many articles in which we were referred to as liars
|
|
and slanderers--but no libel suit has been started; and we do not believe one
|
|
will be started.
|
|
I live in Hollywood. I have lived there since last October. I have a
|
|
year's lease on a house. I intend to go on living in Hollywood. I know
|
|
Hollywood, and I know my neighbors.
|
|
Wallace Smith has lived in the Ambassador Hotel since last November, but
|
|
he knows Hollywood, too. He has frequently visited it in the company of
|
|
actors and actresses. He has been to some of the Hollywood parties which--
|
|
according to Messrs. Woods and Buchanan--never occurred.
|
|
It may be an interesting sidelight to record the fact that I, a
|
|
conscienceless liar, a slanderous scandal monger, a reporter who has told so
|
|
many untruths about Hollywood, should be offered the opportunity of becoming
|
|
the chief publicity man for "Fatty" Roscoe Arbuckle--and that I should reject
|
|
the offer as soon as it was made.
|
|
I covered the Arbuckle story on three occasions in San Francisco. I had
|
|
excellent opportunities for "faking," as the Woods-Buchanan combination calls
|
|
it. But it appears I sadly neglected it--and the offer to become Arbuckle's
|
|
publicity man came from one of Arbuckle's attorneys, a man who has read
|
|
everything I have written, including my articles on Hollywood.
|
|
"Hollywood is angry," said this lawyer. "The truth stings."
|
|
I feel rather proud of this.
|
|
The Woods-Buchanan article intimates that I sided with the district
|
|
attorney against Arbuckle. I sided with nobody. I never do. I tell the
|
|
facts as accurately as I can get them. I feel with the Screen Writers in
|
|
this--that Arbuckle is innocent of the death of Virginia Rappe.
|
|
"Arbuckle's mode of living," they said, "which was too often the same as
|
|
that of thousands of young men of other stations in life, who, like him, have
|
|
too much money, was nevertheless indefensible, and, somehow, someway, the
|
|
impression was conveyed that he was a fair example of the film folks'
|
|
depravity."
|
|
That's what the Screen Writers said. I wouldn't have said that.
|
|
Strange to say, I believe Arbuckle one of the cleanest of all moving picture
|
|
actors. I didn't think so--but the conviction was drilled into me through
|
|
watching him in his three ordeals and to listening to the evidence against
|
|
him.
|
|
"This quiet and beautiful section of Los Angeles has been treated to a
|
|
drenching of slander unequaled in American journalism," the defenders say,
|
|
"while film people themselves have been pictured largely as drug addicts,
|
|
drunkards, profligates, and degenerates. If a half or a quarter or even a
|
|
tenth of this muckraking is founded on fact then the people engaged in making
|
|
motion pictures, particularly the stars, are of the wrong class and ought to
|
|
be eliminated."
|
|
True, and the "muckraking" is founded on a talk with a member of the
|
|
state board of pharmacy, who has control of the drug addicts of Los Angeles
|
|
and who has registered not a few moving picture stars and lesser lights with
|
|
deputy sheriffs; with decent men and women picture players; with the local
|
|
reporters, who wish they could print what they know; with the records in the
|
|
police blotters.
|
|
Neither Smith nor I was born yesterday. We have been in many cities in
|
|
the United States and Mexico. Both of us have become more or less accustomed
|
|
to looking on the seamy side of life--and both of us were amazed at the
|
|
conditions that exist in the land of the movies. We were incredulous at
|
|
first. We investigated. We found out the truth. And at the earliest
|
|
opportunity, without consulting each other, we began to tell it.
|
|
I regret to say that we were not the first to tell of what is going on
|
|
in Hollywood--I do not say was going on, but is going on.
|
|
Theodore Dreiser told some plain, blunt, ugly facts about directors and
|
|
extra girls and other incidents in SHADOWLAND, a moving picture magazine.
|
|
[12] I have not heard that either Mr. Woods or Mr. Buchanan called Mr. Dreiser a
|
|
liar or a faker or a muckraker or even a space writer.
|
|
Let's sum up the rest of the article briefly:
|
|
"Work in pictures is exacting and mentally and physically exhausting--so
|
|
much so that a great majority of the active workers have no time, strength,
|
|
nor inclination for the revelries and orgies which have been pictured as the
|
|
rule rather than the exception."
|
|
But there is a minority that does find the time. We did not say the
|
|
majority was rotten. We do say the minority is.
|
|
"The camera is relentless, and no actor or actress, especially the
|
|
younger ones whose faces are literally their fortunes, can remain long in the
|
|
spotlight and at the same time give way to any sort of self-indulgence."
|
|
Correct. There are a lot of favorites, still young, still beautiful,
|
|
who no longer dare the camera's scrutiny. There are others who will be
|
|
"removed" very soon. It is understood that Adolph Zukor came to the coast
|
|
recently to get rid of one of the most prominent male stars in the world--who
|
|
has been using a hypodermic needle. [13]
|
|
"Taylor, himself, who had been a man of exemplary habits, fine
|
|
deportment, and high ideals, turned out to have had an adventurous past. He
|
|
had taken a stage name, like many others of theatrical profession, and this
|
|
was made much of."
|
|
He had a woman's nightgown in his home. He was attended by persons of
|
|
no character. He was an intimate of several women, had deserted his wife and
|
|
child. He took a couple of stage names. There are other accusations against
|
|
him. One could go on indefinitely.
|
|
The article complains that reporters said certain movie people
|
|
questioned by the officials were "grilled." Smith and Doherty said they were
|
|
not grilled, but should have been--and we repeat it.
|
|
After telling how Smith and Doherty "seized on the Taylor mystery as an
|
|
excuse for digging up and rehashing all the dead scandals of the picture
|
|
people that had accumulated in the last ten years" the article admits "there
|
|
were only a bare half dozen of them," adding, "but they were embellished,
|
|
added to, and enlarged until they read like juicy stuff."
|
|
Here's confirmation right out of the screen people themselves. We not
|
|
only dug up a lot of dead scandals which were news because they had not been
|
|
printed before--but we also told a lot of new ones. A writer in New York [14]
|
|
tells how the film folk there recognized the persons talked about, even
|
|
though in the first place the stories were untrue, and the characters, thinly
|
|
disguised. This writer, after denying everything we wrote, added very
|
|
naively, that we must have paid "some one on the inside" very well for our
|
|
information.
|
|
Then there is reference to an "alleged interview with a Jap butler--pure
|
|
fiction."
|
|
It was I who told the Jap butler's story. I don't know whether the
|
|
story was true, however. I could not verify it. So I told it, as it came to
|
|
me and quoted the Jap butler for what he was worth--nothing more.
|
|
There are more ridiculous articles being printed by the Screen Writers
|
|
than two reporters can reply to. They are all of the same type, denying the
|
|
stories written by us, calling us fakers, picturing us as "trampling the
|
|
daisies under foot" and proving nothing.
|
|
However, as Smith has told, the biggest hotel in Los Angeles has given
|
|
its waiters order to "sap over the head" any actor who "sniffs a nail full of
|
|
snow, or mixes a drink, or makes a rough crack in the dining room."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
William Desmond Taylor
|
|
|
|
February 12, 1922
|
|
Jane Dixon
|
|
NEW YORK TELEGRAM
|
|
Fate is Seen in Tragic End of Filmdom's "Love Pirate"
|
|
It's a man's game--that of love pirate.
|
|
The man plays, and plays--and PAYS.
|
|
A potent, pulsing personality; a magnetism dangerous as it is
|
|
compelling; a heart attuned to the voices of many women; a quick wit; a ready
|
|
tongue; an adventuring that brooks no interference, moral nor material; a
|
|
mad, reckless whirl through the shining hour of sun; and at the end--the
|
|
leaden period of death.
|
|
William Desmond Taylor, dabbler in dreams. Ink is scarce dry on the
|
|
cancelled mortgage the powers of evil held against his life.
|
|
So, out of the rainbow past, the long, long past reaches the arm of
|
|
expiation, pointing a merciless finger toward the hour of earthly reckoning.
|
|
There is no escaping that finger.
|
|
Ignore it if you dare.
|
|
Defy it.
|
|
Beat upon it with a will to destroy it.
|
|
Still it points, and will point, until the ardent adventurer comes into
|
|
his travail, until expiation has been done.
|
|
Filmdom welcomed William Desmond Taylor, gave him a seat among the
|
|
mighty, hearkened to his word, moved at his command. Its men looked and
|
|
admired. Its women looked--and loved. What richer sea could a love pirate
|
|
sail?
|
|
A list of the girls, the women, taken aboard the love pirate's ship of
|
|
dreams for a brief cruise on the sea of pleasure would read like a slightly
|
|
deleted directory of the screen's feminine stars. There is another
|
|
directory, too, made up of the names of lesser planets, simple little extra
|
|
girls who left the safe harbor of their homes to seek fortune in the world of
|
|
make-believe. To them the great man behind the megaphone was a god whose
|
|
favor was to be sought at any cost.
|
|
Now, if we may believe rumor, the sated appetite of the love pirate
|
|
called for stronger stimulants than a conquest of hearts. One report has him
|
|
a member of a cult with an unmanly ritual. Another speaks boldly of drugs--
|
|
opium, cocaine, Lethian fogs of forgetfulness, ending in wild orgies, during
|
|
which women, in jealous frenzies, tore the clothes from each other's bodies
|
|
and, stripped to the waist, fought like tigers for the favor of the pirate
|
|
ship captain.
|
|
Once, at least, since he has been privileged to gather blossoms willy-
|
|
nilly in the glamorous garden of love, the pirate has eaten of his own dead
|
|
sea fruit. His chauffeur tells how, after a New Year's eve party in the
|
|
fashionable Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, he was so unhappy over an
|
|
altercation with his companion [15] of the evening that he broke down and
|
|
wept. The bitterness of unrequited love seems to have been his portion in
|
|
this particular case. He was reaping the whirlwind of his own sowing.
|
|
Who sped on its horrid way the leaden pellet which brought the eventful
|
|
story of the love pirate's life to a tragic close?
|
|
Was it one of the fair ships he had scuttled?
|
|
Was it another pirate vessel, jealous of a rival's plunder?
|
|
Was it a legitimate craft, the captain of which could not endure the
|
|
depredations of the modern Captain Kidd?
|
|
Was it a derelict, its crew gone mad from dipping into a contraband
|
|
cargo of drugs?
|
|
Was it a phantom ship sailing out of the past to drive the pirate from
|
|
the seas?
|
|
Of only one fact we are sure--that William Deane-Tanner, alias William
|
|
Desmond Taylor, could no longer escape the moving finger of Fate. He had
|
|
made a bargain. The hour was at hand when he must pay--in silent expiation.
|
|
Destiny, as is just, has taken her toll.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 3, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES RECORD
|
|
Star Talks of Slain Man
|
|
"No, I never was engaged to marry William Desmond Taylor, I regret to
|
|
say." This statement was made by pretty Mary Miles Minter in an interview at
|
|
her home last night.
|
|
"Do you know where his ex-wife and daughter are?" Miss Minter was asked.
|
|
Miss Minter's violet colored eyes flashed fire.
|
|
"Why he had no wife--he was never married. I'm positive of that," she
|
|
replied.
|
|
"But, maybe Mary, he didn't tell you he was married," broke in Mother,
|
|
Charlotte Shelby.
|
|
"But mother, I knew him so well--I am sure he wasn't married. I asked
|
|
him if he was, and he told me no."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 11, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES RECORD
|
|
Mrs. J. M. Berger, income tax specialist, talked about William Desmond
|
|
Taylor who had called at her office just a few hours before he was slain in
|
|
his bachelor apartments.
|
|
"He was here in the afternoon to attend some business," she explained.
|
|
"I do not think there is a woman in the case.
|
|
"Why--" her white hand pointed to a large picture of Mary Miles Minter
|
|
that was hanging on the wall of her room.
|
|
"Of course little Mary loved Mr. Taylor--who didn't? We all loved him.
|
|
"Of course, Mary Miles Minter is only a child.
|
|
"Her letters, published, are purely those of a very young girl, and as
|
|
Mr. Taylor said, 'a child.'
|
|
"I had asked him how she was on that day he called here and he said 'she
|
|
has a touch of tonsillitis and temperament.' "
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 8, 1922
|
|
CLEVELAND PRESS
|
|
Hardly an hour passed without gossip whispering around the name of some
|
|
new ingenue of the movies--some sweet, lovely young thing, whose demureness
|
|
on the screen perhaps has been an example pointed out to thousands of
|
|
daughters by thousands of mothers--in connection with the supposed chivalries
|
|
and romances of William Desmond Taylor.
|
|
Things had almost reached a point where stardom seemed to mean close
|
|
friendship with Taylor--the warmer the friendship the brighter the light of
|
|
the star.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 23, 1922
|
|
Joe Webb
|
|
AUSTIN AMERICAN
|
|
Neva Gerber says that despite the fact she and Director Taylor broke
|
|
their engagement to be married, they remained the best of friends. As
|
|
Taylor's checkbook showed he had given Neva $500 a few days before he was
|
|
murdered, we're inclined to believe they were on tolerably friendly terms.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 3, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
"Mr. Taylor was a man who knew everything," said Miss Normand. "If I
|
|
wanted to know the meaning of an unusual word I did not have to take the
|
|
trouble to look it up in the dictionary. I just had my secretary telephone
|
|
Mr. Taylor."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
SEATTLE UNION-RECORD
|
|
William Desmond Taylor was called "the love wizard" by dope-haunted
|
|
members of the Hollywood film colony.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 7, 1922
|
|
Edward Doherty
|
|
NEW YORK NEWS
|
|
Taylor was a director with brains and the artistic touch. He made the
|
|
average director look like what he is--a brainless mechanism braying through
|
|
a megaphone.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 9, 1922
|
|
DES MOINES REGISTER
|
|
Taylor is the first and only man who ever undertook to train an octopus
|
|
to act.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
March 28, 1922
|
|
ROCHESTER TIMES-UNION
|
|
A dainty handkerchief marked "M.M.M." was found in the murdered movie
|
|
director's apartment. Maybe they had been playing "drop the handkerchief."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 28, 1922
|
|
Wallace Smith
|
|
CHICAGO AMERICAN
|
|
Taylor was often referred to as "Simon Legree," [16] whose one care was
|
|
making a showing before his employers and whose last thought was for the
|
|
feelings of those he found working under him.
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 8, 1922
|
|
CHICAGO POST
|
|
According to F. D. Dalton, "Taylor's only fault was periodical drunks.
|
|
One time he went with a man named Ed Cox and a theatrical troupe to the
|
|
Hawaiian Islands. Taylor got drunk and wandered to another island in the
|
|
group and was not found until three months later. Then he was with a hula
|
|
hula crowd back in the mountains."
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
February 7, 1922
|
|
Louisville Times
|
|
FIRE BURN AND CAULDRON BUBBLE
|
|
The movie owner and the movie director have been the men of amours since
|
|
the flying camera shutter first began to click. Handsome though he be, the
|
|
leading man has had hard sledding. Now and then a beautiful lady would fall
|
|
to his portion; and, of course, he had his share of bathing beauties and
|
|
roadhouse party-fodder; but the Guineveres, the Elaines, the Cleopatras and
|
|
the Columbines have worn the tag of owner and director.
|
|
These form the higher circle of the fast life on the Camera Coast, and
|
|
thus the new tragedy in Hollywood is interesting to the public because it
|
|
deals almost wholly with stars. Poor Fatty Arbuckle was the only luminary in
|
|
his case because he is an actor and has only limited favors to bestow. But
|
|
Taylor was a director in the first degree: desirable parts and large salaries
|
|
went to whom he said they should go.
|
|
He had a bijou flat in a bijou row, and it was appointed as a
|
|
garconniere [17] should be. After the megaphonics of the day the Great
|
|
Director would retire to this little nest and to him would repair some lady
|
|
artist to have a quiet nip and to discuss the burning subject of art. The
|
|
more the Great Director appreciated the qualities of these artists, the
|
|
greater their opportunities and the larger their salaries. The persistence
|
|
on the screen of many vulgar and awkward women in star roles proves how much
|
|
a director can do to make life profitable and pleasing, and his favor is even
|
|
more important than an owner's. So if he has a little flat and is hospitable
|
|
to ladies, what more delightful than to visit him as his butler is leaving
|
|
and clink a refreshing cocktail? Nearly all the lady artists have a "mother"
|
|
or an "aunt" abiding with them who are so confident of the virtue of their
|
|
charges that they are lenient with them; and these duennas can arise in time
|
|
of stress to vow that Maisie was only a causal friend and is a good girl who
|
|
never had a temperature of over 98.5 in all her life.
|
|
Taylor, being unusually well-placed to extend favors to lady artists,
|
|
and being a dashing fellow withal was popular with the fair and received a
|
|
number of visitors, for whom an inventory of his effects reveals that he
|
|
furnished every modern convenience. In many other bijou flats on other bijou
|
|
rows other directors have been in equal favor, and all in Hollywood was as
|
|
merry, if not as regular, as a marriage bell.
|
|
But the smiles of women bring the frowns of men, and a man who roves
|
|
with too many sometimes gets in trouble with one. So one night last week the
|
|
director accompanied his last fair visitor to the limousine. There came
|
|
murder and mystery into Hollywood and into the lurid columns devoted to the
|
|
tragedy came names that were not commercially benefited by it. And the
|
|
mystery endures, and the blood cries out for vengeance, and before the two
|
|
are quieted there will be a deal of uneasiness, and shattered feet of clay
|
|
will be strewn about the fallen images of several golden girls.
|
|
It is inevitable. The ingredients of scandal and immorality and tragedy
|
|
are generously found in movie colonies. Never before in the history of the
|
|
world have so many women, depending mainly on their beauty, been vying for
|
|
place and favor from men. Place and favor in the movies have all too
|
|
frequently gone for a fundamental price eagerly given, cynically received.
|
|
(Continued next issue)
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
NEXT ISSUE:
|
|
Why Taylor's Servant Thought Mabel Normand was the Killer
|
|
1929 Interview with Charlotte Shelby
|
|
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder":
|
|
Mabel's Reading Matter, The Funeral, The Investigation, The Law
|
|
Index to A CAST OF KILLERS
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
NOTES:
|
|
[1] NEW YORK NEWS (February 15, 1922)
|
|
[2] HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN (April 25, 1922)
|
|
[3] SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (April 25, 1922)
|
|
[4] HILO POST-HERALD (April 26, 1922)
|
|
[5] As stated in the Introduction, some offensive stereotypes were
|
|
commonplace in the 20s, and are included here for historical purposes.
|
|
[6] Other references to this alleged incident make it clear that this
|
|
individual is supposedly Wallace Reid.
|
|
[7] "hop-joint"-- drug den.
|
|
[8] This was reported by Wallace Smith in the CHICAGO AMERICAN (February 10,
|
|
1922) but not in these exact words. Smith was reportedly quoting "one
|
|
of Los Angeles' leading physicians."
|
|
[9] For details see Edward Doherty, GALL AND HONEY (Sheed & Ward, 1941), pp.
|
|
200-202.
|
|
[10] A "space writer" is a derogatory term for a writer paid by the word.
|
|
Smith and Doherty were on a straight salary.
|
|
[11] Aside from Taylor case material, the dispatches of Smith and Doherty
|
|
during the previous month contained sensational thinly-veiled references
|
|
to such stars as Douglas Fairbanks, Tom Mix, Ben Turpin, Rudolf
|
|
Valentino, Mabel Normand, Blanche Sweet, etc.
|
|
[12] See Theodore Dreiser, "Hollywood: Its Morals and Manners," SHADOWLAND
|
|
(November 1921-February 1922).
|
|
[13] Wallace Reid.
|
|
[14] Frederick James Smith. See LOS ANGELES TIMES (February 19, 1922)
|
|
[15] Mabel Normand.
|
|
[16] The cruel slave-owning villain of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
|
|
[17] "garconniere"-- bachelor's quarters.
|