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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 16 -- April 1994 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
* All reprinted material is in the public domain *
*The commentary by W. T. Sherman is Copyright 1994 by William Thomas Sherman*
* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
*****************************************************************************
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
William T. Sherman, Guest Editor:
Some Glimpses of The Shelby Family Caught up in The Taylor Case
"The Mystery of the Movie Director" by Sidney Sutherland
A Look at the Character of D.A. Thomas Lee Woolwine & His Administration
*****************************************************************************
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.
*****************************************************************************
In this issue, William T. Sherman continues his temporary editorship of
TAYLOROLOGY. Bruce Long will return as editor next issue. If anyone else has
pertinent material they wish to see presented in TAYLOROLOGY, please contact
bruce@asu.edu.
*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************
* Some Glimpses of The Shelby family caught up in The Taylor case
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 2, 1922
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Mary Miles Minter Heartbroken
Tears streaming down here pretty face, Mary Miles Minter, famous motion
picture star, hurried to the door of the Taylor bungalow at noon today and
asked brokenly:
"It isn't true, is it?"
"Taylor is dead," said Detective Sergeant H. J. Wallis.
"Oh my God, I can't believe it," Miss Minter cried in despair.
She turned in her grief to her mother, who had accompanied her to the
bungalow court in her automobile.
"And I saw him only yesterday," she said. "His car passed mine at
Seventh and Alvarado--it was the first time I knew it was gray."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 4, 1922
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Miss Minter Extols Taylor
Mary Miles Minter talked yesterday at length on the subject uppermost in
the minds of most members of Hollywood's film colony--the mysterious murder
of William Desmond Taylor, noted film director.
Seated in the little home in Hollywood in the presence of her mother,
Mrs. Selby (sic) and her grandmother, Mrs. Mary Miles, the youthful screen
star discussed intimately the details of her acquaintance with the man whose
assassination shook the city Thursday morning.
AND SHE DENIES, TOO, THAT SHE EVER WAS ENGAGED TO HIM OR THAT HE EVER
HAD ASKED HER TO MARRY HIM.
"He looked on me as a mere child," Miss Minter said. "I could speak for
hours, extolling his virtues and those qualities which he had that endeared
him to his many friends--and then not be able to do him justice."
"Married?" She repeated the interviewer's question.
"Married? I'm sure he wasn't, or he surely would have told me. We were
such good friends."
Miss Minter had not seen Taylor for several months, she said, except
perhaps on one or two occasions when they had passed each other on the street
in their motors.
"After we came back from Europe, we just couldn't drag him away from his
work," she continued. "He seemed to be wrapped up in it."
Discussing the report that Miss Normand and Taylor had been engaged at
the time of his death, Miss Minter said she knew nothing of it.
"I hadn't heard of a romance between them," she said, "and I don't think
the report is true. If it is true that he asked her to be his wife--well, I'm
glad that he and Mabel were such good friends. She is a lovely girl. She is
frank and earnest, and if she wishes to do a thing she does it. That's what I
admire in her most."
She showed interest in the search which is being made for Edward F.
Sands, Taylor's former valet.
"But it would be unfair to accuse him of the crime, without knowing,"
she concluded.
"It is possible that some crank or demented person committed the crime.
No one seems to know, except the person who did it. And whoever it was
doesn't seem particularly eager to tell."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 8, 1922
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
(letter written to Taylor by Mary Miles Minter)
"You Wonderful Man! I Want to Go Away With You--Alone," Is Opening
Here is another unsigned love letter, in cipher, found in the effects of
William D. Taylor, the motion picture director. This letter would indicate
the writer's deep love for Taylor. The code is known to thousands of
youngsters:
What shall I call you, you wonderful man. You are standing on the lot,
the idol of an adoring company. You have just come over and put your coat on
my chair. I want to go away with you, up in the hills or anywhere just so
we'd be alone--all alone. In a beautiful little woodland lodge you'd be cook
(as I can only make tea) and fetch the water and build the fire.
Wouldn't it be glorious to sit in a big comfy couch by a cozy warm fire
with the wind whistling outside trying to harmonize with the faint sweet
strains of music coming from our victrola. And then you'd have to get up and
take off the record. Of course, I don't mean that, dear. Did you really
suppose I intended you to take care of me like a baby?
Oh no, for this is my part. I'd sweep and dust (they make the sweetest,
little dust caps, you know) and tie fresh ribbons on the snowy white curtains
and feed the birds and fix the flowers, and, oh, yes, set the table and help
you wash the dishes and then in my spare time I'd darn your socks.
I'd go to my room and put on something soft and flowing, then I'd lie on
the couch and wait for you. I might fall asleep for a fire always makes me
drowsy--then I'd wake to find two strong arms around me and two dear lips
pressed on mine in a long sweet kiss -
(THE LAST PARAGRAPH OF THIS LETTER IS BEING WITHHELD BY THE EXAMINER
FROM PUBLICATION AT THIS TIME)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
August 10, 1923
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Mary To Sue Her Mother
Mary Miles Minter is Irish. She admits it and she looked it yesterday
afternoon. Her big blue eyes blazed with wrath, then filmed with tears as she
told her side of the story of the discussion in her household which brought
about the estrangement with her mother and sister to the breaking point.
"They never would let me be a girl, to have girl's pleasures, to do the
things that other girls would do," she said. "I was never even allowed to
have for myself the little pleasures shown in roles I played in pictures.
I never had a doll, excepting that I held one in the pictures. I never had
one all of my own. I never had a chance to play tag, or hide and go seek, or
have a kiddie car. I was always petted and pampered, tutored and touted, made
to believe I was something I was not, do things I did not want to do, say
things I did not mean. From morning till night I had money, money, money,
talked and preached to me. I have earned lots of it fairly, hate it and have
none of it."
Mary's mother, Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, is reported to be seriously ill at
the Good Samaritan Hospital and to be asking for her daughter. Mary is living
at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Philip J. Hurn of Altadena.
"Mother is sick, quite sick, but she is not critically ill and has never
asked for me," said Mary.
"Why, I just talked with her doctor. She's sick, of course, and I knew
she was going to have an operation. I talked with her just last Saturday. She
and my sister know just where I am, where I have been living, have my
telephone number and could get me on a minute's notice." I have not
disappeared, never ran away, and never tried to. I just left to be alone, to
get away from the constant argument, from the posing, the nagging, the
humiliation of being told that I myself have never done anything, would not
have anything had it not been for the watchful eye of mother and Margaret, my
older sister, three years older than I.
"When I was a baby, just 4 years old, they took me away from my home and
my daddy. We went to New York and mother accepted a theatrical engagement.
Soon afterward I was given a part and ever since that time mother's work has
consisted of drawing my salary.
"I was always treated like a child. Told when to go to bed, when to get
up, whom to meet and whom not to meet. The very people I was working with
every day were not good enough for me to associate with. I must be gracious
to this and that person because they stood high socially and were wealthy.
"THE POWER OF MONEY WAS DRILLED INTO ME ON EVERY HAND. MOTHER SAID `BE
POWERFUL EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO WALK ACROSS THE GRAVES OF OTHERS TO GET IT.' SHE
HAS NO SYMPATHY FOR THE MISFORTUNES OF ANOTHER. `THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST'
WAS HER WATCHWORD.
"SHE IS HER OWN BEST PRESS AGENT. SHE KNOWS WHAT TO SAY TO CREATE
SYMPATHY FOR HERSELF. MY SISTER MARGARET IS A `YES-GIRL.' IT'S `YES MAMMA'
THIS AND `YES MAMMA' THAT."
All of which are but a few of the things which Miss Minter said as she
announced her intention to take legal steps to secure an accounting for more
than $1,000,000 which she asserts her mother has collected on motion picture
contracts of the daughter. Formal notice of intention to bring such suit has
already been served said both Miss Minter and her attorney.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
June 11, 1937
James Crenshaw
LOS ANGELES HERALD EXPRESS,
Remains True To Director
Undying Affection for Slain Man Causes Her to Decline Many Offers of
Marriage
Mary Miles Minter, whose meteoric flight into film fame was cut short
when a mysterious bullet snuffed out the life of William Desmond Taylor on
Feb. 1, 1922, today laid bare secrets of her heart, giving details of her
romance with Taylor and explaining why it was her "last romance." Her
exclusive story, as told to an Evening Herald Express reporter while new
efforts are being made to solve the Taylor murder, follows:
For 15 years, Mary Miles Minter has remained true to the man she
loved--to William Desmond Taylor, "the finest, bravest, dearest, truest, most
sincere man I have ever known."
Even beyond death, she has remained true.
Since the mysterious and unsolved murder of the film director in 1922,
the glamorous star of the silent screen has rejected numerous proposals of
marriage, she revealed today; always she has chosen to remain single.
"I was engaged to Mr. Taylor," she said. "I loved him deeply and
sincerely, and he loved me.
"We did not announce our engagement--I was waiting until the completion
of my contract--but I wanted nothing more than to be his wife, to make a home
for him....That is why I have never married."
Several times during the intervening years since 1922 there have been
rumors that the former star was about to marry, but always the rumors faded
away. Now she is living quietly at her home in Beverly Hills, rarely figuring
in the news of the day, except as the Taylor mystery is periodically reopened
for investigation.
One of her few recent "public appearances," prior to the time of the
current investigation, was during an accounting trial last fall before
Superior Judge Emmet H. Wilson. It involved a part of her million-dollar film
earnings, but today she disclosed how little the money meant to her.
"I cared nothing about the money," she said. "That is why I let mother
handle all of my business affairs. All I was interested in was the prospect
of marrying the man of my choice, of making a home for him and doing all the
things a loyal wife who loved her husband would want to do.
"I was going to be married and money affairs were of no interest to me.
Mr. Taylor once thought that the money I earned might interfere with our
happiness, and I told him I would get rid of all my money--turn it over to
the other members of my family--if it stood in the way of our marriage.
"He was a great man--the finest, bravest, truest, most sincere man I
have ever known--and I was reverentially glad to be his fiancee.
"Mother, could never understand how I felt about Mr. Taylor. She really
cannot understand yet just how much he meant to me. She thought perhaps, that
it was only a childish infatuation. She wanted to protect me from my own
impetuosity. Finally Mr. Taylor told me that mother was right, that in
justice to me we should not be married until I had an opportunity to have
more experience, to grow a little older and really be sure that I knew my own
mind. He told me, after all, I was still a girl in my `teens while he was a
mature man.
"So we agreed that we would not see each other again until the
conclusion of my contract. It was then September, 1921. We agreed that the
engagement was to continue, but that we should not think of marrying until I
had completed all of the pictures required by the contract."
On December 23, 1921, she said she wrote the director a "good bye" note
as a sort of a bluff, hoping that its climatic effect might end the heart
rending weeks of waiting and at least modify the agreement to the extent that
they might see each other occasionally.
But though Taylor still held to the original plan, she said he told her:
"I love you more than anything in the world. I love you with all my
heart and soul."
That was the last time she saw him alive, she said, during a brief
meeting of only a few minutes after she delivered the "bluff" note.
"I knew then that it could never be `good by'," she said, "that no
matter how much or how long we were parted, we would be drawn together
somehow, perhaps even beyond death."
Even beyond death! The words strangely prophetic in retrospect, offer a
clue to the reason why Mary Miles Minter has not married.
Still lovely and attractive, she cannot forget her hopes and dreams of a
home with a big fireplace and a family. She said she always hoped that the
children would be sons and that they would grow up to be "like their father--
like the redwoods, strong and fine and substantial."
That was what she wanted and, in its essence, all she wanted. The
fireplace was especially important, for it symbolized her dreams. One could
sit before an open fire with one's beloved and build flaming castles of white
and red in the glowing embers.
She wrote impulsive love notes to Taylor and told him of her dream of a
house...with a fireplace. The notes were discovered at the time of his death,
but like all other things which linked her name with that of William Desmond
Taylor, she said they were no cause for her to be ashamed.
"I was sorry they were found," she said. "But I am not sorry I wrote
them. I am glad I wrote them. Through them I was speaking to my fiancee, and
I WAS WRITING FROM MY HEART, JUST AS ANY OTHER GIRL IN LOVE WITH HER
BETROTHED WOULD DO.
"Mr. Taylor was the finest of gentleman in every sense of the word.
Nothing ever happened that could have possibly made me think otherwise and
much did happen to confirm my admiration--apart from my love--for him, but I
did have the right--and, if you please, the honor--of expressing my love to
him in my own way, whether my very personal expressions were made public or
not.
"It is unfortunate that in sifting the evidence in a case of this kind
so much immaterial matter is dragged before the public gaze, regardless of
the effect on the lives of innocent people. I feel it was an outrage that the
letters were made public property, since they were written in 1919 when I was
17 years old, three years before his death, but I say again, I am glad they
were written."
Miss Minter made it clear that she is not leading a life of futile
mourning. She realizes that there is nothing to be gained by accentuating a
heartache year after year. But whether in future years any other man will
appear to make her forget the past, so that he may claim her hand, no one can
foretell.
The fifteen years which have passed since the death of William Desmond
Taylor are no criterion of what the future may hold, yet Mary Miles Minter
leaves no doubt that what has not happened in those years--her refusal to
marry when it was evident to all her friends that there was often the
opportunity--is something more than an idle gesture.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
December 26, 1929
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
(excerpt from interview with Charlotte Shelby)
...Outside Christmas crowds and laden automobiles moved back and forth.
Margaret Shelby Fillmore, ALWAYS A CLOSE PAL AND COMPANION of her mother, sat
near by...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
August 17, 1937
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
William Desmond Taylor's ghost hovered over the courtroom of Superior
Judge Parker Wood yesterday as a trial of a $48,750 lawsuit between a mother
and daughter began.
That the name of Taylor, murdered 14 years ago, will figure prominently
in the case, was indicated in the questioning of jurors who were asked if
they would be prejudiced against Margaret Shelby Fillmore or Mrs. Charlotte
Shelby, her mother.
1. It should be developed that Mrs. Fillmore had stated her mother was
involved in the Taylor murder case and in return for "protection" paid
$133,000.
2. Mrs. Shelby had been named in print as a possible suspect.
3. Mrs. Fillmore protected her mother, or appeared before the grand jury
in the recent reopening of the case.
Mrs. Fillmore charges in her suit that her mother, also the parent of
Mary Miles Minter, famous in the days of silent pictures, wrongfully took
$18,500 from a joint safety deposit box. Mrs. Shelby has denied the charges.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
August 18, 1937
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
`My Money' Says Mrs. Shelby
"My Margaret knew it was not her money. It was to be hers after my
death, but I am not dead yet."
Militantly, Mrs. Charlotte Shelby thus yesterday explained her eldest
daughter, Margaret Shelby Fillmore, was only a "dummy" in the many stock
transactions made in her name.
And so, she reasoned, it would have been impossible for her to defraud
her daughter of $48,750 as Mrs. Fillmore charges in a suit on trial before
Superior Judge Parker Wood.
"Yes," she admitted under questioning by Mrs. Fillmore's attorney,
Richard Cantillon, "I deposited large sums of money to Margaret's account and
had stocks made out in her name, but she knew they were not really hers."
"Neither of my daughters had the capacity for thrift. They had nothing
of their own, except what I gave them. I set up a `Hetty Green' bank account
as a basis for their future fortunes. But it was all my money."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
August 20, 1937
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Taylor's Name in Fillmore Suit
"Are you afraid I'll bring up the Taylor murder case?"
These were the words of Margaret Shelby Fillmore to her mother, Mrs.
Charlotte Shelby, in the PSYCHOPATHIC WARD of the General Hospital, where the
former was being held, according to her testimony to court yesterday.
The reference to the 15 year old murder of William Desmond Taylor was
made at the trial of Mrs. Fillmore's $48,750 suit against her mother.
"I asked her why she had me committed," Mrs. Fillmore told Judge Parker
Wood. "I said, `Are you afraid I'll bring up the Taylor case?'"
"Mother exclaimed `For God's sake, don't go into that.'"
Mrs. Fillmore said she was incarcerated shortly after discovering that
nearly $50,000 belonging to her had been removed from a joint safety deposit
box she held with Mrs. Shelby.
"I told her I was well and asked her what she had done with my money,"
Mrs. Fillmore testified.
"In her gushing manner she said, `My child, don't oppose me in this; I
just want you to get well.'"
Mrs. Fillmore said that in 1925, when her mother went to Europe, with a
bag full of bonds, some of which belonged to her that "men have been very bad
for our family," and that her mother resented her marrying.
"I DON'T TRUST MEN. I don't trust your husband and that is why I want to
take your bonds with me," Mrs. Fillmore quoted her mother as having said.
In direct contradiction to her mother's testimony, Mrs. Fillmore
testified she was not dependent upon her mother and that since she had been a
mere child she had been neglected in favor of Mary Miles Minter, the once
noted film actress, her sister.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 4, 1937
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Fillmore Drinking Told By Doctor
"I don't know whether Margaret Fillmore drank so much because she was
nervous or was nervous because she drank so much."
So testified Dr. Victor Parkin, psychiatrist and consultant, yesterday
in the trial before Superior Judge Parker Wood in which Mrs. Fillmore seeks
to recover $48,750 from her mother Charlotte Shelby.
Cross examined by Richard Cantilllon and John Glover, attorneys for Mrs.
Fillmore, Doctor Parkin disclosed that eight weeks had elapsed from the date
on which he had examined the sister of Mary Miles Minter and the date when
the certificate committing her to the psychopathic ward was issued.
*****************************************************************************
* The following article about the Taylor mystery was written by Sidney
Sutherland who also co-authored Mabel Normand's posthumous autobiography
which appeared in Liberty magazine in 1930. Although Bruce discounts this
early examination of the case as "error filled," (a charge I do not wholly
agree with myself), it is at least worth reprinting for giving students of
the Taylor case an idea about how Shelby and Minter's alleged involvement in
the case first became more generally known and accredited.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1929
Sidney Sutherland
LIBERTY
THE MYSTERY OF THE MOVIE DIRECTOR
Did a Woman Dressed as a Man Kill William Desmond Taylor?
If a scenario writer proffered to the movie magnates of Hollywood a plot
embodying the incidents involved in the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the
manuscript probably would be rejected on the ground that it would be an
affront to the intelligence of film fans to tell them a story so grotesque,
so bizarre, so fanciful, and so impossible!
Yet, not only was Taylor murdered in circumstances so sensational and
incredible that his assassination has never been solved, but the case
involved famous actresses, lovely women, mysterious jealousies, narcotic
addicts, millions of dollars, and ruined reputations -- a mystery so
beguiling and engrossing and puzzling that it may well be included in this
series of articles dealing with famous murders of recent years.
This, then, is the reconstructed and summarized tale of Taylor's murder,
a homicide surpassing the most bewildering detective story ever written.
William Desmond Taylor's whole life is cloaked in mystery. When he
reached Hollywood he was a mystery; he lived a mysterious life there; and
when he died by violence he left behind him a mystery which never has been
penetrated.
The record of his early days came partly to light after his body was
found carefully laid out on the floor of his bungalow.
William Cunningham Deane-Tanner was born in Carlow, Ireland, in 1877. He
was the son of Major Deane-Tanner, a florid, hot-tempered, imperious British
army officer. The family lived on the Bellevue Estates at Cappoquin, in
County Waterford, thirty miles northeast of Cork.
William (he became presently the Bill Taylor of our story) was the third
child in the Deane-Tanner family. Nellie and Grace preceded him, and Dennis
followed. The family moved to Dublin and the children were given excellent
educations. [1]
A distinct break between the choleric major and William came when the
latter was in his teens. The army officer wished his son to prepare for a
military life and when he failed in his examinations the old man kicked him
out. There is no definite record as to when Taylor came to the United States.
There is a vague yarn that he and Dennis appeared in Nebraska and worked on a
farm adjoining the farms of other young British remittance men.
It is known definitely that on December 7, 1901, in the Little Church
Around the Corner in New York City, William Cunningham Deane-Tanner married
Ethel May Harrison, the daughter of a New York broker. William then was vice-
president and manager of the English Antique Shop at 240 Fifth Avenue. The
young couple lived in Larchmont, where William joined the Larchmont Yacht
Club. He was exceedingly popular there and with his neighbors.
In 1903 a daughter was born to the pair. They named her Ethel Daisy. At
noon on October 23, 1908, William got his hat and told his employees at the
antique shop that he was going out to luncheon. He did not return that day,
and the next morning he telephoned from a hotel asking his cashier to send
him $600 by messenger.
The money was sent at once--and nobody ever saw William Cunningham Deane-
Tanner again! With no word of farewell or explanation to his wife and
daughter William disappeared as completely as if he had dived overboard from
a transatlantic liner.
His life's film now becomes almost a total blank for many years. After
he was dead there were rumors to the effect that William Desmond Taylor (as
he renamed himself) had been a mining prospector in Colorado, in the
Klondike, and in Montana. There is a story that he played in a stock company
in the music halls of Skagway, Fairbanks, and other Alaskan towns. But of
definite data there are none. [2] Following testimony on the part of a hotel
clerk in the Adrirondack Mountains, Mrs. Deane-Tanner found in 1912 that she
had adequate grounds for divorce in the state of New York, where in those
days only proof of adultery would win a decree. It seems William had spent a
week in the mountain resort with an unnamed woman. In 1914 Mrs. Deane-Tanner
married Edward L. C. Robins, treasurer of the S. M. Robins Company, which
owned Delmonico's restaurant and other eating places in the downtown
financial district.
A few years later Ethel and her mother were watching a motion picture.
Suddenly a tall, slender, rather handsome figure appeared on the screen. The
older woman instantly recognized the gray eyes, the thin, chiseled features.
"There's your father!" she exclaimed. The program identified the actor
as William Desmond Taylor. Ethel wrote to him and presently he answered. A
regular correspondence followed, and after a while Taylor came east and met
his daughter. He never again saw the woman he had deserted.
Before we proceed with William, a word about his younger brother,
Dennis, is of interest. Dennis, too, appeared out of a mysterious past and
married an American girl who bore him two children. [3] He too became
associated with an antique shop on lower Fifth Avenue. And he too disappeared
suddenly, deserting his family and leaving no word behind. From that day to
this, Dennis has never been heard of. His wife learned of Taylor's success in
the movies, so she moved to Monrovia, California, and until he died her
brother-in-law sent her fifty dollars a month.
When Taylor first reached Hollywood he got a job as an actor, but was
soon made a director. His progress thereafter was phenomenal. He was the
leading director of the Famous Players-Lasky Company, and at the time of his
death was president of the Motion Picture director's Association. [4] He was
highly respected, both as an artist and as a man.
His health was quite frail, and he suffered from stomach trouble. He
even wept to England in search of relief. Like many other men in high place
in the movies, his career threw him in contact with lovely young girls whose
temperament were unstable and their mentality and learning meager. There is
no denial of the fact that he was no St. Anthony in his relations with these
fair scatterbrains. [5]
But neither is there any denial of the fact that many young girls owed
their screen success to his help and counsel. Nor that he waged a bitter,
single handed war on the rascals who flourished during what may be called the
Dope Age of the movie industry. Sudden riches, adulation, fame, popularity--
these things turned the heads of scores of young actresses, and having
exhausted all the other thrills many of them turned to narcotics. Taylor, it
is said, never relaxed in his warfare against the dope peddlers, and for a
time after he died the authorities hunted in those underworld circles for the
motive and the assassin.
The world went to war. Taylor continued to make pictures. A year after
his adopted country went to the aid of the Allies, Taylor enlisted,
preferring the company of his own kith. The official record:
"W. D. Taylor, 1127 Orange St., Los Angeles; age 41; profession,
director; born Cork, Ireland; height 5'11"; British subject; enlistment
attested at Chicago, July 3, 1918, by the British Recruiting Mission in
America."
Taylor reached Hounslow Barracks December 2, 1918, a few weeks after the
Armistice was signed. He was then sent to Windsor, Nova Scotia, in the summer
of 1919, where promotion to a captaincy quickly came his way. He was
discharged shortly thereafter. [6] And, to leap ahead of our story a bit, his
funeral was one of the most impressive ever held in Los Angeles.
His casket, hidden beneath a Union Jack and piled high with flowers was
guarded at each corner by a uniformed representative of Britain's colonies--a
Canadian, a Tommy, an Anzac, and a kiltie-clad Scot. Every person of
prominence in the picture industry attended the services.
Another enigmatic figure appears in the drama--Edward F. Sands. Supposed
to have been Taylor's valet and chauffeur, his real relations with the
director have thus far withstood explanation. It is known that he also was in
the British army. [7] But there his name was Edward Fitz-Strathmore; and
where he hailed from, and what was his exact status in the Taylor household,
are questions as unfathomed as the void he disappeared into shortly before
the murder.
Sands seems to have been more than a valet; for when Taylor went to
England late in 1921 because of his health, Sands ran amuck. He forged his
master's name to innumerable checks; he pawned his jewelry; he wrecked two of
his cars; he stole nearly all his clothes; and apparently he had also
blackmailed him from time to time. [8]
When Taylor returned Sands vanished. He has never been seen since. [9]
Taylor is quoted as having said he would punish his valet for his misdeeds.
With Sands gone, Taylor hired a Negro to replace him--a falsetto-voiced,
crochet-work and fancy-work addict named Henry Peavey. Peavey was a queer
chap and his testimony at the inquest was a weird mixture of sonorous
phrases, effeminate outcries, curious concealments, and amusing disclosures
about life in the Taylor home. Poor Peavey, how he flung himself on the
coffin and sobbed! But he declined to reveal intimate details of his late
master's callers and their affairs.
Two celebrated actresses now appear in the picture, Mary Miles Minter
and Mabel Normand. At the time (early 1922) Mary was probably the most
popular actress on the screen. [10] She had even passed Mary Pickford in the
esteem of her fans. Taylor had directed her in Anne of Green Gables and other
pictures, and she was madly enamored of him. Her letters and lingerie
interested the detectives who searched the Taylor premises for the clew they
were never to find. [11]
The murder of Taylor and the discovery of her belongings in his bungalow
effectually killed Mary Miles Minter in pictures. A desperate effort was made
at the time by Famous Players-Lasky to salvage their investment in her, for
on their shelves were several of her films waiting for release. These were
shot out to the exhibitors as quickly as possible while the movie magnates
tried to divert notoriety from the star. [12]
But they finally got out of their contract with her as cheaply as they
could. They had paid her more than $1,000,000 in salary, and this fortune was
cause of numerous quarrels between Mary and her mother, Mrs. Charlotte
Shelby.
Mrs. Shelby lamented bitterly the publicity that ushered her daughter
into oblivion. She had striven mightily to end Mary's infatuation with
Taylor.
Mabel Normand was then riding the crest of her remarkable popularity as
a comedienne. [13] A deep friendship existed between her and Taylor. It was
owing to his excellent literary tastes that she filled her library shelves
with standard authors. They spent much time together, in theaters watching
and studying the latest developments in motion pictures, and discussing
scenarios and "business" which would improve his status as a director and
increase her fame.
Mabel might be designated correctly as the "play girl of the western
world." Completely indifferent to public opinion and to such conventions as
might cramp her idea of having a good time, her private life was as amusing
and hectic and startling in its caprices as her clowning was excruciating in
her pictures.
Yet until the Taylor murder case broke upon a curious and amazed world
Mabel never had made the front page of the newspapers with any of her
escapades. [14] Vivacious, fascinating in her dark beauty, brilliant and
wealthy, the irresponsible little film clown had danced through life,
treading dangerously near trouble with her experiments in the search for
thrills.
Taylor was an earnest but somewhat ineffective balance wheel in their
companionship. He strove to make his playmate more sensible, and was in
despair at times because of her irresponsibility.
The hook-up in the Taylor case, according to the authorities of Los
Angeles, seems to have been this: Mary Miles Minter, the blonde beauty with
long curls and cherub face, loved Taylor; Taylor was in love with Mabel; and
Mabel regarded the director as a worldly-wise, polished and congenial friend
and jolly companion, en tete-a-tete or at the famous film colony parties.
I talked with her last year about the Taylor murder. I think that for
the first time she gave a coherent, running account of the mystery. A
painstaking investigation of the official archives, now yellowing with age in
their steel resting place, and among the authorities, now disposed to forget
the murder until the murderer turns up, seems to substantiate the
comedienne's story in every important detail.
"It was because of Bill Taylor's counsel in the matter of literature
that I saw him his last day alive," she said. "We used to discuss the new
authors with a view to the adaptation of their work to the screen. One of our
favorite writers was Ethel M. Dell. We thought The Rocks of Valpre had
tremendous possibilities.
"On Wednesday, February 1, Sennett gave me a day off saying he would
phone me what time to show up next day. I awoke about noon, and wondered how
I'd spend the day and evening. I thought it would be a good time to do
something I'd been putting off, as usual, since the Christmas holidays.
"I had received so many beautiful gifts, and there were numerous
duplicates. I decided to load my car with these things and go to the
jewelers, where I could exchange some and have others engraved. I would also
leave my personal jewelry I'd taken out for the holiday parties in my safe-
deposit boxes at Hellman's Night and Day Bank.
"So I had William Davis, the chauffeur, carry the packages out to the
car, and then I scurried into my clothes. I explained to Mamie Owens, my
maid, that I was going to my two jewelers, Brocks' and Feagan's, and would
telephone her from some place down there.
"I was almost too late. I got into Brocks' store just before closing
time, six o'clock, told them what I wanted, and then hurried over to
Feagan's, where they were just locking up. All this, and what followed, was
carefully checked on afterward by the police.
"I then ordered Davis to drive me to the Hellman bank at Sixth and Main
streets. While at the bank I decided to call my house and tell Mamie, I'd
dine downtown and see Harold Lloyd's new picture.
"I called up my apartment. I lived at 3089 West Seventh Street, a dozen
blocks or so from Taylor's bungalow apartment at 404-B South Alvarado Street.
"Mamie answered the phone. `But you can't go to the picture tonight,
Miss Normand," she said. `Mr. Sennett called up after you left and said for
you to be ready to go on location tomorrow morning at seven o'clock with all
your make-up on. And Mr. Taylor just called up and said he had two books for
you, and when could you call by for them, or should he bring them over?'
"I told her I would drive by his place and come on home.
"As I left the vault I glanced at my wrist watch. It was nearly seven
o'clock. I started to step into my car, and suddenly felt a great appetite
for peanuts. I looked around. Standing across the street against the curb was
a peanut man's push cart.
"I told Davis to wait, skipped across, and bought two bags of peanuts
and one of popcorn, handing the man a ten dollar bill, the smallest I had. He
couldn't change it and I pretended to be surprised and angry. Then I laughed
and went into a drug store and got the change.
"I went back to my car and told Davis to take me to Bill's. As we drove
through the traffic I saw a news stand and told him to stop. I bought two
magazines.
"Then we went on to Bill's house. It was part of an attractive
arrangement. There were eight little two-story cottages built around a U,
three on each side and two at the end of the U fronting on Alvarado Street. I
don't know who lived in five of them; but the second on the left was occupied
by Edna Purviance, the third was Taylor's and the last one on the right was
rented by Douglas MacLean and his wife. [15]
"I told Davis I'd be only a little while, and asked him to sweep out the
peanut shells I'd scattered all over the floor of the car. I got out, left my
magazines on the seat and walked up the left-hand cement walk to Bill's
little house. I carried a bag of peanuts to show my gratitude for the two
books he had for me!"
A peculiarity the director had was that he never closed his front door
during the day and seldom at night, a point Mrs. MacLean emphasized in her
testimony at the inquest, as you shall see.
"When I reached Bill's open door," said Mabel Normand. "I heard a voice
inside: he was using the telephone. So I walked around the flower beds a few
minutes until he had quit talking and hung up. Then I rang his bell.
"He came to the door, smiled and held out both hands.
"`Hello, Mabel darling,' he said. `I know what you've come for--two
books I've just got for you."
"`Righto, my bright duck,' I said going in. `And I brought you a
present, too. Guess what it is.' I held the bag of peanuts behind me.
"`No man's brain could possibly guess what you'd buy,' he retorted. `But
I'll bet it's something fine. Come on in and have dinner. I've just finished
mine, but Peavey can fix you something.'
"`Thanks, Bill, but Mamie's going to feed me in bed tonight,' I said,
and told him of my appointment for seven o'clock next morning.
"`But you'll have a cocktail, won't you? he said. I said, `Sure,' and
solemnly presented him with the peanuts.
"He laughed and put the bag on top of his piano. They found it there
untouched the next morning. Then he shouted to Peavey to mix a couple of
cocktails, and returned to his seat in front of his writing table. The whole
top of the table was covered with canceled Checks, and he called me over. I
sat on the arms of his chair, and he pointed at the litter and said:
"`Look, Mabel, what that damned fellow Sands did to me. Nearly every one
of those checks is a forgery; and, do you know, he did such a good job that
to save my life I can't tell which are my signatures and which are forgeries!
I've been over them twenty times, and I'm going mad. I've no idea how my
account stands at the bank, and I don't think we'll ever get it straightened
out. Just look at this.'
"He picked up one check he knew he had signed and beside it held one he
was uncertain about. Neither of us could see any difference in the
signatures.
"I asked what he was going to do about it.
"`What on earth can I do?' he wailed. `I'll never get it straightened
out--never. As for Sands, of course he's been missing for months. If they
ever find him, you can bet I'll do plenty to him.'
"Peavey came in with cocktails on a little silver tray.
"He put them down, where the glasses were found the next morning, and
bowed low in his funny way.
"How do you do, Miss Normand,' he said in his shrill voice. "I trust all
is well with you.'
"`All's well, Henry, thanks,' I said. Henry had been released from jail
that morning, Bill having gone down to get him out of some trouble he'd got
into. He asked Bill if that was all for him. [16]
"`Yes, Henry,' Bill said. "Clean up out there and trot along. And don't
worry; I think I can fix up everything downtown tomorrow.'
"Henry fluttered about a while, and then bowed as he went out, leaving
the door wide open as he always did. It was about seven o'clock. He left each
evening after dinner and came the next morning at seven.
"After he'd gone, Bill got the books he had for me and unwrapped them,
and we glanced through them. Then we talked about my work and his, and about
any number of things we were interested in.
"Then he offered to call Fellows, his chauffeur, and take me home, but I
told him that my car was at the curb. He said he'd telephone me at nine
o'clock, and I said, all right, but that Mamie wouldn't disturb me if I'd
gone to sleep by then.
"He walked down toward the street with me. In the cottage next to Edna's
we saw a man sitting near the window under a light reading newspapers.
"How important the insignificant sometimes turns out to be! I tremble
even yet, nearly six years later, to think what they might have done to me if
this man had not told of seeing us leaving together and of glancing out a few
minutes later to see Taylor striding back to his bungalow.
"When we reached the curb, Davis was standing at the door of my car, his
feet in the litter of the peanut shells. Bill laughed when he saw them and we
chatted for a moment. I looked back, and we wafted kisses on our hands to
each other as long as I could see him standing there on the edge of the
sidewalk.
"I never saw him again. And he didn't telephone me at nine o'clock, as
he had promised, for he was lying on the floor of his living room shot
through the back and dead within a few moments after I left him."
Taylor walked back to his cottage, and presumably sat down again to look
at the checks on his table. In the morning he was found lying on the floor,
coat buttoned, lapels smoothed down, arms lying straight beside the body,
feet close together, trousers unwrinkled.
The assassin had evidently slipped into the living room and hidden
behind the open door after Taylor and Mabel had left to go to her car.
For an hour after his body was discovered by the terrified Peavey the
next morning it was thought that he had died of heart disease, as the bullet
wound between the small of the back and his left shoulder blade was not
noticed until the ambulance came. [17]
At the inquest everybody who knew anything testified, Mrs. Douglas
MacLean said that a little before eight o'clock, just after Mabel Normand had
departed, she had heard a pistol shot. She and her maid glanced at each
other, and Mrs. MacLean stepped to her little upstairs veranda in time to see
a short, stocky man, with a muffler around his neck and his cap pulled down,
come out of Taylor's cottage, close the door carefully behind him, glance
casually about, and then walk down the steps. [18]
He turned to the left and disappeared between the Taylor bungalow and
the house east of it into a little court where the Taylor garage opened on
the alley.
Douglas MacLean also heard the shot and discussed with his wife the
possibility that the man she had seen leaving had fired it. But nothing was
done, and Peavey found the door closed the next morning. Surprised, he rang
the bell, and finally opened it--to come upon his master's body.
When his excited shrieks startled the courtyard, Edna Purviance
telephoned Mabel, and Mabel almost became hysterical.
Then Edna called Mary Miles Minter, and Mary became wholly so. [19] She
started to run to the front door and Mrs. Shelby barred her way.
"You're not going over there," the mother said firmly.
"But Bill Taylor's been murdered!" the little blonde screamed.
They stood and argued about it a while, and Mary fell weeping into a
chair before a mirror. Suddenly she noticed her reflection and was struck by
the expression on her own face.
"Look, mother," she cried; "look at my expression. Don't I register
frozen horror perfectly?"
"Hold it, dear," cried Mrs. Shelby, running around in front to see.
Then Mary got out of the house and hastened to the courtyard, where now
detectives, newspaper men, movie directors, and tenants were milling around
in great confusion. When she arrived she promptly put on a mad scene,
screaming and calling, "Bill, my darling, speak to me!" and tearing her fair
curls, and dashing to and from across the flower beds--and trying to get into
the house.
The police prevented her entrance, for they had already found much
feminine finery and dainty lingerie, some of it monogrammed with three M's,
and many startling letters--letters which presently became a passport
ushering Mary Miles Minter into oblivion. [20]
And then the storm burst with unbelievable fury about Mabel Normand's
head.
"I had donned the Spanish costume I was using in the picture," she told
me, going on with her story, "and was seated before my mirror finishing my
make-up, when Edna Purviance telephoned.
"I was incredulous, then stunned. Soon there was a wild ringing at my
doorbell and a wilder clamor outside, and when the door was opened the
wildest mob I ever saw tumbled into my living room--detectives and newspaper
men and press photographers and curious strangers. They eddied around me and
hurled a million questions that I couldn't understand, much less answer
coherently.
"Most of them left after I'd told them all I could remember. Some
remained, clustered around me where I sat crying, and went on with their
questioning.
"Then it dawned on me, hours after they had raided my apartment, that it
might be in the minds of some of them that I had murdered my friend! That
ghastly possibility made me frantic, and I imagine that the more I talked the
less sense I made out of what was, and what was soon proved to be, a
perfectly innocent coincidence--that I happened to have been the last person
who saw Taylor alive except his murderer.
"Everybody who knew me or knew Taylor was questioned again and again by
the authorities. Henry Peavey told of leaving me alone with Taylor, and of
finding his body the next morning, and Mrs. Douglas MacLean told of seeing
the assassin leaving Bill's front door. Pressed to describe this individual,
she found it difficult, since he had a muffler around his neck and his cap
pulled down over his eyes.
"But she knew Sands, and said it wasn't he. Sands has never been found.
"She seemed startled when some astute questioner in the district
attorney's office suggested that the slayer might have been a woman dressed
in man's clothing. She reflected a moment and acknowledged that the killer
was built more like a man than a woman."
So far as getting anywhere is concerned, that is the end of the Taylor
murder mystery. I asked the district attorney's office not long ago what
steps were being taken to solve the case. The answer was that until somebody
showed up with the murderer's name and address the case might be regarded as
closed.
Mary Miles Minter and her mother went to Europe for several years. There
was talk of court action because of their wrangles over Mary's fortune, but
they never got that far with it. Mary put on weight and last year returned to
America. At last accounts she was living quietly in Hollywood.
Mabel Normand continued her career with vicissitudes, until finally she
eloped with Lew Cody and was married to him. Reports from Los Angeles are
that they are living in Beverly Hills, Lew working at a studio and Mabel
apparently out of pictures.
Edna Purviance, the famous leading woman of Charlie Chaplin in many of
his great films was involved in a subsequent shooting, and she, too, stepped
out of pictures for a while. Not long ago she returned from Europe with the
remark that she would soon reappear on the screen.
In southern California, official and popular opinion is to the effect
that Taylor was killed by a woman disguised as a man. A name is mentioned,
but it cannot be printed, because to date no material evidence has been found
connecting the suspect with the murder of the movie director.
*****************************************************************************
8) A LOOK AT THE CHARACTER OF DIST.-ATTY. THOMAS LEE WOOLWINE AND HIS
ADMINISTRATION
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
June 24, 1915
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Woolwine Too Jealous; Dean Quits Office
Harry Ellis Dean, chief deputy district attorney, resigned yesterday.
The resignation was accepted by District Attorney Woolwine to take effect
immediately, and when the chief deputy walked out of the office yesterday
evening it was not to return. There is, therefore, a $4000 a year position to
be filled.
Mr. Dean wrote a long letter of resignation, but it is nearly all
preface until the following sentence is reached:
"I am not in accord with your official acts and administrative
policies."
The characteristics which he found objectionable were cited by Dean in a
verbal statement.
"Mr. Woolwine," said the retiring chief deputy as he was about to take
his hat and go, "is constitutionally devious.
"He has an artistic temperament.
"He has a passion for public approbation.
"In carrying out his formula for giving everyone a square deal he has
had to run contrary to his constitutional peculiarities; but they kept
cropping up; they are always cropping up; he can't keep them down.
"He is not only fond of the limelight; he wants it all. Every time my
name appeared in the papers `Tom' jumped on me; he couldn't stand it.
"Did you and Mr. Woolwine disagree about the Sebastian trial?"
"No; he took all the responsibility for instituting that case and for
its conduct."
Later in the day Mr. Dean gave out a second letter to Mr. Woolwine in
which he said:
"Supplementary to my letter of resignation to you this morning, I desire
to add the following reasons among a number of which I will not make mention
of, which to my mind tended to undermine the efficiency of the office.
"The incompetence of your secret service department is subject of
general comment. This department you were early in your administration
advised would make or break you, and with the proof of your utter lack of
capacity of your chief detective brought to your attention, at all times met
with your prompt resentment in unmistakable terms. Successful results in the
trial of cases necessitates the gathering of evidence by an efficient
department of secret service, and to the prevention and detection of crime
efficient results cannot be secured unless the department head is experienced
in his work, with an apt mind for accurate deductions in the detection of
crime reporting to the office.
"For weeks the county has been infested with bunco steerers, large
amounts of money have been fleeced from visitors to Southern California,
without any attempt upon the part of your secret service head to detect the
operators, and society remains unprotected.
"Your administration has to its credit about three convictions for
liquor selling in the entire county. This is a sad commentary on the
efficiency of the office or indicates the policy entirely inconsistent with
your pre-election pledges. While it is true you did at all times refuse to
state your views upon the subject, yet you were well aware that the voters
advocating liquor regulations realized the importance of placing in the
office of district attorney a man who would vigorously enforce any
legislation that they might enact, and efficiency enforce the laws then
provided by the statute. This matter I have commented upon several times, and
have stated in unequivocal terms to you, that a continuance of the dilatory
methods now employed would have to be satisfactorily explained to the voters
in the affected districts."
District Attorney Woolwine only smiled when he was asked for a
statement. He thereafter met all questions with that famous rejoinder: "I
have nothing to say."
Nor would he intimate who is to be Dean's successor. Asa Keyes and A. H.
Van Cott, deputies in the office have been mentioned.
Dean's resignation was a surprise to Woolwine. Several persons in his
office knew about it before he himself found the letter ion his desk. The
resignation was tendered to take effect July 6 or "at your pleasure."
Woolwine accepted the letter suggestion and made it immediately.
Mr. Woolwine's reply was as follows:
"Dear Sir: I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favor of June 22, 1915,
in which you tender your resignation as chief deputy district attorney to
take effect July 6, 1915, or at such earlier date as may be my pleasure. In
reply thereto, I desire to say that your resignation is hereby accepted to
take effect immediately for the reason that I do not believe that my useful
purpose may be served by delaying the matter until the sixth of July.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
August 17, 1916
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Accuses Woolwine of Unfair Play
S. A. Woodford, campaign manager for Harry Ellis Dean, candidate for
District Attorney, charges unfair tactics on the part of Woolwine supporters
at a meeting held last night at 1011 Central Avenue under the auspices of the
Non-Partisan league.
"Our meeting had just been called to order," declares Woodford, "when
three machines, containing Frank Dominquez, Claire Woolwine, Thos. Lee
Woolwine himself and others, pulled up outside and a big commotion started.
They brought along a drum and fife corps and our audience stampeded to the
street to see what the fuss was all about.
"They tried to address our audience. The crowd grew from 200 to 500.
Finally I leaped upon Dominguez's machine and made an appeal for fair play.
"The crowd derided the newcomers and finally became so menacing that
they put on power and fled from the scene."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 27, 1916
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Cannot Trace Lost Ballots
If Precinct is Thrown Out Woolwine Elected
The disappearance of 102 primary election ballots cast in precinct 3,
national Soldier's home district, remains a mystery. The grand jury and the
eight judges who are conducting the recount utterly failed yesterday in their
attempt to trace the ballots. While the probe will be continued today by the
judges, Deputy District Attorney Doran said last night that the grand jury
had followed all the leads imaginable without result and that body is not
likely to resume the investigation.
The election officials who presided at the precinct in question, Nelson
Bowerman, inspector; Newton H. Culver, Reuben Oehier, William A. Church,
Luther B. Edinborough and Harry A. Strauss, appeared before the grand jury
and all testified to the parts they had taken in handling of the ballots.
The officials said the missing ballots were placed in the envelope for
Republican ballots, and taken together with the other ballots and placed in
the treasurer's vault at the Soldier's Home, Inspector Bowerman being an
orderly in the treasurer's office. He said the following morning he took the
ballots to the express office and shipped them to the Registrar of Voters.
Registrar McAleer and several of his deputies were called before the
judges. Mr. McAleer told of the methods applied in the handling of ballots
and deputies testified to have received the ballots from No. 3 precinct.
Margaret Harrington's signature was attached to the envelope which should
have contained the ballots. She could not, of course, remember distinctly
this particular envelope.
Judge Monroe instructed the man in charge of the county warehouse to
search all the ballot boxes for the missing ballots and report this morning.
Should the ballots be found in the boxes or any other place there is a
legal question as to whether they can be counted, and the search for them is
more important in the matter of fixing the blame for their disappearance. It
is held by prominent attorneys that the ballots, even if accidentally lost,
are invalid because of the opportunity for tampering with them.
Whether the returns indicated on the tally sheets should be taken as the
result of the original count is to be decided by the judges, probably today.
Dist.-Atty. Woolwine and W. T. Helms, his principal opponent, were instructed
last night to prepare briefs on the question.
Mr. Woolwine contends the count on the tally sheets is of no consequence
when the ballots are missing. He believes that when a court is conducting a
recount it can recognize only the ballots that are taken from the various
envelopes and if the ballots are missing the precinct must be thrown out.
There is a provision of law which states that the result indicated on
the tally sheets must be accepted as correct unless there is evidence to the
contrary. This would compel the District Attorney to furnish the proof of
fraud. Mr. Woolwine does not believe this provision should be applied in this
particular case.
Should the entire precinct be thrown out, Mr. Woolwine will be an easy
victor in the recount. According to the figures last night, he had gained 150
votes, needing but ten more to the tally sheet. Precinct No. 3, according to
the tally sheet gave Mr. Woolwine 40 and Mr. Helms 33. If they are not
recounted Mr. Woolwine will gain forty-three votes on Mr. Helms, more than
enough to elect.
Mr. Woolwine said last night he has never charged fraud in connection
with the disappearance of the ballots, but is unable to conceive of a
legitimate reason for the ballots being lost.
There are about 500 precincts yet to be counted. The work should be
completed tomorrow night, the judges say.
Morris P. Light, an election inspector in precinct No. 327 (?) charged
with falsifying the tallies at the recent primary election, was arraigned
before Justice Forbes, yesterday and released on his own recognizance till
the preliminary hearing on October 5.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
April 28, 1918
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Would Muzzle Steffens Kind
Speaking before 506 members of the Texas Society at their annual picnic
yesterday at Sycamore Grove, Dist.-Atty. Thomas Lee Woolwine severely
criticized all anarchists, pacifists, and in particular Lincoln Steffens, the
writer and lecturer who was prevented by the police from giving an address in
San Diego Friday evening.
"Steffens represents a type of plausible, curiously sincere, but utterly
dangerous anarchist," Dist.-Atty. Woolwine said. "His kind camouflage the
term anarchist by calling themselves `philosophical anarchists'--whatever
that they may mean. He tells us that he does not stand for violence, nor the
destruction of the government, nor of constituted authority by force, and yet
that is the very thing that his utterances beyond doubt indicate and by his
conduct he gives aid and comfort to those who outrage and seek to destroy all
governmental authority.
"While professing to believe in the Christian sentiment of `Peace on
earth, good will to men,' he is the ready champion of the assassin, dynamiter
and the revolutionist. For years he has taken an affectionate interest in the
`boys' who put to death by assassination twenty innocent laboring men in a
newspaper building in the city of Los Angeles.
"Shortly after the arrest of David Caplan, and Matthew A. Schmidt, both
of whom were accused at that time with the McNaramas of the murder of the
men, Steffens journeyed cross the continent, saw me in my office and implored
me not to try the cases, but to allow the defendants their liberty. I was
amazed at his sincerity and earnestness in advocating this preposterous
course. He actually broke down and wept in the excess of his emotion,
pleading the cause of the `boys'--the dear dynamiters who had done nothing
worse than to assist in the assassination of twenty human beings.
"I answered Steffens to the effect that I looked on the defendants as
cold-blooded murders, and that I would use every power at my command to
convict them. Prosecutions and convictions followed, and these destroyers of
human lives are now serving their respective terms in penitentiaries.
"The hazard of allowing such men as Steffens to inject their subtle
poisoning into the minds and hearts of the American people at a time when
this nation is in a death grapple to perpetuate the principles upon which the
nation is founded, is the height of unwisdom and folly.
"Steffen's revolutionary and anarchistic statements in San Diego as they
appear in the public press, though obscure in the deceptive paint and raiment
of the harlot, are nevertheless in substance propaganda of the most insidious
and dangerous character.
"The exigencies of this wartime require that Lincoln Steffens and all
such conscientious but misguided romancers should be quickly and effectively
muzzled for the duration of the war."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
January 3, 1922
LOS ANGELES EVENING EXPRESS
L.A. Police Head Wants To Be Put On Retired List
"The job is not worth it."
Such was the statement made by Charles A. Jones, chief of police, today
after he announced he will appear later in the day before the mayor and
pension board and ask to retire.
This announcement follows the circulation of many rumors for last three
months that the chief intended to retire. Political wrangling both inside the
police department and at the City hall followed his appointment by Mayor
Cryer after the latter's election. Rumors about the central station are that
either Capt. R. Lee Heath or Police Commissioner De Coo will be named to
succeed Jones.
Chief Jones, following the announcement of his proposed retirement
issued a burning statement in which he said:
"No one man can run the Los Angeles police department. There are too
many meddlesome so-called reformers and others who interfere with the work of
the officers.
"They insist that the police department devote its entire efforts to
running petty gamblers out of business instead of devoting itself to the more
important work of protecting the lives and property of our citizens and the
visitors in our midst.
"Not only that, but within the department itself, among the men and
officers, there is too much bickering and conniving to `get' each other's
jobs.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Note. The following clipping appeared in an early issue of TAYLOROLOGY,
however, it is worth reprinting with respect to the topic under
consideration.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 20, 1922
LOS ANGLES TIMES
Commission Weighing Case of Miss Jones
The Civil Service Commission yesterday took under consideration the
letter from Dist.-Atty. Woolwine giving his reasons for dismissing Miss Ida
Wright Jones from his employ.
The commissioners would not indicate what if any action would be taken
in the matter. The commission would either have to approve or disapprove of
Mr. Woolwine's action in dismissing Miss Jones, which was based on the report
that she was preparing to sell an affidavit to his political enemies for
$10,00 to the effect that she had been intimate with him.
Miss Jones has not petitioned for a hearing looking to her
reinstatement. She was not represented at the meeting of the commissioners
yesterday.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
January 6, 1923
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Woolwine Gets Film Job Offer
Resignation of Thomas Lee Woolwine as District Attorney within the next
few days to become the executive head of a motion-picture organization to be
known as the Independent Producing Manager's Association, loomed as a strong
possibility last night with the announcement by Herman I. Roth, Hollywood
attorney, and nationally known throughout theatrical circles, that overtures
made to Mr. Woolwine during the last ten days practically had been accepted.
"I am not in a position to say whether I am going to resign to take the
film job or not," Mr. Woolwine stated last night. "Things relative to the
film position are shaping up rather well but before I will know anything
definite I am going to have an other conference with the heads of the
undertaking.
"There is a possibility that I may take it. We have been figuring on the
proposition for days and have been going into it rather thoroughly.
"Whether I accept the position or not depends on the outcome of the next
conference I am going to have which will be on Monday night. Then I shall
know definitely.
"The way I understand matters at present I will be expected to handle
the legal end of the company. I am going into the matter more thoroughly at
the next conference to learn what will be expected of me."
Acceptance of this offer by Mr. Woolwine will mean, it is said, a salary
of approximately $25,000 yearly for a period of five years.
The association which was suggested voluntarily by a number of
independent producers for the purpose of exploiting their own pictures,
efficiency and economy to be the watchword, was fostered and brought to a
head through the work of Mr. Roth. Twelve independent producers have already
have pledged themselves to such an association and three more companies
possibly will be allied with the original set in a few days. Ultimately every
independent producer will be linked into the association, it is said.
Mr. Woolwine if he accepts, will not become in any sense the Will Hays
of the independent producers, but will look after the financial affairs of
the proposed association in an advisory capacity, most of the legal work
being left to Mr. Roth.
The independents are not seeking to rival or oppose other organizations
already formed in the motion picture field, but seek co-operation between
independents for economy and efficiency, and to the end that their pictures
get fair break with those of the larger organizations, which, through their
power, have better distributing facilities.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
IT IS STATED IN THE ABOVE CLIPPING THAT WOOLWINE WAS WANTED TO BRING
FINANCIAL EFFICIENCY TO THE ORGANIZATION OF INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS. LOOK AT
THE FOLLOWING AND JUDGE FOR ONESELF WHETHER SUCH CONFIDENCE WAS JUSTIFIED:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
from; A STUDY OF THE OFFICE AND PROBLEMS OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF LOS
ANGELES COUNTY, by Daniel Beecher, Chief Trial Deputy District Attorney,
formerly Judge of Superior Court (1931)
* Operating Costs of District Attorney's Office--Los Angeles County
OFFICE NUMBER OF FELONY COST PER
BIENNIAL PERIOD EXPENDITURES CONVICTIONS FELONY
(2 FISCAL YEARS) (2 FISCAL YEARS) CONVICTION
1920-22 (Woolwine) $401,890.08 1,665 $242.83
1922-24 (Woolwine)
to June 6, 1924
(thereafter Keyes) $596,213.66 2,759 $230.78
1924-26 (Keyes) $802,343.76 2,904 $276.25
1926-28 (Keyes to
Dec. 3, 1928; thereafter
Burton Fitts) $1,083,070.47 4,775 $226.80
OFFICE NUMBER OF FELONY COST PER FELONY
EXPENDITURES CONVICTIONS CONVICTION
1929-30 (Fitts) $555,349.61 2,766 $200.77
1930-31 (Fitts) $590,508.99 3,195 $184.82
* Felony Convictions In Los Angeles County Based Upon Population
FISCAL YEAR POPULATION NO. OF FELONY NO. OF FELONY
OF L.A. CTY. CONVICTIONS CONVICTIONS PER
100,000 POPULATION
1920-21
(Woolwine) 1,086,408 827 71
1921-22
(Woolwine) 1,255,353 828 71
1922-23
(Woolwine to June 6, '23
then Keyes) 1,378,685 1,289 90
1923-24
(Keyes) 1,509,318 1,290 90
(Keyes) 1,864,733 1,452 78
1925-26
(Keyes) 1,933,675 1,452 78
1926-27
(Keyes) 1,996,507 1,798 88
1927-28
(Keyes) 2,074,812 1,799 88
1928-29
(Keyes to Dec. 3, '28
then Fitts) 2,196,195 2,009 91
1929-30
(Fitts) 2,202,510 2,766 125
1930-31
(Fitts) 2,240,208 3,195 142
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 21, 1925
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Woolwine Suit Is Thrown Out
Holding the communications objected to were privileged and that evidence
submitted was insufficient to constitute a cause of action, Judge York of
Superior-Court yesterday granted a motion dismissing the suit for $75,000
damages brought by Ida Wright Jones against Thomas Lee Woolwine, former
District Attorney, and others, for asserted defamation of character.
Judge York threw the case out of court after hearing arguments Thursday
afternoon on the motion for a nonsuit, which was offered by W. J. Ford,
attorney for Woolwine, and Will Anderson counsel for the other defendants.
Miss Jones's complaint was based on stories published relative to her
dismissal from the District Attorney's office by Woolwine in May, 1922. She
declared her reputation had been injured by Woolwine, who wrote a letter to
the Civil Service Commission stating he had discharged Miss Jones because
information had come to him that she was planning to make an affidavit
stating she had been intimate with Woolwine and sell it to his political
enemies for $10,000. On the witness stand Miss Jones denied she had ever
planned to make such an affidavit or dispose of such information to his
opponents.
Woolwine, who is convalescing from a serious illness that befell him in
Europe more than a year ago, was not in court during the trial, as his
physicians ordered he be secluded from his attorney.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
June 6, 1923
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Judge Scores Prosecutor
Judge Monroe in Superior Court yesterday in dismissing a criminal action
against Capt. Jose Fonseca, formerly an aviator in the Mexican army, bitterly
arraigned the District Attorney's office for inefficiency and "for cluttering
up the courts."
The court "bolted over" when the prosecutor arose and moved that the
case against Fonseca be dismissed because of insufficient evidence.
In dismissing the case, Judge Monroe declared that the suspect had been
in jail for three or four months because of the loose method employed by the
District Attorney and his assistants. The District Attorney's office knew, he
declared, that there was insufficient evidence to convict the prisoner when
the latter had his preliminary hearing yet he was kept in jail and finally
dragged into Superior Court, where already the docket is overcrowded.
Judge Monroe declared further that the tactics of the District
Attorney's office were hampering the efforts of the courts to dispense
justice and were aggravating the congestion in the County Jail.
Fonseca was charged with the theft of an automobile from a local
concern. He contended that he had rented the automobile and told the
officials of the concern from whom it was rented that he would not return it
for some time. He stated further that the company told him he could use the
machine as he wished if he paid the rent for it.
Fonseca drove the machine to Fresno, where he was arrested and brought
back here. He was given a preliminary hearing and then held to answer to the
higher court.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
July 9, 1925
LOS ANGELES TIMES
(from Woolwine's obituary)
From the date of his acceptance of the office, Dist.-Atty. Woolwine was
constantly in the limelight of publicity. If he was not being attacked, he
was assailing somebody else. One of the first attacks launched against him
was one by an organization known as the Law Enforcement League. The league
endeavored to have Dist.-Atty. Woolwine removed from office on charges of
"failure to do his duty," but he was exonerated in 1916 amidst a scene of
flying fists when his attorney, W. J. Ford, struck the opposing counsel twice
on the chin.
*****************************************************************************
NEXT ISSUE: The Return of Ellery Queen and Erle Stanley Gardner
Allegations that Henry Peavey Murdered Taylor
When did Mary Miles Minter Learn of Taylor's Death?
Flashes of Margaret Shelby
Wallace Smith: February 11, 1922
*****************************************************************************
NOTES by Bruce Long:
[1] Taylor was born in 1872 (not 1877); he was the second (not third) child;
he had no sister named Grace. See chapter four of A DEED OF DEATH for some
specific details on Taylor's life prior to his marriage.
[2] On the contrary, there is considerable definite data for Taylor's
movements and activity between 1908 (when he left his wife) and 1912 (when he
obtained his first acting job in the movies).
[3] Denis and Ada Deane-Tanner had three children (not two). One died in
infancy.
[4] Although Taylor was one of Famous Players-Lasky's most prominent
directors, he certainly was not "the leading director"--that title clearly
belonged to Cecil B. DeMille.
[5] This is only a rumor; some deny that Taylor was a womanizer. (In fact,
some deny that Taylor had any real interest in women at all. See A CAST OF
KILLERS.)
[6] Taylor was released from military active duty in spring (not summer) 1919.
He was back in Hollywood in mid-May. (See WDT: DOSSIER, p. 92)
[7] Sands (as Edward F. Strathmore) had been in the U.S. Navy and the U.S.
Army. He was not in the British Army.
[8] Although Sands was a prominent suspect in Taylor's murder, there was no
indication that he had blackmailed Taylor.
[9] Sands was seen several times after leaving Taylor's employment. He was
positively identified in Fresno and Sacramento as having pawned some of the
jewelry stolen from Taylor in a subsequent burglary. He was seen downtown Los
Angeles at 1:20 p.m. the day before the murder, and was reportedly seen
several other times.
[10] Mary Miles Minter was certainly never "the most popular actress on the
screen." In a poll in Motion Picture Magazine shortly before the murder, she
was not even in the top ten. (The top three were Norma Talmadge, Gloria
Swanson, Mary Pickford.)
[11] It was never firmly established that Minter owned the "lingerie" found in
Taylor's apartment.
[12] None of Minter's films were "shot out to the exhibitors as quickly as
possible" after the Taylor murder. "Tillie" was released on January 29--prior
to the murder--and her next film, "The Heart Specialist," was released on
April 9, more than two months after the murder. Her other 1922 films were
released in July and October.
[13] The crest of Mabel Normand's popularity had passed several years earlier.
In the "comedienne" category of the popularity poll mentioned above, she was
third, behind Dorothy Gish and Constance Talmadge.
[14] Mabel Normand's injury resulting from her 1915 confrontation with Mack
Sennett did make front page banner headlines (see LOS ANGELES HERALD,
September 20, 1915), but the incident was covered up to make it appear that
she had been injured during an accident at the film studio.
[15] The MacLean's cottage was not the last one on the right; it was at right
angles to Taylor's, facing Alvarado.
[16] Some contemporary press items do state that Peavey had been bailed out
that morning, but other reports indicated it was several days earlier. (See
VARIETY, February 10, 1922)
[17] It was thought that Taylor had died of a stomach hemorrhage, not heart
disease. The bullet wound was in his left side, slightly toward the back.
[18] Faith MacLean did not testify at the inquest. Elsewhere, she stated that
she was looking out her front door (not the upstairs veranda) when she saw
the man. She did not see him "come out" of Taylor's apartment; he was already
standing outside, but Taylor's door was open. (See WDT: DOSSIER, pp. 333-
335.)
[19] Edna Purviance did not telephone Mary Miles Minter and notify her of
Taylor's death; Mary was notified by her mother, Charlotte Shelby.
[20] Mary always denied that any of her lingerie was in Taylor's possession, or
even that she had any monogrammed lingerie. There was a nightgown found among
Taylor's effects, with differing reports as to whether it was or was not
monogrammed. (See WDT: DOSSIER, p. 369.) Minter did admit that she gave
Taylor monogrammed handkerchiefs, which were found among his effects. The
"monogrammed lingerie" is only an unverified rumor. The 1922 press reports
did not explicitly state that the rumored initials were "MMM"; the initials
were only implied. This recap by Sutherland was one of the first to explicitly
state so.
Sutherland's recap became the foundation for many later recaps of the
Taylor case.
*****************************************************************************
For more information about Taylor, see
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
Back issues of Taylorology are available via Gopher or FTP at
etext.archive.umich.edu
in the directory pub/Zines/Taylorology
*****************************************************************************
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