1222 lines
76 KiB
Plaintext
1222 lines
76 KiB
Plaintext
*****************************************************************************
|
|
* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
|
|
* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
|
|
* *
|
|
* Issue 26 -- February 1995 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
|
|
* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
|
|
Review: New Book on Mabel Normand
|
|
Juanita Hansen, Part I
|
|
Wallace Smith: February 23, 1922
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
What is TAYLOROLOGY?
|
|
TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
|
|
Taylor, a top 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.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
A short article on TAYLOROLOGY appeared in the "CyberSurfing" column of the
|
|
WASHINGTON POST on January 12, 1995. The article mentioned the parallels
|
|
between the 1922 Taylor case and the current O.J. Simpson case.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
Review: New Book on Mabel Normand
|
|
|
|
MABEL NORMAND: A SOURCE BOOK TO HER LIFE AND FILMS, by William Thomas
|
|
Sherman, has just been published. Compared to most other books on silent film
|
|
stars, this is truly a great book--more than a great book, because it stands
|
|
as a prototype of the way such books should be. If only there were similar
|
|
books available for dozens of other silent film stars!
|
|
Books on film actors can be appealing for any of three reasons:
|
|
(1) an admirable film career is detailed; (2) an interesting life story is
|
|
told; (3) a appealing personality is brought to life. This book succeeds in
|
|
all three areas.
|
|
Mabel Normand was one of the leading female comedians of the silent film
|
|
era. Her film career is well chronicled in this volume, which includes a
|
|
critical analysis of her films and comedy style, contemporary reviews of her
|
|
film and stage appearances, publicity material, and a detailed filmography.
|
|
Her life story is fascinating and compelling, of far greater interest
|
|
than the typical "rags-to-riches" tale. She was a pioneer in the silent film
|
|
industry, working with industry greats such as Chaplin, Arbuckle, Goldwyn,
|
|
Sennett. The success and the scandals are here, including the scandal that
|
|
almost destroyed her career--the murder of William Desmond Taylor. Also
|
|
included is the complete lengthly 1927 interview series by Sidney Sutherland,
|
|
originally published in Liberty Magazine.
|
|
But of even far greater interest than her film legacy or her life story
|
|
is Mabel Normand's personality. That personality sparkles before us again;
|
|
she truly comes to life through contemporary interviews, character sketches
|
|
and anecdotes. As one interviewer wrote: "She isn't the sort of person that
|
|
treats an interviewer as just an interviewer. She doesn't just take you,
|
|
mentally, into a cool ante-room and chat formally for half an hour and then
|
|
wish you good-bye. Rather, so to speak, she opens up the doors of her heart,
|
|
invites you into her comfiest living room, stuffs cushions under you and
|
|
offers to tell you a good joke she heard to-day." After her death, another
|
|
wrote: "Mabel Normand was the most extraordinary character I have ever known.
|
|
Certainly, the most interesting and unusual personality the screen has ever
|
|
known. There will never be another Mabel Normand. Few such vivid
|
|
individualities have appeared in the world in any metier. Beyond that, the
|
|
screen world has become too standardized to offer scope and right-of-way for
|
|
another such character. Generous, impulsive, self-effacing, impudent,
|
|
untamed, misunderstood and not resentful of the cruelty of that
|
|
misunderstanding. Daring in spirit, tender, brilliant, and with the eager
|
|
curiosity of a child." This book's many interviews, done so long ago, will
|
|
leave modern readers in love with her and wishing we could travel back in time
|
|
and know her personally.
|
|
This mammoth book is not a "biography," although it is filled with
|
|
biographical material. As the title indicates, it is a "source book to her
|
|
life and films," and as such is far more valuable than any mere biography.
|
|
Buy it, read it, treasure it--for the text, not for the pictures. Anthony
|
|
Slide correctly states in the book's foreword: "MABEL NORMAND: A SOURCE BOOK
|
|
TO HER LIFE AND FILMS deserves wide readership. No reference library should
|
|
be without it. It is a gallant and eminently worthwhile attempt to resurrect
|
|
Mabel Normand to her rightful place in film history."
|
|
There was a biography of Mabel Normand by Betty Fussell published a
|
|
decade ago, and a comparison is natural. Of course the two books have some
|
|
overlapping material. But overall, Fussell's book has more later information
|
|
culled from interviews with Mabel's associates, and from books published after
|
|
Mabel's death; Sherman's book is over twice as large and has much more
|
|
contemporary information published during Mabel's life. Both books should be
|
|
treasured.
|
|
MABEL NORMAND: A SOURCE BOOK TO HER LIFE AND FILMS (ISBN: 0-9643760-4-0)
|
|
by William Thomas Sherman is available from Cinema Books, 4753 Roosevelt
|
|
Way N.E., Seattle, WA 98105, 206-547-7667.
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
Juanita Hansen, Part I
|
|
|
|
A lot of the press reports and rumors surrounding the Taylor case concerned
|
|
the use of narcotics in Hollywood. Mabel Normand had supposedly been
|
|
addicted, but she never made a public statement admitting it. One female
|
|
star of that time who did admit drug addiction was Juanita Hansen. She
|
|
subsequently wrote a series of newspaper articles describing her drug
|
|
experiences.
|
|
This fascinating chronicle was the first time a drug-addicted movie star
|
|
had ever made such details public. Although the Taylor case is only briefly
|
|
mentioned (in Part 13, implying that drug gangsters were responsible for
|
|
Taylor's murder), this series provides interesting background regarding drug
|
|
use in the silent film industry at that time. Here is a true tale which
|
|
modern Hollywood could use as the basis for a compelling historical
|
|
"docudrama."
|
|
|
|
March 29 - April 4, 1923
|
|
Juanita Hansen
|
|
NEW YORK AMERICAN
|
|
|
|
Part 1
|
|
|
|
For two and a half years I was addicted to the use of narcotic drugs.
|
|
Recently I took treatment at Oakland Sanitarium prescribed by Dr. John Barker.
|
|
I was discharged as cured.
|
|
I am free from the habit that held me a slave, and I thank God for my
|
|
liberation from the terror of life-long addiction to which I seemed to be
|
|
doomed.
|
|
There is no question about my cure. What may happen in the future I
|
|
cannot foretell, but I believe I possess the power of will necessary to combat
|
|
any desire to return to that most dreadful condition of slavery.
|
|
I feel that my terrible experience qualifies me to speak with authority
|
|
on the subject of drug addiction, and the purpose of these articles, which I
|
|
have undertaken to write for the readers of the New York American, is to sound
|
|
a solemn warning to the youth of the nation, to light the road ahead and
|
|
reveal the many pitfalls; to point the way to a cure for other addicts, and to
|
|
give them courage to attempt to break the shackles of habit; and most of all,
|
|
to urge the Government to bestir itself to reach out its powerful arms and
|
|
gather in the smugglers and peddlers of narcotic drugs, and kill this evil at
|
|
its source.
|
|
These articles well address also that great body of God-fearing and home-
|
|
loving families who are ignorant of the dangers that beset them; whose
|
|
children may, innocently as I, myself, become enmeshed in the toils of this
|
|
chain, Dope.
|
|
Government records show that the number of addicts has increased
|
|
enormously in the last two years. The chain that binds holds and destroys so
|
|
many human beings is growing alarmingly.
|
|
We are becoming a nation of narcotic drug addicts. The United States
|
|
uses twenty times as much dope as any other white nation, and seventeen times
|
|
more than drug-ridden China. The United States uses more narcotic drugs than
|
|
all the rest of the world put together.
|
|
We can no longer turn our backs on this menace, which threatens to
|
|
destroy our Republic. We cannot shrug our shoulders as if it were a question
|
|
that did not concern us. It does concern every man, woman and child in the
|
|
nation. We must act today, not wait until tomorrow. Let us join in one
|
|
tremendous army and wipe out this great evil.
|
|
My purpose is to arouse especially the women of American and to enlist
|
|
their cooperation in the movement to stamp out this evil. I hope that no
|
|
woman will say, "Oh, this thing is too terrible. I do not want to hear about
|
|
it. It is none of my business."
|
|
It is the business of every mother, sister and sweetheart, for not only
|
|
are the women, especially the young women, exposed to the danger of addiction,
|
|
but it is their duty to protect their husbands, their sons and their
|
|
sweethearts against the temptation of acquiring the drug habit.
|
|
Our duty is plain. We must cure the addicts we have; we must also stop
|
|
the supply of narcotic drugs at its source.
|
|
Now, as to treatment of addicts, and those who have been addicts and are
|
|
cured, by the Federal authorities and especially by the police--the New York
|
|
police.
|
|
Should an addict who has been cured be regarded as a criminal? What had
|
|
I done at the time of my arrest recently? I was a law-abiding citizen, happy,
|
|
buoyant, rejoicing over the battle I had won. I felt so safe, felt so sure I
|
|
had broken the chain and shaken off the last links that held me to dope.
|
|
I had left California pronounced cured. I weighed 142 pounds, which was about
|
|
six pounds above my normal weight. My health was splendid.
|
|
I came East. The business that had brought me to New York--negotiations
|
|
to produce a film-story that I had myself written--was nearly completed.
|
|
I was happily enjoying New York, visiting a girl friend.
|
|
Why did they not arrest me in my own home?
|
|
I was in hiding, they said. Strange. My business associates were able
|
|
to find me at my hotel whenever they needed me.
|
|
Hiding? Why? I had nothing to hide.
|
|
Why this sudden interest in me by the New York police? Judge for
|
|
yourself. A few weeks prior to my arrest in New York the case of Wally Reid's
|
|
illness brought to light my name in connection with Dr. Barker's Sanitarium in
|
|
California.
|
|
So, just because I had been a drug addict I was arrested. The police say
|
|
I was taking drugs at the time I was arrested. I deny it.
|
|
Do not feel I am vindictive over my arrest. Remember, I wish only to
|
|
help, and my motive is only to do good.
|
|
First let us begin at the beginning of things, page one of my life book.
|
|
Now turn over a few chapters to the chapter marked "Today." I am pronounced
|
|
cured of narcotic addiction. I now weigh 135 pounds, which is my normal
|
|
weight, and am working, working, trying to find the road which will lead me to
|
|
each and every one of you who read these pages, that I may warn you, and
|
|
educate you.
|
|
You must study hard, that wisdom may be yours. Watch, be alert, do not
|
|
sleep any longer on this subject. Let the entire world rise, denounce this
|
|
evil. Face it.
|
|
You love your children. Well then, be brave enough to warn them, educate
|
|
them so that they will recognize the evil when they come face to face with it,
|
|
and so that they will be able to cope with it. For, believe me, this vile
|
|
thing is no respecter of persons.
|
|
In our schools, where little children seek knowledge, in Sunday schools
|
|
seeking God's wisdom, explain, instruct, protect them. Do not wait until they
|
|
need the cure. Give them the preventive.
|
|
Had I known at the beginning the meaning of the words "narcotic," "dope,"
|
|
had I been forewarned and known how to protect myself, probably I never would
|
|
have fallen into the clutches of this terrible curse.
|
|
I have urged you to protect yourselves and those you love. Perhaps this
|
|
first story of mine will show you how easy it is to fall innocently into the
|
|
clutches of this thing. The devil himself surely controls this curse; and is
|
|
it not like the devil to come in a beautiful form? What form, you ask?
|
|
Clothed in secrecy and described by his agents in beautiful language--as
|
|
being so much fun, just a lark.
|
|
It was at a party to which I had been invited in Hollywood, and felt
|
|
quite flattered to be present, inasmuch as there were seven or eight of our
|
|
prominent artists there when I was initiated into the "Fraternity," as it is
|
|
called in the West.
|
|
I had noticed during the evening that there was considerable whispering
|
|
and a sort of undercurrent of secrecy of a mysterious something. So naturally
|
|
when one of the party said, "I believe we can initiate her," indicating me,
|
|
I really considered it a compliment.
|
|
Then they all came into the room to watch the performance. One of the
|
|
boys reached into his watch pocket and brought out a small paper carefully
|
|
folded. Then he took out of another pocket a small nail file. He opened the
|
|
paper and revealed a small amount of white powder. Handing me the nail file,
|
|
he told me to take a small amount of the white powder out of the paper on the
|
|
point of the nail file, then inhale it through my nostrils.
|
|
I had no idea what the powder was. I had never heard of anyone doing
|
|
anything like that. It did not occur to me there was the slightest harm in
|
|
it, because everyone present promised to take what they called a "shot" after
|
|
I had taken one.
|
|
I did as I was told, but instead of inhaling, exhaled and blew the powder
|
|
all over the room, which, of course, caused a great deal of mirth. With the
|
|
second attempt, though, I succeeded in inhaling a small amount of this powder.
|
|
The effect was very pleasant.
|
|
It seems to be a common belief that when taking narcotics you have
|
|
visions or dreams. That is absurd. It is merely a pleasant sensation. You
|
|
feel at peace with the world.
|
|
Little did I dream that this was the first step, a false step, which
|
|
would cause me years of heartaches and mental anguish.
|
|
I do not blame anyone at this party where I first learned what dope was
|
|
for the error I made in becoming an addict. I want my readers to know I blame
|
|
no one but myself, and I offer no alibi, for I myself was to blame.
|
|
I attended such parties, perhaps twice a month for almost a year before I
|
|
ever made an attempt to purchase any drugs for myself. Where and how to get
|
|
more drugs to meet the growing craving was the question in my mind. It seemed
|
|
very hard then, but with the experience I have had with dope in the last four
|
|
years, I know that I can purchase it in any town in the United States. You
|
|
may think that a broad statement. Well, I have traveled from coast to coast,
|
|
and when I wanted it I got it.
|
|
You ask how I knew where to go? I didn't, but there is the indefinable
|
|
something, like the power possessed by a magnet, that draws members of the
|
|
fraternity together, whether they be user or seller. You will meet, and you
|
|
speak a language understood by both.
|
|
Why is it today I can recognize an addict at a glance? And peddlers and
|
|
sellers of narcotics might just as well be labelled as such, for I seem to
|
|
sense their mission. Anyone who knows drugs can pick out the victim.
|
|
I want you to know, and believe me when I tell you, I have never shown
|
|
anyone narcotics nor allowed them to take their first "sniff" or "shot" in my
|
|
presence. According to authorities, one addict means six. Then I am an
|
|
exception to the rule. The chain stopped with me. I never forged a single
|
|
new link for it, and I have no responsibility on my soul that causes me worry.
|
|
Perhaps for a long time all that God had given me I destroyed. Now I am
|
|
trying so hard to make amends.
|
|
The one thing that is hard to regain is the confidence of the other
|
|
fellow. Somehow he doesn't want to believe in you. Just as I can recognize
|
|
an addict, just as surely can I sense the former addict who is free from the
|
|
drug.
|
|
Should we not rejoice and be happy to know when someone we once loved has
|
|
beaten this thing?
|
|
But what we find is another thing. People are always so anxious to
|
|
herald our shortcomings.
|
|
I wish to instil the desire in every addict's heart in this country to
|
|
try to give up his narcotics, and prove to him there is a reward for his
|
|
effort. But you must help me, every one of you. Don't shut the doors of your
|
|
heart against me because yesterday I was an addict. Right here in New York, a
|
|
girl who has in the past accepted my hospitality, been my guest, closed the
|
|
door of her heart because of "this scandal."
|
|
I call it a great victory. I think it is something of which I will
|
|
always feel proud. Of course it hurt my vanity to have you all read my life
|
|
of yesterday, but since you have heard the charge, now hear my defense. And
|
|
from my point of view I am not guilty of deliberate wrongdoing. I was only a
|
|
victim of weakness just as one in your own family might be.
|
|
I'm going to tell you the whole story--with all its horrors, and if
|
|
through the reading of it some girls in good, decent families are saved,
|
|
I shall have done a public service which may atone in part for any wrong I did
|
|
in becoming a drug fiend.
|
|
Tomorrow I will tell how I went from the "party sniffer" into full
|
|
fledged drug addiction. I wish you would make every young boy and girl read
|
|
my story.
|
|
|
|
Part 2
|
|
|
|
I had played with the devil's toys--I told you of this in my article of
|
|
yesterday. The devil himself had set out to do his work.
|
|
Six months had elapsed, probably, since I had seen any of the people who
|
|
were present at the parties of the previous year. I had no desire, or perhaps
|
|
I should say craving, for any of this white powder called heroin, still--
|
|
I was one of the first to be stricken with the flu in California. This
|
|
was in October, 1918. In January the following year I had the first attack of
|
|
sleeping sickness, the after effects of the flu.
|
|
For three months my eyes were crossed and eye specialists and the finest
|
|
physicians could not convince me that this was a temporary condition. I was
|
|
absolutely convinced with my eyes crossed my career was at an end.
|
|
During these three months I had been accepting salary from the producer I
|
|
was under contract with to make a big animal serial. He was not ready to
|
|
start work, and his manager in the West saw me every few days, and my
|
|
attending physician, and was satisfied that this was a temporary condition,
|
|
and he was willing to pay my salary until the story and plans for the
|
|
production were ready.
|
|
So obsessed was I with the belief that this condition of my eyes had come
|
|
to stay that I wired to the producer, who was then in Chicago, as follows:
|
|
"I think it only fair that you should know that I am crosseyed, and I
|
|
think you had better get another leading woman for the serial."
|
|
To which I received this reply:
|
|
"I am satisfied that you will be well by the time I am ready to start
|
|
production. Continue to get your check every week."
|
|
Of course I considered him very foolish to continue on his payroll a
|
|
leading woman who was hopelessly, as I thought, crosseyed.
|
|
During the first few weeks of my illness I slept twenty-three hours out
|
|
of every twenty-four, but only once slept forty-eight hours, during which even
|
|
my mother could not arouse me. I lost my memory completely. At luncheon time
|
|
I could not remember what I had eaten at breakfast.
|
|
My friends who called on me, my mother afterwards told me, would find me
|
|
asleep, my mother would awaken me, I would sit up in bed, recognize them, talk
|
|
intelligently, and after an hour or so would lapse right back into a stupor.
|
|
Now nearly three months had elapsed since the sleeping sickness had cast
|
|
its spell over me. I had driven my motor car with considerable effort to San
|
|
Francisco. All this time my mother was still receiving my salary check. But
|
|
I was sorely discouraged. Then one morning the unexpected happened. I had
|
|
gotten out of bed, had my glasses in my hand, when I looked in the mirror.
|
|
My double had disappeared. Can you imagine how happy I was to find that
|
|
the physicians and eye specialists knew what they were talking of, after all.
|
|
Of course the first thing I did was to wire my mother and wire the
|
|
manager of the studio.
|
|
After reporting to my manager, who saw that my eyes were well, he
|
|
informed me that another firm wanted me for an important part in its
|
|
production, and my management intended to farm me out because they were not
|
|
ready to start their serial.
|
|
For three weeks, which was the time stipulated in the farming out
|
|
arrangement, it was with considerable effort that I worked at this other
|
|
studio. At the end of this period, they had not finished the scenes in which
|
|
I was playing, but my original manager decided to start his serial.
|
|
You must understand these elaborate productions run into the hundreds of
|
|
thousands of dollars, and I had to go through my part. Now I felt indebted to
|
|
the original manager, who had been paying me my salary during my siege of
|
|
illness, so when he informed me they were ready to start I knew it meant
|
|
double work at two studios, day and night, for me.
|
|
But I did not dream that I would be kept working sixteen to eighteen
|
|
hours a day for three weeks.
|
|
After one week of this strain of double work I fainted while doing my
|
|
serial work.
|
|
It was then I realized that I had overtaxed my strength. Then behold the
|
|
devil's work.
|
|
I remembered the exhilarating effect of the white powder called heroin.
|
|
If I could only get hold of some of that! But how? It seemed I could not go
|
|
on with my work.
|
|
I would not go to a physician because I thought he would stop my work.
|
|
And I MUST make good. I must be at the one studio every morning, work all
|
|
day, go home, bathe, eat a little dinner, and by 8 o'clock report at the other
|
|
studio. My strength was falling. I must do something.
|
|
I tried to reach some of the former friends who had attended the parties,
|
|
but was not successful. Then one night I stopped to have dinner in town and
|
|
was rushing up the stairway of a grill to hasten to the other studio. A man
|
|
whom I had never seen before stopped me and said:
|
|
"Oh, Miss Hansen, I saw a friend of yours the other day."
|
|
And this friend he mentioned was the one who had first shown me the
|
|
little package of white powder. How I ever summed up courage to break my
|
|
promise to the fraternity and ask this man, out and out, if he knew where I
|
|
could get any heroin, I marvel as yet.
|
|
But the devil works in strange ways. Behold, here was a peddler right at
|
|
hand.
|
|
I purchased for the first time right there on the street, for the asking,
|
|
my first "bindle" of heroin. The devil had set his trap, and I played into
|
|
his hands.
|
|
Having located the man, who afterwards, I learned, was a peddler, from
|
|
from I could purchase the white powder, and having obtained his telephone
|
|
number and address, my double work, which consumed sixteen hours a day, was no
|
|
longer an impossible task.
|
|
I found that with a little sniff of this heroin in the morning, I was
|
|
able to do my serial work. One little shot lasted me all day. Another little
|
|
shot in the evening, when I was ready to start for the other studio, kept me
|
|
going until midnight a least.
|
|
I found it necessary, though, when working after twelve, to take another
|
|
shot. Now this work kept up three weeks and I found it necessary to increase
|
|
the size of the shot, and I had to take them more frequently.
|
|
Little did I realize that in three weeks I was making great strides
|
|
towards becoming an addict. It had not occurred to me that this little white
|
|
powder was really habit-forming. As I told you in a previous article, no one
|
|
had told me, or warned me, of the habit, but merely against taking an
|
|
overdose.
|
|
When I finished my night work at the other studio--and I had just my
|
|
serial work to do in the daytime--it was not necessary for me to take as much.
|
|
But now this thing had got hold of me. It sort of held me in its grasp. It
|
|
made my work so much easier.
|
|
Do not feel that I was trying to shirk my work, for I love my work. But
|
|
I was not strong yet. My illness had sapped a great deal of my vitality, and
|
|
with the help of this narcotic, which seemed to give me all the necessary pep
|
|
and strength a film star is supposed to have, I was able to go through with my
|
|
work.
|
|
But the devil fooled me again. Pretense, only pretense!
|
|
Had I really been more familiar with the subject of narcotics, if I had
|
|
been warned, if I had ever read or studied it, than I would have realized it
|
|
was high time for me to stop playing with the devil's toys.
|
|
But I was innocent. Who had taught me in school? No one in my home ever
|
|
mentioned narcotics. And I was afraid to ask. I knew this was something I
|
|
should not tell. From the night of the first party I always remembered my
|
|
promise--silence!
|
|
It never occurred to me to stop taking it when it made me feel so much
|
|
better.
|
|
I have often wondered if it was weakness or cowardice, whether a sin or
|
|
virtue to want to work, work, work. That is all I wanted to do. There was no
|
|
thought of pleasure. There was hardly time to sleep.
|
|
It was probably a month later that I realized and discovered by myself
|
|
that this was surely habit forming.
|
|
What a terrible awakening!
|
|
You will never know what a shock this was to me. I discovered it one
|
|
morning when I did not have any of the heroin left. I could not reach the
|
|
peddler on the telephone and I COULD NOT GO TO WORK.
|
|
I HAD TO go to work. I must get there. They telephoned from the studio
|
|
and said so. Not HOW would I get there, but GET THERE. They said:
|
|
"You are costing us much money. You are the leading woman of this
|
|
production. You must be here."
|
|
As if illness were a thing you invited and could dismiss with a command.
|
|
No thought of me or how I felt.
|
|
No questions as to what was the matter. But they could not allow me the
|
|
time to be sick. Every day meant thousands of dollars to them.
|
|
On this particular morning I speak of I could not drive my car. I had
|
|
gone to pieces--collapsed.
|
|
I MUST get to that peddler, so I engaged a taxi, drove to the address he
|
|
had given me, made a purchase--in other words "a connection" as it is called
|
|
in the fraternity. One little sniff, and I was well. A miracle had been
|
|
performed.
|
|
I went immediately to the studio. Of course I looked well. But the
|
|
managers asked no questions.
|
|
If I could have gone to the producer and told him my discovery of that
|
|
fateful morning, if he would have kept my secret and helped me, just a few
|
|
days away from the studio at this stage that I had reached in my addiction, it
|
|
would have been so easy. Could I tell him? No, no, no! Big producers cannot
|
|
be troubled with an actor's little worries.
|
|
The addict does not ask for time for a cure. So he continues to increase
|
|
the quantity--more pretense. Finally he gets in so deep, and is bound so
|
|
tightly by the chain, that he becomes resigned to his fate--addiction to
|
|
narcotic drugs.
|
|
I know many addicts who are just waiting for an opportunity to break the
|
|
chain. But the continuous work--the production, carry on the production--
|
|
nothing must must stop the production!
|
|
Finish one, and in two days start another. Never any time off. I think
|
|
the devil has a hand in this, too. He always seems to find a reason.
|
|
In these few weeks I had become an addict. How ashamed I was! I tried
|
|
so hard to do without it. Was I a weakling? This was all so strange to me.
|
|
No, it was not weakness. It was illness. For the taking of heroin is
|
|
not just a habit you can break as you can snap your fingers. It grows right
|
|
into you. It seems to become a part of you.
|
|
Beware lest you and yours fall innocently into the devil's trap as I did.
|
|
You must recognize the destructive power found in this white powder.
|
|
Narcotics are no respecter of persons. I told you that.
|
|
A few short weeks and my life so entirely changed. I was a victim, a
|
|
victim bound to the chain that was to take the most precious years of my life
|
|
and twist and turn right and wrong until I had no conception of either.
|
|
Do not let your little sister, your daughter or your sweetheart suffer
|
|
what I suffered through ignorance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Part 3
|
|
|
|
The length of time it takes to become an addict is a subject greatly
|
|
discussed today. DeQuincy, author of "Confession of an Opium Eater," says "In
|
|
less than one hundred and twenty days, no habit of opium-eating could be
|
|
formed."
|
|
DeQuincy, like myself, had at one time been bound to the chain of
|
|
narcotics, and his cure was considered a miracle. He referred only to opium.
|
|
I cannot say that I agree that it takes four months to form other
|
|
narcotic habits. Of course I think that conditions alter every case.
|
|
In two and a half months I became an addict. It would have been easy to
|
|
break this habit had I not been under contract, and could have been free from
|
|
work, for just a few days, for treatment.
|
|
However, today I could acquire the habit anew in less than a week.
|
|
Once an addict it is so very easy to fall back into your old footsteps.
|
|
I have seen this happen many times. I warn addicts, and urge them to be, oh,
|
|
so careful, that just one little "shot" and then another little shot, and you
|
|
are right back where you were.
|
|
Be careful of your associates, careful of your environment, for these
|
|
have everything to do with your life.
|
|
And now, you people who belong to respectable society, and you who are
|
|
members of the law, help the little fallen brother and sister, keep them away
|
|
from the old associates and environment, open your hearts to them, your homes;
|
|
make them feel glad because they are with you. For if you turn your backs on
|
|
them and shun them for their sins of yesterday they will become discouraged.
|
|
For who else will welcome them but the members of the old fraternity?
|
|
It is a belief that users are envious of any one when cured and go around
|
|
urging them to come back into the chain. My experience has not been such.
|
|
I think of all the people who were happy over my victory, the ones who
|
|
were bound, perhaps, a little more tightly than the rest to the narcotic
|
|
chain, were the very happiest for me.
|
|
Now, because I am cured and well and on the road to happiness again, I do
|
|
not intend to forget the poor unfortunates who are bound to this terrible
|
|
curse. I want to help them. But I not only wish to cure them, I wish to heal
|
|
them.
|
|
To continue with my story. Three months, now a victim. The realization
|
|
of this thing angered me. I felt humiliated. I resolved never to attend
|
|
another party. If I had to take this heroin, I would take it alone. It would
|
|
be a secret.
|
|
I kept my secret; so I thought. But the truth will out.
|
|
I worked some nine months on that serial which was to be my biggest
|
|
success. This picture to date has made a great deal of money. Three months
|
|
before I finished it, I had a very flattering offer to come to New York to
|
|
make more serials. This contract was signed at once and I left for the coast
|
|
as soon as the serial was done. [1]
|
|
Again I made a resolution--I would be free of this thing before I went
|
|
East. But how?
|
|
I confided at last in a doctor, paid him considerable money, only to find
|
|
out that it required time, three or four weeks, to cure me. Would an appeal
|
|
to the manager have helped me? No, I knew that was useless.
|
|
Weeks and weeks of hard work. I had to get East and report for work with
|
|
the Eastern firm in January. In order to keep my contract, it was necessary
|
|
for me to work night and day. I had two directors, two camera men, two staffs
|
|
of electricians, painters, carpenters, every one that makes the studio force.
|
|
But I worked the two shifts. For three weeks I averaged an hour and a
|
|
half to two hours sleep an night. I had to finish this serial, and I had to
|
|
be in New York in January. What was the result?
|
|
The two or three weeks I had so longed for, so that I might be cured,
|
|
were never available. The devil saw to that!
|
|
I finished the serial the day before Christmas at 6:30 o'clock at night.
|
|
At 8 o'clock the same night I was on a train bound for Oakland. The next day,
|
|
when I stepped into the compartment on the Eastbound train, I fainted
|
|
completely exhausted. I had my bed made and stayed there until we reached
|
|
Chicago.
|
|
My life seemed always to be lived in a hurry, rushing--rushing from the
|
|
studio to home, rushing back to the studio and rushing from one end of the
|
|
country to the other.
|
|
Two days after I arrived in New York I started a new serial. The studio
|
|
was ready for me. They didn't have time to give me a few days off. It would
|
|
cost them too much money.
|
|
I knew to start this serial meant six months of steady work, the hardest
|
|
I was ever to do.
|
|
Again the devil played his hand. He knew I couldn't get away for six
|
|
months. He played havoc with my peace of mind. My first four figure
|
|
contract, here in New York, should have made me, oh, so happy. But I was not
|
|
free to play in the sunshine. So again it was only pretense!
|
|
Another resolution. I would beat the devil at his own game. I would see
|
|
another doctor and I would take a cure while I was working.
|
|
I went to one of the finest doctors on Fifth avenue. Oh, yes, he would
|
|
be very glad to help me. Of course I would have to have his nurse, and the
|
|
fee would be a thousand dollars.
|
|
After calling on that doctor a few times, I discovered how little he
|
|
knew. Most doctors know very little of narcotics. This is an age of
|
|
specialists in the medical profession elsewhere. I don't think that doctors
|
|
ought to be permitted, unless they have a special license from the State, to
|
|
treat narcotic cases.
|
|
The only doctor that I have ever met who really seemed to cure addiction
|
|
is in Oakland, California, and he is not a doctor of medicine. He has a
|
|
license in the State of California for his sanitarium, and I know from what he
|
|
told me personally that he has treated many doctors.
|
|
My expensive, exclusive Fifth avenue doctor one Sunday morning called at
|
|
my apartment on Riverside drive. He said he was so interested in my
|
|
particular case, and wanted to help me. So he had come up to my apartment to
|
|
see me, as Sundays were the only days that I did not work.
|
|
It just took about fifteen minutes to find out what his motive was. He
|
|
wasn't interested in narcotics, nor in curing me. He had another little idea
|
|
all his own. The result was I rang the bell for my maid and had him put out.
|
|
Then I made another resolution--I was through with doctors.
|
|
About this time, when I was making a purchase one day from a "dealer,"
|
|
I met a young woman who told me about a fur. So I went to her apartment to
|
|
look at it. Of course, having met her at the dealer's, I knew that she was
|
|
one of the fraternity. I purchased the fur coat.
|
|
Then in the course of the ensuing conversation she asked me what I had
|
|
been taking. I told her heroin, and that I sniffed it through my nostrils.
|
|
Then she told me about some NEW PLAYTHINGS that belonged to the devil.
|
|
She told me there was only one way to take narcotics, and that was
|
|
hypodermically. She also said she used morphine. She told me, and I guess
|
|
she was right, that to sniff heroin would form a sort of ring at the base of
|
|
my brain; that taking it hypodermically, the blood would throw off any
|
|
impurities.
|
|
Narcotics, not having the Government seal, like the bootlegger's liquor,
|
|
have always been doctored, and they often contain ingredients that are very
|
|
injurious. To prove that it was even more effective when taken
|
|
hypodermically, she gave me my first shot with the syringe and needle. Soon a
|
|
languid feeling overcame me and I felt only like being quiet.
|
|
The effect was indeed wonderful. I had found a new toy. The devil
|
|
always finds a way. Now I resolved to use morphine.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Part 4
|
|
|
|
Morphine! So now I was to use morphine.
|
|
From the girl that I spoke about in my preceding article I obtained a
|
|
hypodermic and some needles. She showed me how to prepare the morphine, how
|
|
to dissolve this narcotic in a small amount of boiled water. This solution is
|
|
strained through cotton and drawn into the hypodermic syringe.
|
|
Somehow I had none of the fears that a beginner entertains. I was not
|
|
afraid to insert the needle under my skin. How did I know where to insert the
|
|
needle? I do not know.
|
|
This never worried me. Instinctively I felt that I ought not to
|
|
disfigure my arms with the needle. I instead took the shot in my leg.
|
|
Now to the dealer, to purchase morphine I bought an ounce for $80. That
|
|
quantity lasted me about a month. When my supply was getting low I sought the
|
|
peddler again, to find, much to my chagrin, that he had been arrested. I did
|
|
not know any other peddler in the city of New York at this time. But I must
|
|
find one.
|
|
The quantity that I had left of the first ounce lasted me only a few
|
|
days. Finally it was all gone, and it was with great difficulty that I
|
|
finished my work the last day.
|
|
That same evening I came home to my apartment on Riverside drive; I could
|
|
not eat my dinner; I was so nervous I was nearly crazy.
|
|
I do not think there is a physical pain which compares with the agony and
|
|
the torture that an addict suffers when the narcotic is taken away.
|
|
I had to be a the studio next morning at 9 o'clock, made up.
|
|
I was desperate. In a city of six million people there surely must be
|
|
peddlers, and I intended to find one. I must fine one.
|
|
Again the indefinable something which draws members of the fraternity
|
|
together. A magnet seemed to draw me and I followed.
|
|
A few weeks previously, I had been on a slumming party and had visited
|
|
probably twenty or more resorts. Of all of these, why should I remember one
|
|
in particular? But the devil leads the way.
|
|
After going without my dinner, the thought occurred to me; if I only had
|
|
some old clothes, I would go down to the East Side and I could wander around
|
|
unnoticed. But all my clothes were new. It was cold. I had to wear a wrap;
|
|
and all I had was fur, expensive ones, too.
|
|
So I dressed in a simple tailored suit and put on a black fur coat. When
|
|
I looked at myself in the mirror it was very easy to see that I was smartly
|
|
dressed. I didn't look like a denizen of the East Side.
|
|
But I was determined to get narcotics. Another strange thought occurred
|
|
to me. My expensive coat might appeal to the underworld characters I expected
|
|
to come in contact with. Out of my trunk I brought a small revolver which I
|
|
could easily carry in the palm of my hand unnoticed.
|
|
I ripped a seam between the third and fourth fingers of my glove and,
|
|
placing the pistol underneath the palm of the glove, allowed the muzzle to
|
|
protrude through the hole I had ripped.
|
|
I determined I would get my narcotics and no harm should come to me, and
|
|
that I would empty every chamber of the gun if necessary. No one would dare
|
|
harm me.
|
|
At my hotel I engaged a taxi from the doorman, giving him a few dollars
|
|
and instructing him to take the number of the cab, and I said:
|
|
"If I am not home by midnight, you will know I have met with foul play."
|
|
I don't think he quite comprehended the seriousness of the situation.
|
|
However, I was too intent on my mission to worry whether my remark made an
|
|
impression or not.
|
|
The taxi sped away with me and it was not until we had proceeded a few
|
|
blocks that I gave any instructions to the driver. Then I asked him to pull
|
|
into the curb, and I said to him:
|
|
"I am looking for-----a cafe on the Lower East Side.
|
|
He had never heard of the place, but I was determined to find it, so I
|
|
said:
|
|
"Drive down past Greenwich Village and then go to the east side of town."
|
|
He did so, and I was fortunate enough to recognize a few landmarks, and
|
|
after wandering around, in and out of dark streets and alleys, I finally
|
|
located the place.
|
|
Again I was in a quandary. Whom would I ask for? I had been let there
|
|
by that indefinable something, and being desperate a plan occurred to me.
|
|
Looking in my handbag I found a pink and a blue card. Whether they were
|
|
laundry or cleaner's checks I do not remember, but they served my purpose.
|
|
When the taxi driver opened the door I flashed these cards. Fortunately
|
|
for me it was dark and he had no opportunity to examine them closely. I said:
|
|
"I am working for the Intelligence Department and I am on an important
|
|
mission."
|
|
Then I gave him $5. Whether it was the $5 or the supposed intelligence
|
|
cards that made him eager to serve me I do not know, but he was quick to obey
|
|
my instructions. I told him to go into the cafe and ask for the proprietor.
|
|
He came back in a few moments with the information the proprietor would
|
|
not be there for many hours, so the proprietor's brother had told him. I then
|
|
told the driver to get the brother.
|
|
The brother came out. It was a young man. I told the driver to walk to
|
|
the corner away from the car, and I asked the young man to step into the cab
|
|
and sit down beside me. He did so. All this time I had my little gun aimed
|
|
right at him. I did not find it necessary to use it, though.
|
|
I did not waste words after he had seated himself in the cab. I said:
|
|
"I must make a connection to get some dope. I have a yen. You must get
|
|
me some morphine or heroin."
|
|
This was not a request, but a command. He did not comprehend my meaning,
|
|
he pretended.
|
|
But one look at his face and I instinctively felt I was on the right
|
|
track. I continued:
|
|
"Take a good look at my eyes. I guess you recognize the sign of a yen
|
|
all right. Now, don't be long. I do not wish to attract attention by having
|
|
this cab stand here."
|
|
Then he said:
|
|
"Well, maybe I can get some for you, but it's very expensive. The eights
|
|
(package containing one-eighth of an ounce) cost $6 or $7 apiece."
|
|
The joy at being able to make a connection was great, and here the stuff
|
|
was being offered to me cheaper than I had ever been able to get it before.
|
|
With my uptown dealer the price had been $80 an ounce. And this was only a
|
|
little over $50.
|
|
I handed the young man $10, telling him to get me two eights either of
|
|
morphine or heroin, and that I would give him another $10 when he returned.
|
|
He got out of the cab and was gone only five minutes, when he opened the
|
|
door of the cab, entered and closed the door behind him.
|
|
Then he carefully pulled down the blinds. He was taking no chances. He
|
|
did not want to have any one see him hand me anything and accept the other
|
|
$10. Then he got out of the cab and dashed madly across the street. You can
|
|
imagine it didn't take me long to instruct that driver to head straight for my
|
|
apartment.
|
|
The strange part of this adventure was that the doorman paid attention to
|
|
my instructions and was very happy when my cab rolled up to the door at
|
|
exactly five minutes before midnight.
|
|
I rushed two steps at a time up to my apartment on the second floor and
|
|
in five minutes I was gloriously happy under the spell of the much needed
|
|
narcotic.
|
|
Now I would be able to carry on my work. I went peacefully to sleep.
|
|
The devil had done his work!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Part 5
|
|
|
|
My adventure of the night before had brought me two-eights of heroin.
|
|
For a few days I was able to proceed with my work. But I knew that this
|
|
amount would not last me very long. I must find another PEDDLER! Where?
|
|
How?
|
|
Again I felt the magnetic power of that strange, indefinable something I
|
|
mentioned before--like the power of a magnet I was to meet someone who was to
|
|
lead me on.
|
|
That afternoon I was walking down Fifth avenue. I ran into a young lady
|
|
I had met in California during the year when I attended only "parties."
|
|
I recognized her as one of the fraternity, only she was one of the fortunates
|
|
who thought she was able to play with drugs.
|
|
But today she is bound more tightly than anyone I know to the cursed
|
|
chain of victims of narcotics. The day I met her on the avenue she had all of
|
|
youth's bloom.
|
|
After a bare word of greeting I asked her if she knew where I could get
|
|
more drugs. Casually, as though I'd asked her for a bon bon, she said
|
|
laughingly:
|
|
"Certainly, I know a man uptown. Let's get in a taxi. I will take you
|
|
there."
|
|
You readers probably will be surprised when I tell you we drove to a very
|
|
exclusive residential district up near the Park.
|
|
It was an apartment on the main floor of a substantial looking house.
|
|
The apartment itself was very nicely furnished. One would hardly suspect to
|
|
find a dealer in narcotic drugs living here. But, as I told you once before,
|
|
this deadly blight is no respecter of persons.
|
|
A peddler may be living next door to you. Who knows?
|
|
They are not in the habit of putting their shingles out!
|
|
We went in. The man himself admitted us. He was a foreigner. In my
|
|
experience with the peddlers I can easily say that 75 per cent of them are
|
|
foreigners.
|
|
After the introduction, a few words exchanged during which I was
|
|
carefully scrutinized by the man, he asked in broken and ungrammatical English
|
|
that revealed him a stranger to the apparent culture of his surroundings:
|
|
"Wotcha want?"
|
|
I told him I wanted morphine.
|
|
He quoted me a price of $80 an ounce which was quite agreeable.
|
|
This "reasonable price," however, didn't last long when he discovered his
|
|
new customer was Juanita Hansen, the picture star. A few weeks later, when I
|
|
went back to get the second ounce, I heard the self-same tale I had heard from
|
|
peddlers before. His new shipment had not arrived and he had promised the
|
|
only ounce he had left to someone else for $95. I knew no other place to buy,
|
|
so I bid $100 and got it.
|
|
One day while visiting the girl from California, who at that time had a
|
|
gorgeous apartment, I told her how hard I was working. I told her I had
|
|
increased the amount of morphine, but it seemed to have lost its charm.
|
|
In the morning I was so tired it required all my strength to dress myself
|
|
for the studio, and it was with great effort that I managed to get through my
|
|
strenuous work.
|
|
Did she know anything that could help me? Oh, yes! She would give me
|
|
something then and there. It was COCAINE.
|
|
Behold, the worst of all the devil's playthings!
|
|
COCAINE!
|
|
She had a small package in her apartment. I had never heard of this
|
|
narcotic drug before. That very day I had been working and was very tired.
|
|
One little sniff of cocaine and I felt better, so I thought, than I had ever
|
|
felt in my life. Exhilaration itself! Cocaine takes effect immediately.
|
|
The devil had planted another seed!
|
|
I left my friend's apartment with but one thought. I must purchase some
|
|
of that wonderful elixir-cocaine. I was then bound directly for my peddler.
|
|
I found him at home and he gladly sold me an ounce for $100. I think he
|
|
smiled and almost sneered when he sold me this, for he knew now that I would
|
|
be more tightly bound than ever to the cursed chain!
|
|
The combination of morphine and cocaine is the most deadly, most
|
|
destructive of all narcotics. My peddler knew this added step in my descent
|
|
meant more money to him. That was his business--money. What cared he?
|
|
With the help of my new toy it was no longer hard for me to dress in the
|
|
mornings or work long hours at the studio. A shot of cocaine, then a shot of
|
|
morphine--and off to the studio. Perhaps a couple of shots before luncheon,
|
|
three in the afternoon, and then home.
|
|
Cocaine has a tendency to keep one awake, in fact, it does keep one
|
|
awake. It is impossible to sleep while under its influence. Therefore, at
|
|
night, when it was time for me to retire, I had to increase the amount of
|
|
morphine to offset the cocaine I had taken all day.
|
|
Cocaine itself is the most destructive of all narcotics, Perhaps because
|
|
it is so powerful. With one shot all the tired feeling would leave me. But
|
|
it was also destroying my appetite. I was losing weight. And it was
|
|
affecting my appearance.
|
|
As soon as cocaine really had gotten hold of me and my dealer was sure of
|
|
it the price was boosted again. Now I was paying $125 an ounce for morphine
|
|
and $150 an ounce for cocaine.
|
|
The amount of cocaine I used increased, until I took enough to kill two
|
|
horses every day! An ounce lasted me only a week. Ask any doctor what that
|
|
means!
|
|
Can we permit this monster, DOPE, to run at large any longer?
|
|
Stop it, I say!
|
|
|
|
Part 6
|
|
|
|
My new toy, cocaine, together with the old toy, morphine, was slowly
|
|
sapping my vitality, and along with it my will. Where was my power of
|
|
resistance?
|
|
I did not seem to regret the money that it cost, but when I think of it
|
|
now my blood fairly shouts a protest.
|
|
Imagine!
|
|
One hundred and fifty dollars a week alone for cocaine!
|
|
One hundred and twenty-five dollars an ounce for morphine!
|
|
When narcotics are needed and while under the influence, one never
|
|
regrets the price paid. "Get the narcotics"--no matter how!
|
|
I have told in outline of the price I paid in wrecked health, ragged
|
|
nerves, wracking torture of mind and body. Reckoned in money, narcotics took
|
|
a terrible toll also.
|
|
In one frenzied year in New York, I spent $65,000 and ran $10,000 in debt
|
|
in addiction. Directly and indirectly this was part of the toll DOPE took
|
|
from me. BUT--
|
|
Did I realize what I was doing? Did I give heed to warnings of those
|
|
associated with me? I had five people in my employ, a manager, a secretary,
|
|
two stenographers and a faithful colored maid.
|
|
If you could realize how I longed to play in the sunshine, to be free!
|
|
In spite of all I did to hide my secret (and I thought I had kept it
|
|
safely tucked away) these people who were closely associated with me
|
|
discovered it.
|
|
One day, in the big drawing room of my apartment, I had to be left alone.
|
|
I had telephoned to my peddler. I told those in the apartment I expected a
|
|
caller and I intended to receive him alone.
|
|
Of course, the intended caller was Mr. Peddler from uptown. He came
|
|
punctual to the minute. He had my ounce of cocaine. At the moment I handed
|
|
him the money and he gave me a package, one of my servants walked into the
|
|
room.
|
|
With rather a hasty reprimand, I told her to leave the room. I had given
|
|
instructions I did not wish to be disturbed. Mr. Peddler did not like this
|
|
intrusion either. He said he did not trust servants. He left immediately.
|
|
I then went into my room. The same servant came into my bedroom in
|
|
almost the same manner, just as I was preparing to take a shot. Her eyes
|
|
opened wide.
|
|
I knew someone at last had discovered my secret!
|
|
An explanation seemed quite useless. I could find nothing to say. I
|
|
almost wished she had expressed what her accusing eyes seemed to say. But no
|
|
words came. Just a very knowing look, and she turned and left the room.
|
|
I was alone again, but it seemed eyes were peering at me from everywhere.
|
|
I felt afraid. I wanted to scream and shout. Someone had discovered my
|
|
secret! The whole world might just as well know now!
|
|
For a few moments, I sat trying to reason with myself what I should do.
|
|
I sat in a sort of stupor for several minutes, forgetting even to take my
|
|
necessary shot.
|
|
But I formed a plan. Silence!
|
|
She had said nothing. Perhaps I only imagined she knew. A guilty
|
|
conscience really needs no accuser. At least for the present I would day
|
|
nothing. Just a way addicts have of shoving troublesome thoughts into
|
|
tomorrow.
|
|
Eagerly I prepared a bigger shot than I had ever taken before.
|
|
Eagerly I injected the syringe into my arm. Instantaneously my troubles
|
|
vanished. After all, only one servant had seen me and I would deny that I
|
|
purchased or took anything.
|
|
From the attitude of my servant the next morning I could not tell whether
|
|
she really knew my secret or not. I went to the studio satisfied.
|
|
The following week, when I needed to reach a peddler, I phoned my man and
|
|
asked him to meet me at my apartment. He refused. He did not like my
|
|
servants; and the night before, he had had an experience that had given him a
|
|
scare. If I wanted the stuff, I would have to come and get it.
|
|
I must have the cocaine, so in my speedster I drove directly to his
|
|
apartment. It was while there he told me of his experience of the night
|
|
before.
|
|
My peddler had gone to his wholesale dealer (as they are called) to
|
|
purchase a few ounces. He had no more than gotten into the apartment, when
|
|
the Federal agents knocked on the door. Very quickly, Mr. Wholesaler put
|
|
several packages (perhaps twenty or thirty ounces) into a black cloth bag to
|
|
which was attached a long black string.
|
|
Federal agents had been stationed at every entrance. They had taken
|
|
every precaution. They said they knew the stuff was there. They had the
|
|
witness of a transaction the wholesaler had made that afternoon. They were
|
|
there to get the dope. They did not intend to leave without it.
|
|
Before the Federal agents broke down the door, Mr. Wholesaler had quietly
|
|
put the black bag out the window. It landed in a flower pot two floors below.
|
|
The end of the string he tied to a nail on the ledge of the window.
|
|
Federal agents crashed down the door. They demanded roughly the stuff be
|
|
turned over to them "without any trouble." There was a note of triumph in
|
|
their voices, for they were certain they had effected a rare capture of a
|
|
wholesaler with the goods.
|
|
Being inside the law and outside are entirely tow different things. With
|
|
one you have your protection, with the other you must use your wits. As I
|
|
remember my peddler's story, the wholesaler's reply to the request of the
|
|
officers was something like this:
|
|
"Well, if it's here, find it. If you're so sure about it. I don't know
|
|
what you're talking about."
|
|
With this answer the Federal agents proceeded to accept the wholesaler's
|
|
challenge. They ransacked the place--every nook and crevice. They ripped the
|
|
mattresses to pieces; all the upholstered chairs; in fact the room must have
|
|
looked something short of an earthquake.
|
|
The result?
|
|
Cursing, the Federal agents left. They had been fooled, tricked. They
|
|
knew it. But how?
|
|
After they were sure the agents had gone, my peddler and Mr. Wholesaler
|
|
sat in the disheveled apartment, laughing. They had outsmarted Mr. Federal
|
|
Man again!
|
|
Still chuckling, they opened the window and carefully pulled up the
|
|
little black bag that contained the Devil's Toys.
|
|
The Devil's Agents laughed that day.
|
|
But remember, he who laughs last, laughs best.
|
|
Today in Atlanta in their cells, Mr. Peddler and Mr. Wholesaler have a
|
|
long lease. We will not hear them laugh for many years. Living by your wits
|
|
is not such a laughing matter.
|
|
|
|
Part 7
|
|
|
|
Events narrated yesterday bring me up to the Spring of 1920.
|
|
I continued to trade with this particular peddler. I guess I was
|
|
probably the biggest customer he had ever had. Most likely I used more than
|
|
anyone else and certainly I paid more for it.
|
|
At the peddler's home, I had many strange experiences. The people I met
|
|
were not always people who lived "uptown."
|
|
You will probably be shocked when I tell you that I met burglars, big and
|
|
little thieves, shoplifters, confidence men and women, and several times I
|
|
"sat in" and listened to their schemes.
|
|
I was in this environment, but not of it. While they talked very freely
|
|
before me and plotted and planned their confidence games, they were not afraid
|
|
to speak in my presence. I was a member of the FRATERNITY OF SILENCE!
|
|
Do not think that I approved of all I heard, and I had no part in the
|
|
game they played. Still I must remain silent. Remember, I was outside the
|
|
law. It was a game of one word and my secret would have been given away.
|
|
Dope finds its way and forges links that bind many strange associates.
|
|
All members of the fraternity are on an equal plane when they meet at the
|
|
peddler's den. I made the acquaintance of many characters of the so-called
|
|
underworld. Perhaps being a screen actress made me a little more popular.
|
|
The term they used was:
|
|
"She is regular."
|
|
One day, when I told them how hard I was worked at the studio and how
|
|
unkind they were to me (for dope had made me begin to think so), one of the
|
|
confidence men became very angry and said:
|
|
"I think we better get that guy, boys. What do you say, Miss Hansen?"
|
|
I knew what "to get" meant. I replied in alarm:
|
|
"Oh, no!"
|
|
Then he was willing to compromise by beating my enemy up a little, "oh,
|
|
just a little bit." No member of the fraternity was going to be treated that
|
|
way by producer, director or anyone else.
|
|
These men of the fraternity are not to be fooled with. They protect one
|
|
another with more of their kind of loyalty than exists in any secret society
|
|
on earth. You have heard it said, "There is honor among thieves." I think
|
|
the interpretation of that is the loyalty of protection--for they do protect
|
|
one another.
|
|
I did business with this dealer for about six months. A strange little
|
|
circle it was that gathered in the den every few days. The conversations were
|
|
very interesting to me; positively exhilarating at times.
|
|
I heard the plots and plans of some very clever confidence men. It was
|
|
always a game of wits for money. You readers probably wonder why they didn't
|
|
play a game on me, as I was making a thousand a week. No, not on a member of
|
|
the fraternity! No harm would come to me. They would see to that! They had
|
|
their own way of getting my money.
|
|
To hear these men talk among themselves, one would really think their
|
|
transactions were on the level.
|
|
Don't think that all the members of the fraternity are underworld
|
|
characters. Dope is no respecter of persons, as I have told you before.
|
|
I very frequently met a popular club and society man, who used to come over
|
|
from New Jersey. He discussed his clubs and his travels and I discussed my
|
|
pictures.
|
|
Here was a man of culture and refinement. Many times I talked with him
|
|
alone. Just he and I would be in the peddler's den. It was then that he
|
|
would tell me of various social affairs and would mention his friends in high
|
|
social circles. Often I would read of these affairs in the next morning's
|
|
paper.
|
|
I presume this man, too, paid "our peddler" a handsome price!
|
|
One day, while getting my dope, I heard a very humorous story of a
|
|
robbery there had been much to-do about in the papers. I met face to face the
|
|
two men who had done the "trick."
|
|
There was a particular little cafe in New York that these chaps felt
|
|
enjoyed sufficient business to interest them. Considerable bootlegging was
|
|
going on. Where there is bootlegging there must be money. It wasn't inside
|
|
the law to bootleg, so it was certainly the province of any enterprising thief
|
|
to get some of the profits. At least that was the way they reasoned it out.
|
|
The humorous part of this story is that, among those present that night
|
|
when the robbery took place were some city officials, a couple of uniformed
|
|
officers, and two Federal prohibition agents, who were there to make an
|
|
inspection.
|
|
The two members of the fraternity who had planned the robbery were not
|
|
devoid of a sense of humor. They casually entered the place and told every
|
|
one to line up against the wall. They flashed revolvers.
|
|
One of the policemen was very alert and darted through the nearest
|
|
window. But he was not too quick for one burglar, who shouted to his pal:
|
|
"Keep the gun on these men. I am going to get that smart fellow.
|
|
Be back in a minute."
|
|
Within the minute he reappeared, dragging the officer, a bit the worse
|
|
for a crack on the head from the butt of the burglar's revolver. He shoved
|
|
the dazed policeman into the lineup and said:
|
|
"You get into your place and stay there. We are a couple of peaceful
|
|
little fellows and we don't like to shoot."
|
|
Then the burglars proceeded quietly to the business at hand. They didn't
|
|
bother to empty the cash register. They calmly carried the register to a cab
|
|
waiting for them and sped away.
|
|
Gales of laughter greeted the narration of this tale.
|
|
Funny, perhaps, but it well illustrates the new crime problem the police
|
|
are confronted with because of dope. I have never been present when any of
|
|
these crimes have been committed, so I cannot say whether it is the tremendous
|
|
"shots" that make them possible; but I do know that dope is the FOUNDER OF THE
|
|
CRIME.
|
|
At the end of six months, there was a shakeup in this particular little
|
|
fraternal circle. Making my usual dope arrangements one day, as I stepped
|
|
into the room I heard the peddler quote a price of $60 an ounce for cocaine to
|
|
one of the girls, who happened to be a shoplifter.
|
|
"Sixty dollars an ounce," I thought to myself and I had been paying $150!
|
|
I would make short work of this if that was the sort of peddler I was doing
|
|
business with. I stepped into the room and made myself heard. I needed
|
|
cocaine and I needed it badly.
|
|
But I did not intend to tolerate such a hold-up. A heated argument
|
|
followed. The peddler could offer no explanation. I had heard him with my
|
|
own ears and I told him so.
|
|
Many tolerate almost any kind of treatment when it means dope or no dope.
|
|
But my will power was not entirely gone. I turned on my heel and walked out.
|
|
And that was the last this peddler ever saw of me.
|
|
But Mr. Peddler was not going to let such a good thing as I was slip
|
|
through his hands. And tomorrow I will tell you how he resorted even to ugly
|
|
blackmail to get me back.
|
|
The Devil did not have his way that day. One of his agents had been
|
|
careless. One victim had loosed a little part of one tiny link in the chain
|
|
that binds. The Devil's machine had slipped one little cog, just one little
|
|
cog!
|
|
But not even one girl victim must be allowed to escape.
|
|
The Devil has many resources. One of them, blackmail, was to be tried on
|
|
me.
|
|
(Concluded next issue)
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
Wallace Smith: February 23, 1923
|
|
|
|
The following is another of Wallace Smith's sensationalizing dispatches on
|
|
the Taylor case.
|
|
February 23, 1922
|
|
Wallace Smith
|
|
CHICAGO AMERICAN
|
|
Sleepy-eyed mystic Chinatown awakened in a jabber of fright today as
|
|
sheriff's men and secret service agents swept through its narrow streets and
|
|
into its shadowy dens in search of the slayer of William Desmond Taylor.
|
|
As they plunged into the underworld depths another squad of detectives
|
|
searched for an "old fashioned pearl handled revolver" said to have been the
|
|
weapon of death used by "Wong Lee," alias "Sammy," a notorious dope smuggler
|
|
named by "Harry the Chink" Fields as Taylor's killer. [2]
|
|
For the first time since Fields was arrested in Detroit officials here
|
|
received a connected, coherent version of his alleged confession. [3]
|
|
It was considered of vital importance the Fields named in his statement
|
|
an actress as the motive behind the crime, the woman Taylor loved and the
|
|
last woman he held in his arms and kissed before he was shot to death. [4]
|
|
Her name was not revealed. But it was admitted she was the same woman
|
|
who has been under suspicion from the time Taylor's body was found. She is
|
|
known as a victim of the drug slavers and the theory of officials first
|
|
outlined in The Chicago Evening American dispatches shortly after the crime
|
|
was that Taylor was killed by blackmailing dope peddlers when he tried to
|
|
save her.
|
|
The woman has been in a state of collapse since the murder. She has
|
|
denied any knowledge of the crime. Officials believed she would not tell all
|
|
she knew because it would mean the exposure of her association with the dope
|
|
peddlers and her ruin on the screen.
|
|
According to the official version Fields declared the old-fashioned
|
|
pearl handled revolver could be found "hidden under something in a courtway
|
|
thirty feet from the street" near the Taylor home.
|
|
The first squad of detectives reporting from Chinatown declared that the
|
|
man they hunted had fled as soon as he learned of Fields' arrest and that he
|
|
was believed to have made his way across the border into Mexico.
|
|
Following is the story told by "Harry the Chink," except, of course, for
|
|
the name of the actress, as it was revealed to Los Angeles officials:
|
|
"This whole thing was planned in a hop joint in Venice." Fields said.
|
|
"We met there before we started for Taylor's place.
|
|
"We left Venice about 3 in the afternoon on February 1. I was driving
|
|
the car. In it was a woman named Jenny Moore. She had an automatic pistol.
|
|
A man named Johnny Clark was there, too, and this Wong Lee. We went to a
|
|
Night and Day bank and got in another car and drove to Hollywood."
|
|
It was at this point that the actress' name was mentioned and her
|
|
alleged association with the crime disclosed.
|
|
"This was the signal," Fields went on, "for us to get to the Taylor
|
|
house where we drove up about 8 o'clock. We stopped the car about nine doors
|
|
past the house. I stayed in the car. The others got out and went to the
|
|
Taylor place.
|
|
"The woman had her automatic and Wong Lee carried an old-fashioned pearl
|
|
handled revolver. I heard a shot and the three of them came running out and
|
|
told me to drive fast.
|
|
"First Wong Lee took the revolver into a courtyard. He went thirty feet
|
|
up the courtyard and hid the gun under something. They told me to drive to a
|
|
night and day bank. We stopped there. Wong Lee went in and changed a
|
|
thousand dollar bill. He gave me $900.
|
|
"Then we drove back to the hop joint in Venice. Wong Lee and I left
|
|
town that night. He went to Seattle. Later I headed for Chicago and Wong
|
|
Lee, I understand, started for Kansas City."
|
|
The detectives also began to make the rounds of the night and day banks
|
|
of which there are several. They believe the cashier of such a bank would
|
|
remember changing a $1,000 bill.
|
|
The whole mystery of Taylor's death, with the story of Fields to guide
|
|
Los Angeles officials, swirled through the sickening sweetish fumes of drowsy
|
|
opium and against a curtain of drug-painted fancies. In many essential
|
|
details it fitted the conception of the crime as "reconstructed" be some of
|
|
the authorities.
|
|
They had their clues before "Harry the Chink" began his fantastic
|
|
yarn -- just fantastic enough to be true in this atmosphere of melodrama.
|
|
And even if the gun was not found and Fields' story turned out to be only a
|
|
tale inspired by "dope" they still had their clues.
|
|
These led them to the theory that Taylor was shot down because he sought
|
|
to protect the woman he loved -- the last woman he held in his arms and
|
|
kissed before he was shot to death -- from slavery to the drug and to the
|
|
gang that held her in its thrall.
|
|
One explanation of the gangland enmity was that Taylor had declared war
|
|
on the dope ring because he found that the dope peddlers had fastened their
|
|
murderous grip so firmly on certain men and women.
|
|
But recent developments showed that Taylor was interested in only one
|
|
person -- the woman. If he could have saved her the rest of the would in
|
|
which they both lived must have gone tumbling down its giddy road to ruin,
|
|
scourged by the knots of the slavers who take their tribute in gold, in
|
|
broken bodies and in shattered minds.
|
|
The whole nightmare of mystery became saturated with the fumes of the
|
|
drug and alive with its feverish dreams.
|
|
Investigators under orders of Undersheriff Eugene Biscailuz brought back
|
|
to him amazing reports.
|
|
One of these was the confession of one of the dope peddlers, who named
|
|
ten men and women who paid $1,000 a month in blackmail beside the
|
|
considerable fortunes they spent in securing the smuggled "dope."
|
|
They found another member of the "ring," the owner of a lavish home and
|
|
a couple of automobiles, who admitted that he had made all his money selling
|
|
narcotics to people employed by one corporation alone.
|
|
Still another revealed the power of the ring in enslaving its victims,
|
|
forcing tribute and plotting to assassinate or otherwise put out of the way
|
|
any one who attempted to interfere with their power.
|
|
They "checked up" recent deliveries of narcotics -- made with the same
|
|
open assurance, apparently, that the market boy might deliver a soap box full
|
|
of groceries -- to men and women within the past month.
|
|
They discovered that Los Angeles supported one of the largest "agencies"
|
|
operated by a drug ring that "does business" throughout the country.
|
|
Among the women who received consignments of drugs was the woman known
|
|
to have been Taylor's latest love. The investigators were not surprised to
|
|
find that it was heroin instead of the morphine which the woman is known to
|
|
have used constantly. [5]
|
|
"They'll take anything they can get," declared one of the deputies,
|
|
a man in the confidence of Undersheriff Biscailuz. "And she was another of
|
|
the ones who were supposed to be cured."
|
|
The tale of the woman is a tale of black tragedy. Known to the public
|
|
as light-hearted, she has always moved in the shadow of sorrow. Her first
|
|
love affair, with the man who befriended her, turned out to be as unfortunate
|
|
as it was notorious.
|
|
Then came drugs and a career of wild galloping through the conventions.
|
|
Friends intervened as the morphine began to etch its traces deep on the
|
|
winsome face and as it began to leave its mark.
|
|
She "took the cure." There is a saying that a dope fiend never gets
|
|
over it -- that reform is impossible. To make it impossible is the
|
|
"business" of the drug ring, always alert for new "customers" and always
|
|
jealous of the old ones.
|
|
Its agents, some of the moving in the best of society as represented
|
|
here, are always offering temptation. The securing of drugs is made easy for
|
|
the "cured." There is always some one handy with "relief" in an hour of
|
|
despondency or weariness. And there is always the "hunger" of the victim for
|
|
the drug.
|
|
These things were outlined in The American dispatches some time ago
|
|
after several Los Angeles physicians had revealed the horrors of the drug
|
|
ring and its hold on some of the young women.
|
|
These things were all found by the sheriff's men.
|
|
"If we wanted to we could tell a story that would turn the world upside
|
|
down," said the same confidante of Undersheriff Biscailuz. "We have found
|
|
things that would startle the country. But we are interested only in finding
|
|
the party who killed Taylor.
|
|
"There will be more scandals -- perhaps more murders. If there are we
|
|
will have all the facts handy."
|
|
This official was asked if there was any truth in the report that Taylor
|
|
himself was a victim of drugs.
|
|
"It's funny," said the informant, "but we have never found a clew that
|
|
makes him a drug user. I say it's funny because he had around him all the
|
|
time people who used drugs and generally these people hang together. He knew
|
|
a lot about the dope peddlers and how they did business.
|
|
"He must have known about the blackmail end of their business, too. The
|
|
ten men and women paying $1,000 a month in 'hush money' is only a part of it.
|
|
There are many of them out there giving up money for blackmail as well as
|
|
dope. Some of them are desperate.
|
|
"But not as desperate as the drug peddlers are desperate after money.
|
|
"We have the report that they got the woman Taylor was in love with back
|
|
in their clutches. We know she got these shipments ten weeks ago. Perhaps
|
|
she went to Taylor for help. Perhaps she was bled white by their demands for
|
|
money."
|
|
The story told by Fields in Detroit has a remarkable semblance of truth
|
|
when checked with the strange angles of the case that have developed in Los
|
|
Angeles.
|
|
For one thing, "Harry the Chink" was deep enough in the doings of the
|
|
drug ring to be appraised of all its sinister secrets. The secrets of the
|
|
victims are part of the blackmailing drug peddler's stock in trade.
|
|
It was known, too, according to excellent authority, that "Harry the
|
|
Chink" was in Los Angeles at the time Taylor was killed.
|
|
One Detroit dispatch stated that Fields told how Taylor had given a
|
|
severe beating to another of the men when he found him attempting to sell
|
|
drugs.
|
|
It seemed a very likely tale. The authorities here, eager to run down
|
|
Fields' story, were hampered by telegraphic conditions, which caused a
|
|
serious delay in the interchange of messages.
|
|
If the revolver is found in the place described by Fields or if his
|
|
story is corroborated by the arrest of any of the men and women named it is
|
|
certain he will be brought to Los Angeles.
|
|
According to one report one of the women named by Fields was known as
|
|
the wife of one of the Chinese smugglers operating on the Mexican border.
|
|
The Los Angeles authorities also contemplated bringing to this city one
|
|
James Thomas of Sacramento, said to be known as a "reformed" member of the
|
|
drug ring, who gave out a statement declaring that the drug ring was
|
|
responsible for Taylor's murder.
|
|
"They got 'Bill' Taylor," said this man. "I know how they work.
|
|
"Murder would be only an incident with them if they found somebody
|
|
standing in their way or trying to stop their dirty claws from getting new
|
|
victims. They've got plenty of men in their own gang ready to kill, and it
|
|
would be easy to import a gunman from the East to do a job like this and make
|
|
his getaway with all the protection in the world.
|
|
"People talk about drug rings, but they don't really believe that such
|
|
things exist. They have got a big surprise coming to them. The drug ring is
|
|
organized like any big business. Better, in some instances.
|
|
"Shipments are smuggled across the border and transportation arranged to
|
|
the distributing points. The drug peddlers work like salesmen working out of
|
|
central office. I've handled them and I know.
|
|
"They're not the kind of people you see in the movies and read about,
|
|
either. I mean the tough guys with black eyes and prize fighters' jaws,
|
|
wearing sweaters and caps pulled down over their eyes.
|
|
"Most of them wear good clothes and get around in the best of homes and
|
|
the best crowds. Some of them are men and some of them are women. They work
|
|
quietly and each victim thinks he is the only one in the crowd getting
|
|
supplied by that agent. Sometimes these peddlers are satisfied with getting
|
|
their money for the shipments of drugs. Sometimes they try to make it even
|
|
better by starting to blackmail their 'customers.' Lots of them are paying
|
|
blackmail money now and lots of them are pretty close to ruin on account of
|
|
it."
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
NOTES:
|
|
[1] This successful animal serial was "The Lost City", made for Warner
|
|
Brothers. A condensed feature version is avaiable on home video from
|
|
Grapevine Video, under the title "The Jungle Princess." Her new serial
|
|
contract was with the Pathe company, who hoped she would be as successful as
|
|
their former star, Pearl White.
|
|
[2] Harry Fields was not Chinese, and it is not known why this derogatory
|
|
nickname was applied to him. It is included here only for historical purposes,
|
|
to reprint Smith's article as it originally appeared.
|
|
[3] Fields' tale was later thoroughly discredited. See TAYLOROLOGY #8.
|
|
[4] Mabel Normand.
|
|
[5] Again, supposedly Mabel Normand.
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
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
|
|
***************************************************************************** |