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1077 lines
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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
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* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
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* *
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* Issue 86 -- February 2000 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
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* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
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Reporting the Taylor Murder: Days 11 and 12
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Fan Magazines React to the Taylor Case
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What is TAYLOROLOGY?
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TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
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Taylor, a top Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
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death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
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scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
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(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
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murder on Hollywood and the nation; (d) Taylor's associates and the Hollywood
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silent film industry in which Taylor worked. Primary emphasis will be given
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toward reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it
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for accuracy.
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Grapevine Video has recently released "The Biograph Series: Mack Sennett
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Director, Vol. 1 and 2". Each of the two tapes contains short Biograph films
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directed by Mack Sennett between 1911-1912 (before he founded Keystone), and
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many of the shorts feature Mabel Normand. See http://www.grapevinevideo.com
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The class at Georgia Tech on multimedia "Advanced Design and Production,"
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with the Fall 1999 semester class project on the Taylor case, has moved their
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web site on the project to http://wdt.lcc.gatech.edu
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The CD-ROM project, titled "Silent Screen: The Mysterious Death of William
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Desmond Taylor" has been completed. A copy can be obtained free with a small
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donation to cover production and mailing cost; contact information is at
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http://wdt.lcc.gatech.edu (but the CD-ROM is initially only available in
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Macintosh format). There are also a few T-shirts on the project available.
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This was an educational project and therefore does not have the production
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values of expensive commerical CD-ROMs. Although drawing heavily on material
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found in TAYLOROLOGY, "Silent Screen" also includes some dramatized and
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fictionalized elements, and the Taylor material has a few errors.
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But overall the CD-ROM is a very nice project, and Taylor case fans will
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enjoy hearing the "voices" of the participants in the case and "seeing" some
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of the events transpire on their computers. And those who disagree with the
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editorial conclusions reached by Bruce Long in past issues of TAYLOROLOGY,
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may relish seeing him meet his appropriate fate. (Mother of Mercy, is this
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the end of...??)
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Reporting the Taylor Murder: Days 11 and 12
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Below are some highlights of the press reports published in the eleventh and
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twelfth days after Taylor's body was discovered.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 13, 1922
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LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
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Coming fast on the latest new and important developments in the William
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Desmond Taylor murder mystery during the day, District Attorney Thomas Lee
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Woolwine late last night hurriedly left his office in his motor car and in
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company with former Chief of Police Charles A. Jones and Ben Smith, court
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reporter, started on a quest shrouded in mystery, which is regarded as likely
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to have a vital bearing on the case.
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The District Attorney's hurried trip apparently resulted from a
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conference at his home in which a woman and two men figured.
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A woman was seen to leave Woolwine's house after an extended visit while
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the district attorney and Jones were there. She drove away alone but was
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observed a short time later in her car with a male companion. They drove by
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Woolwine's house and then disappeared.
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But whatever transpired during the conference electrified the prosecutor
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and his aides into instant action.
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Woolwine and Jones hurried to the Hall of Records in a taxicab where
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they picked up Smith, the court reporter.
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Mabel Normand, noted film actress and close friend of the slain
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director, was reported last night to be dangerously ill, even in more serious
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condition than on Saturday night, as exclusively told in yesterday's
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Examiner.
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It was learned that she is being attended by a trained nurse and is
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being watched over carefully by her physician.
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Her condition was said to be so serious that all visitors would be
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denied entrance to her home for at least ten days.
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She suffered a severe nervous relapse some days ago. But yesterday it
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was said that her illness had reached a serious stage as to be regarded as
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dangerous.
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One of the most startling bits of information turned over to the
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investigators was the reported statement of Henry Peavey, Taylor's colored
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servant, that he expected to see his employer killed. This statement was
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made, it is said, the day following the robbery of Taylor's home by Sands.
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Shortly after the last robbery of the slain director's home Peavey is
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said to have told Harold Freeman, a milkman who delivered milk to the Taylor
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home, that he expected to find Taylor dead on the morning after the robbery
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was committed and would not be surprised if he himself were not later killed.
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Of strange import was Peavey's description, according to Freeman, of how
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he expected to find Taylor's dead body.
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The description was said to correspond with the position in which Taylor
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was found on the morning of February 1 [sic].
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Whether this description was merely a strange mixture of superstition
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and clairvoyance or the result of some information upon which the belief was
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based is a matter upon which Peavey will be quizzed, according to the
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officers.
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Another development of importance concerned information about a woman
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whom Edward F. Sands, former valet-secretary to Taylor, is alleged to have
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visited frequently. This information was turned over to the authorities by
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Freeman.
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According to Freeman, Sands was in the habit of driving Taylor's car to
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this woman's house at least once a day during the director's absence in
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Europe. This address is in the hands of The Examiner but is being withheld
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at the request of officers who are investigating the clue.
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Freeman, who says he met Sands every morning for several months, also
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declared that he saw the fugitive ex-servant shortly after Christmas in front
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of a downtown theater. Freeman states that he and his wife were standing in
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front of the showhouse early in the evening when Sands passed.
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Freeman further declared, it is said, that Sands asserted that he had
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"something on Taylor." On several occasions when Freeman remarked how well
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Taylor treated his employee, Sands is said to have replied:
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"Well, he has to treat me right, for I certainly have the goods on him."
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Captain of Detectives David L. Adams, who has heretofore held that the
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arrest of Sands was the one immediately vital objective toward which the
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police should bend their efforts, yesterday admitted that officers were now
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searching for a man whose name has not been mentioned in the case.
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"I cannot make public what clues the detectives are following," said the
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captain, "but I will say that if there is an arrest in the very near future
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it will likely be of a person not previously mentioned in the baffling
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mystery and who has not been questioned.
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"If my men bring in some person who has been a total stranger to the
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investigation I shall not be surprised. Although I do not look for an arrest
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today, this is a case in which the unexpected may happen."
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The importance the captain attaches to this latest clue may be judged
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from the fact that he has assigned four of his ablest officers to find and
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question the man referred to. Detective Sergeant Murphy and another
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investigator were on an especially important angle, it was said...
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Captain of Detectives David L. Adams yesterday scouted the theory that
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the cap found Friday in the room of Walter Thiele, held on a charge of
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suspicion of burglar, bore out any indication that it, in any way, figured in
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the Taylor murder case.
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This cap, brought to the district attorney's office shortly before
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midnight Friday and shown in the presence of Mabel Normand, the film star,
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was described by investigating authorities as bearing blood stains. These,
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if present, are thought to be of minor significance and such as might come
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from a cut finger and imprinted upon the visor.
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"I have not seen the cap, but to the best of my knowledge it has no
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blood stains whatever, Captain Adams said. "I have never intimated to anyone
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that Thiele, in whose rooms it was found, had anything to do with the murder.
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In fact, I have eliminated both him and his companion, John Dailey, from the
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slightest suspicion."
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Captain Adams did say, however, that a search has been instituted for
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Dailey, but only for the purpose of charging him jointly with suspicion of
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burglary in connection with the looting of an apartment house on West Fourth
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Street at which Dailey had been employed up to February 9 as janitor...
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A stirring defense was offered for Hollywood and all attackers of the
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morals, habits or actions of the motion picture profession as a profession
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were hotly scored last night at a meeting of the Screen Writers' Guild of the
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Authors' League of America, an organization of well known writers for the
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films.
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The meeting was held at the club house, 6716 Sunset Boulevard, and was
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attended by about 150 persons.
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Frank E. Woods, president of the organization, suggested a resolution
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offering $1000 for the capture of the slayer of William Desmond Taylor and
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made the first contribution of $100. The requested sum was quickly pledged
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and the motion passed. Those who subscribed $100 apiece besides Woods were:
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Thompson Buchanan, Albert Shelby Le Vino, J. E. Nash, Frank Condon, Perley
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Poore Sheehan, Walldemann Young, Wallace Clifton, Miss June Mathis and Walter
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Woods.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 13, 1922
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LOS ANGELES TIMES
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..."This is one of the quietest days since the murder," said Capt. of
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Detectives Adams. "It is still my opinion that Edward F. Sands is the man we
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want and I would give anything to get my hands on him. So far as I know only
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one of the detectives assigned to the case is working today and he is on a
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line of investigation from which I expect no immediate results."...
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 13, 1922
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LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
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NEW YORK AMERICAN
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Neva Gerber, film actress, probably will be the next witness to face
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District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine and be quizzed regarding her knowledge
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of William Desmond Taylor, murdered film director.
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Many questions will be asked her, as she sits before the men who are
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delving into every possible angle of the dead man's life, in an effort to
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bring his assassin to justice.
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Miss Gerber's was the name written by Taylor on a check for $500, and
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also written by her on the reverse side of the chick when it was cashed.
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That was only three weeks before Taylor was killed.
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Yesterday Miss Gerber spoke calmly of her relations with Taylor--of
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their long friendship and engagement to marry, and of the breaking of the
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engagement.
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"Although our engagement was ended about two years ago," Miss Gerber
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said, "Mr. Taylor and I remained the best of friends, and frequently saw each
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other.
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"His increasing moodiness and my mother's unwillingness that I should
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marry a man so much older than I were contributing causes to the broken
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betrothal, but I feel sure that he did really love me, and I was very fond of
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him.
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"The checks which Mr. Taylor gave me from time to time, can all be
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easily explained. During our engagement Mr. Taylor gave me an automobile as
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a Christmas present; that is, it was understood between Mr. Taylor and myself
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as a holiday present. The machine was not all paid for at one time, and in
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order to prevent gossips from misconstruing the spirit in which the gift was
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made, Mr. Taylor simply made out checks to me so I could pay for the car in
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my own name.
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"Numerous other checks were for distributing charity to the poor. Many
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a time Mr. Taylor would say:
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"'Neva, I know a poor family in desperate need. There are hungry
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children crying for bread and it makes me unhappy to think about them. You
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go to see them and buy them what they need.'
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"Always, of course, he would give me a check to cover the amount I had
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expended in relieving the case. It was the bigness of his heart that made
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him feel this way and those who knew him think nothing of his giving me money
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like that.
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"As to the last check, given me a short time before his death, that can
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be accounted for very simply. Mr. Taylor was always looking after my career
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and doing all he could to help me progress in the film world. He knew I was
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in temporary financial straits at that time and voluntarily sent me the
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$500."
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Miss Gerber stated that Mr. Taylor had frequently mentioned his mother,
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daughter and sister to her, but that she was under the impression that the
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daughter was in London with his mother. She said:
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"When Mr. Taylor returned from overseas, he was gloomier and more
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despondent than ever. He told me that his sister's husband had been killed
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in battle and that during a midnight attack on London by German airships
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dropping deadly bombs, his mother and his little daughter had been killed.
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Of course I thought this was enough to account for his sadness, but besides
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his depression he also grew irritable, and it was the irritability that made
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me feel it would be a mistake for us to be married."
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"Isn't it a rather unconventional and unusual thing for a man to give
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checks to a woman, even when they are engaged?" Miss Gerber was asked.
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"Oh, no," she replied. "Not when he intended to marry me, as he did,
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and felt like he wanted to be doing something for me all the time."
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"But afterwards, when the engagement was ended, was it not extraordinary
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that he should continue to shower such generous monetary gifts upon you?" the
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question was presented.
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"Not at all," Miss Gerber asserted with assurance. "He seemed to think
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that it was up to him to look after my welfare and I think he would have
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continued his generosity to me even if he had lived to a very old age."
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Just what was the reason for the whimsical and unequal gifts showered by
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William D. Taylor on various people, remains yet to be seen. To his invalid
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sister-in-law, with two needy, helpless children in Monrovia; he sent the
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comparatively small sum of fifty dollars a month.
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A stiff formal little note accompanied each of these donations and at
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Christmas time he sent an extra twenty-five dollars, which he said was to get
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something for the little girls.
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But to the pretty moving picture actress, during a period of several
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years, there was scarcely a singly check for less than one hundred dollars
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and sometimes there were several of these in the same month.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 13, 1922
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SANTA ANA REGISTER
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...Public officials in Los Angeles are hinting that powerful interests
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in the movie world have ordered that mouths be closed lest the disclosures in
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the investigation into the murder of William Desmond Taylor bring additional
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discredit upon the movie industry. The order should be for a complete clean-
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up, and until the heads of the industry set adrift all moral derelicts who
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may be connected with the industry, the movie colonies can expect to be
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looked upon with suspicion and without sympathy.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 13, 1922
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Edward Doherty
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SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
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Los Angeles--...The police were given an astounding new theory as to the
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murder today, a story of revenge that smoldered for fourteen years to burst
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out in a sudden deadly blaze of hate--a tip that is hard to verify.
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It goes back to the days when Taylor was William Cunningham Deane-Tanner
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of New York, manager of an art story, a husband and a father, the reputed
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scion of a historic English-Irish family.
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This new theory comes from an anonymous source, but because it is
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plausible, the police are making such investigation of it as they can.
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Taylor met a beautiful young girl in New York some fifteen years ago,
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according to this story, and fell in love with her. He followed her wherever
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she went. He called her on the phone and spent hours talking to her.
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He took her to luncheon and to dinner.
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The girl was in love with him, too; wanted to become his wife. Taylor
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never had revealed the fact that he already was married; that he had a
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daughter.
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She was the sort of girl Taylor knew who would not allow him to get a
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divorce. She was clean and pure. No scandal must touch her. Taylor could
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not live without her and he could not marry her.
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He disappeared without a word to anyone. It was to him the easiest way
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for the girl, the hardest for himself. He gave up all he had that he might
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not harm the woman he loved. He was afraid of himself.
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The girl wondered and waited and mourned. She did not know what had
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happened.
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One night she had been in his arms and they had been talking about their
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future, the home they were to occupy, the joy that was to walk with them
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through life, the wonder of their love.
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And the next night silence, no answer to frantic telephone calls, no
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messages, no clues. It was as if she had but dreamed a lover and woke to
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garish reality.
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Suddenly the girl got up and started to run away. Her mother hastily
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threw the book to the bench and ran after her daughter. Out of the book
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slipped a picture.
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The girl of the story picked up the photograph and looked at it. It was
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the picture of Tanner.
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She learned in a little while all there was to know about Tanner. This
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was his wife. This was his daughter. He had deserted them a year ago--
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simply dropped out of sight. Not a word had been heard from him.
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The girl went home stunned, mortally wounded. She told the story to her
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brother and then went out to Coney Island. And when the bright morning came
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men searching the beach came across her body, floating on the waves.
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The dead girl's brother confided to his friend, a man who had loved her
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as much as Tanner had. He had been Tanner's rival. He had tried desperately
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to win her, after Tanner had taken himself away. He had even tried to find
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Tanner for her, when she convinced him that life without the man was a
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mockery.
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This man, the theory has it, is the man who on the night of Wednesday,
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February 1, shot Taylor, who was Tanner, and stretched him dead on the floor.
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This man, according to the story, had tried for fourteen years to find
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the man who had broken the heart of the girl and killed her.
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He devoted his life to the pursuit. He came on old tracks in Colorado,
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in Alaska, in Flanders, in France, and finally he picked up the trail.
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There were no names mentioned in this story, but the man who gave it to
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the police says he is the brother of the girl who died for love of Tanner,
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and the police remember that Taylor once said: "I was in love once, but the
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woman died."
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Perhaps the story is true, they say. Perhaps the New York police can
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help...
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 13, 1922
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LOS ANGELES RECORD
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...Woolwine spent the night with Charles Jones, former police chief,
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running down leads that cropped up in the investigation. When the district
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attorney arrived at his office at noon, he gave out a statement to the effect
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that the quest in the night had proved fruitless.
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Jones, he said, was in the case to help him on certain angles of the
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investigation.
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A rigid investigation of Taylor's loans was urged Monday upon local
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authorities by legal representatives of persons prominently identified with
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the film colony.
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According to Public Administrator Frank Bryson, stubs of Taylor's check
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books show many loans. Some of these were said to be large and others small.
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"Find out to whom these loans were made," an attorney said, "and the
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probability is light will be thrown on the murder."
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The theory of Taylor's friends is that the loans were made simply out of
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his generosity but others believe he was being persistently mulcted by
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blackmailers.
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"It is known," said one of the men urging the loan investigation, "that
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Taylor's bank account was not large, this in spite of the fact that his
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salary was in excess of $50,000 a year.
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"Suppose Taylor got tired of scattering his earnings among these
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bloodsuckers and refused to 'come through'--wouldn't that be a good
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background for a murder?"
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A clue, described as one of the most promising yet uncovered in the
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Taylor murder, today was expected to lead to an arrest soon.
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The new clue is connected with the past life of Taylor, who was known in
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New York as William Dean Tanner, and the man sought for arrest has not
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previously been mentioned in the case, according to Detective Captain Adams.
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The new tip was given by a woman whose name is being withheld...
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Police were given a mysterious tip that about the time Taylor was
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murdered on the night of February 1, Sands visited a sweetheart in Los
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Angeles. A close watch on the residence of the girl was established
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immediately and all her movements were traced.
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It was reported she was about to leave the city...
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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February 13, 1922
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William M. Creakbaum
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LOS ANGELES RECORD
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Meet Henry Peavey
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"I refuse to talk. If you all wants to talk to me, call the wagon!"
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Such was the opening statement of Henry Peavey, negro valet of William
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D. Taylor, slain film director, when pressed for a direct interview Monday.
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Peavey, who has suddenly become the neighborhood hero on East Third
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Street since the murder of his master, has persistently refused to talk to
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newspapermen.
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Today a reporter, armed with an impressive press badge, sought the
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elusive Henry in his own haunts. Peavey maintains headquarters in a Jap
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[sic] rooming house, referred to in that part of the city as a hotel.
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He also frequents a poolroom a few doors east.
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Today he was to be found a neither place. The newspaperman, sauntering
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down the street, sighted Henry perched on a neighboring window ledge
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surrounded by a group of interested East Third-Streeters.
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Clad in a greenish brown suit with a pinch-back coat from under which
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gleamed a spotless white V-necked sweater, Henry basked in the sun and in the
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consciousness that he was the best-dressed negro in that part of the city.
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The reporter approached him.
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"Henry, I'd like to talk to you," he said.
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"Ah ain't talkin' to no one," Henry announced. "If you all wants to
|
|
talk to me--"
|
|
The newspaperman drew back his coat until a press badge was visible.
|
|
Mr. Peavey's eyes widened.
|
|
"If you all's from headquatahs, jes call the wagon. Mr. Woolwine, he
|
|
told me not to talk to nobody."
|
|
"I'm not going to call the wagon. It would create a scene here on the
|
|
street."
|
|
"Ah don't care," insisted Peavey. "They's been too much in the papers."
|
|
"What have they been saying now?" asked the newspaperman, innocently.
|
|
"Ah don't know," Henry said. "I ain't had the papers read to me this
|
|
morning. You see, I cain't read or write."
|
|
The reporter drew a back of cigarettes and offered one to the negro. He
|
|
smiled and shook his head. His big brown eyes gleamed from under the visor
|
|
of his tweed cap.
|
|
"Ah never smokes," he said, "an' Ah never drinks. That's why Mr. Taylor
|
|
and me got along so fine together. He never drank very much. He had a
|
|
bottle of champagne on ice at New Years, an' he says to me, he says, 'Henry,
|
|
open that bottle, an' we'll split it between us.'
|
|
"An' Ah did, an' that was my first drink in two years."
|
|
Henry was talking loquaciously now.
|
|
"Mr. Taylor never drank 'less it was for sociability," he explained.
|
|
"They say that he an' Miss Normand was drinkin' gin and orange juice the
|
|
night he was shot. Ah don't know, cause Ah left befo' she did. Anyhow, I
|
|
nevah knowed much about his private affairs, cause Ah didn't live there. Ah
|
|
spose if Ah'd slept there, Ah'd known mo' 'em."
|
|
"Have you found a new job yet, Henry?"
|
|
"Yassah!" with a pleased smile. "Say Ah has! Ah'm going to work for
|
|
Mrs. Christy Cabanne next week, or jes soon as these police and paper men get
|
|
done axing me questions.
|
|
"You see, Ah used to work for her befo' Ah went to work for Mr. Taylor,
|
|
jes six months ago. Mrs. Cabanne's mother, she made the fust pair pants this
|
|
chile ever wore."
|
|
His big smile beamed again as he recalled the days under his former
|
|
mistress--the wife of a motion picture producer--and thought of the days to
|
|
come.
|
|
"Ah'll be glad when Ah cooks mah own meals again. Ah eats in these heah
|
|
restaurants, then Ah goes down the street spittin' to get the bad taste out
|
|
of mah mouth the whole day long.
|
|
"They's nothin' like yo' own cooking."
|
|
At the mention of eating, Henry abruptly terminated the interview.
|
|
He waved an easy goodbye to the reporter, and sauntered down the street, to
|
|
disappear in the restaurant which he had just branded as the horror of his
|
|
epicurean existence.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 14, 1922
|
|
Edward Doherty
|
|
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
|
|
Los Angeles--Four "mystery" witnesses, two women and two men, were led
|
|
to the district attorney's office today, and the foul pot of scandal that
|
|
began to boil with the murder of William Desmond Taylor, film director,
|
|
started to bubble up and spill over.
|
|
These four people, it is said, told District Attorney Woolwine a story
|
|
that involves a man high in Hollywood and a woman--one of the women whose
|
|
names have been most prominently mentioned in the case. The motive, it is
|
|
declared, was jealousy.
|
|
It was learned late tonight that one of the women is "Lady Jane" Lewis,
|
|
modiste to the beauties of pagan Hollywood. The other is said to be Miss S.
|
|
O. Lewis. The men were Detectives Aldworth and Harry Kearin of the Hollywood
|
|
police station.
|
|
Reputations that have been built up over a stretch of years and by the
|
|
expenditure of much money will wither in a night when the story grows public,
|
|
say those who know.
|
|
The man in the case has not been linked with the murder until this
|
|
afternoon.
|
|
Woolwine would not discuss what they had to say. Most of the afternoon
|
|
was taken up with them...
|
|
Before the witness came to his office, Woolwine had been going over the
|
|
letters written to Taylor by Mabel Normand and others, letters that seemed to
|
|
show a connection between the dead man and the rings of bootleggers and
|
|
narcotic smugglers, letters that seemed to indicate Taylor had supplied
|
|
whisky and drugs for several frail white lilies of the screen...
|
|
"What they should do," an attorney said, "is to clean house. When a
|
|
barrel of fruit contains rottenness you don't correct by propaganda. Throw
|
|
out the rotten fruit. Let Hollywood get rid of its degenerates, its drug
|
|
addicts, its moral lepers, and then let the screen writers write."
|
|
Miss Minter gave out a statement today attacking those who would
|
|
besmirch the memory of her best friend, the man accused of deserting at least
|
|
one wife and one child, of falsifying his army record, of being a member of a
|
|
bestial cult, of supplying booze and cocaine to those who would purchase
|
|
them...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 14, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES TIMES
|
|
...While Mr. Woolwine was talking to the visitors to his office,
|
|
Detectives Cato and Cahill were following up clues uncovered several days ago
|
|
and leading to the theory that a well-known drug peddler may have been the
|
|
slayer of the noted film director...
|
|
Several different theories of the crime were developed during the day,
|
|
many supposed clues were run down, and many "tips" were received. But as for
|
|
actual progress in the baffling case, no official connected with the inquiry
|
|
admitted making any.
|
|
Mary Miles Minter, youthful actress who has been questioned as part of
|
|
the investigation, issued the following statement, authorized by her
|
|
attorneys:
|
|
"There is no person or financial sacrifice that I would not gladly make
|
|
to bring the slayer of William Desmond Taylor to justice.
|
|
"Mr. Taylor was one of my best friends. His death was a great shock to
|
|
me. I met Mr. Taylor first in 1919, when he became my director. I was then
|
|
17 years of age, and his inspiration, his unfailing courtesy and
|
|
consideration not only to me but to all with whom he came in contact
|
|
immediately won my highest admiration.
|
|
"From 1919 until the day of his death Mr. Taylor was to me the symbol of
|
|
honor and manliness, an inspiration, friend, guide and counselor--the symbol
|
|
of all a girl admires in a man.
|
|
"His friendship was uplifting and his advice and aid were invaluable.
|
|
"It would be nothing less than veritable ingratitude if I did not, now
|
|
that he is dead, raise my voice to proclaim what he was and to repudiate
|
|
those who would besmirch his character.
|
|
"I have told the authorities all that I know of both his life here and
|
|
in the East. That, I fear, has been of little aid to them.
|
|
"I cannot conceive the character of a person who would voluntarily wrong
|
|
Mr. Taylor or cause his death."...
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 14, 1922
|
|
Florence Lawrence
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
Mabel Normand says she has the much discussed letters written by her to
|
|
the late William D. Taylor. They were returned to her yesterday by the
|
|
District Attorney's office and are, as she says, of such childish, innocent
|
|
tone that any value they might have either as a sensational feature in the
|
|
development of this case or as indications of any high emotional nature is
|
|
absolutely nil.
|
|
Miss Normand talked at length last night when she heard that a rumor was
|
|
afloat to the effect that these letters were to be released for publication.
|
|
"For myself," and the star spoke dramatically, "I had no one who could
|
|
possibly have been interested enough in me to do such a thing. I had no
|
|
jealous lovers. My acquaintance among the men and women of Los Angeles was
|
|
large, but I had never encouraged any one to believe that he was first in my
|
|
heart and I had only good friends, but no one who could possibly construe my
|
|
great and beautiful friendship for Mr. Taylor as anything but a most
|
|
beneficial interest in my life."
|
|
"I have all the letters in my possession," she said, "and I am sure that
|
|
they have not been copied or tampered with. They are all of such a
|
|
nonsensical nature that they have absolutely no value except as they exhibit
|
|
and indicate the good fellowship which existed between Mr. Taylor and myself.
|
|
"Why, I wouldn't have dreamed of writing anything to him except of a
|
|
light-hearted nature. Our whole friendship was founded on that line. He was
|
|
a wonderful man, and a generous man, and many of my notes to him were
|
|
requests for small contributions for my pet charities. I always gave small
|
|
checks to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and I frequently asked him to make
|
|
similar donations.
|
|
"He used to urge me to be less extravagant and I wanted to jolly him
|
|
about his wisdom and at the same time make my own purpose clear to him.
|
|
I could never refuse any one in distress. I loved to help those about me who
|
|
were in hard luck, and one of the greatest pleasures that my success in
|
|
pictures has brought me was that it enabled me to give freely to those who
|
|
needed money. The only value I could see in a large salary was to be able to
|
|
help those less fortunate than I.
|
|
"My letters were all so childish and so simple that they could have
|
|
meant nothing but perhaps a moment's cheer to so wonderful a man as was Mr.
|
|
Taylor. He was a fine, clean, wholesome man, and he spurred my ambition and
|
|
made me study. He wasn't like younger men who always wanted me to put on
|
|
evening clothes and go out somewhere to dance and dine. He liked to sit at
|
|
home and talk about books. He helped me so much with my reading and study
|
|
and encouraged me to think that some time I might accomplish something along
|
|
that line."
|
|
Miss Normand recited from memory several of her letters to Mr. Taylor,
|
|
which all bore out her statements in regard to the merry exchange of badinage
|
|
between them.
|
|
One letter referred to a little lark in which they had indulged one
|
|
evening when they went to see a motion picture. She had dismissed her
|
|
chauffeur and decided to go to another theater where a star whom she admired,
|
|
Richard Barthelmess, was to be seen.
|
|
"I thought it would be fun to ride in a Ford," said the beautiful young
|
|
actress, "so I asked a car passing if they would drive us to the next theater
|
|
and Mr. Taylor and I rode and paid fifty cents for the trip. We thought it a
|
|
lot of fun.
|
|
"Later we walked back to the first theater to see the beginning of the
|
|
film, and on the way down the street talked about the art of the cinema, and
|
|
the play itself.
|
|
"The next day I had a long letter of advice from Mr. Taylor, which was
|
|
really a burlesque. He chided me for the reckless expenditure of the fifty
|
|
cents, joking of course, and laughed at my enjoyment of this harmless little
|
|
escapade. All our letters were exchanged in just that tone.
|
|
"You know," added Miss Normand, "film people work hard. They have to
|
|
work at night and sometimes for days at a time have little leisure away from
|
|
the set. Such frivolous notes as those Mr. Taylor and I exchanged were
|
|
merely a brief recreation for both of us. They never had serious portent,
|
|
and were always as light-hearted and merry as we could make them. Many of
|
|
our hours were passed in the most serious kind of labor."
|
|
Miss Normand is visibly unnerved by the long strain of questioning to
|
|
which she has been subjected. She feels more than anything else, however, a
|
|
fierce sense of injustice to the dead.
|
|
"How can people say such terrible things about him?" she asked. "How
|
|
can those very folk with whom he was associated, the men and women he helped
|
|
either with movies or friendliness think for a moment that any of those
|
|
unkind things be true? It is impossible for me to consider it and I think
|
|
instead of passing resolutions his friends, every one of them, should form a
|
|
huge fund and offer a tremendous reward for the capture of the man who killed
|
|
him.
|
|
"Every one who could should contribute even if it is only five dollars
|
|
or one dollar, and many of his associates should easily give a thousand
|
|
dollars and would, I believe, be glad to do so to have this terrible mystery
|
|
explained. I am sure Mr. Taylor had no enemies of whom he was aware. He was
|
|
a man of such open habits, such a sincere and honest man, that he could never
|
|
have wrought an injustice that could animate such a terrible, vindictive act.
|
|
"The murderer must be found and punished, and I should be very glad to
|
|
head a list of subscribers to such a fund if others in the industry believe
|
|
that it is the right thing to do.
|
|
"It's easy enough to say, 'Oh, what a fine man he was--such a loss to
|
|
the profession,' but that doesn't count in the punishment of the man who did
|
|
this terrible deed. I believe that his associates will be ready in a moment
|
|
to start such a fund and to make the solution of this crime a quick and sure
|
|
matter.
|
|
"I have been put to terrific agony by this whole terrible event, but I
|
|
make nothing of my own suffering as compared with the unclean things which
|
|
have been said about the motion picture industry. The shock to me when I
|
|
learned of the death of my good friend was almost unendurable, but before I
|
|
could rally from that I was questioned and almost stunned by the knowledge of
|
|
the horrible suspicions which this crime has wakened about the entire colony
|
|
of picture folk.
|
|
"Such allegations are absolutely unfair. It is, of course, the fault of
|
|
circumstances that I was the last person known to have seen Mr. Taylor, and I
|
|
give thanks every day that on that particular evening I had driven to his
|
|
house in my big car with my chauffeur in attendance. Sometimes I did get
|
|
into my little Stutz and we went to drive together, and it is the greatest
|
|
comfort to me how in this hour of distress that I had gone with attendants on
|
|
that night."
|
|
Here Miss Normand broke down completely and her slight frame, emaciated
|
|
and worn from the stress of the past two weeks, shook with an attack of
|
|
terrific coughing.
|
|
"Oh, they are talking about sending me away for the winter," she moaned.
|
|
"This cough is so threatening, and the doctors are afraid my lungs my suffer
|
|
unless I get to a drier climate."
|
|
Miss Normand was asked concerning the wife and daughter of Mr. Taylor.
|
|
"Why, what reason do they give for not coming out here at such a time?"
|
|
she exclaimed. "If I had been that daughter with such a wonderful father
|
|
nothing could have prevented my coming here at once. A father like that
|
|
should make any girl proud and eager to do all in her power to solve this
|
|
terrible mystery. I can't understand how she could have been indifferent to
|
|
such a man."
|
|
Miss Normand did not know that Mr. Taylor had a daughter until the
|
|
developments following his death, but said that long ago she had heard it
|
|
mentioned that he had once been married.
|
|
The star's rooms are filled with flowers and notes and telegrams of love
|
|
and affection are constantly reaching her from all parts of the world.
|
|
The strange fate which included her so closely in the final movements of
|
|
Mr. Taylor's life has necessarily brought upon her a double burden. She is
|
|
almost prostrated with grief, and has also the necessity of trying in every
|
|
way she can to throw some light upon the animating cause which could have
|
|
brought about so frightful a crime. She has strained every nerve in her
|
|
endeavor to assist the progress of justice, and the result is almost more
|
|
than her fragile physique can withstand. But her loyalty to her friend is
|
|
leading her to put forth every effort, and in her desire to help unveil the
|
|
identity of the mysterious slayer she is now almost at the point of total
|
|
collapse.
|
|
She was feeling much stronger last night, however, and with another day
|
|
of rest her physicians believe she will be on the high road to the recovery
|
|
of that buoyant health and spirit which is so notable a quality both in her
|
|
social and professional life.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 14, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
A powerful ring of narcotic peddlers alleged to have been operating in
|
|
Los Angeles and Hollywood and directed and led by a beautiful woman was the
|
|
center of investigation last night by officers conducing search for the
|
|
slayer of William Desmond Taylor, film director.
|
|
The nefarious activities of the members of this band who have drawn the
|
|
suspicions of the investigators were uncovered yesterday by Undersheriff
|
|
Eugene Biscailuz and Deputy Sheriff Frank Dewar, working under the direction
|
|
of Sheriff William I. Traeger.
|
|
After carrying out a thorough search for the members of the ring the
|
|
officers announced that they had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from
|
|
their usual haunts about the city.
|
|
Police have traced the movements of this beautiful woman for the past
|
|
few months and have found, they say, that although she moved frequently, her
|
|
home was never located far from the house occupied by Taylor.
|
|
The fact that none of the peddlers could be found yesterday is looked
|
|
upon by the officers as a strong link in the chain which they are trying to
|
|
forge about the band.
|
|
Another important development yesterday was the added declaration of
|
|
George F. Arto, a machinist, living on Bixel Street, that he saw a third man
|
|
in front of the court, on Alvarado Street, where Taylor lived, on the night
|
|
of the murder--a man other than Henry Peavey, the film director's valet, and
|
|
William Davis, Mabel Normand's chauffeur.
|
|
This third man, he asserts, was talking with Peavey. Davis was sitting
|
|
in the car at the time. Arto, called to the District Attorney's office last
|
|
Friday, related the alleged occurrence, but was not certain that he made this
|
|
observation on the night of the murder.
|
|
Yesterday, by exchanging notes with the friend and others, he
|
|
established the fact that his visit was made on the night of February 1.
|
|
Davis, upon being shown Arto's statement, reiterated that with the
|
|
exception of Peavey there was no one present the night of February 1 while he
|
|
waited for Miss Normand to come from the director's house. Peavey made the
|
|
same statement.
|
|
Following an hour's investigation yesterday afternoon between Charles A.
|
|
Jones, a special investigator of the case, and other officials eight persons
|
|
were taken to the District Attorney's office. Five of them were witnesses.
|
|
Although the subject of the conference was not divulged it helped clear
|
|
away many baseless rumors which have hindered progress.
|
|
It is expected that today Detective Sergeant J. E. Winn will be assigned
|
|
to the personal staff of the District Attorney to handle the murder case in
|
|
the place of Detective Sergeant Eddie King, who is ill.
|
|
Rumors that two new women witnesses were called to the District
|
|
Attorney's office yesterday were denied by detectives.
|
|
Dr. Dudley Fulton, Miss Mabel Normand's physician, yesterday issued
|
|
orders that no one, not even her most intimate friends, should see the film
|
|
star...
|
|
Announcement by the district attorney's office that a number of letters
|
|
had been found in the dead man's effects from women who had not been
|
|
mentioned in the case caused something of a stir until an examination showed
|
|
that they threw no light on the mystery.
|
|
The identity of the mystery witness examined late Sunday night by the
|
|
district attorney and Special Investigator Charles A. Jones was not revealed
|
|
yesterday. It was announced, however, that no material fact had been adduced
|
|
in the lengthy statement, which was taken down in shorthand by court Reporter
|
|
Ben Smith...
|
|
That a rigid investigation of all business papers found in Taylor's
|
|
effects will be made at once was the statement from the District Attorney's
|
|
office and public administrator's office yesterday.
|
|
Frank Bryson, the administrator, wants to secure the last possible
|
|
detail on the slain man's affairs so that the daughter and whoever, if
|
|
anyone, else enters into the estate shall have a full accounting.
|
|
Already there have been discovered many check stubs showing that Taylor
|
|
paid out, in the aggregate, a large sum of money which, so far as may be
|
|
judged, is due the estate. While it does not appear to be legally
|
|
collectible, neither notes nor other security having been given, the
|
|
presumption is that many of the checks to various individuals stood for money
|
|
loaned.
|
|
Thus far there has not been found a single entry in the unfortunate
|
|
man's check stubs or elsewhere which points the way to the perpetrator of the
|
|
crime.
|
|
It is believed by some of the authorities that, to learn the names of
|
|
all the borrowers of the director's generously disbursed funds might bring a
|
|
solution to the mystery. This is on the theory that he may have loaned a
|
|
large amount to some person who preferred to wipe out the debt in blood
|
|
rather than money.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
February 14, 1922
|
|
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
|
|
Declaring that the widely exploited scandals charged to the motion
|
|
picture industry in Los Angeles are brought about by a few, and not the
|
|
majority, as a result of which Hollywood has been reflected all over the
|
|
country as a den of iniquity, a sink of vice, and pest hole of drug addicts
|
|
and various other euphonious and striking titles, editors of local
|
|
newspapers, leaders in the motion picture industry and members of the Screen
|
|
Writers Guild met yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce to discuss plans to
|
|
fight such publicity in every way possible...
|
|
During the conference a frank and full discussion of the press in its
|
|
relation to the motion picture industry was participated in by Joseph W.
|
|
Schenck, Jesse L. Lasky, Frank Woods and others representing the Producers
|
|
and Screen Writers' Guild, as well as G. G. young of The Examiner, Harry
|
|
Chandler, president and general manager of a morning paper [The Times];
|
|
Edward A. Dickson, editor of The Express; Edwin R. Collins, managing editor
|
|
of The Herald, and Burton Kulsley, editor of the Record...
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
|
|
Fan Magazines React to the Taylor Case
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
May 1922
|
|
Harry Carr
|
|
MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC
|
|
In the wake of every disaster come the jackals and hyenas, sniffing at
|
|
the corpse. The mystery of the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the
|
|
director, is no exception.
|
|
As is always the case in every big news sensation, irresponsible news
|
|
writers, for their own profit, have flown to the wires and flooded them with
|
|
wild yarns about Hollywood that were libelous, cruel, malicious, ignorant and
|
|
yellow to the point of putridity.
|
|
A great deal of the rotten junk sent to the newspapers about the
|
|
Hollywood film colony must be laid for fortuitous circumstance. It so
|
|
happened that Los Angeles was flooded with newspaper writers sent from
|
|
Chicago and other Eastern cities to report the Obenchain murder trial. The
|
|
case had been postponed and the writers were hanging around Los Angeles
|
|
waiting for entertainment. Having no knowledge of the film colony or of
|
|
motion picture people, but with an avid thirst for a good story, they kept
|
|
the wires hot with strange, wild and fantastic dreams about nude swimming
|
|
parties, etc. The famous El Paso faker who used to fill the newspapers with
|
|
pipe dreams must be hanging his head in shame; he is in the piker class. Los
|
|
Angeles newspapers, as well as the Chamber of Commerce and city council and
|
|
other commercial organizations, have hotly defended the movie colony. At the
|
|
same time, a great deal of harm has been done.
|
|
Two girls especially have suffered bitterly--Mabel Normand and Mary
|
|
Miles Minter. By the strange police doctrine that every letter found in the
|
|
house of a murdered man belongs to the public to be pawed over, both these
|
|
girls have been subjected to mortification and shame which will probably have
|
|
a lasting effect.
|
|
Mary Miles Minter got a particularly tough deal. At an age when most
|
|
girls are thinking of nothing but ice cream sodas and have no
|
|
responsibilities except to keep their noses powdered, Mary has to walk in a
|
|
pitiless scrutiny that is the lot of heroes and kings. Like many another
|
|
young girl, she wrote breathlessly indiscreet letters to a man old enough to
|
|
be her father. There seems to be nothing particularly sinful in her writing,
|
|
"I love you; I love you: I love you," to Taylor. Yet these letters have been
|
|
printed with a vileness of insinuation and innuendo that must have been a
|
|
heart-breaking experience for a young girl--or an old girl either. The
|
|
entire motion picture industry has without doubt suffered severely, though
|
|
unjustly, by reason of the Taylor case.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
April 1922
|
|
James Quirk
|
|
PHOTOPLAY
|
|
What's It All About?
|
|
|
|
The governor of a great state is sued for seduction by his stenographer
|
|
--a leading banker is accused by his wife of illicit love affairs--a well-
|
|
known minister with a family is arrested for white slavery--an eminent lawyer
|
|
is mutilated by a husband for home-breaking.
|
|
But does the world conclude that governors, or bankers, or ministers, or
|
|
lawyers--as a class--are therefore rotten, that the whole profession is given
|
|
to those practices of which one of its members has been accused or found
|
|
guilty?
|
|
No! The thinking world is too just--too sane.
|
|
And yet, because two prominent figures in motion pictures have recently
|
|
been the center of scandal, the entire profession has been put under a cloud.
|
|
The reason for this inquiry is manifold:
|
|
To begin with, Hollywood is the most talked-of city in America; it is a
|
|
small community populated by famous people who exist in the white glare of a
|
|
merciless spotlight. They have as much privacy in their work or lives as a
|
|
Broadway traffic policeman.
|
|
Moreover, the men and women who work in pictures are the most popular
|
|
and intimately familiar figures in the nation's life.
|
|
Also, the dishonest, scavenger press, seeing temporary profit in
|
|
sensational smut, proceeds to butcher the motion pictures to make a
|
|
journalistic holiday. Motion-picture scandals are exaggerated and dwelt
|
|
upon, given exorbitant space, and played up with pictures and banner heads.
|
|
Then again, certain despicable seekers for cheap and lurid publicity, in
|
|
the motion-picture ranks, rush into print with their ideas, tales,
|
|
suppositions and opinions.
|
|
Furthermore, the public, too, is in large part to blame. It is human
|
|
nature to create an idol and then to tear it down. From time immemorial
|
|
idols were made to be raised and shattered.
|
|
And so, as a result, a great industry is irreparably injured; the
|
|
reputations of thousands of decent men and women are sullied; an entire
|
|
community is dragged into the mire!
|
|
It is a colossal and unforgivable injustice! I have personally visited
|
|
Hollywood many times. I am thoroughly familiar with the motion-picture
|
|
industry. I know as many of its people as anyone in the country. And this I
|
|
can truthfully say:
|
|
Never have I seen the immoral conditions to which the newspapers refer.
|
|
And while there are members of the motion-picture profession who are addicted
|
|
to vicious practices, the men and women--as a whole--are as decent and self-
|
|
respecting as the men and women of any other profession.
|
|
PHOTOPLAY is not posing as a defender of the motion pictures. It holds
|
|
no brief to the purity of Hollywood. It prefers, in fact, to refrain from
|
|
all discussion on the subject. But it can not sit by silently and behold
|
|
both public and press besmirch with lies the entire rank and file of a great
|
|
industry. This is why PHOTOPLAY has refused the recent frantic demands from
|
|
newspapers for photographs of eminent actors and actresses, knowing the use
|
|
to which they would be put.
|
|
Vice is to be found everywhere--in every profession and in every city in
|
|
the world. The motion-picture profession is neither better nor worse than
|
|
any other.
|
|
PHOTOPLAY asks nothing for motion pictures but justice--that simple,
|
|
fine justice which the American public knows so well how to exercise.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
April 1922
|
|
James Quirk
|
|
PHOTOPLAY
|
|
Moral House-Cleaning in Hollywood:
|
|
An Open Letter to Mr. Will Hays
|
|
|
|
Dear Mr. Hays:
|
|
|
|
You have just accepted a position which makes you the representative
|
|
head of the motion picture art and industry. You are the ideal man to occupy
|
|
that position. Your traits of character and your proven ability, sanity,
|
|
directness and fearlessness qualify you for this great responsibility.
|
|
I am taking the liberty of writing you a letter; and the things I am
|
|
going to say to you are the outgrowth of a six years undivided association
|
|
with the motion-picture industry--its leaders, its directors, and its stars.
|
|
You are confronted by the biggest job in America. You hold in your
|
|
hands, as a sculptor holds a piece of clay, an industry which wields perhaps
|
|
a more direct and personal influence upon the public than any other in the
|
|
United States.
|
|
It has become a necessity in the lives of many millions, and because of
|
|
its vastness and influence, is almost a public utility.
|
|
You have it in your power to do a greater and finer service for this
|
|
country than any other man today. You are, indeed, not merely face to face
|
|
with a gigantic task--you have a sacred duty to perform as well.
|
|
In motion pictures, as in all great industries, there are undesirables--
|
|
selfish vicious persons who work injury to everyone with whom they are
|
|
associated.
|
|
There is the unscrupulous producer who, for a temporary profit, makes
|
|
his appeal to the baser instincts in human nature.
|
|
There is the actor and the actress who live loose, immoral lives, and
|
|
who thrive on scandal and lurid notoriety.
|
|
And there is the exhibitor who attempts to capitalize this scandal and
|
|
to benefit by this notoriety. (In Los Angeles, while the press was at the
|
|
height of a recent orgy of sensationalism, a local theater threw across its
|
|
entrance a large canvas banner bearing the words: "I love you; I love you; I
|
|
love you!" quoting a note which Mary Miles Minter wrote to Taylor, the
|
|
murdered director.)
|
|
There are the self-appointed guardians of public morals, who forget the
|
|
spirit of our form of government and in their frenzy of egomania, busy
|
|
themselves in bringing about censorship, or exercise it in such an autocratic
|
|
manner that compared to them, the kaiser was a benign and humble ruler.
|
|
Whenever a crime or a scandal connected with motion pictures has come to
|
|
light, there have been those in various branches of the business who have at
|
|
once rushed in and sought, through one means or another, to profit by it at
|
|
the expense of the industry's reputation, scattering lies and accusations and
|
|
innuendoes broadcast.
|
|
These are the facts. What, then, can be done?
|
|
Viewing the situation broadly, I believe that what motion pictures need
|
|
at the present time, more than anything else, is a moral house-cleaning.
|
|
They need it for their own good, as well as the public's. And you are the
|
|
one man who can bring this about. It is you alone who can rehabilitate the
|
|
good name of a great industry which has been dragged through the mire.
|
|
First of all, you should call on producers to discharge all persons
|
|
whose private lives and habits make them a menace to the industry. This is
|
|
vital. When the Stillman scandal broke, the National City Bank dropped
|
|
Stillman. Surely the picture industry can do as much for its own good name.
|
|
Furthermore, you should eliminate all those persons who are eager to
|
|
take advantage of the sensational publicity offered by any motion-picture
|
|
scandal which gets into the papers.
|
|
Moreover, in every motion-picture contract there should be a clause
|
|
similar to the one in the new Goldwyn contracts, providing for the immediate
|
|
discharge of any actor whose private life reflects discredit on the company.
|
|
Your problem is to restrain not only the exhibitor, but the producer and
|
|
the actor as well.
|
|
It is a general moral house-cleaning that is needed.
|
|
Then there is another point. One of the cardinal reasons why scandals
|
|
like the Arbuckle and Taylor cases are possible, is that the motion-picture
|
|
business has built up great public characters, thus making them easy targets
|
|
for sensational journalism.
|
|
This method of production has been wrong; for the publicity, advertising
|
|
and expenditure should be spent on the pictures and not on the stars.
|
|
And here again you can help by focusing interest and attention on the
|
|
art of motion pictures and not merely upon personalities.
|
|
Indeed, the time will probably come when personalities will be almost
|
|
entirely obliterated, although you can never succeed in overshadowing the
|
|
individual ability of the really great actress and actor.
|
|
There is no need to go into the causes for the unfortunate condition of
|
|
affairs which at present exists in the motion-picture industry. No one is
|
|
directly to blame, for the industry and its problems are new, and certain
|
|
recent results could not be foreseen and met. Both cause and effect are
|
|
without precedent.
|
|
Perhaps everyone has been a little to blame--the producer, who sat
|
|
apathetically by and did nothing; the actor and actress, who were suddenly
|
|
loaded with riches, and sought to enjoy them without counting the cost; the
|
|
exhibitor, who gave no thought except to the box office; the newspapers, who
|
|
played up the scandals for personal aggrandizement; the public, which was
|
|
willing, even eager, to believe whatever it heard or read.
|
|
But whatever the causes, the facts exist; and it is these which you,
|
|
Mr. Hays, must face--and face fearlessly. The time has come to act, and I
|
|
believe that you are capable of organizing the many factors of influence in
|
|
America--producers, actors, directors, exhibitors, press and public--to join
|
|
hands and work with you for a new ideal in motion pictures.
|
|
PHOTOPLAY, for its part, will refuse to print any personality story
|
|
about any motion-picture star, who is notoriously immoral, or whose actions
|
|
are such as to reflect unfavorably on the industry.
|
|
It is a Herculean task you have undertaken.
|
|
You are going to find in the motion-picture industry the same trouble
|
|
that has always existed--selfishness and cut-throat methods. Side by side
|
|
with men of the highest of principles, you are going to find men who are the
|
|
scum of the earth.
|
|
But you will succeed. Neither you, nor anyone else will be able to make
|
|
the motion-picture business perfect, any more than the railroad business, the
|
|
steel business, the banking business, or the government is perfect.
|
|
After all, just as sorrow and hardship build up character, so out of
|
|
these tribulations will come a stronger and better business.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
March 4, 1922
|
|
MOVIE WEEKLY
|
|
Movie Weekly's Stand on the Taylor Case
|
|
|
|
The tragic death of William D. Taylor, well-known Paramount director, a
|
|
cultured, studious, and evidently quiet-living man, has shocked the motion
|
|
picture colony and the general public.
|
|
The attitude of the picture folks is that of deep sorrow for the loss of
|
|
one they esteemed. There is a bitter seriousness in the protest of the
|
|
producing executives against the sweeping condemnation that is expressed via
|
|
the newspapers. Jesse L. Lasky, Vice-President of Famous Players-Lasky;
|
|
Samuel Goldwyn, President of the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, and others,
|
|
have banded together to get to the bottom of Taylor's death. No expense will
|
|
be spared to prosecute the guilty one. No expense will be spared to right
|
|
the entire picture colony--which, unfortunately, has been branded by this
|
|
second disaster within so short a span of time--in the eyes of the public.
|
|
MOVIE WEEKLY takes the stand of non-partisanship. Motion pictures and
|
|
everyone in them are our friends. The public is our friend.
|
|
The public surely wants to know about Mr. Taylor and what is going on
|
|
out West. These reportorial details can be read in the papers from day to
|
|
day.
|
|
It therefore ill behooves a weekly magazine to poach on newspaper
|
|
ground. What MOVIE WEEKLY is going to do is to publish the life story of
|
|
William D. Taylor. [This was reprinted in TAYLOROLOGY 23.]
|
|
We have authorized a well-known writer to gather this material for us
|
|
and within the course of a few issues it will be run in from three to four
|
|
installments.
|
|
MOVIE WEEKLY will not cast opprobrium on the motion picture players, or
|
|
upon the picture colony. If there is to be anything said, let it come from
|
|
the authorities. We are, therefore, expecting soon such a series from people
|
|
well-known in the industry. This will give you the real truth of Hollywood
|
|
by those who know and are fearless enough to say what they know.
|
|
Out in Los Angeles, the TIMES, a local paper, rises to say: "Among the
|
|
film people one can see delightful, romantic, wholesome domesticity on the
|
|
one hand, or an amazing effrontery in free love on the other. There was one
|
|
little lady at a hotel whose ideas were distinctly interesting. A frightful
|
|
crash was heard at midnight and it appeared an irate husband has forcibly
|
|
removed another man from her room via the window route."
|
|
Everyone admits that there is this cancerous eaten side of the film
|
|
colony. But why rail at it? Wipe it out. That's what is going to be done
|
|
at Hollywood. The Taylor tragedy, following in the footsteps of the Arbuckle
|
|
case, has aroused the ire of every home-loving Hollywoodite that suffers in
|
|
the sin shadow cast by such cases.
|
|
The whole trouble seems to be that the public has been fed up with the
|
|
eulogistic stories about the stars, and judging from the sundry letters that
|
|
come into this office, many fans actually believe them to be "little tin
|
|
gods." They aren't. But, on the other hand, they aren't a black and
|
|
thoroughly demoralized set.
|
|
At this writing, the Taylor mystery is unsolved. Much speculation is
|
|
heard on all sides. We refuse to indulge in this pastime. William D.
|
|
Taylor's life has been one of adventure and romance, and it will all be told
|
|
in a vivid and dramatic style in his story as we will publish it in MOVIE
|
|
WEEKLY.
|
|
We ask our readers not to turn radically against Hollywood and the
|
|
motion picture people there. Keep your head during this crisis and don't say
|
|
anything against any man or woman that will shame you when the Taylor mystery
|
|
is finally solved.
|
|
We reiterate. Our stand in this case is that of a non-partisan. What
|
|
is yours? Write and tell us. We are interested.
|
|
|
|
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
|
|
May 1922
|
|
Agnes Smith
|
|
PICTURE PLAY
|
|
Some Results of the Late Upheaval
|
|
|
|
The murder of William Desmond Taylor stirred Hollywood more than the
|
|
public realizes. Mr. Taylor was a popular and respected man, and until he
|
|
was shot down in his apartment he had not figured in the colony gossip. And
|
|
then the deluge of unfavorable publicity descended upon Hollywood and the
|
|
film world in general. It was unfortunate that the names of Mabel Normand
|
|
and Mary Miles Minter were brought into the case. When Joseph Elwell was
|
|
killed in New York, the names of any women who happened to know him, and whom
|
|
the police, at first, might have thought to be concerned, were not made
|
|
public.
|
|
But the killing of Taylor seemed to furnish a good excuse for crying
|
|
out, "Another movie scandal!" despite the fact that those who knew him at the
|
|
studio declared that he was a decent, quiet, and cultured gentleman. Every
|
|
amateur and professional reformer in the world seems bent on cleaning up the
|
|
morals of the movie folk; as for the movie folk, they are determined to stand
|
|
together and defend themselves against malicious and uncalled for attacks on
|
|
their private lives.
|
|
The Screen Writers Guild was one of the first organizations to see the
|
|
need of a better understanding with the public. Many of its members are men
|
|
of international reputation who happen to be living in Hollywood. They feel
|
|
that the public doesn't know the true situation and that the respectable
|
|
persons who earn their living in the movies are being classed with the
|
|
undesirables. Of course, there are undesirables. The movie people realize
|
|
this better than the reformers and the producers are taking drastic steps to
|
|
keep them out of the studios. A year will see some big changes in the
|
|
studios, brought about by the companies themselves.
|
|
Shortly after the Taylor murder the Screen Writers Guild held a meeting,
|
|
and the organization pledged itself to answer all unfair and unwarranted
|
|
attacks on motion pictures. It also pledged itself to see that all excuses
|
|
for these attacks should be done away with. The silly gossip parties of
|
|
Hollywood must go, and the writers have promised to work with the Women's
|
|
Clubs and the civic authorities in Los Angeles to put a stop to the wholesale
|
|
slanders that are circulated about the movies. Some of those who were
|
|
present at the meeting were: Frank Woods, Jeanie Macpherson, June Mathis,
|
|
Elinor Glyn, Eve Unsell, Julien Josephson, Thompson Buchanan, Louis Sherwain,
|
|
Alan Dwan, Lois Zellner, Rob Wagner, Albert Shelby le Vino, Beulah Marie Dix,
|
|
Francis Harmer, and Helen Christine Bennett.
|
|
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|
|
Back issues of Taylorology are available on the Web at any of the following:
|
|
http://www.angelfire.com/az/Taylorology/
|
|
http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/Taylorology/
|
|
http://www.silent-movies.com/Taylorology/
|
|
Full text searches of back issues can be done at http://www.etext.org/Zines/
|
|
or at http://www.silent-movies.com/search.html. For more information about
|
|
Taylor, see
|
|
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
|
|
*****************************************************************************
|