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Taylorology Issue 14
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* T A Y L O R O L O G Y *
* A Continuing Exploration of the Life and Death of William Desmond Taylor *
* *
* Issue 14 -- February 1994 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
* All reprinted material is in the public domain *
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
March 1926: Cyclone around Keyes
The Truth About Hollywood:
PART V [How Much Do the Stars Earn?]
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What is TAYLOROLOGY?
TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond
Taylor, a top film Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to
death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major
scandals. This newsletter will deal with: (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
(b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder; (c) The impact of the Taylor
murder on Hollywood and the nation. Primary emphasis will be given toward
reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it for
accuracy.
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March 1926: Cyclone around Keyes
The first major newspaper revival of the Taylor murder took place in March
1926, four years after the crime. Los Angeles District Attorney Asa Keyes and
his assistant Harold Davis took a trip across the USA, and the national press
soon erupted in a cyclone of contradictory rumors and revelations. The
following items are just a few of the highlights.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 11, 1926
John Emge
HARTFORD TIMES
Taylor Mystery not a Mystery to Hollywood
Hollywood, Ca.--The woman who killed William Desmond Taylor, motion
picture director, four years ago doubtless smiled grimly when she read in Los
Angeles newspapers the report that District Attorney Asa Keyes was in New York
investigating new clues bearing on the case. Many persons here are firmly
convinced that if Attorney Keyes could persuade certain people right here to
tell what they know there would be no further mystery in the killing of
Taylor.
Many in the movie colony and some police officials here have no doubt
that they actually know the name and residence of the matron who shot the
debonair director that dark night.
According to a motion picture producer who was an intimate friend of
Taylor the director was killed by a woman in male attire--by a relative of a
young woman rising in the films whom the woman who committed the act believed
was being drawn into intimacy by Taylor.
The writer has been given this information by a reliable informant, who
states that the elder woman had warned the director that she would kill him if
he continued his relations with the girl. These alleged relations included the
plying with liquor and drugs. Taylor is said to have told friends that he
feared vengeance from the woman and meant to be careful. Members of the
woman's family and police know the woman left home in male attire the night
the director was killed, but she defied detectives who questioned her to
produce any evidence against her.
Police, though convinced that she shot Taylor, were unable to secure
sufficient proof to warrant an arrest. Persistent efforts to build up a case
that would stand up in court failed and the attempt was abandoned.
The woman is now about 50 years old. She is seen on Hollywood boulevards
frequently. She once had many friends in the motion picture industry, but
today takes little part in the colony's social life.
She is not severely condemned by those who know the facts, the belief
being that she was driven to the verge of insanity by Taylor's affair with
the young relative. Police who took part in the original investigation are
also said to be charitably disposed toward the woman. There is only a remote
possibility that she will be called to account by the law. So far as
Hollywood is concerned, the Taylor murder has reached a stage where nobody
cares, but a number do smile when they read that District Attorney Keyes is
seeking new clues in New York. [1]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 18, 1926
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Highly valuable information regarding the mysterious murder of William
Desmond Taylor, motion picture director, is said to have been gathered here
during last week by Chief Deputy District Attorney Buron Fitts on direct
orders of District Attorney Asa Keyes. Mr. Fitts is said to have brought the
case closer to its solution than it has ever been since the director was found
murdered on the floor of his bungalow on South Alvarado street February 1,
1922.
On orders from Mr. Keyes who is now in New York, Miss Margery Berger,
income tax specialist who handles a number of motion picture clients, was
questioned during the week by Fitts regarding her knowledge of certain
conversations had with her about Taylor.
Mr. Keyes, who is working on another phase of the case in New York,
admitted yesterday that he had requested Mr. Fitts to question Miss Berger
regarding a link in the chain of evidence he is now building up in the case in
the East. It is reported that Mr. Fitts gained information which is perhaps
the most valuable yet obtained in the case.
Mr. Fitts refused to discuss the matter yesterday, saying that he could
not disclose any details of the investigation.
An investigator from the District Attorney's office and a shorthand
reporter visited Miss Berger and took her statement at length. Efforts are now
being made to corroborate this statement through numerous other witnesses.
"I have nothing to tell about the murder of William Desmond Taylor," said
Miss Berger. "I knew Mr. Taylor during his lifetime and made out his income
tax reports for him. I also knew several other people in the industry.
"I have never made any statement regarding the Taylor murder except
shortly after it happened, and I haven't had an attorney. I've been my own
attorney."
In New York it was learned that Keyes had also made considerable checks
to locate Edward F. Sands, the former valet of Taylor, who was at one time
suspected of the murder. He also questioned a well-known motion picture star.
It was the result of Keyes' investigation in the East that led to the new
questioning of Miss Berger.
"I cannot discuss the questioning of Miss Berger," said Mr. Fitts. "Mr.
Keyes has the entire investigation in his hands and any information regarding
that case must come from him. He will be in the East for a week or ten days
yet."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 20, 1926
LOS ANGELES HERALD
Boston--After a four day investigation in this city into the unsolved
murder of William Desmond Taylor, moving picture director, in Hollywood, Cal.,
four years ago, District Atorney Asa Keyes of Los Angeles was on his way west
today with information which he said "would shock the motion picture world and
the country."
"We have discovered new and highly important evidence that has brought us
to Boston and Brookline," said Keyes, "but until we locate and question Edward
Sands, Taylor's missing Brookline butler, I can make no further revelations.
"We came here directly from New York as the result of what we were told
by Mary Miles Minter, who was at Taylor's home a few hours before the murder.
"We are very anxious to see Mabel Normand, who was with Taylor just
before he died, but she left New York before we arrived.
"We have examined New York and Philadelphia witnesses and will do
further investigating in Chicago and Detroit before we return to Hollywood.
On the secrecy of our investigation hinges our chances of locating Sands and
bringing Taylor's slayer to justice." [2]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 21, 1926
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Another Day, Another Clew
The rapidly shifting locale of Dist.-Atty. Keyes' efforts to obtain clews
to the slaying of William Desmond Taylor, film director, yesterday brought
Syracuse, N.Y., into the mysterious case.
Keyes, who has been in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and various other
eastern cities, spent the day in Syracuse in consultation with detectives, but
made no definite announcement other than that he intends continuing his
investigations in Detroit and Chicago. The police of the New York city,
however asserted that the identity of the slayer of Taylor will be announced
in less than a week and that "Syracuse detectives will aid materially in the
solution."
The Los Angeles District Attorney was met at the train in Syracuse by
Detective Sergeant Bamrick, who remained with him until the prosecutor left
for the West late last evening. Keyes stated that information in his
possession will "shock the motion-picture world and the public."
From Boston, however, came a less veiled statement from Keyes where he
announced with positiveness that the murder which for four years has been an
unsolved mystery is "about to be cleared up."
"Investigations in Philadelphia and New York were completed before the
Boston clews were investigated," declared Keyes. "The new and highly important
developments unearthed here have placed a new aspect on the case. I can say
this--the Taylor murder case will be cleared up within a fortnight. There is
every chance that Taylor's slayer will be brought to justice. I cannot
disclose the nature of the evidence obtained at Brookline, but it is more
important than I ever dreamed of obtaining."
Word came from Chicago last night that Keyes is thought to have come to
the belief that Sands is to be found in Chicago or Detroit, and that belief is
bringing him to the Illinois city.
Local officials of the District Attorney's office disclosed yesterday
they know of no new developments in the case.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 23, 1926
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Take it from Mabel Normand, she is the most willing little mystery murder
witness in the world. Not only is she quite willing to be questioned, but she
is about at the point where she will insist upon being interrogated.
That much was learned from her yesterday when she was informed that
dispatches from Detroit quoted Dist.-Atty. Keyes as saying he intended to
question Mabel in regard to the death of William D. Taylor as soon as he got
back to Los Angeles.
Mabel sighed when she heard about the dispatch. A great weariness seemed
to descend upon her. Then she spoke, as follows:
"Say, if I have to repeat this again, I'm going to set it to music to
relieve the monotony. I've already committed it to memory, so here goes: I'm
quite ready to be questioned by Mr. Keyes, now or at any other time. I'll tell
him the same things I told Mr. Woolwine at the time of the murder, which was
everything I know about the case. No one would like to see the mystery cleared
up any more than I and no one will be more willing to co-operate to that
extent.
"Now, please, that's all I can say--what more can I say?" declared Mabel
and stretched out her arms expressively.
The motion-picture star read the eastern dispatches while on her set at
the Hal Roach studio. Dressed in a raggedy Cinderella costume, a character
that made her famous, it served to accentuate her attitude.
To be frank, Mabel says, life would be one grand, sweet song for her, so
to speak, if some one wasn't always dragging out the ghost of William Desmond
Taylor and parading it before her.
"Here I am just getting started in pictures again, and then they begin it
all over again," she says. "Oh, I hope Mr. Keyes is on the right track and
that they settle it for good and all this time."
Mabel is quite willing to discuss the various phases of the case as she
knows them. The night of the murder--
"I went over to his home to give him a scenario to read and he loaned me
a book to read. Do I think there might have been another woman in the house
all the time I was there? Oh, I don't think so!
"I never saw Sands, Taylor's secretary, but once. I know that Mr. Taylor
left signed checks for Sands to fill out when he went on a trip. He must have
had a lot of confidence in Sands to do that.
"But everything was so mysterious about Mr. Taylor. He was so well known,
but yet so little known about him! Why I never dreamed that he had been
married and had a grown daughter until it was learned after he died. And no
one else seemed to know it either; at least, none of the people I knew.
"I never knew Mary Miles Minter very well. Mr. Taylor never said anything
about her to me. I didn't see her when I was back East."
Taylor apparently had been in love with Miss Minter before becoming
enamored with Miss Normand.
Despite adroit questioning, Mabel insisted that she had no pet theory of
her own as to who might have murdered Taylor and why. However, she admitted
that various articles of women's clothing found in his bungalow were
interesting developments in the case. Also, that the slain director was a
fascinating personality, well-read, a wide traveler and extremely interesting.
"So that's that," said Mabel, in conclusion. "I'll be here when Mr. Keyes
gets back. I'm sorry he didn't find me in New York, but I didn't make any
effort to avoid him. I didn't know he was making any efforts to find me or I
would have gone to him."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 23, 1926
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Chicago--The murder of William Desmond Taylor has narrowed down to two
motives--"love and drugs" and the slayer may be in the clutches of the law
within a very short time, Asa Keyes, prosecuting attorney of Los Angeles, told
the United Press in an interview today.
"Our trip east," Keyes said, "has been wonderfully successful, and if our
ideas at present pan out, we'll have the solution of the crime in a very short
time.
"We have learned several things that have given the case an entirely
different aspect, since we went east."
Keyes and H.L. Davis, chief of the homicide department of Los Angeles
county state's attorney's office, stopped over here today after an extended
trip to New York, during which time they questioned Mary Miles Minter and
several other persons who they thought might know something of the crime.
"Miss Minter was very nice to us about answering questions, and I am sure
that she is doing all in her power to help us in solving the case," Keyes
said.
"We tried to get in touch with Mabel Normand while we were in New York,
but we failed to do so. I have never yet been able to talk to Miss Normand but
I want to.
When told by the United Press that Miss Normand had issued a statement on
the coast to the effect that she had talked to "Keyes about ten times" about
the case and had told him all she knew of it, but would gladly talk to him
again, Keyes said:
"I never talked to Miss Normand about the William Desmond Taylor case in
my life. But I am going to talk to her when I get back to Los Angeles.
"Either dope or love is behind the murder of Taylor," he said. "As yet we
are not ready to make public what we know.
"We have brought the case down, little by little, to where it is and a
short time ago we eliminated the 'perversion' angle which has bothered
investigators since the murder. Now we know it is either dope or love."
Keyes and Davis leave here tonight for Traverse City, Mich., where the
prosecutor will spend a few hours visiting with his mother. He will then
return to Chicago, from where he will depart for the coast some time Thursday.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 24, 1926
Delos Avery
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Chicago--Two Chicago men known from coast to coast in the film industry
have been shadowed day and night for the last month by operatives of a
national detective agency employed by Los Angeles authorities in connection
with the mysterious murder of William Desmond Taylor, film director, who was
shot to death in his Hollywood home four years ago, it was revealed tonight.
Both of these men were in Hollywood at the time of the murder. Both
disappeared immediately after the murder. One of them not only disappeared,
but changed his name.
Through information obtained by shadowing these men along the Chicago
Rialto and on the North Side, plus information obtained in the motion picture
world of the East, Asa Keyes, district attorney of Los Angeles, expects to
solve the murder mystery.
Keyes and Harold L. Davis, head of his homicide bureau, held two
conferences today with First Assistant States Attorney George E. Gorman of
Cook County.
One of these conferences was a brief preliminary chat at the state's
attorney's office. The other was a secret and prolonged consultation at night
in a room in a Loop hotel.
Mr. Keyes tonight made a statement covering the following chief points:
1--That Mabel Normand, film actress, while not involved in the crime
itself, does possess information of such importance that she will be called
before the grand jury, if necessary, and asked to answer certain questions.
2--That Mary Miles Minter, a former film actress, whose name was linked
with Taylor's after the tragedy, has recently aided Keyes in his
investigation. She will be further questioned when she returns to Los Angeles.
She is now in New York.
In addition, it was revealed, the Chicago men under surveillance are
vitally important to the case, as Mr. Keyes now sees it--so important that the
shadowing will be continued indefinitely. They are regarded as being "material
witnesses at least."
Neither Mr. Keyes nor Mr. Gorman would discuss the new Chicago phase of
the investigation.
"Number one" of the two men under surveillance is a young man from the
East, a member of a wealthy family. At the time of the murder he had been for
some time a resident of Hollywood, where he was a hanger-on about the studios,
occasionally holding some minor position--just enough to justify his presence.
He liked the "atmosphere" of the film colony. He was fond of the night life.
He was known as a "gay bird."
"Number two" was a much more important factor in the industry. He was a
camera man, an expert technician, one of the best in the business. The ablest
directors were all eager for his services.
Immediately after the murder these two men disappeared from Hollywood.
The movements of "number one" and "number two" have not been traced as
yet in every detail, but it is known they have been in Chicago and connected
with the film industry here since some time in 1924. Their movements since the
opening of the new investigation are known, however, to the Los Angeles
authorities.
Mr. Keyes stated positively he expects the complete solution of the
mystery in the near future. In reply to a question as to what he believed to
be the motive for the murder, he said:
"It may have been love. It may have been dope."
"If it was drugs, Mr. Keyes," said the questioner, "would that mean some
connection between Taylor and the narcotic trade?"
"Perhaps--perhaps," Mr. Keyes said.
Mr. Keyes and Mr. Davis in their Eastern Investigation visited New York,
Boston, Washington and Detroit before coming to Chicago. The progress they
have made is such, it was admitted, that grand jury action will be on the
program as soon as they reach home.
It was admitted tonight one result of the investigation along new lines
has been the elimination of Edward F. Sands from the field of inquiry. Sands
was Taylor's valet. He has long been missing, but that fact is accounted for,
the Los Angeles authorities say, by difficulties in which he was involved
entirely aside from the murder case.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 24, 1926
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Interviewed by the United Press in New York today, Mary Miles Minter
said:
"I am sorry, but I don't believe I should enter the discussion at this
time. I prefer that anything concerning my recent talk with Mr. Keyes about
the case come from Mr. Keyes himself. I thank you for the courtesy of
inquiring."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 24, 1926
CHICAGO NEWS
A brief containing all the evidence in the William Desmond Taylor murder
mystery has disappeared from the rooms of District Attorney Asa Keyes of Los
Angeles in the Hotel LaSalle, it was learned today.
Harold L. Davis, the prosecutor's assistant, reported the disappearance
to State's Attorney Robert E. Crowe as a case of theft, and accused five men.
Crowe put Sergt. Thomas O'Malley, the chief of his police detail, on the case,
and O'Malley began following up Keyes' suspicions. His first step was to
question all employees of the hotel.
The theft wasn't inspired by any one under suspicion in the case, Davis
said, but all hope of solving the murder mystery will be lost if the records
aren't recovered.
"If they are destroyed, or if the contents become known, the case will be
ruined," said Davis. "All the evidence we have assembled in a year of
investigation, including the recent trip to New York and Boston, was in that
bag."
Keyes had reached the point where he was hopeful of clearing up the
mystery surrounding the murder of Taylor, a famous movie director. The
evidence he had collected involved, though it did not implicate, Mary Miles
Minter and Mabel Normand, actresses of whom Taylor was fond.
Keyes brought the stuff here yesterday, on his way back to Los Angeles,
from a mysterious investigation in the east. Last night he left the briefcase
with Davis, while he went to Traverse City, Mich., to visit his mother. This
morning the case couldn't be found.
Sergt. O'Malley questioned the whole hotel staff about the case. Clerks,
bellboys, porters, waiters, chambermaids--all persons who could have got into
the room--were examined. Meanwhile Davis and men from the state's attorney's
office were busy by telephone trying to reach persons suspected of knowledge
of the vanished briefcase.
What the bag contains, no one but Keyes, Davis and the thieves know.
Keyes and his assistant had refused to discuss their latest investigation.
While admitting that they were on the trail of "something hot," they turned
aside all questions. It is known that a long statement made by Mary Miles
Minter was in the bag. Just what the actress said is a mystery, though it is
presumed that she explained a letter found in Taylor's effects in which she
had written "I love you--I love you--I love you."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 25, 1926
CHICAGO HERALD-EXAMINER
Several hours after police had begun search for a briefcase, stolen from
a room of the Hotel LaSalle and said to contain evidence relied on to solve
the four-year-old mystery of the murder of William Desmond Taylor, a messenger
boy delivered the briefcase to the Hotel LaSalle information clerk.
The boy appeared with the stolen evidence shortly after 6 o'clock
yesterday evening. He was immediately seized and questioned.
He could only explain, however, that the case had been put in his charge
by a man who had called at the main office of the Postal Telegraph Company on
Van Buren St. He had been instructed to deliver it at the hotel, he said.
The briefcase had been taken sometime yesterday from the hotel room of
Asa Keyes, district attorney of Los Angeles, who was in Chicago investigating
the possible connection of two men here with the Taylor murder.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 25, 1926
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Two prominent Angelenos whose names hitherto had not been mentioned in
connection with the case were questioned yesterday by Chief Deputy District-
Attorney Fitts and gave him some new information in the investigation being
made into the East by Dist.-Atty. Keyes in the murder of William Desmond
Taylor, motion-picture director, in Los Angeles four years ago.
The names of the two new witnesses, one a Los Angeles real-estate
operator and the other an actor, were given to Fitts by Keyes, according to
the former's statement. He declined to divulge their names, or the
information supplied by them. [3]
Yesterday Fitts received from Chicago a telegram from Keyes in which the
District-Attorney denied statements attributed to him in Chicago newspapers
that he had solved the case; that the slayer and accomplice were under
surveillance and their arrest awaited their indictment in Los Angeles.
Keyes and Davis are expected to leave Chicago today for Los Angeles,
arriving here Monday when Fitts will go into conference with them and turn
over to them the information he has gathered during their absence.
Fitts has been carrying on the investigation locally under the direction
of Keyes, he said, and when Keyes returns he will give him everything he has
obtained. During the local investigation five persons have been interrogated
by Fitts, three of whom were questioned in earlier investigations.
"These witnesses furnished to me certain facts which were not known
before and which I feel will prove of much value," Fitts declared. "Mr. Keyes
is handling the case and I am working under his direction. Hence I am not at
liberty to disclose the nature of this new information or the source."
Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, the film actress who
was questioned by Keyes at New York, will not be called to the District
Attorney's office to be questioned until Keyes' return, Fitts said. Fitts
added that he knows where Mrs. Shelby is and that she can be located whenever
necessary.
According to dispatches received yesterday from Chicago, papers in the
possession of Keyes and Davis were reported stolen from their hotel room.
Davis declared later that the papers either were returned or mislaid as they
now are in his possession. He was quoted as saying:
"If the papers were ever missing they have been returned and if they were
I had no knowledge of it. Furthermore the papers were not vital to the Taylor
case."
Davis also declared in another statement that while the investigation he
and Keyes are making and which has taken them to Boston, New York and Detroit,
has been marked by "satisfactory progress," he is unable to say whether the
mystery will be solved.
Keyes' telegram to Fitts was a sweeping denial of published statements to
the effect he knew the identity of the murderer four weeks ago and that the
purpose of the eastern trip was to obtain corroborative evidence.
"My presence in Chicago was purely for the purpose of visiting your
State's Attorney and to see how he handles criminal cases and to make train
connections," Keyes was quoted in dispatches as saying. "Chicago has no
connection whatever with the Taylor investigation and we are not shadowing the
so-called 'hangers-on' of the Hollywood film colony in Chicago. These reports
were absolutely false."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 25, 1926
Austin O'Malley
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Hollywood Woman Taylor Suspect
Chicago--After four years of investigation, some phases of it
accomplished within the last few days in Chicago, a mass of circumstantial
evidence has been collected that soon may result in the arrest of the slayer
or slayers of William Desmond Taylor, Hollywood film director.
And with every addition made to the ascertained facts in the case,
suspicion has been more directly focused on a woman--a woman who is well known
in Hollywood, although not an actress.
This woman, it now develops, was the owner of a small automatic pistol,
was known to be a good shot, and is said to have made death threats against
Taylor.
Some of its evidence, it is said, also points toward a man known as a
close friend of the woman.
This woman, it is reported, had a powerful motive, the strongest yet in
the case.
During the long trail of evidence gathering followed by Attorney Keyes
and Davis in Brooklyn, New York, Boston, Detroit and Chicago, the strange ,
almost inexplicable hatred of Taylor exhibited by the suspected slayer was
encountered again and again, according to latest developments.
The woman about whom the circle of evidence is tightening is said to have
threatened to kill Taylor a short time before he was murdered.
This woman also is said to have visited Taylor's home a few weeks before
the slaying, carrying a revolver in her sleeve. [4]
Mr. Keyes declined to say whether he expected to ask for grand jury
indictments immediately on his return to Los Angeles. He implied, however,
that there are some additional angles to be run down before any movement is
begun towards positive legal action.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 25, 1926
Morris Lavine
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
New evidence that a woman, not a motion picture actress plotted the
murder of William Desmond Taylor, film director, has come into the possession
of District Attorney Asa Keyes and his chief deputy, Buron Fitts, it was
learned from reliable sources here yesterday. A witness who talked to this
woman following the murder has been located.
Whether this woman actually committed the murder or whether a man did it
at her suggestion and instigation has been the subject of the investigation of
District Attorney Keyes in the East.
According to information said to be in possession of Keyes, this woman
actually knew of the murder long before the police officers did and was highly
nervous. She talked to a friend about it.
"Mr. Keyes will have to discuss this evidence," said Mr. Fitts yesterday,
"as it is of such importance to the case that I do not feel at liberty to
talk. All the statements must come from him."
Coincident with the announcement by Keyes that he will question Mary
Miles Minter again, who has been of considerable assistance to him in the case
and who will come to Los Angeles for that purpose, he also stated that he will
question Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, and also Miss
Mabel Normand, film comedienne, who has also offered every assistance.
Mabel Normand, on the verge of hysterics, declared she was ready and
willing at all times to assist the district attorney in his investigation.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Buron Fitts announced last night that he
had received a telegram from District Attorney Asa Keyes instructing him to
give out an authorized statement as to the position of the district attorney's
office with reference to Miss Normand.
"Mr. Keyes has instructed me to say that Miss Normand at no time had any
connection with the Taylor murder. She was exonerated by this office after a
very thorough investigation of the case and the only things she knows are of a
very minor nature and are very general. She has been put in a false position
through rumors and innuendoes and gossip and this is indeed very unfortunate.
"I am sure that Miss Normand has told everything she knows about the case
to Mr. Woolwine, my predecessor and I have been assured that she will gladly
co-operate with me in every way in the solution of the case. This is further
corroborated by her return to Los Angeles. Without disclosing the evidence in
this case any further it is important that this statement be made in justice
and fairness to Miss Normand."
Keyes probably will leave Chicago today and is due to return to Los
Angeles by April 1.
At the home of Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, her daughter, sister of Mary Miles
Minter, referred all questioners to Attorney G. Mott.
Last night Mr. Mott said:
"I have known Mrs. Shelby and the entire family for a long time and I am
sure they are all ready and willing to help in every way to clear up the
Taylor murder mystery. I do not known whether Mrs. Shelby was questioned at
the time of the murder, but she was always willing to be of assistance in the
case. I have not talked to her recently about it, as she naturally does not
want to be harassed with a matter that is now four years old.
"I cannot say at this time what her attitude will be in regard to the
desire of Mr. Keyes to question her, but I am sure she will help in every way
in the case."
When told that Mary Miles Minter had made a statement in New York,
Mr. Mott said:
"Mary is responsible for her own statements, and anyone who places any
credence in them will likewise be held responsible."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 25, 1926
Jack Carberry
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Just where the "Taylor case" stands today is as much a mystery as the
four-year-old murder itself.
Known facts concerning Keyes' trip to eastern cities and his
investigation of the case are extremely interesting, however.
The district attorney left Los Angeles without informing the press of his
intentions. However, rumors that he had gone to New York to question Miss
Minter were circulated about his office.
These rumors were carried in news dispatches to New York. Upon Keyes'
arrival at the Belmont hotel in that city he found 40 odd reporters waiting
for him. Since that hour Keyes has been trailed constantly by newspaper men.
When the district attorney left Los Angeles he, like all of his staff,
together with detectives and members of the sheriff's force who had worked on
the "Taylor case" were of the opinion that Edward Sands, one-time valet for
Taylor, had committed the murder.
At first Keyes denied that he had gone east in connection with the case.
He insisted to reporters that he was in New York to study the methods used by
District Attorney J. A. Banton of that city in handling criminal cases. He
stated he was to make like studies in other eastern cities.
Davis, however, was credited by reporters with the statement that the
Taylor case was under investigation. It later developed that Keyes had visited
Miss Minter and had secured a signed statement from her.
This he mailed to Acting District Attorney Buron Fitts here. Fitts,
working quietly, has interrogated several persons in connection with Miss
Minter's statement.
Fitts, while he flatly refuses to discuss his investigation, is known to
have proceeded along the following theory:
1--That a man--a paid assassin--fired the murder shot.
2--That the man was paid to do the deed by a woman, who, although not a
motion picture actress herself, was deeply interested in a screen star who was
in love with Taylor.
That the man who fired the shot may have been Sands, the valet, who has
never been seen since the afternoon following the slaying, is quite possible.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 25, 1926
LOS ANGELES HERALD
Harold L. Davis, assistant to the district attorney, refused to discuss
the case today.
"Please remember that neither Mr. Keyes nor I have been quite so silly as
to give out all of the so-called important information which has been
attributed to us," he said. "After we had been east about three weeks they
'hung' a fresh investigation of the Taylor case on us. I have never admitted
it. Mr. Keyes may have. Murderers are not caught with brass bands."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 26, 1926
Morris Lavine
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Blonde Hairs Clew in Taylor Case
Two strands of blonde hair were found on the body of William Desmond
Taylor, film director, shortly after he was discovered murdered at his South
Alvarado street home on February 1, 1922, and have been safeguarded by the
district attorney's office ever since that time, it was learned yesterday.
The strands of hair were found by Detective Ed King, who was placed in
charge of the investigation by District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine at that
time.
They have formed the basis of the new investigation by District Attorney
Asa Keyes and Chief Deputy District Attorney Buron Fitts, in the nation-wide
search for the slayer, and new evidence regarding him.
Coupled with the other evidence in the possession of the district
attorney's office, the strands of hair seemed to indicate to the investigators
that a woman may have committed the murder or been present when the fatal shot
was fired. Further check along this line is now being made.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 26, 1926
Jack Carberry
LOS ANGELES RECORD
District Attorney Asa Keyes' investigation of the murder of William
Desmond Taylor is to be investigated.
This startling development in the sensational four-year-old slaying
became known today. It was learned that the 1926 grand jury had already
secretly made plans to bring the district attorney before it upon his return
to Los Angeles from his trip to New York, New Haven, Bridgeport, Boston,
Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Traverse City and Kansas City.
The jury's intention of asking Keyes and his aide, Harold L. (Buddy)
Davis, to explain their eastern trip, and to show the necessity of the
journey, followed published statements from the two men now in Chicago in
which Keyes was quoted as declaring the "Taylor case is solved," and
attributing to Davis the declaration that "at no time have I ever so much as
admitted we have been investigating the Taylor case."
The jury's action will be in keeping with its announced policy of
interesting itself in all questions of public moment. Keyes, it was learned,
will not be formally called but the jury will expect him to offer a full
explanation of his trip, its cost and the necessity of making the
investigation. He can do this at the same time he presents his evidence upon
which, he has already announced, he hopes to secure an indictment.
That Keyes, upon his return, will ask the jury to return an indictment
against Edward Sands, once the valet for Taylor, appears certain. It was known
that Keyes had been in telephonic communication with persons friendly to him
here and had so stated.
Whether Keyes, on his journey east, has gathered sufficient evidence to
warrant a further indictment of a woman now believed to have either hired or
inspired Sands to commit the murder is not known. As far as could be learned
today Keyes' evidence is of a purely circumstantial nature and is based
largely upon the suspicions of an actress now in New York.
Upon telegraphic orders from Keyes, Acting District Attorney Buron Fitts
yesterday called before him Chauncey Eaton, chauffeur for Mrs. Charlotte
Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter, whose love notes written to Taylor were
found among his effects following the murder.
The investigation now being conducted is but a continuation of the theory
known to have been held by Woolwine when he was in office and at the time of
the killing. However, Woolwine was convinced the evidence available would
never warrant an indictment against anybody unless Sands could be taken into
custody and made to "talk."
Keyes, in Traverse City, Mich., where he had gone to visit his mother,
said:
"I have talked all I am going to talk on the Taylor case and its
solution. There will be nothing more said until after I return to Los Angeles
and present the facts to the grand jury. We have made several important
discoveries."
Davis, in Chicago, where he "lost" the evidence in the case, only to find
it again an hour later, admitted he was "hopping mad." It is Davis' belief
that a Chicago newspaperman was responsible for the "theft" of the evidence.
The reporter, who had interviewed Keyes and Davis the night before the "theft"
wrote for his paper:
"Davis, patting a well-filled brief case which he carried under his arm,
smiled and said: 'The evidence is here--and it would make interesting
reading.' "
The reporter then succeeded in getting the "interesting reading," Davis
believes.
As a result of his experience, Davis today flatly refused to have
anything more to do with newspaper men.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 26, 1926
SAN FRANCISCO CALL
Los Angeles--Virtually all of the evidence in the William Desmond Taylor
murder mystery has disappeared from the office of District Attorney Asa Keyes,
it was learned today. Including in the missing documents is the dramatic
statement of Mary Miles Minter, former motion picture star, stating her
undying love for the slain director.
The statement of Miss Minter, made to former District Attorney Thomas Lee
Woolwine and for a long time the crux in the investigation of the murder, has
been missing for many weeks, Ed King, investigator for the district attorney's
office, admitted.
With the statement of Miss Minter, which consisted of hundreds of
typewritten pages in book form, there also had disappeared a stack of fervent
love notes, which the actress wrote to Taylor. These notes were found hidden
in one of the director's riding boots after the murder.
"I don't know what became of this evidence," said King today. "All I know
is that it is missing and that after the first investigation of the case had
died down persons interested in Miss Minter made strenuous efforts to get it
from us."
King also admitted that other evidence in the case has disappeared. He
declined to state of what this additional missing evidence consisted.
"We still have the bullet that killed Taylor, the suit of clothes he wore
when he was killed and the statements of several witnesses," said King, "but a
large part of the evidence gathered at the time the crime was first
investigated has vanished."
Indictments in the case, it was said, might be returned, but the chances
for conviction were said to be extremely slight in view of the missing papers.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 27, 1926
Morris Lavine
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Poison Death Plans Laid by Woman
Startling evidence that the woman--not a motion picture actress--
suspected of plotting the murder of William Desmond Taylor, film director,
told a close friend that she would never be taken alive to the district
attorney's office for questioning, and inquired from a nurse what poisons she
could use to end her life quickly, if necessary, has come into the possession
of the district attorney's office.
Bert Cohen, chief investigator for the district attorney, yesterday
directed his aides to find an important witness relating to this new
development in the case.
Every effort is being made to locate the witness before District Attorney
Keyes returns.
It was learned yesterday in dispatches from New York that Mary Miles
Minter in a recent statement to District Attorney Keyes asserted that she had
heard threats to kill Taylor some months previous to his death.
The data which former District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine collected
during his tenure in office, including the letters of Mary Miles Minter, are
not missing, as reported, according to district attorney's office detectives.
But the evidence that is missing--two silken strands of blonde hair--is
considered of the utmost importance. It has been stated that if the suspected
murderer is ever publicly named and brought to trial the hair would be one of
the foundations of the state's case.
That they were a vital link in the chain of evidence was admitted by
officers, as witnesses established the point that Taylor never wore a suit of
clothes more than one day at a time and that his valet pressed his clothes and
cleaned his suit every day.
The suit he had on that day had been thoroughly cleaned the day before
and it is the belief of officers that the hair belonged to the person who
committed the murder.
It was stated at the police station that the two strands of blonde hair
which were found on Taylor's coat and which are linked with the hair of the
murderer, were placed in an envelope and locked in the police safe, with
instructions to keep them specially guarded.
When Davis became chief of the homicide department Keyes instructed him
to go to the police station and get all the documents on the case and the
evidence.
Davis obtained several statements and Taylor's suit of clothes, and put
them in the district attorney's safe. The clothes showed that Taylor had been
shot from a distance no further than one inch from his body, the bullet
passing through his chest.
The strands of hair were sought, but could not be located at this time.
On his return to Los Angeles Keyes will interrogate several persons in
connection with the evidence obtained in the East. If the evidence warrants,
he will take the case before the county grand jury. At the Hall of Justice
yesterday, efforts to make political capital out of Keyes' trip were scoffed
at. It is in full accord with the District Attorney in his investigation, and
is working harmoniously with the District Attorney's office.
Members of the grand jury stated that the only investigation they will
take up in connection with the Taylor murder is such evidence as Keyes may
present to them regarding the murder.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 27, 1926
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Omaha--Nursing a grudge for everybody east of the Rocky Mountains,
District Attorney Asa Keyes passed through here today en route to Los Angeles,
where he will continue his investigation into the death of William Desmond
Taylor, movie director.
Keyes was especially peeved at Chicago and Chicago newspaper men. "I'm
sure glad I got out of that burg," he said. "It's a terrible place."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 27, 1926
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Taylor Slaying Theory of Mary Minter is Told
With District Attorney Asa Keyes and his chief assistant, Harold L.
(Buddy) Davis, speeding homeward following their search for evidence in
connection with the four-year-old murder of William Desmond Taylor, chief
interest in the revival of California's most sensational slaying lay today in
the contents of a statement made by Mary Minter to the district attorney while
in New York.
Miss Minter, who left "the pictures" immediately after Taylor was found
slain, frankly expressed her "theory" of the crime.
Miss Minter, in her statement, it became known today, believes that
Sands, enraged at the loss of his position; possessed of a criminal's mind,
always bent on revenge' unscrupulous and willing to do anything for money,
became a tale bearer.
The girl, at that time, frankly admits she was paying visits to the
director's home.
That Sands carried the tales of these visits to a woman, enlarging upon
what was occurring; telling tales of wild parties--and in all probability the
whispers of love upon which he had eavesdropped, is Miss Minter's belief.
This woman wanted to keep Miss Minter away from Taylor, the former
actress told Keyes.
And now Keyes believes one of two things happened:
1. That Sands, believing he would receive a rich reward, killed Taylor of
his own initiative, depending upon the woman mentioned by Miss Minter to
reward him.
2. That he acted as a paid assassin, securing a stipulated fee, part of
which he used to flee to a foreign land.
But every iota of Keyes' case is known to be circumstantial.
Following her retirement Miss Minter entered into a series of disputes
with her mother, Mrs. Charlotte Shelby. The former actress, who, while making
her home apart from her mother, instituted an accounting action in the local
courts seeking to secure large sums of money which, she claimed, she had
earned, but which, she said, she had never received.
It was learned that Miss Minter's mother, at the time of the murder,
employed private detectives and attorneys in an effort to locate the slayer.
Checks revealed that she had spent many thousand dollars in an independent
search for the slayer in an effort to eliminate her daughter's name from the
case.
It was also learned today that the "theory" of Miss Minter, as told to
Keyes, in New York, was often expressed here. [5]
One night, before leaving Los Angeles, police were called to her
neighborhood by residents who had objected to Miss Minter's prize dogs being
allowed to run at liberty. The officers responded together with a newspaper
man, were invited into Miss Minter's apartment.
There she told, in detail, the "theory" which she repeated to Keyes in
New York.
Both Mrs. Shelby and Miss Minter's sister, Mrs. Margaret Fillmore, had
also been informed of the former actress' "theory."
Assistant Captain William M. Cahill, one of the officers who originally
worked on the case, has an entirely different opinion. He "strings with" the
love-jealousy motive.
Cahill thinks that one of Taylor's feminine admirers, hopelessly in love
with him, watched the bungalow, saw Mabel Normand leave, went into an
emotional rage, knew that Taylor was alone, and then stepped into the living
room, took a gun from her handbag and fired the fatal shot.
Cahill declares he believes the woman then ran out the front door, in
between the adjoining garage and the house and disappeared in the dark shadows
enveloping Alvarado Terrace.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 27, 1926
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
A new and sensational angle of the William Desmond Taylor murder case
developed today when a New York newspaper printed a story that a prominent Los
Angeles society woman faces indictment.
According to the United Press, the New York Graphic today printed a
copyrighted story about the society woman.
The United Press quotes from this story as follows:
"The motive for her crime was mad jealousy, aroused when the director
transferred his friendship from her to Mary Miles Minter, young and beautiful
motion picture star.
"The society woman before mentioned in connection with the many
investigations into the mystery was an almost daily visitor at the luxurious
Hollywood home of the director until shortly before the murder."
The woman, "not a moving picture actress," has figured prominently in the
investigation since Taylor was found dead in his bungalow, February, 1922.
Whether she will be questioned again is unannounced, since Keyes has stopped
talking and started traveling again.
Reports credited to Investigator Eddie King, of the district attorney's
office, that Mary Miles Minter's love notes and statements in the Taylor case
were missing, were punctured and flattened by the investigator.
"Just an ordinary lie," laughed King. "No truth in it. Neither did I make
any such announcement. The notes are safely in the possession of the proper
authorities."
Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice, reports tenaciously held that District
Attorney Keyes and Harold L. Davis, his assistant, who accompanied the
official, will have to make a complete accounting for the trip which caused a
national flurry over contradictory reports credited to the pair regarding the
Taylor mystery.
First they denied they were working on the case. Then they reported
"satisfactory progress." Then came a hail of announcements on the case, which
were climaxed when they declared the famous mystery solved. But "Buddy" Davis,
the aide, lost his suitcase, said to contain the solution, for a few hours and
he became angry at newspaper men. The upshot was that Keyes and Davis both
denied the whole thing and then shut up entirely.
Now they're both coming straight home, more or less cloaked in secrecy.
Of Keyes, near and about his own office, it was admitted that "Ace talked
too much."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 28, 1926
Morris Lavine
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
In the files of the District Attorney's office is a diary, recently
discovered, which is said to contain highly valuable information regarding a
woman, not a motion picture actress, suspected of plotting the murder of
William Desmond Taylor, the film director.
How this diary came into the possession of the District Attorney is not
known. But its contents are said to reveal the movements of a certain society
matron at different times before Taylor's murder, the day of the crime, and
all subsequent. [6]
The diary is being guarded with the utmost care, to be turned over to
District Attorney Asa Keyes upon his return to Los Angeles Monday or Tuesday.
The data furnished in the diary now in the possession of the District
Attorney's office dovetails with other statements secretly obtained during the
past two months by Keyes and his assistants.
Keyes, on his return to Los Angeles, will question several persons in
addition to those already seen in the case. These will include a nurse to
which a woman, not an actress, is said to have inquired regarding various
poisons and to whom this woman is said to have stated that she would never be
taken alive.
In the East Keyes announced that he will question Mrs. Charlotte Shelby,
mother of Mary Miles Minter, and will ask her several questions on which she
may throw some light. He is bringing back with him a statement by Mary Miles
Minter.
Mrs. Shelby, the mother, was located yesterday by The Examiner on a
plantation several miles from Bastrop, La., where she went to settle up an
estate involving the property of her mother, who died recently.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 29, 1926
LOS ANGELES TIMES
On board Union Pacific Los Angeles Limited (Milford, Utah)--The well-
known Taylor murder mystery, after 5000 miles of travel and 500,000 words of
news dispatches, is coming home to roost.
It is approaching the California State line in the form of Dist.-Atty.
Keyes and his chief homicide deputy, Davis, to say nothing of the brief case
containing the Taylor case documents, recently made famous by its amazing
theft and miraculous recovery in Chicago.
Deputy Davis, custodian of the case, proudly exhibited his trust in all
its cowhide glory, but when asked if the Taylor case had been solved, as
reported, exclaimed, "so's your old man."
Mr. Keyes, who was looking out of the window on the cold snow-covered
hills, entered a general denial to the statements accredited to him by eastern
dispatches. The 5000-mile transcontinental jaunt can be salvaged through a
county expense voucher, but the half million-odd words printed on the case and
attributed to him appear to be a total loss.
After reading the batch of eastern stories crediting him with all sorts
of things said and unsaid, Mr. Keyes consented to make a statement of facts
for the Los Angeles Times. He said:
"Some of the eastern news dispatches attributed to me and Mr. Davis are
so ridiculous and self-contradictory on their face that no categorical denials
are necessary. I have been grossly misquoted and many statements were put in
my mouth that did not emanate from me. Some of these dispatches came from
cities many miles away from my presence at that time. It is unfortunate that
the natural anxiety of some reporters to obtain something new on a world-
famous case should go that far...
"So far as the Taylor case is concerned, from the public point of view it
is one of the most spectacular and sensational mysteries in years. From a
purely legal point of view, it is a case requiring the most painstaking effort
and careful preparation. While in New York I interviewed Mary Miles Minter,
one of the witnesses in the case, and have her statement with me.
"Some investigation regarding the whereabouts of Edward F. Sands also was
necessary. These things had to be done as a legal necessity in our efforts to
round out a case and put it into shape to be presented before the proper
judicial bodies, should sufficient evidence eventually be obtained. All this
was done with satisfactory results.
"While in Chicago no work was done on the Taylor case. No interviews were
taken and no witnesses were seen. Our efforts in Chicago were along the lines
of investigating the District Attorney's office for ideas to put into effect
in Los Angeles.
"As to Miss Minter's statement and as to the other information gathered
from witnesses, nothing at this time warrants the statement that we know the
murderer of William Desmond Taylor, and at no time has any such claim been
made by me or by Mr. Davis.
In view of the extraordinary amount of publicity, most of it very
unfortunate and far from the truth, I do not feel that much additional
progress can be made at this time in the orderly reconstruction of the case,
and unless some spontaneous occurrence changes my plans no immediate action is
expected."
The theft of the Taylor case documents and all the circumstances
surrounding it will be told the grand jury by Mr. Keyes, the District Attorney
and Mr. Davis declared.
None of the documents are missing, but the lock on the brief case was
jimmied and contents taken out and examined, according to Mr. Davis. He was
out to supper and left the case in the room at the hotel in Chicago. In the
morning, when he discovered the loss of the documents, he at once instituted a
search for them. Investigation showed that while he was away two men obtained
and pass-key from the hotel clerk and entered the room.
The next day Mr. Davis and Mr. Keyes learned that some of the documents
were taken by the thieves to a Chicago newspaper office and examined. The case
was returned while Mr. Davis was in conference with some Chicago officials.
Nothing was missing.
"The most important evidence in the case was not in the bag, when it was
stolen," Mr. Davis said, as the train rolled across the Utah valley. "By some
act of providence we had transferred the important papers to another place.
However, it is very unfortunate the contents of some of the papers were
indirectly given publication and used as quotations from Mr. Keyes and
myself." [7]
Some of the cities in which they were reported were never visited by Mr.
Keyes and Mr. Davis, they said tonight. The two officials said they visited
Chicago, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Syracuse, N.Y.
When the limited train came to a stop at the Union Pacific station in the
Utah capital, the two Los Angeles officials were met by newspaper men and
shown the clippings of stories published on the Taylor case since their trip
east. Five thick envelopes, containing dozens of front-page stories with
glaring headlines, and attributing all sorts of interesting but conflicting
statements to Mr. Keyes and Mr. Davis, were among the exhibits.
Both immediately and heatedly denied that they had said most of the
things credited to them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 29, 1926
Jack Carberry
LOS ANGELES RECORD
While Keyes has been in the east, it was learned today, private
investigation into the Taylor murder, resumed here, revealed that Sands,
within three days after Taylor was slain, left San Pedro aboard ship as a
steward, sailing
for China. Sands, it was learned, told a woman known to
police as "Marie" that he was going to spend the remainder of his life in
Havana. Before leaving he gave the woman, "Marie," a large sum of money
without offering an explanation of where he had secured.
Whether Sands has remained in Cuba since the slaying is not known.
There were no developments in the case today.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 30, 1926
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Dist.-Atty. Keyes and Harold L. Davis, his chief homicide deputy, arrived
in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, after an extended trip through eastern
cities and considerable publicity over the reported solution of the William
Desmond Taylor murder case.
A small army of newspaper reporters and photographers met the two
officials on their arrival at the Central Station. There was a clicking of
cameras and some milling around, but nothing new was added to the facts
already known in the investigation.
The murder investigation activity, if any, in the news few months will be
directed toward reassembling and co-ordinating material at hand, Mr. Keyes and
Mr. Davis said.
A study of the transcript of the statement made to them in New York by
Mary Miles Minter, Taylor's former sweetheart, will be made by Mr. Keyes and
Mr. Davis. They also plan to check over the known facts in the murder case to
see how much credence is to be placed in the story of a former convict, given
them in a New York State city, during their eastern visit. This story is a
reputed "second-handed" confession of a man who says that while he was serving
a term in an eastern prison a fellow convict told him that he and another man
had killed Taylor. The man is said to be a narcotic peddler.
His motive was described as an old grudge against Taylor, grown from a
trifling episode years ago. The description of the self-asserted murderer, as
given by the convict, is said to answer in a general way the man seen leaving
the Taylor home immediately after the shooting in February, 1922.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 31, 1926
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Louisiana justice disappointed Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary
Miles Minter, yesterday. It prevented her from obtaining the whole of an
estate of gas lands reputed to be worth $1,400,000 and gave half of the estate
to a niece.
The estate was left by Mrs. Julia B. Miles, grandmother of Mary Miles
Minter. Mrs. Miles died recently. It consisted of 1400 acres of valuable gas
lands in the Monroe, La., gas belt.
The will was contested by Mrs. Hazel Jordan of Mobile, Ala., who
announced she was fighting for the share of her deceased mother, who was Mrs.
Shelby's sister.
Mrs. Shelby hastened from Los Angeles to Bastrop, La., to attend the
hearing and oppose the efforts of her niece to obtain a half share in the
land.
A verdict by the District Court in Bastrop, county seat of Morehouse
Parish, awarded Mrs. Jordan half of the estate yesterday.
Mrs. Shelby left immediately for New York.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
June 2, 1926
LOS ANGELES HERALD
A formal statement by Mrs. Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter,
erstwhile screen beauty, regarding her knowledge of the mysterious
circumstances which led to the murder of William Desmond Taylor in 1922,
rested today in the files of District Attorney Asa Keyes, the latter
announced.
The statement is the first ever made by Mrs. Shelby in the history of the
case.
Mrs. Shelby was questioned to sift the statements made by Miss Minter to
Keyes in New York recently, the prosecutor said. Miss Minter's close
friendship with Taylor, which she freely admitted after his death and which
was confirmed by a long series of love letters between the couple, filed as
evidence in the case, was discussed by Keyes and Mrs. Shelby.
Mrs. Shelby's statement will be kept confidential, Keyes said. He also
declared himself satisfied with its contents.
*****************************************************************************
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April 9, 1922
Thoreau Cronyn
NEW YORK HERALD
The Truth About Hollywood, Concluded
PART V [How Much Do the Stars Earn?]
In the old days it was the habit of some producers and their press agents
to exaggerate for publication the salaries of their stars, but the chastening
of Hollywood has brought about a realization that this was a silly business--
bad for the star, bad for his associates, bad for the whole industry.
How much do the picture players get? In many instances it is impossible
to learn the real figures. They are a secret between the star and the one or
two individuals with whom the contract was made. This secrecy has enabled the
imaginative actor and publicity man to soar as high as they pleased without
challenge. Also the methods of payment are so diverse as to make estimation of
amounts difficult. Some players have a weekly drawing account and a percentage
of the profits. Some get a flat weekly salary under yearly or long term
contract. Some are paid by the week for the period required for the making of
the picture; when the picture is finished the salary stops. Some of the
biggest stars produce their own pictures and take all the profit or loss, as
the case may be. Of these some finance their own productions and others are
financed by the corporations which distribute the films.
One thing is certain and that is within the last year there has been a
marked lowering of salaries throughout the motion picture ranks, amounting in
some instances to more than 50 per cent. A sage of Hollywood thus summarized
the present salary situation:
"This is an El Dorado for a few, a grub stake for many and a Dead Man's
Gulch for many others. I know well-known actors and actresses whose salaries
appear to be fabulous but who would be better off if they had steady jobs at
$100 a week. One of these is a leading woman who gets $500 a week. That sounds
like $25,000 a year. The fact is that the moment a picture is finished she
gets nothing, and sometimes she is idle for months between pictures. I know a
star who has a Packard car but no money to buy gasoline. A leading woman with
a male star got $200 a week for four weeks and then nothing for four months.
Sometimes a player of a striking type is catapulted into prominence by one
picture, but then she can't find another picture suitable to her peculiar
personality and she is out of a job for five months."
The highest paid players on continuous weekly salary were Mary Pickford,
Charley Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, all of whom are now producing on their
own account. William S. Hart, whose salary was $2,000 a week, has also become
a producer. A famous opera singer made three pictures and received $50,000 for
each of them. The highest paid salaried actor in Hollywood at the present
time, according to information given me, is Mary Miles Minter. I was told that
her contract with Famous Players-Lasky calls for five pictures at the graded
rate of $30,000, $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 and $70,000 a picture. She has made
her last production, so that roughly she has earned $250,000 a year. Another
top salaried celebrity is Pauline Frederick. She had a contract at $7,500 a
week, but I was told that when retrenchment set in she acquiesced in a
reduction to $3,000 a week. Betty Compson, on a five year contract at $2,000 a
week, also accepted a reduction. I also heard that Wallace Reid had been
reduced from $1,750 to $1,250 a week, but this, in view of the fact that he is
now one of the greatest drawing cards at the film theaters, seems improbable.
Rodolph Valentino, who has recently found great demand for his services,
has just signed a contract with Famous Players-Lasky at $1,00 a week for the
first year, $2,000 for the second and $3,000 for the third. Harold Lloyd gets
a lump sum for each picture and a percentage of the profits over a certain
sum. His personal fortune is estimated at $350,000.
The public has an impression that Charley Chaplin is under contract at "a
million a year." The fact is that the distributor, First National Pictures,
agreed to pay him $1,000,000 for eight pictures, and it has taken him five
years to make them. This makes his average return only $125,000 a picture and
$200,000 a year. Out of this Chaplin pays the cost of production, averaging
about $60,000 a picture. At this rate his net return per picture is $65,000,
with income tax to be deducted. I suppose he also has a percentage interest in
the distributor's profits, which would swell the sum considerably, but even so
Hollywood knows that Chaplin's fortune is not what it is generally thought to
be. He takes his time in turning out one of his comedies. He is tired of
slapstick and meringue pies and doesn't care who knows it, and stays away from
his studio as much as possible while the expense mounts up just the same. The
dog that he used in filming "A Dog's Life" grew from puppy-hood to maturity
before the picture was done. Toward the end they had to fake--that is, to
place the camera further away in order to make the dog appear to be the same
size as when the production was started.
What Mary Pickford makes is a secret among herself, her mother, who is
her business manager, and the income tax bureau. It does not amount to
$1,000,000 a year. Friends in Hollywood believe that recently she and her
husband have each been netting about $500,000. After fifteen years on the
legitimate and movie stage Miss Pickford is worth about $3,000,000. She is a
wise investor. Fairbanks is not a great saver, or has not been up to this
time. He spends enormous sums on his productions. "The Three Musketeers" cost
not far from $750,000.
Conrad Nagel, one of the newer leading men of considerable experience on
the legitimate stage, has a salary of $750 a week. This is above the leading
man's average, the reason being that Nagel not only can act but looks like an
aristocrat. Katherine MacDonald has her own company and gets $50,000 a picture
from First National. Mabel Normand got at one time $4,000 a week. I don't know
what her present contract with Mack Sennett calls for. Here are some actual
figures that were given me under pledge that the names would not be used:
A well known star, a homely man who does homely, heart interest stories
but is not just new in the pictures, had a two year contract at $2,000 a week.
A well known character man, in constant demand, works by the picture at $2,000
and $3,000 a week. A leading woman who is popular with the public receives
$400 a week, but misses a good many weeks between pictures. A noted character
actor ranked as a star is paid $1,500 or $2,000 a week. A featured leading
woman under a five year contract gets $450 a week the year round. A man who
has been before the camera only a year but has a thorough stage training is
under contract at $500 a week. A juvenile lead gets $250 a week, with
provision for an annual increase. A seventeen-year-old ingenue, one year in
the pictures, draws $150 a week. A character woman in steady demand for "grand
dame" parts gets $100 a week on a long term contract: character man playing
small parts $75.
The salaries of stock players under contract range as a rule from $125 to
$500 a week. It takes an exceptional man or woman to rise above $500. Fancy
salaries are often paid to outsiders engaged to play leads with the regular
stock companies. Salaries also vary with the prosperity of the producer and
sometimes depend on his personal whim. The present tendency is away from the
fancy salary and toward standardization. The day of the $5,000 a week star is
passing. The players are also being held to stricter studio discipline.
Contracts are being drawn so as to compel the player to give undivided
attention to work and to discourage costly vacillations due to temperament or
big head.
In writing of salaries I have not taken account of the swarm of others
besides the leading actors who have to do with the studios. A few directors'
salaries go as high as $2,000 and $3,000 a week, really good ones being rarer
than really good actors. William Desmond Taylor, who was murdered, got $1,250.
He was regarded as an "uneven performer." Some of his pictures were
masterpieces; others mediocre. A director's salary is commonly around $500 a
week.
Players of small parts, who may appear only once and then get killed off,
are paid by the day, $15 and up. The extra people get from $5 to $15 a day,
the customary rate being $7.50, and the "atmosphere"--persons with no
training, who add numbers or color to mob scenes--$3 a day. The best camera
men receive $200 a week. Many of them float from studio to studio, but some of
the directors and players insist on having the same one for each picture. Mary
Pickford always calls for Charles Rosher, as he has proved that he best knows
how to attain the effects she desires.
Do the actors save anything? Bankers of Hollywood told me that the number
of those who do is larger than might be supposed. Charley Chaplin is credited
with having the largest deposits. He has a cash balance of $300,000 in one of
the Hollywood banks. The returns from each of his pictures are credited to
separate accounts. His financial man is his secretary. William S. Hart and
Pauline Frederick are among the many others who make regular deposits and
fewer withdrawals. The spendthrifts are like so many Coal Oil Johnnies.
Without training in the use of money, without taste or imagination, they fling
their dollars along the line of least resistance. They overdress, they give
garish parties, they put special bodies on the most expensive automobiles
(Arbuckle's $25,000 chariot was inlaid with gold), they repair between
pictures to the Tia Juana race track, just across the Mexican line, and go
broke.
I had supposed before going to Hollywood that any star possessing less
than nine automobiles was ostracized, but I heard of none with more than four.
Chaplin, as heretofore mentioned, has two; Mary Pickford two, Betty Compson
two, Harold Lloyd four, one of them a Ford. Lloyd lives in Los Angeles with
his father and brother and sister-in-law and their baby. His servants are a
cook, valet and chauffeur.
Mary Pickford supports a children's home in Los Angeles with the proceeds
of her photographs, which her secretary sends to applicants upon payment of 25
cents. Fairbanks never drinks intoxicants. He smokes a pipe when he feels like
it. No liquor is served in their home except at formal dinners. They are
rarely seen at social affairs. In the evening they see a new film in their own
home. Charley Chaplin drops in and plays the violin. Fairbanks amuses the
guests with a new acrobatic stunt and when the guests are gone reads history
and biography to familiarize himself with the requirements of his next
picture.
Charles Ray, who married out of the profession (Mrs. Ray sings and
paints), has two automobiles. He has the reputation of being one of
Hollywood's hardest workers, but is seen at an occasional garden party in the
summer. His father was a conductor on the Santa Fe. The jovial Tom Mix has a
fortune in fancy hatbands and spurs and drives a wicked car. One of his
friends described it: "A cross between a battleship and Sousa's band, with his
name on the door, like Painless Parker."
Eric von Stroheim has three automobiles, as has Priscilla Dean, who lives
in the Hollywood foothills.
I promised to report on the night life of Hollywood. As indicated, the
streets are pastorally quiet. The two big social mob scenes are the Tuesday
night dance at the Ambassador, between Hollywood and Los Angeles, and the
Thursday night dance at the Hollywood Hotel. The latter was rather jamboreeish
at one time, but has been denatured. The Ambassador dance will be mentioned
later. The real cutups go to such places as the Sunset Inn on the road to
Santa Monica, miles from Hollywood. Two rather noted actresses played a game
of strip poker there last summer but at the next to the last moment an actor
in policeman's uniform rushed in and arrested them. The Ship, an eating place
in Venice, on the ocean, is also well patronized. No liquor is sold on the
premises, I was solemnly assured, but in this bootlegger's paradise that need
be no deterrent. Hollywood itself, in addition to a few restaurants, only one
of which is open all night, has a few tearooms and that exhausts the list.
There is space only for a brief listing of some of Hollywood's many find
activities in which the screen workers share. In the Bowl, a natural
amphitheater seating 5,500 persons, outdoor spectacles are staged, and the Los
Angeles Symphony Orchestra will give forty concerts next summer with the
admission fee only 25 cents. There is a community theater, organized and
managed by Neely Dickson, where have been seen scores of one act plays written
by such authors as Lord Dunsany, Bernard Shaw, Lady Gregory, William Butler
Yeats, John Masefield, Sir James M. Barrie and Stephen Phillips. The best of
the legitimate players drawn to the studios of Hollywood have taken part.
Every night during the summer the Pilgrimage Play, based on the life of
Christ, is given in a canyon in the foothills at prices ranging from 50 cents
to $2. The spirit of the town is suggested by the fact that the Board of
Supervisors appropriated $20,000 a year for three years for the support of
this undertaking. Many beds in Los Angeles hospitals are maintained by movie
persons.
Up in the hills Mrs. Annie Besant presides over the Krotona Institute of
Theosophy. Some of the churches of Hollywood, notably the Christian Science,
Unitarian and Methodist are particularly attractive. The roll of Christian
Science members is a movie who's who. Witness: Bob Ellis and his wife, May
Allison; Mr. and Mrs. Tully Marshall, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Hatton, Mr. and
Mrs. Ralph Graves, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ogle, Paul Scardon and his wife, Betty
Blythe; Mr. and Mrs. Jack Holt, Richard Dix, Miss Leatrice Joy, Miss Helen
Ferguson, Miss Helen Jerome Eddy, Miss Lillian Leighton, Miss Shannon Day, Mr.
and Mrs. Conrad Nagel, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Franklin and Mr. and Mrs. King
Vidor. All the children of C.B. and W.C. De Mille attend the Christian Science
Sunday School.
Then there is the Screen Writers Guild. It is a distinctly cheering
institution. Before going to Hollywood I had never heard of it except through
a newspaper announcement that it had offered a reward of $1,000 to the capture
and conviction of the Taylor murderer.
"That's the crowd that gave the big dinner a while ago, the Writers
Cramp," an outlander told me. So it is, and much more. It is a flourishing
alliance of the men and women of a new profession--the writers of stories and
scenarios for the motion pictures. It is an offspring of the Authors League of
America, born two years ago at a meeting in the home of Thompson Buchanan,
whom theatergoers remember for "A Woman's Way" and other plays of the
legitimate stage.
It strives to get adequate recognition for the screen writer, to
cooperate with the Authors League in improving copyright laws, to make sounder
the contracts of writers and producers and to ply visiting celebrities with
food and moral entertainment. It has in Hollywood a $30,000 clubhouse, for
which it is paying by the month, without missing an installment thus far. It
dispelled forever the impression that writers are poor business men by making
a profit of $6,647.54 from its first annual dinner, the Writers Cramp, held in
December in the Ambassador Hotel.
It has succeeded in settling out of court disputes between producers and
writers, so that now its services as arbiter is sought even by the "magnates."
And when the scandals threatened Hollywood the Screen Writers Guild leaped to
the defense.
So far as I know the association of motion picture producers has never
offered as much as one cent to spur the hunt for the person who shot Taylor,
but when the question came up at a luncheon in the clubhouse of the Screen
Writers Guild ten scenario writers guaranteed $100 apiece on the spot. Maybe
that merely signifies that the writers have all the money.
[The End]
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NEXT ISSUE: William T. Sherman, Guest Editor:
Some Responses to a Number of Points Made in TAYLOROLOGY
In Defense of Mabel Normand
The Issue of Peavey's Credibility
The Credibility of Howard Fellows' Testimony
The Time Element Problem
Evidence for a Cover-Up
Summaries of the Cases against Charlotte Shelby and Carl Stockdale
*****************************************************************************
NOTES:
[1]This is one of the earliest published rumors directed against Charlotte
Shelby. The idea that Taylor was plying Minter with liquor and drugs is
extremely doubtful.
[2]This was the first statement attributed to an official which supposedly
asserted that Minter "was at Taylor's home a few hours before the murder." In
view of that fact that other portions of this statement were later strongly
denied by Keyes--he denied that he was anxious to talk with Mabel Normand,
denied that his visit to Chicago had anything to do with the Taylor murder--
and due to his subsequent and obviously true statement that "I have been
grossly misquoted and many statements were put in my mouth that did not
emanate from me", it seems unlikely that this statement about Minter was
actually made by Keyes, and the entire statement may have been fabricated.
[3]The "Los Angeles real-estate operator" was Harold Fellows, who had been
Taylor's assistant director at the time of his murder.
[4]The visit of Charlotte Shelby to Taylor's home, with a revolver hidden in
her sleeve, actually took place nearly two years prior to the murder.
[5]Minter's statement to Keyes has never been made public, but in later
interviews she strongly denied ever suspecting either her mother or Sands of
having killed Taylor.
[6]This diary belonged to Chauncey Eaton, chauffeur for Charlotte Shelby,
and had details of where he drove her on each day.
[7]Based upon the revelations appearing in the Hearst press in the days
immediately following the theft of the briefcase, the following information
may possibly have been contained in the briefcase:
a. That Shelby supposedly knew of the murder before the police did.
b. That Shelby visited Taylor's home once with a gun in her sleeve.
c. That strands of blonde hair were found on Taylor's coat.
*****************************************************************************
For more information about Taylor, see
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
Back issues of Taylorology are available via Gopher or FTP at
etext.archive.umich.edu
in the directory pub/Zines/Taylorology
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