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Taylorology Issue 08
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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 8 -- August 1993 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
* All reprinted material is in the public domain *
*****************************************************************************
CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
Wallace Smith: February 8, 1922
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder" Part 5:
The Kidnaping of Henry Peavey;
Doug and Mary Run the Gauntlet; The Fourth Estate; Psychic Visions
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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.
*****************************************************************************
Wallace Smith: February 8, 1922
The most sensational newspaper dispatches on the Taylor were coming from
Wallace Smith of the CHICAGO AMERICAN, and Edward Doherty of the CHICAGO
TRIBUNE. Doherty's articles were widely syndicated to newspapers throughout
the country, but Smith's are more difficult to obtain. The following is a
sample of his work, published a week after the murder.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 8, 1922
Wallace Smith
CHICAGO AMERICAN
Secret service agents of the federal government, men famed as trailers
of smugglers by land and sea, along the treacherous Mexican border and the
Pacific coast, today plunged into the search for the slayer of William
Desmond Taylor.
Their aid was enlisted not only in the hunt for Edward F. Sands, alias
Edwin Fitz Strathmore, Taylor's former valet and secretary and army and navy
deserter, but to follow the trail of the dope ring gangsters whose operations
are seen behind the mystery of Taylor's murder.
As the secret service men began their search through the dens of the
drug peddlers in Hollywood, Chief of Detectives David Adams and a squad of
men hurried from headquarters on a secret tip that led them into the heart of
the fashionable Wilshire district of Los Angeles.
It was stated that their informant, a woman, had supplied them with the
tale of a recent dope party in this exclusive section of the city -- a mad
revel in which several prominent actors and actresses took part and through
which it was declared might develop a clew leading to Taylor's assassin.
Captain Adams made the statement today that the information in his
possession positively links Sands with the slaying. "We have obtained secret
information we believe virtually solves the murder," Capt. Adams said. "We
are centering our efforts on the location of Sands. This information has not
been made public, nor will it be, but it is positive in its character."
Their investigation of the Wilshire district orgy was but part of their
campaign to drag into the light the secret, hidden lives of the country's
greatest moving picture stars -- the lives they live behind the glamorous
screen on which they strut their flickering, worshiped hour.
As the clear light of day pierced the fever fog of excess in which the
set of Hollywood lives, there was a frantic scurrying for cover. The
millions spent to build up the reputation of the idols of the screen rushed
forward to protect the little golden gods and goddesses.
Dope parties hastily were cancelled -- one of them, an affair to which
all the leading drug users had been looking forward for weeks. Panic-
stricken managers corralled their precious charges and begged them to behave
--for just a little while at least.
It was known that the manager of at least one male star -- in Hollywood
they prophesy fatalistically that this actor, one of the wildest of the dope
users, will be the next to be involved in public scandal -- had secretly
appointed a guard to care for his high-priced popular hero.
But chiefly the efforts of the operatives were turned on the career of
one of the actresses mentioned time after time in the life and death of
Taylor, the man of mystery.
Their investigation was rewarded with an amazing record of her escapades
from practical jokes that would have shocked the notorious Dirty Club of
London through a dozen scandalous love affairs to downright crimes.
All done by a woman, a victim of drugs, who is loved by millions for her
innocent pranks on the screen.
It was not to be lightly considered how far the protection of the movie
millions might go to shelter these pets of filmdom. Already ugly rumors run
through Los Angeles of attempts made to bribe those most vigorous in pushing
the investigation.
The police seemed to be about where they started a week ago, when the
crime was done. They claimed to have found a clew in a handkerchief,
initialed "S," said to have been found on the scene, and still spoke
mysteriously about the peach-hued silk "nightie" that disappeared.
Detective Sergeant King of the district attorney's office provided the
one police sensation by declaring that he would swear out a warrant later in
the day, charging Edward F. Sands, alias Edwin Fits Strathmore, with the
slaying.
At the same time it was predicted that the grand jury, with power to
summon any actor or actress in range for information, would be assembled and
being an investigation of its own.
Mabel Normand, following her spectacular collapse yesterday at the side
of Taylor's coffin, was reported improved today. It was reported, too, that
the spritely film star had recovered the "blessed baby" letters which had
disappeared from the Taylor home.
Mary Miles Minter, also named as a dear friend of the slain director,
was declared by her secretary to be under the care of a physician as a result
of the shock. Her home was guarded by private detectives, who barred
interviewers seeking an explanation of the "I love you -- I love you -- I
love you" letter found in the Alvarado St. residence.
But the investigation turned principally upon the astounding career of
the screen favorite who has found herself not entirely outside the pale of
suspicion in the Taylor mystery.
She is a young woman -- except for the premature age that her use of
morphine and her use of the world have given her -- who entered the world of
films by the old-fashioned knockabout, slapstick comedy route. She came in
to the clatter of comical back falls and the detonations of breakaway mallets
bouncing off the heads of leading comedians. [1]
Her progress in refinement was devoted entirely to her work on the
screen. In her private life, with all the abandon that marked her entire
movie career, she took the easy, downhill course. Her excesses gave her
notoriety even in the maddest of the Hollywood atmosphere.
Some of them were as unbelievable as they are unprintable, but once or
twice she ran afoul of the police. The affairs were "hushed up" and the
attractive star went on her career of playful fun-making for her admirers
throughout the world.
She had been brought into the business and was made a star by a famous
producer, one whose name is known today as perhaps no other for the quantity
and quality of female pulchritude he has exposed before the cold, clicking
eye of the movie camera.
There had been rumors of her marriage to a vaudeville manager. But the
producer was generally looked upon as her one true love. She was madly
jealous of him and to this day, despite her numerous affairs and her devotion
to the drug that is killing her, is in love with him. [2]
She had him watched. She herself took on the role of private detective.
One night, when he had left her on the pretense of having a late conference,
she followed him. He went to the home of one of his film beauties. She
followed.
She came upon a gay scene. The producer, with a male friend and a pair
of female friends, was indulging in a midnight rarebit with a gulp or two of
beer. An extreme state of dishabille prevailed.
Into this scene burst a female fury, the young star. Reports differ as
to the weapon she employed -- some say a knife, others a revolver -- but they
agreed as to her purpose. She tried to kill the man who had turned from her.
His friend, who played drawing room society man parts, picked up a handy
beer bottle and broke it over the young woman's head. She was hurried to the
hospital and all over the country went the report of her collapse under the
strain of work.
Later, no doubt, moved by this rare exhibition of affection, the
producer permitted an ostensible reconciliation. Not long after, however,
his fancy began to roam again. One evening he disengaged the young star's
clinging arms, yawned and announced that he was going to his home to retire
early.
Maybe there was something in his eye. Maybe she had seen him whispering
at the studio that day to another of his famous beauties. She waited a while
and went to the apartment of the whispering beauty in the same building as
her own quarters.
The maid sought to bar her entrance. She knocked the maid down promptly
and tore into the apartment bedroom to confront the man of her choice and the
woman of his. [3]
There was a scream of rage from the star as she flung herself on the
producer. Then the battle was on. They fought all over the place, knocking
over lamps, tearing down pictures and ripping up rugs.
Finally the man, with a punishing wrestling hold, flung the star from
the room. She was badly injured in the combat, and again went to the
hospital. The public once more shook its head sympathetically at the efforts
of the star to entertain it.
That was the last of the affair between the producer and the young woman
he had starred. He went his way. She entered one of the wildest careers
that ever seared the comet-swept firmament of Hollywood.
She continued her drug-inspired career. Friends seeing its ravages
appearing on her face and showing in her drooping figure, sought to protect
her. They persuaded her to undertake "the cure" and break away forever from
the thrall of morphine.
Once more she went to the hospital. She was really ill. Her body was
broken by the life of delirious excess. Slowly she fought her way back. The
physicians had done what they could. But her friends reckoned without the
insidious and sinister influence of the ring of dope peddlers, who don't so
soon give up their human prey.
Often on these occasions she was seen with Taylor, her teacher in the
simpler forms of culture.
Just a few nights before Taylor was killed the fading star and the
director were observed at one of these dance affairs by this correspondent,
who was engaged in amusing himself at the Los Angeles method of toddling.
There was a sag about the once brilliant, mischievous eyes of the star.
There was a weary droop about the once pert and vivacious gestures. She was
dressed in a simple frock. She swayed a little as she went toward her table
and leaned on her escort's arm.
At a nearby table one of the finger-pointing, wise-cracking males of the
moving picture colony winked meaningly.
"There goes So-and-so," he whispered. "She's full of the stuff again."
The male star mentioned as "the next one" is a man who is "just adored"
by hundred of thousands of girls. He is the ideal matinee idol. His
publicity agent dwells particularly on his happy married life and the fact
that he is a father. But behind the screen in Hollywood they know him as "a
holy terror" and shameless in his use of the drug. [4]
If he is not "the next one" then Hollywood looks for the newest scandal
to come from another pair known to be clinging to each other like tired prize
fighters, at least one of them afraid to let go for fear of the punch the
other might deliver coming out of the clinch.
She is known as one of the saccharine types of the screen, worshiped by
women as well as men. For years her name was in the largest lights and her
pictures were featured all over the world. One does not see her name or her
pictures much any more. The "dope" has her, too. She is said to favor
opium.
Early in her career this star became infatuated with the broad
shouldered, genial youth who was her chauffeur. She decided to take him
under her wing. She had wealth and power. He was "adopted" and set out to
realize, with her backing, a hazy ambition to become a director and wear
puttees and bark through a megaphone at actors. [5]
The ambition was realized. He became a director. Strangely enough, be
became rather a good one, as directors go. To the lay observer and to many
professional minds the director is a vastly overrated institution. At any
rate, a director he became.
He began to get better. She began to hit the down grade. He seemed to
weary of her. She sensed it. Finally she brought him over to the use of
drugs. He could not stand opium. He took to the quicker use of morphine.
Together they attended dope parties in Hollywood. They were looked upon as
about as happy a couple as could be found in filmdom.
Then Hollywood heard of a fight in one of Los Angeles' leading hotels.
The star, who was losing her glitter and her debonair young director were
having a "show down." She was leading the argument before it was hushed by
the house detective. She was leading it with an outpouring of vilification
that would have reddened the ears of a Thames boatman.
"You came up with me," she screamed, "and you'll go down with me. I
made you and you can't quit me now. If you do you'll have your name all over
the headlines. Remember the Arbuckle case."
Since then the star and director have been seen together again at the
dope parties. They have become reconciled for the present, at least. The
woman -- she is still young -- spends most of the daylight hours in her hotel
room.
So much for the present of the secret lives of the moving picture stars.
The investigators found them of keen interest. Woven in them they could see
not one possible motive but a score of them for the slaying of Taylor.
Detective Serg. King, in his declaration that he would swear out a
warrant for the arrest of Sands, declared that in his estimation the murder
mystery was solved -- or would be as soon as Sands had been arrested. He
declared "corroborative evidence" showed that Sands could clear away the
mystery in a few words.
The handkerchief with the initial "S" was supposed to have been at
Taylor's side when the body was found. It was a man's handkerchief and
soiled, it was said. The detective, for some reason or other, made no effort
to confiscate the handkerchief for evidence, and it has since disappeared --
if it existed.
Miss Normand's collapse at the coffin of Taylor was a dramatic one. It
came after the crowd outside had struggled for hours with the police to gain
admission to the church or to view so some of the great stars of the screen
who were expected to appear.
Many of them had spoken words of praise for the murdered director and
had vowed their friendship. But few appeared and these retired to the
background.
Miss Normand, dressed in black, with a white lace collar on her frock
and accompanied by her maid and a woman friend, was escorted through the
crowd by a detective. All through the services in St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral
Church she sat in a forward pew near the casket.
She was swept backward in the swirl of the crowd toward the doorway
following the services. In the vestibule of the church was the coffin, with
its guard of Canadian soldiers. As Miss Normand and her attendants reached
the coffin, the maid and the other woman grasped her arms as if to keep her
from going any nearer.
The little actress strained against their retaining hold and almost
dragged them to the side of the casket, where she might be able once more to
behold the features of the man to whom she was once reported engaged.
For a moment she bent over the coffin. Then with a little moan, she
collapsed and a minute later was sobbing hysterically. She was taken into
another of the pews until she had recovered herself sufficiently to make her
way to her motor.
Among those whose cards were found among the flowers were Ethel Daisy
Taylor, daughter of the slain director; Charles Ray, Al Christie, Lila Lee,
Thomas M. Ince, Mack Sennett, Antonio Moreno, Constance Talmadge, Charles
Chaplin, Douglas MacLean, Betty Compson, Mary Miles Minter and Claire
Windsor.
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"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder", Part 5
Doug and Mary Run the Gauntlet
February 13, 1922
ALBUQUERQUE HERALD
Douglas Fairbanks and "Little Mary" [Pickford] passed through
Albuquerque last evening on train No. 4 and spent half an hour taking
exercise up and down the platform.
"Doug and Mary" denied they were headed east to avoid the scandal of the
Taylor murder case--in fact they even professed great ignorance regarding the
case and absolutely declined to discuss it in any way.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 14, 1922
CHICAGO AMERICAN
(Chicago)--Mary smiled sweetly. "Please don't make us say anything
horrid, will you?" she asked. [6]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
NEW YORK NEWS
(Chicago)--"All this talk about Hollywood is a joke, anyway," Doug said.
"Why, say, do you know there was a prominent minister and--oh, me--oh, my--a
prominent newspaper editor seen hiding around the Taylor house just before
the murder? They're expected to be arrested at any minute. Strait stuff! This
is the real inside story of Hollywood."
Doug winked.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
NEW YORK POST
(New York)--"Too much has been said about Hollywood already," Mary said.
"If I could do any good by talking about Hollywood, I would discuss it, but
it would only be making the pot boil a little harder, and I really don't
think it's worth while."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
NEW YORK NEWS
Our hero and heroine having comfortably seated themselves on a divan in
their suite, their guests [the press] were graciously invited to do likewise,
which they did.
"Now, frankly," began one bold youth with horn-rimmed glasses, "what is
your opinion of the Hollywood scandal?"
"Oh, dear!" murmured Mary, registering despair and rolling her eyes up
to the ceiling.
"Lovely day outside," said Doug, executing a handspring on the carpet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD
Movies May Quit America If It Isn't Nice To Actors
(Chicago)--American will lose its motion picture industry unless
senseless criticism of its people stops.
This was the warning issued today by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford
in response to questions concerning Hollywood.
The real stars in Hollywood never heard of a dope ring, asserted the
hero and heroine of the Fairbanks family, and both of them agreed on this
statement:
"Unless an intolerant public and press cease attaching to a
manufacturing industry, such as the cinema, the stigma of narcotic smoke,
scrambled domesticity, night time orgies, purple loves and freely distributed
bank-notes, Paris, or perhaps the South Sea Islands, will be the future home
of the camera setups.
"Motion pictures make up an industry in which money is worked for and
not inherited. If the United States does not like us there are other
countries that do.
"Paris was made famous by the same vicious reports which are being
hurled against Hollywood. In the case of Paris, as in this, the revelers in
nine cases out of ten were American or British visitors to the city.
"Real estate in Hollywood will take a leap."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD
The movies may quit America if it isn't nice to the actors, say Doug and
Mary. We take that as a personal insult. Here we are trying to amuse the
people, endeavoring to make them smile or laugh and along come these two
stealing our stuff. They are butting in on our preserves and we object.
How on earth can we run a column supposed to be slightly humorous at
times when we have such competition right on the first page of our own paper?
We never laid any claims to the ability to produce shrieks of laughter, but
we have tried faithfully until this blow. We have read Artemus Ward, Joe
Miller, Mark Twain, Life, Main Street, Irv Cobb's stories, Ring Lardner,
George Ade and a host of other humorists, but theirs are funeral orations
compared with Mary's and Doug's remarks.
We don't want to play in your yard,
We don't love you any more;
You'll be sorry when we leave you,
To shoot our scenes on tropic shore.
We don't like the way you treat us,
We are angels, don't you see;
Just you watch how swell they'll greet us,
When we move to dear Paree.
When we recovered from hysterics after reading the effusion of the two,
we thought that it was rather rough on the South Sea Islands to pick them for
one of the possible destinations of the movies. Paris isn't so bad, because
Paris might have a say in the matter, but the poor, little, defenseless South
Sea Islands! What have they ever done to the movies!
We are thinking seriously of asking Doug and Mary to run the column some
day. If they can keep up the pace they have set for rich and rare humor, it
ought to be a humdinger from start to finish.
If the hegira takes place (that's a fancy word meaning getaway) "real
estate in Hollywood will take a leap," says Mary and Doug. A leap for joy?
It's all right for movie people to come to the defense of movie people,
but when they threaten to take their toys and go home, that's different. Why
not pick China for the abode of future operations? Think how nice it would
sound to be able to pressagent that some of the stars were receiving
6,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,001 yen a month for their
work!
As we threatened, we will be forced to stop running this column unless
we have less competition from Hollywood.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 24, 1922
NASHVILLE BANNER
Douglas Fairbanks threatens to leave this country and make his home in
Europe if people don't stop criticizing Hollywood and the movie industry.
Chances are when he thinks of the sort of money they pay out over there his
mind will undergo a change on the subject. [7]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 20, 1922
HOUSTON POST
Douglas Fairbanks is threatening to go to Europe because of the
unmerited criticism of the film industry. We'd hate to see Doug go, for we
like him. But we want him to understand this: If he does go, he will have to
leave little Mary behind, for America will not give her up.
The Fourth Estate
February 16, 1922
KANSAS CITY TIMES
It must be freely admitted that the Los Angeles reporters are energetic
enough in the Taylor murder case, whether the police are or not.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 7, 1922
ARIZONA GAZETTE
Mountains and Molehills
California newspapers, and especially those of Los Angeles, are running
wild over the recent shooting there, under mysterious circumstances, of a
motion-picture director named W. D. Taylor. The columns of the Los Angeles
dailies have literally reeked with sensationalism for several days, the first
pages being given over, to a great extent, to the exploitation of this new
morsel of criminal chronology. To say that this sort of stuff which the
California papers are playing up is sickeningly nauseating to the average
reader is putting it mildly. Why is such prominence given to this
comparatively obscure killing? Certainly the dead man's position did not
warrant it. It is safe to say that very few persons not connected with the
motion-picture industry knew anything of this man Taylor or whatever his real
name may have been. He may have been a good director. Probably he was. For
that he deserves sufficient praise. So would a good ditch digger or a good
carpenter or a good surveyor or any other man who achieved success in his
particular line of endeavor. Buy why magnify his importance out of all
proportion, merely for the sake of creating a sensation? Taylor was not a
great man; not even a prominent man. His name meant nothing to the nation.
And yet, for the sake of yellow sensationalism, and possibly to case
reflections upon the motion-picture industry and those eminently worthy and
respectable persons engaged therein, the newspapers are flaunting this case
in the face of the world as the sensation of the age. They are making a
mountain of muck out of a mere molehill. Faugh! It is sickening!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
ALBANY POST
A Suggestion That Is In Order
During several days, the wires have been loaded with information about
thus far futile activities of detectives who are "working on" the Taylor
murder case at Hollywood. Names of film actresses and other personages of the
movie world have been dragged in. Silly letters said to have been written by
one of them have been quoted. Alleged clues have been exhibited. Long stories
have been written about possibilities. Almost, one is inclined to suspect
that the "news" has been produced by professional scenario writers whose
specialty has been to manufacture stories for serial reels of the blood-and-
thunder variety.
Manifestly the suggestion is in order that the output of words be
checked, and not be permitted to flow again unless and until the murderer is
caught.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 17, 1922
John Smith
BUFFALO EXPRESS
At this distance it appears possible that, if the movie business is to
retain its hold on the public, the actors and actorines must do one of two
things:
(1)--Maintain a semblance of respectability, or
(2)--Become so bad that no newspaper will print anything about their
goings on.
Cynics who have a good opinion of neither the movie colony nor the
newspapers may claim that neither course is possible.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
A Reporter at Hollywood
Wishing to solve this Southern mystery we have sent one of our most
trusted sleuths to Hollywood with instruction to break away the film, film
directors and huskies who surround the case and give us the facts. His first
dispatch follows:
Sir:--I have arrived here disguised as a cowboy willing to accept a
$100,000 salary during the winter grazing season and, at once was given the
entree to movieland. Except for twelve hundred reporters I am the only one
who is, as you might say, on the ground floor. Frankly, I am without a
theory. My training led me at first to suspect the butler but as he is not
here to turn white and to run his fingers around his collar, I am not so
sure. Men in one movie camp tell me the most likely suspects are in the
others and the Los Angeles reporters have it that anybody is a suspect whose
picture looks well on the front page. The recipe for writing a story is three
parts dope, to one part bootleg. Stir well and add tobasco. It is a good
recipe as it brings a new result each day. You may say for my readers that I
am supplied with a number of disguises and an immense determination, that I
am followed hourly by press agents and that whatever I say will be up to the
accepted standard for reliability.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
CHICAGO POST
People are interested in movie stars because they know them by sight. So
the latest crime in Hollywood movie circles has had an unusual drawing power
as news. But for lack of progress in the detection of the criminal, certain
Chicago papers have begun to vie with each other in the turning up of
foulness and degeneracy, and in the brazen openness and cynicism with which
they have forced on their decent readers all sorts of filthy gossip about
depravity and unnatural vice. None of it is fit to print.
It is getting hard to tell which are the most demoralized and
demoralizing, the overpaid, underbalanced decadents who form a lunatic fringe
of the movie world, or the cynical scandalmongers of the Chicago press.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 14, 1922
Joe Webb
AUSTIN AMERICAN
Perhaps the reason Movie Boss Will Hays wants to move the movie colony
to the east is so that the New York reporters can be rushed to the scene
without loss of time whenever a new scandal develops.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 23, 1922
Roy Moulton
ARIZONA CITIZEN
Solved, At Last, By Headline Writers
"Taylor Was Shot by Holdup Man."
"Jealous Rival Murdered Taylor."
"Taylor Shot Protecting Normand."
"Police Say Man Was Surely Murderer."
"Police Sure Woman Did the Murder."
"Prominent Movie Magnate Fired Shot."
"Man in China Fired the Fatal Shot."
"Prosecutor at Sea But Not Seasick."
"Well-Known Comedian Surely the Guilty One."
"Former Employee Was the Real Murderer."
"Authorities Agree Actress Fired Shot."
"Man Concealed in Desk Drawer Fired Shot."
"Police Say Female Blackmailer Fired Shot."
"Police Believe Male Blackmailer Guilty."
"Murderer, a Film Actress, About to Confess."
"Police Will Have Guilty Chauffeur by Night."
"Prominent Manicure Probably Did Murder."
"Lingerie Dealer Sought as the Murderer."
"Lady Dope Peddler Murdered Taylor."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
May 1922
PHOTOPLAY
During the investigation in the Taylor murder case, when each day the
sensational newspapers would come out with fresh "clues" and scandals only to
cast them aside the day following for new ones, a certain noted motion
picture star was approached by reporters of a Los Angeles daily with an
interesting proposition.
They wanted him to "disappear" over the Mexican border so that the paper
might run a sensational story fixing the guilt temporarily upon him. Of
course, they said, he could return immediately and be cleared by an alibi.
The idea behind the proposition was that the star would get a lot of
free publicity and the newspaper would get a corking new yarn to excite the
fans--and, consequently, sell the paper.
But they picked on the wrong star. The gentleman they chose--we will
call him Mr. M. [8]--hurled the reporters out of the room. Another paper got
wind of the stunt and attempted to interview Mr. M., but he refused on the
ground that too much sensational stuff had been woven about the unfortunate
tragedy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 13, 1922
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
Our Correspondent
Hollywood.--There is nothing more promising than the clues they have
here. In spite of reports to the contrary, I find all the police officers,
detectives, strong-arm men and press agents most accommodating. They press
clues upon me from all sides until the task that is left for me is draw the
right one out of the pile. To set at rest some wild rumors, I made a personal
investigation today. They do not deliver dope to the Hollywood back doors in
milk wagons. There are no pipe lines of booze in any of the bungalows to
which I have been invited, and the bootleggers do not exactly fight for first
privileges at the newcomer. They draw lots or shake dice like gentlemen. The
longer I work on this case the more I am convinced that I am as good a
detective as there is on the job. Perhaps I am better--for I know nothing to
conceal.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 8, 1922
HOLLYWOOD NEWS
Hearst Circulation in Hollywood Should Be Zero
As has been generally expected, the Los Angeles Examiner has broken into
print with another exhibition of vulgar language directed against the film
colony of Hollywood in their follow-up of the William D. Taylor murder.
Perhaps a reprint of one of the most obnoxious remarks might better serve the
purpose of showing the folks of the movie colony just what is being said
against them. Here is what the Examiner has to say anet motion-picture
directors when speaking of certain night clothes found in William D. Taylor's
bungalow:
"Taylor never wore those nighties, yet few nights passed that they were
not worn, according to the police. Sands knew that Taylor was no better than
any other film director in Los Angeles."
It is an outrage to Hollywood. Hearst papers should be choked off here
until the local circulation is just what the little boy hit when he shot at
the bird--nothing.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 14, 1922
NEW YORK HERALD
(Los Angeles)--District Attorney Woolwine today made a statement in
which he deplored what he termed "faked and fraudulent interviews" on the
case, and particularly one purporting to have come from him.
His statement follows:
"In the early edition of the Examiner for Monday morning there appeared
on the first page an interview purporting to come from me which was never in
effect given.
"This interview never took place and there is not a word of it that I
have ever authorized to be printed nor did I have the slightest intimation,
directly or indirectly that it would be.
"There is not a sentence that contains my exact language about anything.
It is composed of some things that I have uttered in substance. There are
some half truths, many absolute falsehoods. Language purported to have been
uttered by me is out of whole cloth and is viciously false.
"It is certainly an outrage for any newspaper to be guilty of such a
faked and fraudulent interview.
"I am informed that this fake has been telegraphed all over the United
States, which magnified its iniquity."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 26, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Lauding to the skies Hollywood and its motion-picture industry in his
Los Angeles papers and reviling them in his Eastern sheets as a pesthole of
iniquity and as the dregs and offscourings of the lowest type of social
criminals, William Randolph Hearst has reached new heights of journalistic
hypocrisy--for revenue only.
No praise is too fulsome or extravagant for Heart's LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
to heap upon the film industry in Los Angeles, its home. No insults are too
gross or baseless to hurl at that same Los Angeles industry in Hearst's
CHICAGO AMERICAN and his dozen-odd other eastern papers. The damage done to
Los Angeles by the circulation of these unfounded libels is past computation.
Nor has Hearst the excuse that his eastern reports are prepared at a
distance by writers not in a position to get the facts. These reports have
every one been written by Hearst employees in Los Angeles working out of the
Los Angeles Examiner building and using the Hearst wires from this city. That
they are recognized as unbridled fabrications is proven by the fact that the
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER, which has to live here, has printed not a line of them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 22, 1922
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
Our Hollywood correspondent seems to have fallen by the wayside. "I am
lost in an empenetrable forest of grills and quizzes," he writes, "but I
shall write myself out."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
DENVER POST
(Los Angeles)--Turning to their old friends, the police, reporters found
the same reserve that the film colony has adopted. Asked why and how and when
and where, the police answer was epitomized by one detective:
"We don't know anything. The newspapers are doing all the work on this
case. Why bother us with questions?"
Tall Tales #2: Harry Fields
February 24, 1922
ARIZONA REPUBLICAN
Los Angeles Film Murder Was Plotted in Hop Joint
According to Detroit suspect Harry Fields the murder of Taylor was
plotted in a "hop joint" at Venice, a beach suburb of Los Angeles.
Arrangements were completed shortly before noon Feb. 1, eight hours or
more before Taylor was killed. At that time a woman named by Fields and
Jennie Moore, and Wong Lee, a Chinese, and an American, Johnnie Clark sat in
a dingy room in Venice and reviewed alleged plans for slaying Taylor because
of their belief he was interfering with the drug traffic.
Fields said he was offered $900 for driving the murder party to the
Taylor apartments, but, he maintained, he was not invited to take an active
part in the murder.
They stopped the car, according to the confession "nine doors south of
the Taylor bungalow on Alvarado street and on the other side of the street."
Fields was said to have declared, the woman, carrying an automatic
pistol, of heavy calibre, the Chinese holding a .38 calibre break down
pistol, and Clark carrying a blackjack, left the automobile and disappeared
into the bungalow court.
Three minutes later, according to Fields, he heard the "muffled report"
of a revolver and 30 seconds later the woman, the Chinese and Clark were back
in the car urging Fields to go "away from here."
The remainder of the night was passed at the Venice "hop joint," as
Fields described it, and the following day Wong Lee and Fields departed for
the east by way of Seattle.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 24, 1922
HARTFORD COURANT
The wild stories bearing on the killing of Taylor cannot be expect to
get any wilder than this about the taxi-driver who was paid the modest and
naturally expected price of $900 for carrying three murderers to do the deed.
Presumably the normal charge was $1,000 and 10 per cent off for cash reduced
it to a discount rate of $300 apiece.
The mere fact that the author of this startling scenario confesses
himself a drug fiend does not seem to have reduced its probability in the
minds of those who are "detecting" the criminals. There are skeptics who will
pronounce this discovery a pipe dream, and, if it is not repudiated before
this article is printed, that will be surprising. The explanations and the
promises that have come out of Los Angeles in this case have been unique and
ridiculous.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 26, 1922
DETROIT NEWS
(Detroit)--Angered at the skepticism with which authorities have
received his confession to participation in the slaying of William Desmond
Taylor, Harry M. Fields declared Saturday night that he had not yet begun to
tell the real story of the crime.
Fields, who is confined at the Wayne County Jail awaiting sentence after
conviction for forgery, asserted that he wished now to reveal enough of the
facts to convince the police that he possesses real knowledge of the plot
against Taylor's life.
"I'm a low down jailbird," he said, "but I still have some shreds of
self-respect left. I've a daughter 16 years old, and I'm determined that her
father shall not be hanged. I shall tell the whole story of the Taylor
assassination when I have been promised immunity from the death penalty. When
I tell the real story it will involve many names prominent in filmdom."
Fields has confessed that he was the driver of the automobile which
carried Taylor's assassins to the movie director's home at the time of the
slaying.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 26, 1922
NEW YORK HERALD
(Detroit)--Fields says his motive for confessing was self-defense.
"I knew well enough one of us would spill it," he told the police. "I
wanted to beat the others to it, knowing the one that confessed would stand
the best chance to cheat the gallows. I have plenty of facts to support what
I say, but I don't intend to drop them until I know I won't be hanged for my
part in the mess."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 26, 1922
SAN DIEGO UNION
(Seattle)--Mrs. Lilly Fields, divorced wife of Harry M. Fields, held by
Detroit police in connection with his declaration that he could clear up the
Taylor murder case, said here tonight that Fields "always told wild stories
about himself--and he's probably telling lies to the Detroit police."
Mrs. Fields, who is ill in a hospital here, said her former husband was
a constant user of opium.
Mrs. Fields, who is soon to undergo an operation, declared that her
condition was due to Fields' neglect of her and their two children. She
charged that he would contribute noting to their support, and was continually
getting into trouble. Mrs. Fields said she had secured his release from
prison in British Columbia twice, and when reminded of the fact Fields told
her, "I would be better off in prison than here."
Fields' former wife told of his bringing a number of his acquaintances
to the house, and of their wanting to use narcotics there. When she objected,
Mrs. Fields said, Fields broke up the furniture and left the house "a
complete wreck."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 26, 1922
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
(Detroit)--Asserting he had previously given fictitious names in
identifying the persons he claimed were implicated in the murder of William
Desmond Taylor, Harry M. Fields told authorities today that a prominent
motion picture actress, who was one of the quartet that planned the killing,
preceded the other three participants to the Taylor home, with the
understanding that she was to give the signal when the opportune moment
arrived to do the shooting and escape.
When the car containing the Chinese, the white man, and woman who, he
said, were the others implicated, arrived at Taylor's bungalow, Fields is
said to have declared the actress emerged from the house and waved a bag of
candy. The two men immediately left the automobile and a few seconds later
Fields heard a shot. The men stepped from a window of the house and reentered
the car. Meanwhile the actress who had given the signal disappeared.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 27, 1922
INDIANAPOLIS NEWS
That fellow under arrest in Detroit, and who claims to know so much
about the Taylor murder, has about reached the point where his imagination
must be paid for overtime, or else it will strike.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 2, 1922
NASHVILLE BANNER
A Detroit man confessed to complicity in the murder of Taylor, the
Hollywood movie director, but he has such a reputation as a liar that nobody
will believe him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 27, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Harry M. Fields, the man under arrest in Detroit and exploited in the
last few days as one of the slayers of Taylor, yesterday took his place in
the "confession hall of defame." Fields was finally eliminated by dispatches
from Indianapolis stating that Guy Broughton, Federal narcotic agent there,
arrested Fields in Buffalo, N.Y., February 2, the day after Taylor was
killed, and turned him over to the Detroit police. Fields was taken into
custody on a drug-peddling charge. The Federal officers expressed an opinion
that Fields indulged in a little too much of his own merchandise.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 1, 1922
DETROIT NEWS
Harry M. Fields, the opium smoker who named himself an accomplice in the
slaying of William Desmond Taylor and who adorned the story of the Los
Angeles shooting with a Chinese tong fighter, a paper bag of candy, a $1,000
bank note, a prominent picture actress, and a pearl-handled revolver, will be
reduced from the notorious place he claimed as driver of the death car to the
ignominy of a penal cell at Jackson Prison.
With his colorful story fading like a puff of drugged smoke from his own
pipe, Fields came before Judge William M. Heston in Recorder's Court Tuesday
and was sentenced to serve for from three to 10 years for obtaining money
under false pretenses. This charge, to which the drug addict had pleaded
guilty before he made his "revelations" of the tragedy in Los Angeles, was
the result of a series of worthless checks which he passed on Detroit
department stores and restaurants early in 1921.
Almost coincident with the disposition of Fields' case, disclosures were
made by his cell-mates at the County Jail which reveal that he had a motive
for his story which make it more than the un-premeditated figment of a drug-
tortured mind. Fields hoped his narrative would take him to Los Angeles and
free him from the charge here, his fellow prisoners say.
He expected the story would bring him a trip to California. He declared
that once in Los Angeles he would be immediately able to establish that he
knew nothing at all of the Taylor mystery and that he would then be free.
When his description of the ride to Taylor's home first appeared in the
newspapers, Fields became greatly excited, his fellow-prisoners say. He ran
back and forth in the cell block, holding the papers high and shouting that
he would certainly go to Los Angeles and escape the waiting sentence here.
When Judge Heston ordered him to Jackson Tuesday, Fields paled and he turned
and walked slowly to the court cell without speaking.
Psychic Visions
February 11, 1922
NEW YORK NEWS
Girl Psychic Says Sins Will Destroy Hollywood
Destruction of Los Angeles within the next five years "for sins of
Hollywood," was predicted today by Miss Eugene Dennis, seventeen-year-old
Atchison, Kan., girl psychic wonder.
Miss Dennis, whose psychic powers are being investigated by David P.
Abbott for the American Society of Psychic Research, said a catastrophe--
probably an earthquake--would "level the city."
"It will be a greater catastrophe than the San Francisco earthquake and
fire," Miss Dennis said. "Los Angeles has had many warnings. Recent small
earth tremors should awaken the city to its coming doom."
Miss Dennis believes William D. Taylor was murdered by a medium sized
brunette woman, "no longer young but pretty."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 28, 1922
LOS ANGELES HERALD
Mayor Cryer was placidly cutting open his mail this morning when he came
to an envelope dated from Omaha, Nebraska. He was somewhat nonplussed when he
read the following letter:
"The report published in certain papers throughout the country stating
that I have predicted the destruction of Los Angeles, is absolutely false.
"I have never mentioned anything of the kind. I do not predict world
events with which I am not in personal contact."
After making this modest assertion denying that she has made any evil
predictions concerning Los Angeles, she signs herself as Eugene Dennis,
"known as the 'Wonder Girl.' "
And to prove that she is the one and only "wonder girl" she attached a
statement from David P. Abbott, who says that he is "the gentleman conducting
the investigation of Miss Dennis for the purpose of making a report to the
American Psychical Institute and Laboratory of New York City."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 6, 1922
CLEVELAND PRESS
"You can't pull the trigger. You can't even hold the revolver."
Sure enough. The trigger remained unpressed; the weapon fell from the
unnerved grasp of Hardmuth, the lawyer.
The scene is from "The Witching Hour"--a study in the realm of hypnotism
and inherited insanity.
William Desmond Taylor directed the movieized production of "The
Witching Hour." An article descriptive of Taylor in action at the time told
how he himself went thru the scene, first putting himself in the place of the
man with the pistol, than in the place of the one at whom the pistol was
pointed.
But when William Desmond Taylor dealt with the realities of death at the
hands of an assassin in his Los Angeles home with witching hour was an hour
of actual tragedy, instead of an hour of tragedy averted by the power of
mental suggestion.
That mental suggestion, so strongly featured in the drama which helped
make Taylor famous as a director, did play a part in the last evening of his
life is shown by what he said to Mabel Normand:
"I have the strangest and most ghastly feeling that something is going
to happen to me." [9]
In "The Witching Hour" mental suggestion is worked out the point that
one man sits in his room at home and influences the verdict of a juror in the
courtroom, blocks away.
Conceding that mental suggestion is as powerful a force as it is made
out to be in the play, and that the person who killed Taylor was enough of a
master of mental suggestion to notify him by that process of the impending
doom, that person then will possess enough ability as a psychic to influence
the very jury that tries him--if he's caught.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
Carl Bronson
LOS ANGELES HERALD
Psychics Seek Solution of Murder
While police, sheriff's deputies and district attorney's detectives are
following every earthly clue in the endeavor to track down the mysterious
person who murdered William D. Taylor in his Alvarado street apartment, the
psychical research societies and the spiritualistic devotees of Los Angeles
are seeking through the invisible lanes of the supernatural to establish
communication with the slain man on the "other side."
Friends of Mr. Taylor say that he was a devout believer in the ability
of spirits of the departed to manifest themselves to those still occupying
their earthly bodies.
"When I go into the great adventure," he is quoted as having said, "I
will use every effort that is possible on the 'other side' to get back into
communication with those remaining on earth," and it is with the belief that
Taylor's spirit will retain the power to carry out this promise that the
psychics and spiritualists of Los Angeles are centralizing their efforts upon
the attempt to get into communication with him.
These devotees of the occult firmly believe that it is possible for this
to be done and they hold it would prove a tremendous proof of the truth of
their beliefs if through spirit means a solution of the baffling death
mystery could be worked out.
Thus far, however, they freely admit that nothing definite has been
obtained from their concerted efforts.
This difficulty is being explained away by the psychics by the statement
that in cases of sudden death, such as that of Mr. Taylor, the resultant
mental shock and confusion of the instant is liable to last some little time
after the death of the body and the spirit is very apt to linger around the
old home, trying to adjust itself to the more familiar physical surroundings.
According to their beliefs there is a very definite reason why word is
not easily obtained from the unseen when related to the commission of a
crime, and that is that as such information is invariably subject to the laws
of destiny, not fate.
According to this law, they say, the whole tape of experience must
unravel itself in its own sequence, just as the flower exposes its true
nature in its complete unfolding.
The fundamental laws upon which these psychics say that they will base
their efforts for communication are exactly the same as those which govern
the underlying principle of wireless telegraphy.
Some of the most noted psychics of the city have expressed the keenest
interest in the effort and will try to secure what they term "dependable
communications" from the deceased motion picture director through one of
their centers and from some one of the spiritual planes.
Authorities claim that the conditions for the success of such a
communication are more favorable now than ever before, since a certain cycle
which has passed seems to have materially thinned the intervening veil.
Many will await with interest the outcome of this widely organized
effort.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
BUFFALO NEWS
Would End All Mystery
How much of the report that efforts will be made to get into
communication with William Desmond Taylor in the spirit is based on fact, or
how much of it exists only the imagination of the host of special writers who
have descended on Hollywood, remains to be seen. Much of an imaginative, or
fictional, nature has been coming from the Pacific coast since the moving
picture colony again took up the public attention.
There are many sincere and intelligent people who believe that it is
possible to communicate with the departed of this world. Few of these,
however, will be inclined to regard it as ethical to use psychic powers in
police work. Detectives' tasks would be made easy were it possible to
penetrate the fourth dimension and call back the spirit of a murdered man to
point out his slayer.
The report is interesting, even if not true, or even if nothing comes of
it of benefit to the cause of psychic research or to the authorities in the
quest of the murderer of the picture director.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
LOS ANGELES RECORD
An assassin hired by a motion picture leader, member of an alleged "dope
ring," killed William Desmond Taylor, in the opinion of Ruth Wing Taylor,
wife of Ted Taylor, the dead director's publicity agent.
Psychics have aided her in reaching her theory, Mrs. Taylor, who before
her marriage was a screen actress, said. She explained:
"Since Mr. Taylor was killed, two persons of the highest standing in the
study of the occult have come to me, saying that they believe I held the key
to the murder.
"Things have come to me, one by one, that have convinced me that Mr.
Taylor was slain by a hired assassin, paid by a certain noted picture leader,
whose money, I believe, has been able to purchase a quieting of suspicion and
immunity from investigation.
"It is true the authorities have conducted a superficial investigation
into his movements, but this psychic power within me tells me that he is the
one responsible. The only woman with whom he has been really in love for
several years was friendly toward Taylor and I believe he conceived this plan
to rid himself of Taylor, whom he believed his rival for the woman's
affections but who actually was interested in her only from a more or less
intellectual standpoint." [10]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 13, 1922
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Beg Pardon
Ruth Wing Taylor today asked that newspapers retract the "psychic"
explanation of the slaying of William Desmond Taylor, in which she was quoted
as receiving a "key" to the solution from occult students. THE RECORD wishes
to explain to its readers that the story came from indirect sources, and
sincerely regrets its publication.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
Taylor Came to Me, Medium Says
(Oakland)--Complete details of her "communication from beyond," which,
she says enabled her to learn the identity of the slayer of William Desmond
Taylor, were made public today by Mrs. Edith C. Jones, a medium.
Mrs. Jones declared that Taylor was shot accidentally by a 4-year-old
boy, the child of a noted film actress, who has been mentioned several times
in connection with the case.
"I am able to tell these things," Mrs. Jones said today, "because I am
often allowed to look into the great beyond--into the world behind the veil,
so the speak. I can communicate with the departed, and William Desmond Taylor
came to me one night and I was shown how he was killed. He was not happy and
could not rest because he knew that, while his death was accidental, someone
might at any time be arrested for his murder.
"The shadow of this thing is also hanging over the head of that innocent
little boy, and that is making Mr. Taylor sad. His spirit cannot rest."
Then pulling the shades in order to shut out as much
light as possible
from her sitting room, the medium told how "a communication from beyond made
me acquainted with the facts" of the Los Angeles mystery.
"It was on last Friday night," she said. "The rain was pouring down and
I was sitting in here. Suddenly everything became quiet and I knew I was to
hear from someone outside--by that I mean from someone who has departed.
"In the window I could see the face of William Desmond Taylor. He seemed
to be unhappy for fear that justice was not being done, and his lips seemed
to say 'Tell the world the truth.' Then the face disappeared.
"Immediately it was replaced by one of a 4-year-old boy. The boy held a
pistol in his hand as though he was playing and said: 'I will shoot you.'
Then I heard a report and the face disappeared.
"Next voices from departed spirits began telling me all the details.
This little boy came in to play with Mr. Taylor, who liked children, and was
fooling with the pistol. He shot him while Mr. Taylor was sitting at a desk
with his back turned.
"I know who this boy is and I will tell unless his mother comes out
first. His mother is a famous moving picture actress." [11]
Mrs. Jones said that the next morning, Saturday, she wrote a letter to
the authorities in Los Angeles, "Fully explaining the mystery."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 13, 1922
CHICAGO HERALD-EXAMINER
Tips Flood Woolwine
Hundreds of anonymous tips bearing on the Taylor case are being received
by District Attorney Woolwine from all parts of the country by mail,
telephone and telegraph.
Many appear absurd, but each is checked.
Some of the tipsters go to great length to outline their theories. One
letter, in a feminine hand, read: "I dreamt last night Mr. Taylor was killed
by a fair-haired woman with a hooked nose. Find that woman and you have the
murderer."
Another from a woman: "Why don't you photograph the eyeballs of Taylor?
They always mirror the image of the last thing a person sees before death?"
"Thank you, madam," replied Mr. Woolwine. "We'll consider such a thing."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 21, 1922
CHARLESTON GAZETTE
Someone now says they dreamed that William Desmond Taylor was murdered
by a "blonde woman with a hook nose." We know of such a woman, but she was
never in Hollywood.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 23, 1922
LOS ANGELES HERALD
Believers in spiritual communication, delvers into the occult, and those
who strive to penetrate into the realm of the unseen will be thrilled by an
announcement received from Boston today that the victim of the mysterious
film murder has been in verbal contact with an earthly human and that some of
the purported conversation centered on the mysterious slayer.
The announcement came to Los Angeles in a remarkable letter. News of the
efforts of local psychics to communicate with Taylor reached a woman in
Boston, and she, in her letter, states that previous to her receipt of this
information she had conversed with the director's spirit.
This Boston medium, who claims to discourse with spirits without the aid
of the familiar "trance" says:
"I was reared by parents of spiritualistic tendencies, so I am a natural
believer in those things spiritual. I get in touch with spirits that have
passed on easily, without trances.
"I have already 'had touch' with this man Taylor or Tanner. I asked him
which named he preferred and he answered, 'Never mind, dear lady.'
"Then I asked him, 'Who did the killing? Do you know?' He answered, 'Of
course I know. But I will not tell. Perhaps I am much to blame.'
"I asked him why he came to me and the answer was: 'I seek only rest and
peace. I find it near a stranger.'
"I asked him, 'Can you show yourself to me?' and he answered, 'No, for I
am naked. I am repenting.'
"I inquired if there were other souls who were not naked and he answered
that some come wrapped in a glory of light as a garment. 'But I have no
garment.'
" 'Why not go to those of shining aura?' I inquired and the answer was,
'Not now, presently. O, let me live awhile yet with those that walk in the
flesh.' "
Local psychics are communicating further with the Boston woman, with a
view to possible further alleged manifestations of Taylor's spirit.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 18, 1922
Leo Marsh
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
(New York)--While Hollywood and its environs are having considerable
trouble solving their recent murder murder mystery, Master Voros goes merrily
on his mind-reading way down at the New Amsterdam Roof, and the management is
seriously--so it asserts--considering a plan to turn him loose on the Taylor
case.
It appears Voros can read any one's mind by looking at the back of his
neck, and he even solves make-believe murder mysteries in the same way when
two or three members of the audience get their heads together and frame such
a circumstance.
If the young man can do this when there hasn't been any killing at all,
reasons the management, how much more easily will it be for him to unearth
the culprit when there has actually been a crime committed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
October 4, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Spirit Has Real Dope on Killing
The murderer of William Desmond Taylor, motion-picture director slain
here last February, had better leave the country or confess, for the spirit
world is all riled up, and certain spirits intend to give the police the real
dope if the guilty party does not make a clean breast of things.
Yesterday afternoon an unknown medium telephoned to the office of
Private Detective Nick Harris, declared that Taylor's murderer was a woman,
the mother of a girl whom Taylor had wronged, and that the spirits were
determined to have the mystery cleared up. Harris himself vouches for the
authenticity of the telephone call, as do three police detectives, who were
in his office at the time.
The voice over the telephone said, in part:
"I decided last night to submit to spirit land and received this
message:
"That William Desmond Taylor was not murdered by a man but that he was
shot by a woman disguised as a man and who is prominently known in Los
Angeles. She has a daughter. The daughter, she believed, had been wronged by
Taylor. [12]
"The message further stated the spirits would not divulge the identity
of the mother for a certain period of time, but would give the guilty one an
opportunity to go before the authorities and make her confession and her plea
for self-preservation of her child's honor, and that no jury would convict
her of this crime after hearing her story.
"The voice of the spirit stated that if this warning is disregarded,
then the mother would be placed at the mercy of man-made laws, that her name
would be given to the world through this medium."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
August 1923
PHOTOPLAY
Ghost stories are rare these days, but a real ghost story has caused a
lot of inconvenience to Douglas MacLean and his charming young wife. In fact,
'tis said, this ghost story caused them to rush their plans for building and
leave their Los Angeles home for the unhaunted precincts of Beverly Hills.
Mr. and Mrs. MacLean occupied an adjoining court-bungalow to that of
William D. Taylor, who was mysteriously murdered. Recently, Mrs. MacLean
began losing her colored servants. First one and then another would leave,
without apparent cause. Finally, it was discovered that all of them claimed
that at exactly the hour of Taylor's death every evening, they saw a ghost
hovering--a white and appealing ghost,--about the Taylor bungalow, and that
finally it would drift to the direction of the MacLean household. Douglas did
his best to locate the spook, but without success, so the MacLeans moved.
(to be continued)
*****************************************************************************
NEXT ISSUE:
Mary Miles Minter vs. American Film Co.
"The Humor of a Hollywood Murder" Part 6:
Evil Hollywood, Hollywood Treads Softly, Editorial Contemplations
*****************************************************************************
NOTES:
[1]Obviously Smith is referring to Mabel Normand.
[2]Mack Sennett, the producer of her most popular films.
[3]The other woman was actress Mae Busch. This confrontation took place in
September 1915.
[4]Clearly a reference to Wallace Reid, whose drug addiction would cause his
death within a year.
[5]The actress is Blanche Sweet, the director is Marshall Neilan.
[6]Undoubtedly a reference to what had happened to actor Frank Mayo.
[7]Germany, in particular, was experiencing tremendous inflation at this
time.
[8]Probably, Antonio Moreno.
[9]Mabel Normand subsequently denied Taylor had made this statement.
[10]This item appears to be directed at Mack Sennett.
[11]This item appears to be directed at Claire Windsor.
[12]This item is directed at Charlotte Shelby and was actually planted by
Detective Ed King. See "William Desmond Taylor: A Dossier" (Scarecrow,
1991), pp. 286-287.
*****************************************************************************
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
