Taylorology Issue 97
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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 *
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* Issue 97 -- 2007 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
*****************************************************************************CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
- Three Documents from the Police File
What is TAYLOROLOGY?
TAYLOROLOGY is a newsletter focusing on the life and death of William Desmond Taylor, a top Paramount film director in early Hollywood who was shot to death on February 1, 1922. His unsolved murder was one of Hollywood's major scandals. This newsletter will deal with:
- (a) The facts of Taylor's life;
- (b) The facts and rumors of Taylor's murder;
- (c) The impact of the Taylor murder on Hollywood and the nation;
- (d) Taylor's associates and the Hollywood silent film industry in which Taylor worked. Primary emphasis will be given toward reprinting, referencing and analyzing source material, and sifting it for accuracy.
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It has now been seven years since the last issue of TAYLOROLOGY. Only the sudden availability of major information has inspired this revival for one issue. There are no plans for additional issues, unless more major information becomes available.
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One of the films directed by Taylor which received quite favorable contemporary reviews was "The Soul of Youth," and that film has been announced for home video release, in the DVD box set "Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934."
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The following items are on YouTube:
Footage of 16 silent film celebrities linked to the Taylor case is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0azKQDdWME
Two portions of a 1970 audio interview with Mary Miles Minter are at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpP9rF1KhLc and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynli8cJrcBE
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"Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Silent Screen Mystery" by Charles Higham was published in 2004 and is recommended for anyone interested in the case, although we disagree with his solution.
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Three Documents from the Police File
Thanks to Sidney D. Kirkpatrick (author of "A Cast of Killers"), we have received three documents from the Taylor case police file, and those documents are now available online.
- Excerpts of Statements of Witnesses In Re William Desmond Taylor Murder 1922 - 1936 is available at http://pikabruce.googlepages.com/testimony.pdf
- Statement of Miss Mary Miles Minter in the Office of the District Attorney February 7, 1922 is available at http://pikabruce.googlepages.com/MMM1922.pdf
- Memorandum Re. James Kirkwood and Mary Miles Minter is available at http://pikabruce.googlepages.com/srk.pdf
All three documents may be freely copied, circulated, placed on other web sites, or published elsewhere.
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After reading the three documents, we have a few comments on their contents.
(1) Based only on the internal textual evidence, it seems probable that the document "Excerpts of Statements of Witnesses In Re William Desmond Taylor Murder 1922-1936" has the following history: All of the official statements in the case had been previously compiled into one big volume ("Book--Statements of Witnesses 1922 to 1936, Regarding the William Desmond Taylor Murder"), with over 400 pages numbered consecutively. Subsequently, one of the investigators on the case decided to prepare an edited 35-page version of the big volume, selectively choosing only some statements which still seemed potentially relevant to the investigation. The "Excerpts" contains less than 10% of the original material. Sennett's autobiography "King of Comedy" has some testimony from the 1922 statements not found in these excerpts, particularly from the statement of Mabel Normand. Page numbers mentioned below refer to the page number in the "Excerpts", not the page number in the complete "Book", but the page number in the "Book" is indicated in the left column of the "Excerpts."
When Howard Fellows arrived at 8:15 pm on the night of the murder, he noticed that the lights inside were much brighter than ever (p. 6). Why? Did the killer turn up the lights to look for something? (Or had Taylor simply turned up the lights during Mabel's visit, perhaps when they were looking at the book he had bought her?) He also says that the light was on in Taylor's bedroom upstairs, which was unusual. (Yet the killer had departed a few seconds after the shot was fired, which would not have given him time to go upstairs after Taylor was shot.)
Some current speculation had reasoned that Charles Maigne must have lived next door to Taylor, because Maigne arrived so quickly on the morning the body was discovered. But Maigne's testimony indicates that he was notified by Mabel Normand's maid around 7:30, after Edna Purviance called Mabel (p. 11-12). So Maigne did not live next door to Taylor; Maigne lived near Mabel.
During the time Earl Tiffany was Taylor's chauffeur, Edna Purviance was one of the frequent visitors to Taylor's home. (p. 24).
The only mention of drugs in the entire Excerpts was when Tiffany was asked if Mabel's chauffeur or the Fellows brothers "ever handle any hop?" (p. 25)
According to Tiffany, Sands thought Mabel, Minter, and Neva Gerber had occasionally spent the night at Taylor's home (p. 26).
The statements confirm that Tiffany's wife saw Sands in L.A. on Jan. 31 (the day before the murder), and that she had mentioned it to Tiffany on that same day (p. 11, 26).
Many witnesses made statements indicating that Taylor's body had been "laid out", with both arms at his side (p. 5, 8, 10, 11). Only detective Zeigler made a contrary statement, which he strangely qualified with "apparently" (p. 34).
Christine Jewett says Faith MacLean notified her at 8:00 am that Taylor had been "shot" (p. 4-5). But it was not known that Taylor was shot until after Eyton arrived, which was around 8:30.
Charlotte Whitney says Jeanie MacPherson "knows a great, big, large lot" (about the murder) (p. 15). MacPherson was, according to Minter, "my closest friend" around the time of the murder (see TAYLOROLOGY 11).
Charlotte Shelby's statement (p. 19-24) is obviously filled with lies regarding her knowledge of Minter's affection for Taylor prior to his death. And Shelby is probably lying about some other matters. But it is possible to partially reconcile the seemingly contradictory statements of Berger (p. 18), Margaret (p. 17), and Charlotte Shelby (p. 22-23) concerning the notification sequence of Taylor's death. This could reconcile all the statements (though not the time): Stockdale calls Shelby and tells her Taylor was found dead. Shelby calls Berger and tells her Taylor was found dead (no knowledge yet that he had been shot). Then perhaps Berger makes a call to someone else, or was called, and learns Taylor was shot. Berger calls Shelby back and tells her Taylor was shot. When Shelby arrives at the Hobart house, she tells Margaret that Berger told her Taylor was shot. It does appear that the official questioning put intense unfair pressure on Berger to make her think she was being falsely accused by Shelby. Berger was told of allegations that "you were the first that gave her (Shelby) the information as to his death"; but Margaret's statement on the day prior had not said that; Margaret had quoted Shelby as stating, "Margery Berger tells me that Mr. Taylor has just been murdered." See the difference? There are really two separate questions:
- (a) Who told whom that Taylor was dead?
- (b) Who told whom that Taylor had been shot (murdered)? When the questions are separated, it's possible that the statements of Berger, Margaret, and Shelby are all accurate concerning the questions of who told whom.
In 1926 Charlotte Shelby states (p. 23) that she convinced chauffeur Chauncey Eaton to retract his statements regarding driving Shelby to the Hobart house on the morning of February 2. But to the contrary, Eaton was still sticking to his story in 1929 (summarized in Sanderson's 1941 letter reprinted in WDT: DOSSIER) and 1936 (p. 35).
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(2) Overall, we are very impressed with Minter's 1922 statement, and think she was making every effort to be totally truthful. Life had suddenly and dramatically pulled her into a real-life major event, and she wanted to assist the investigators in helping them to find her love's killer. Her statement did not seem to be covering up anything.
The questions Minter was asked make it clear that Neilan was truly considered a suspect (yet why was he seemingly never questioned?).
The indication that there was no telephone at the Hobart house (page 14), would seem to disprove some of the later rumors. With no phone there, how was Shelby (at the New Hampshire home) looking for Mary? (She couldn't call Hobart and see if Mary was back home yet.)
On page 39, Minter is quoted as saying (regarding the evening Taylor was killed) "...I was laying on the couch reading aloud to mother and sister and we were all laughing heartily at that time..." but I think that the transcription is incorrect. Minter probably said "Mama" (referring to her grandmother) instead of "mother". On page 13 (referring to the same time period) she says, "I was at home with my grandmother and sister."
Minter's long all-night talk with Neilan, on Friday night after the murder, could only be possible if Charlotte Shelby were not restricting Minter's movements at the time, which defies traditional expectations of what Shelby would have done.
Minter's testimony gives strong reason to doubt the truth of the tale that she had recently gone to Taylor's home, undressed, and begged for his love. Minter quotes the story from Neilan, but Neilan also says that Taylor had been talking "crazy as a March hare" (p. 16), and he cited other examples of Taylor discussing events which had not happened, with Neilan concluding "I am certain he was insane." In Minter's own account, the last time she went to Taylor's home was on December 23 (p. 1). Seemingly it doesn't bother her that this contradicts Taylor's statement (via Neilan) that she had been there in the previous two or three weeks (p. 22), because Taylor's statement was delusional and the event he described never took place. The allegation that Taylor had been making delusional, provoking statements certainly should have been explored very thoroughly by the investigators; they should have at least taken a full statement from Neilan. It's possible that an unreported "insane" statement might have provoked a reaction which contributed to his murder. Indeed, Minter quotes Neilan as telling Taylor, "I would certainly take more vengeance on you if I didn't think you were crazy" (p. 23). Minter's statement also makes it clear that the "ghastly thing" about Taylor was his mental condition (Taylor insisting untrue events had really occurred). This brings to mind the incidents of "mental lapses" recalled by his former friends who knew Taylor before he left his wife in 1908.
The personality conflict between Minter and Julia Crawford Ivers (p. 26-7) is interesting and amusing.
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(3) "Memorandum Re. James Kirkwood and Mary Miles Minter" was written by Detective Lieutenant Leroy Sanderson, to advance the theory that actor James Kirkwood was involved in Taylor's murder. Although that theory has been discredited because Kirkwood was out of the country at that time (see TAYLOROLOGY 20), the memorandum has a good deal of information regarding the relationship between Minter and Kirkwood, and Charlotte Shelby's reaction to that relationship. The exact sources for that information are not cited but they are probably Margaret Shelby's 1937 statement, the 1937 Grand Jury testimony of Minter, Margaret Shelby, and Charlotte Shelby, plus diaries and letters written by Minter and Kirkwood.
Contrary to what has been extensively written and rumored, the Memorandum states that Faith MacLean said the person she saw "could not have been a woman dressed in man's clothing."
There is plenty of material in those three documents worthy of more discussion, so armchair detectives are encouraged to start a blog or forum on the subject.
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Back issues of Taylorology are available on the Web at any of the following:
http://www.angelfire.com/az/Taylorology/
http://www.silent-movies.com/Taylorology/
For more information about Taylor, see
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
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