menu | privacy | contact | about | help
 In 1922 Mabel Normand was one of the most famous women in America. Her abilities as an accomplished comedian have been compared to those of Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Normand had the deep misfortune to be in William Desmond Taylor's bungalow immediately before he was murdered, and was in essence the last person to see him alive. A small picture of Normand hung directly over Taylor's desk, although she consistently denied any romantic relationship with him. Their friendship included a mutual love of good books, a rare pursuit in Hollywood even then, and he gave her a book of criticism on Nietzche that evening. Her interest in meaningful reading material is said to have arisen after being disappointed in her relationship with Mack Sennett. The police almost immediately eliminated her as a serious suspect. A resident of Alvarado Court was certain that Taylor returned alone to his bungalow after walking Mabel to her car, and this matched the story given by her driver. Her account of that evening never waivered in countless retellings over the years. Nevertheless, she was pilloried in the press as stories of her drug addiction emerged and her career was destroyed. The most virulent press attacks, which tended to be sensationalized hearsay accounts of drug use and orgies, came from Wallace Smith of the Chicago American, whose work was nationally syndicated, and Edward Doherty of the Chicago Tribune. It may be worth mentioning that Chicago had lost a substantial amount of film production business when the industry migrated to Hollywood a decade before and ironically, at the time there were probably more drug-addicted news reporters than actors. Normand made a brief comeback in 1926 with the release of The Nickel Hopper (Mary Pickford took out a full page ad in Motion Picture World which said, "Welcome back to the screen") and died of tuberculosis in 1930 at the age of 37. King Vidor was at the funeral, and years later wrote, "Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennett, Chester Conklin, Hank Mann, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, all fellow workers of hers, were crying. I was fascinated by their faces. These funny faces had made people roar with laughter the world over. Now they were distorted with grief." Our interest in this story began during a 1998 visit to a used bookstore in Los Angeles where we ran across a rare British edition of Aldous Huxley's Limbo. Mabel Normand had received it as a gift, probably in 1924, and had signed her name inside the cover along with a note on who gave it to her. We were curious about who she was.  With a red pencil, Mabel lightly marked this passage on page 72:  And again on pages 75-6:  The book was also signed by silent film star Patsy Ruth Miller in 1931 as a gift to William Lambert (credited as the costume designer for a Laurel & Hardy film in the late 1920s as well as some Charlie Chan films in the mid 1930s). 
|
 Mary Miles Minter, "M to the Third Power", the rich and beautiful, blond haired, "periwinkle blue" eyed 19 year old actor, was as at least famous as Mabel Normand. Her onscreen "registration" was frequently compared to Mary Pickford's. Mary was deeply in love with 49 year old William Desmond Taylor. She went into hysterics when she heard the news of his murder, then promptly lied to the police when they questioned her about the last time she'd seen him. Taylor directed her in a few films (including Anne of Green Gables, which is still mentioned as her best). Recently, she'd visited his bungalow unannounced at 3 AM and after much persuasion, finally agreed to let Taylor drive her back home. Handkerchiefs with the initials MMM were discovered in one of Taylor's drawers, along with a peach-colored nightgown of uncertain ownership. Her lavishly autographed picture hung on his wall (along with those of many other Hollywood friends and associates) and coded love letters from Mary were also discovered. Three blond hairs identified as hers were found under the collar of his jacket, which had supposedly been brushed clean the morning of the murder (the chain of evidence is not secure, however, and the strands later vanished). There were reports of similarities between the rare bullet that killed Taylor and an unfired one from her mother's gun, which Mary herself was said to have once handled and fired accidently after locking herself in her room during a temper tantrum. These circumstances, along with the subsequent behavior of her mother and the district attorney (a family friend) and the lies she initially told the police have led some to speculate that Mary killed Taylor, but this possibility seems generally remote. Several witnesses placed her at home when the murder occurred. In any event the ensuing scandal ruined her career. Mary said she was happy to get out of show business. She'd already invested heavily in Los Angeles real estate and although the next few decades brought family squabbles and lawsuits over money she was set for the rest of her long and secluded life. In 1981, she was found beaten, bound, gagged, robbed and left for dead in the kitchen of her Santa Monica home. The police described her as a "tiny, frail old lady," and were shocked to discover she'd been a silent film star. "She's been a victim of theft and robberies for as long as I can remember," said one investigator. Throughout her life Mary unceasingly proclaimed her love for William Desmond Taylor. She died in Santa Monica on August 4, 1984.
|
 Ella Margaret Gibson, alias Patricia Palmer, aka Ella Margaret Arce, aka Ella Margaret Lewis, minor film actress who had worked with Taylor when he first came to Hollywood, indicted but not convicted on charges equivalent to prostitution and in 1923, extortion. She was 27 at the time of the murder. There is no record of her name ever being mentioned in connection with the investigation. In 1999, an account from an apparently credible source was made public that on October 21, 1964, while living in the Hollywood hills on a modest widow's pension from Mobil Oil, she suffered a heart attack and before dying, as a recently converted roman catholic, confessed that she "shot and killed William Desmond Taylor", along with several other things that the witness didn't understand and can't remember. She'd apparently made a previous confession after going into hysterics while watching a short televised fluff piece on Ralph Story's Los Angeles about the long-ago murder. The motive, presumably, would have been related to obsession (Mary Miles Minter was certainly obsessed with Taylor) or blackmail (Gibson was indicted in a different blackmail scheme a year later). Based on the circumstances of her reported confession, along with what's known about her life between 1914 and 1937, she probably did murder Taylor, and if so she accomplished an essentially "perfect" crime: There's no documented motive and zero proof. Some investigators have noted that soon after the murder she got work, using the name Patricia Palmer, in a number of Paramount-Lasky films. One of these doesn't seem to have been mentioned by researchers. It was The Cowboy and the Lady, shot near Jackson, Wyoming in 1922, and it starred Mary Miles Minter.  Gibson & Taylor play a scene in Vitagraph's The Kiss (1914) |
 Edward Sands, born Edward Fitzgerald Snyder, alias Edward Fitzwilliam Swathmore, convicted embezzler and forger, a mentally unstable serial deserter from the US military and suspected drug runner who spoke with an affected cockney accent (he was born in Ohio), was Taylor's valet until seven months before the murder. While Taylor was in Europe in the summer of 1921, the overweight Sands forged Taylor's signature on checks and wrecked his car. Later, he burglarized Taylor's bungalow and taunted the director by leaving footprints on his bed and later mailed him pawn tickets for some of the stolen items. He apparently quit a job in northern California the day Taylor was murdered (Los Angeles was a 10 hour train ride away). Sands, either because he was the killer or knew that with his criminal record and recent activities he'd be arrested and sent to prison anyway, disappeared and was never found. Mary Miles Minter had this to say about the murder, and Sands, in 1937: "What do you think I've thought about these 15 years? If I had any theory I would have taken it to the police at once. I've wracked and wracked my brains. I can't think of an enemy in the world that Mr. Taylor might have had... Sands? No. He was just a fat, jolly cockney. He couldn't have done it. I just wish I knew where he was so I could tell him to come out and clear himself." Minter lays it on so thick here, however, that one may reasonably doubt that her invitation was benign. From what we know about Sands and the life expectancy of criminals like him in the 1920s, he was quite possibly dead by then anyway. The photo of Sands that appears above was heavily retouched for newspaper use. A witness' description of the person who smiled at her while casually leaving Taylor's bungalow moments after the gunshot indicates that it may have been a woman disguised as a man. The witness also thought, but wasn't sure, that it might have been Sands, who'd lost considerable weight. For these reasons, it's interesting (but ultimately meaningless) to compare surviving photographs of Sands and Gibson. 
|
 Charlotte Shelby, mother of Mary Miles Minter. Charlotte had long been distressed by Mary's interest in Taylor and had threatened his life two years before. By Mary's account, on news of Taylor's death her mother gloated to her about it. The bullet that killed Taylor was an older .38 caliber type that, according to at least one expert, was quite unusual and matched an unfired bullet from a pistol owned by Charlotte, which she later threw into a bayou in Louisiana. Charlotte Shelby immediately feared she'd be prosecuted for the murder and when detectives first arrived to question her she brusquely introduced them to her lawyers. It's a fact that she was a personal friend of LA district attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine, who was directly involved in the disappearance of most of the physical evidence of the case (Woolwine almost certainly returned some evidence to Shelby, probably in a misguided and corrupt effort to protect a friend of the family from more scandal). Shelby left the country for years at a time to avoid legal entanglement in the investigation. There are reports that in 1926 Mary told district attorney Asa Keyes that her mother murdered Taylor (this statement was never made public). Decades later, an elderly and secluded Mary Miles Minter is said to have tearfully told King Vidor, "My mother killed everything I ever loved." Although Shelby was a cold, selfish and manipulative liar, and probably did experience moments when she wanted Taylor dead, the unusual bullets (which have long since vanished) are the only hard evidence that indicate any reasonable possibility of her involvement. Shelby's physical build generally eliminates her as the person seen leaving Taylor's bungalow. In 1937 she requested a grand jury investigation into Taylor's murder, probably in response to a lawsuit and accusations brought by Mary's alcoholic sister Margaret, who told the press, "I didn't see the murder done but Shelby [her mother] would kill anybody for $1000. Particularly Mary when she was working... this mad woman would cut out your heart for a dime. She hates men. She's a man hater. Money is her god. She was scared that someone would take away Mary, the goose that laid her golden egg." Perhaps she hired the killer. Margaret Gibson, for example, and even provided the murder weapon along with money and a promise to line up some acting jobs to help Gibson's flagging, scandal-ridden career (the unexpected bonus of Taylor's $5,000 bankroll, along with her acting ability, could have accounted for the easy smile flashed at the witness as the killer casually walked out the door). LA district attorney Buron Fitts concluded that there wasn't any evidence for an indictment of Shelby, and recommended that the remaining evidence and case files be retained on a permanent basis. These began disappearing soon after. Fitts was long rumoured to be closely aligned with the interests of the major studios, was soon after tried for bribery in an unrelated statutory rape case (he was acquitted) and is reported to have later committed suicide with a .38 caliber pistol.
|
 Henry Peavey was the valet Taylor hired after the trouble with Sands. Peavey was illiterate, wore flashy golf costumes (but, as Mabel Normand observed, he didn't own any golf clubs) made an excellent rice pudding and had recently been arrested for soliciting young boys in nearby Westlake Park. Taylor made bail for Peavey, expressed concerns to Mabel Normand about him that evening and was scheduled to appear in court to vouch for him the next day. Although Peavey had run screaming into the courtyard when he arrived for work and discovered the body at 8AM on February 2nd, when the police arrived he was in the kitchen calmly doing the dishes, Taylor's body on the floor just meters away. Peavey's conflicting and changing accounts of what he saw, his bizarre behavior at both the inquest and the funeral, and his probably spiteful accusations that Mabel Normand killed Taylor have led many investigators to discount Peavey's credibility. He may have helped carry out the murder, or more likely, been involved in some sort of studio-directed misinformation effort related to it, but there is absolutely no proof of either. Later claims that he confessed to killing Taylor were probably spurious. At least one source relates that Peavey died in an insane asylum, crying out in paranoid delerium that his "master's killer" was stalking him. THE CRIME SCENE  The courtyard of Alvardo Court, 400 South Alvarado. Taylor's five room "bungalow", which today would probably be called a townhouse, is the right half of the building facing the camera (his front door is visible). During the 1920s, the Westlake district was known as the "Champs Elysees of Los Angeles" and was one of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods. Today, the area surrounding MacArthur Park in Los Angeles is notable mostly for its blight and subsistance-level commercial activity. The precise site of the murder is on an asphalt parking lot for a Pic 'n Save discount store.  Taylor's front room was expensively but tastefully furnished in a manner typical of successful business people during the 1920s. His body was found just in front of the writing desk, face up, with a leg under an upright chair whose back is just visible here. The photo was taken after the rug had been rolled up and placed near where the photographer is standing. |
| Go to Bruce Long's TAYLOROLOGY a publication centered on the unsolved 1922 murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor which includes reprinted material on, and interviews with, other silent stars including Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Olive Thomas, Blanche Sweet, William S. Hart, Lillian Gish, Harold Lloyd, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow, and many others. | |
|
Wikipedia articles: Mary Miles Minter Mabel Normand William Desmond Taylor |
