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Taylorology Issue 71
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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 71 -- November 1998 Editor: Bruce Long bruce@asu.edu *
* TAYLOROLOGY may be freely distributed *
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CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
Drugs in Early Hollywood
The Death of Zelda Crosby
Reporting the Taylor Murder: Day Nine
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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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Drugs in Early Hollywood
In the aftermath of the Arbuckle and Taylor scandals, there were many
reports and rumors of drug use in Hollywood, which added fuel to the anti-
Hollywood sentiment sweeping the nation in 1921 and 1922. Many past
issues of TAYLOROLOGY have carried contemporary reports and rumors of drug
use at that time, including issues 5, 13, 22, 26, 27, 30, 34, 39, plus
issues containing dispatches of Wallace Smith.
Reprinted below is a selection of other early press reports concerning
drug use in early Hollywood.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
[Mildred Lee Moore got her start in films after winning a "Beauty and Brains"
contest held by PHOTOPLAY. Her most prominent film role was the leading lady
in the serial "The Moon Riders." This narcotics arrest finished her film
career.]
September 19, 1920
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
It was so soothing--that first whiff--that Mildred Lee Moore, young and
pretty actress, soon found herself taking deadly dope every day until
yesterday, when she was arrested and placed in jail for violating the State
narcotic law. Heroin was found in her possession. With her was arrested
R. Jay Belasco, an actor in whose apartment at Wilcox and Hollywood Boulevard
she was found.
The amazing story told to an Examiner reporter last night by Mildred
Moore reads more like a sensational novel than that of a girl scarcely out of
her teens, pretty and well educated. It starts with her desire to be one of
the merriest in the merry set in which she found herself in New York night
life. Where it will end she herself confessed no one can tell.
"I had gone to New York City to make a name for myself in the world,"
she said. "I obtained a small part in a play on the Amsterdam roof garden.
For a while I thought I was going ahead, and I was, too, in my work. But off
the stage I went with a merry crowd of young people. We had wonderful
parties, but I noticed that I was not as vivacious and confident of myself as
the rest of the girls and therefore not so popular. Everybody drank or took
dope. I disliked drinking. The taste was unbearable. I felt that I had to
do something to make myself other than what I was fast slipping into--a wall
flower.
"So, one night when a young man offered me a whiff I took it. I was
amazed at the result. My nerves relaxed, I became less self-conscious and
was soon one of the sprightliest in the crowd. It seemed such a simple thing
to do--place a little powder on your finger and inhale it--that I wondered
why I hadn't started sooner. The powder gave me wonderful powers. Instead
of being a wall-flower, I was soon one of the leaders in all our parties.
I was petted and spoiled until I became intoxicated with the adulations of
others. I could not resist such a position, although I knew that dope would
get me some time.
"I feared dope. I was afraid of it before I took that first whiff and I
have never lost that fear. I said after I took my first one that I would
never take another--that if I did it would soon make me look old and sap my
strength. But the pleasure it gave me and the fun I had at our parties made
me take it. Do not think that I fell into the habit of taking it every day
right at the start. One doesn't get the habit that way. I went for several
days, maybe several weeks, before I took my second powder. I remember well
why I took it. We were to have a party and I wanted to dazzle the rest with
my personality--the false personality that dope gives.
"But it was not long before I got to taking it fairly regularly. Then
fear gripped me in earnest. I decided that the only way to get away from
dope was to get away from New York. I came to Los Angeles, where I got a
position with a film company, last year.
"I was amazed after I had been here but a day or two when I learned that
dope users are as common in Los Angeles as in New York. You may be sure that
with my environment, the same here as it was in New York, that it was not
long before I was using dope again. It got to be a daily dose, and it was
not until I began to feel the dreadful reactions that fear again drove me
into another attempt to stop using dope. I went to the mountains and tried
to cure myself of the habit. I came back feeling fine and thought I had
overcome the desire. I was mistaken. Dope came back insidiously and gripped
me once again. I couldn't help myself. Everybody uses it and I simply had
to go along.
"Why, some girls spend as much as $100 a week for dope. I couldn't
afford that much, but my weekly dope bill has always been around $20.
"I feel the disgrace of my arrest keenly, but if it results in curing me
of the use of dope, the price will be cheap. I am only one of hundreds of
girls who are slaves of dope in Los Angeles. I know many girls with whom I
associate, who feel that they are little better than slaves of the habit."
Belasco is also an employee of a film company. Police who arrested them
said they found a bottle of opium in liquid form in Belasco's possession.
Fred L. Boden, inspector for the State Board of Pharmacy, who is co-
operating with Detective Sergeants O'Brien and Yarrow in suppressing the use
and sale of dope in Los Angeles, said that it is becoming more common daily
here. He said that scores of young girls are using deadly narcotics.
Charles McCurtle, who resides at the same address Miss Moore does, 5636
Delongpre Avenue, was found guilty yesterday of violating the State Narcotic
Act. He was convicted on two counts by Judge Chambers--one for possessing
cocaine, and the other for having heroin. He may receive a maximum of six
months in the city jail for each count, or a total of one year.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 16, 1921
NEW YORK AMERICAN
Los Angeles, Sept. 15. Nero, whose lurid orgies have been a byword of
history, would have turned his head in shame at some of the modern-day ribald
gatherings in which certain members of the Hollywood motion picture colony
gave their passions and impulses unrestrained play.
Tearing down the curtain of secrecy that has veiled the spectacular
conduct of a group known as "The Live Hundred," investigators have begun a
sensational disclosure of "parties" at which expense was not permitted to
stand in the way of unmeasured excesses in drinks and drugs.
These investigators have drawn a colorful picture of the assemblies in
which the participants surfeited their appetites for drugs and liquors and on
which the hosts spent vast sums and considerable effort to appease the
lustful demands of their guests.
One such event, in which the host spent $20,000 for decorations, is
described as an affair in which drugs were deliberately served, goldfish
deluged with gin while their agonized contortions furnished play to the
guests and movie girl called for "the most beautiful man" as her mate...
Though the investigations have been going on quietly for some time they
have been projected into the light by the Arbuckle case. Arbuckle, it is
said, was a member of "The Live Hundred."
The disclosures are made by Captain J. H. Pelletier, executive secretary
of the Los Angeles Morals Efficiency Association, and are confirmed by the
police. Names have not been made public because indictments have not yet
been asked. But these names and a full detailing of certain of the lurid
"parties" will be placed in the record at Arbuckle's trial.
Perhaps the most sensational of the exposures is that involving a
festive event staged by a prominent male actor of the screen. Concealed in a
hedge below the windows of his home, detectives viewed and noted the excesses
that proved of so extreme a nature as finally to nauseate even some of the
participants and impel them to leave the party in disgust.
For several days before the orgy was scheduled the host had supervised a
group of interior decorators who installed special furniture and settings at
a cost to him of $20,000.
For one thing, the entrance to the palatial house was converted so as to
create the effect of a cavern entrance. The place within was made to live up
to the name given it of "The Grotto of Good Fellows."
From without, as the group sat down at the long table in the "grotto,"
the watchers saw a maid push a wheeled tea tray in after extensive indulgence
by all in drinks. On the tray was an assortment of needles, opium pipes,
morphine, cocaine, heroin and opium.
Each guest hilariously helped himself or herself to liberal doses of
drugs and selected needles or pipes as the individual desire demanded.
With drunken caresses they injected morphine into one another or helped
the next-seat neighbor to "sniff" his or her selection.
On the stairs, sodden with drink at first, and then all qui viva with
drugs, sat a couple. Between them was a globe of goldfish. Into this they
ecstatically poured a quart of gin. In fiendish glee they laughed at the
antics of the goldfish. They summoned those at the table, and in a moment
the globe was surrounded with a raucous group that found the antics in the
globe a happy source of delight.
But even this diversion quickly lost its "punch." A new one was created
by a motion picture actress.
Standing on the stairs she called in high-pitched syllables that were
interrupted as she turned now and then to the white powder in her palm.
"I want the most beautiful man here. I am his."
A dozen men staggered and stumbled and ran, as their physical conditions
permitted, to gain the prize. She waved them haughtily back and commanded
that those clamoring for possession of her submit to a vote. Thus was chosen
"the prettiest man of the bunch."
What followed proved too much for those at the hedge to endure. They
pounded at the doors. Lights went out. Excited tones, then a hush. In some
manner the host got out. The detectives found that drugs and needles and
pipes had been destroyed or concealed in the brief few minutes once they had
demanded entrance.
The host came back, ringing at the front door. He had driven up in an
automobile. He wore a cap, a motoring ulster and goggles. He had, was his
explanation, been out driving. The host angrily denounced the invasion. He
demanded search warrants. He was not arrested, but the guests were. They
were not prosecuted, however. It was learned that the host had made a
practice of leaving his automobile a few blocks away during these parties so
that he might establish just such an alibi as he bluffed successfully on this
occasion...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 17, 1921
NEW YORK EVENING WORLD
Los Angeles.--A beautiful and clever woman, who for many years has
eluded the police, State and Federal authorities in Los Angeles, has reaped a
huge fortune from supplying motion picture stars of the Hollywood colony with
narcotic drugs, it is declared by Capt. J. H. Pelletier, Executive Secretary
of the Los Angeles Morals Efficiency Commission, who says an early arrest
probably will be made by State authorities.
She is the distributing agent, it is declared, for a huge dope ring
which has catered more particularly to illicit trade with the coterie of film
stars who have staged numerous parties, the details of which have leaked out
in several instances and shocked Los Angeles...
Credence was given to a widespread report in Los Angeles today that
certain members of the "dope ring" and members of the motion picture
fraternity are "laying" for Arbuckle should he be liberated from the charge
in San Francisco. Arbuckle, it was asserted, is blamed for having "kicked
the pot" by going too far in his San Francisco escapade and thus stirring
officials into activity which for the time at least will end the activities
of the narcotic peddlers.
How high the pitch of this purported feeling has run is indicated in the
statement credited to a member of the motion picture colony that if Arbuckle
attempted to return to Los Angeles by automobile a trap would be laid to
wreck his car and cause his death. This film man stated he had "noticed that
Arbuckle expects to get out on bail, and that it would be better that he save
the money to bury himself with." If Arbuckle is released, he said, both the
coast and inland automobile routes from San Francisco to Los Angeles would be
watched by the "gang."
Since the Arbuckle case the Hollywood film colony has "gone to bed" at
11 o'clock, while formerly this was the time when lights were brightest in
the homes of many high salaried stars. It has been noticed that during the
last few days one palatial home set in a secluded location in the hills back
of Hollywood has been without occupancy, while in times past it has been the
scene of many gay parties participated in by the fast movie set, who
frequently went there by aeroplane, as the grounds about the residence had
been especially arranged to accommodate aviation parties. How far-reaching
the activities of the drug ring went, particularly in the movie set that has
been referred to as "Arbuckle's crowd," develops in many tales that are told
of the parties in which many stars participated and in a dope den in a glen a
little distance from Hollywood.
Recently a well known actress failed to make her appearance on the lot
of the motion picture concern with which she had a contract. At her home it
was stated she had left for a short walk the evening before, but it had been
customary for her on similar occasions to spend the evening with friends.
The picture in which she was making her appearance was in an important stage
of progress, and her disappearance seriously delayed its taking, but inquiry
failed to reveal she had gone to the home of any of her friends.
A search was instituted. For days her disappearance was a mystery,
while scores of parties searched for her in the hills without success. The
search was suddenly abandoned and the affair hushed up when it was announced
she had returned several days before from a nearby resort, where she had gone
to rest after strenuous work before the camera. She did not, however, resume
her acting for about ten days, in the interim recovering from the "rest" she
had enjoyed at the "resort." It later became known that the dope ring had
established a den in the secluded part of a canyon, catering particularly to
a clique of stars, and the actress was said to have spent four days at this
"hangout." Hypodermic injections of heroin and morphine at this den had left
the marks of scores of punctures in the flesh of her arm, it was stated. So
serious had her drugged condition become that the members of the dope clan,
several of whom are said to be film stars, took it upon themselves to remove
her from their den to her home in the early hours of the morning. Fearing to
arouse members of her family, they laid her in a hammock on the porch of her
home, where she was found in a state of deep coma many hours later. Despite
efforts to hush up the affair, the dope clan was suspicious that officials of
the State Board of Pharmacy, having charge of investigations of violations of
the State narcotic act, were on their trail, and the den, which had been in
operation for only a brief time, was abandoned in haste after its limited but
lucrative existence...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 23, 1921
VARIETY
...the use of narcotics in the [motion picture] profession is the
subject of an investigation in Los Angeles at present. Almost six months ago
Variety received from its west coast correspondent a lengthy story based on
the report of the Los Angeles County Medical Society's special investigation
into narcotic conditions on the coast. It did not print the story at the
time because it would have caused an upheaval in the profession and the
censor fight was on in full force. The report of the committee, however,
stated that within a year it would be necessary to develop practically an
entire new force of stars for the screen because of the prevalence of the use
of drugs among the present stars. The Medical Society has facts and figures
in proof of its assertions, and names are not the least of their data.
It is know the wife of one of the most popular of the younger male stars
has time and again had the peddlers of dope supplying her husband arrested,
but she has been unable to get her husband to break his habit. Also, one
young girl star who spent several months in the east returned to the coast
early last spring, took a cure and signed a contract to star again, only to
fall back on the use of the "stuff" and slip among the addicts.
There is a week-end orgy establishment in Beverly Hills, the most
exclusive residential section of Hollywood. The place is maintained by a
former well-known member of the Lambs in New York who married on the coast.
Here the parties last from Friday to Monday with usually all of the guests
"charged up" during that period.
Out there they say it's a great life, whether you weaken or not.
There is a "dope ring" on the coast beyond shadow of a question. The
medical society had the facts on the tactics employed to gain recruits among
the addicts of the studios.
The reports show that those in the acting profession on the coast
getting the big salaries, far beyond what they were in the habit of receiving
a short time before, knew of no other way to spend their easily gotten money
except on "parties." They would walk out of the studio of an afternoon and
start a party that would last until it was almost time for them to be back at
the studio again. These parties for the greater part at first were simply
"hooch" affairs, coupled with physical excesses, then came the inevitable
morning after droop at the studio and this was the spot where the dope
recruiter got in his work.
It was a case of "take a sniff of this," or "let me fix you a shot" and
the relief afforded made it possible for them to continue with the work. The
continuance of the round of pleasure and working under a false stimulant soon
got to the novices and they became confirmed addicts with a habit that would
lead them to any length to "get the stuff."
That feature of Los Angeles and Hollywood life is very much in need of
cleaning, more so than the cleaning of the screen itself...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
Clayton Whitehill
ROCHESTER TIMES-UNION
Washington, Feb. 9. - ...Meantime government forces through Colonel L. G.
Nutt, chief of the narcotic division and acting director-general of
prohibition agents, have taken action to stop the flow of booze and dope in
California movie colonies...
"So far, both the prohibition and narcotic forces have been hampered by
smallness of numbers," he told the United News...
"Our narcotic squad in California has closed two clinics where movie
actors and actresses are said to have received daily rations of dope. With
a mobile force of trained narcotic men numbering 165 working all over the
country and concentrating just now in the West we expect marked results.
Besides, the courts are far more sympathetic toward narcotic prohibition and
regularly mete out stiff sentences.
"With an augmented force and appropriation, I feel that we can be
instrumental in eliminating this phase of the movie evil. "
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 9, 1922
Wallace Smith
CHICAGO AMERICAN
The relation of the dope traffic to the mystery [of William Desmond
Taylor's death], as it stands today, may be summarized as follows:
1. Stars of the movies, idols of America's millions of fans, beautiful women
and athletic men, are being destroyed by the use of drugs. Contraband
liquor, too, is everywhere evident in the Hollywood colony and as a
consequence vice is rampant.
2. Knowledge of shameless conduct by victims is in possession of drug
dealers, who can precipitate a score of domestic battles with a word and who
can thus keep their "customers" enslaved though they attempt many times to
break away from the habit by taking the cure.
3. A noted actress who tried the cure, but who was forced back into
"slavery" by the dope peddlers, has had a love affair with Taylor. There
have been quarrels and at least one fight, as a result of which the actress
went to a hospital.
4. Evidence of quarrels, so far developed by investigators, has shown that
the quarrels and love triangles in the colony either took place at "dope
parties" or following and that the participants were under the influence of
drugs.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 14, 1922
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
NEW YORK.--That William Desmond Taylor was slain by a member of a drug
ring whom the motion picture director had attempted to prevent supplying a
well known film star with narcotics, is the opinion of one of his intimate
friends.
This new theory was advanced today by Capt. E. A. Salisbury, lecturer
and world traveler and intimate friend of Taylor, who recently returned from
a trip around the world in his yacht, Wisdom II, and who saw Taylor a short
time before he was shot.
Capt. Salisbury, whose home is in Hollywood, is now at the Waldorf-
Astoria.
Capt. Salisbury said that when he last talked with Taylor he appeared
upset. He recalled that the director said, "He would make it damn hot for
these people who are selling drugs." He was deeply concerned, according to
Salisbury, over the fact that a certain actress, prominent in the film world,
was being made a prey of the narcotic vendors...
He was sure Taylor never used dope...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 16, 1922
Louis Joseph Vance
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
...One of the best beloved of motion picture stars once told me, in the
presence of her husband, of a motor tour which she had taken with a party of
picture people exclusively in two cars, a trip into Mexico lasting over a
period of several days. She said that on the first night they spent away
from Hollywood, she discovered that, with the exceptions of the chauffeurs,
she was the one member of the party who wasn't a drug addict. The others
made each night's stop the occasion of a drug orgy.
I don't relate this as an indictment of the entire film colony on a
charge of drug addiction, but simply for what it may be worth as indicating
the extent to which people may be driven to seek strange cures for the ennui
of having more success than nature has equipped them to handle.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 15, 1922
Edward Doherty
NEW YORK NEWS
LOS ANGELES.--So there enters upon the stage of this Belshazzar drama
another figure, as mysterious as all those who have preceded her, yet said to
be known by name and repute to hundreds of Hollywood "folks."
Undersheriff Biscailuz and his deputy, Frank Dewar, are searching for
this woman, of whom they will only say she was known as the "Queen of the
Dopes" and the head of an all-powerful drug ring operating in Hollywood,
secretly for strangers, but openly enough for the "extras" and habitues of
the place, to say nothing of the "aristocracy."
This woman, Biscailuz says, knows all about how Taylor was killed, but
he will not reveal what he bases his information upon.
One of the outstanding facts of the situation, however, is the known
jealousy, amounting to deadly hatred, and sometimes actual war, between the
bootleggers and the dope sellers.
All the dope sellers have gone into hiding now, and Dr. John Roach
Stratton might visit Hollywood with his vice-magnifying lens and find little
or nothing on which to wreak his wrath, unless he wants to condemn the home
life of the cellar owners.
The colony's "Chinatown" is deserted, and everything tends to the belief
that for some reason the dope sellers had cause to fear they might be
involved in the Taylor crime.
The home of the Queen has been searched and many interesting statistical
documents found relating to her trade, her customers and her friends.
She is said to be a beautiful woman, without a trace outwardly of the
ravages which addicts usually show. She lived near the Taylor home in
Westlake Court, but that means nothing, as many quite respectable people
lived there also...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 22, 1922
LONG BEACH PRESS
SACRAMENTO.--The "drug ring" of California killed William Desmond Taylor
because Taylor had declared war on drug addicts among picture players.
This is the declaration of James Thomas, recently reformed drug addict,
who in a series of articles made the following statement to the Sacramento
Star today:
"I furnished drugs to other peddlers in Los Angeles, having smuggled the
drugs into the southern city from Mexico by way of El Paso.
"Of all my peddlers in Los Angeles, the most prosperous were those who
sold drugs in Hollywood and around about the motion picture studios.
I myself have been in the homes of directors of big companies, but I will
not disclose their names.
"My peddlers would wear the finest of clothes and mingled with motion
picture actors and actresses on the 'lot.' They worked quickly and not much
time was spent in conversation. The peddlers would seem to the casual
observer to be nothing more than well-to-do visitors.
"My belief is that the drug ring 'got' Taylor. Whenever anyone stood in
their way, they always 'got' the person. It was easy enough for them to hire
some one to kill Taylor--and that is what they did.
"As I understand it, Taylor had just declared war on drug addicts among
motion picture players in his company. He was not the villain he is
pictured. He wanted to clean up the industry and he was starting with drugs.
"The drug ring learned of it and hired some one to kill him. That's the
way the drug ring always acts when some one stands in their way."
Thomas recently renounced the drug habit here after being an addict for
twenty years.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 24, 1922
Lee Ettelson
NEW YORK AMERICAN
LOS ANGELES.-- ...Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Green, who for
some years has been in charge of narcotic prosecutions in Federal Court, told
today how Taylor came to him a year and a half ago with a plea that the
Government aid him in wiping out a certain drug gang. Mr. Green said:
"Taylor came to see me one day and told me that a group of peddlers were
selling narcotic drugs to many persons of his acquaintance, including a
number of moving picture folk. One woman in particular, a film star of the
first magnitude, he told me, was a confirmed addict and was being pressed in
every way to purchase more and more of the deadly drugs.
"Her bills for drugs, Taylor said, ran as high as $2,000 a month. He
seemed particularly interested in this woman. I presumed he was in love with
her and as I read between the lines, I judged that the had come not so much
to wipe out the ring generally, but to save the actress from the clutches of
these parasites.
"I assigned two men to investigate this matter. Taylor said he would
give them every help--that his only desire was to wipe out the ring entirely.
"The officers went out and made every effort to get at the men and women
of the ring. But the addicts were as wary as these peddlers and they used
every strategy to throw our men off the scent. As the clientele of this
particular ring was wealthy and powerful, we were thwarted at every step.
"I did not hear from Taylor again concerning the matter. At our first
interview he told me that once this actress friend of his had been presumed
to be cured of the drug habit--I think it was heroin. But later, he told me,
he found out she had lapsed into the toils of the drug, and nothing could
stop her, love, influence or money, excepting the elimination of the men who
sold her the dope.
"It was not, he explained, that she did not want to be cured. According
to Taylor's story she did. She had confessed her habit to him shortly after
meeting him and had asked him to do everything possible to save her."...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
March 20, 1922
NEW YORK HERALD
In the arrest yesterday of Anthony Gessel, 39, known to the underworld
as "Scar Face Tony," the police said they had in custody one of the principle
agents dispensing narcotics in the country. According to Dr. Carleton Simon,
chief of the narcotic squad, under whose direction the arrest was made,
Gessel has supplied more drugs to the addicts of this city than any other
single known dealer.
Gessel, who says he has been an addict since he was 15 years old,
admitted he had been supplying morphine at $150 an ounce to a prominent
motion picture actress mentioned in the recent Taylor murder case, Dr. Simon
said. He also asserted that William Desmond Taylor had been slain by one of
the drug ring in California, whose trade in narcotics had aroused the ire of
the slain director...
Gessel spoke of the killing of Taylor, but according to Dr. Simon no
effort was made to communicate with the California authorities, although
Gessel admitted knowing a number of members of the drug ring which is known
to be operating in the vicinity of the movie studios. He told in detail how
he had supplied the morphine for a certain actress at regular intervals, but
said that some one had "cut in on his trade" before the date of the killing
of Taylor.
Although the name of the actress who has figured prominently in the
murder of the motion picture director was stated positively to the police by
Gessel, who said he had both sold the drugs to her personally as well as
sending them out to the coast, her name was withheld until further
investigation of the prisoner's story can be made. Gessel will undergo
thorough questioning soon to find out what he knows of the killing of
Taylor...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
June 24, 1922
Truman B. Handy
MOVIE WEEKLY
...Many of the serious artists of motion pictures resent the "intrusion"
of innumerable New York chorus girls who have come to Hollywood to live the
easy, moneyed life that the position of leading woman in film productions
offers.
These women are not in pictures because of their love of Art. They, for
the most part, belong to the ultra-fast set and can be seen in the various
cafes dancing hilariously and exploiting their personal charms with utter
abandon.
Two, in particular, are notorious drunkards and have hardly ever been
sober when seen publicly. Another is a drug addict admittedly, but the
authorities as yet have not been able to "get the goods" directly on her.
And there is small contingent of the Hollywoodites who are sorely
addicted to the dangerous dream powders. It is these, in particular, that
the Hays investigators are investigating.
A short time ago Federal officers got a "tip" that a very high-salaried,
very well-known female star who is a drug user, could be caught with
narcotics in her vanity bag. It was impossible to arrest her merely on
suspicion, however, and to search her without direct cause.
However, she was shadowed for several days by narcotic squad agents, and
finally, under the guise of motorcycle policemen, they managed to catch her
speeding in her automobile.
She was arrested and taken to police headquarters. There she was
searched, and the narcotics, as reported, were found in her handbag.
No publicity ever resulted, due to the quick work of the young woman's
attorneys and to the fact that she had unlimited wealth behind her. A heavy
fine was paid, and she has been put under surveillance.
If she does not take "the cure" her contract will be broken, she has
been told, and she has been given a specified length of time in which to
reform.
Narcotic purveyors are believed to have figured singularly in the
William Desmond Taylor murder. Certain friends of his were known users of
drugs, and it is a police theory that, because he threatened to expose
members of a drug-selling ring, he was assassinated.
Until comparatively recently a tall, gaunt Negro who always carried a
small, black, Boston bag was a frequent visitor to several studio "lots,"
where admittance is difficult and well-nigh impossible.
Yet, when he would appear, he would be admitted without question.
Silently he would meet specified individuals, there would be a hushed
conference and a cloistered visit, and he would disappear as silently as he
had come.
His calls were made at regular intervals. No questions were asked.
But not long ago he stopped "making his rounds." No one has seen him,
and his whereabouts are now unknown.
And, also, reports show that there is a handsomely-appointed residence,
located in the heart of Hollywood, where the pungent fumes of opium may be
detected seeping out through crevices in windows and doors that are hung with
perfume-saturated drapes and curtains.
Only a small percentage of this establishment's patrons have been film
people. A prominent actress and a well-known actor, however, have been "on
the books" as its habitues, going there at scheduled intervals and making
appointments precisely as if they were seeking consultation with a physician.
The interior of this place is elaborately-luxuriously furnished. The
richest of Oriental rugs cover the floor; the most expensive furniture is
everywhere noticeable. Extremely heavy velvet drapes curtain the windows,
and from these comes an almost-overpowering odor of heavy perfume, put there
to drown the deadly, tell-tale fumes of opium.
You go into a large, semi-dark room, appointed like a parlor.
Admittance to the establishment is exclusively by card, which a Negro maid
takes and immediately thereafter disappears.
In the main room one procures the narcotics by swinging back a picture
from the wall. Which reveals a small grating, through which the transaction,
the "promotion," is made.
And elaborately-furnished upstairs rooms provide the "cots" or "bunks"
for the smokers to cook and inhale their potion--and sleep for several hours
the weird, untroubled sleep of the hop eater...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
July 1922
CAPT. BILLY'S WHIZ BANG
One of Whiz Bang's investigators just "stumbled" upon an innocent little
dope party one Sunday afternoon not so long ago. In a modest little bungalow
on Santa Monica Boulevard, not so far from the big studios, a San Francisco
man has recently become domiciled. One can go there and take a party of
friends for afternoon "tea." Several men and women who play in pictures were
there on the day in question, including Gloria Swanson, who perhaps didn't
know just what sort of a party she was attending. One young man had
completely "passed out." The coterie calling at this cottage is not large,
and you must be very properly introduced to gain admittance. It's there, all
the same!
*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************
The Death of Zelda Crosby
In David Yallop's book "The Day the Laughter Stopped," it is stated that
Paramount writer Zelda Crosby was "one of the women linked with Taylor," and
that she committed suicide in her Hollywood apartment in September 1921.
There are three errors in that sentence: (1) Aside from the fact that they
both worked for Paramount, there was no link between William Desmond Taylor
and Zelda Crosby--Taylor worked in Los Angeles and Crosby worked in New York;
(2) Zelda Crosby committed suicide in her New York apartment, not in
Hollywood; (3) She died in June 1921, not September 1921.
The full story of Zelda Crosby has never been made public. Below are
some press items published before and after her death, containing some facts
and rumors. We do not know the identity of the unnamed individuals.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
November 28, 1918
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
Zelda Crosby is doing a small part in the latest Elsie Ferguson picture.
Miss Crosby is not a motion picture actress by profession. She accepted the
role in "For Sale" because she liked working with Miss Ferguson in "A Doll's
House."
Miss Crosby has been helping the continuity writers at the Famous
Players-Lasky Company solve many problems and straighten out broken down and
ill scenarios. Although she is only 21 years old she has written several
scenarios and hopes to write many more.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
July 8, 1921
VARIETY
Inside Stuff on Pictures
The item in this department mentioning the efforts being made to withhold
the details of a film scandal, in which a young film actress attempted suicide
through the shift of affections from her to another picture girl by a
prominent personage in a large film concern, carries even more with it than
the story last week hinted at.
The efforts to suppress the matter went too far, according to the story,
that a publication (which intended to print the facts of the matter upon the
supporting affidavit of another girl who knew them) was purchased by the
people of the concern who feared the possible ensuing publicity. The
purchase price is reported at around $25,000.
The girl making the affidavit and her name is quite familiar in the
picture world, is related to have said she spent the money received for the
affidavit upon the welfare of the jilted young woman, but this has not been
verified, since the moneys she is said to have expended for certain purposes
are also reported to have been paid by the film concern.
Neither is the statement that a film actress attempted suicide strictly
in accordance with the facts. But there is no question the man in the case
did shift his attentions to a film actress, causing the other young woman
much mental anguish and a sad ending.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 21, 1921
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
New York, Sept. 20.--Reopening of the investigation into the death last
June of Zelda Crosby, beautiful film writer for the Famous Players-Lasky
Company, has created a new sensation on Broadway, where for the last week
only the Arbuckle case has been talked. Three witnesses have been subpoenaed
by County Medical Examiner Charles H. Norris.
Two letters, reported to have been suppressed in the interests of "a man
high in the motion picture business," contain, it is said, revelations that
place a new aspect on the death of the youthful writer, possessor of a face
"too beautiful to be filmed."
Miss Crosby died in Bellevue Hospital on June 19 after being removed
from her studio apartment at No. 28 East Fifty-Fifth Street in an unconscious
condition two days previous.
The impression was given out when Miss Crosby was found dying that she
was in the habit of using veronal, and the medical examiner reached the
conclusion that death was due to an accidental overdose of the drug.
Then came persistent reports that the case was one of suicide and that
all-important evidence had been suppressed. This evidence, it is said,
consisted mainly of tell-tale letters and the condition of the apartment in
which Miss Crosby was found unconscious. It was reported that the letters
had been stolen from the room and that her acquaintances from the moving
picture colony had hastily rearranged the room after Miss Crosby had been
removed to Bellevue hospital, where she died three days later.
Miss Crosby's friends, who had supposed that she had more than enough
money to supply her needs, were surprised to find that the Welfare
Association of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation had paid part of the
funeral expenses. It was this fact that started the gossip along Broadway.
Evidence that somebody was vitally interested in getting the facts
concerning Miss Crosby's death was augmented by the statement of Mrs. Gross,
housekeeper of the apartment, that private detectives had visited her several
times and had questioned her closely.
"The first thing I wanted to know from these men," she said, "was in
whose interest they were questioning me. They seemed to be in as much doubt
as I was. Nobody ever questioned me so closely in all my life. They got me
to take them to the apartment where Miss Crosby had lived and asked me all
about it.
"These detectives wanted to know about the parties that had been held in
the studio, who had attended them and what was done. I told them that the
parties were usually quiet affairs, but that it was necessary once to call a
policeman.
"From time to time Miss Crosby had different studio mates--young women
of her own age. She was 23. They were always young women who were in the
motion picture business. She was here about eleven months. Before I came
here she had the apartment under the name of Miss Schuster, and another young
woman lived with her."
Miss Crosby's parents, Philip and Anna Schuster, live in the Bronx.
both were American born. The girl herself was born in New York City. During
the war, when the reaction against things German was at its height the
daughter, then famous as a continuity writer, dropped the family name of
Schuster for the penname she had used for some time.
When Miss Crosby reached the age of 16 she asserted the right to make a
career for herself. She turned to the newly developed motion picture field
and hoped to enter there with her beauty as her passport.
But she was "too pretty" for the directors. The softness of her face
was too marked for proper delineation in pictures. She took up stenography.
As an expert stenographer she attracted the attention of leading men in the
moving picture world, and learned to write continuity.
When Miss Crosby made good as a continuity writer she left the home of
her parents and established a studio on 55th Street, a dozen blocks above the
theater district. Here the general surroundings indicated prosperity.
It was asserted tonight that neither the police nor Dr. Norris knew
anything of the two letters reported to have been removed from the studio
after Miss Crosby's death. According to those who know, they should have
been turned over to the authorities and kept on file in the office of the
medical examiner. The subpoenas issued by Dr. Norris this afternoon call for
the appearance of the witnesses before him tomorrow.
Miss Crosby numbered among her friends in the motion picture field some
of the most famous producers, directors, continuity writers and actresses.
Only a few weeks before her death she returned from a visit to California,
where she was introduced to some of the best known men and women in the
motion picture world. She returned to her work with the Famous Players-Lasky
Corporation, but she was apparently not in gay spirits, a friend said today.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 21, 1921
NEW YORK AMERICAN
...Dr. Schwartz said yesterday:
"My examination disclosed that Miss Crosby died of veronal poisoning and
of bronchial pneumonia. I was not called into the case until after her
death, and at that time heard nothing of the existence of supposed letters
indicating that Miss Crosby contemplated suicide.
"A private physician gave me information that he had treated the young
woman a number of times for veronal poisoning and that she was a habitual
user of the drug. I, therefore, saw no need for an autopsy.
"It is the purpose of this office to keep the records straight and if
letters exist or did exist showing that Miss Crosby deliberately drank the
poison to end her life we should have them on our records and will get them
if possible."...
Miss Crosby's rise from typist to continuity writer in the moving
picture field was rapid. She was well known in the movie field and numbered
among her friends some of the leading producers, directors, writers and
actresses.
Exactly what happened the evening of June 16, the day before the
unconscious form of Miss Crosby was found, is another of the mysteries
surrounding the case.
Mrs. Gross, housekeeper of the apartment, said yesterday that when she
was informed by a maid of Miss Crosby's condition on the morning of June 17,
she at once notified the Famous Players studio, and movie picture people
hurried to the apartment and cleaned it up. She said she understood several
letters were found and that "Miss Crosby had had a love affair."
Mrs. Gross said Miss Crosby frequently entertained little parties, but
they were always very quiet affairs.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 21, 1921
NEW YORK TELEGRAPH
...A maid had found Miss Crosby unconscious in the apartment in which
the scenario writer lived a bachelor girl existence alone. A strong odor of
a drug permeated the apartment. Near Miss Crosby was a cloth saturated with
the drug, since then said to have been veronal. However, search of the rooms
revealed no bottle that might have held the poison.
Policeman Kenny was called in by the maid. Proficient in first aid
methods, Kenny administered whites of eggs and milk as an antidote. When an
ambulance surgeon arrived from Flower Hospital the policeman assisted him in
using stomach pump and lung-meter.
Miss Crosby was taken to Bellevue a prisoner as well as a patient.
Satisfied there had been no one else in the apartment when she took the
poison, the police entered a charge of attempted suicide against her...
Friends said Miss Crosby had been in ill health since her return
recently from a two-months' visit in California...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 21, 1921
NEW YORK HERALD
...Rumors flitting up and down Broadway about the manner of the girl's
death have resulted in the resurrection of the case. It is rare that
Broadway remembers anything longer than nine days, but for three months among
the screen and stage folk the death of Zelda Crosby has been a topic of
conversation...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
September 22, 1921
NEW YORK AMERICAN
The reason why Zelda Crosby, gifted and beautiful movie scenario writer,
took her life last June still remains a mystery.
Secret hearings were held yesterday at noon and in the afternoon by
Chief Medical Examiner Charles Norris.
At the end of the hearings, Dr. Norris issued this brief statement:
"Mrs. Schuster, the mother of Zelda Crosby, was here and examined. She
produced for me a letter from her daughter. The letter clearly indicated
that the daughter was despondent and in ill health, and was about to take her
life. I am satisfied that she committed suicide."...
Mrs. Gross, janitress of the house where Miss Crosby lived, and Steven
Clow, editor of Broadway Brevities, were also examined.
Dr. Norris said Miss Crosby had left two letters, one an open letter,
disposing of her personal effects, and the other sealed, addressed to her
mother. He refused to make public the text of either letter, or to give a
resume of the testimony of the witnesses. He said:
"I am not interested whether there was a man or a dozen men in Miss
Crosby's life. It is not my business to establish a motive for her suicide."
He admitted he had interrogated Mrs. Gross concerning stories about gay
parties in Miss Crosby's rooms. He said she had replied that she knew of no
such parties, since she was on duty only in the day-time. She said the night
janitress had not told her of any parties. Dr. Norris did not subpoena the
night janitress.
Clow was asked concerning a visit he had paid to Miss Crosby's apartment
after her death. He said he had seen no letters left by the dead writer.
Dr. Norris explained that he had instituted his inquiry for the sole
purpose of correcting his record. He declared the police report that Miss
Crosby had left suicide letters had not been received by his office until
three days after it had disposed of the case as an accidental case of veronal
poisoning. As the result of yesterday's hearings, he said, he will make two
corrections in the record. He will describe it as a suicide and he will
amend her name to Zelda Schuster.
It was pointed out that persistent rumors that Miss Crosby had killed
herself because she had lost the affections of a motion picture magnate
afford no basis for any official action.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
VARIETY
...The first of the scandals rose to the breeze last spring when a young
woman scenario writer committed suicide. The underground reports were to the
effect one of the principal executives of the Famous Players organization was
involved with her. At the time several of the publications building up
circulation by promulgating the scandals of the industry were reported as
having been bought up to prevent the publication of the facts...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
November 1921
CAPT. BILLY'S WHIZ BANG
...It was Fatty's misfortune that he was not able to hush up his scandal
as the scandal of Zelda Crosby was hushed up recently in New York.
Zelda Crosby was a young scenario writer. When she was about fifteen
years old she happened to be invited to a jazz party given by a well known
movie star in New York. One of the guests at the party was a "fillum"
magnate known over the world for his campaign for purity, etc., in films.
He took the little girl under the protection of his influence. She
developed a flare for writing and he gave her an important job as a scenario
writer.
* * * * *
This row of stars means the usual thing that they mean in romances.
Well, after a while, the girl, who was now in her twenties, realized
that he was slipping away from her. She accused him of having met another
girl for whom he cared more than for her. Incidentally, he was a married man,
but that didn't count.
The film magnate renewed his protestations to her; but began to find
fault with the quality of her scenario work. Then one day the little girl
went into the bathroom and tipped up a bottle of poison and that was the end.
Well, not quite the end. A girl friend of hers began to talk at a party.
She began to tell some very dangerous things she knew of. It happened that
this girl's name is the same as that of a great screen star.
In a panic the film magnate heard what was said at the party. He
hurried off to the astonished star a telegram threatening openly to ruin her
entire screen career if she ever opened her mouth again about this scandal.
Her indignant reply disclosed to the magnate that he had sent a telegram to
the wrong girl by mistake.
Then, brethren, there was truly a fine howdydo, and it all came out in
the papers--at least some of it did.
One young man--a journalist hanging on the ragged edge of decency,
stated that he had some inside facts and intended to bring the whole thing
out in a grand jury investigation. But he never got to the grand jury and
the whole thing was suddenly hushed up. I leave it to you to imagine what
happened.
*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************
Reporting the Taylor Murder: Day Nine
Below are some highlights of the press reports published in the ninth day
after Taylor's body was discovered.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
Walter Anthony
SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN
Los Angeles--...Woolwine, the district attorney, isn't the only one that
is persuaded that the efforts of the sleuths to track the assassin are being
blocked and their investigations hampered by a sinister determination in some
quarters to hush the whole scandal and to hide the mess. "Ted" Taylor,
publicity director for the dead producer, is firmly convinced that if the
truth is laid bare it will be over the handicaps erected by powerful motion
picture folk.
The Arbuckle case did incalculable harm to the industry and has only
ceased to exercise a baneful influence at box offices because of the later
and greater menace--like a sick man suffering with an acute cold who forgets
his ailment because he is stricken with blood poisoning.
If it be true that powerful picture interests are really hampering the
efforts of the police through fear--not of personal safety or arrest, but of
the damage an expose would inflict on the business--they are badly advised,
for the cat is far enough out of the bag and the whole world knows it's
black. No truth could be worse than the surmises, intimations, half facts
and suggestions that already are current throughout the picture-patronizing
world. The smell is in the nostrils--nothing but the fresh air of a complete
uncovering will save the situation.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
LOS ANGELES EXPRESS
Tracing the course of the $2500 check, said to have been drawn by
William D. Taylor, slain motion picture director, on January 31, and
redeposited on the day of his death, investigators today discovered that the
film official had placed an order with a local concern for upwards of $3000
worth of diamonds.
The diamonds were never delivered, it is said, and this may account for
the fact that the money was replaced in the bank. Taylor, the police say,
may have considered using the diamonds as a gift and later to have withdrawn
this decision.
While no details of the new angle to the case were made known, it is
said a prominent motion picture actress, mentioned in connection with the
case, also visited the jewelry shop in question on the same day...
The district attorney said that nowhere in his investigation had he met
with any reticence of movie stars or others to furnish information...
...The selection of David Hartford as successor to Taylor, a former
director in the Motion Picture Directors' Association, was announced today by
that organization...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
DETROIT NEWS
A clue that may mean much in the mystery of the slaying of William
Desmond Taylor was uncovered in Detroit today when it was discovered that
several well known motion picture people, including one named in the
investigation, had secured copies of The Equinox, the official organ of the
O. T. O. from the Universal Book Stores in this city.
The O. T. O. is said to be a "love cult" believed similar to the one
mentioned in dispatches from Los Angeles, whose weird faiths and rituals are
set forth in the book, all known copies of which have been seized by the
prosecutor following the opening of an investigation into its activities.
Frank Murphy, assistant U. S. district attorney, today admitted that
orders for the book were among the effects seized in the Federal
investigation, and that among these orders was one from a famous motion
picture actress, whose name has been mentioned in the Taylor investigation.
Murphy said he would forward this information to Los Angeles immediately.
Descriptions of the meetings of the love cult in Los Angeles fit in so
closely with instructions given in the Equinox for the O. T. O. gatherings
that there is reason to believe the Los Angeles crowd is a branch of the
organization.
That members of the O. T. O. would not hesitate at anything is indicated
both by the governing rule of the order, "Do whatsoever thou wilt," and by a
page in which the cult sent greetings and praise to Arthur Waite, the Grand
Rapids dentist, executed for murder in New York, following his conviction in
connection with the deaths of his father-in-law and mother-in-law by poison,
and his attempts to work a similar death on his wife.
This page is in the back of the book and is so worded as to indicate the
authors of the book not only held the slayer in high esteem, but were in
sympathy with his acts.
Photographs of cult members show men in kimonos such as described in the
Los Angeles investigation of the California cult, and paragraphs in the book
declare it is the duty of members to go to any length to guard the secrets of
the organization.
The O. T. O. came into public notice when the Universal Book Stores went
into the hands of a receiver and, at the bankruptcy trial, it was shown
thousands of dollars had gone into the publication of The Equinox.
[The "O. T. O." was Aleister Crowley's "Ordo Templi Orientis."]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
DETROIT TIMES
The possibility of the sinister influence of the O. T. O. underlying the
mystery of the murder of William Desmond Taylor, developed today, when it was
discovered that many copies of the "Equinox" had circulated among the movie
folk of Hollywood.
Grover L. Morden, counsel for the complainant in the bankruptcy
proceedings of the Universal Book Stores Inc., in which the O. T. O. is the
principal factor, said that a copy of the "Equinox" had been mailed to the
wife of a prominent moving picture director in Hollywood some time ago, and
it was known many other copies had been shipped to the movie country.
It is possible that the order has obtained a foothold in the picture
colony and color is lent
this theory by the frequent occurrence of alleged
drug orgies among the movie stars...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
Frances Wayne
DENVER POST
A brother's hand raised in revenge against a brother whom he charged
with betraying the girl he loved and intended to marry, thus sending her to a
suicide's grave, and turning his life into a wilderness, is a picture thrown
by a Denver man upon the screen in the mystery enshrouding the life and
murder of William Desmond Taylor and his relations with Edward F. Sands, one-
time secretary-valet of the screen director.
"Sands is Taylor's brother," declared this Denver man, who, for business
reasons, asked that his name be withheld.
Saying this, he told a tale he said Sands had told him of grief, of
sorrow, of embitterment through, what Sands characterized as a shameful wrong
to one he loved, as the causes which sent the so-called Sands from his home
in Ireland, searching the world for his elder brother and to finally
collecting the toll of hatred with an assassin's bullet.
"I knew the Taylor brothers in Dublin, years ago," the man explained.
"At that time the younger, the one we call Sands, was engaged to a beautiful
girl who was a visitor at his mother's home near Dublin. William, we'll use
this name, was evidently as attractive to women then as in the last hour of
his life, for, somehow, he won the trust of his brother's fiancee. Later
this girl committed suicide.
"It was eighteen years after this tragedy that Sands entered my office
in Portland, Ore., to find if I had heard anything, or knew anything, of the
whereabouts of his brother. He told me in a brief way that he was hunting
for his brother and had to get him. I suggested that he go into northwest
Canada and make a search. He did so, but returned later to report failure.
He then went to Alaska, where the two men, one hiding, the other a revenger,
met. Taylor returned to the United States and in Seattle joined a company of
players. There he was joined by Sands.
"Knowing, as I do, of the double blood bond between Sands and Taylor,
the stories of Taylor's leniency toward Sands, who was charged with forging
his name and stealing his goods, was not surprising to me.
"Taylor was in the absolute power of Sands, and while Sands was out to
revenge what he called the defilement of the woman he loved, and had taken
more than eighteen years to turn thumbs down, he was having a living off of
Taylor and knew himself to be safe from legal action.
"The two brothers were very superstitious. Sands was especially
interested in the occult and was always consulting mediums and fortune
tellers. The old Irish Faey held them in bond. Taylor was the more
sensitive of the two and if he was addicted to morbidity he had cause to be
morbid, because, always before him or in the shadow, lurked the ghost of
other days.
"I'll stake my life that when Sands is caught the mystery of Taylor's
murder will be cleared up and a number of events and elements in the man's
life which now seem obscure will be made plain.
"Revenge of a dead love, not because of any living screen star, is the
motive behind the murder of William Desmond Taylor," the man concluded.
[The above tale was a total fabrication. Sands was not Taylor's brother.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
NEW ORLEANS ITEM
Los Angeles--...Miss Normand, in a statement to the United Press, flatly
denied a published report crediting her with saying that her visit to Taylor
on the night he met his death, was to demand that he return to her the
"blessed baby" letters she had written to him.
This report quoted Miss Normand to the effect that Taylor had refused to
return the packet of letters and telegrams, saying he had turned them over,
for an unexplained reason, to two officials of the Famous Players-Lasky
corporation.
"I made no such statement," the comedienne said today. "The report is
totally false."...
...Reports here declare that the revelations of the next 24 hours will
outstrip the sensations the case has already produced. The district
attorney's office is said to be centering on two men as being the possible
cause of Taylor's death.
They are checking up his friendships among the women of the screen world
and in doing so they have found, according to reports, that, by his
dominating personality, he broke up one alliance of long standing in the film
colony. He was the lucky contender in another Hollywood affair, arousing the
enmity of a man of considerable note in the profession...
...New and direct evidence singling out the son of a rich New York
manufacturer from the four unnamed suspects under investigation in the Taylor
case was obtained today.
The lead was furnished by Deputy Sheriff Nolan, who declared "the angle
I am working on may result in an arrest within the next few hours, if the man
we're after fails to clear up the question of his whereabouts on the night of
the murder."
The young man about whom the quest now centers was grilled early in the
murder investigation. He offered an alibi which cleared him at the time, but
which officials claim rapidly crumbled as one witness after another named in
the alibi was cross-examined by District Attorney Woolwine.
The sheriff's office entertained from the first the theory that the man
under suspicion, reputed to be jealous and hot tempered, was in love with an
actress prominently mentioned in the Taylor case and might have had a hand in
the shooting.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Two pairs of shoes, one formerly the property of Taylor, and the other
of Edward F. Sands, were locked in a cabinet in Taylor's apartment, 404-B
South Alvarado street, Friday.
Sands' shoes were found by E. C. Jessurun, Taylor's landlord, in a back
closet on the second floor of the Taylor bungalow.
They are a light tan in color, short and broad in shape and are so
stretched to accommodate Sands' particularly shaped feet to afford a good
means of identification in Jessurun's opinion.
Jessurun said he had informed the police about the shoes, but they had
not expressed any interest in them.
A detailed search made by Jessurun in the Taylor garage late Friday
disclosed a pair of women's rubber bathing slippers, small in size.
Also an empty leather small arms holster was found in the garage.
In an old torn pair of trousers was found a white handkerchief with the
initial R in one corner.
Efforts were made by investigators Friday to find Ed Fowler, chauffeur
for Taylor, following the discharge of Sands. Fowler is said to have known
Sands and it is believed that he may have information to his whereabouts
within the past few months.
Fowler, who was discharged by Taylor, is not under suspicion himself.
More than a score of automobile supply slips, receipted by Fowler, were
found on the wall of the Taylor garage.
...In an effort to locate William Desmond Taylor's lost will Public
Administrator Frank Bryson Friday began a search of safety deposit boxes in
Los Angeles' 100 banks and bank branches.
"I have some of Taylor's keys," Bryson said, "but I don't know what they
fit."
The keys were tried out on several safe deposit boxes in downtown banks
Thursday but found not to fit...
The Dope Dragon again reared its sinister crest in the Taylor murder
mystery Friday.
A peddler of narcotics, well known to the police, has disappeared from
his Hollywood home, missing since about the day of the murder.
None of his studio acquaintances are able to give a clue to his
whereabouts.
The man knew William Desmond Taylor well, although the picture director
is not suspected of having been a drug addict. Taylor, like every other
motion picture director, was thrown in contact with "hop heads."
Among his acquaintances were women of the studios who were known to be
addicted to dope.
The mystery of the dope peddler's disappearance is believed of
sufficient importance to warrant a rigid investigation. Among those slated
for quizzing at the district attorney's office today are several
acquaintances of the doper, who, it is hoped, may give some clue to his
whereabouts.
If he is found he will be asked to account for his whereabouts the night
of Wednesday, February 1. If he can do this satisfactorily it will eliminate
him from direct connection with the murder.
Then he will be closely questioned about any women patrons who were
friends of Taylor.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 10, 1922
Frank Bartholomew
LOS ANGELES RECORD
Four Theories in Taylor Case
The field of suspects in the Taylor murder mystery is narrowed down to
four men and Miss X--mysterious and unknown woman, in an analysis of experts,
made Friday.
Random clues, reports of William Desmond Taylor's past life and love
affairs, letters disappearing and reappearing, handkerchiefs and the "pink
silk nightie"--all were consolidated today into a single mass of evidence.
District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine is in command of the various
agencies searching for Taylor's slayer. All new evidence unearthed will be
placed at his disposal.
Suspect Number One
The first of the men suspects is Edward F. Sands, who according to one
theory might have both planned and executed the crime. He is being sought by
one branch of investigators as the possible murderer because Taylor had
threatened him with prosecution on grand larceny charges. The blackmail
theory involves this former servant. Taylor, bank records show, drew out
$2500 a day or so before the murder and then returned it to the bank the day
of the shooting.
This, according to the police, might indicate that Taylor had decided to
play blackmail, then changed his mind and refused the demands at the last
minute and met his death refusing them.
Suspect Number Two
The second man upon which the attention of the combined investigators
centered is the idle son of a multi-millionaire eastern manufacturer who is
said to have been desperately in love with the actress whose dainty nightgown
was found among Taylor's possessions following the tragedy.
This young man is said to have come from the east a few months ago and
to have been loitering about the fringe of the California movie colony,
attracted by the actress. He is reported to have been secretly betrothed to
the owner of the "pink silk nightie."
Suspect Number Three
The third man who was included in the list of possible suspects was
today described as an "independent motion picture figure" whose phenomenal
rise within the last five years has been one of the most remarkable
accomplishments of the motion picture industry. He was said to have been
under investigation from the first.
It is said he was in love with the same actress mentioned in connection
with the "young man from the east" and to have been divorced by his wife
because of infidelity.
The Woman Angle
Another motion picture executive is referred to as "Suspect No. 4."
The mysterious Miss X is not a pointed reference to any one actress
among those of Taylor's acquaintances. She is merely the police theory that
a jealous woman instigated the slaying of the director.
[In the above list, Suspect Number Two is Tommy Dixon, Suspect Number Three
is Marshall Neilan, Suspect Number Four is Mack Sennett.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Chicago, Feb. 10--...another Chicagoan, Mrs. John H. Borden, close
friend of Mabel Normand, was rising to the latter's defense. She returned
here a month ago after a five months' visit with Mabel Normand.
"Mabel is not in love and never was in love with Taylor," she said.
"Bill Taylor was in love with her, very much so, but it was unrequited. She
had been engaged to Mack Sennett, but that was an old affair and now they are
merely good friends. Mabel did not know anything about the first Mrs. Taylor
or the daughter.
"Mabel never mentioned Mary Miles Minter's name to me. If there had
been an affair between Taylor and Miss Minter I believe Mabel would have told
me.
"And as to those 'baby' letters, I read them to Mabel over the telephone
when she was away. If she had been in love she would never have allowed me
to do that. As far as Mabel Normand is concerned, I can say and know that
she is not 'wild,' and that her work and her screen ambitions are too big in
her life to let anything in the world interfere."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
A man believed by the police to be a material witness in the Taylor
murder case was arrested here last night. He was charged with a felony
pending further investigation into his story. Armed with a search warrant,
two detectives made a hurried trip early this morning, following an absence
for more than two hours from the conference in the District Attorney's
office. Their mission followed the arrest and no indication of their plans
was given.
Mabel Normand, film-star friend of William Desmond Taylor, the slain
motion-picture director whose murder more than a week ago continues to baffle
the police, last night was questioned for hours in the District Attorney's
office. She was the second woman star of considerable magnitude in filmdom
to be questioned, the first being Mary Miles Minter.
Miss Normand, the last friend, it is believed, who saw Mr. Taylor alive,
was closeted with Dist.-Atty. Woolwine, Chief Deputy Doran and police
detectives from 8:15 p.m. until midnight.
She was driven to the office by her chauffeur, William Davis, an
important witness in the case whose statements thus far have corroborated
Miss Normand' story that Mr. Taylor accompanied her to her automobile when
she left him a few minutes before he was shot through the back in his
bachelor apartments. Mr. Davis was questioned after Miss Normand.
"I have seldom seen a case so devoid of workable or substantial clews as
is this one," Mr. Woolwine stated at the close of the four-hour session.
Little additional information that had not previously been told to
officers and also in the columns of The Times was gleaned from the statement
last night of Miss Normand. Her story has been told and retold by her and in
all essential points there was no variation during the long questioning.
She said she went to Mr. Taylor's apartments to get a book at his
request. She retold the substance of their conversation. Then she left
about 7:45 p.m. He took her to her automobile, talked for a few minutes,
waved good-by and turned toward his home as she left in her automobile. It
was a very few moments after this he was shot.
After her long statement she left Mr. Woolwine's office, apparently well
at ease, her lips a deep crimson, giving more than a mere suspicion of a
camera-proof make-up.
She obligingly permitted cameramen to "flash" the scene as she walked
down the corridor with Messers. Woolwine and Doran at her side. She laughed
frequently--all the party seemed in good spirits.
During the long conference with Miss Normand, the much-discussed letters
written to Mr. Taylor by her and not found in the house until a few days
after the murder, were taken into the room where she was making a statement.
Mr. Doran took them from his office at another end of the hall. He
remained in the room where Miss Normand was about thirty minutes and then Mr.
Doran, with the packet of letters in his pocket, walked again to his office.
On the return trip his pocket was empty.
Despite this definite indication that Mr. Woolwine will retain
possession of the letters for the time being at least, there is nothing in
them, he stated, that seems to throw light on the crime or motive behind the
slaying.
Just before Miss Normand's questioning was concluded, Mr. Woolwine came
out of the room and said that in his opinion Miss Normand was very anxious to
assist in every way to find the slayer.
"I may be mistaken," he said, "but I now have the opinion she is anxious
to assist us in every way."
Flanked on both sides and with a rear and front guard of police
detectives, Miss Normand displayed a remarkable shyness for cameramen when
she entered the Hall of Records at 7:55 o'clock last night. She was also
accompanied by A. MacArthur, her personal representative, and a friend, who
gave her name as Miss Burns.
When the members of the party got to the eleventh floor, where Mr.
Woolwine's office is situated, no one was there to receive them. So Miss
Normand, one of the queens of the screen, sat in one of the straight-backed,
uncomfortable chairs in the hallway, waiting twenty minutes for her
interrogators to appear.
During that wait she made a statement for the press...
During the waiting in the hall Miss Normand, who was attired in a gray
velour hat, fur neck piece, red coat, gray hose and black Oxfords, joked with
the officers.
She was declared to have left a sick-bed to accommodate the officials
making the murder inquiry. Late in the day it was reported she had a severe
collapse, but Mr. MacArthur stated she merely was ill and had not actually
collapsed.
Mr. Woolwine, accompanied by Mr. Doran and Ben Smith, official shorthand
reporter, came to the office twenty minutes after Miss Normand. Mr. Woolwine
walked toward her party.
"Good evening, Miss Normand," he said. "How are you feeling tonight?"
"I haven't been feeling very well today," she replied.
They all went into Mr. Woolwine's office, but Miss Normand's two
companions remained in the anteroom during the taking of her statement.
About half an hour later, Detective Sergeants Cato and Cahill left the
building on an unexplained mission, remaining away for several hours. Mr.
Woolwine later said this trip was not the outgrowth of new information from
Miss Normand and that nothing definite was developed.
Mr. Davis, the chauffeur, remained downstairs during the questioning of
his employer.
Just an hour after the conference started, Mr. Doran made the trips
referred to above with the Normand letters. When he returned them to his
office, Mr. Woolwine followed him out of the room where Miss Normand was
being questioned, and held a brief consultation with him.
Earlier in the day, six witnesses were examined by the officers on the
case. One of them is a nurse who declared she saw a man wearing a cap and a
muffler who was watching Miss Normand and Mr. Taylor as the couple were
standing near Miss Normand's machine.
The strange man, whose description is said to coincide with that of the
man seen leaving Mr. Taylor's apartments after the shot was heard, was
standing in the shadow of some brush, the woman said.
Other witnesses whose statements were taken during the day were not
named by the investigators, nor was the nature of their testimony learned.
In addition to the Normand letters received at the District Attorney's
office a few days ago, Mr. Woolwine yesterday obtained possession of other
letters taken from the home of persons not officially permitted to remove
them. Among these were letters from Mary Miles Minter and many canceled
checks and other personal property.
Mr. Woolwine, late in the day, said he had personally examined all this
material and had been unable to find anything which in itself aided in
solving the mystery of who shot Mr. Taylor and why.
Detective Sergeant King, working out of the District Attorney's office,
was reported at his home to be seriously ill and not able to continue his
work investigating the case. Charles A. Jones, retired Chief of Police and
formerly an investigator aiding Mr. Woolwine, was in conference a long time
during the afternoon with Mr. Woolwine and the others who are trying to find
the slayer.
And the conclusion of a "bonehead conference," as he termed a meeting in
the afternoon with police detectives, Dist.-Atty. Woolwine said that no clews
had been found which would directly lead to a solution of the mystery.
In addition to making a personal tour of the scene of the crime during
the morning hours and to sitting in at several conferences, Dist.-Atty.
Woolwine added several new elements to the murder mystery. He introduced
late in the day a new and hitherto unmentioned witness into the case, whose
identity was guarded with the utmost secrecy.
The mystery witness, a man who thus far has failed to appear in any
phase of the baffling investigation, was spirited into the District
Attorney's office late in the afternoon.
Earlier in the day Chief Deputy Dist.-Atty. Doran had hastily left the
Hall of Records on a secret mission, accompanied by a shorthand reporter and
Detective Sergeants Winn and Murphy. It was thought they were to visit Mabel
Normand's apartment to get a shorthand statement from her.
Several hours later Chief Deputy Dist.-Atty. Doran returned, bringing
with him the unknown witness. The man was escorted into a room, the door was
locked and he was questioned for an hour. The officials who heard his
statement refused to reveal his identity or to relate what had occurred
behind the locked door.
An official conference was held late in the afternoon. Those present
included Dist.-Atty. Woolwine, Chief Dep. Dist.-Atty. Doran and the
detectives. Mr. Woolwine gave the session the name of "bonehead conference,"
he explained, because he had concluded that none of the investigators,
including himself, had been able to reach any solution of the crime. He said
that no person was under suspicion, despite the fact that several prominent
film persons had been interviewed, that not even a motive has been
established, that he has not been able to form a definite theory that might
aid them in the investigation.
Mr. Woolwine verified the report in The Times yesterday morning that
Mary Miles Minter had made a statement for the District Attorney's office.
The questioning, he stated, was conducted last Tuesday afternoon by Mr.
Doran, who refused to divulge the nature of the written statement which a
shorthand reporter took from Miss Minter.
While Mr. Woolwine was considering what steps he should next take in his
personal investigation, Capt. of Detectives Adams and Detective Sergeant
Herman Cline made a hurried trip to San Diego to investigate the suicide of a
man who at first was reported to answer the description of Edward F. Sands,
former valet employed by Taylor and who is sought in connection with the
crime.
The suicide had registered under the name of James Martin at a San Diego
hotel. Last Monday his body was found in his room. Also it was learned that
he had a bank account of $260 in a Los Angeles bank. His description,
Coroner Kelly reported, tallied with that of Sands.
After viewing the body, Capt. Adams announced he was positive the man in
the San Diego morgue was not Sands. He returned to Los Angeles last night...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
An official investigation is under way by the Motion-Picture Directors'
Association, President David M. Hartford announced last evening, of a
proposition reported to have been made to a prominent motion-picture actor
here that he should drop out of sight under circumstances calculated to make
it appear that he is the murderer of William Desmond Taylor.
The extraordinary situation first became public at a largely attended
meeting of the Motion-Picture Directors' Association at the Hollywood Women's
clubhouse Thursday evening. A well-known director stated from the floor,
according to others present, that the film actor, with whom he is associated,
had been approached by two representatives of a local newspaper and the
proposition made to him that he should, in effect, assume the guilt for
Taylor's murder for the time being.
The plan behind the proposal, according to the understanding, was that
the star would get very usable "publicity" and the newspaper "sensational
copy." It all was to be arranged by the return of the actor after a proper
period of time, and his exoneration by proper alibis. In the meantime the
authorities could be seeking the real murderer of the director if they saw
fit in face of the apparent guilt of the missing star.
The actor refused the proposal with indignation, and nothing more came
of the matter until it was brought out at the meeting Thursday night.
Mr. Hartford, who is the newly elected head of the Directors'
Association, said the matter had not been brought up officially, but he
considered it of sufficient importance to began an inquiry yesterday.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Mabel Normand, famous film star, before going into the office of Thomas
Lee Woolwine, District Attorney, last night, to be questioned as to any clew
she might be able to furnish to the identity of the slayer of William Desmond
Taylor, motion-picture director, issued a statement through her manager that
she could "not offer any solution whatever" concerning the tragedy and denied
that she was in love with Taylor, or had quarreled with him.
"No one will ever know how I regret the terrible tragedy. I have told
truthfully everything I know and am very sorry, indeed. I cannot offer any
solution whatever as to the motive which prompted the terrible deed. I have
satisfied the Los Angeles authorities, both police and District Attorney's
office, that I know nothing about the murder, and have offered my services or
a statement at any time I may be called to help apprehend the assassin.
"The handkerchief and gown found in Mr. Taylor's apartment have been
identified as other than mine. It has been established that I was not in
love with Mr. Taylor; that he escorted me to my car that evening and chatted
until I drove away, when we waved good-by to each other.
"Please tell the public that I knew absolutely nothing about this
terrible happening and that Mr. Taylor and I did not quarrel."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
A man working in Hollywood who requested his name not be mentioned in
connection with the matter, stated to an Examiner reporter yesterday that on
Tuesday afternoon, January 31, about 3 o'clock he was walking down Hollywood
boulevard between Gower and Vine streets and that a man who tallies with the
description of the one seen by Mrs. MacLean at the Taylor house on the night
of the murder stopped him and inquired the way to the Lasky studio.
"The man seemed to want to talk to some one," said the person giving
this piece of news, "and while we were engaged in conversation he asked me if
I knew William D. Taylor. He said Taylor was a director at Lasky's. I told
him I had never heard of the man and he expressed surprise and said he was
very well known. The man said he wrote scenarios and poetry and he had a
whole bunch of papers in his hand which he wanted to read to me, but poetry
not being in my line I told him I was in a hurry.
"The man was short and heavy set. He wore dark brown clothes and a soft
hat of the same color. He had on very heavy shoes, sort of brogans, and he
looked about 25 years old. As he walked away I noticed he was bow-legged.
He had a round, full face and looked to be about five feet nine inches in
height.
"The man also asked about a car to town and said he believed he would
take the next one, and then changed his mind, and acted, I thought, in a
peculiar manner. I did not think of telling this until I read of Mr.
Taylor's murder and later read the description of the man in the paper."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
Walter Vogdes
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
Mabel Normand sat in her bungalow court apartment, 3089 West Seventh
street, yesterday afternoon and for two hours went over in detail the story
of her friendship for Taylor, of her last visit to his house on the night of
the murder, and of the famous "Blessed Baby" letters which Miss Normand and
Taylor wrote to each other.
She discussed the general tone of the letters and recited a number of
them in detail from memory. She went over the conversation she had had with
Taylor a few moments before he was murdered, giving every sentence, she
declared, that had passed between them.
Miss Normand rose from a sick bed to grant the interview. For two days
she has been on the verge of collapse.
She talked to an Examiner reporter, nevertheless, against the advice of
her business manager who feared for her physical condition.
"You'll not see the Mabel Normand you know on the screen," said her
manager, MacArthur, while we were waiting for her to appear. "This terrible
case has played havoc with her nerves."
The film star appeared in negligee, her hair down her back in school
girl braids. Her face was pale and her voice trembled with emotion when she
mentioned Taylor.
"I will talk freely to you. I will tell you everything I know about
this terrible case," she said in starting. "And I ask only one thing in
return. Print truthfully what I say. So much that is untrue has been
printed about me.
"There is no secret about any phase of my relations with Mr. Taylor. My
letters to him--I would gladly set them before the world if the authorities
care to do that. I have nothing to conceal.
"I knew Mr. Taylor had letters of mine. Once several weeks before he
was murdered I saw them in a drawer of his desk. I remonstrated with him.
'Why do you save my letters, Billy?' I asked. 'There's nothing in them.' He
merely smiled in answer.
"I have been charged with trying to recover those letters; with trying
to conceal them. That is silly. If those letters are printed you will see
that they are most of them casual; they express the jesting spirit that
characterized our relations. We teased each other and made fun of each a
great deal. We did that continually on the night he was murdered, when I
dropped in for a few minutes to see him"
As for the letters, she said, he would write her:
"Dear Mabel: I know you're an awfully busy woman and haven't much
time to grant to a poor duffer like me, but--how about dinner together next
Wednesday and then the Orpheum"
Yours always,
"Billy."
And on one occasion she said she answered:
"Dear Desperate Desmond:
Sorry I cannot dine with you tomorrow. But I have a previous
engagement with a Hindoo Prince. Some other time."
"Then," she said, "I would sign the letter with a little sketch of
myself, or by drawing a 'daffodil.' You know the daffodils, those funny
little comic figures.
"Or he would write to me about books. I just want to show you some of
the books he gave me."
Miss Normand rose and picked up a costly illustrated volume descriptive
of the Russian Ballet. Then another large book describing dress throughout
the ages.
"I should like to deny a number of things that have been charged against
me," said Miss Normand.
"First that I had told some one that I expected to marry Mr. Taylor. I
never said that. Secondly, that I was with him on New Year's Eve at the
Ambassador Hotel and that we quarreled afterward.
"On New Year's Even I was at the Alexandria hotel with Mr. and Mrs.
Mahlon Hamilton. I did not see Mr. Taylor that night."
"Did you quarrel with him on any other night after returning from a
party or from dinner? And did he return any jewels to you?"
"I never quarreled with him. And he did not return any jewelry to me.
"Then there's the story of the night dress found in Mr. Taylor's
apartment. It is cruel for any one to insinuate that it belonged to me. The
initials, which I understand were found on it, refute that. The night of Mr.
Taylor's death was the only time I was ever alone with him in his house.
"It has been said that check stubs found on Mr. Taylor's desk and the
fact that he had drawn some money from the bank just before he was killed
would indicate that perhaps someone was trying to blackmail him. I don't
believe it. He had his check book out that night and was going over his
checks for one reason only.
"Ever since Sands, his former butler, had forged his name Mr. Taylor had
examined every check that came in carefully. He told me that he could hardly
tell Sands' forgeries from his own signatures, and he was afraid that the
swindling was going on all along.
"On the night of the murder, contrary to what has been said, he was in
excellent spirits. During the time that I was with him I heard no sound that
would indicate that any one was hiding in the house, anyone who might have
stepped out and killed him after I left. But I will go back to the first
part of that story of our last evening and give it to you all in detail.
"In the afternoon I went to a jewelry store to have initials placed on a
vanity bag of mine. Then I went to the bank to deposit some checks. I'm
rather careless about money and sometimes I let my checks accumulate--don't
deposit them each week. It was so in this case.
"At the bank I phoned home to my maid, who told me that Mr. Taylor had
called up. She said he mentioned having a book for me. I left the bank,
bought 50 cents worth of peanuts from a man on the corner, several magazines
and stepped into my limousine.
"I then directed William, my chauffeur, to drive to Mr. Taylor's home.
I arrived, went up on the porch, and the door was opened by Mr. Taylor's
valet, Henry Peavey. I saw Mr. Taylor inside talking on the phone, and when
Henry asked me to step in, I refrained because I didn't want to eavesdrop on
his conversation.
"Then Henry went inside, and told Mr. Taylor I was there. At once he
said good-by, hung up the phone and came forward to greet me.
"'I know why you're here,' he said. 'You haven't come to see me at all;
you've just come after that book!'
"The book was 'Rosmundy,' [sic] by Ethel M. Dell. It was not a copy of
one of Freud's works, as has been said. I read Freud and Nietzche long
before I met Mr. Taylor.
"For some time Mr. Taylor and I 'spoofed' each other in our usual way,
while Henry worked about the back part of the house. I looked about and
said, 'This place has changed since I saw it last. I see you have both a
piano and a Victrola now. My, you're getting altogether too rich.'
"Then we discussed books. We discussed 'Three Soldiers,' a book by that
Chicago newspaper man, John Dos Passos. He had read it only recently and was
much interested. And several other new books came into the discussion.
"When Henry Peavey entered I stared at him in amusement. I stared at
his curious attire. He wore green golf stockings, yellow knickers and a dark
coat. He left by the front door, smiling broadly and saying good night to me
and Mr. Taylor. The way he said it--he's a funny colored boy with lots of
mannerisms--made me smile.
"When Henry had gone I said, 'Why don't you get him a set of golf
sticks? Then he'd be all set up.'
"Mr. Taylor's face grew serious then and he discussed Henry at some
length, telling me how Henry had been arrested a short time before and how he
had gone down to see the judge about the vagrancy charge. And how he had put
up a bond of $200 to secure Henry's release.
"Then the talk turned on dinner and Mr. Taylor tried to persuade me to
stay, saying that he had my favorite dessert--rice pudding. But I declined,
for I had to work the next morning and it is my custom to retire early
whenever I have work ahead.
"So we started for the door. As we stepped out on the porch and walked
down the pathway toward me car, he put his arm about me. At the car he saw
the magazines I had bought. One magazine was the Police Gazette and he
started to tease me about it. I told him that I had bought it with a number
of other illustrated magazines simply to look over the pictures.
"His parting remark was about calling me up an hour later concerning the
book he had given me. He was curious to know whether I would like it.
"He waved good-by and I saw him start back toward the house. The next
morning Edna Purviance called up and told me that he was dead.
"And that is all that I know. That is all I can tell District Attorney
Woolwine or any other of the authorities if they call me before them."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
...Emerging at 11:30 last night from District Attorney Woolwine's inner
office at the close of a four-hours' interrogation of Mabel Normand,
Detective Sergeants Cato, Murphy, Cahill and Winn brought with him a cap
which they said may prove to be that of the man seen near the home of William
D. Taylor by Mrs. Douglas MacLean.
This cap, regarded by the detectives as important enough to be taken by
them into the conference with Miss Normand, was worn by a man arrested in the
afternoon on East Fourth street by Detectives Roberts and Lloyd. He gave the
name of Walter Thiele and is held at the city jail on suspicion of a burglary
committed the night of the Taylor murder and for carrying a revolver.
On the visor of the cap is a bloodstain. The cap itself is khaki color,
with distinct seams that might cause it to be mistaken for plaid at night...
Miss Normand, after the questioning, talked to reporters for a few
minutes.
"I feel so relieved now that I have told my story--everything--to the
District Attorney. I know by the expression on Mr. Woolwine's face and his
kindly smile as I left that he has placed me absolutely in 'the clear.'
"I told him everything from the time I entered Mr. Taylor's apartment to
get the book he was to lend me until the moment I left him at the curb and
waved good-bye. He has heard by story and he smiled convincingly at its
conclusion."
As she walked down the corridor, garbed in an attractive dark red suit
of the latest pattern her step was light and her manner confident and
cheerful.
"I'm so tired, so very tired," the film star said to her chauffeur as
she and her companions stepped into her limousine. "Please drive us back to
the house so I can get some rest after this ordeal."
"Just tell them I know the district attorney has placed me in 'the
clear,'" she called over her shoulder to a newspaperman who pressed her for
an interview. "Tell them I have offered to be the first one to help in
tracing down this fiendish assassin and that I hope he is caught and
punished."
And as the automobile of Mabel Normand sped on the district attorney had
this to say:
"I believe that little girl has told me everything she knows about this
case and she's giving us every bit of aid she can."
This followed a day during which Miss Normand's physicians had declared
that she was not equal to the strain of an official interrogation. Then
Woolwine himself had a telephone conversation with Miss Normand shortly
before 7 o'clock. Anxious to avoid the crowd that would be attracted by a
daytime visit to the district attorney's office, the film actress decided
that she was strong enough to brave the ordeal and promised to come to the
Hall of Records at once.
"Even after talking to all the people about this Taylor case, I have
been unable to gather one bit of evidence that would produce a clew,"
declared Woolwine at midnight, after the conference.
"Miss Normand talked freely and for a long while we discussed the case
informally. She is a very bright girl and seemed perfectly willing to help
in running down the person who killed Taylor. She says she is as much
interested in solving the murder as we are.
"There was sincerity in her tone when she made her statement in the
presence of a shorthand expert.
"Of all the baffling murders we have had in recent years, this is the
most puzzling I have encountered in my career.
"That Elwell murder in New York, has many characteristics of this one.
We haven't found one clew yet that will assist in tracing the murder.
"Sands? Of course, I want to talk to him.
"All the persons questioned so far have not given a clew--none whatever!
"I suspect no one yet; have eliminated none."...
To a question as to whether he had obtained from Miss Normand
information apparently related to the murder itself which had not been
printed, Woolwine answered:
"We have talked of many apparently irrelevant things not published in
the newspapers, but up to this time I have gotten nothing not published that
pertains directly to the murder."...
McArthur, the manager, told reporters that Miss Normand had been
receiving about a hundred letters a day since the death of Taylor.
Most of them were from friends and admirers, expressing their deepest
sympathy, but a few each day were abusive or from cranks."...
"Yes, the man wore a plaid cap and a muffler."
A woman other than Mrs. Douglas MacLean saw the mystery man in the
William D. Taylor case, it developed yesterday--saw him just before the
murder while watching the film director and Mabel Normand.
This woman, a nurse, was walking south on Alvarado street about 7:30
o'clock on the evening of February 1.
She recognized Mabel Normand from her pictures. She did not know
Taylor, but has since satisfied herself that he was the man in this sidewalk
conversation.
She passed them. A few feet farther on she saw a man standing behind a
clump of brush.
The man was not more than thirty feet from the couple, and appeared to
be watching them intently.
"How was he dressed?" asked the police detective of this newest and,
until yesterday, revealed witness.
"I remember distinctly the plaid cap and the muffler," she said.
"Would you be able to recognize him should you see him again?"
"I would."
This testimony regarded as more intimate than any yet issuing from the
sterile ground of facts in the case, has not been vouchsafed by this woman
heretofore because, as she excused herself, she "did not know it was
important."
Nevertheless it is considered vital in this, that it practically
dismisses from consideration the idea that the murderer--if this man of the
muffler were he--entered the apartment while Taylor and Miss Normand were in
conversation.
Hence, upon the basis of this new story the structural material of the
crime must be rearranged and the murderer, in the revised version, is
discovered entering after Miss Normand left...
The District Attorney called no witnesses yesterday. In the morning he
drove out to the apartment occupied by Taylor at 404-B South Alvarado street,
accompanied by E. C. Jessurun, the owner; W. C. Doran, Chief Deputy District
Attorney, and Walter Fischer, his chauffeur.
Mr. Jessurun was the first person to enter the house after the discovery
of the body by Henry Peavey, Taylor's colored valet.
In order to have a picture of that setting, with the fidelity of detail
maintained, the District Attorney secured from Mr. Jessurun a description of
the scene as he had observed it.
Jessurun placed Fischer on his back on the floor, with feet towards the
front door, with the corner of the rug there turned back under one foot. The
landlord straightened the chauffeur's arms by his sides, but he spread his
legs slightly apart, as they had found Taylor lying. The chair in which
Taylor sat as he talked to Miss Normand, Jessurun placed over one leg, with
its two front legs between Fischer's and its back towards the wall.
"That is the way the body lay, just like that," said the landlord...
In a second statement the District Attorney observed that "the
investigation has been proceeding as well as might be expected, considering
the fact that more than a week has elapsed since the commission of the
crime."
"Does the evidence point to Sands or does it eliminate him?" he was
asked.
"It does not point to any one," he replied. "I have not gone far enough
to intelligently conclude that this person or that person might have done
it."
The District Attorney's attention was directed to a powerful motion
picture producer and magnate who, it is well known, was in love with one of
the actresses frequently mentioned in the investigation.
It developed that many persons, even men in the police department, have
been wondering why this man has never been questioned.
It appears that for several days he has refused himself to nearly all
visitors and has placed officers in his home to guard himself against
intruders.
This man is being considered as one who, on account of his very close
relationship with the actress in question, might be able to give valuable
information.
A renewed search of safety deposit boxes of banks of the city was
undertaken yesterday on the supposition that Taylor left a will, an
intimation to this effect coming from his daughter, Ethel Daisy Tanner.
If there is such a secret box it is also expected that it will yield up
documents, letters or other matter which may help to clear up Taylor's past
and possibly furnish facts tending to make clear the motive.
Among Taylor's keys are a number which fit no locks in his house. One
of them, according to the officers, is similar to those issued for safety
deposit boxes...
The theory that Taylor was murdered by a blackmailer was somewhat
discounted yesterday when it was learned that he had been bartering with a
salesman for diamonds upon which a price of $3000 had been set.
The director, it is said, decided not to buy the jewels.
It was this negotiation, it is assumed, which accounted for the
withdrawal of $2500 by Taylor on January 31 and the redepositing of this sum
on February 1.
In other words, he withdrew the money to be paid to the salesman and put
it back when the deal fell through...
Among those scheduled for early interrogation are two chauffeurs--Miss
Normand's and Taylor's.
The latter, Ed Fowler, knew Sands and his statement is desired for any
light it may throw upon the missing ex-secretary of the murdered man...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
Oscar Fernbach
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
...Dramatic in the extreme was the scene enacted today at the Taylor
bungalow.
Fischer, Woolwine's chauffeur, lay prone upon the floor, impersonating
in death the murdered film director as he lay when found by Peavey, his Negro
valet. Jessurun had been one of the first to arrive upon the scene when the
murder was discovered on the morning of February 2. He saw to it today that
the position of the chauffeur's body corresponded in every detail to that
which had been Taylor's, and that all of the furniture was placed exactly as
it had been found.
Woolwine, after making the closest inspection of the premises, gave
official utterance, for the first time, to the theory that the murderer, man
or woman, was concealed in the bungalow at the time that Mabel Normand and
Taylor were engaged in conversation. He or she may have been upstairs in the
bedroom, have overheard the talk, and, upon Taylor's return from the curb,
whither he had escorted Mabel Normand to her waiting car, have shot him down.
This theory, untenable if the public statements made by Peavey are
correct, to the effect that he was there and knew that no one else could have
entered without his knowledge, gave rise at once to the belief that
information of a different nature had been wrung from the Negro when he was
quizzed yesterday by Woolwine. The District Attorney, when pressed upon this
point, declined to make public the substance of Peavey's statement taken
before him and the detectives, but reiterated his previous assertion that it
contained "nothing new."...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
CHICAGO HERALD-EXAMINER
Los Angeles, Feb. 10--...Miss Normand was the last person found by
investigators to have been with the slain director. The time of the murder
has been fixed within a few minutes of the time Miss Normand and her
chauffeur fixed as that of her departure from the Taylor house, where he was
slain. She was with him the night before the murder, and Mr. Taylor was
deeply in love with her.
They had had a quarrel, according to Henry Peavey, Negro houseman for
the murdered director, who left Miss Normand and Taylor alone at the Taylor
house within an hour before the fatal shooting occurred...
Delving into the information that a "mystery woman" visited Taylor the
night of the murder preceding the visit of Mabel Normand, officials hope to
bring the identity of this woman to light and learn the reason for her call,
which so briefly preceded the slaying.
It was reported the district attorney was especially anxious to know if
Miss Normand was aware of this caller and what knowledge she had, if any, of
the mysterious caller's situation.
Concerted efforts are to be made to obtain more details of this early
evening visit. Officials feel the woman's call may have had a direct
connection with the murder that occurred a short time later...
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Los Angeles, Feb. 10.--...Sennett is reported ill at his home. He has
denied himself to reporters. The reason for the agitation to question
Sennett is found in his close personal as well as business relations between
Sennett and Miss Normand. It developed for the first time today that Sennett
at one time proposed marriage to the star. For many years they were known to
be greatly fond of each other, but it was not until today that marriage
between them had ever been considered. In fact, it was generally believed
until last year that the pair had split permanently.
When Miss Normand joined the Goldwyn forces after several years with
Sennett, gossip related a story which accounted for the break between them.
After leaving Goldwyn, Miss Normand rejoined Sennett's staff and he starred
her. Since going back with Sennett, their relations apparently have been of
a purely business nature.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
February 11, 1922
EDWARD DOHERTY
NEW YORK NEWS
Los Angeles, Feb. 10.--...The disappearance of a drug seller has given
the District Attorney and the police a new clew. He is a man who knew Taylor
well and though Taylor had not the reputation of a drug user, it is said this
mysterious peddler had much business with him.
Perhaps Taylor was purchasing opium or morphine or heroin or ether for
some of the women who could not procure it for themselves. Perhaps the man
who is missing could give some information as to this, perhaps he knows about
the murder.
Drug sellers, continually behind the scenes in the lives of picture
players, confidants and boon companions of their victims, can tell many
things, if they wish, that would help in the search for the murderer.
The man in question is said to have been missed about the time the dead
man's body was discovered.
Search is also being made for another safety deposit box in the belief
that it holds important papers, stocks and bonds, secrets of the "love cult"
of unnatural men, a will perhaps, perhaps letters from other women whose
names have not yet entered the case. Friends of Taylor said he had a safety
deposit box "down town somewhere."...
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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.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/Taylorology/
http://www.uno.edu/~drcom/Taylorology
Full text searches of back issues can be done at http://www.etext.org/Zines/
For more information about Taylor, see
WILLIAM DESMOND TAYLOR: A DOSSIER (Scarecrow Press, 1991)
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