1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:06,280 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. We have a little Hollywood history coming up soon. 2 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:10,640 Speaker 1: So today's classic is an episode on the murder of 3 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:15,040 Speaker 1: actor and director William Desmond Taylor. This episode is about 4 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: his unsolved killing, but it also gives some context on 5 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:22,400 Speaker 1: the very scandal filled atmosphere of the film industry in 6 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:26,280 Speaker 1: the early twentieth century. This episode originally came out on 7 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:31,040 Speaker 1: November sixth, twenty seventeen, which doesn't seem like as long 8 00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:37,720 Speaker 1: ago as that, but there we have it. Enjoy Welcome 9 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:48,240 Speaker 1: to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, 10 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:50,880 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye and I'm 11 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:53,959 Speaker 1: Tracy B. Wilson, and I have a confession to make 12 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: right out of the gate, which is today's episode is 13 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: kind of a remainder from Halloween stuff. Yeah. When I 14 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:02,360 Speaker 1: looked at the title of I was like, oh, more Halloween. Yeah, 15 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: it's like one of those things that I started looking 16 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:07,840 Speaker 1: at as a potential October episode, and then as I 17 00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 1: got more into it, I was like, oh, this really 18 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 1: is just like more of a sad, convoluted tale of 19 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: people in the lives they lead. It wasn't so much 20 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: spooky as just sad. It's more Hollywood history than creepy 21 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: Halloween stuff. Although a lot of the Hollywood scandals we're 22 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: going to be talking about are pretty upsetting themselves, right Like, 23 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:30,600 Speaker 1: it popped on my radar because it's on my list 24 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 1: of unsolved crimes. But then the deeper you go, the 25 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:39,200 Speaker 1: less it really has anything spooky about it. It's more 26 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:43,120 Speaker 1: just the like the right paperwork didn't happen, and people 27 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 1: protected each other. So in the nineteen twenties, the idea 28 00:01:47,319 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 1: of Hollywood as a motion picture town was still really 29 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: pretty new. The film industry had existed in Los Angeles 30 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: for just a little more than a decade when They're 31 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 1: Roaring Twenties began, and even in its youth, though, Hollywood 32 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,160 Speaker 1: and it's really quickly growing film industry had a reputation 33 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: for debauchery. As movies grew into a serious business, the 34 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: small California town, which had initially just been chosen because 35 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,119 Speaker 1: it was a good location to shoot because the consistent 36 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:17,840 Speaker 1: sunshine made it easy in terms of lighting, it grew 37 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: so quickly, so from nineteen ten to nineteen twenty, the 38 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: population of Los Angeles went from three hundred and nineteen 39 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: thousand people to five hundred seventy seven thousand, so it 40 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: almost doubled. It's like one point seven ish. I'm doing 41 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,119 Speaker 1: very sloppy math in my head. And during that time, 42 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,360 Speaker 1: its population of actors and actresses went from six hundred 43 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:44,679 Speaker 1: and fifteen to thirty six hundred according to census records, 44 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: and the mushrooming business of making entertainment drew this kind 45 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,760 Speaker 1: of perfect combination of fame and wealth seekers, and it 46 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: wasn't long before scandals started to happen, because sometimes people 47 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: would get very desperate and do things that were unscrupulous. 48 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: Day we are talking about one of those scandals. It's 49 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,119 Speaker 1: a murder that had so many suspects and so much 50 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: convoluted stuff going on that the case was never solved, 51 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 1: and that is the murder of William Desmond Taylor. William 52 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: Desmond Taylor was born William Cunningham Dean Tanner and Carlo 53 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:22,360 Speaker 1: Ireland on April twenty sixth, eighteen seventy two. The family 54 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:24,919 Speaker 1: moved to Dublin when he was still young. His father 55 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: was a major in the British Army and had hoped 56 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:31,239 Speaker 1: that William would enter the military. Those hopes were dashed 57 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:36,080 Speaker 1: because he failed to pass his interests tests. Instead. William 58 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:38,400 Speaker 1: moved to the United States in eighteen ninety at the 59 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:41,120 Speaker 1: age of eighteen, and he had been sent by his 60 00:03:41,160 --> 00:03:44,360 Speaker 1: father to work on a dude ranch. A ranch known 61 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 1: as Running Meade that was in Kansas had been advertising 62 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: in Great Britain as a place where young men could 63 00:03:49,440 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 1: go and learn to be manlier, and Major Dean Tanner 64 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: thought it would make William into the sun that he wanted. 65 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: This is such a weird premise to me, it is, 66 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: but it was one of those things. It was a 67 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: little bit of a fad in Great Britain for a 68 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:07,600 Speaker 1: few years of like, oh, our sons who are maybe 69 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:11,000 Speaker 1: privileged and don't really haven't really been tested in terms 70 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: of their manliness, will send them to America, to the 71 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:17,840 Speaker 1: rough riding West, and they'll come back just strapping young 72 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:19,880 Speaker 1: men ready to take on the world well. And the 73 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:22,599 Speaker 1: idea that there would be a movement to try to 74 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 1: make men manlier, that is not the part that strikes 75 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 1: me as weird. It's the part of like dude ranches 76 00:04:28,839 --> 00:04:32,960 Speaker 1: specifically as like the place to go be manlier, just 77 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,040 Speaker 1: because like the dude ranch has that element of being 78 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,240 Speaker 1: for tourists to come well it does now. Well it 79 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:43,720 Speaker 1: must have then too, because there's a stage on the ranch. Yeah, 80 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: that's true. But I think you know, to somebody that 81 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:48,640 Speaker 1: doesn't know much about ranching, what they know is you're 82 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:51,040 Speaker 1: gonna go out and be kind of in the wilderness 83 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: and the prairies, and you are gonna herd animals, and 84 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 1: you're gonna ride horses and gonna learn things like carpentry. 85 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:04,360 Speaker 1: You are gonna come back so manly. Well that was there. 86 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:06,919 Speaker 1: There's also the part where this ranch was giving William 87 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: an outlet in the form of acting. He had done 88 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:13,920 Speaker 1: some stage work in school, but appearing on stage at 89 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,200 Speaker 1: the ranch, which like we said, had a resort element 90 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:19,840 Speaker 1: to it, he really seemed to love that. When the 91 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 1: ranch closed in eighteen ninety two, he moved briefly to 92 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: Missouri and then drifted a while as a laborer before 93 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:28,719 Speaker 1: he took an acting job in Chicago under the name 94 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:33,680 Speaker 1: Cunningham Dean. Eventually he made his way to New York. Yeah, 95 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:35,279 Speaker 1: this is one of those things where you kind of 96 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:38,040 Speaker 1: have to condense because he really does just drift around 97 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:41,080 Speaker 1: and do a lot of odd jobs and you know, 98 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:43,159 Speaker 1: kind of keep himself going because you could do that 99 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: at this time in the United States, but by the 100 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:49,240 Speaker 1: end of nineteen oh one he was living in New York. 101 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:52,040 Speaker 1: He had gotten married to a woman named Ethel May Harrison, 102 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:54,080 Speaker 1: who was an actress. That was actually her stage name. 103 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,320 Speaker 1: Her real last name was Hamilton, and her family wealth 104 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: had come from her stockbroker father. William was then employed 105 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,920 Speaker 1: in an establishment called English Antique Shop, in which his 106 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,919 Speaker 1: new father in law was an investor, and the couple 107 00:06:07,960 --> 00:06:10,720 Speaker 1: had a daughter named Ethel Daisy in nineteen oh three. 108 00:06:11,440 --> 00:06:15,080 Speaker 1: Seven years into this marriage, William vanished. This was in 109 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 1: October of nineteen oh eight. He called the antique shop 110 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,719 Speaker 1: to ask for six hundred dollars on the day after 111 00:06:21,839 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: he left his family. The shop messengered this money to him, 112 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:28,600 Speaker 1: and then the New York society and on the family 113 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:33,360 Speaker 1: everything that he had had around him. Never saw him again. Nope, 114 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:37,839 Speaker 1: he just like we said, vanished. And the years immediately 115 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 1: after William's disappearance are quite hazy. His friends and family 116 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 1: were concerned that he may have had some sort of 117 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,880 Speaker 1: mental break or amnesia. There were even stories that started 118 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 1: cropping up of like, well, he's had some incidents before. 119 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 1: Various versions of his life story indicate that he drifted 120 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:57,599 Speaker 1: for several years after he left his wife and child, 121 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:01,120 Speaker 1: placing him everywhere you can imagine, from the Deep South 122 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:05,240 Speaker 1: to Montana to Colorado and even Alaska. These are all 123 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:07,880 Speaker 1: places that one might imagine that men would go to 124 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: become more manly. I'm still going to just be stuck 125 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: on that this whole episode. In nineteen twelve, Ethyl petition 126 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 1: of the state for a divorce from her missing husband 127 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,000 Speaker 1: so that she could remarry. At the end of that year, 128 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: William reappeared in California going by the name of William 129 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:29,480 Speaker 1: Desmond Taylor. As William Taylor, he was hired to act 130 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:33,880 Speaker 1: in an assortment of short films, including the Iconoclast Bread, 131 00:07:33,960 --> 00:07:37,680 Speaker 1: Cast upon the Waters, A True Believer, and The quakeres 132 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,760 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirteen. Yeah, all of those films were made 133 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 1: that same year. As we've talked about before when we 134 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:45,680 Speaker 1: talk about older Hollywood history, they were churning out movies 135 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:47,720 Speaker 1: at a much quicker rate than we ever talked about 136 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:52,240 Speaker 1: we would ever imagine today. In nineteen fourteen, Taylor started 137 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:54,360 Speaker 1: taking on work as a director as well, and for 138 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:57,280 Speaker 1: several projects he actually worked as both actor and director. 139 00:07:58,080 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 1: His knowledge, he was pretty well read he could speak 140 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:04,280 Speaker 1: a couple languages pretty well, and he really loved literature, 141 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:06,640 Speaker 1: so he came off as very airy dite, and his 142 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:09,800 Speaker 1: work ethic enabled him to really rise quite quickly as 143 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,400 Speaker 1: a major player in the fledgling film industry. During World 144 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:16,400 Speaker 1: War One, Taylor enlisted with the Canadian Army, but he 145 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,920 Speaker 1: never saw any action. He had enlisted in nineteen eighteen, 146 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 1: but the war ended before he could be shipped out. 147 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:27,480 Speaker 1: And so as the film industry was growing and the 148 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:29,920 Speaker 1: concept of a movie star became a thing which was 149 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 1: all happening in parallel to Taylor being part of it, Hollywood, 150 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: as we said, started to attract people seeking fame and 151 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: money and power, and in the early nineteen twenties the 152 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:44,720 Speaker 1: industry began experiencing its first scandals. There were a lot 153 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: of them. In September nineteen twenty, actress Olive Thomas had 154 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 1: spent the evening with her husband Jack Pickford, brother of 155 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:57,000 Speaker 1: Mary Pickford, in Paris. Their marriage had been struggling because 156 00:08:57,000 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 1: they both had hectic careers, and the two of them 157 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:03,560 Speaker 1: were hoping that a getaway could help mend their problems. 158 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:06,240 Speaker 1: But after coming back to their hotel room one evening, 159 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:10,600 Speaker 1: Olive drank a lethal dose of mercury by chloride, and 160 00:09:10,679 --> 00:09:14,520 Speaker 1: whether she intentionally ended her life or accidentally ingested the 161 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:18,240 Speaker 1: fatal chemical remains uncertain. You might recall, if you listened 162 00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:21,680 Speaker 1: to our Lawn Cheney episode, that Cheney's first wife, Cleva Creton, 163 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 1: attempted to kill herself with mercury by chloride in nineteen thirteen. 164 00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:29,640 Speaker 1: One of the reported versions of this story was that 165 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:32,320 Speaker 1: Olive thought she was taking a sleeping aid and she 166 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:35,079 Speaker 1: had misread the French label on the bottle, which had 167 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:38,160 Speaker 1: been prescribed for her husband. One of the reasons that 168 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:41,199 Speaker 1: sometimes given for why there was mercury by chloride on 169 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,280 Speaker 1: hand in the first place was that Jack was using 170 00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 1: it topically to treat sores from syphilis. Today that would 171 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:50,600 Speaker 1: carry a lot of stigma, but at the time that 172 00:09:50,640 --> 00:09:53,080 Speaker 1: would have been even more so so. If that was true, 173 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:55,480 Speaker 1: that obviously would have been one of the causes of 174 00:09:55,520 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: their strained marriage. This scandalous element to the story, plus 175 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:03,880 Speaker 1: all these lingering doubts about whether the death was accidental 176 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:07,719 Speaker 1: or not, really started tongues wagging about how the Hollywood 177 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:11,880 Speaker 1: life had been The undoing of a sweet girl from Pennsylvania. 178 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:15,400 Speaker 1: As a side note, Olive's ghost is rumored to haunt 179 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:20,040 Speaker 1: Broadway's New Amsterdam Theater, but that ghost has never divulged 180 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:23,120 Speaker 1: what really happened the night she died. Yeah, as recently 181 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:26,280 Speaker 1: as last year, there were articles about this ghost. If 182 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 1: you don't know Broadway or where the New Amsterdam is, 183 00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:31,360 Speaker 1: it is where the Aladdin Show has been running for 184 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:33,720 Speaker 1: quite some time, which to me, I don't know, makes 185 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 1: it extra kind of witty that she would be hanging 186 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 1: out watching the Aladdin Show every night. Roughly one year 187 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,520 Speaker 1: after Olive's death, in September of nineteen twenty one, It's 188 00:10:42,600 --> 00:10:46,199 Speaker 1: twenty five year old actress Virginia rap or Rape or Rappa, 189 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:49,520 Speaker 1: depending on who you listen to, died several days after 190 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:52,640 Speaker 1: she had attended a party at the Saint Francis Hotel. 191 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,920 Speaker 1: She had a ruptured bladder, and she died of peritonitis. 192 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:00,320 Speaker 1: She had been seen in a room with super star 193 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:04,000 Speaker 1: at the time, Fatty Arbuckle, and her friend Maude Delmont 194 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:08,839 Speaker 1: said that Arbuckle had sexually assaulted her, uh, the actress Virginia, 195 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,040 Speaker 1: and though there was no evidence to back up the 196 00:11:11,080 --> 00:11:15,480 Speaker 1: claim and Arbuckle was acquitted of manslaughter, this story, which 197 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:19,080 Speaker 1: was very scandalous had been front page news and reported 198 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: in the most sensational ways possible to sell as many 199 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:25,880 Speaker 1: papers as possible. It's been almost one hundred years and 200 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 1: Fatty Arbuckle's name is still like was intimately connected with scandal. Yeah, 201 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:36,040 Speaker 1: when you say it, it's like people get that like 202 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 1: scared look on their face of like, I don't even 203 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:41,280 Speaker 1: want to hear about that, because there were various versions, 204 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:43,920 Speaker 1: some of which are very very upsetting to hear that 205 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:45,920 Speaker 1: we will not go into. But yeah, they're really lurid 206 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:50,640 Speaker 1: of how he may have assaulted her, and even some 207 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,320 Speaker 1: that were sort of more I don't want to say mild, 208 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:55,640 Speaker 1: because it still involves him forcing himself on her, but 209 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 1: that were just like he was so heavy when he 210 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:00,360 Speaker 1: forced himself on her, it caused this this ru sure, 211 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:02,400 Speaker 1: So there are a lot of different versions of it, 212 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:05,760 Speaker 1: and they're very unseemly. So that is why even today, 213 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,480 Speaker 1: even though he was completely acquitted and there was no evidence, 214 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:12,160 Speaker 1: his name still has this sort of specter of ickiness 215 00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:15,520 Speaker 1: on it. Yeah, it ended his career. He was blacklisted, 216 00:12:15,559 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 1: he wasn't cast in another film for more than a decade, 217 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:20,640 Speaker 1: and he died just as it look like that he 218 00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:25,839 Speaker 1: might make a comeback, and this whole incident really negatively 219 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:32,240 Speaker 1: impacted the whole film industry's image. By that point, Hollywood 220 00:12:32,280 --> 00:12:34,600 Speaker 1: had gained this reputation as a place where people went 221 00:12:34,640 --> 00:12:37,319 Speaker 1: to follow their dreams, only to often have things end 222 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: in disaster. Headlines swirled about the lack of morality in 223 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:45,280 Speaker 1: filmmaking culture, and William Desmond Taylor was the advocate for 224 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:48,160 Speaker 1: the industry. He spoke about the good that films could 225 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:52,920 Speaker 1: do as censors threatened to clip anything even remotely considered scandalous. 226 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:56,440 Speaker 1: I was reading in one of his biographies that there 227 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:58,640 Speaker 1: was a scene in a picture where a woman was 228 00:12:58,679 --> 00:13:02,160 Speaker 1: making baby clothes, and the sensors stepped in and said 229 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:04,600 Speaker 1: they had to cut it because it would confuse children 230 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:08,640 Speaker 1: who thought that the stork brought babies. So the sensors 231 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:11,720 Speaker 1: were sort of trying to overcorrect. At the same time, 232 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:15,160 Speaker 1: some people in the film industry, like Taylor were saying, like, hey, 233 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:17,320 Speaker 1: we can also make wholesome films. We can kind of 234 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:23,160 Speaker 1: meet in the middle a little bit. He also cooperated 235 00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: with US attorney Tom Green to try to get rid 236 00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:30,200 Speaker 1: of a drug problem that had been steadily growing in 237 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:33,679 Speaker 1: his movie studio Over the years. Yeah, it was pretty 238 00:13:33,720 --> 00:13:38,160 Speaker 1: common for people in the industry to use drugs, either 239 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: at parties or developing habits that became problematic. But this, 240 00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:48,520 Speaker 1: despite all of his efforts, that image of this morally unglued, 241 00:13:48,559 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 1: self indulgent town was about to get a lot worse. 242 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:54,720 Speaker 1: But before we delve into this next section, we're gonna 243 00:13:54,720 --> 00:14:06,360 Speaker 1: pause and have a little sponsor break. On February second, 244 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:10,600 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty two, William Desmond Taylor's body was found in 245 00:14:10,679 --> 00:14:14,240 Speaker 1: his home on Alvarado Street in Los Angeles. He had 246 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:16,480 Speaker 1: been shot in the back, although that was not initially 247 00:14:16,559 --> 00:14:19,920 Speaker 1: immediately apparent. We'll talk about that in a moment. His valet, 248 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:23,080 Speaker 1: Henry Peavey, had reported for work in the morning and 249 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:27,760 Speaker 1: discovered him and began yelling, which alerted the neighbors. Taylor 250 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:31,520 Speaker 1: looked perfectly composed, he was dressed, and he was lying 251 00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:34,760 Speaker 1: on his back dead in a pool of blood. Both 252 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: the back and front doors had been locked when Peeve 253 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:41,640 Speaker 1: arrived for work, but the front door locked automatically. The 254 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:44,240 Speaker 1: police were also called that morning to the scene of 255 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:47,520 Speaker 1: what was reported as a natural death. It was obviously 256 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:49,520 Speaker 1: not natural to have been shot in the back. But 257 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:52,280 Speaker 1: initially it was thought that he may have fallen and 258 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:55,040 Speaker 1: hit his head or as a doctor who was called 259 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,000 Speaker 1: to the scene initially pronounced that he had died of 260 00:14:57,080 --> 00:15:00,840 Speaker 1: a stomach hemorrhage. They all did marvel, however, that the 261 00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:04,280 Speaker 1: way he was lying seemed like nobody could have fallen, 262 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:06,360 Speaker 1: hit their head and died that way, because he looked 263 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:11,120 Speaker 1: so put together. By the time detectives arrived at Taylor's home, 264 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: it was already completely compromised by an assortment of the 265 00:15:14,680 --> 00:15:18,880 Speaker 1: director's associates who were going through his belongings. When studio 266 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,640 Speaker 1: manager Charles Ayton arrived, he had commanded people to get 267 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 1: rid of any piece of incriminating anything. I feel like 268 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:30,720 Speaker 1: this is a running theme every time we talk about 269 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:35,040 Speaker 1: our crime in our show. That then people came and 270 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,920 Speaker 1: wrecked the crime scene. So, after all of Thomas's death, 271 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,120 Speaker 1: and with Fatty Arbuckle still at the time facing trial, 272 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:46,040 Speaker 1: he wanted any scrap that could be perceived as seed 273 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:48,960 Speaker 1: in any way to be taken back to his office 274 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,960 Speaker 1: so it couldn't further damage the studio's reputation. Later, he 275 00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:55,600 Speaker 1: turned over what he claimed were all the papers to 276 00:15:55,680 --> 00:16:01,360 Speaker 1: the police, but he did not in fact, give them everything. Eventually, 277 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:04,880 Speaker 1: the deputy coroner arrived and there was after a lot 278 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:07,880 Speaker 1: of discussion because initially people were really ready to accept 279 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:10,840 Speaker 1: that this had been a natural death. There was a 280 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:14,400 Speaker 1: more thorough examination of Taylor's body, and then after he 281 00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 1: had been rolled over, it became apparent that William had 282 00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:20,120 Speaker 1: been shot. The motive for the murder was elusive because 283 00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:23,280 Speaker 1: there did not appear to be anything missing. Once the 284 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:26,640 Speaker 1: bungalow turned into a crime scene, detectives moved out all 285 00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:29,840 Speaker 1: the people who had gathered, but reporters were really persistent. 286 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:33,200 Speaker 1: One of them actually got into the home and others 287 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:38,320 Speaker 1: started taking photos through the windows. You may be wondering 288 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:40,080 Speaker 1: at this point, like if he got shot in the back, 289 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:42,600 Speaker 1: wouldn't it have been obvious as he was lying there 290 00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:46,120 Speaker 1: on the floor. But an autopsy later revealed that a 291 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:49,720 Speaker 1: thirty eight caliber soft nosed bullet had entered Taylor's body 292 00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: on his left side, about six and a half inches 293 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:55,600 Speaker 1: below his armpit, and that bullet had traveled on an 294 00:16:55,640 --> 00:16:58,720 Speaker 1: upward trajectory through his left lung and then it had 295 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:02,280 Speaker 1: lodged in his neck, So it was shot from kind 296 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:04,520 Speaker 1: of below and went up. It didn't exit his body, 297 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:06,560 Speaker 1: which is why it was not immediately apparent when he 298 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 1: was lying on his back. Part of the difficulty in 299 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:14,200 Speaker 1: unraveling this murder is the vast number of possible suspects. 300 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,520 Speaker 1: Taylor had been known as something of a philanderer, even 301 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:19,600 Speaker 1: back in New York when he was still with his wife, 302 00:17:20,160 --> 00:17:22,240 Speaker 1: and there were a lot of young starlets that he 303 00:17:22,320 --> 00:17:25,200 Speaker 1: had been linked to romantically over the years. Even though 304 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:27,600 Speaker 1: a lot of those links are a lot, they were 305 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:32,600 Speaker 1: basically unsubstantiated gossip. Taylor wasn't big on the sorts of 306 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:35,359 Speaker 1: huge parties that a lot of people in the film 307 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:39,359 Speaker 1: industry were frequenting, like the whole incident with Fatty Arbicle 308 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:43,720 Speaker 1: had happened at just like a big, raucous party. Neighbors 309 00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:48,600 Speaker 1: described him as having a regular and fairly dull schedule. Yeah, 310 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:50,560 Speaker 1: they were like, he's usually home by seven. We can 311 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:52,720 Speaker 1: see him reading through the window into the evening, and 312 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:56,679 Speaker 1: then he goes to bed. His former wife had of 313 00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:59,960 Speaker 1: course recognized William when she saw him in a film 314 00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen nineteen eleven years after he had walked out 315 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:05,840 Speaker 1: of her life, but she was in New York and 316 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,680 Speaker 1: at that point she was happily remarried to a restaurant tour. 317 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:13,440 Speaker 1: Her existence had been completely unknown to Taylor's Hollywood acquaintances 318 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:17,560 Speaker 1: until shortly after his death. Some of his papers revealed 319 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:22,240 Speaker 1: that this person existed, and there were also papers describing 320 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:24,960 Speaker 1: that Taylor had met with his daughter the summer before 321 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: he was killed, and that he might have been trying 322 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:30,119 Speaker 1: to re establish some sort of relationship with his daughter 323 00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:33,159 Speaker 1: and his ex wife, So it was not likely to 324 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:37,119 Speaker 1: be a revenge scenario of his former wife, not for her. 325 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,199 Speaker 1: She was in New York and accounted for during all 326 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:43,440 Speaker 1: of it. Additionally, it had become apparent that Taylor's relationship 327 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:48,080 Speaker 1: with his former employee, Edward Sands had become strained. Sands 328 00:18:48,119 --> 00:18:51,679 Speaker 1: had actually left Taylor's employee seven months before the murder. 329 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:55,600 Speaker 1: The valet had forged Taylor's signature on checks and then 330 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:59,280 Speaker 1: crashed his car while Taylor was traveling outside that country. 331 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:04,440 Speaker 1: He was neither seen nor heard from again after Taylor's murder. Yeah, 332 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:06,720 Speaker 1: he's one of the nebulous suspects that a lot of 333 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 1: people point to that does make sense in some ways. 334 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:13,080 Speaker 1: He had a criminal history, but there are also a 335 00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:15,760 Speaker 1: lot of things that don't make sense, like basically he 336 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:17,720 Speaker 1: was running from the law, and it wouldn't make sense 337 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:19,520 Speaker 1: for him to show back up in Los Angeles and 338 00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:21,880 Speaker 1: be like, Hi, I'm going to do some high profile 339 00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: killing of things because he was trying to be on 340 00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: the lamb. Taylor also, it turned out had a brother 341 00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:32,520 Speaker 1: that was living in the States, Dennis Dean Taylor, and 342 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:35,320 Speaker 1: oddly enough, just as William had done in nineteen oh eight, 343 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,480 Speaker 1: Dennis had left his family, although he did so four 344 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:42,000 Speaker 1: years later in nineteen twelve, but Taylor had found out 345 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,040 Speaker 1: about this and was actually supporting his sister in law 346 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:46,959 Speaker 1: and her two children. It turned out he had been 347 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,600 Speaker 1: sending them regular checks every month. This tangle of the 348 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:54,399 Speaker 1: two brothers and their abandoned families was never entirely cleared up, 349 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:57,440 Speaker 1: but it did fuel a lot of speculation about Taylor 350 00:19:57,800 --> 00:20:02,920 Speaker 1: and his mysterious life. More information about Taylor was uncovered, 351 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:06,120 Speaker 1: it only made things more confusing. People who had known 352 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:09,400 Speaker 1: him during those years that he had vanished started coming forward. 353 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:13,679 Speaker 1: He had used all kinds of different aliases while working 354 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:19,840 Speaker 1: various labor jobs. Yeah, it's one of those. Reading through 355 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,960 Speaker 1: this whole story in a few different books, it's kind 356 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:25,840 Speaker 1: of interesting because you're like, oh, These are all the 357 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,840 Speaker 1: tropes of like mystery movies, but these all happened in 358 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:32,160 Speaker 1: a person's actual life. Where he vanishes, he lives several 359 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,199 Speaker 1: other different lives his like franchise lives, and then he 360 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:40,080 Speaker 1: finally settles in Hollywood. A neighbor named Faith McLean was 361 00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:43,199 Speaker 1: the only person to have seen anything the night of 362 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:45,680 Speaker 1: the murder. She said that she had seen a man 363 00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:49,840 Speaker 1: leaving Taylor's home around eight PM, and her description of 364 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:52,439 Speaker 1: the man was stocky, but not fat. This kind of 365 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:58,000 Speaker 1: excluded Sands because he was considered to be fairly overweight. 366 00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,760 Speaker 1: This person that the claim described was clean shaven, with 367 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,680 Speaker 1: a plan cap and looking, as she put it, quote 368 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:09,000 Speaker 1: like my idea of a motion picture burglar. I imagine 369 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:13,960 Speaker 1: that as carrying a crowbar and looking suspiciously over one's shoulder. 370 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,960 Speaker 1: Two attendants at a nearby gas station said they had 371 00:21:19,960 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 1: been asked Tailor's address by a stranger, and an unknown 372 00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,960 Speaker 1: man was seen boarding a streetcar at the Maryland Avenue stop, 373 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:29,560 Speaker 1: which was not far from the crime scene. When shown 374 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:32,679 Speaker 1: photos of Sands, none of the people who described this 375 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:36,160 Speaker 1: stranger thought it was the same man. Yeah, and there 376 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,040 Speaker 1: are people that say none of these people are even 377 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:42,920 Speaker 1: describing the same person like they're just Their descriptions were 378 00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:45,679 Speaker 1: general enough that some people started to automatically assume it 379 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,119 Speaker 1: was the same person, But there's not really enough clear, 380 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:53,760 Speaker 1: hard detail to know. It is estimated, to further complicate things, 381 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:57,480 Speaker 1: that three hundred different people confess to this murder in 382 00:21:57,560 --> 00:22:00,800 Speaker 1: police stations across the country, but they were all written 383 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:05,120 Speaker 1: off as false confessions. Was every lead based on these 384 00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:09,919 Speaker 1: exhaustively examined? Probably not, uh, But the investigation ended up 385 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:13,080 Speaker 1: focusing around three women, primarily none of whom were those 386 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,480 Speaker 1: people that showed up in police stations to confess. These 387 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:21,720 Speaker 1: were Mabel Normand, Mary Mentor, and Mary Mintor's mother, Charlotte Shelby. 388 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: So we're going to tack through the three of them, 389 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,840 Speaker 1: starting with Mabel. Mabel Normand was a comedian who had 390 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:32,280 Speaker 1: been romantically linked with Taylor, at least according to gossip columns. 391 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:36,159 Speaker 1: Mabel was very successful in films, but she also really 392 00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:39,520 Speaker 1: abhorred all the artifice that the industry's culture had taken on. 393 00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:43,040 Speaker 1: She had a reputation for being kind and generous, but 394 00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:46,840 Speaker 1: she also had a drug problem. She traveled to New 395 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:49,240 Speaker 1: York to try to get away from all this, and 396 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,400 Speaker 1: it was the news of Olive Thomas's death that really 397 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,320 Speaker 1: snapped her into the realization that she needed to get sober. 398 00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:59,040 Speaker 1: She and all of had been friends and had partied together, 399 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:02,879 Speaker 1: and Mabel saw her own fate as being potentially the 400 00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:07,240 Speaker 1: same as Olives. Mabel and William were really close friends, 401 00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:10,720 Speaker 1: and they corresponded often, and their letters to each other 402 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,439 Speaker 1: were very sweet. She had been involved with men before 403 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 1: him who had been really unkind to her, but she 404 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:20,600 Speaker 1: and William seemed really more to have a deep friendship 405 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:24,040 Speaker 1: rather than a romantic relationship. It was William that she 406 00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,879 Speaker 1: called after Olive's funeral asking for help, and he was 407 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,600 Speaker 1: completely encouraging, and when she checked herself into a rehab 408 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:33,960 Speaker 1: program at a sanatorium north of Seneca Lake, New York, 409 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:36,960 Speaker 1: it was rumored that Taylor actually paid the bill for it. 410 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,800 Speaker 1: When Mabel came back to Hollywood looking radiant and healthy, 411 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,320 Speaker 1: Taylor was often her escort around town, leading to the 412 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:46,760 Speaker 1: belief that the two of them were a couple, But 413 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,840 Speaker 1: there's also a likelihood that this was just a way 414 00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:53,119 Speaker 1: for Taylor to support his friend's sobriety. As she started 415 00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:57,159 Speaker 1: making herself visible again in Los Angeles, Yeah, they seemed 416 00:23:57,160 --> 00:23:59,480 Speaker 1: like the best of friends. He actually sent her flowers 417 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 1: several times a week, and she would come over and 418 00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:04,679 Speaker 1: they would talk about literature, and they seemed to be 419 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:07,880 Speaker 1: super close. But she pretty much makes clear that if 420 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:12,840 Speaker 1: this was not romantic. Mabel was, however, the last known 421 00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: person to see Taylor alive. On the evening of February first, 422 00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:19,760 Speaker 1: she stopped at the director's bungalow home to borrow two books, 423 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:25,639 Speaker 1: Nietzschez Thus Spake Zarathustra and Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. The 424 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,520 Speaker 1: two then shared a drink and then Taylor walked her 425 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,399 Speaker 1: to her car. He was supposed to call her at 426 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:34,119 Speaker 1: nine pm, but he didn't, but she had already been 427 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,280 Speaker 1: asleep and her maid did not normally wake her up 428 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,399 Speaker 1: if she got calls after she was in bed, so 429 00:24:38,440 --> 00:24:41,359 Speaker 1: she thought nothing of this. Detectives who were piecing this 430 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:45,159 Speaker 1: crime together believed that as Taylor was walking Mabel to 431 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 1: her car, the assailant snuck into the bungalow. Yeah. They 432 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:52,320 Speaker 1: did investigate Mabel though, because on a tip that Mabel 433 00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:54,720 Speaker 1: had a thirty eight caliber revolver like the one that 434 00:24:54,880 --> 00:24:58,080 Speaker 1: was used to kill Taylor. Police searched her home and 435 00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:00,560 Speaker 1: they did find two handguns, but both were twenty five 436 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: caliber weapons that were not a match for the murder weapon, 437 00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:06,399 Speaker 1: and so the police pretty quickly determined that Mabel was 438 00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:09,440 Speaker 1: not the killer. She was also of the people they 439 00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:13,520 Speaker 1: interviewed seemed to be the most deeply grieving over the 440 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:19,000 Speaker 1: whole loss. Mabel's life continued to have problems after Taylor's death. 441 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,800 Speaker 1: Not long after the murder, she had a date in 442 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:25,440 Speaker 1: a jazz club with a married man named George S. Patterson. 443 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:29,040 Speaker 1: He died in a car accident that after they parted 444 00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,520 Speaker 1: ways that evening, and then the newspapers used that whole 445 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:35,600 Speaker 1: event to smear her. Yeah, it was kind of like, 446 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:37,600 Speaker 1: isn't it weird that two men that you were close 447 00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,320 Speaker 1: to both died so soon after one another. It was 448 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:43,960 Speaker 1: really unkind uh. And then she was also involved in 449 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 1: a shooting in nineteen twenty four when her driver killed 450 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,560 Speaker 1: her boyfriend. It turned out that the driver was an 451 00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:54,320 Speaker 1: escaped convict who, like many people in Hollywood, had taken 452 00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: on a new identity. In nineteen twenty seven, Mabel was 453 00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:03,080 Speaker 1: diagnosed with tuberculosis, and she died in nineteen thirty at 454 00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,159 Speaker 1: the age of thirty seven. Next up. We're going to 455 00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:08,199 Speaker 1: take a look at the mother daughter duo who are 456 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:11,359 Speaker 1: most frequently linked to Taylor's death. But first we're going 457 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:22,880 Speaker 1: to pause again for a little sponsor break. Mary Miles 458 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:25,840 Speaker 1: Minter was a young actress of eighteen who had been 459 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,159 Speaker 1: acting since she was a small girl. She was cast 460 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:31,879 Speaker 1: in an adaptation of Anne of green Gables that Taylor 461 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,720 Speaker 1: was directing, and she developed a huge crush on the director. 462 00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:40,159 Speaker 1: Mary's mother, Charlotte Shelby, was dismayed at the possibility of 463 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:43,840 Speaker 1: a relationship between her teenage daughter and the late forties 464 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,600 Speaker 1: age director. Mary had fallen for a number of older 465 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,160 Speaker 1: men during her career, and at least one of them 466 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,159 Speaker 1: had taken advantage of her attraction to him. So why 467 00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:56,399 Speaker 1: Charlotte was watching her daughter like a hawk? She was 468 00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:59,040 Speaker 1: really intent that Mary should be famous and that the 469 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,040 Speaker 1: two of them should get rich in the process. She 470 00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:04,320 Speaker 1: did not want any kind of dalliance to complicate matters. 471 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,840 Speaker 1: She didn't want anything to ruin their plans. But Mary 472 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,720 Speaker 1: really seemed to believe that William Taylor was the love 473 00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:15,960 Speaker 1: of her life. I will say, reading pretty much every account, 474 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,439 Speaker 1: Charlotte does not seem to have been concerned about her 475 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:22,240 Speaker 1: daughter's well being in any of this, Like, she wasn't 476 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,480 Speaker 1: like I don't want another man to take advantage of 477 00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,040 Speaker 1: my daughter. She really seemed to be making pretty selfish moves, 478 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:30,679 Speaker 1: which is sort of heartbreaking. Yeah, it's kind of the 479 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:35,000 Speaker 1: original prototype for the horrible stage mom. Yeah, and there's 480 00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:40,920 Speaker 1: also in one of those ways that is unfortunately not surprising, 481 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,760 Speaker 1: putting the blame on her when she was a child 482 00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:50,880 Speaker 1: for the actions of adult men. Yes, and Charlotte definitely 483 00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:54,640 Speaker 1: brought into that love. Notes that Mary Mentor had written 484 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:58,480 Speaker 1: William Taylor were among his effects in his Bungalow, in 485 00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:00,760 Speaker 1: which the starlett wrote of wanting to go away with 486 00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:05,360 Speaker 1: William and living an idyllic, domestic, romantic life. The papers 487 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,119 Speaker 1: began running stories that stated that the young woman was 488 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:11,080 Speaker 1: having an affair with the much older director, but friends 489 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:13,720 Speaker 1: of his, as well as Mary Mentor, had all claimed 490 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:17,360 Speaker 1: that Mary's love was unrequited. When the young woman had 491 00:28:17,359 --> 00:28:19,720 Speaker 1: told Taylor how she felt about him, he had very 492 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:22,560 Speaker 1: gently explained to her that he was far too old 493 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,360 Speaker 1: for her, and he believed that the matter was settled. 494 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:29,320 Speaker 1: After Taylor got promoted to a different office by the studio. 495 00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:32,119 Speaker 1: Mary was no longer working with him, and she became 496 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: even more obsessed and really a little unstable as she 497 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,919 Speaker 1: tried to deal with her feelings for him and her 498 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:42,680 Speaker 1: growing resentment of her mother's interference. At one point, Mentor 499 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:46,440 Speaker 1: had feigned shooting herself after a fight with her mother 500 00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:50,120 Speaker 1: over whether she had been with Taylor. The gun was 501 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,960 Speaker 1: the same type that had been used to kill Taylor. Yeah, 502 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:58,360 Speaker 1: that happened, just for clarity before Taylor was killed. But 503 00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,520 Speaker 1: the two of them, there was sort of a constant 504 00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 1: badgering of were you with that man? Were you with 505 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 1: that man? Did you go see that man? And while 506 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:08,960 Speaker 1: Mary would have loved to have gone to see that man, 507 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,520 Speaker 1: she made very clear that she really did adore him. 508 00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:17,240 Speaker 1: She also had not been Later, missus Shelby was seen 509 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: carrying that same revolver when she at one point went 510 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: to William Desmond Taylor's house in search of her daughter, 511 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: who had failed to come home. She was going to 512 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:29,680 Speaker 1: confront him, but Mary was not at the director's house. 513 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,320 Speaker 1: Charlotte Shelby's protective nature regarding her daughter was really explosive 514 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,200 Speaker 1: when it came to William Taylor, even though he really 515 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 1: seemed to have no kind of lascivious intent on the 516 00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:47,320 Speaker 1: young actress, but a witness employed by Missus Shelby once 517 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:50,840 Speaker 1: saw her say to Taylor, if I ever catch you 518 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:55,280 Speaker 1: hanging around with Mary again, I will blow your expletive 519 00:29:55,440 --> 00:30:00,640 Speaker 1: brains out. When Mary Mentor heard the news of Ta's death, 520 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:03,320 Speaker 1: she went first to his home and then to a 521 00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:07,080 Speaker 1: nearby mortuary, where she asked to give blood to save him. 522 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,120 Speaker 1: Whether she truly was in denial that he was dead 523 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:12,520 Speaker 1: or if she was playing up this relationship with the 524 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:17,200 Speaker 1: deceased remains unknown. Charlotte Shelby opted to get out in 525 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,560 Speaker 1: front of this story by inviting reporters to speak with Mary, 526 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,440 Speaker 1: and the young actress said that she and William Desmond 527 00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:25,920 Speaker 1: Taylor had never been involved and that he saw her 528 00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:30,080 Speaker 1: as a child. When Mary was deposed by police, her 529 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:33,640 Speaker 1: interview lasted for several hours. She told them that she 530 00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:36,280 Speaker 1: had been in love with William Taylor, but he had 531 00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:39,880 Speaker 1: never returned his affection, and that they were not romantically involved. 532 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 1: Charlotte Shelby was close to the da in Los Angeles, 533 00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:45,040 Speaker 1: and there had been rumors that the two of them 534 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:48,640 Speaker 1: were having an affair. This was about the time that Holly, 535 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:51,040 Speaker 1: as she was doing this research, started to believe that 536 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:54,080 Speaker 1: the papers in LA in the nineteen twenties were speculating 537 00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:57,120 Speaker 1: that everyone was having affair an affair, but I mean, 538 00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,720 Speaker 1: who knows, maybe they were, Maybe everyone was heavy an affair. 539 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,920 Speaker 1: So she got a little heads up. When the police 540 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,440 Speaker 1: were headed to her home to ask a few questions 541 00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:12,160 Speaker 1: about William Taylor's murder, she was a very shrewd woman 542 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:16,320 Speaker 1: and she refused to answer their questions. Eventually, detectives that 543 00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:20,080 Speaker 1: were pretty convinced that she had probably murdered Taylor cooked 544 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:22,560 Speaker 1: up this wacky ruse to try to lure her out 545 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,600 Speaker 1: by running a fake story in the newspapers that a 546 00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:29,760 Speaker 1: spiritualist had communicated with the deceased William Desmond Taylor and 547 00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:32,080 Speaker 1: had learned the killer's identity and that it was a 548 00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 1: woman with a beautiful daughter. This was, of course, alla farce, 549 00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,200 Speaker 1: but it was designed to spur Shelby into some sort 550 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,400 Speaker 1: of action, and the morning that that story ran, Shelby 551 00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 1: phoned her lawyer immediately, but it really didn't result in 552 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 1: anything more, and she did not come forward to confess. 553 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,959 Speaker 1: As they were hoping. One of the detectives in the 554 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:53,200 Speaker 1: case pulled three blonde hairs from the jacket that Taylor 555 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,280 Speaker 1: had been wearing when he died. He had an expert 556 00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:59,640 Speaker 1: compare them to hair from Mary Mentor, and they were 557 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:03,360 Speaker 1: declared to be a match. The theory was that Charlotte 558 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,400 Speaker 1: had walked in on Mary and William as they embraced 559 00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:10,240 Speaker 1: and had shot Taylor, and then Mary had arranged the body. 560 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,640 Speaker 1: Just as investigators really thought they were getting pretty close 561 00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,240 Speaker 1: to solving this crime, they were ordered to drop the 562 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,520 Speaker 1: case by the district attorney, the same one that was 563 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:23,360 Speaker 1: good friends with Charlotte Shelby. But as the investigation once 564 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:26,720 Speaker 1: again pointed to Shelby several years later, she claimed at 565 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:28,760 Speaker 1: that point that she and William Taylor had been the 566 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:31,960 Speaker 1: best of friends, that there was no animosity between them. 567 00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:34,360 Speaker 1: This was a flat out lie, as anyone who knew 568 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:38,440 Speaker 1: them would have attested to. But when she was questioned 569 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:40,680 Speaker 1: at that point about the whereabouts of her thirty eight 570 00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:43,200 Speaker 1: caliber revolver, which she was known to have owned the 571 00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:46,040 Speaker 1: DA had actually given it to her, she confessed to 572 00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:49,440 Speaker 1: investigators that her mother had taken the guns somewhere and 573 00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:51,560 Speaker 1: disposed of it, but that she did not know where. 574 00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:55,760 Speaker 1: Director king Vador later told people that Mary mentor had 575 00:32:55,800 --> 00:33:00,800 Speaker 1: strongly suggested that her mother had killed William Taylorarolette Shelby's 576 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:04,400 Speaker 1: other daughter, Margaret, also started openly accusing her mother of 577 00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,320 Speaker 1: the murder in the nineteen thirties. Although Margaret's version of 578 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,480 Speaker 1: events was wildly off the known facts of the case, 579 00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:14,080 Speaker 1: this mismatch in the description of the killer and Charlotte 580 00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:17,000 Speaker 1: Shelby was the one real halting point in her status 581 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:21,720 Speaker 1: as a suspect. Yeah, Faith McLean's description definitely did not 582 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,920 Speaker 1: describe anybody that looked like Charlotte Shelby, And so even 583 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,640 Speaker 1: when they felt like they had a lot of good, 584 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,520 Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence that all was pretty much put an end 585 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 1: to things. It's like, but she doesn't look at all 586 00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:35,400 Speaker 1: like the one person that a witness saw. In nineteen 587 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:40,080 Speaker 1: thirty seven, fifteen years after the murder, Charlotte Shelby's former 588 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:43,760 Speaker 1: chauffeur told police that his employer had asked him to 589 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:46,120 Speaker 1: remove all of the ammunition from the gun that she 590 00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:49,880 Speaker 1: owned immediately after the murder of William Desmond Taylor was 591 00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:53,040 Speaker 1: publicly known. She claimed at the time that she feared 592 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:55,520 Speaker 1: that Mary was going to turn the pistol on herself. 593 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,760 Speaker 1: He had put this ammunition on a beam in the 594 00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:02,360 Speaker 1: basement of Charlotte Shelley with Shelby's former residence, and when 595 00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:04,480 Speaker 1: the police went to the home, which at that point 596 00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:07,440 Speaker 1: was occupied by other residents, the bullets were still there. 597 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,280 Speaker 1: They were matched to the bullet that had killed Taylor, 598 00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,360 Speaker 1: which was significant because it was an older style of 599 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:17,759 Speaker 1: ammunition that was not normally used in nineteen twenty two. Yeah, 600 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,400 Speaker 1: the ammunitions expert said something to the effect of like, 601 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,400 Speaker 1: you know, this is one in a million or something 602 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:27,520 Speaker 1: crazy like that, like, if you find this this ammunition, 603 00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: it's got to be the same person. The case was 604 00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:33,000 Speaker 1: reopened based on this new evidence. But when she appeared 605 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:36,840 Speaker 1: before a grand jury, Charlotte Shelby suddenly had a backup 606 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,960 Speaker 1: witness for an alibi. Prior to that, there had always 607 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,520 Speaker 1: been a little discrepancy in her whereabouts at the time 608 00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:44,640 Speaker 1: of the murder. She had always said she was at 609 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:49,040 Speaker 1: her house, but Mary and Mary's grandmother, who were at 610 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,319 Speaker 1: the house, were like, no, she wasn't, So it was 611 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:53,320 Speaker 1: always a little unclear if she had been in the 612 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:55,200 Speaker 1: house and they just didn't know or not. But this 613 00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:56,960 Speaker 1: time she had a friend back her up and say 614 00:34:56,960 --> 00:35:00,879 Speaker 1: he was there with her. After the hearing, she told 615 00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:04,120 Speaker 1: reporters quote, one of the worst tortures for any person, 616 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:06,680 Speaker 1: particularly a woman, is to go through life with a 617 00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:10,520 Speaker 1: cloud of malicious innuendo constantly hovering over her like a specter. 618 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,440 Speaker 1: Why must William Desmond Taylor's murder follow me through the years? 619 00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:16,360 Speaker 1: I want to live the rest of my life and 620 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:18,759 Speaker 1: happiness and peace if I may be permitted to do so. 621 00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,400 Speaker 1: The case was closed after the hearing, and it was 622 00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:27,520 Speaker 1: never reopened. In the meantime, though, in those fifteen years, 623 00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,920 Speaker 1: Mary Mentor's wholesome image was tarnished by the rumors of 624 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:34,080 Speaker 1: a sexual relationship with Taylor, even though everyone denied that 625 00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:37,080 Speaker 1: such a thing existed. So she was this sort of 626 00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,120 Speaker 1: ingenue type actress, and so that it just was really 627 00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:42,960 Speaker 1: incongruous with the image that they were trying to promote 628 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,320 Speaker 1: for her. So her contract with the studio wasn't renewed. 629 00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:49,319 Speaker 1: She did manage to move away from her mother, but 630 00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:52,880 Speaker 1: she quickly realized that because she had been basically a 631 00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:54,879 Speaker 1: child star and then an actress and her mother had 632 00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:57,840 Speaker 1: managed everything, she did not have the skills to manage 633 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:00,600 Speaker 1: money on her own. And moreover, there wasn't any money 634 00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:04,320 Speaker 1: coming in to manage anyway. For a while, she seemed 635 00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:07,160 Speaker 1: to constantly want to dredge up the case in an 636 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:09,640 Speaker 1: effort to stay relevant, and at one point she even 637 00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,600 Speaker 1: fabricated a whole story that somebody had tried to murder her. 638 00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:15,839 Speaker 1: She also started a rumor that her mother had been 639 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,520 Speaker 1: jealous of her relationship with Taylor and hinted that there 640 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:22,400 Speaker 1: had been a romantic involvement. She finally ended up marrying 641 00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:26,839 Speaker 1: into wealth and living out her life in a happy obscurity. Yeah, 642 00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:28,560 Speaker 1: when she went through that phase where she was saying 643 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:30,960 Speaker 1: a lot of crazy things to the press, it is 644 00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:39,319 Speaker 1: pretty widely believed that she was developing a pretty bad 645 00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,240 Speaker 1: dependency on drugs and that's why she was so erratic 646 00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:46,040 Speaker 1: all the time. Another woman in Taylor's story, though that 647 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,759 Speaker 1: was not really investigated at the time, was Margaret Gibson. 648 00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:54,280 Speaker 1: And Gibson, who went by Gibbee, knew William Desmond Taylor. 649 00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:57,840 Speaker 1: They had been actors together in their early careers. This 650 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:02,120 Speaker 1: was before Taylor had even moved to Los Angeles. Gibby 651 00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:05,480 Speaker 1: ran into some legal trouble after an arrest for dealing 652 00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:09,080 Speaker 1: opium and possible prostitution under a sort of an umbrella 653 00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:12,600 Speaker 1: vagrancy charge. She had been acquitted, but she knew that 654 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:14,480 Speaker 1: her career, which she had been trying to get off 655 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:16,279 Speaker 1: the ground, was never going to get its feet back 656 00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:20,200 Speaker 1: under it, so she reinvented herself as an actress under 657 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:23,279 Speaker 1: the name of Patricia Palmer. With her new name and 658 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:27,120 Speaker 1: an age that she fudged, Gibby or Patricia sought out 659 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:29,680 Speaker 1: her old friend who was then head of the famous 660 00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:32,400 Speaker 1: player's last studio, but she didn't get the help she 661 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:36,279 Speaker 1: hoped for. Instead, her life wind up spiraling into just 662 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:38,799 Speaker 1: a constant, clawing effort to try to make it in 663 00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:43,600 Speaker 1: Hollywood that often involved some really seedy people and eventually 664 00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:48,400 Speaker 1: included being part of a blackmail ring. Yeah, Gibby was 665 00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:54,360 Speaker 1: so desperate. It was a combination of, you know, maybe 666 00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:57,480 Speaker 1: some flexible morality and also being just gullible enough to 667 00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:00,400 Speaker 1: believe horrible people when they promised that they would be 668 00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:02,760 Speaker 1: the ones that really got her career off the ground. 669 00:38:03,680 --> 00:38:07,359 Speaker 1: But eventually Gibson fled Hollywood, but she did move back 670 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,400 Speaker 1: to California later in her life, this time as a 671 00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:14,440 Speaker 1: married woman. Her husband was Elbert Lewis. She was widowed 672 00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,680 Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties when Lewis died, and in nineteen 673 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,600 Speaker 1: sixty four, Gibson, who at that point was living as 674 00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:24,319 Speaker 1: Patricia Lewis, had a heart attack. When a neighbor found her, 675 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,400 Speaker 1: she asked for a priest to give her final confession, 676 00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:32,799 Speaker 1: eventually telling the neighbor I killed William Desmond Taylor. It's 677 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:37,480 Speaker 1: possible that, even if she didn't physically kill Taylor, that 678 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,560 Speaker 1: her blackmail dealings may have led to his demise in 679 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,399 Speaker 1: some way. If she was speeding information to the people 680 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:45,440 Speaker 1: who did in his life, she might have felt that 681 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:49,920 Speaker 1: she was responsible for his untimely end. Even so, in 682 00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:52,759 Speaker 1: addition to that, people confess to things they didn't do, 683 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:55,600 Speaker 1: like all the time. That is true. This is a 684 00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:58,320 Speaker 1: theory that's become a lot more popular in recent years, 685 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:01,880 Speaker 1: in part because she did run with a lot of 686 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,120 Speaker 1: people as part of this blackmailing ring, and there are 687 00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:08,240 Speaker 1: some matchups of people that she knew and was dealing 688 00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:12,480 Speaker 1: with and some sort of shady looking characters that had 689 00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:16,520 Speaker 1: been seen around William Desmond Taylor's home in the weeks 690 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:19,759 Speaker 1: leading up to the murder. But again, that's one that 691 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:24,359 Speaker 1: could very easily be strictly coincidence. We just don't know. 692 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:27,880 Speaker 1: And to further complicate the picture of Taylor's life and 693 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:31,080 Speaker 1: who in it might wish to harm him, it slowly 694 00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,520 Speaker 1: came to light in all of this post murder investigation 695 00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:39,280 Speaker 1: that he may have been bisexual. Friends eventually started speaking 696 00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:42,600 Speaker 1: about his jaunts into opium clubs in Los Angeles that 697 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,560 Speaker 1: catered to gay men, and there were headlines that ran 698 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:50,400 Speaker 1: in papers about Taylor visiting quote queer places. The studio 699 00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,640 Speaker 1: tried to spin these stories as the director scouting kind 700 00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:57,239 Speaker 1: of you know, color for his films, but this really 701 00:39:57,239 --> 00:40:00,759 Speaker 1: didn't have any effect. George James hop who was a 702 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:04,680 Speaker 1: designer of sets and production, had collaborated on several pictures 703 00:40:04,719 --> 00:40:07,520 Speaker 1: with William Desmond Taylor, and in nineteen eighty one he 704 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:11,040 Speaker 1: wrote an autobiography which was never published, in which he's 705 00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:15,000 Speaker 1: spoken of an affair with Taylor that lasted for several years, 706 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:20,279 Speaker 1: right up until the murder. It's possible that someone was 707 00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,160 Speaker 1: blackmailing William Desmond Taylor. Given his abandoned family and the 708 00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:28,759 Speaker 1: possibility of bisexuality, and even his career in film, there 709 00:40:28,760 --> 00:40:31,080 Speaker 1: were plenty of secrets that he may have wanted to 710 00:40:31,120 --> 00:40:34,880 Speaker 1: keep under wraps. The revelations about the many secrets of 711 00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:38,360 Speaker 1: Taylor's life, which fed into this larger story of scandal 712 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:42,280 Speaker 1: in Hollywood, really had a serious impact on the film industry. 713 00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,440 Speaker 1: An article that appeared six days after Taylor's body was 714 00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:49,960 Speaker 1: found read quote, the murder of William Desmond Taylor has 715 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,440 Speaker 1: had a fearsome effect upon the movies. It is exposing 716 00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:59,279 Speaker 1: the debaucheries, the looseness, the rottenness of Hollywood. Studios immediately 717 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:02,719 Speaker 1: started working on on vigilance plans to ensure that ethics 718 00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:06,239 Speaker 1: and conduct regulations were in place in the industry. This 719 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:09,239 Speaker 1: eventually led to the adoption of the Hayes Code in 720 00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:13,520 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, which laid out moral guidelines for all motion 721 00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:17,040 Speaker 1: pictures made in the United States. That code remained in 722 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:22,200 Speaker 1: place until nineteen sixty eight. William Desmond Taylor directed more 723 00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:25,040 Speaker 1: than fifty movies in a span of only eight years, 724 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,120 Speaker 1: and when he was laid to rest, ten thousand people 725 00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:31,080 Speaker 1: showed up for the funeral. It was a combination of 726 00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,600 Speaker 1: people from Hollywood who just loved him because he was 727 00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:37,000 Speaker 1: really well liked, as well as onlookers who were hoping 728 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:41,120 Speaker 1: to see famous people grieving The crowd at one point 729 00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:44,480 Speaker 1: pushed their way into the chapel where his funeral service 730 00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:47,680 Speaker 1: was taking place, and a riot nearly started, but police 731 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:50,120 Speaker 1: were eventually able to push them back out onto the street, 732 00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:53,680 Speaker 1: and then they locked the door so the service could continue. Today, 733 00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:57,120 Speaker 1: there's an annual film festival of his movies in Carlo, Ireland, 734 00:41:57,120 --> 00:42:00,319 Speaker 1: which is where he was born. And what really becomes 735 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:02,400 Speaker 1: apparent when you look at all of the elements of 736 00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:05,719 Speaker 1: this bizarre, unsolved case is how many people in Los 737 00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:08,560 Speaker 1: Angeles in the early days of the film industry were 738 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:12,320 Speaker 1: hiding huge personal secrets, and the truth of what happened 739 00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:14,960 Speaker 1: the night that William Desmond Taylor died will likely never 740 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,680 Speaker 1: be known, though there are certainly plenty of books written 741 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:20,200 Speaker 1: about the case, each of which seems to favor a 742 00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:23,640 Speaker 1: different killer. Yeah, it comes up a lot when you're 743 00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:26,560 Speaker 1: reading histories of this case, like how easy it was 744 00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:28,480 Speaker 1: for someone to just show up in Los Angeles and 745 00:42:28,520 --> 00:42:31,120 Speaker 1: say my name is X, and there were not the 746 00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:33,759 Speaker 1: easy ways to background check people as there are now, 747 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:37,279 Speaker 1: and people would go, okay, X, let's do this. So 748 00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:39,520 Speaker 1: a lot of the people that had moved there were 749 00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,520 Speaker 1: kind of starting over and maybe had some unsavory things 750 00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:46,799 Speaker 1: that they wanted to leave behind, just you know, a 751 00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:54,840 Speaker 1: fascinating and kind of sad thing in many ways. Thanks 752 00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,759 Speaker 1: so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you'd 753 00:42:57,800 --> 00:42:59,840 Speaker 1: like to send us a note, our email addresses. His 754 00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:04,480 Speaker 1: free podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe 755 00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:07,600 Speaker 1: to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 756 00:43:07,640 --> 00:43:09,640 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.