1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:13,360 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frying and I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and I 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:18,800 Speaker 1: have a confession to make right out of the gate, 5 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:21,480 Speaker 1: which is today's episode is kind of a remainder from 6 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,119 Speaker 1: Halloween Stuff. Yeah. When I looked at the title of it, 7 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: I was like, more Halloween. Yeah, It's like one of 8 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 1: those things that I started looking at as a potential 9 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:32,600 Speaker 1: October episode, and then as I got more into it, 10 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this really is just like more 11 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,680 Speaker 1: of a sad It's a convoluted tale of people in 12 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:42,199 Speaker 1: the lives they lead. It wasn't so much spooky as 13 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:45,720 Speaker 1: just sad. It's more Hollywood history than creepy Halloween stuff, 14 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 1: although a lot of the Hollywood scandals we're gonna be 15 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:52,400 Speaker 1: talking about are pretty upsetting themselves, right like it it 16 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: popped on my radar because it's on my list of 17 00:00:54,840 --> 00:01:00,440 Speaker 1: unsolved crimes. Um But then the the for you go, 18 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: the less it really has anything spooky about it. It's 19 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:06,920 Speaker 1: more just the like the right paperwork didn't happen and 20 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:10,759 Speaker 1: people protected each other. Um. So in the nineteen twenties, 21 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: the idea of Hollywood as a motion picture town was 22 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:16,640 Speaker 1: still really pretty new. The film industry had existed in 23 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:19,280 Speaker 1: Los Angeles for just a little more than a decade, 24 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:23,160 Speaker 1: uh when they're wearing twenties began, and even in its youth, though, 25 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:26,480 Speaker 1: Hollywood and it's really quickly growing film industry had a 26 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:31,000 Speaker 1: reputation for debauchery. As movies grew into a serious business, 27 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:34,479 Speaker 1: the small California town, which had initially just been chosen 28 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 1: because it was a good location to shoot because the 29 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 1: consistent sunshine uh made it easy in terms of lighting, 30 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:45,639 Speaker 1: it grew so quickly. So from nineteen ten to nineteen twenty, 31 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: the population of Los Angeles went from three hundred nineteen 32 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: thousand people to five hundred seventy seven thousand, so it 33 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: almost doubled. It's like two uh one point seven ish. 34 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,800 Speaker 1: I'm doing very sloppy math in my head. And during 35 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,760 Speaker 1: that time it's population of actors and actresses went from 36 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: six hundred and fifteen to thirty six hundred according to 37 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: census records. And the mushrooming business of making entertainment drew 38 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: this kind of perfect combination of fame and wealth seekers 39 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: and it wasn't long before scandals started to happen, because 40 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: sometimes people would get very desperate and do things that 41 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:25,280 Speaker 1: were unscrupulous. And today we are talking about one of 42 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:28,320 Speaker 1: those scandals. It's a murder that had so many suspects 43 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:30,920 Speaker 1: and so much convoluted stuff going on that the case 44 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,480 Speaker 1: was never solved, and that is the murder of William 45 00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:39,880 Speaker 1: Desmond Taylor. William Desmond Taylor was born William Cunningham Dean 46 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:45,960 Speaker 1: Tanner and Carlo Ireland on April eighteen seventy two. The 47 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,520 Speaker 1: family moved to Dublin when he was still young. His 48 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:51,000 Speaker 1: father was a major in the British Army and had 49 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:55,240 Speaker 1: hoped that William and the military. Those hopes were dashed 50 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:59,880 Speaker 1: because he failed to pass his entrance tests. Instead, will 51 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,360 Speaker 1: have moved to the United States in eighteen ninety at 52 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:05,000 Speaker 1: the age of eighteen, and he had been sent by 53 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,080 Speaker 1: his father to work on a dude ranch. A ranch 54 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:10,520 Speaker 1: known as Running Mead that was in Kansas had been 55 00:03:10,560 --> 00:03:13,079 Speaker 1: advertising in Great Britain as a place where young men 56 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 1: could go and learn to be manlier, and Major Dean 57 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:19,080 Speaker 1: Tanner thought it would make William into the son that 58 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:22,240 Speaker 1: he wanted. This is such a weird premise to me, 59 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:24,760 Speaker 1: it is, but it was one of those things. It 60 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:26,680 Speaker 1: was a little bit of a fad and Great Britain 61 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: for a few years of like, oh, are sons who 62 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: are maybe privileged and don't really haven't really been tested 63 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: in terms of their manliness, will send them to America 64 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: to the rough riding West and they'll come back just 65 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: strapping young men ready to take on the world. Well, 66 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: and the the idea that there would be a movement 67 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:48,480 Speaker 1: to to try to make men manlier, that is not 68 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: the part that strikes me as weird. It's the part 69 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:55,520 Speaker 1: of like dude ranches specifically as like the place to 70 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: go be manlier, just because like the dude ranch has 71 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:02,720 Speaker 1: that element of being for tourists to come. Well it 72 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: does now, well it must have them too, because there's 73 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:09,040 Speaker 1: a stage on the ranch. Yeah, that's true. But I 74 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:11,760 Speaker 1: think you know, to somebody that doesn't know much about ranching, 75 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:13,600 Speaker 1: what they know is you're going to go out and 76 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: be kind of in the wilderness and the prairies, and 77 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: you're gonna herd animals, and you're gonna ride horses, and 78 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:22,400 Speaker 1: I'm gonna learn things like carpentry. You were going to 79 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: come back so manly like f Well, that was there. 80 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:30,919 Speaker 1: There's also the part where this ranch was giving William 81 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 1: an outlet in the form of acting. He had done 82 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:37,920 Speaker 1: some stage work in school, but appearing on stage at 83 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 1: the Ranch, which, like we said, had had a resort 84 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:43,760 Speaker 1: element to it, he really seemed to love that. When 85 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,600 Speaker 1: the ranch closed in two he moved briefly to Missouri 86 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: and then drifted a while as a laborer before he 87 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 1: took an acting job in Chicago under the name cuttingham Deem. 88 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 1: Eventually he made his way to New York. Yeah, this 89 00:04:57,920 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: is one of those things where you kind of have 90 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:02,159 Speaker 1: to condense because he really does just drift around and 91 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: do a lot of odd jobs and you know, kind 92 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: of keep himself going because you could do that at 93 00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:10,520 Speaker 1: this time in the United States. But by the end 94 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:13,280 Speaker 1: of nineteen o one he was living in New York. 95 00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:15,440 Speaker 1: He had gotten married to a him and named ethel 96 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:17,520 Speaker 1: May Harrison, who was an actress. That was actually her 97 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:20,600 Speaker 1: stage name. Her real last name was Hamilton's, and her 98 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:24,360 Speaker 1: family wealth had come from her stockbroker father. And William 99 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:28,000 Speaker 1: was then employed in an establishment called English Antique Shop, 100 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:30,919 Speaker 1: in which his new father in law was an investor 101 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: and The couple had a daughter named Ethel Daisy in 102 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: nineteen o three. Seven years into this marriage, William vanished. 103 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:41,800 Speaker 1: This was in October of nineteen o eight. He called 104 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: the antique shop to ask for six hundred dollars on 105 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:48,279 Speaker 1: the day after he left his family. The shop messenger 106 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,280 Speaker 1: this money to him, and then the New York Society 107 00:05:51,560 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: and I'm the family, everything that he had had around him. 108 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: Never saw him again. Nope, he just like you said, 109 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:03,840 Speaker 1: van uh. And the years immediately after William's disappearance are 110 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:08,039 Speaker 1: quite hazy. His friends and family were concerned that he 111 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:10,479 Speaker 1: may have had some sort of mental break or amnesia. 112 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:13,080 Speaker 1: There were even stories that started cropping up of like, well, 113 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: he's had some incidents before. Various versions of his life 114 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,440 Speaker 1: story indicate that he drifted for several years after he 115 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:24,240 Speaker 1: left his wife and child, placing him everywhere you can imagine, 116 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: from the Deep South to Montana to Colorado and even Alaska. 117 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:31,360 Speaker 1: These are all places that one might imagine that men 118 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:36,320 Speaker 1: would go to become more manly. I'm still going to 119 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: just be stuck on that this whole episode. In nineteen twelve, 120 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:42,160 Speaker 1: Ethel petition of the State were a divorce from her 121 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 1: missing husband so that she could remarry. At the end 122 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: of that year, William reappeared in California going by the 123 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: name of William Desmond Taylor. As William Taylor, he was 124 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:56,000 Speaker 1: hired to act in an assortment of short films, including 125 00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:00,200 Speaker 1: the iconoclassed Bread, Cast upon the Waters, A True Belief Eiver, 126 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: and The Quakers in Yeah. All of those films remained 127 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:06,720 Speaker 1: that same year. As we've talked about before when we 128 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:09,720 Speaker 1: talked about older Hollywood history, they were churning out movies 129 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:11,760 Speaker 1: at a much quicker rate than we ever talked about 130 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: we would ever imagine today. In nineteen fourteen, Taylor started 131 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:18,400 Speaker 1: taking on work as a director as well, and for 132 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:21,239 Speaker 1: several projects he actually worked as both actor and director. 133 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: His knowledge, he was pretty well read, he could speak 134 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 1: a couple of languages pretty well, and he really loved literature. 135 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,000 Speaker 1: So he came off his very erudite and his work 136 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: ethic enabled him to really rise quite quickly as a 137 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: major player in the fledgling film industry. During World War One, 138 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: Taylor enlisted with the Canadian Army, but he never saw 139 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,680 Speaker 1: any action. He had enlisted in nineteen eighteen, but the 140 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: war ended before he could be shipped out. And so 141 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:52,280 Speaker 1: as the film industry was growing and the concept of 142 00:07:52,320 --> 00:07:54,520 Speaker 1: a movie star became a thing which was all happening 143 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,600 Speaker 1: in parallel to to Taylor being part of it, Hollywood, 144 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,360 Speaker 1: as we said, started to a tracked people seeking fame 145 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:04,400 Speaker 1: and money and power, and in the early nineteen twenties 146 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:08,400 Speaker 1: the industry began experiencing its first scandals. There were a 147 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:13,960 Speaker 1: lot of them. In September ninety, actress Olive Thomas had 148 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,160 Speaker 1: spent the evening with her husband Jack Pickford, brother of 149 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: Mary Pickford, in Paris. Their marriage had been struggling because 150 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: they both had hectic careers, and the two of them 151 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 1: were hoping that a getaway could help mend their problems. 152 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: But after coming back to their hotel room one evening, 153 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,479 Speaker 1: all of drank a lethal dose of mercury by chloride, 154 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:38,439 Speaker 1: and whether she intentionally ended her life or accidentally ingested 155 00:08:38,440 --> 00:08:41,840 Speaker 1: the fatal chemical remains uncertain. Uh You might recall if 156 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,920 Speaker 1: you listen to our Lawn Cheney episode, that Cheney's first wife, 157 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:48,680 Speaker 1: Clevela Creton, attempted to kill herself with mercury by chloride 158 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:53,040 Speaker 1: in ninett One of the reported versions of this story 159 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:56,000 Speaker 1: was that all Of thought she was taking a sleeping aid, 160 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:58,520 Speaker 1: and she had misread the French label on the bottle, 161 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:01,440 Speaker 1: which had been prescribed for her husband. One of the 162 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:04,640 Speaker 1: reasons that sometimes given for why there was mercury by 163 00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: chloride on hand in the first place was that Jack 164 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:12,440 Speaker 1: was using it topically to treat sores from syphilis. Today 165 00:09:12,480 --> 00:09:14,200 Speaker 1: that would carry a lot of stigma, but at the 166 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 1: time that would have been even more so. So. If 167 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:18,840 Speaker 1: that was true, that obviously would have been one of 168 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:23,440 Speaker 1: the causes of their strained marriage. This scandalous element to 169 00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 1: the story, plus all these lingering doubts about whether the 170 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,600 Speaker 1: death was accidental or not, really started tongues wagging about 171 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: how the Hollywood life had been the undoing of a 172 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:38,199 Speaker 1: sweet girl from Pennsylvania. As a side note, Olive's ghost 173 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:42,200 Speaker 1: is rumored to hunt Broadway's New Amsterdam Theater, but that 174 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:46,600 Speaker 1: ghost has never divulged what really happened the night she died. Yeah, 175 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:50,080 Speaker 1: as recently as last year there were articles about this ghost. Um, 176 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:53,280 Speaker 1: if you don't know Broadway or where the New Amsterdam is, 177 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:55,360 Speaker 1: it is where the Aladdin show has been running for 178 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:57,719 Speaker 1: quite some time, which to me, I don't know makes 179 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: it extra kind of witty. That she would hanging out 180 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: watching the Aladdin Show every night. Roughly one year after 181 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:08,480 Speaker 1: all of his death. In September, year old actress Virginia 182 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 1: rap or rap A or Rappa, depending on who you 183 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:14,360 Speaker 1: listen to, died several days after she had attended a 184 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: party at the St. Francis Hotel. She had a ruptured bladder, 185 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 1: and she died of paraitonitis. She had been seen in 186 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,440 Speaker 1: a room with Superstar at the time, Fatty Arbuckle and 187 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:29,679 Speaker 1: her friend Maud del Mont said that Arbuckle had sexually 188 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:33,800 Speaker 1: assaulted her, the actress Virginia, and though there was no 189 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,920 Speaker 1: evidence to back up the claim, uh and Arbuckle was 190 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:40,840 Speaker 1: acquitted of manslaughter. This story, which was very scandalous, had 191 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:44,320 Speaker 1: been front page news and reported in the most sensational 192 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:47,840 Speaker 1: ways possible to sell as many papers as possible. It's 193 00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:51,360 Speaker 1: been almost a hundred years and Fatty Arbuckle's name is 194 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:57,520 Speaker 1: still like intimately connected with Candle. Yeah, when you say it, 195 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:01,079 Speaker 1: it's like, um, people get that scared look on their 196 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,680 Speaker 1: face of like, I don't even want to hear about that. Um. 197 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:06,400 Speaker 1: Because there were various versions, some of which are very 198 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:08,640 Speaker 1: very upsetting to hear that. We will not go into 199 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:14,160 Speaker 1: but of how he may have assaulted her um and 200 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:16,760 Speaker 1: even some that were sort of more I don't want 201 00:11:16,760 --> 00:11:19,280 Speaker 1: to say mild, because it still involves him forcing himself 202 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:21,120 Speaker 1: on her, but that were just like he was so 203 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:23,320 Speaker 1: heavy when he forced himself on her. It caused this 204 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,199 Speaker 1: this rupture. So there are a lot of different versions 205 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:29,160 Speaker 1: of it, and they're very unseemly. So that is why 206 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:31,719 Speaker 1: even today, even though he was completely acquitted and there 207 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,640 Speaker 1: was no evidence, his name still has this sort of 208 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:38,360 Speaker 1: specter of ickiness on it. Yeah, it ended his career. 209 00:11:38,559 --> 00:11:41,040 Speaker 1: He was blacklisted, he wasn't cast in another film for 210 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:43,480 Speaker 1: more than a decade, and he died just as it 211 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:47,200 Speaker 1: looked like that he might make a comeback. And this 212 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:53,560 Speaker 1: whole incident really negatively impacted the whole film industry's image. 213 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:57,680 Speaker 1: By that point, Hollywood had gained this reputation as a 214 00:11:57,679 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: place where people went to follow their dreams, me too 215 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:04,080 Speaker 1: often have things in and disaster. Headlines swirled about the 216 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:08,280 Speaker 1: lack of morality in filmmaking culture, and William Desmond Taylor 217 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:11,200 Speaker 1: was the advocate for the industry. He spoke about the 218 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:14,200 Speaker 1: good that films could do as sensors threatened to clip 219 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:18,160 Speaker 1: anything even remotely considered scandalous. I was reading in one 220 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:21,080 Speaker 1: of his biographies that, Um, there was a scene in 221 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:24,000 Speaker 1: a picture where a woman was making baby clothes, and 222 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:26,840 Speaker 1: the sensors stepped in and said they had to cut 223 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:29,199 Speaker 1: it because it would confuse children who thought that the 224 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 1: stork brought babies. So the sensors were sort of over 225 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:36,720 Speaker 1: trying to overcorrect. At the same time, people, some people 226 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:39,160 Speaker 1: in the film industry like Taylor, were saying like, hey, 227 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:41,200 Speaker 1: we can also make wholes some films. We can kind 228 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:46,240 Speaker 1: of meet in the middle a little bit. He also 229 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:49,920 Speaker 1: cooperated with US attorney Tom Green to try to get 230 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:54,079 Speaker 1: rid of a drug problem that had been steadily growing 231 00:12:54,160 --> 00:12:57,280 Speaker 1: in his movie studio over the years. Yeah, it was 232 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:01,840 Speaker 1: pretty common for people in the street to use drugs, 233 00:13:01,880 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: either at parties or developing habits that became problematic. But this, 234 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:12,480 Speaker 1: despite all of his efforts, that image of this morally unglued, 235 00:13:12,559 --> 00:13:16,360 Speaker 1: self indulgent town was about to get a lot worse. Um. 236 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:18,680 Speaker 1: But before we delve into this next section, we're gonna 237 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:26,600 Speaker 1: pause and have a little sponsor break. On February second, 238 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:31,680 Speaker 1: William Desmond Taylor's body was found in his home on 239 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:35,120 Speaker 1: Alvarado Street in Los Angeles. He had been shot in 240 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:37,840 Speaker 1: the back, although that was not initially immediately apparent. We'll 241 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:41,120 Speaker 1: talk about that in a moment. His valet, Henry Peevy, 242 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:44,480 Speaker 1: had reported for work in the morning and discovered him 243 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:49,920 Speaker 1: and began yelling, which alerted the neighbors. Taylor looked perfectly composed, 244 00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:52,480 Speaker 1: He was dressed, and he was lying on his back 245 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:55,720 Speaker 1: dead in a pool of blood. Both the back and 246 00:13:55,800 --> 00:13:58,839 Speaker 1: front doors had been locked when Peevee arrived for work, 247 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,559 Speaker 1: but the front door are locked automatically. The police were 248 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:04,840 Speaker 1: also called that morning to the scene of what was 249 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:08,480 Speaker 1: reported as a natural death. It was obviously not natural 250 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:10,520 Speaker 1: to have been shot in the back, but initially it 251 00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:13,040 Speaker 1: was thought that he may have fallen and hit his 252 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:15,520 Speaker 1: head or as a doctor who was called to the 253 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:18,719 Speaker 1: scene initially pronounced that he had died of a stomach hemorrhage. 254 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:21,840 Speaker 1: They all did marvel, however, that the way he was 255 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: lying seemed like nobody could have fallen, hit their head 256 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: and died that way, because he looked so put together. 257 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:31,840 Speaker 1: By the time detectives arrived at Taylor's home, it was 258 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:36,120 Speaker 1: already completely compromised by an assortment of the director's associates 259 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:40,040 Speaker 1: who were going through his belongings. When studio manager Charles 260 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:43,360 Speaker 1: Ayton arrived, he had commanded people to get rid of 261 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:48,600 Speaker 1: any piece of incriminating anything. I feel like this is 262 00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:51,480 Speaker 1: a running theme every time we talked about our crime 263 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:55,800 Speaker 1: in our show that then people came and wrecked the 264 00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:59,800 Speaker 1: crime scene. So, after all of Thomas's death, and with 265 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,880 Speaker 1: Attie Arbuckle still at the time facing trial, he wanted 266 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:07,200 Speaker 1: any scrap that could be perceived as CD in any 267 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:09,520 Speaker 1: way to be taken back to his office so it 268 00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:13,880 Speaker 1: couldn't further damage the studio's reputation. Later, he turned over 269 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:16,520 Speaker 1: what he claimed were all the papers to the police, 270 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:21,640 Speaker 1: but he did not in fact give them everything. Eventually 271 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:25,120 Speaker 1: the deputy coroner arrived and there was after a lot 272 00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:27,760 Speaker 1: of discussion because initially people who were really ready to 273 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 1: accept that this had been a natural death. Um there 274 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:34,320 Speaker 1: was a more thorough examination of Taylor's body, and then 275 00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:36,480 Speaker 1: after he had been rolled over, it became apparent that 276 00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:39,560 Speaker 1: William had been shot. The motive for the murder was 277 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,280 Speaker 1: elusive because there did not appear to be anything missing. 278 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:46,520 Speaker 1: Once the bungalow turned into a crime scene, detectives moved 279 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:49,240 Speaker 1: out all the people who had gathered, but reporters were 280 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:52,560 Speaker 1: really persistent. One of them actually got into the home 281 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:57,920 Speaker 1: and others started taking photos through the windows. Uh, you 282 00:15:58,000 --> 00:15:59,760 Speaker 1: may be wondering at this point, like if he got 283 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,320 Speaker 1: on the back, wouldn't have been obvious as he was 284 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:05,360 Speaker 1: lying there on the on the floor. But an autopsy 285 00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:08,480 Speaker 1: later revealed that a thirty eight caliber soft nose bullet 286 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:12,080 Speaker 1: had entered Taylor's body on his left side, about six 287 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,960 Speaker 1: and a half inches below his armpit, and that bullet 288 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:18,280 Speaker 1: had traveled on an upward trajectory, threw his left lung 289 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:21,120 Speaker 1: and then it had lodged in his neck, So it 290 00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:23,760 Speaker 1: was shot from kind of below and went up. It 291 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:25,640 Speaker 1: didn't exit his body, which is why it was not 292 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:28,840 Speaker 1: immediately apparent when he was lying on his back. Part 293 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:32,760 Speaker 1: of the difficulty in unraveling this murder is the vast 294 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,440 Speaker 1: number of possible suspects. Taylor had been known as something 295 00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:38,840 Speaker 1: of a philanderer, even back in New York when he 296 00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:41,200 Speaker 1: was still with his wife, and there were a lot 297 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:44,200 Speaker 1: of young starlets that he had been linked to romantically 298 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:46,800 Speaker 1: over the years. Even though a lot of those links 299 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 1: are a lot, they were basically unsubstantiated gossip. Taylor wasn't 300 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:54,680 Speaker 1: big on the sorts of huge parties that a lot 301 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:57,680 Speaker 1: of people in the film industry were frequenting, Like the 302 00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:00,640 Speaker 1: whole incident with Fatty Arbuckle had a happened at just 303 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:05,200 Speaker 1: like a big raucous party. Neighbors described him as having 304 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:09,240 Speaker 1: a regular and fairly dull schedule. Yeah, they were like, 305 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:11,520 Speaker 1: he's usually home by seven. We can see him reading 306 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:13,440 Speaker 1: through the window into the evening, and then he goes 307 00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:18,000 Speaker 1: to bed. Um. His former wife had, of course recognized 308 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:21,320 Speaker 1: William when she saw him in a film in nineteen nine, 309 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,159 Speaker 1: eleven years after he had walked out of her life, 310 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:26,680 Speaker 1: but she was in New York and at that point 311 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:30,720 Speaker 1: she was happily remarried to a restaurant tour. Her existence 312 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 1: had been completely unknown to Taylor's Hollywood acquaintances until shortly 313 00:17:34,800 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 1: after his death. Some of his papers revealed that this 314 00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,719 Speaker 1: this person existed, and there were also papers describing that 315 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:45,439 Speaker 1: Taylor had met with his daughter this summer before he 316 00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:47,679 Speaker 1: was killed, and that he might have been trying to 317 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:50,560 Speaker 1: re establish some sort of relationship with his daughter and 318 00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:53,600 Speaker 1: his ex wife, So it was not likely to be 319 00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:57,440 Speaker 1: a revenge scenario of his former wife not for her. 320 00:17:57,520 --> 00:17:59,520 Speaker 1: She was in New York and accounted for during all 321 00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:03,040 Speaker 1: of it. Additionally, it had become a parent that Taylor's 322 00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:07,399 Speaker 1: relationship with his former employee, Edwards Sands had become strained. 323 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:12,040 Speaker 1: Sands had actually left Taylor's employee seven months before the murder. 324 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,880 Speaker 1: The valet had forged Taylor's signature on checks and then 325 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:19,600 Speaker 1: crashed his car while Taylor was traveling outside that country. 326 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:24,720 Speaker 1: He was neither seen nor heard from again after Taylor's murder. Yeah, 327 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:27,040 Speaker 1: he's one of the nebulous suspects that a lot of 328 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:30,119 Speaker 1: people point to that does make sense in some ways. 329 00:18:30,119 --> 00:18:33,399 Speaker 1: He had a criminal history, but there are also a 330 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:36,000 Speaker 1: lot of things that don't make sense. Like basically, he 331 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 1: was running from the law, and it wouldn't make sense 332 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:39,800 Speaker 1: for him to show back up in Los Angeles and 333 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:42,240 Speaker 1: be like, Hi, I'm going to do some high profile 334 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:45,639 Speaker 1: killing of things because he was trying to be on 335 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:49,240 Speaker 1: the lamb um. Taylor Also, it turned out had a 336 00:18:49,280 --> 00:18:52,160 Speaker 1: brother that was living in the States, Dennis Dean Taylor, 337 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,280 Speaker 1: and oddly enough, just as William had done in nineteen 338 00:18:55,280 --> 00:18:58,320 Speaker 1: o eight, Dennis had left his family, although he did 339 00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:01,879 Speaker 1: so four years later in nineteen wellve but Taylor had 340 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:04,879 Speaker 1: found out about this and was actually supporting his sister 341 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:07,000 Speaker 1: in law and her two children. It turned out he 342 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:10,640 Speaker 1: had been sending them regular checks every month. This tangle 343 00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:13,520 Speaker 1: of the two brothers and they're abandoned families was never 344 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:16,359 Speaker 1: entirely cleared up, but it did fuel a lot of 345 00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:21,640 Speaker 1: speculation about Taylor and his mysterious life. As more information 346 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: about Taylor was uncovered, it only made things more confusing. 347 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 1: People who had known him during those years that he 348 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:32,200 Speaker 1: had vanished started coming forward. He had used all kinds 349 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:37,560 Speaker 1: of different aliases while working various labor jobs. Yeah, it's 350 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:42,040 Speaker 1: one of those. Um reading through this whole story in 351 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:45,600 Speaker 1: a few different books, it's kind of interesting because you're like, oh, 352 00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:47,959 Speaker 1: these are all the tropes of like mystery movies, but 353 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:51,679 Speaker 1: these all happened in a person's actual life. Where he vanishes, 354 00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:55,120 Speaker 1: he lived several other different lives, his like franchise lives, 355 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:58,840 Speaker 1: and then he finally settled in Hollywood. Um. A neighbor 356 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:02,040 Speaker 1: named Faith McLean was the only person to have seen 357 00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,240 Speaker 1: anything the night of the murder. She said that she 358 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:09,240 Speaker 1: had seen a man leaving Taylor's home around eight pm. 359 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,000 Speaker 1: And her description of the man was stocky but not fat. 360 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:15,639 Speaker 1: This kind of excluded Sands because he was considered to 361 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:21,040 Speaker 1: be fairly um overweight. Uh. This person that mcclan described 362 00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 1: was clean shaven, with a plaid cap and looking, as 363 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:26,560 Speaker 1: she put it, quote like my idea of a motion 364 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:32,119 Speaker 1: picture burglar. I imagine that as carrying a crowbar and 365 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:38,679 Speaker 1: looking suspiciously over one's shoulder. Two attendants at a nearby 366 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:42,120 Speaker 1: gas station said they had been asked Taylor's address by 367 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:45,240 Speaker 1: a stranger, and an unknown man was seen boarding a 368 00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: street car at the Maryland Avenue stop, which was not 369 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:51,160 Speaker 1: far from the crime scene. When shown photos of Sands, 370 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,080 Speaker 1: none of the people who described this stranger thought it 371 00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:57,240 Speaker 1: was the same man. Yeah, and there are people that 372 00:20:57,240 --> 00:20:59,879 Speaker 1: that say none of these people are even describing the 373 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,920 Speaker 1: same person, like they're just their descriptions were general enough 374 00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,199 Speaker 1: that some people started to automatically assume it was the 375 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,880 Speaker 1: same person. But there's not really enough clear, hard detail 376 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:14,240 Speaker 1: to know. It is estimated to further complicate things, that 377 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:18,240 Speaker 1: three hundred different people confessed to this murder in police 378 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:21,280 Speaker 1: stations across the country, but they were all written off 379 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:26,680 Speaker 1: as false confessions. Was every lead based on these exhaustively examined, 380 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:31,760 Speaker 1: Probably not, but the investigation ended up focusing around three women, 381 00:21:31,800 --> 00:21:34,480 Speaker 1: primarily none of whom were those people that showed up 382 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:38,920 Speaker 1: in police stations to confess. These were Mabel normand Mary Minter, 383 00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:43,480 Speaker 1: and Mary Minter's mother, Charlotte Shelby. So we're gonna tack 384 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:46,800 Speaker 1: through the three of them, starting with Mabel. Mabel Norman 385 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,000 Speaker 1: was a comedian who had been romantically linked with Taylor, 386 00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:54,880 Speaker 1: at least according to gossip columns. Mabel was very successful 387 00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:58,000 Speaker 1: in films, but she also really abhorred all the artifice 388 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:00,879 Speaker 1: that the industry's culture had taken on. She had a 389 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:04,080 Speaker 1: reputation for being kind and generous, but she also had 390 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:07,840 Speaker 1: a drug problem. She traveled to New York to try 391 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:09,959 Speaker 1: to get away from all this, and it was the 392 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:13,320 Speaker 1: news of all of Thomas's death that really snapped her 393 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:16,200 Speaker 1: into the realization that she needed to get sober. She 394 00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:19,640 Speaker 1: and Olive had been friends and had partied together, and 395 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:23,560 Speaker 1: Mabel saw her own fate as being potentially the same 396 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:27,639 Speaker 1: as Olives. Mabel and William were really close friends, and 397 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:31,240 Speaker 1: they corresponded often, and their letters to each other were 398 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:35,040 Speaker 1: very sweet. She had been involved with men before him, 399 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:38,159 Speaker 1: who had been really unkind to her. But she and 400 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,160 Speaker 1: Williams seemed really more to have a deep friendship rather 401 00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,680 Speaker 1: than a romantic relationship. It was william that she called 402 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:48,280 Speaker 1: after Olive's funeral asking for help, and he was completely encouraging, 403 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,000 Speaker 1: and when she checked herself into a rehab program at 404 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,840 Speaker 1: a sanatorium north of Seneca Lake, New York, it was 405 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:57,920 Speaker 1: rumored that Taylor actually paid the bill for it. When 406 00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:02,000 Speaker 1: Mabel came back to Hollywood looking adiant and healthy, Taylor 407 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,920 Speaker 1: was often her escort around town, leading to the belief 408 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:07,720 Speaker 1: that two of them were a couple. But there's also 409 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,679 Speaker 1: a likelihood that this was just a way for Taylor 410 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,160 Speaker 1: to support his friend's sobriety as she started making herself 411 00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:17,639 Speaker 1: visible again in Los Angeles. Yeah, they seemed like the 412 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:20,440 Speaker 1: best of friends. He actually sent her flowers several times 413 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:22,720 Speaker 1: a week, and and she would come over and they 414 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,639 Speaker 1: would talk about literature, and they seemed to be super close. 415 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,560 Speaker 1: But she pretty much makes clear that if this was 416 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:33,560 Speaker 1: not romantic. Uh. Mabel was, however, the last known person 417 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,000 Speaker 1: to see Taylor alive. On the evening of February one, 418 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:40,119 Speaker 1: she stopped at the director's bungalow home to borrow two books, 419 00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:45,960 Speaker 1: Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra and Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. The 420 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: two then shared a drink and then Taylor walked her 421 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,720 Speaker 1: to her car. He was supposed to call her at 422 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:54,439 Speaker 1: nine pm, but he didn't, but she had already been 423 00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:56,560 Speaker 1: asleep and her maid did not normally wake her up 424 00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:58,720 Speaker 1: if she got calls after she was in bed, so 425 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,679 Speaker 1: she thought nothing of this. Detectives who were piecing this 426 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:05,439 Speaker 1: crime together believed that as Taylor was walking Mabel to 427 00:24:05,520 --> 00:24:09,600 Speaker 1: her car, the assailants snuck into the bungalow. Yeah, they 428 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:12,600 Speaker 1: did investigate Mabel, though, because on a tip that Mabel 429 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:15,040 Speaker 1: had a thirty eight caliber revolver like the one that 430 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,359 Speaker 1: was used to kill Taylor. Police searched her home and 431 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:20,880 Speaker 1: they did find two handguns, but both were twenty five 432 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:23,520 Speaker 1: caliber weapons that were not a match for the murder weapon, 433 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:26,679 Speaker 1: and so the police pretty quickly determined that Mabel was 434 00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:29,719 Speaker 1: not the killer. She was also of the people they 435 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:33,840 Speaker 1: interviewed seemed to be the most deeply grieving over the 436 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:39,320 Speaker 1: whole loss. Mabel's life continued to have problems after Taylor's death. 437 00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:42,080 Speaker 1: Not long after the murder, she had a date in 438 00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:45,720 Speaker 1: a jazz club with a married man named George S. Patterson. 439 00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:49,679 Speaker 1: He died in a car accident after they parted ways 440 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:53,159 Speaker 1: that evening, and then the newspapers used that whole event 441 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:56,200 Speaker 1: to smear her. Yeah, it was kind of like, isn't 442 00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:58,040 Speaker 1: it weird that two men that you were close to 443 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:00,639 Speaker 1: both died so soon after one? An there, it was 444 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:04,280 Speaker 1: really unkind uh. And then she was also involved in 445 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:09,560 Speaker 1: a shooting in when her driver killed her boyfriend. It 446 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,560 Speaker 1: turned out that the driver was an escaped convict who, 447 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:15,840 Speaker 1: like many people in Hollywood, had taken on a new identity. 448 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,600 Speaker 1: In ninety seven, Mabel was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and she 449 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:24,600 Speaker 1: died in nineteen thirty at the age of thirty seven. 450 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,080 Speaker 1: Next up, we're going to take a look at the 451 00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:30,600 Speaker 1: mother daughter duo who are most frequently linked to Taylor's death. 452 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,760 Speaker 1: But first we're going to pause again for a little 453 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:42,919 Speaker 1: sponsor break. Mary Miles Mintor was a young actress of 454 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,760 Speaker 1: eighteen who had been acting since she was a small girl. 455 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,040 Speaker 1: She was cast in an adaptation of Anne of Green 456 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:52,639 Speaker 1: Gables that Taylor was directing, and she developed a huge 457 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:57,320 Speaker 1: crush on the director Mary's mother, Charlotte Shelby, was dismayed 458 00:25:57,359 --> 00:26:00,520 Speaker 1: at the possibility of a relationship between her teen age daughter. 459 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,720 Speaker 1: In the late forties. Age director Mary had fallen for 460 00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:07,359 Speaker 1: a number of older men during her career, and at 461 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,280 Speaker 1: least one of them had taken advantage of her attraction 462 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,800 Speaker 1: to him. Why Charlotte was watching her daughter like a hawk. 463 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:17,000 Speaker 1: She was really intent that Mary should be famous and 464 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,040 Speaker 1: that the two of them should get rich in the process. 465 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:22,479 Speaker 1: She did not want any kind of dalliance to complicate matters. 466 00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,040 Speaker 1: She didn't want anything to ruin their plans. But Mary 467 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:28,920 Speaker 1: really seemed to believe that William Taylor was the love 468 00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: of her life. I will say, reading pretty much every account, 469 00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:37,679 Speaker 1: Charlotte does not seem to have been concerned about her 470 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,640 Speaker 1: daughter's well being in any of this. Like she wasn't like, 471 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,040 Speaker 1: I don't want another man to take advantage of my daughter. 472 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,480 Speaker 1: She really seemed to be making pretty selfish moves, which 473 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:49,440 Speaker 1: is sort of heartbreaking. Yeah, it's kind of the original 474 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:53,560 Speaker 1: prototype for the horrible stage mom. Yeah, and there's also 475 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,120 Speaker 1: in the in one of those ways that is um 476 00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:03,280 Speaker 1: unfortunately not surprising, putting the blame on her when she 477 00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:06,640 Speaker 1: was a child for the actions of adult men. Yes, 478 00:27:07,800 --> 00:27:11,479 Speaker 1: Um and Charlotte definitely bought into that love. Notes that 479 00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:15,280 Speaker 1: Mary Minter had written William Taylor were among his effects 480 00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:18,200 Speaker 1: in his Bungalow, in which the starlet wrote of wanting 481 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:21,159 Speaker 1: to go away with William and living in idyllic domestic 482 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:25,520 Speaker 1: romantic life. The papers began running stories that stated that 483 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:27,560 Speaker 1: the young woman was having an affair with the much 484 00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,960 Speaker 1: older director, but friends of his, as well as Mary Minter, 485 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 1: had all claimed that Mary's love was unrequited. When the 486 00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:37,360 Speaker 1: young woman had told Taylor how she felt about him, 487 00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:39,919 Speaker 1: he had very gently explained to her that he was 488 00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:42,560 Speaker 1: far too old for her, and he believed that the 489 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:46,439 Speaker 1: matter was settled. After Taylor got promoted to a different 490 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,720 Speaker 1: office by the studio, Mary was no longer working with him, 491 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:52,800 Speaker 1: and she became even more obsessed and really a little 492 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,399 Speaker 1: unstable as she tried to deal with her feelings for 493 00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 1: him and her growing resentment of her mother's interference. That 494 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:03,680 Speaker 1: one point, mentor had feigned shooting herself after a fight 495 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,960 Speaker 1: with her mother over whether she had been with Taylor. 496 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:09,840 Speaker 1: The gun was the same type that had been used 497 00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:14,080 Speaker 1: to kill Taylor. Yeah, that happened just for clarity before 498 00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:17,640 Speaker 1: Taylor was killed. Um. But the two of them, there 499 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: was sort of a constant badgering of were you with 500 00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:21,679 Speaker 1: that man? Were you with that man? Did you go 501 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,720 Speaker 1: see that man? Um? And while Mary would have loved 502 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,240 Speaker 1: to have gone to see that man, she made very 503 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,720 Speaker 1: clear that she really did adore him, she also had 504 00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:36,400 Speaker 1: not been um. Later, Mrs Shelby was seen carrying that 505 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,280 Speaker 1: same revolver when she, at one point went to William 506 00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,480 Speaker 1: Desmond Taylor's house in search of her daughter, who had 507 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,640 Speaker 1: failed to come home. She was going to confront him, 508 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:50,520 Speaker 1: but Mary was not at the director's house. Charlotte Shelby's 509 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,840 Speaker 1: protective nature regarding her daughter was really explosive when it 510 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,160 Speaker 1: came to William Taylor, even though he really seemed to 511 00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:01,760 Speaker 1: have no kind of lascivious attempt intent on the young actress. 512 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 1: But a witness employed by Mrs Shelby once saw her 513 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:10,120 Speaker 1: say to Taylor, if I ever catch you hanging around 514 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:14,320 Speaker 1: with Mary again, I will blow your expletive brains out. 515 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:19,200 Speaker 1: When Mary Mentor heard the news of Taylor's death, she 516 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:22,600 Speaker 1: went first to his home and then to a nearby mortuary, 517 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:25,880 Speaker 1: where she asked to give blood to save him. Whether 518 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,600 Speaker 1: she truly was in denial that he was dead or 519 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:31,320 Speaker 1: if she was playing up this relationship with the deceased, 520 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,680 Speaker 1: remains unknown. Charlotte Shelby opted to get out in front 521 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:38,760 Speaker 1: of this story by inviting reporters to speak with Mary, 522 00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:41,640 Speaker 1: and the young actress said that she and William Desmond 523 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,160 Speaker 1: Taylor had never been involved and that he saw her 524 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:48,280 Speaker 1: as a child. When Mary was deposed by police, her 525 00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:51,880 Speaker 1: interview lasted for several hours. She told them that she 526 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,480 Speaker 1: had been in love with William Taylor, but he had 527 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:58,040 Speaker 1: never returned his affection, and that they were not romantically involved. 528 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,360 Speaker 1: Charlotte Shelby was close to a d a in Los Angeles, 529 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:03,280 Speaker 1: and there had been rumors that the two of them 530 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,800 Speaker 1: were having an affair. This was about the time that Polly, 531 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:09,240 Speaker 1: as she was doing this research, started to believe that 532 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:12,400 Speaker 1: the papers in l A in the were speculating that 533 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: everyone was having a fair an affair. But I mean, 534 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:18,920 Speaker 1: who knows, maybe they were. Maybe everyone was having an affair. 535 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,160 Speaker 1: So she got a little heads up when the police 536 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,640 Speaker 1: were headed to her home to ask a few questions 537 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:30,360 Speaker 1: about William Taylor's murder. She was a very shrewd woman, 538 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 1: and she refused to answer their questions. Eventually, detectives that 539 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 1: were pretty convinced that she had probably murdered Taylor cooked 540 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:40,760 Speaker 1: up this wacky ruse to try to lure her out 541 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:43,760 Speaker 1: by running a fake story in the newspapers that a 542 00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:48,000 Speaker 1: spiritualist had communicated with the deceased William Desmond Taylor and 543 00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:50,320 Speaker 1: had learned the killer's identity and that it was a 544 00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,360 Speaker 1: woman with a beautiful daughter. This was, of course all 545 00:30:53,400 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 1: a farce, but it was designed to spur Shelby into 546 00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:59,120 Speaker 1: some sort of action. In the morning that that story ran, 547 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:02,440 Speaker 1: Shelby phoned lawyer immediately, but it really didn't result in 548 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,760 Speaker 1: anything more, and she did not come forward to confess. 549 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:08,120 Speaker 1: As they were hoping. One of the detectives in the 550 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,440 Speaker 1: case pulled three blonde hairs from the jacket that Taylor 551 00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:14,480 Speaker 1: had been wearing when he died. He had an expert 552 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,880 Speaker 1: compare them to hair from Mary Mentor, and they were 553 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,560 Speaker 1: declared to be a match. The theory was that Charlotte 554 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,560 Speaker 1: had walked in on Mary and William as they embraced 555 00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:28,000 Speaker 1: and had shot Taylor, and then Mary had arranged the 556 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:32,600 Speaker 1: body just as investigators really thought they were getting pretty 557 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:35,280 Speaker 1: close to solving this crime. They were ordered to drop 558 00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,600 Speaker 1: the case by the district attorney, the same one that 559 00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:41,200 Speaker 1: was good friends with Charlotte Shelby. But as the investigation 560 00:31:41,320 --> 00:31:44,760 Speaker 1: once again pointed to Shelby several years later, she claimed 561 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:46,840 Speaker 1: at that point that she and William Taylor had been 562 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:50,200 Speaker 1: the best of friends, that there was no animosity between them. 563 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:52,800 Speaker 1: This was a flat outlae, as anyone who knew them 564 00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:56,800 Speaker 1: would have attested to. But when she was questioned at 565 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,320 Speaker 1: that point about the whereabouts of her thirty eight caliber 566 00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:01,720 Speaker 1: revolver she was known to have owned the d A 567 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:05,160 Speaker 1: had actually given it to her, she confessed to investigators 568 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,240 Speaker 1: that her mother had taken the guns somewhere and disposed 569 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 1: of it, but that she did not know where. Director 570 00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 1: King Vidor later told people that Mary Mentor had strongly 571 00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:18,960 Speaker 1: suggested that her mother had killed William Taylor. Charlotte Shelby's 572 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:22,600 Speaker 1: other daughter, Margaret, also started openly accusing her mother of 573 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:25,520 Speaker 1: the murder in the nineteen thirties. Although Margaret's version of 574 00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:28,640 Speaker 1: events was wildly off the known facts of the case, 575 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: this mismatch in the description of the killer and Charlotte 576 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 1: Shelby was the one real halting point in her status 577 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:40,000 Speaker 1: as a suspect. Yeah, Faith mcclean's description definitely did not 578 00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:43,120 Speaker 1: describe anybody that looked like Charlotte Shelby, And so even 579 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:45,840 Speaker 1: when they felt like they had a lot of good, 580 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,080 Speaker 1: circumstantial evidence, that always pretty much put an end to things. 581 00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:50,560 Speaker 1: It's like, but she doesn't look at all like the 582 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:54,360 Speaker 1: one person that a witnessed saw. In nineteen thirty seven, 583 00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:59,640 Speaker 1: fifteen years after the murder, Charlotte Shelby's former chauffeur told 584 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:02,360 Speaker 1: police East that his employer had asked him to remove 585 00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:04,760 Speaker 1: all of the ammunition from the gun that she owned 586 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,920 Speaker 1: immediately after the murder of William Desmond Taylor was publicly known. 587 00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:11,720 Speaker 1: She claimed at the time that she feared that Mary 588 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:14,560 Speaker 1: was going to turn the pistol on herself. He had 589 00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,520 Speaker 1: put this ammunition on a beam in the basement of 590 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 1: Charlotte Shelby Shelby's former residence, and when the police went 591 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:23,479 Speaker 1: to the home, which at that point was occupied by 592 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,960 Speaker 1: other residents, the bullets were still there. They were matched 593 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:29,720 Speaker 1: to the bullet that had killed Taylor, which was significant 594 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:32,560 Speaker 1: because it was an older style of ammunition that was 595 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:37,800 Speaker 1: not normally used in Yeah, the ammunitions expert said something 596 00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:41,560 Speaker 1: to the effective like, uh, you know, this is one 597 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:43,760 Speaker 1: in a million or something crazy like that, like, if 598 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:46,400 Speaker 1: you find this this ammunition, it's got to be the 599 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:50,080 Speaker 1: same person. The case was reopened based on this new evidence. 600 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,360 Speaker 1: But when she appeared before a grand jury, Charlotte Shelby 601 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:57,600 Speaker 1: suddenly had a backup witness for an alibi. Prior to that, 602 00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,760 Speaker 1: there had always been a little discrepancy in her where 603 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,280 Speaker 1: about at the time of the murder. She had always 604 00:34:02,280 --> 00:34:06,240 Speaker 1: said she was at her house, but Mary and Mary's 605 00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:08,520 Speaker 1: grandmother who were at the house, or like, no, she wasn't. 606 00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:11,000 Speaker 1: Uh So it was always a little unclear if she 607 00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: had been in the house and they just didn't know, 608 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:14,560 Speaker 1: we're not. But this time she had a friend back 609 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,000 Speaker 1: her up and say he was there with her. After 610 00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:21,040 Speaker 1: the hearing, she told reporters quote, one of the worst 611 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:24,160 Speaker 1: tortures for any person, particularly a woman, is to go 612 00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:27,640 Speaker 1: through life with a cloud of malicious innuendo constantly hovering 613 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:30,920 Speaker 1: over her like a specter. Why must William Desmond Taylor's 614 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,600 Speaker 1: murder follow me through the years? I want to live 615 00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:35,680 Speaker 1: the rest of my life and happiness and peace. If 616 00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:38,640 Speaker 1: I may be permitted to do so. The case was 617 00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:43,120 Speaker 1: closed after the hearing and it was never reopened. In 618 00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:47,000 Speaker 1: the meantime, though, in those fifteen years, Mary Mentor's wholesome 619 00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:50,160 Speaker 1: image was tarnished by the rumors of a sexual relationship 620 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,320 Speaker 1: with Taylor, even though everyone denied that such a thing existed. 621 00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:57,080 Speaker 1: So she was this sort of ingenue type actress, and 622 00:34:57,120 --> 00:34:59,640 Speaker 1: so it just was really incongruous with the image that 623 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:02,759 Speaker 1: they were trying to promote for her. So her contract 624 00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,920 Speaker 1: with the studio wasn't renewed. She did manage to move 625 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:09,680 Speaker 1: away from her mother, but she quickly realized that because 626 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:12,080 Speaker 1: she had been basically a child star and then an 627 00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:14,759 Speaker 1: actress and her mother had managed everything, she did not 628 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,520 Speaker 1: have the skills to manage money on her own, and moreover, 629 00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:21,279 Speaker 1: there wasn't any money coming in to manage anyway. For 630 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,759 Speaker 1: a while, she seemed to constantly want to dredge up 631 00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:27,040 Speaker 1: the case in an effort to stay relevant, and at 632 00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:29,680 Speaker 1: one point she even fabricated a whole story that somebody 633 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 1: had tried to murder her. She also started a rumor 634 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,880 Speaker 1: that her mother had been jealous of her relationship with Taylor, 635 00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:39,200 Speaker 1: and hinted that there had been a romantic involvement. She 636 00:35:39,239 --> 00:35:42,279 Speaker 1: finally ended up marrying into wealth and living out her 637 00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:45,719 Speaker 1: life in a happy obscurity. Yeah, when she went through 638 00:35:45,719 --> 00:35:47,560 Speaker 1: that phase where she was saying a lot of crazy 639 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:52,000 Speaker 1: things to the press, it is pretty widely believed that 640 00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:58,600 Speaker 1: she was um developing a pretty bad dependency on drugs 641 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:01,000 Speaker 1: um and that's why she was so erratic all the time. 642 00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:05,160 Speaker 1: Another woman in Taylor's story, though that was not really 643 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:09,719 Speaker 1: investigated at the time, was Margaret Gibson. And Gibson, who 644 00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:13,160 Speaker 1: went by Gibbey, knew William Desmond Taylor. They had been 645 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:17,280 Speaker 1: actors together in their early careers. This was before Taylor 646 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:21,440 Speaker 1: had even moved to Los Angeles. Gibbey ran into some 647 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,840 Speaker 1: legal trouble after an arrest for dealing opium and possible 648 00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:28,719 Speaker 1: prostitution under a sort of an umbrella vagrancy charge. She 649 00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:31,640 Speaker 1: had been acquitted, but she knew that her career, which 650 00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:33,200 Speaker 1: she had been trying to get off the ground, was 651 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:35,480 Speaker 1: never going to get its feet back under it, so 652 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:38,840 Speaker 1: she reinvented herself as an actress under the name of 653 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,120 Speaker 1: Patricia Palmer. With her new name and an age that 654 00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:46,200 Speaker 1: she fudged. Gibbey or a Patricia sought out her old friend, 655 00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:49,320 Speaker 1: who was then head of the famous player's last studio, 656 00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:52,320 Speaker 1: but she didn't get the help she hoped for. Instead 657 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,200 Speaker 1: of her life wind up spiraling into just a constant, 658 00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:58,160 Speaker 1: clawing effort to try to make it in Hollywood that 659 00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:02,680 Speaker 1: often involved some really eedy people and eventually included being 660 00:37:02,719 --> 00:37:08,480 Speaker 1: part of a blackmail ring. Yeah, Gibby was so desperate, Uh, 661 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,520 Speaker 1: she got it was a combination of, you know, maybe 662 00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:15,719 Speaker 1: some flexible morality and also being just gullible enough to 663 00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:18,640 Speaker 1: believe horrible people when they promised that they would be 664 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:20,920 Speaker 1: the ones that really got her career off the ground. 665 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:25,560 Speaker 1: But eventually Gibson fled Hollywood, but she did move back 666 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:28,640 Speaker 1: to California later in her life, this time as a 667 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,640 Speaker 1: married woman. Her husband was Albert Lewis. She was widowed 668 00:37:32,680 --> 00:37:35,920 Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties when Lewis died, and in nineteen 669 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:38,799 Speaker 1: sixty four, Gibson, who at that point was living as 670 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:42,520 Speaker 1: Patricia Lewis, had a heart attack. When a neighbor found her, 671 00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:45,600 Speaker 1: she asked for a priest to give her final confession, 672 00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:52,000 Speaker 1: eventually telling the neighbor I killed William Desmond Taylor. It's possible, 673 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,879 Speaker 1: but even if she didn't physically kill Taylor, that her 674 00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,920 Speaker 1: blackmail dealings may have led to his demise. In some way, 675 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:02,200 Speaker 1: she was speeding information to the people who did in 676 00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:04,920 Speaker 1: his life. She might have felt that she was responsible 677 00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:08,879 Speaker 1: for his untimely end. Even so, in addition to that, 678 00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:12,080 Speaker 1: people confess to things they didn't do, like all the time, 679 00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:14,680 Speaker 1: that is true. This is a theory that's become a 680 00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:18,520 Speaker 1: lot more popular in recent years in part because, um, 681 00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:21,200 Speaker 1: she did run with a lot of people as part 682 00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:24,680 Speaker 1: of this blackmailing ring, and there are some matchups of 683 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:28,080 Speaker 1: people that she knew and was dealing with and some 684 00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:32,040 Speaker 1: sort of shady looking characters that had been seen around 685 00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:35,360 Speaker 1: William Desmond Taylor's home in the weeks leading up to 686 00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:39,760 Speaker 1: the murder. But again, that's one that could very easily 687 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,920 Speaker 1: be strictly coincidence. We just don't know. And to further 688 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,799 Speaker 1: complicate the picture of Taylor's life and who in it 689 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,040 Speaker 1: might wish to harm him, it slowly came to light 690 00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:53,440 Speaker 1: in all of this post murder investigation that he may 691 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:58,440 Speaker 1: have been bisexual. Friends eventually started speaking about his jaunts 692 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:01,600 Speaker 1: into opium clubs in Los Angeles that catered to game 693 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,799 Speaker 1: in and there were headlines that ran in papers about 694 00:39:04,880 --> 00:39:09,360 Speaker 1: Taylor visiting quote queer places. The studio tried to spend 695 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:12,719 Speaker 1: these stories as the director scouting kind of uh, you know, 696 00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:16,520 Speaker 1: color for his films, but this really didn't have any effect. 697 00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:20,440 Speaker 1: George James Hopkins, who was a designer of sets and production, 698 00:39:20,880 --> 00:39:24,360 Speaker 1: had collaborated on several pictures with William Desmond Taylor, and 699 00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:28,719 Speaker 1: in one he wrote an autobiography which was never published, 700 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,520 Speaker 1: in which he spoken of of an affair with Taylor 701 00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,840 Speaker 1: that lasted for several years, right up until the murder. 702 00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:40,760 Speaker 1: It's possible that someone was blackmailing William Desmond Taylor. Given 703 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:45,600 Speaker 1: his abandoned family and the possibility of bisexuality, and even 704 00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:48,440 Speaker 1: his career in film, there were plenty of secrets that 705 00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:51,840 Speaker 1: he may have wanted to keep under wraps. The revelations 706 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:54,800 Speaker 1: about the many secrets of Taylor's life, which fed into 707 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:58,279 Speaker 1: this larger story of scandal in Hollywood, really had a 708 00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:02,880 Speaker 1: serious impact on the film industry. An article that appeared 709 00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:06,200 Speaker 1: six days after Taylor's body was found read quote, the 710 00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:09,280 Speaker 1: murder of William Desmond Taylor has had a fearsome effect 711 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:13,640 Speaker 1: upon the movies. It is exposing the debaucheries, the looseness, 712 00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:19,080 Speaker 1: the rottenness of Hollywood. Studios immediately started working on vigilance 713 00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:22,719 Speaker 1: plans to ensure that ethics and conduct regulations were in 714 00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:26,120 Speaker 1: place in the industry. This eventually led to the adoption 715 00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:29,520 Speaker 1: of the Haze Code in nine thirty, which laid out 716 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:33,480 Speaker 1: moral guidelines for all motion pictures made in the United States. 717 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:39,440 Speaker 1: That code remained in place until nineteen William Desmond Taylor 718 00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,439 Speaker 1: directed more than fifty movies in a span of only 719 00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:45,520 Speaker 1: eight years, and when he was laid to rest, ten 720 00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,640 Speaker 1: thousand people showed up for the funeral. It was a 721 00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:51,560 Speaker 1: combination of people from Hollywood who just loved him because 722 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:54,839 Speaker 1: he was really well liked, as well as onlookers who 723 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,520 Speaker 1: were hoping to see famous people grieving. The crowd at 724 00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:01,719 Speaker 1: one point pushed their way into the chapel where his 725 00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:05,280 Speaker 1: funeral service was taking place, and a riot nearly started, 726 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:07,640 Speaker 1: but police were eventually able to push them back out 727 00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:09,880 Speaker 1: onto the street, and then they locked the doors so 728 00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,440 Speaker 1: the service could continue. Today, there's an annual film festival 729 00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:15,960 Speaker 1: of his movies in Carlo, Ireland, which is where he 730 00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:19,399 Speaker 1: was born. And what really becomes apparent when you look 731 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,320 Speaker 1: at all of the elements of this bizarre, unsolved case 732 00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:24,959 Speaker 1: is how many people in Los Angeles in the early 733 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,800 Speaker 1: days of the film industry, we're hiding huge personal secrets, 734 00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,400 Speaker 1: and the truth of what happened the night that William 735 00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:34,120 Speaker 1: Desmond Taylor died will likely never be known, though there 736 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,759 Speaker 1: are certainly plenty of books written about the case, each 737 00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:40,799 Speaker 1: of which seems to favor a different killer. Uh. Yeah, 738 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:43,279 Speaker 1: it comes up a lot when you're reading histories of 739 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:45,400 Speaker 1: this case, like how easy it was for someone to 740 00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:47,319 Speaker 1: just show up in Los Angeles and say my name 741 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:50,040 Speaker 1: is X. And there were not the easy ways to 742 00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:54,320 Speaker 1: background check people as there are now, and people would go, okay, X, uh, 743 00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,440 Speaker 1: let's do this. So a lot of the people that 744 00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:59,520 Speaker 1: had moved there were kind of starting over and maybe 745 00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:01,960 Speaker 1: had some savory things that they wanted to be behind. 746 00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,480 Speaker 1: Just uh, you know, a fascinating and kind of sad 747 00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:11,040 Speaker 1: thing in many ways. Do you also have some listener 748 00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:13,960 Speaker 1: mail I do, and it is fascinating but not sad 749 00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:17,760 Speaker 1: at all. It's delightful. Uh. This is from our listener Julie, 750 00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,360 Speaker 1: and she says Autumn greetings to the beloved host of 751 00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:22,680 Speaker 1: my favorite podcast, Whoo. I managed to get out of 752 00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:25,480 Speaker 1: that which name to mention first dilemma? As an aside, 753 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:28,160 Speaker 1: for the record, I don't think Tracy normal self care. 754 00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:30,920 Speaker 1: Which one of us you mentioned first in any greeting. No, 755 00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:34,080 Speaker 1: I really don't do whatever you want. Yeah, it's a 756 00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:36,680 Speaker 1: pretty even spread. I think. I started listening to your 757 00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:38,960 Speaker 1: podcast a few months ago to keep me entertained in 758 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:41,479 Speaker 1: a wake on a cross country dot drive from North 759 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:44,960 Speaker 1: Carolina to Washington. Anyone who thinks history is boring hasn't 760 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:46,520 Speaker 1: heard your take on it, and I thank you for 761 00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:49,360 Speaker 1: making that experience far more enjoyable than I could have wished. 762 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:51,480 Speaker 1: I love that you challenged me with topics that I 763 00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:53,880 Speaker 1: would never pick for myself, and managed to make me 764 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:56,320 Speaker 1: think new and different thoughts on subjects I've been familiar 765 00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:59,759 Speaker 1: with for a long time. I wonder if this is 766 00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:01,800 Speaker 1: one of the reasons you get so many listener requests 767 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:03,520 Speaker 1: for topics that seem on the face to be too 768 00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:06,319 Speaker 1: well known form a mist in history subject. Like so 769 00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,680 Speaker 1: many other listeners, I frequently crossed paths with topics you've covered, 770 00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:13,520 Speaker 1: and I love that I know more because of your work. Um. 771 00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:16,120 Speaker 1: She says her most recent example is seeing copies of 772 00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:19,720 Speaker 1: the sears Wish books on display in Powell's Bookstore in Portland, 773 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:21,799 Speaker 1: which is a must visit whenever you're in town. I 774 00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:24,760 Speaker 1: have been there. It is amazing. Anyway, she says, here's 775 00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:28,200 Speaker 1: the the really delightful part. I like to crochet while 776 00:43:28,239 --> 00:43:30,759 Speaker 1: I listen to your podcasts and remembering Holly's Glee and 777 00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,320 Speaker 1: talking about candy corn, I had a bit of inspiration 778 00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:36,160 Speaker 1: for a Halloween and thank you gift. Fortunately for Tracy, 779 00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:38,400 Speaker 1: you will not have to pretend these are tasty. She 780 00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:41,719 Speaker 1: also does not like candy corn, so she crocheted us 781 00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:46,080 Speaker 1: these really cute. They're like candy corn handbags there, she says. 782 00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:48,279 Speaker 1: You can use them as festive purses or to hand 783 00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:51,520 Speaker 1: out candy. Look how cute. But here's what I discovered. 784 00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:54,120 Speaker 1: You can roll up the sides with handles and make 785 00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:57,960 Speaker 1: them a lovely hat. What candy corn hat. That's amazing, 786 00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:00,560 Speaker 1: which I'm perfectly happy to all as were a hat, 787 00:44:00,640 --> 00:44:02,560 Speaker 1: and more likely to do that than add another bag 788 00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:06,480 Speaker 1: to my out of control back collection. Um. So they 789 00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:09,680 Speaker 1: are absolutely delightful, Julie, thank you so much. I smiled 790 00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:11,880 Speaker 1: so big when I opened this parcel because it is 791 00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:15,400 Speaker 1: colorful and fun and features candy corn, and she also 792 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,520 Speaker 1: added in um some really cute fun stuff that she 793 00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:21,040 Speaker 1: added in at the last minute, which were some cool 794 00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:25,440 Speaker 1: um um postcards that she added in. So thank you, 795 00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:27,239 Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. What a delight in It made 796 00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:29,239 Speaker 1: my day. So if you would like to write to us, 797 00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:31,480 Speaker 1: you can do that. We're in History podcast at house 798 00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:33,840 Speaker 1: to works dot com. You can also find us across 799 00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:37,279 Speaker 1: the spectrum of social media as missed in History. Uh 800 00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:40,040 Speaker 1: if you would like to research additional things, or just 801 00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:43,319 Speaker 1: check out our homepage that has Missed in History dot com, 802 00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:45,720 Speaker 1: where you will find show notes for every episode Tracy 803 00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:47,440 Speaker 1: and I have ever worked on, as well as an 804 00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:50,279 Speaker 1: archive of every show that has ever existed since the 805 00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:53,239 Speaker 1: beginning of the podcast. So indeed, come and visit us 806 00:44:53,440 --> 00:45:01,640 Speaker 1: at missed in History dot com. For more on this 807 00:45:01,800 --> 00:45:13,120 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit howstof works dot com.