“So sorry to inconvenience”: This letter was reported in many newspapers, as in the Long Beach Telegram, February 2, 1922, and a facsimile was published in the Los Angeles Examiner, February 23, 1922.
CHAPTER 30: A WORK SO IMPORTANT
“I want to be William”: Memoirs of Will H. Hays.
“We know we have secured”: Statement draft, January 16, 1922, WHH.
Almost immediately: New York Times, January 16, 1922.
CHAPTER 31: A GHASTLY STRAIN
In the early-morning hours: Mabel described this night in an official statement to Woolwine, though the statement has now been lost. Portions of it, however, were included in Sennett’s King of Comedy. Mabel stated the party was held at the Alexandria Hotel. According to Howard Fellows, however, the Cocoanut Grove was the scene of the festivities. As Fellows was the driver, I’ve gone with the Grove. Howard Fellows, witness statement.
“very much excited”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 8, 1922.
he laid out $1,250: Taylor’s probate file.
During the second week of January: Los Angeles Record, January 13, 1922.
witnessed something he couldn’t explain: Los Angeles Examiner, February 4, 1922.
“extremely reserved and diffident”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 5, 1922.
“If I ever lay my hands”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 4, 1922.
Ross had known Taylor: Rocky Mountain News, February 12, 1922.
“much smaller than the other”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 3 and 12, 1922.
CHAPTER 32: A HOUSE IN THE HILLS
Her part in the two-reel comedy: I’m grateful to Bruce Long’s intensive research on the filming of Cold Feet in Truckee, California, documented with items from the Los Angeles Herald, February 20, 1922, and the Oakland Tribune, February 19, 1922, among others.
“cheap liquor”: FBI report, October 25, 1923.
“a weak, diseased, decayed”: Mrs. Mabelle Osborn to Don Osborn, July 31, 1923, reproduced in FBI report, August 2, 1923.
“a gang of eleven”: George Lasher to John Bushnell, August 28, 1923, FBI report, October 25, 1923.
CHAPTER 33: LAST DAY
While her chauffeur: I am indebted to Long’s Taylor: A Dossier for compiling and collating all of Mabel’s various statements of her visit to Taylor on that last night into one comprehensive account.
Floyd Hartley, the station’s owner: Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1922. Also the Los Angeles city directory, 1921, 1922.
“surprisingly, tenderly understood”: Photoplay, August 1921.
Mrs. Marie Stone: Los Angeles Examiner, February 12, 1922; US Census; Los Angeles city directories.
Catercorner from his apartment: MacLean gave his account of that morning a number of times, primarily in his witness statement of February 9, 1922, which survives in both the excerpted version and in King of Comedy, but also in various newspaper accounts.
“come from the corner”: Christina Jewett, witness statement, February 9, 1922.
CHAPTER 34: A SHOT
“a shattering report”: San Francisco Examiner, February 6, 1922. My account is also supplemented by MacLean, witness statement, February 9, 1922.
CHAPTER 35: THE DEAD MAN ON THE FLOOR
when she’d returned home around midnight: Los Angeles Examiner, February 3, 1922.
she picked up the telephone: Charles Maigne, witness statement, February 9, 1922. It is from Maigne that we know Purviance called Normand after hearing Peavey’s cries.
Jesserun had been sick in bed: Los Angeles Examiner, February 3, 1922.
“absolutely stiff”: Verne Dumas, witness statement, February 9, 1922.
“Mr. Taylor is dead”: MacLean, witness statement, February 9, 1922, cited in King of Comedy.
dangled from a book, Moon-Calf: Los Angeles Record, February 2, 1922.
His checkbook was open: Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1922.
locked automatically: Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1922.
“was a little bit kicked up”: Peavey, witness statement, February 4, 1922.
“I don’t believe the man fell”: Harrington, witness statement, February 9, 1922.
“wondering how on earth”: Maigne, witness statement, February 9, 1922.
Jesserun admitted he’d heard the sound: Los Angeles Record, February 2, 1922. This is the source also for Jesserun seeing Taylor’s lights burning all night. Several witnesses also gave statements that included their understanding that Jesserun had heard the shot.
“Murder”: MacLean, witness statement, February 9, 1922. MacLean said he remembered the speaker as “a man from the house across the street from us” who had gone “over to Mr. Taylor’s.” As no account offers any other names than Harrington and Dumas as neighbors who entered Taylor’s apartment that morning, I have concluded the man who said “Murder” must have been one of them. Indeed, the apartment of Harrington and Dumas was across the alley and courtyard from the MacLean’s apartment, though on the same eastern side of the complex.
hand of the corpse was outstretched: There has been much confusion over this point. Other writers have interpreted Zeigler’s comment, given in his statement at the coroner’s inquest, February 4, 1922, as meaning that one arm was outstretched. But this was not what Zeigler said: “His hands, one of them apparently to the side of the body, and the other lying outstretched.” No one else mentioned an outstretched arm; all other testimony reported that Taylor’s arms were straight at his sides. A hand turned at the wrist may have been easy to miss by untrained eyes. Zeigler, more experienced in observation, took note of it, however. It may or may not have been an important detail—but it was definitely not an outstretched arm.
Zeigler had telephoned a doctor: This was stated plainly by Charles Eyton in his statement at the inquest, February 4, 1922.
Maigne noticed that the stack of canceled checks: Maigne, witness statement, February 9, 1922.
Well acquainted with the studio executive: Eyton, in his statement at the inquest, said the first man he noticed upon his arrival at Taylor’s apartment was Zeigler, “whom I have known for a number of years.”
Pulling them aside: In his statement of February 9, 1922, Harry Fellows said that he, Hoyt, and Maigne went upstairs. They would only have done so on instructions from Eyton. In his statement of November 30, 1925, Eyton said he “did not go through the house,” but seemed to indicate Fellows, Maigne, and Hoyt.
“We got all the literature and things like that”: Fellows, witness statement. Fellows also said that he handed the package of papers to Van Trees, who then gave them to his mother, Crawford-Ivers, from whom Fellows later retrieved them and brought them to Eyton at the studio.
Hopkins accepted another batch: Hopkins, “Caught in the Act.” Hopkins also wrote of Crawford-Ivers and the hatpin.
“Charley,” he pleaded: Eyton, witness statement, November 30, 1925.
the deputy coroner, William MacDonald, finally arrived: McDonald’s examination was described by Eyton in his statement, November 30, 1925. Biographical details on McDonald come from the 1920 US Census.
“I should say it was a stomach hemorrhage”: I have taken this quote, although changing it, from Frank Bartholomew’s memoir, Bart: Memoirs of Frank H. Bartholomew (Sonoma, CA: Vine Brook Press, 1983). The reporter recalled the deputy coroner being told that Taylor had died of a heart attack. But several contemporary witness statements recalled that initial diagnosis as a stomach hemorrhage. I’ve concluded that Bartholomew remembered correctly the deputy coroner’s sarcastic statement, but after sixty years, got the “heart attack” part wrong.
CHAPTER 36: REACTIONS
“their pallor showing”: Los Angeles Express, February 2, 1922.
Among the actors at the studio: Although Christie and members of the Cold Feet company had gone to Truckee, California, for location shooting by February 1, as an item in the Los Angeles Record makes clear, Gibby does not seem to have accompanied them. A careful consideration of the shoo
ting script for Cold Feet, found in the Al Christie papers at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, reveals that Patricia Palmer did not appear in any of the exterior location scenes. So she could well have been at the studio.
“thrown into a deep well”: Film Daily, February 18, 1922.
“Taylor has been murdered”: Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1923.
Mary didn’t answer: In addition to Mary’s newspaper interviews, I have used the Higham transcript in my description of Mary’s reaction to learning of Taylor’s death.
“laughing all the evening”: Minter, statement to the district attorney. Walter Traprock was a pseudonym for George Shepard Chappell.
leaping up onto the running board: Chauncey Eaton, witness testimony, 1937, as reported in the Sanderson overview of the Taylor case, reproduced in Long, Taylor: A Dossier.
“Mr. Taylor’s death comes”: Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1922.
“Through a cowardly”: San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1922.
Eyton began going through: The order in which studio officials learned of the contents of Taylor’s papers is conjecture on my part. However, the chain of command went from Eyton to Lasky to Zukor, as other records indicate.
Mary jumped out: My account of Mary’s postmurder visit to Alvarado Court comes from the Los Angeles Times, February 3, 1922, and Los Angeles Examiner, February 3, 1922.
“His blood!”: Los Angeles Record, February 2, 1922.
“a thousand of them”: I’ve based my account of Mary’s visits to the undertaker and to Mabel on the Higham transcript.
CHAPTER 37: KING OF THE COPS
hauled off and punched a defense lawyer: Los Angeles Times, March 18 and 19, 1922.
“carnival of extravagance”: Los Angeles Times, October 1, 1921; January 5, 1922.
“The ‘bumping off’”: Edgar King, “I Know Who Killed William Desmond Taylor,” True Detective Mysteries, September and October 1930, reproduced in Long, Taylor: A Dossier.
“solved more major crime mysteries”: Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1924.
entered the victim’s left side: Coroner’s inquest, February 4, 1922.
Taylor had met with his daughter: Police discovered evidence of Taylor’s abandoned family probably late on February 2, although the first reports in the press did not appear until February 4.
But King wasn’t so sure: For my description of King’s thinking and methods, I have gleaned as much as possible from King, “I Know Who.” I am also grateful to his family for providing context and additional details and insights.
Besides, their only eyewitness: San Francisco Examiner, February 6, 1922.
“He was dressed like”: MacLean, witness statement. Although this no longer survives, it was reproduced in Sennett, King of Comedy.
Two streetcar operators; “inclined to think”: Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1922.
JEALOUS MAN HUNTED: Los Angeles Examiner, February 3, 1922.
POLICE CONVINCED EITHER WOMAN: San Francisco Examiner, February 3, 1922.
offered King a lead of his own: King, “I Know Who.”
“the smallest man in stature”: Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1924.
Six years earlier: Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1916.
“handled any hop”: See the statement of Earl Tiffany, February 17, 1922.
“From cellar to attic”: King, “I Know Who.”
CHAPTER 38: THE MORAL FAILURES OF ONE CONCERN
hurrying to meet Cecil B. DeMille: New York Morning Telegraph, February 4, 1922; New York Times, February 4, 1922; New York Tribune, February 4, 1922.
“I have just heard”: Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1922.
“The murder of any screen director”: Zukor, Public Is Never Wrong.
“It is police experience”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 4, 1922.
“It is a shame”: Unsourced clipping, February 5, 1922, William Desmond Taylor file, NYPL.
“The police theory that a woman”: Los Angeles Record, February 4, 1922.
“resources of time and money”: San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1922.
“Only a while ago”: Fort Wayne (IN) Journal-Gazette, February 12, 1922, courtesy Bruce Long.
“This fearsome scandal”: Uniontown (PA) News Standard, February 11, 1922, courtesy Bruce Long.
“mad pursuit of twentieth-century”: Danville (VA) Bee, February 6, 1922, courtesy Bruce Long.
“The thing to get excited”: Fargo (ND) Forum, February 18, 1922.
“The motion picture industry”: McKean (PA) Democrat, February 10, 1922, courtesy Bruce Long.
On the day Taylor’s body: Roland Roloff [sic] to Will Hays, February 3, 1922, WHH.
“absolutely no plans”: Washington Times, February 9, 1922.
“a production program that eclipses”: Variety, February 3, 1922.
The national economy: US Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1976.
company’s net income had plunged: August 1922, WHH.
CHAPTER 39: “DO YOU THINK THAT I KILLED MR. TAYLOR?”
Mary stepped gingerly: Higham transcript.
“as a mere child”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 4, 1922.
That evening, unable to sleep: Minter, statement to the district attorney.
CHAPTER 40: POWDER BURNS
In the shooting gallery: Los Angeles Examiner, February 6, 1922.
“rather than continue”: Los Angeles Herald, February 6, 1922.
“woman supplied the incentive”: Phoenix Gazette, February 4, 1922.
Crowds had started: The inquest was described in detail by the Los Angeles Examiner, February 5, 1922, and Los Angeles Times, February 5, 1922.
“Hey, mac!”: Unsourced item, William Desmond Taylor file, NYPL.
“who adhered to the belief”: Los Angeles Herald, February 6, 1922.
“If it would help”: King, “I Know Who.” Although King wrote that Hoyt’s visit to Taylor was on the night before the murder, it’s possible he or Hoyt had their days mixed up. W. A. Robertson in his statement to police of February 9 said that Hoyt was present when Taylor told a similar story about Minter on Saturday, January 28, a night when Taylor was out with Hoyt and Robertson, first at the Los Angeles Athletic Club and then at the Annandale Country Club. Los Angeles Times, February 5, 1922.
the city’s first “speed cop”: Los Angeles Times, March 12, 1924.
luxurious touring car: Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1922; Los Angeles Examiner, February 4, 1922.
“may have had knowledge”: Los Angeles Herald, February 6, 1922.
“I can’t see why”: New York Daily News, February 6, 1922.
“short and heavyset”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 4, 1922.
CHAPTER 41: EVIDENCE FOUND
“piled high with papers”: Los Angeles Times, February 6, 1922.
“letters and personal belongings”: My account of King’s detective work comes from King, “I Know Who,” and e-mails with his family.
everyone knew that Eyton had them: It was reported in Variety, February 10, 1922, that “a studio official” had taken Mabel’s letters.
Famous Players could not appear: That police were threatening Eyton seems clear from many of the newspaper accounts. Variety reported it plainly on February 10, 1922, though the paper did not name Eyton: “Authorities made a direct threat and he then placed the letters in a shoe of Taylor’s.”
CHAPTER 42: DAMES EVEN MORE DESPERATE
“Never before in the history”: My description of Taylor’s funeral comes from the Los Angeles Examiner, February 8, 1922; Los Angeles Times, February 8, 1922; and other local coverage.
“correct any false impressions”: Exhibitors Trade Review, February 18, 1922.
“the ‘hop’ feasts”: New York Daily News, February 8, 1922.
“Get it straight, please”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 6, 1922.
“compelled to handle”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 8, 1922.
“the b
lackmailer of the century”: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 1922.
Mrs. Shelby had hired: Los Angeles Record, February 8, 1922.
“If [Mary’s contract is] renewed”: Film Daily, January 3, 1922.
“The studio was using the situation”: Oakland Tribune, July 1, 1933. This was from a deposition made by Leslie Henry, a former employee of Charlotte Shelby. See Bruce Long, “Why Were Minter’s Love Letters Given to the Public?” on Taylorology.
“unknown in a man’s wardrobe”: Los Angeles Examiner, February 6, 1922.
“long and grueling”: St. Louis Globe Democrat, February 7, 1922.
CHAPTER 43: THE NEED FOR VIGILANCE
“at the end of his rope”: Variety, February 10, 1922.
“narrowly escaped trouble”: Variety, February 10, 1922.
Cecil B. DeMille had scrapped: Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1922.
Mrs. Evelyn F. Snow: Variety, February 3, 1922.
“There’s no more immorality”: New Castle (PA) News, February 7, 1922.
“We all deplore”: New Castle News, February 14, 1922.
Not for several days: “Adolph Zukor, president of Famous Players–Lasky Corporation, by whom Taylor was employed, arrived in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon. Zukor immediately went into seclusion and refused to be interviewed on any subject yesterday.” Los Angeles Examiner, February 13, 1922.
Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood Page 47
