William Desmond Taylor
A silent film actor turned film producer is found dead in his Los Angeles bungalow. Police arrive on the scene to find the home filled with major Hollywood starlets and executives of the era rummaging through the famous producer’s personal items. The producer, William Desmond Taylor, is found lying on his stomach with bullet holes in his back – A detail which directly undermined the original reports from an alleged doctor on the scene who disappeared as mysteriously as he came. The death of William Desmond Taylor remains shrouded in as much secrecy today as it was back in 1922.
Prior to his death, Taylor had gotten his start as a silent film actor in 1912. His first two major roles included 1913’s The Counterfeiters and The Iconoclast. It wouldn’t be until 1917, after having been cast as an actor in A Tale of Two Cities, that Taylor would make his transition from actor to producer.
His knowledge of art and literature made him an invaluable addition on the set and the director was able to launch Taylor’s career as a film producer with major players such as Fox and Paramount. Taylor would go on to produce Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, along with several other films before enlisting in the army in 1918 and being stationed to France. Taylor was discharged the following year and subsequently produced Anne of Green Gables. His final project would be 1922’s The Green Temptation.
In less than a decade Taylor went from traveling with acting troupes across Canada to rubbing elbows with some of Tinsel Town’s most elite. It would seem that Taylor had rose to the heights of one of Hollywood’s untouchables and there would be no end to the money, power, and excess that flowed through old Hollywood in its heyday. But like all good things, it wouldn’t be long before Taylor’s luck would run out, and the naive, carefree attitude of 1920s Hollywood would come to a grinding halt.
Comedic actress Mabel Normand was the last person known to have seen Taylor alive.
In the evening prior to his murder, investigators were able to determine that Taylor had returned a phone call at around 7pm to actor Antonio Moreno. Minutes later, witnesses saw Mabel Normand knock on Taylor’s door. The actress stayed for only a short while, before the two emerged from the home and Taylor walked Normand to her car. Some believe that Taylor may have been shot shorty after the actress left the Taylor’s home. Others have theorized that his murder may have occurred much later, as rigor mortis had not yet set in when he had been discovered by his housekeeper at 7:45am the following day.
What is known is that studio executives, along with Mabel Normand, arrived at Taylor’s home before police had a chance to secure the murder scene. A crowd gathered to the scene and a man identifying himself as a doctor quickly ruled that Taylor’s death was the result of a stomach hemorrhage. Police arrived to find that not only had the scene been heavily compromised, but Taylor’s death had not been the result of natural causes at all.
A large amount of cash in Taylor’s wallet and and a 2-carat diamond ring on his finger indicated that Taylor’s death had not been the result of a robbery attempt. Nearly a dozen different suspects were called into question in connection with Taylor’s murder, but a lack of evidence forced the case to remain unsolved.
As one of Hollywood’s first major scandals, the mysterious murder of William Desmond Taylor certainly did not disappoint and, as more details of Taylor’s secret life emerged, the further down the rabbit hole the story went. A confusing blend of of fact and fiction the likes of which no movie could surpass.
Prior to making his way to Hollywood, it was learned that William Desmond Taylor was not Taylor’s real name. Taylor’s true identity was William Deane-Tanner, and he had been married for seven years before leaving for lunch one day from his job at his uncle’s antique shop, never to return. He left behind his wife and child with no rhyme or reason, at least not known to anyone except Taylor. This has lead some to theorize that Taylor’s murder may have been the result of his secret past coming back to bite him.
There were also rumors of Taylor carrying on a homosexual relationship with George James Hopkins. A relationship which continued up until the time of Taylor’s murder. Scandalous only in the sense that, at the time, homosexuality was taboo to the point that it would have meant career suicide if the relationship had ever been discovered and due to Taylor’s reputation of being a handsome womanizer who had seduced and slept with many of the actresses he worked with.
With that being said, investigators were able to uncover a number of pornographic photos in Taylor’s home. The photos were of some of Hollywood’s biggest starlets, many of which had worked with Taylor, and some have come to the conclusion that he may have been blackmailing the actresses. Threatening their careers if the young women did not submit to his demands.
Nearly a dozen suspects were interrogated in connection to the murder, but only three of them remain questionable.
Mabel Normand is still considered a primary suspect in the case. Not only was she one of the last people to witness Taylor alive, but she was found on the scene going through Taylor’s bedroom drawers. Normand was known to have a nasty cocaine habit and some believe that Taylor may have been taken down by some of Normand’s suppliers in a drug deal gone wrong. Alternatively, it has been speculated that Taylor may have angered Normand’s drug dealers in an attempt to help Normand get off drugs. Regardless of whether or not she had any involvement in Taylor’s death, Normand’s career never fully recovered from the scandal.
Mary Miles Minter was rumored to have been involved in a sexual relationship with Taylor at the time of his murder.
Mary Miles Minter was another woman suspected to have killed Taylor. Love letters from Minter were found in Taylor’s possession, along with a monogrammed negligee belonging to the young actress. Though some suspect there may have been a sexual relationship between the two, sources close to Taylor claim that Minter’s love for Taylor was unrequited and he had rejected the girl on a number of occasions.
Minter’s mother, Charlotte Shelby, has also been called into question. The most damning piece of evidence being a small .38 caliber pistol owned by Shelby, with bullets similar to the size of the ones used to kill Taylor. There has been speculation that Minter had been carrying out a relationship with Taylor, which was heavily frowned upon by Shelby because of the nearly 20 year age difference of the couple. Some say that Shelby went to Taylor’s home that night and shot him when it was discovered that he was with her daughter.
Long after the initial investigations, a new suspect came into question. Now on her deathbed, a sickly woman named Margaret Gibson claimed that it was she who had murdered William Desmond Taylor nearly 40 years prior to her confession. Gibson had worked with Taylor early in his Hollywood career, but there is no apparent motive for Gibson to have murdered him. The only known evidence linking her to the crime is her own confession.
They say dead men tell no tales, and that is certainly true when lying in the midst of a compromised crime scene. With Taylor long dead and a good possibility that whomever was responsible for the crime is now in a similar position, it is with a fair amount of certainty that we can suspect that Taylor’s murder will forever remain a mystery.