The Old Hollywood Murder 2 | Murder: True Crime Stories

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Old Hollywood Murder 2 | Murder: True Crime Stories"

Podcast: Scams, Money, & Murder
Host(s): Carter Roy, Vanessa Richardson
Date: March 22, 2026
Original Description: A deep dive into the infamous unsolved murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor—one of the first Hollywood scandals. This episode explores the suspects, swirling rumors, police missteps, and why Taylor’s case remains shrouded in mystery.

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1. Episode Overview

This episode is the second and final part covering the 1922 murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor—a crime that rocked early Hollywood and spawned decades of rumor, scandal, and conspiracy theories. The hosts, Carter Roy and Vanessa Richardson, break down the tangled web of suspects, media frenzy, and evidence contamination that left the case unsolved.

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2. Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Discovery of William Desmond Taylor’s Body

[04:59-05:28]

• Taylor’s body is discovered on the morning of February 2, 1922, in Los Angeles.
• Neighbors Douglas and Faith McLean heard a loud bang; their maid Christine believed it was gunfire.
• The crime scene was compromised by curious onlookers before police arrived, contaminating evidence.
• Faith McLean witnessed a stranger leaving Taylor’s residence, later giving a description that matched a “movie burglar”—dark suit, scarf or upturned collar.

Suspect #1: Edward Sands (Taylor’s Former Butler)

[07:07-12:18]

• Sands had a long history of fraud, theft, and using aliases.
• He was fired after forging checks and stealing valuables from Taylor.
• Evidence of repeated break-ins, stolen gold-tipped cigarettes, and mysterious phone calls to Taylor in the weeks before his death.
• Sands became the police’s main suspect, but there was insufficient evidence to tie him to the murder or place him definitively at the scene.
• Conflicting witness statements and records placed Sands far from the crime scene, and speculation grew he might have lost weight to disguise himself or that the killer could have been a woman in disguise.

“This pattern showed to the investigators that Sands wasn’t afraid to return to the scene of his crimes.” — Narrator/Co-host [09:16]

Suspects #2: Mary Miles Minter & Charlotte Shelby (Film Star & Her Mother)

[14:03-22:33]

• Teenage actress Mary Miles Minter and her controlling mother Charlotte Shelby came under suspicion.
• The Shelby family history: from Shreveport, Louisiana, to Hollywood, with multiple name changes and document forgeries to advance Mary’s career.
• Mary became infatuated with Taylor during and after working together; her mother was fiercely protective and had a volatile relationship with Taylor.
• After the murder, love letters from Mary to Taylor were leaked, and rumors swirled about a nightgown found at the scene.
• Mary’s initial denial of seeing Taylor recently fell apart—she admitted to a Christmas Eve visit and was alleged to have made further visits (according to Taylor’s friends).
• Press and police speculated whether Mary’s jealousy or Charlotte’s desire to protect her daughter (or their finances) led to Taylor’s murder.
• Charlotte owned a matching .38 caliber revolver and was reported to have threatened Taylor, but had an alibi: she was with actor Carl Stockdale, who, confusingly, fit the witness’s description of the stranger seen at Taylor’s.

“She was sure that she’d never seen him before, but the stranger seemed perfectly comfortable with his surroundings.” — Carter Roy [06:34]

“The implication was that it was Mary’s [nightgown], even though there was never any definitive proof that it belonged to her.” — Narrator/Co-host [20:17]

“Charlotte had threatened violence against William on multiple occasions. And she owned the exact type of gun used to kill him.” — Carter Roy [22:24–22:36]

Hollywood Scandal & Police Missteps

[25:30-34:17]

• Enormous public and media interest fueled conspiracy theories, especially linking Hollywood's new fame to moral panic.
• Numerous drug-related theories flourished—William as a user, dealer, or crusader cleaning up Hollywood.
• The “drug crusader” theory centered on William’s relationship with actress Mabel Normand, a known addict and the last person to see William alive.
• Newspapers (especially those owned by William Randolph Hearst) were found to have fabricated or heavily speculated stories. Many so-called sources and "corroborations" crumbled under scrutiny.
• Evidence mishandling was rampant: crucial materials disappeared after being moved to the D.A.’s office, and scene photos were staged after the fact.
• The D.A. was rumored to have personal ties to Charlotte Shelby and Mary and may have actively suppressed evidence.
• Multiple confessions and tips led nowhere; Sands vanished entirely.

“It seemed the most likely perpetrator managed to disappear into thin air.” — Narrator/Co-host [33:18]

“With so many experienced officials on the case, it’s hard to believe all the mistakes were genuine. In fact, many have speculated that the supposed mistakes were actually calculated steps taken to cover up the truth.” — Narrator/Co-host [33:46]

Theories & Lasting Mysteries

[34:17-35:11]

• Theorized cover-ups ranged from bribed officials, Charlotte Shelby protecting herself or Mary, to studio chiefs sheltering the industry from scandal.
• Fear that negative publicity could destroy Hollywood "unbalanced the scales of justice."
• The ultimate truth remains elusive: contaminated evidence, lost files, and unreliable press coverage all contributed to the ongoing enigma.

“The man himself maintained a private and unknowable existence. So it seems that much as it was in life, the true story of William Desmond Taylor’s death will remain a mystery.” — Carter Roy [35:11]

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3. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Faith McLean's eyewitness encounter:
  “She was sure that she’d never seen him before, but the stranger seemed perfectly comfortable with his surroundings. He casually pulled the door shut behind him, then walked right past her and was gone.”
  — Carter Roy [06:34]

• On media manipulation:
  “Yes, he was a fiction writer. William Randolph Hearst, who owned many newspapers throughout the country, hired Reeve to write articles of pure speculation on William’s murder.”
  — Carter Roy [30:02–30:05]

• On the loss of crucial evidence:
  “Shortly after they were all questioned by his investigators, the DA ordered all the evidence from the case to be moved from the police station to his office. From there, it all disappeared.”
  — Carter Roy [32:33]

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4. Timeline of Key Events (Timestamps)

| Timestamp | Segment / Discussion | |---------------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | 04:59 | Discovery of Taylor’s body, contaminated crime scene | | 06:34 | Faith McLean’s encounter with the mystery man | | 07:07–12:18 | Edward Sands’ criminal history and suspicions | | 14:03–22:33 | Shelby-Minter family backstory and scandalous connections | | 20:38 | Mary Minter’s shifting alibis and letters | | 22:36 | Charlotte Shelby’s potential motive and alibi | | 25:30 | The public and press frenzy | | 26:27–29:46 | Drug theories and press fabrication | | 32:33 | Moving and disappearance of evidence from police station | | 33:46 | Speculation about calculated cover-up | | 35:11 | Reflection on enduring mystery |

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5. Closing Thoughts

The episode closes on a sobering note: with evidence lost and witnesses unreliable, the murder of William Desmond Taylor endures as Hollywood’s original cold case—a story as shadowy and dramatic as the films of his era, and a cautionary tale about the destructive force of scandal and rumor.

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Useful for Listeners Who Missed the Episode:

This detailed summary tracks all major suspects, motives, police errors, and the climate of early Hollywood that helped bury the truth. It’s engagingly told, highlighting the media circus, structural failures, and personal dramas—making it clear why the Taylor case continues to fascinate and frustrate true crime enthusiasts a century later.

Transcript

[Vanessa Richardson]

Hi, listeners. It's Vanessa Richardson. Real quick, before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love. America's Most Infamous Crimes. Hosted by Katie Ring. Each week, Katie takes on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that that change the way we think about justice. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Carter Roy]

Nothing catches people's attention quite like a Hollywood scandal. Whether you're in the checkout line at the supermarket or browsing the Internet, it's

[Narrator/Co-host]

impossible not to get caught up in the sordid details of celebrity gossip.

[Carter Roy]

And that's just as true today as it was over a hundred years ago. During the birth of Hollywood, Though the

[Narrator/Co-host]

idea of a celebrity was still new, the public was already devouring news relating

[Carter Roy]

to movies and the people who made them, like William Desmond Taylor.

[Narrator/Co-host]

He was an actor, director, and overall Hollywood sensation. So when news broke that he was murdered, everyone was desperate for the answer to one who could have possibly done this?

[Carter Roy]

People's lives are like a story.

[Narrator/Co-host]

There's a beginning, a middle, and an end. But you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon. And we don't always get to know the real ending.

[Carter Roy]

I'm Carter Roy, and this is True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Every Tuesday, I'll explore the story of a notorious murder or murders at Crime House.

[Narrator/Co-host]

We want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible.

[Carter Roy]

Please support us by rating, reviewing and following True Crime Stories.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly matters.

[Carter Roy]

This is the second and final episode on the life and murder of silent

[Narrator/Co-host]

film director William Desmond Taylor, whose death in February 1922 was one of the

[Carter Roy]

world's first Hollywood scandals. Last week, we covered William's mysterious past and what led him to the bright lights of Hollywood. This week, we're going over the suspects

[Narrator/Co-host]

and theories that fascinated the nation and the frustrating search for justice. All that and more coming up.

[Vanessa Richardson]

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[Carter Roy]

On the morning of February 2, 1922, the body of 49 year old William

[Narrator/Co-host]

Desmond Taylor was discovered at his home in Los Angeles.

[Carter Roy]

The silent film director was well known and well liked, so when the cause of death turned out to be murder,

[Narrator/Co-host]

it sent the entire Hollywood community into a frenzy.

[Carter Roy]

By the time Detective Sergeant Thomas Ziegler

[Narrator/Co-host]

of the LAPD arrived at the scene,

[Carter Roy]

curious bystanders had already been there for

[Narrator/Co-host]

a half hour, irrevocably contaminating the area evidence. Ziegler did his best to navigate the crowd and began taking statements.

[Carter Roy]

William's neighbors, Douglas and Faith McLean, reported hearing a loud bang around 8 o'

[Narrator/Co-host]

clock the previous night.

[Carter Roy]

Their maid, Christine, was sure it was gunfire. She'd been acting jumpy for the past hour or so after hearing what sounded like someone shuffling in the alleyway between

[Narrator/Co-host]

their house and Williams.

[Carter Roy]

She was worried that someone was trying to steal Mr. McLean's car. To make her feel better, Faith MacLean went to the front door to have a look around the McLeans and William

[Narrator/Co-host]

occupied the same corner of the U

[Carter Roy]

shaped court of homes. As such, the McLean's front door was perpendicular to Williams with a clear line of sight. And Williams front porch light was still on, which gave Faith a good look

[Narrator/Co-host]

at the stranger stepping outside.

[Carter Roy]

Faith was sure that she'd never seen him before, but the stranger seemed perfectly comfortable with his surroundings. He casually pulled the door shut behind him, then walked right past her and was gone.

[Narrator/Co-host]

The whole thing seemed so commonplace, Faith

[Carter Roy]

thought absolutely nothing of it. She was convinced that the loud bang

[Narrator/Co-host]

they'd heard was just a car backfiring nearby.

[Carter Roy]

But now she realized she may have

[Narrator/Co-host]

come face to face with William's murderer.

[Carter Roy]

Because they'd been so close, Faith was able to give a fairly clear description of the person. She was certain it had been a man dressed like what she described as a burglar straight out of the movies. A dark suit and cap with a scarf, or maybe his jacket collar up high, obscuring part of his face. One man immediately sprang to William's former butler, Edward Sands.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Six months earlier, Sands had forged more than $5,000 in checks and disappeared with many of Williams valuables.

[Carter Roy]

At the time, everyone had been shocked.

[Narrator/Co-host]

No one more than William, of course.

[Carter Roy]

And now the authorities wondered if Sands

[Narrator/Co-host]

was capable of something much more sinister.

[Carter Roy]

After William was murdered, investigators dug into

[Narrator/Co-host]

Sands past, which was colorful to say the least.

[Carter Roy]

His real name was Edward Fitzgerald Schneider.

[Narrator/Co-host]

No, he put on a fake cockney accent while he worked for William. And he was actually from Ohio.

[Carter Roy]

Sands history of Wrongdoing began in 1911 when he enlisted in the Navy at 17 years old. Records show that he was charged with embezzlement and court martialed.

[Narrator/Co-host]

After serving nine months of his year long sentence, he was dishonorably discharged.

[Carter Roy]

But only a few months later, Sands enlisted again under a fake name.

[Narrator/Co-host]

He didn't last long. Though. Sands deserted the Navy In January of

[Carter Roy]

1919, he repeated this pattern at least one more time.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Before joining the army In May of

[Carter Roy]

1919, he was stationed in Columbus, Ohio as a clerk in the finance department.

[Narrator/Co-host]

And Sands didn't wait long to take advantage of his position.

[Carter Roy]

Sometime around October that same year, he cashed a forged check for nearly $500 and disappeared.

[Narrator/Co-host]

This pattern showed to the investigators that Sands wasn't afraid to return to the scene of his crimes.

[Carter Roy]

And they learned that Sands had indeed returned to William's house multiple times before the murder. William's bungalow was broken into just two

[Narrator/Co-host]

months before he was killed on December 4, 1921.

[Carter Roy]

The thief had taken More jewelry, along with something a bit more distinctive. William's stash of custom gold tipped cigarettes. They also seemed to make themselves at home, eating food out of the refrigerator and leaving footprints on William's bed.

[Narrator/Co-host]

It seemed to investigators that Sands might

[Carter Roy]

have stayed closer to William than anyone realized. Gold tipped cigarette stubs popped up around the property both before and after the murder.

[Narrator/Co-host]

According to Julia Crawford Ivers, a screenwriter who worked very closely with William, he'd

[Carter Roy]

been getting mysterious phone calls for weeks before the murder. His chauffeur and the new butler, Henry Peavey, both confirmed the report.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Detectives speculated these calls were probably meant to determine whether anyone was home before

[Carter Roy]

more break in were attempted.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Even though Sands had never been suspected

[Carter Roy]

of a violent crime before, all of this was enough to make him the

[Narrator/Co-host]

number one suspect for the moment.

[Carter Roy]

There wasn't enough evidence to tie him to the murder, but an arrest warrant was issued for burglary.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Almost immediately, tips came pouring in from

[Carter Roy]

folks who'd allegedly seen Sands both before and after the murder. The wife of William's former chauffeur came forward, saying she'd seen Sands downtown on

[Narrator/Co-host]

the Tuesday before William was killed. Her husband had been close friends with Sands while they were both working for William.

[Carter Roy]

In fact, the chauffeur had helped Sands

[Narrator/Co-host]

pull off his original heist, which had gotten him fired. All that to say she definitely would have recognized him.

[Carter Roy]

So would Faith McLean. And yet she wasn't sure that Sands was the stranger she'd seen the night of William's murder. For one thing, the stranger was much

[Narrator/Co-host]

thinner than Sands had been when Faith knew him.

[Carter Roy]

But it's not unusual for people to lose weight, and Faith hadn't seen Sands in seven months.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Investigators even found information that suggested he'd lost at least 40 pounds.

[Carter Roy]

The information, however, came from records that

[Narrator/Co-host]

put Sands In Oakland, California, 370 miles north of the crime scene. So it was difficult to determine his exact location at the time of the murder. Adding to that uncertainty, Faith had told

[Carter Roy]

at least one reporter that the person she'd seen was a funny looking man. People speculated that maybe the man looked funny because it was actually a woman in disguise.

[Narrator/Co-host]

So while the authorities were on the

[Carter Roy]

hunt for Sands, whispers swirled of a possible second suspect.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Someone much more high profile, with a

[Carter Roy]

lot more to lose if they were to be caught. If it wasn't the ex butler, maybe it was the movie star.

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[Narrator/Co-host]

Edward Sands was the police's prime suspect for the murder of William Desmond Taylor,

[Carter Roy]

but the press had their eye on someone else. 2 Someone's in fact, teenage actress Mary Miles Minter and her mother, Charlotte Shelby. Like Sands, Charlotte and Mary were not at all who they said they were. Their story began in Shreveport, Louisiana, where the mother daughter pair were then respectively

[Narrator/Co-host]

known as Pearl and Juliet Riley.

[Carter Roy]

Pearl wanted to be an actress, but opportunities were few and far between in Shreveport, so she took Juliet and her other daughter Margaret to Dallas. There Pearl set up shop as a music and acting coach.

[Narrator/Co-host]

This wasn't enough for her though, and

[Carter Roy]

sometime around 1905 they moved to New York City. Shortly after, Pearl changed her name, going by Charlotte Shelby.

[Narrator/Co-host]

The name change didn't do much to

[Carter Roy]

change Charlotte's fortunes, however. Five year old Juliet was a different story.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Not only was she cute as a button, she was a triple threat actor, singer and dancer.

[Carter Roy]

Many consider her the precursor to Shirley Temple. It wasn't long before Juliette was signed to a theater company and working regularly. In 1911, at just nine years old, she was set to star in a play called the Littlest Rebel.

[Narrator/Co-host]

But at the time it was illegal for anyone under 16 to perform professionally. Luckily for the Shelbys, the Mayor of New York stepped in and granted Juliet special permission.

[Carter Roy]

The play opened to rave reviews, but

[Narrator/Co-host]

when they attempted to open in Chicago, they hit the same stumbling block. This time no one was willing to

[Carter Roy]

bend the rules, so Charlotte bent the truth. Using her deceased niece's birth certificate, Charlotte turned 9 year old Juliet into 16 year old Mary Miles Minter.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Charlotte coached Mary on how to behave more maturely. The entire family's Livelihood depended on whether

[Carter Roy]

she could believably pass as a 16 year old.

[Narrator/Co-host]

And it seems like she pulled it off. Or at least nobody was looking too closely.

[Carter Roy]

Mary kept acting in plays until sometime

[Narrator/Co-host]

around 1915 when news reached Charlotte that the real money was in the movies.

[Carter Roy]

Once again, the Shelbys packed up and followed the beacon of stardom, this time to Hollywood.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Charlotte took to studio politics like a fish to water. The first contract she negotiated for Mary was for six pictures. Mary's sixth film was barely in the can before Charlotte was on to bigger and better offers.

[Carter Roy]

By 1918, just three years since their arrival, Charlotte hit on her biggest deal yet. The $1.3 million five year contract with

[Narrator/Co-host]

Paramount Studios that paired Mary with William Desmond Taylor. When Mary and William met the following year, the 17 year old, for real

[Carter Roy]

this time, had completed a whopping 34 feature films.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Under her mother's careful guidance, she was

[Carter Roy]

cemented as the go to actress for ingenues and other innocent childlike characters. In an ironic twist, Mary was now encouraged to act much younger than her age. But no matter how Charlotte styled her, Mary was a full on teenager on

[Narrator/Co-host]

the cusp of womanhood.

[Carter Roy]

To her mother's horror, men were noticing

[Narrator/Co-host]

Mary and she noticed them right back.

[Carter Roy]

None caught her fancy more than William Desmond Taylor.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Mary's feelings only deepened as they worked

[Carter Roy]

together on their first film, an adaptation of Anne of Green Gables shot in

[Narrator/Co-host]

a quiet New England town.

[Carter Roy]

William was known for being a polite and very charming man. Most people who knew him could see that Mary was getting the wrong impression from him.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Even so, Charlotte's guard was all the way up. Things reached a bit of a boiling point one evening when Mary and William came back to the hotel from an evening walk together.

[Carter Roy]

William's coat was draped over Mary as

[Narrator/Co-host]

protection from the sudden downpour they'd been caught in. When Charlotte saw them come in, she lost it. In front of several other guests, she hurled scandalous accusations at William, namely that he was sleeping with her daughter, endangering Mary's reputation and career, not to mention Charlotte's fortune. William was thoroughly embarrassed by the situation and reportedly kept his distance from Mary from that point on.

[Carter Roy]

Despite this incident, Paramount continued to put

[Narrator/Co-host]

William and Mary together on projects.

[Carter Roy]

But sometime in 1920, the studio decided

[Narrator/Co-host]

to separate the two.

[Carter Roy]

The rumor was that Charlotte had been pushing for it, hoping to put some

[Narrator/Co-host]

distance between the director and her daughter.

[Carter Roy]

But even after they stopped working together, Mary continued calling and writing William letters.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Not friendly correspondence either.

[Carter Roy]

These were love letters.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Many of them were not fitting with the sweet Innocent image Charlotte engineered for her daughter.

[Carter Roy]

And after William was killed, some of those letters were reprinted in the papers. Many of these articles were quick to

[Narrator/Co-host]

mention that a woman's nightgown had been found at the scene. The implication was that it was Mary's, even though there was never any definitive proof that it belonged to her. To make matters worse for herself, Mary changed her story at least once. Within days of William's body being discovered.

[Carter Roy]

She initially made statements to police and reporters that she hadn't seen or heard

[Narrator/Co-host]

from William in months.

[Carter Roy]

But when she was questioned again by

[Narrator/Co-host]

the district attorney's office less than a week later, on February 7, 1922, she

[Carter Roy]

suddenly remembered a late night visit she'd made to his apartment in late December.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Christmas Eve, to be exact.

[Carter Roy]

According to this statement, she'd had enough of what she felt was hot and

[Narrator/Co-host]

cold treatment from William.

[Carter Roy]

So she decided to take him a letter meant to end their relationship. After reading it, William gave Mary a goodbye letter of his own, and she went home. Both of them seemed to be on the same page about making a clean break.

[Narrator/Co-host]

And that was that. Except that it might not have been.

[Carter Roy]

Allegedly, William had told some friends that Mary came back to his place at least once more after the letter incident. According to these friends, William claimed that Mary had returned and stripped naked, begging

[Narrator/Co-host]

him to make love to her. This event supposedly happened about a week before he was murdered. All of this made a fairly convincing, if circumstantial, case against Mary. And the media had a field day doing exactly that.

[Carter Roy]

Yet there were others out there who

[Narrator/Co-host]

were sure it was Shelby who'd pulled the trigger.

[Carter Roy]

Whispers abounded that Charlotte had killed William

[Narrator/Co-host]

to protect her daughter's honor. Others felt she was far more concerned with Mary's image.

[Carter Roy]

Either way, the press and police both discovered that Charlotte had threatened violence against William on multiple occasions.

[Narrator/Co-host]

And she owned the exact type of

[Carter Roy]

gun used to kill him. A.38 caliber revolver. Charlotte did have an alibi for the

[Narrator/Co-host]

night of the murder.

[Carter Roy]

She told the police she spent the evening with her friend, actor Carl Stockdale. However, Stockdale closely matched Faith Maclean's description

[Narrator/Co-host]

of the stranger she saw coming out of William's house. Everyone knew Charlotte was an incredible negotiator. She'd convinced studios to give her tons

[Carter Roy]

of money, making some people wonder if she could talk someone into committing murder.

[Narrator/Co-host]

But once again, the evidence, such as it existed, was entirely circumstantial or pure speculation.

[Carter Roy]

However, it wasn't long before another theory was proposed, and it cast William in a particularly sympathetic role. The tragically doomed hero.

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[Narrator/Co-host]

The investigation into

[Carter Roy]

the murder of 49 year old William Desmond Taylor played out in the public

[Narrator/Co-host]

with all the drama of one of his hit movies. Each new theory was more sensational than the last, and the latest one was no exception.

[Carter Roy]

It centered around the worst kept secret in Hollywood drugs. In the first week following the murder, there were no fewer than five different

[Narrator/Co-host]

drug related theories circulated by multiple papers. They ran the gamut from William being a seller, providing dope to the people on his sets and to being an addict himself.

[Carter Roy]

One particularly colorful tale speculated that he might have been part of a secret sex and drug cult. The drug related theory that picked up the most momentum was that William was killed for attempting to rid Hollywood of

[Narrator/Co-host]

the drug trade entirely.

[Carter Roy]

But even though he was known for

[Narrator/Co-host]

being a nice guy Going on a one man anti drug crusade seemed a bit extreme.

[Carter Roy]

It didn't take long for someone to find out why William would care so

[Narrator/Co-host]

much about cleaning up Hollywood.

[Carter Roy]

A little over a week after the crime reporter Wallace Smith revealed that William was doing it to save actress Mabel Normand.

[Narrator/Co-host]

William's close relationship with Mabel was public knowledge. Because they'd made many public appearances together. They were rumored to be dating at the time of his death. And whether they were dating or not, Mabel was the last person to see William alive.

[Carter Roy]

It seems that most people also knew

[Narrator/Co-host]

that Mabel had a substance abuse issue.

[Carter Roy]

According to the reporter Wallace Smith, Mabel had relapsed on a trip to New York in 1921.

[Narrator/Co-host]

And was being blackmailed by her dealers.

[Carter Roy]

She turned to William for help. And he was attempting to get her clean and out from under their influence.

[Narrator/Co-host]

But the dealers didn't like that.

[Carter Roy]

So they put a hit out on

[Narrator/Co-host]

him to stop his meddling. It seemed like this theory actually had legs. Corroborating witnesses seemed to come out of the woodwork in the days following Smith's article. The most impressive of these was an

[Carter Roy]

interview with Assistant U.S. attorney Thomas Green. Greene told reporters that he'd met with William in 1920 to talk about the drug problem in Hollywood.

[Narrator/Co-host]

He said that while William wanted to get rid of the drug problem generally.

[Carter Roy]

He seemed concerned about saving one actress in particular. As the drug theory gained momentum, a number of inmates.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Most of whom are serving time for drug related crimes.

[Carter Roy]

Suddenly came forward with stories about William's

[Narrator/Co-host]

supposed interference in their trade.

[Carter Roy]

Allegedly, William had been in physical altercations

[Narrator/Co-host]

with two dealers in recent years. The first was a man selling to Mabel. William apparently caught them in the middle of the transaction. And beat the guy up before chasing him away. But the real kicker was when reports

[Carter Roy]

surfaced of a fight that happened on the Paramount lot just days before William's mur.

[Narrator/Co-host]

If this was true, it could be the break in the case that everyone was waiting for. It felt like every newspaper in the country was following the investigation. Maybe because of the effect Hollywood scandals had on sales.

[Carter Roy]

The papers reported anything and everything related to the case.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Rumor, theory and fact mixed together in an intoxicating blend. Readers were hooked, and newspaper owners wanted to keep it that way. Their willingness to rely on gossip and

[Carter Roy]

rumor to spice up articles.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Calls their reliability into question. And there are several things about the drug theory in particular. That make it highly suspect.

[Carter Roy]

For starters, the first article to put

[Narrator/Co-host]

forward this idea was published on February 10, 1922. It was written by Arthur B. Reeve,

[Carter Roy]

the author of A popular series of crime novels.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Yes, he was a fiction writer.

[Carter Roy]

William Randolph Hearst, who owned many newspapers throughout the country, hired Reeve to write articles of pure speculation on William's murder. In his third such piece, Reeve wondered at the possibility of William having question

[Narrator/Co-host]

across some drug criminals threatening their enterprise. Wallace Smith, who also happened to write

[Carter Roy]

for Hearst, owned papers, then picked up

[Narrator/Co-host]

this thread and ran with it. Papers like the Los Angeles Examiner, a

[Carter Roy]

Hearst publication, went so far as to completely fabricate sources and stories. Possibly even the so called interview with

[Narrator/Co-host]

Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Green, which

[Carter Roy]

was only given to journalists from Hearst.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Papers like the examiner, only three articles

[Carter Roy]

were written about it, and yet there

[Narrator/Co-host]

were discrepancies between them. They couldn't seem to agree on simple things like how many meetings there'd been or how much the mysterious actress was allegedly paying for drugs. Even if it was a true story, the meeting would have taken place a full two years before William was killed. If the kingpins were seeking revenge, they certainly took their time. Considering the dubious reliability of the press, investigators were never convinced of this particular theory. There was no hard evidence to tie William to drug dealing in any way. No threatening letters or unexplained financial transactions.

[Carter Roy]

The entire thing hinged on Mabel Norman suffering a relapse. And that was based entirely on rumors and gossip.

[Narrator/Co-host]

In the end, that was all there

[Carter Roy]

really was to go on. Because almost every piece of useful evidence

[Narrator/Co-host]

was destroyed, lost, were simply never collected.

[Carter Roy]

For instance, no one took official photos

[Narrator/Co-host]

of the scene as it was found on February 2. The district attorney went back later and recreated things.

[Carter Roy]

He did this with reporters in tow,

[Narrator/Co-host]

leading many to speculate that he was after attention more so than answers. That wasn't the only bit of talk going around about the D.A.

[Carter Roy]

apparently he was good friends with Charlotte Shelby and Mary Miles Minter. Shortly after they were all questioned by his investigators, the DA ordered all the evidence from the case to be moved from the police station to his office. From there, it all disappeared.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Boxes and files were placed in a cabinet and apparently never seen again, much

[Carter Roy]

like their top suspect, Edward Sands. Despite receiving countless tips as to his

[Narrator/Co-host]

whereabouts and sending investigators all over the

[Carter Roy]

state of California, they were never able to find him.

[Narrator/Co-host]

It seems the most likely perpetrator managed to disappear into thin air. The police interviewed dozens of potential witnesses and suspects, some of them multiple times.

[Carter Roy]

There were even several confessions made, but

[Narrator/Co-host]

all of them were eventually disproved.

[Carter Roy]

In the end, no one was ever formally charged with William Desmond Taylor's murder.

[Narrator/Co-host]

With so many experienced officials on the case, it's hard to believe all the mistakes were genuine. In fact, many have speculated that the supposed mistakes were actually calculated steps taken to cover up the truth. Who was being protected is one of the many debates that still rage among amateur sleuths. There are those who think the DA was bought off by Charlotte Shelby, but

[Carter Roy]

even they tend to be split over

[Narrator/Co-host]

whether she was saving herself or Mary. Others speculate the conspiracy went even higher up to the heads of the major

[Carter Roy]

studios, the murder happened at the height

[Narrator/Co-host]

of a fresh wave of moral panic surrounding Hollywood. The outcry was on the level of

[Carter Roy]

calling for the movie business to be abolished entirely. If the solution to the murder reflected poorly on the industry at all, it could have signaled the end.

[Narrator/Co-host]

So maybe, rather than wait, the studios

[Carter Roy]

threw their weight around just enough to

[Narrator/Co-host]

unbalance the scales of justice. Regardless of the who and the why,

[Carter Roy]

the well of information was poisoned from the start.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Hardly any of the information still available can be trusted.

[Carter Roy]

The man himself maintained a private and unknowable existence. So it seems that much as it was in life, the true story of William Desmond Taylor's death will remain a mystery.

[Narrator/Co-host]

Thanks so much for listening.

[Carter Roy]

I'm Carter Roy and this is True Crime Stories. Come back next week for the story of another murder. True Crime Stories is a Crime House

[Narrator/Co-host]

original powered by Pave Studios. Here at Crime House, we want to thank each and every one of you for your support.

[Carter Roy]

If you like what you heard today, reach out on social media. Murder True Crime Pod on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube. Don't forget to rate, review and follow

[Narrator/Co-host]

Murder True Crime Stories wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference.

[Carter Roy]

We'll be back next Tuesday. True Crime Stories, a Crime House original show powered by Pave Studios is executive

[Narrator/Co-host]

produced by Max Cutler.

[Carter Roy]

This episode of True Crime Stories was sound designed by Ron Shapiro, written by

[Narrator/Co-host]

Megan Hannam, edited by Alex Benedon, fact

[Carter Roy]

checked by Claire Cronin and included production

[Narrator/Co-host]

assistance from Kristen Acevedo and Sarah Carroll. True Crime Stories is hosted by Carter Rock.

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