A shot in the dark
FW
Letters to the Editor
July 8, 1990
As the author of "A Cast of Killers," http://snipurl.com/cast_killers a
book about King Vidor's investigation of the 1922 murder of the movie
director William Desmond Taylor http://snipurl.com/wdtaylor_murder , I
would like to respond to Otto Friedrich's review of "A Deed of Death"
by Robert Giroux http://snipurl.com/1eysd . There was much I liked
about the review, but what Mr. Friedrich failed to point out is that
Mr. Giroux has relied exclusively on archival newspaper reports to
"solve" the Taylor murder.
As a result, Mr. Giroux never tells his readers what the Los Angeles
Police Department knew for certain in 1941: that the actress Mary Miles
Minter once tried to shoot herself with a pistol identical to the one
used in the Taylor murder; that her mother, Charlotte Shelby, had
threatened Taylor as well as three other film directors she believed
had made amorous advances toward her daughter; and that large sums of
money were paid to Carl Stockdale, Charlotte Shelby's alibi and the man
who detectives believed was seen leaving the scene of the crime after
the shooting. All of this information, available to King Vidor from the
police department, has long since become a matter of public record and
can be verified in the Los Angeles City archives.
Police reports aside, Mr. Giroux also fails to take advantage of the
explosive new information that emerged in 1987, once Mary Miles
Minter's estate went into probate and her papers were put up for sale
through Publishers Weekly. Among the items in Minter's estate were
family journals, private correspondence and two unpublished
autobiographies that detail a trip she and her mother made to Taylor's
bungalow on the night of the murder, something Mr. Giroux never even
hints at in his book.
SIDNEY KIRKPATRICK
Los Angeles
====
July 22, 1990
As a reader who enjoyed "A Deed of Death" by Robert Giroux
http://snipurl.com/deed_death for its informative and well-reasoned
account of the murder of the movie director William Desmond Taylor in
1922, I am puzzled by the tone and tenor of Otto Friedrich's
egregiously unfair review. He claims so much has been written about
this unsolved case that "now is time to forget it." The fact is that
only one other book has been written about the Taylor case, "A Cast of
Killers" by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick. Mr. Kirkpatrick implies on page 259
that the actress Mary Miles Minter's brother-in-law was murdered by her
mother, while on page 287 his death turns out to be from an alcoholism-
induced hemorrhage. The book, replete with such inconsistencies, also
has the mother, whose death was certified in 1957, present 10 years
later when King Vidor interviews Mary Miles Minter. Has this book
settled the case for Mr. Friedrich? If not, why has he handed down his
fiat, like Sir Oracle: "Let no dog bark"?
I wish to go on record...in praising the unique distinction of "A Deed
of Death." It reveals for the first time the scope of the 1920s drug
culture that precipitated Taylor's murder, and it makes sense of a
previously baffling case.
HUGH JAMES MCKENNA
Avon, N.J.
====
July 22, 1990
Sidney Kirkpatrick's letter, stating that "A Deed of Death," my book on
the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor, "relied exclusively on
archival newspaper reports" rather than on police records, is untrue.
And his "explosive new information" about Mary Miles Minter's last
visit to Taylor is neither new nor explosive. Not only is a detailed
account of the visit given on pages 149-151 of my book, but my source
is Detective Lieutenant Edward C. King of the Los Angeles Police
Department, who, as my bibliography shows, told the story in 1930.
Minter's visit occurred not "on the night of the murder" (Feb. 1,
1922), as Mr. Kirkpatrick's letter claims, but two nights before (Jan.
30). Minter was accompanied by her grandmother ("I always call grandma
'mama' "), not by Charlotte Shelby, her hated mother, as Mr.
Kirkpatrick avows. His source, he says, is the papers of Minter, sold
after her death in 1987. Mr. Kirkpatrick should quote from or reproduce
these unpublished papers, which students of the case have never seen,
so that their accuracy can be checked against her testimony in the
police records of the case.
Accompanied by her attorney, Minter told Deputy District Attorney
William C. Doran she was desperate because she had not seen Taylor
since before Christmas and he would not take her phone calls. She wrote
him a goodbye letter ("I want you to know I will always love you") and
then decided to deliver it to Taylor in person after midnight. Her
devoted "mama" (Julia Miles) begged her not to go out so late and
resignedly joined her when she insisted on driving off. Grandma waited
outside in the car. Minter left three of her long blond hairs on
Taylor's jacket, so apparent there was a farewell embrace. Taylor's
words, she said, were: "My dear, I simply cannot allow you to sacrifice
yourself for a man of my age" (she was 20, he almost 50). His real
reason was that he was in love with Mabel Normand, whose drug
addiction, which he fought, resulted in his murder by a hit man two
days later, minutes after Normand's visit to his house.
The police learned of Minter's visit from Arthur Hoyt, a friend of
Taylor's and an actor in his films, who informed them of the post-
midnight events of Jan. 30 as Taylor related them to him the next day.
The police admitted that Hoyt's and Minter's versions of the evening
visit were in consonance, and we therefore have a reliable and
trustworthy account as recorded by the police. Yet Mr. Kirkpatrick
tells us that his version of the visit proves that Charlotte Shelby,
Minter's mother, killed Taylor. I can only conclude that his book, "A
Cast of Killers," requires an errata slip saying, "For 'mother' read
'grandmother' throughout."
ROBERT GIROUX
New York
====
Find a Grave:
William Desmond Taylor http://snipurl.com/1ez0y
Mary Miles Minter http://snipurl.com/1ez17
Mabel Normand http://snipurl.com/1ez1a
Charlotte Shelby: http://snipurl.com/1ez1f
----------
YouTube:
The William Desmond Taylor Case
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FXCHAx_T-y8
Paul Ilechko
> NY Times
> Letters to the Editor
> July 8, 1990
>
No, this is not the NY Times, and it is neither July nor is it 1990.
That would count as a strikeout, I think.
JC
You know you can subscribe to their crossword puzzle and get
slightly expanded access to the Sunday book supplement
for a mere thirty-nine bucks per year? I've let my
home delivery subscription lapse.
Robert Birchard
contact (in an odd sort of way) with the Kirkpatrick book. A couple of
fiends of mine were helping Kirkpatrick with his research and so I was aware
of the book project long before it came out, but they had both sworn secrecy
and they told me nothing of what Kirkpatrick's premise was. Then, a few
months before his book was to come out I got a phone call.
"Bob, this is Sidney Kirkpatrick . . .
I recognized his name.
" . . . You, know, we've been talking for the last two or three years
about my book about the Taylor murder . . ."
I was too polite to mention that we'd never spoken in person or over the
phone, nor had we ever had any correspondence of any kind before that
moment.
Anyway, what Sidney wanted was for me to help confirm the spelling of a
few names. I helped him, and that was the extent of my contribution to the
project.
I wish he'd used me as a resource. When the book came out I bought a
copy and was amazed to find how many of the photos in the book were
misidentified. I don't have the book in front of me, but as I recall he had
a picture of Kathlyn Williams idntified as Faith MacLean, a Canadian army
officer standing with Mary Pickford I.D.'d as being Taylor (it isn't), a
picture of Mary Miles Minter in "Faith," which is certainly not from that
film and may not even be Minter, etc.
I started reading the book, and frankly I was bored to tears. There was
all this Chandleresque pseudo detective stuff of interviews with people like
Minta Durfee and Gloria Swanson who had nothing to do with the Taylor case.
I jumped to the end of the book and read the chapter in which King Vidor
visits Mary Miles Minter, and I was astonished.
I knew Mary in the early 1970s, visited her in her home several times
and had dinner with her on sveral occasions. She even offered to rent me
the former carriage house converted to an apartment on the grounds of her
Santa Monica home. I declined because she wanted $350 a month and I was
paying something like $185 for a two bedroom apartment in West L.A., and
also because Mary was a very domineering personality, used to having her own
way, and I didn't want to end up like Joe Gillis--though Mary didn't have a
pool.
Based on Sidney's early chapters there was little evidence that he was
capable of capturing a real personality on a page, but the chapter on
Vidor's visit to Mary captured Mary exactly. There she was, alive as could
be, leaping off the page. That was Mary as I knew her.
I have always thought that Sidney must have had an audio tape or a
transcript or a reminisence by Vidor that he used as the basis for this
chapter. It was by far the only truly genuine stuff in an otherwise pretty
disappointing book.
"FW" <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Header@[127.1]> wrote in message
news:8cb33010a1d18f41...@msgid.frell.theremailer.net...
rca...@hotmail.com
>
> news:8cb33010a1d18f41...@msgid.frell.theremailer.net...
>
On Apr 4, 10:45 am, "Robert Birchard" <bbirch...@earthlink.net>
wrote:
> This exchange of letters is certainly interesting. I did have some
> contact (in an odd sort of way) with the Kirkpatrick book
......
> I started reading the book, and frankly I was bored to tears. There was
> all this Chandleresque pseudo detective stuff of interviews with people like
> Minta Durfee and Gloria Swanson who had nothing to do with the Taylor case.
>
> I jumped to the end of the book and read the chapter in which King Vidor
> visits Mary Miles Minter, and I was astonished.
>
> I knew Mary in the early 1970s, visited her in her home several times
> and had dinner with her on sveral occasions. She even offered to rent me
> the former carriage house converted to an apartment on the grounds of her
> Santa Monica home. I declined because she wanted $350 a month and I was
> paying something like $185 for a two bedroom apartment in West L.A., and
> also because Mary was a very domineering personality, used to having her own
> way, and I didn't want to end up like Joe Gillis--though Mary didn't have a
> pool.
>
> Based on Sidney's early chapters there was little evidence that he was
> capable of capturing a real personality on a page, but the chapter on
> Vidor's visit to Mary captured Mary exactly. There she was, alive as could
> be, leaping off the page. That was Mary as I knew her.
>
> I have always thought that Sidney must have had an audio tape or a
> transcript or a reminisence by Vidor that he used as the basis for this
> chapter. It was by far the only truly genuine stuff in an otherwise pretty
> disappointing book.
>
In 1970 Mary Miles Minter was interviewed by Charles Higham. A very
creepy audio excerpt contains Minter's recollections of her visit to
the Overholtzer undertaking establishment, where Taylor's body had
been taken. This captioned excerpt is on YouTube, accompanied by a
nice sequence of Minter photos and clips http://tinyurl.com/2ffg7t
FW
<8cb33010a1d18f41...@msgid.frell.theremailer.net>
FW <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Header@[127.1]> wrote:
>
> NY Times
> Letters to the Editor
> July 8, 1990
>
> As the author of "A Cast of Killers," http://snipurl.com/cast_killers a
> book about King Vidor's investigation of the 1922 murder of the movie
> director William Desmond Taylor http://snipurl.com/wdtaylor_murder , I
> would like to respond to Otto Friedrich's review of "A Deed of Death"
> by Robert Giroux http://snipurl.com/1eysd .
TAYLOROLOGY: "175 Errors and Contradictions in 'A Cast of Killers' ":
http://www.public.asu.edu/~bruce/Taylor65.txt
FW
<8cb33010a1d18f41...@msgid.frell.theremailer.net>
FW <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Header@[127.1]> wrote:
>
> Letters to the Editor
> July 8, 1990
>
> As the author of "A Cast of Killers," http://snipurl.com/cast_killers a
> book about King Vidor's investigation of the 1922 murder of the movie
> director William Desmond Taylor http://snipurl.com/wdtaylor_murder , I
> would like to respond to Otto Friedrich's review of "A Deed of Death"
> by Robert Giroux http://snipurl.com/1eysd .
TAYLOROLOGY: "175 Errors and Contradictions in 'A Cast of Killers' ":
http://www.public.asu.edu/~bruce/Taylor65.txt
bessie
wrote:
> NY Times
> Letters to the Editor
> July 8, 1990
>
> As the author of "A Cast of Killers,"http://snipurl.com/cast_killersa
> book about King Vidor's investigation of the 1922 murder of the movie
> would like to respond to Otto Friedrich's review of "A Deed of Death"
Actually he was homosexual, not interested in women at all.
> The police learned of Minter's visit from Arthur Hoyt, a friend of
> Taylor's and an actor in his films, who informed them of the post-
> midnight events of Jan. 30 as Taylor related them to him the next day.
> The police admitted that Hoyt's and Minter's versions of the evening
> visit were in consonance, and we therefore have a reliable and
> trustworthy account as recorded by the police. Yet Mr. Kirkpatrick
> tells us that his version of the visit proves that Charlotte Shelby,
> Minter's mother, killed Taylor. I can only conclude that his book, "A
> Cast of Killers," requires an errata slip saying, "For 'mother' read
> 'grandmother' throughout."
>
> ROBERT GIROUX
> New York
>
> ====
>
> Find a Grave:
>
> William Desmond Taylorhttp://snipurl.com/1ez0y
> Mary Miles Minterhttp://snipurl.com/1ez17
> Mabel Normandhttp://snipurl.com/1ez1a
FW
<8cb33010a1d18f41...@msgid.frell.theremailer.net>
FW <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Header@[127.1]> wrote:
>
> Letters to the Editor
> July 8, 1990
NY Times
Letters
August 10, 1986
To the Editor:
As a longtime friend of the late Hollywood director King Vidor
http://snipurl.com/1fft6 whose autobiography, "A Tree Is a Tree," I
edited and published in 1953 and to whom I suggested in 1966 that he
explore the William Desmond Taylor murder case - with which he became
obsessed over the next 16 years (he died in 1982) - I have awaited
Sidney D. Kirkpatrick's version of Vidor's investigations, "A Cast of
Killers," with interest. In her review (July 6) Anne Rice
http://snipurl.com/annerice reports Mr. Kirkpatrick's contention that
Vidor failed to complete the book because he wanted to "spare" those
still living. Actually, he wanted to avoid a libel suit with Mary Miles
Minter http://snipurl.com/1ffu5 the litigious silent film actress (she
sued CBS in 1970 merely for televising an impartial documentary on the
case), who outlived Vidor by two years. You cannot libel the dead, and
so her death in 1984 has allowed "A Cast of Killers" to maintain (as
Vidor also did) that Minter's mother, Charlotte Shelby, murdered Taylor
and that Minter was present when it happened. The reader looks in vain
for proof of this new scenario, since the chief witness saw only one
person leave Taylor's house after the shot.
The charge against Mrs. Shelby is old, dating from 1922. She was a
money-mad stage mother, cruel to both her daughters, but the murder
ruined Minter's career and Mrs. Shelby was too shrewd to have thus cut
off their main source of income. Mr. Kirkpatrick fails to record that
in 1937, when Margaret, the older daughter, publicly accused her mother
of Taylor's murder, Mrs. Shelby insisted on either (1) a trial, or (2)
clearance by the district attorney. She was give clearance. "A Cast of
Killers" even implies a second murder by Mrs. Shelby. Mr. Kirkpatrick
writes that not long after Margaret had eloped against her mother's
wishes in 1937, Margaret's husband "was found dead in his apartment,
rumored by some to have been killed by a blow….His murderer was never
found." The reader is left to guess who did it, until this sensational
development is demolished some 30 pages later by the autopsy, which
reveals the husband "died from a brain hemorrhage due to chronic
alcoholism," and the author ignores his previous innuendo. Such
irresponsible reporting adds nothing to the case against Mrs. Shelby
and is typical of the book's sensationalism.
Mr. Kirkpatrick acknowledges that "certain liberties have been taken
reporting the information." Yes, he has me dining at Sardi's with
Groucho Marx, Jennifer Jones http://snipurl.com/jenniferjones and Lee
Remick http://snipurl.com/leeremick , none of whom (regrettably) I ever
met, and acting as straight man at The Players club to Vidor's
speculations about Taylor. I often met Vidor at the club, but this
whole chapter, which puts words in my mouth, is fiction. The usual
courtesy of giving a quoted person the chance to check attributed
remarks, especially when so extensive, might have avoided all this
inaccuracy.
In a final climatic scene, the book has Vidor calling on the aged Mary
Miles Minter, who, with "tears streaming down her bulbous face," cries
out, "My mother killed everything I ever loved!" From this, Mr.
Kirkpatrick concludes, "The mystery was solved." Or was it? Six lines
later he confesses, "A vague, ambiguous statement from a crazy woman
would not retire this case." No, indeed.
Anne Rice, in deploring the book's at times "clumsy and amateurish"
writing, regrets that the story's "moral depth" remains unexplored. And
I regret that King Vidor, a man of integrity who knew the difference
between history and fiction, never wrote HIS book.
ROBERT GIROUX
New York