William Desmond Taylor - An Introduction

William Desmond Taylor was born in April 26, 1872. His birth name was William Cunningham Deane-Tanner in Carlow, Ireland, and he was the son of a British Army Officer. The young Taylor set sail for America in 1890. Taylor arrived in Hollywood in 1912, and initially had a great deal of success as an actor, appearing in several films, including four notable performances alongside actress Margaret "Gibby" Gibson. Taylor made his directorial debut in in 1914, directing the feature film "The Awakening". Until his death in 1922, he directed over fifty films. In July 1918 he enlisted in the British Army as a private, and was assigned to the Royal Army Service Corp. After his return to Los Angeles, he became the President of the Motion Picture Directors Association, and during his career directed many of the greats of that era including Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid, Dustin Farnum, and his protegee Mary Miles Minter, who starred in the 1919 version of "Anne of Green Gables".

Why is this only an introduction to Taylor? There is so much information surrounding his death and the numerous suspects, it would be difficult to encompass all the details into one comprehensive thread. So this is just scraping the surface of the events surrounding his murder which to this day, remains officially unsolved.

At the time of his death, Taylor was living at 404B Alvavarado Street.

I have added photos and video of some of the areas of the places connected to Taylor. Please note: in the video I state that he was found on February 22nd. This is a mistake on my part (mainly due to nerves of never having filmed anything before in my life - other than my pets - and I had no idea how difficult it would be to film, talk, walk and remember facts all at the same time). He was found on February 2nd, 1922, believed killed the night before on February 1.

This is where 404B South Alvarado Street is located. (formerly known as the Alvarado Court Apartments), which were a set of trendy and affluent bungalow buildings where many of the Hollywood "elite" lived at that time. In the picture below (from a newspaper article in 1922) you can see the building as it was. The arrow indicates Taylor's Bungalow and the "X" is where I stood in modern times to take a similar shot.

And here is my shot of the same property from 2010.

This image from classichollywoodbios.com, shows the shot of the front of Taylor's bungalow. Look carefully at the newspaper aerial shot above, and you will see the little pagoda, pictured more closely here:

On the evening before his death, Taylor had been entertaining comedienne Mabel Normand. She left his apartment at around 7:45 (he escorted her to her chauffeur driven car) and she left. At about 8:00pm neighbors heard what they initially thought was a car back-firing. Neighbor Faith McLean went to the window and saw someone enter Taylor's home. It appeared to be a man in a long coat, wearing a muffler and a plaid cap over his face. McLean said the man looked at her casually and went inside Taylor's home as if he were supposed to be there. McLean later claimed that the person was "funny looking" and walked "effeminately" and years later, could not confirm if the person she was was in fact a man.

Taylor's body was found at about 7am on February 2nd, 1922, by his servant, Henry Peavey.  Evidently, Peavey pushed open the front door of the home, having picked up a milk bottle from the door step, but did not enter the home.  Peavey screamed so loudly, that it alerted neighbors, one of whom alerted the police.  The Officer that arrived was Detective Lietenant Tom Ziegler.  Taylor's body was fully clothed, and lying on his back.

Items found on Taylor's person included: a wallet holding $78, a silver cigarette case, and ivory toothpick and a Waltham pocket Watch. In addition, he was wearing a two-carat diamond ring. However, a large amount of cash that Taylor had shown to his accountant the day before his death was missing, and was never accounted for.

One suspect was Edward Sands, who had worked as Taylor's valet and cook until 7 months before Taylor's death. He had numerous aliases, and although he was born in Ohio, he spoke with an affected Cockney accent.

The summer before his death, Taylor had returned to Europe, and while he was gone, Sands had forged a number of Taylor's checks and wrecked his car. Sands had also burgled Taylor's bungalow and left his footprints on the director's bed. After Taylor's murder, Sands disappeared completely. For a really comprehensive look at the "Case Against Sands" check out this website: www.silent-movies.com (under the heading "Taylorology").

Sands had in fact deserted from the Navy at one point, only to re-enlist using a different name. I had to laugh at this, because in my family, many years ago, a male relative of mine deserted the British Army during World War II. When the authorities finally caught up with him, he had enlisted in the Navy, rather stupidly I might add, using the same name he deserted with !

There was a witness who claims to have seen someone fitting Sands description loitering on Alvarado Street on the evening of the murder. The witness was a woman called Mrs. M.S. Stone, who lived at the Duke Apartments on South Carondelet Street.

Mrs. Stone told the officers that she walked every evening from her home, along Sixth Street and turned left onto Alvarado, to have dinner with her son-in-law, a Mr. A.W. Wachter of 412-A South Alvarado Street. Mrs. Stone described a man of Sands description loitering outside Taylor's home, transferring something from his left hip pocket to the right hand pocket of his coat. "I walked behind him" she said, "and when he reached Maryland Street he turned out of Alvarado".

I took a wander down to Carondelet Street, and made the same walk Mrs. Stone did all those years ago. It probably didn't take me more than about 5 minutes to get from Carondelet Street back up to the Ross Parking lot. The Street that intersects Alvarado at that parking lot, is Maryland Street. None of this proves anything, obviously, I just thought I would have a wander around to be honest.

It has been reported that shortly after Taylor's death, Sands committed suicide in Connecticut, but that his death was kept a secret by then LA District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine.

Many authors and investigators maintain that Woolwine was very friendly with many of the Hollywood "elite" and that his non-disclosure of Sands' suicide, kept the police investigation firmly ON Sands, so as to detract attention from celebrity suspects, like Mary Miles Minter, who was high on the list of suspects, along with her mother, Charlotte Shelby.

Coded letters found in Taylor's apartment suggested that there had been a romantic relationship between the 49 year old Taylor and the 19 year old actress. The letters were at odds with her on-screen image as a modest young girl and Minter was vilified in the press. After completing four more films for Paramount Pictures, they failed to renew her contract. She maintained her love for Taylor until she died in obscurity (although very wealthy) in 1984.

Take a look at this video of retired LAPD Detective William Cahill, to see what he says about Taylor, Mary Miles Minter, her mother, and the District Attorney. It is very interesting...

I took one last look around. It is hard to believe that this trash-filled parking lot was once the beautiful Alvarado Court Bungalows.....(but then, a lot of Los Angeles has disintegrated in this same manner).

I left the Alvarado/Maryland intersection and headed over to Paramount Pictures on Melrose Avenue.

While Detective Ziegler waited for the Los Angeles Coroner to arrive, (and presumably also doing his best to keep morbid on-lookers from gazing at the death scene), Charles Eyton and other un-named individuals arrived. Eyton is, in my opinion, a key individual in the Taylor case. Born in New Zealand in 1871, Eyton began his career by promoting prize fighters, and went on to work as a boxing referee. The picture below (found on the internet) shows his work in the boxing world.

Charles Eyton caught my eye, not as the murderer but as "the clean-up guy."

His prominence in the Hollywood community would have allowed him to get away with activities that the average Joe could never do.  In 1922 Eyton was the General Manager of Paramount Pictures (actually, technically speaking he was the GM of the Famous-Players Lasky Corporation, a subisidary of Paramount Pictures).  Eyton also produced a numer of film serials, most of which starred his wife, the famous actress Kathlyn Williams.

Another reason that I am highly suspicious of Eyton's actions is that when he arrived at the crime scene, he immediately went to the upper floor of Taylor's home (the bedroom) and began removing personal letters, items and other effects from the house.  All this, under the watchful eye of Detective Zieger? Really?  Additional reports have stated that it was Eyton himself who turned Taylor's body over and saw the gun-shot wound.  Why was Eyton allowed to touch the body?

Was Detective Ziegler simply cowing to a powerful movie mogul, or was this an outrageous act of police cooperation in removing evidence from a crime scene.  Was Ziegler told to let Eyton do what he wanted at the scene?  Under later interrogation by police, Eyton claimed that the letters and other items were "love letters" from married women, and that he removed them to protect Taylor from incriminating and embarrasing stories (he and Taylor had been close friends for many years).  Eyton confirmed that he destroyed everything he took from the house, thereby  destroying potential evidence, although he claimed it was just to protect his friend, and not to obstruct the investigation.  Is it possible, and I think it is, that Eyton had a VERY good idea who the murderer was, and was desperately trying to protect her. Yes, "her".

In addition, it was Kathlyn Williams name on Taylor's Death Certificate. Yes, the wife of the man who removed items from the crime scene, unhindered by the first officer on the scene was also then asked to identify Taylor's body.  Obviously she could identify him (she knew him), but still,  the whole scene stinks to me. 
The Hollywood Forever Cemetery is where Taylor is now at rest. Its located on Santa Monica Blvd, right behind the Paramount Pictures Studios.  I wandered into the little shop where they sell maps and flowers and made my purchases.  The lady in the shop was most helpful about finding my way around the grounds.  When I told her who I was looking for and why, she was very interested, as her son has recently graduated from the Los Angeles Police Academy, and just started in the Down Town Traffic Division.  I thanked her and continued on my way.

As you can see from his crypt, Taylor was born William Deane-Tanner. The yellow rose on the left was put there by yours truly. I wonder who left the rose on the right........???????