The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1922-02-07
ESCAPADE
REVEALED
BY DIVORCE
Hotel Man Testified Taylor
Registered With Actress
as Townsend"

NEW YORK. Feb. IA new
mystery developed today in the
curious, Swallowed life Of William
Desmond Taylor, slain Los An
geles film director.
A Hidden Episode.
Ripping aside the discreet curtain
that has been drawn over q strange
career. tho Hearst newspapers re-
veals today hitherto hidden episodes
in which the leading actor was WILL
lam Cunningham Deane Tanner. or
william Desmond Taylor, the name
he adopted after his sudden disap-
pearance in 1908 from club and gay
social circles in New York.
Rocco as the suggestions may ap-
pear. these episodes may prove to
have more than an indirect bearing
upon the great murder mystery, for
these facts are revealed:
william Cunningham Deane-
Tanner, while still apparently hap.
ply married to Mrs. Ethel May
Hamilton Deane-Tanner, former
actress, had engaged In ut least
bne ''liaison dangereuse" three
months before his disappearance at
noon on October 2S, 1908.
Hotel Men Testified.
To the clerks and attaches of a
fashionable hotel in the Adirondacks
in July, 1908, pete" Deane-Tanner
was known as "R. p. Townsend, 5r.
He was accompanied by a beautiful
young woman registered with him as
Mrs. r. p. Townsend, tr."
In q divorce. suit filed about two
years after Deane-Tanner's disap-
pearance, Mrs. Deane-Tanner pro-
duced two witnesses who testified
that Townsend" was Deane-Tanner.
Mrs. Deane-Tanner, now the wife OF
Edward L. G. Robins, former friend
of Deane-Tanner and now proprietor
Of Delmonico's restaurant, was
granted an interlocutory decree OF
divorce by Supreme Court Justice
O'Gorman on February IL, 1911, two
years and four months after the
vanishing Of Deane-Tanner.
Mrs. Robins, since the story Of her
husbands strange dual life became
public, has stated her belief that he
deserted her and their child because
OF an attack Of aphasia.
Misconduct Was Charged.
Misconduct" and "desertion"
were the grounds upon which the
wife won her decree of divorce in
the winter of 1911. The court hear
ing was brief. Tho witnesses were
four in number.
John Gleason. former clerk Of the
Hotel Childwold. St Lawrence
county. N. Y.
John Gradus, captain of hallboys
at the hotel.
Mrs. Ethel M. Deane.Tanner and
her maid, Elizabeth Mooney.
On July Is, 1908, said Gleason and
Gradus. a tall, handsome man whom
they Identified from photographs as
william Deane-Tanner, arrived at
the hotel with a woman supposed to
be his wife. They remained a week.
Told Of Couple.
Gleason testified in effect:
I'VE first became suspicious Of
them when It was observed in the
laundry that Townsend's linen all
bore the marking 'Deane-Tanner.'
At the end of their stay, when Mr..
Townsend came to pay his bill, he
found he did not have enough cash
and rendered the hotel check
signed William Deane-Tanner.
He told me I would find the
check o. k. I accepted it and 1t was
honored."
Although II was impossible today
to gain access to the divorce papers,
they contain, 1t is understood. no in
timation of the identity of the beau.
tiful young woman who passed de-
lightful week in the Adirondacks
with Pete" Deane-Tanner three
months before he drew a curtain
over his life in New York.