The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1922-02-11
WOMAN SLEW
TAYLOR, CLAIM
Of N.Y.EXPERT
Ex-Inspector Tunney Ayers
That Is Most Logical SoIu-
ton of Crime.
BY THOMAS J. TUNNEY,
Ex-InspectOr of New York Police


NEW YORK, Feb. 11.-Who
killed William Desmond Taylor?
In the absence of tangible clues
that would naturally come to a de-
tective investigating a murder of
this kind, l would come to the con-
clusion that II was a woman who
killed the moving picture director.
1t would appear obvious to the in
vestigator that a love affair was at
the bottom of the murder.
1t was undoubtedly a jealous
woman who killed him.
Here we have a man OF a high
type, a man of culture. refinement,
and education, one who is bound to
attract women, particularly some of
the type that frequent the Holly.
wood colony.
Magnet for Women.
Taylor was a man who for years
had been affiliated with beautiful
women. Reserved, dignified, and
with well-developed personal mag.
netism. he was subject to the attack
of women who always seek men of
this type-seemingly for the very
reason that men of this type are
more or less difficult to conquer and
to hold.
From what we know of Taylor he
was a man of strong and deep at.
lection. 1t would appear that a
woman who would kill him would
have done so through sheer jealousy.
In seeking the type of woman who
killed Taylor we must look for q
woman almost, IL not quite as re-
markable in her own way as Taylor
himself. His was the finer type Of
man-his was not the type to fall
in love with a brainless woman.
In order to win him, in order to
penetrate his vast reserve. this
woman would have to be beautiful.
She would also have to have a GER
tain amount of brain power, for
mere beauty never held Taylor long.
as his record shows.
Several of Taylors love affairs
have been limited at. In each Of
these the woman was possessed of
beauty, possessed of brains, for Tay-
lor in his philandering sought al.
ways something more than the
merely physical-he sought a mental
companion to his own remarkable
mind.
Jealousy Logical Motive.
y IL Taylor was killed by a woman,
then the woman who did the killing
was undoubtedly of this type.
Assuming that a woman was the
slayer, we have only one motive
jealousy.
In all of us there is the inward
value Of ourselves. Some men and
some women value themselves too
highly, others do not value them
selves enough, but it is we'll known
that beautiful women are the most
vain and usually the most selfish.
On the hypothesis that a woman
killed Taylor, let us seek out her
motive to the fullest extent.
Beautiful, a bit selfish, quite vain,
she tries to capture Taylor. The
pursuit Of a nah by a woman is a
delicate, subtle thing, but yet nearly
all men will agree with me, that no
matter how she may speak or how
coy she may appear, woman does
the pursuing in any encounter in
which her heart Is interested.
So we will assume that his rule
held good in the case Of Taylor. She
saw him-she found him good. She
lured him on by dozens of artful
pretenses, she endeavored to con.
quer him and she did, possibly
achieving a triumph over another
rival.
Suppose this woman had confided
to friends that she expected to
marry him. Suppose her position
to be such that to be cast aside by