The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1922-02-24
TAYLOR MURDER
STILL UNSOLvED
Los Angeles Police Seek Slayer
of Motion Picture
Director.
MOVIE STARS ARE QUlzzED
Mabel Normand Admits She Had Been
Engaged to Victim, but Said
They Had Decided to Be
MERELY Friends"

rEIiSh3S'
Los Angeles CAL, Feb. 4.-Revenge,
jealousy. hate and unanswered love
all were considered by the police in
continuing their search for the slayer
of Within Desmond Taylor, motion
picture director, whose body was
found in his aDartment here.
While the meager clews obtained
so far pointed chiefly to the commits
sion of the crime by man, the de-
tectives actively engaged on the case
said they still believed it possible that
Taylor had been killed by woman.
Their hunt was largely conferred
along three lines, it was said-the trail
of the skulking figure of man seen
around the directors apartments both
before and after neighbors heard a
shot in the night; the Whereabouts OF
a former servant, arrested for the al
legged robbery of the director and re-
ported to have threatened revenge /;
and the sender of an anonymous let
ter in which were inclosed pawn tick
cts for articles stolen from Taylor.
The officers also had under consider
alton a close scrutiny of the life his
tory of the director to learn If the
crime might have been committed by
the holder of an ancient grudge, as,
for instance, some soldier he might
have offended by the application of
military discipline while he was an
officer in the British forces during the
World war.
Every person known to have been
in or near the apartments where Tay-
lors body, with bullet wound In the
neck, was found yesterday morning
has been closely questioned in the
search for clews to the murderer.
These persons range from Henry
Peavey, Taylors negro houseman, to
Mabel Nurmand, motion picture ac-
tress, while others prominent in the
film industry whose names were
brought into newspapers in con-
nection with the directors death tn
cluded Edna Purviance and Mary
Miles M:nter, also motion picture ac-
treSSeS.
Peavey gave the police an account of
his hnding the body and of his spread
ing the alarm. Miss Normand, who
was one of the last to see the director
alive, told of a call she made at his
apartments the night before in con-
nectioE with book Taylor had loaned
her. Her chauffeur corrOborated the
statement that Taylor had accom-
panied her to her automobile when
she left, and Mrs. Douglas MacLean,
wife Of a film actor, and her maid, re-
lated having seen a heavy-set men,
dressed in dark clothes and wearing
cap and muff1er, skulking about the
place.
The story of Mrs. MacLean and her
maid was strengthened by employers
of an oil service station two blocks
from the Taylor apartment and by the
crew of street car
The service station man said that
Wednesday night a large, roughly
dressed man had asked them where
Taylor lived and the street car man told
of a passenger answering the same
description, who asked to be let off the
car at a point near the Taylor apart
ment, where so few persons alighted
that he had remembered the man
and the occasion.
Miss Purviance, who occupies an
apartment near that of Taylor, tele-
phoned the news of his death to Miss
Normand shortly after Peavey had dis
covered the body, and Miss Minter
was said to have burst into tears when
she arrived at the Taylor apartment
with her mother to learn If they could
help in any way.
Taylor had directed many actors
prominent in the film world, including
Miss Minter and Mary Pickford. Pic
lures of the two and that of Miss Nor
mand occupied prominent places in his
apa .ments.
Miss Normand last night denied
report she had been engaged to marry
Taylor, but later according to another
newspaper interviewer, stated they had
once been engaged, but had decided to
''be merely friends" She said he had
helped her with her reading and her
study of French.
San Francisco, Feb. 6-Roscoe
(Fatty) Arbuckle has been saved from
conviction for manslaughter by two
hOldout jurors as he was prevented
from going free at his first trial by
one, a woman.
The jury in his second trial, on
charges Qf having caused the death of |
Miss Virginia Rape at his Labor day
party in a San Francisco hotel. dis |
agreed ten to two and was discharged |
by Judge Louderback after being out |
1900 o,,o.A