Jessica writes: I definitely believe the DA had much to do with the on- going murder mystery involving Desmond Taylor. There were a lot of empty holes and questionable acts the DA took part in which did not make sense. There are several points throughout the case where the DA, in my opinion, made mistakes as to how the case should be investigated. For example, when the detectives first arrive on the scene of the crime, they claim the death was from natural causes. They made this assumption without even thoroughly examining the body, and this conclusion should have been made by a doctor, not detectives. That seemed to be a very unorthodox method to assume and make a statement that someone had died of natural causes without even having a doctor examine the body. When they do in fact have a doctor check out the body, he reports that Taylor died from natural causes as well. How could they say it was of natural causes when underneath him lay a pool of blood? This struck me as extremely weird, especially because these detectives could not even reference back to what this doctor's name was or where he came from.

Another odd concept was the fact that the detectives allowed the crime scene to be a public showing. I don't think any of those people should have been allowed in the house because evidence remained in there. They also shouldn't have been there because all of their fingerprints would throw off the DA in the investigation. However, they never even looked into the idea of fingerprinting the crime scene, so I guess that it doesn't matter. In addition, I think photographs should have been taken at the crime scene.

Lt. Ziegler, allows evidence to be taken from the crime by Taylor's friend, Charles Eyton, who takes love letters from married woman [and from various unnamed young actresses]. The detective definitely should not have allowed this. That was confidential material that could have provided insight into the motive behind Taylor's murder. I think that, especially this early on in the case, everyone should be looked at as a suspect. Lt. Ziegler was suspicious to me because of his actions, especially when he denies the important fact that Taylor's body ay in a pool of blood.

Secondly, in terms of Shelby, I don't think certain detectives should have been allowed to investigate the case because they were friends of Shelby. For this reason, they could have been trying to protect her which is not the way to analyze a murder case. I think they dismissed suspects way too early, such as Normand. Personally, I don't think she killed Taylor; however, the point is that it was too early to dismiss anyone as innocent. They don't question each witness the same amount either. Shelby seemed to be the only one who is repeatedly questioned. My question is, why weren't the others? The detectives seemed to feel comfortable with her being the murderer; however, there was not enough substantial evidence to prove this. They didn't even provide a follow-up investigation on witnesses when they continued to draw out the case but couldn't seem to find the killer. Instead of letting the case drag on, they should have questioned the witnesses in a more adequate fashion and provided a follow-up after each witness was questioned.

In conclusion, I believe that valuable information was witheld from this case, prolonging the solving of the case. An example of this is when Minter makes a statement to Detective Keyes (the new DA on the case) which never became public. If this had anything to do with the case, why wasn't her statement acknowledged? Another example is when Detective King dismisses Peavey's initial testimony and the governor's "witness." I didn't understand this move either. The DA was not very aggressive in trying to draw out information from the witnesses, or very motivated to solve the crime which left me suspicious. They were scattered and did not cooperate or work together on the investigation. I got the feeling that they didn't want to solve the case, that maybe they might have had insight as to who the killer was but were trying to hide him or her. My question to this, though, was why? What motive would they have to protect the killer? Therefore, my other thought was that they just were not qualified for such a case, or maybe didn't have the experience for such investigations. Either way, I definitely agree that they are the main reason why this case was not solved.

Brett's notes: From the very start, the Taylor murder investigation was handled incompetently. As the investigation continued, the long list of errors began to accumulate. Could the very people charged with solving the murder and bringing the murderer(s) to justice have directly prevented justice from prevailing, and thus making this case unsolved? Sadly, many of the blunders made during this investigation point to such a fact, that the case remains unsolved due to the persons charged with solving it. Not only is it plain to see the many fundemental mistakes that were made by the investigators, but also the suspicious personal connections between particular suspects and high ranking law enforcement officials. A host of these blunders easily made the task of not only finding, but also proving anyone's guilt in this crime nearly impossible.

With the first hours of the investigation, serious blunders were made by those first arriving on the scene. Police arrive to find throngs of bystanders and the curious "milling in and out of the apartment and about the body" (Who killed William Desmond Taylor). The acting lead investigator, Det. Tom Ziegler did not stop this. During this time fingerprints were tampered with as well as possible other physical evidence that could have been important in the investigation. For the first 2 hours of the investigation, the police ruled Taylors death as due to natural causes on the determination by a doctor that was on the scene before they arrived. He was unidentified and never located. Finally they realized he was murdered, as they began to remove his body. During these vital hours, the police allowed Mr. Charles Eyton to remove a great deal of personal belongings of Taylors', including letters and such. He later destroyed much of what he removed, thus destroying evidence that could have been useful in determining the reasons and/or killer of the crime.

Detectives failed to also photograph the location of the body, as well as the crime scene in general, rather depending on their own memory. As the investigation continued, the pile of mistakes did as well. A witness from the neighborhood identified Talylor's chauffuer, Howard Fellows, as being in a car the night of the murder outside Taylor's home. However, Fellows was succesful in convincing Det. Ziegler that he was mis-identified. No further follow-ups were made. When the clothes Taylor was wearing the night of his murder were sought, it was found that they were at the undertakers and about to be burned. Vital evidence was never collected and stored.

Now that they were lucky enough to retrieve the clothes, they were able to locate blond hairs, which were identified as Miss Minter's. After further investigations, they became supsicious of Miss Minter's mother, Mrs Shelby. When they arrived to question her, she was armed with her attorneys and was allowed to depart for a trip to New York. No one stopped her as well as subsequent times when she would leave for years at a time to avoid involvement. This was a ridiculous example of how the investigators truly had no grasp on the case.

The involvement of higher ranking officials in the law enforcement community would also point to a potentially corrupt investigation. The District Attorney Woolvine strangly requested that all evidence in the case be moved from its secure location in the police station, to his own office and placed in a file cabinet. This evidence later disappeared from his office and was reported to have found its way to his house. Evidence such as the hair samples, letters, a hankerchief and a nightgown were reported to have been given to Miss Minter. What makes this interesting is that D.A. Woolvine was a close personal friend of both Miss Minter and Mrs Shelby. There is only one explanation for his actions. He was trying to cover someone's tracks, and assist them in evading justice, or at least proof that they were suspects. In my opinion this was the most blatent blunder of the investigation. With much of the evidence back in the possesion of suspects, how could the police ever solve this crime?

Investigators during the questioning of witnesses were fully aware that information was being withheld from them, yet did not force this information to be divulged. Some of those questioned said flatly that they would not tell any information they knew. This is unacceptable in a normally run investigation. In addition, investigators failed to question and follow leads such as the prisoner who claimed to have had information about the crime, a Mr Heffner, who was eventually released and allowed to take off without following his claims. The complete lack of cooperation between the four offices that handled the investigation also hampered efforts to solve this crime.

The murder of Taylor is still unsolved due to the investigators who were charged with solving it. A long list of blunders, ranging from basic to (in some cases) plainly diabolical (D.A. Woolvine) occured during this investigation. It appears that the shadow of Hollywood may have played a role in this investigation's lack of success. When the D.A. himself gives the case's main pieces of evidence back to suspects, it becomes rather apparent that something unnatural is occuring in the investigation. Those involved in the investigation have without a doubt prevented it from ever being solved.

Kristin tells us about the scandals associated with the murder: "Certainly this sensational case, a crime that has aroused the entire country, has not been conducted with anything resembling even the rudiments of police work. There have been sinister rumors of attempts to smother all inquiry into the crime -- even reports that money has changed hands. It seems incredible that even the millions of dollars that are tied up in the movies would be used in such a manner to protect the pampered darlings of the pictures." (http://www.assumption.edu/HTML/Academic/history/His130/twenties/Taylor/Wall aceSmithFeb12.html)

This was the truth about the investigation of the Taylor murder. Because it still remains unsolved there has been much time to debate about and create reasons for the murder. The awful effort made by the police in this case still remains a huge factor in why it became a scandal. If they were able to easily solve it - which they could have done, if they had done their job correctly, there would be no room for scandal, because the case would be over. There were many scandals and theories about the life Taylor led. The most obvious, and the most true, was that he had had another life. He left his family to become an actor. This example, in any other case would have been a big deal, but it was the least of the scandals the Taylor murder created.

Other scandals centered around Mary Miles Minter. Her infatuation with Taylor was made known through her love letters that were printed in the newspapers. Why was such a successful director involved with such a young star? Were they romantically linked? Why was her nightgown taken from the crime scene? Why were her letters removed from the crime scene? What else could have been taken that we don't know about? These questions were answered in different ways by different articles. They hypothesized about Minter, her mother, her family, her home life, basically everything. Mabel Normand was even more surrounded in scandal than Minter. Newspapers accused her of heavy drug use. This in turn put Taylor in the middle of drug rings... this lead to the possibility that Taylor was murdered because of his drug use. Some of the stories were as "unbelievable as they were unprintable." (http://www.assumption.edu/HTML/Academic/history/His130/tw.../WallaceSmithcolumns.htm)

The stories surrounding Taylor's drug use are not hard to find. They were all over the newspapers. There were stories about "dope parties" and morphine use. All these stories surrounded both Taylor and the many girls that were thought to be a part of his life. These stories continued to hold people’s interest in the case. Lastly was the amount of women (and or as some papers said men) that Taylor was involved with. There was much skepticism as to what he was doing with whom... which women or men he was romantically involved with. One article ends with a list of those who left flowers and cards at his funeral; they ranged from his daughter to Mary Miles Minter.