Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Silent Screen Mystery [Hardcover]

Charles Higham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2004

    For more than eighty years, the famous unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor, the legendary bisexual film director, has generated debate and controversy.  Now, best-selling author Charles Higham has solved the crime.  Higham uncovers the corruption and intrigue of Los Angeles in the Roaring Twenties—and the film industry moguls’ complete domination of the city’s authorities.
    When it was discovered that a famous star of the day had probably killed Taylor, a massive cover-up began—from the removal of crucial evidence to the naming of innocent people as killers—which has continued until now to protect the truth.  Murder in Hollywood goes beyond the killing to unearth unknown details about the life of Taylor before his arrival in Hollywood, as well as the stories and histories buried by the crooked authorities and criminals involved the case. The author’s exclusive interviews with the culpable star, his unique possession of long-vanished police records, and the support of the present-day Los Angeles county coroner—who examined the evidence as if the murder had taken place now—have ensured a hair-raising thriller.
    Charles Higham successfully presents the most plausible and convincing solution yet to the mystery.  In the process he paints a vivid portrait of Hollywood in the 1920s—from its major stars to its bisexual subculture. The result is a compelling answer to a long-standing mystery and a fascinating study of a place, and an industry that, as today, let people reinvent themselves. Murder in Hollywood is more extraordinary than any crime of fiction and more exciting than any action adventure movie.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although the author, a veteran Hollywood biographer (Kate; Bette; Marlene), claims to have solved the murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor (1872–1922), this overly melodramatic account of his life and death sheds little light on the mystery. In 1907, Taylor, an Irish immigrant, deserted his wife and daughter in New York City and turned up in Hollywood as a screen actor; later, he became a well-known director. Attractive and intelligent, Taylor had many affairs with both men and women, including actress Mabel Normand and his cook and houseman, Edward Sands, a thief and compulsive liar whom Taylor later fired. On the night of February 1, 1922, Taylor was shot and killed at his home. According to Higham, the murderer was actress Mary Miles Minter, who harbored an unrequited love for Taylor. He bases his theory on some police documents given to him by director King Vidor, Minter's lack of an alibi for the time of the murder, and some complicated political corruption, which, according to the author, motivated the district attorney to eliminate Minter from the list of suspects. Higham doesn't really overturn other hypotheses that implicate Normand, Sands and others or an unidentified man seen by a witness leaving the scene. There's more heat than light in this convoluted account. B&w photos.
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Review

"This is an excellent book and should attract considerable interest in film history circles as well as among readers who enjoy a good true-crime story well told." —John Baxter, Kubrick: A Biography and Mythmaker: The Life and Work of George Lucas

"An amazing tale of police corruption and journalistic irresponsibility. Higham's thoroughness—the way he documents the cover-ups, the planting and removal of 'evidence,' the innuendo, the collusion of the studios, the myriad odd events that led to no one ever being brought to trial for Taylor's murder—is impressive, as is the methodical way he deals with all previous explanations of what took place."—Todd McCarthy, Variety

“Charles Higham has written the most thoroughly researched and carefully considered of all the books on the legendary William Desmond Taylor murder case. Drawing on his immense knowledge of motion picture history, Higham makes Murder in Hollywood a compelling story of deceit, jealousy, greed, and—ultimately—insanity in the early days of moviemaking.”— James Curtis, author of W. C. Fields: A Biography

“Here is a detective biography on a grand scale, sparklingly written and brilliantly researched, which will capture and hold its readers’ fascination and attention throughout.”—Doyce B. Nunis Jr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, University of Southern California

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (October 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299203603
• ISBN-13: 978-0299203603
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,252,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Poor Production, June 30, 2005

By 

Gloria Mundi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Silent Screen Mystery (Hardcover)

The unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor is a striking and unusual case, in the sense that Taylor's still-mysterious life was perhaps even stranger than his death. I don't believe I've ever read of a homicide where there are so many bizarre characters involved, and so many contradictory, missing, outlandish, and disputed pieces to the puzzle surrounding this enigmatic antique dealer-turned runaway spouse-turned vagabond-turned actor-turned director. I have yet to read one account of the case that does not directly clash with all the others.

Unfortunately, Charles Higham has done nothing at all to clarify, let alone solve, this frustrating homicide. I am amazed that his publishers allowed such a muddled, weak book to go to press. He simply launches the book with an assumption of who the guilty party was, gives a glib "solution" to the murder based on what he airily calls "circumstantial evidence" (evidence that he never sees fit to share with his readers,) and, essentially, forces his audience to just take his word for it that this is what happened. While I can't dispute that it's possible the murder unfolded as he claims, on the other hand, Higham gives us no proof whatsoever that it did. The rambling and irrelevant digressions noted by previous reviewers are, I think, simply necessary padding to cover up the fact that his case against his prime suspect could be summed up in two or three lines.

Higham also has the annoying habit of dropping in little bombshells without providing any elaboration or even evidence of his claims. He says former DA Buron Fitts may well have shot himself using the gun used to murder Taylor. How does he know? He claims his alleged murderer made a "deathbed confession" to a nurse, who subsequently disappeared. Where did this story come from? Much of Higham's book is based on an unpublished memoir allegedly written by a now-dead man, which claims he had a long affair with Taylor. Is this memoir at all accurate? Corroborated by any other accounts? Or could it be fraudulent? If Higham bothered to find answers to these questions, he kept that to himself.

All in all, this book was a most irritating read.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars New evidence mired in convoluted writing, May 29, 2005

By 

Classic Hollywood Lives (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Silent Screen Mystery (Hardcover)

Having anticipated Charles Higham's treatment of the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor to be the book-to-end-all-books on the subject, my disappointment was palpable as I trudged through the final pages of this incoherent, typo-ridden volume. Presuming that Higham's facility with biographies would transfer well to the true-crime genre, I expected his effort here to be as polished and well-researched as his previous work; instead this book is a convoluted mess. Besides going into lengthy, irrelevant detail about the lives of people having absolutely nothing to do with the murder (i.e., Neva Gerber, Julia Crawford Ivers, etc.), Higham rambles endlessly, repeating himself often while at the same time curiously managing to contradict himself. His irritating habit of drawing conclusions without providing any real evidence to support his theories throws the entire presentation off kilter. For example, his insistence that an unidentified suicide victim found in Connecticut was Taylor's former employee, Edward Sands, simply because Higham feels that Sands should have killed himself, is simply preposterous. To add insult to injury, this book seems not to have been proof-read - there are a plethora of glaring typos that even a second-grade child would have caught. The fact that Higham had access to files previously unavailable only frustrates the reader further, as his continuous failure to present this new evidence in anything approaching a cohesive fashion denies the reader a clear understanding of such material. Perhaps I expected too much simply due to Higham's reputation - but I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. Its one saving grace (and perhaps what makes it a worthwhile volume for the silent film buff) is the sprinkling of rare photos including portraits of Mabel Normand, Mary Miles Minter and a strange photo of the usuallly dapper Taylor in a frilly nightgown(!). In my opinion, anyone interested in the William Desmond Taylor murder case would do better with the two previous books written on the subject: A Deed of Death by Robert Giroux and A Cast of Killers by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick. Both vastly surpass Higham's scattered tale in clarity, form and content, and both have a style and cohesiveness that Higham's sorely lacks.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Murder in Hollywood: Solving A Silent Screen Mystery?, March 7, 2005

By 

Slipping Beauty (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Silent Screen Mystery (Hardcover)

I ran into trouble with this book about three quarters of the way down on page 13 (the prologue). Mr. Higham writes about a New Years Day party he attended in 1971, in which he attempts to discuss the William Desmond Taylor murder case with several "legendary figures" of film. He notes that his host films a "priceless historical record" of the party and its guests which include the great director Josef Von Sternberg. Being a fan of Mr. Von Sternberg and knowing that he, in fact, passed away in December of 1969, told me all I needed to know about the research and the information presented in this book. If the author is so mistaken about such an important film maker as Mr. Von Sternberg and that date, then he loses credibility with me about the rest of his timeline and theory.

I would recommend anyone interested in the murder of William Desmond Taylor to read "A Cast of Killers" by Sidney Kirkpatrick (1986). The book is written in the form of a novel and is not a true crime book per se. But the facts and conclusions ring truer than anything "Murder in Hollywood" has to say. Plus the same material is presented with a sense of style and energy that is entirely absent in this short (209 pages)lusterless book.