On this day, Feb. 2, in 1922, silent film director William Desmond Taylor was found in his Hollywood home with a bullet hole in his back.
Coming on the heels of the Fatty Arbuckle rape and murder charges and the overdose death of actor Wallace Reid, the public began to see Hollywood as a den of sin.
In Taylor’s murder, the cast of suspects included sex-starved actresses, a thieving butler, drug dealers and a stage mother who accused Taylor of having an affair with her teenage daughter. There were charges of gay and bisexual orgies.
Taylor himself was a mystery. Born in Ireland, Taylor married a woman in New York, only to disappear. He moved to California, changed his name, took on an English accent and became a success.
His murder remains unsolved.
– Scott McCabe
