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frenchcafegirl
, August 05, 2014
(view all comments by frenchcafegirl)
The author, a veteran Hollywood biographer (Cary Grant, Marlon Brando), claims to have solved the murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor,While this is a fun read, it really is only a melodramatic rehash of King Vidors book on the same subject,and sheds a dim light on the mystery. In 1907, Taylor, an Irish immigrant, left his wife and daughter in New York City and years later shows up as an actor/ director in the silent film community of Hollywood. Attractive and intelligent, Taylor had many affairs with both men and women. Moist notable of these is George Hopkins an award winning set designer. 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 has based his theory on research documents from the 60's and 70's given to him by director King Vidor. Minter's lack of an alibi for the time of the murder, and complicated political relationships alluding to corruption involving her mother charlotte shelby, 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 others such as an unidentified man seen by a witness leaving the scene.
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