Top Ten Greatest Unsolved Mysteries In Hollywood
9. William Desmond Taylor
Forensic investigators called to Taylor’s Los Angeles home found that the director, 49, had been shot in the back with a small caliber pistol.
He had last been seen by his friend, actress Mabel Normand, the evening before. No one knows what Taylor did between approximately 7:45pm, when Normand left him, and early the following morning when his body was found.
The case became a media circus. After Taylor’s corpse was found, a crowd gathered in his house, making evidence preservation impossible. The first thought was that he had been a victim of an opportunistic robbery, but the fact that he still wore his diamond ring and the cash in his wallet debunked that theory.
Eventually, seven unlikely people emerged as murder suspects. They included Taylor’s former and current valets, Mabel Normand, the last person to see Taylor alive, and Mary Miles Minter, a 19-year-old girl with an unrequited crush on the director. Her love letters to Taylor were found shortly after his death.
Over 40 years later, an actress named Margaret Gibson unexpectedly confessed to the murder, but no corroborating evidence was offered or found. Taylor’s murder remains unsolved.
