William Desmond Taylor

The death of silent film director William Desmond Taylor, whose body was found at his bungalow in downtown Los Angeles on February 2, 1922, is one of the film industry’s greatest unsolved mysteries. Although Taylor’s suspicious behavior in the days prior suggested suicide, coroners discovered that Taylor had been shot in the back, and no gun was ever recovered. Coupled with the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, Taylor’s murder began a string of bad publicity for Hollywood, thanks to the press, who sensationalized and fabricated news stories that linked several individuals to the murder, including then-popular actresses Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter, whose careers suffered as a result.