|
|||||||||
|
[Updated Oct. 30, 8:58 a.m. Yes, these are more photos from the William Desmond Taylor photo file. Above, a photo of Taylor from “Iconoclast.”] [Several people have speculated about the signature on the letter I posted earlier in the week. There’s no information on the back, but here’s an enlargement of the signature.] Update: I've decided to extend our mystery chap through the week. I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed. Here’s our weekend mystery chap. This week’s mystery guest was Tish Sterling with mystery companions Michael Douglas, Nicholas Buttle and her mother, Ann Sothern. There's a new photo on the jump! |
[Update: This is Sgt. William Desmond Taylor, left, in an undated photo taken in Bergues, France.] Here’s our mystery guest with some mystery companions. |
Now folks, notice the three stripes, which I’m sure everyone will realize indicates the rank of sergeant.
| Los Angeles Times file photo |
Pvt. William Desmond Taylor, right, with Co. B, 5th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, Bergues, France.
| Los Angeles Times file photo |
[Update: Mabel Normand on the witness stand in William Desmond Taylor's inquest, with Coroner Nance at extreme left.]
Here are some mystery folks talking about our mystery chap. (Yes, the photo is unfocused, dark and heavily retouched). Please congratulate Herb Nichols, Pat in Michigan, Allison Francis, Mary Mallory, Eve and Steven Bibb for identifying our mystery fellow.
| Los Angeles Times file photo |
[Update: I have no idea who this fellow is. There’s nothing on the back of the photo and the caption published in The Times said the district attorney’s office was protecting his identity.]
Here is a mystery companion who truly is a mystery companion. The district attorney’s office kept his identity a secret in the case of this week’s mystery guest. Please congratulate Dewey Webb and Rick Scott for identifying our mystery chap.
| Los Angeles Times file photo |
| Los Angeles Times file photo |
Here we have some pages of a mystery letter! Unfortunately, it’s incomplete. Please congratulate Donna for identifying our mystery fellow.
| Los Angeles Times file photo |
Here’s our mystery fellow – not much of a mystery anymore! Please congratulate Steve Stoliar, Julie Merholz, Periwinkle, Waldo Lydecker, Mike Hawks, Rance Ryan, Rick, Sandy, Randy Skretvedt and Kauma for identifying our mystery guest.
ladailymirror.com 
Nigel de Brulier?
LikeLike
Wait, not thin enough for Nigel. How about Monroe Salisbury?
LikeLike
Could be anyone beneath all the re-touching. But do know one thing for certain. It isn’t me. Wasn’t around in re-touch times.
LikeLike
Duncan Renaldo
LikeLike
It appears to be a badly doctored photo of Victor Jory.
LikeLike
Duncan Renaldo
LikeLike
Oh, how can you be so cruel to us, your ever-loyal kimosabes? It could be Baby Snooks under all that paint. But I’ll guess Gilbert Roland.
LikeLike
Hard to tell with the retouching, but I’m guessing Duncan Renaldo, too. The eyebrows.
LikeLike
william s. hart ?
LikeLike
John J. Pershing?
LikeLike
Douglas MacArthur?
LikeLike
Patton? Is that first photo at the San Gabriel mission?
LikeLike
william desmond taylor
LikeLike
William Desmond Taylor? Or is it too soon?
LikeLike
William Desmond Taylor
LikeLike
I think Allie’s right, it’s William Desmond Taylor in CAPTAIN ALVAREZ and then him in his Canadian unit during World War I.
LikeLike
Sgt. Alvin York?
LikeLike
I’m already disappointed.
LikeLike
Is he last week’s tenant, Wm. Desmond Taylor?
LikeLike
Subsequent military stills make my guess laughable. Nonetheless, I nominate the best Ming the Merciless ever, Charles Middleton. Just because his name should be in print.
LikeLike
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.
LikeLike
Buck Jones.
LikeLike
It’s William Desmond Taylor.
LikeLike
Phil Silvers?
LikeLike
Wm Desmond Taylor
LikeLike
Arthur Guy Empey
LikeLike
I recognize nothing except the uniforms and what looks like a trench bugle.
LikeLike
Okay, let’s go back two weeks. The gent on the left of soldier pic looks like William Desmond Taylor (especially if folks are being interviewed). One of the other soldiers, the lanky one to the right of the tent entrance, looks like William Beaudine.
LikeLike
One of the guys in the military shots looks like William Desmond Taylor. But it can’t be him, you just did his apartment!
LikeLike
Is today’s guest his brother?
LikeLike
the mysterious edward sands
LikeLike
is todays mystery companion Howard Hawks?
LikeLike
Today’s picture is DW Griffiths, isn’t it?
LikeLike
The mystery chap looks like one of the soldiers in the earlier photos, the smug looking one. But it’s blurry, so I could be wrong.
LikeLike
Paul Bern
LikeLike
William Desmond Taylor.
LikeLike
William Desmond Taylor
LikeLike
Could it be the victim found in last week’s mystery location, William Desmond Taylor? It only took a sledgehammer for me to figure it out.
LikeLike
One more go at it — William Desmond Taylor.
LikeLike
I hope I finally got this right, William Desmond Taylor.
LikeLike
william desmond taylor
LikeLike
it’s obviously William Desmond Taylor. There’s a reference to the Army pictures in Taylorology 40
LikeLike
William Desmond
LikeLike
William Desmond Taylor!
LikeLike
William Desmond Taylor.
LikeLike
William Desmond Taylor; the letter threw me, because it references “WD” and I assumed it was written by the mystery guest, who thus couldn’t be WDT.
Gah.
LikeLike
Well, you’ve done the equal to my opening the hall closet door. I don’t see the mystery dude’s name anywhere. Not everbody on this poor, doomed planet is a Hollyweird history wonk or am I wrong?
LikeLike
I found the full text of the letter in issue 10 of Taylorology, but I couldn’t find the name of the author, other than the description of a “well educated man” of “unsound mind”. “…the handwriting of the man whose name was signed to the ‘confession’, said to be a prominent figure in the motion picture industry, in no way corresponds to that in which the correspondence was written.”
I hope you identify the real author of the letter and the “prominent figure”, because I can’t read the signature.
LikeLike
William Desmond Taylor.
LikeLike
Sarah, is what you’re quoting from Taylorology saying that the person who wrote this signed the name of a prominent Hollywood person but wasn’t really that person? I can’t tell what the signature reads, either, although it looks like J.C. DeH——.
LikeLike
Stacia — Here’s the link http://www.silentera.com/taylorology/issues/Taylor10.txt
And yes. Though police at first thought the letter was credible, they ultimately decided it was not. The last sentence says “to be continued” but I could find no mention of whatever became of the letter or the letter writer, or who the letter writer was.
LikeLike
Thanks Sarah! I had no idea silentera.com had the issues, and I’m on that website almost constantly. ‘Course, I never LOOKED there, but still.
LikeLike