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A Cast of Killers

Sidney D. Kirkpatrick

Hardcover | Pages: 301 pages

Rating: 3.95 | 837 Users | 89 Reviews

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Original Title:	A Cast of Killers
ISBN:	0525243909 (ISBN13: 9780525243908)
Edition Language:	English

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On February 1, 1922, the distinguished silent-film director William Desmond Taylor was shot to death in his Los Angeles bungalow by an unknown assailant. Reports of strange activities at the scene of the crime circulated soon after. When the police arrived, was the head of Paramount Studios burning a bundle of papers in the fireplace, and was a well-known actress searching the house for letters she claimed were hers? Despite a full-scale investigation, the case was never solved; for sixty years is has remained a lingering Hollywood scandal. In 1967, more than forty years after Taylor's death, the great King Vidor, whose directing credits include Northwest Passage, The Fountainhead, Duel in the Sun, and War and Peace, determined to solve the mystery, which had haunted him throughout his career, in order to make a film about it. Through his intimate knowledge of both the studios and the stars, he succeeded, where dozens of professional detectives had failed, in discovering the identity of the murderer. But because his findings were so explosive, he decided he could never go public and locked his evidence away. After Vidor's death in 1982, Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, Vidor's authorized biographer, gained access to the evidence and reconstructed the amazing story of Taylor's murder and Vidor's investigation. With a cast of suspects that includes the actress Mabel Normand, a reputed drug addict; the beautiful ingénue, Mary Miles Minter; Mary's domineering mother, Charlotte Shelby; Taylor's homosexual houseman; and Taylor's secretary, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Taylor's mysteriously elusive brother, this true crime story has all the elements of a classic murder mystery. Covered up for more than half a century, the full story can now be told in all its riveting, shocking detail.

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Title	:	A Cast of Killers
Author	:	Sidney D. Kirkpatrick
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Twentieth Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 301 pages
Published	:	June 30th 1986 by Dutton Books (first published 1986)
Categories	:	Crime. True Crime. Nonfiction. History. Mystery. Culture. Film

Rating Regarding Books A Cast of Killers

Ratings: 3.95 From 837 Users | 89 Reviews

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William Desmond Taylor was an A-list Hollywood film director of the silent era. On February 1, 1922, the dapper Irish-American was found shot in the back in his bungalow in the Westlake Park area of downtown Los Angeles. He was 49 years old. There was no sign of a struggle.When the police arrived 30 minutes later, the house was already swarming with movie studio people. At first, police believed Taylor suffered a perforated ulcer and died from interior bleeding. But when the body was moved, it

Very interesting true crime novel about an early Hollywood scandal. In 1922 the director William Desmond Taylor was found murdered, with various Hollywood players implicated in his death. Despite much rumour and speculation the crime was never solved. Forty years later, in the 1960's, the legendary director King Vidor decided to investigate what really happened to his friend. Written by Sidney Kirkpatrick, the novel recounts Vidor's investigation and involves many people from 1920's Hollywood,

A first rate whodunit about the murder if William Desmond Taylor. Aging director King Vidor searches for answers to the 50 year old mystery and what he finds is a studio cover up, a LAPD deliberate stonewall, love affairs, homosexuality and stars and starlets whose careers were destroyed . Kirkpatrick keeps us guessing and the ending is bittersweet but meanwhile we get a glimpse of Tinsel Town in the '20's-'60's and the power of the studio system. A must read!! 4 stars.

As a fan of old movies and Hollywood in its heyday, this is a fascinating look at the seamier side of Tinseltown in its infancy. A true unsolved murder mystery, with many of the important celebrities of the time involved or linked in some way. Don't know if you would call it a 'fun read', but it was definitely as good, or better, than fiction.

Although there have been other and more solid theories out there about the motive and perpetrators of director William Desmond Taylor's murder in 1922, this one has an added level of interest because Kirkpatrick tells the story of a high-level sleuth. King Vidor, well-known director and contemporary of Taylor's, investigated the crime over the course of decades and this book is the result of that inquiry. As I said, the finale is not completely convincing (and may be a bit of a cop-out), but for

The rumors surrounding who killed Hollywood director William Desmond Taylor have been circling the gossip circuit since the day after it happened. Most of them were plausible, but one rumor in particular kept taking center stage. King Vidor, a prominent Hollywood director himself, almost seemed obsessed in determining the truth about Taylor's murder. The author of this book did a wonderful job in writing about King Vidor's documentations about his journey in following the leads of these various

I love true crime. I love old Hollywood. These two together is a dream combination that will draw me like a moth is drawn to a flame.In 1922, director William Desmond Taylor was shot to death in his bungalow. Wild reports (some false, some not) started to spread: a mysterious "doctor" who declared the cause of death as natural, studio people burning papers in Taylor's fireplace, actress Mabel Normand (whose alleged cocaine addiction Taylor had allegedly been trying to cure) rummaging through his