1937

March 1937, Margaret Shelby eloped to Yuma, Arizona with movie director Emmett J. Flynn. 

Newspapers, May 7, 1937. District Attorney Burton Fitts issued subpoenas for Charlotte Shelby, Mary Miles Minter and Margaret Fillmore Shelby to appear before a Grand Jury.

Newspapers, May 7, 1937. Margaret Fillmore Shelby: “I protected Mrs Shelby in the Taylor murder case.”

Newspapers, May 7, 1937. Eugene Marcus, another district attorney, stated that a cloud of suspicion had been hanging over Mary Miles Minter for the past fifteen years.

June 4, 1937, the death of Emmett J. Flynn. In A Cast of Killers Sidney D. Kirkpatrick suggested that this death might have been suspicious. Was Flynn murdered? 🤷‍♀️

Newspapers, June 10, 1937. Two suspects reported, but not named, one before never linked with the crime.

Newspapers, June 10, 1937. Faith MacLean, now Mrs Moody, said she could identify the man she saw on the night of the murder. She selected a picture from a dozen she was shown.

Newspapers, June 10, 1937. The discovery of an unfired bullet “identical with that which killed Captain Taylor.” See next item.

Newspapers, June 10, 1937. Chauncey Eaton, a former chauffeur of an unnamed suspect, produced a bullet of the same calibre, weight and structure as the bullet that killed Taylor. He said the bullet was one of five given to him a year after the shooting. He hid the bullets and returned the gun to its owner, Charlotte Shelby.

Newspapers, June 10, 1937. Carl Stockdale stated that he was with Charlotte Shelby the night Taylor was murdered, at her home.

Newspapers, June 12, 1937. Mary Miles Minter said that it was “highly improbable” that a taxi driver drove her and Carl Stockdale from the Ambassador Hotel to her home the night Taylor was murdered. See next item.

Newspapers, June 12, 1937. A taxi driver identified a man from a picture. He stated that he drove the man and his female companion away from a fashionable hotel on the evening Taylor was murdered. He claimed that he overheard these words from the back seat: “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of the guy for you.”

I believe that most of the circumstantial evidence points to Charlotte Shelby or Mary Miles Minter or Carl Stockdale/Charlotte Shelby or Carl Stockdale/ Mary Miles Minter as the murderer. If we disregard Faith MacLean Moody’s evidence, the pieces slot together. Of course, we cannot disregard Faith’s evidence. Equally, we cannot ignore the circumstantial evidence. Find the common ground and we find the murderer.