Mabel Normand by Timothy Dean Lefler

Author:Timothy Dean Lefler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2016-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Don’t worry Mamma and Papa. Unfortunately I was one of the last to leave Mr. Taylor’s house. Soon after that, he was shot. They all know I know nothing about the sad affair, and I will be exonerated entirely.

Mabel13

Mabel’s brother Claude left his job at a Staten Island movie theater to call Mabel and offer what help he could. He asked her if she wanted the family to come west to be with her. Mabel said that there was no need. She was already planning her own trip to Staten Island. The home she purchased for her parents seemed like Heaven to her now. Claude’s statement to the press revealed the strength of family that she so desperately needed: “We feel that Mabel knows enough to take care of herself, and are confident that she will be cleared.”14

Mabel’s own confidence was waning, and her fragile constitution gave way to fear. She reached out to Mack Sennett: “Hello, Mack?” Mack knew at once that it was Mabel’s voice, but it never sounded like this. In anguish, she told him that Taylor had been murdered and that they were blaming her. “Mack, I’m in trouble! I am in serious trouble!” With an uncharacteristic paranoia, she told Mack that she couldn’t tell him everything, because the police had tapped her phone line. Mack promised to meet her the next day so they could talk in person, and he pledged to do all he could for her. Mack heard a sigh. “There’s nothing for you to do, Mack. Nothing at all. I’ve never brought you anything but trouble. I just wanted you to know.”15 She silently hung up the phone.

Working for Mack proved to be a godsend. The William Desmond Taylor case was his finest hour. He responded to Mabel’s plight directly and with sympathy. He immediately suspended work on Suzanna, encouraged her to go east to see her family, and offered to help her financially. He defended her in the press (and would continue to do so for the rest of his life). He knew that Mabel was not capable of murder. Perhaps for the first time, Mabel and Mack shared something that their relationship had always been missing: real friendship.16

The Taylor murder couldn’t have come at a worse time for the film industry. It validated the voices of those who had been decrying Hollywood’s vices. The proverbial last straw, it would lead to the censorship of movies for decades to come. From a business standpoint, millions had been lost on Arbuckle, and the potential losses on Normand would be even more staggering. While Mabel’s public had grown accustomed to the tales of her hijinks and misadventures, this was murder. They would never forgive her for that.

Mabel fully cooperated with investigators. She presented her statements in a serious, straightforward manner. She would be questioned, interrogated and cross-examined for hours at a time, then have to do it again. Her timetable was corroborated by Taylor’s neighbors and her chauffeur.

At ten on the morning of Saturday, February 4, 1922, Coroner Frank A.

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