Murder in Babylon: A Novel Based on Fact

ISBN-13: 9781593937829 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 228 str.

Michael B. Druxman

Opis

"Druxman has taken Hollywoods most famous murder mystery and turned itinto a fascinating narrative that is so evocative of 1920s Tinseltown. His fictional "hero" guides us on a factual journey that not only revealswhy the case remains officially unsolved-but also identifies the killer!" - Thomas B. Sawyer, Murder, She Wrote Head Writer/Showrunner, bestselling author of Cross PurposesOn the evening of February 1, 1922, silent film director William DesmondTaylor was shot to death in his Los Angeles home. The murder, coming onthe heels of the "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal, shocked the Hollywood communityand the country, resulting in reform groups labeling the film capital a"modern day Babylon," and demanding that movies be censored or, in somecommunities, even banned.The murder itself was never "officially" solved, but subsequentrevelations about the directors unsavory past, as well as his recentsecret activities that took him into the Los Angeles underworld, wouldkeep the case alive in the nations press for almost two decades, andbecause of their relationship with Taylor, effectively end the careers oftwo popular screen stars, Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter.Ben Birnbaum, a reporter for the Los Angeles Dispatch at the time of themurder, covered the Taylor case for those two decades; once almost beingkilled for his efforts. His posthumous memoir details his day-to-dayinvestigation to unravel Hollywoods most baffling mystery.