E294: MURDER - William Desmond Taylor

Fresh Hell Podcast

freshhellpodcast

True Crime

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the third and final part of this Hollywood murder saga, we talk about the murder scene, all the possible suspects!

Who had a motive? And who may have been protected by the studio system at all costs?We’ll walk you through the possible killers — from studio insiders and jilted lovers to the ones no one saw coming — and look at how the investigation quickly fell apart under pressure from powerful forces. We also take a closer look at Margaret Gibson’s jaw-dropping deathbed confession, and what, if anything, it actually proves.And finally, we’ll tell you what happened to all the major players in the years and decades after the murder that shocked early Hollywood.

Keywords:william desmond taylor, hollywood murder, silent film scandal, margaret gibson, mary miles minter, mabel normand, charlotte shelby, early hollywood, unsolved mystery, true crime podcast, fresh hell podcast, hollywood forever cemetery, studio cover-up, 1920s hollywood, deathbed confession, classic hollywood, vintage true crime, film history, roscoe arbuckle era, murder mystery

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the Fresh Hell podcast.
0:14.6	Fresh Hell contains stories of a disturbing and often graphic nature and is intended for a mature audience.
0:20.6	Please don't let your kids listen to this,
0:22.4	or they might turn out like us.
0:30.6	Hi, I'm Annie from Boston. And I'm Johanna from Austria, and you're listening to your favorite
0:36.9	international podcast.
0:39.4	The podcast hosted by two women who never met in real life and who really don't need to
0:44.9	in order to be real friends and in order to run this podcast together.
0:49.8	That's very true.
0:51.7	So, Johanna, I have a problem.
0:58.9	The corner spider from last week that had a friend.
1:06.6	I don't see the friend, Johanna. There's only one spider. Maybe the friend was not a permanent guest. Maybe he just, you know, came over for a cup of spider tea and then just went back home.
1:11.2	Oh, maybe he went behind the curtain to try to catch bugs or something.
1:15.5	All right.
1:15.9	This is fine.
1:17.3	This is, listen.
1:19.6	Oh, wait, is that, nope, that's not him.
1:22.3	All right.
1:23.1	Maybe he'll reappear.
1:24.3	I just hope he's not in my hair because I feel like he's for sure in my hair.
1:29.4	Okay. Let's talk about murder because the spider situation is upsetting.
1:35.8	Sorry. Friends, hi. If you're enjoying the main show and you want even more, fresh hell in your ears.
	...

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