If you could solve just one mystery....

[HadleyH]

The William Desmond Taylor murder.

Was it about Mabel & drug dealers?

Or Mary & her evil mother?

I'm pretty sure it was Mary & and her evil mother, in all the books I have read there seems to be a kind of agreement on that , of course, one can not be 100% sure [huh]

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Robert Giroux's book Deed of Death, follows the drug dealer theory.

http://www.amazon.com/Deed-Death-Robert-Giroux/dp/0394580753


Although Charlotte Shelby is the ultimate evil stage mom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Shelby

It's interesting that to this day, Hollywood has avoided making a W.D.T. murder movie.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

Judge Crater. What happened to him?

 

[K.D. Lightner]

The Black Dahlia would be the one, I think. So many men were suspects in that crime, it was lurid and grisly and still is.

I have a friend who told me that her father, who was in the Navy at the time, hung around certain L.A. bars and actually met the woman. He was one of hundreds of men detained and questioned about her death.

Bet whoever the guy was, he's dead today.

I have to concede that I like the idea of leaving the Amelia Earhardt disappearance a mystery. I'd sure like to disappear like that someday, as per the Joni Mitchell song, Amelia:

A ghost of aviation
she was swallowed by the sky
or by the sea...

karol

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Thelma Todd, definitely. What a terrific talent she was. She'd be as well known today as Carole Lombard if she'd lived longer. She owned a very popular nightclub in Hollywood that the mob wanted to move in on. She refused to play ball. She was found dead in her car, in the garage with the motor running, an "apparent suicide". The LA police were as dirty as they come in those days. A lousy rotten murder of a fabulous lady.

dherman, have you read Hot Toddy, by Andy Edmonds? I showed an interest in her life and death a few years ago and someone recommended that book. Very interesting and probing.

Yes, I too would like to solve her mystery.


Lee

 

[MrNewportCustom]

dhermann1,
I have a close affinity with you on the loss of Thelma Todd. I have studied this case at length. Because of my relatively close proximity to the area, I have been able to visit the notorious sites involved. You'd be surprised how little the places have changed in 72 years. It's unusual for the greater Los Angeles area to let anying stand undisturbed for this many years. Remarkably, the building that housed Ms. Todd's nightclub (Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe) and apartments still stands today on Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Pallisades, as well as the mansion on the hill behind and the actual garage where her body was found in her Lincoln. The garage is in almost identical condition to that period in time. I have pictures of the places involved. I will dig through my cache to locate them and post them here if you like. If you're ever out this way I'd be glad to take you out to the places for a personal visit.
I've always thought it would be great to have a group of interested (sympathetic?) people meet there in the wee hours of the morning every December 16th. Interested?

Best, Toots [/B]

This is something that I would be very interested in doing.


Lee

 

[The Wolf]

How about a mystery that started before the golden age and continues today?

I would want to be a cryptoanalysist from the 1930s trying to decode the Voynich Manuscript. No, actually forget try, I would want to actually decode the manuscript.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Ed Bass]

This is something that I would be very interested in doing.


Lee

Lee,
If you are close geopgraphically, or just up for a road trip, I would be happy to start an annual pilgrimage (of sorts) to this site for December 16th. I thought it might be interesting to also invite the current owner of Ms. Todd's '34 Lincoln for this visit. The car resides in North central California today.
If you're up for it...so am I!
Best, Toots

 

[dhermann1]

The Voynich Manuscript

I would want to be a cryptoanalysist from the 1930s trying to decode the Voynich Manuscript. No, actually forget try, I would want to actually decode the manuscript.
Sincerely,
The Wolf

Had no idea what it was, so I Googled it. As Arty Johnson would say (remember Arty Johnson?) Verrrrrrrry interesting!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript

 

[Ed Bass]

Perhaps just an elaborate hoax perpetrated by Voynich himself?

"Still, it should be noted that internal dating is often highly speculative and depends on many assumptions which may, themselves, be lacking in hard factual support."

Best, Toots

 

[dr greg]

lost battalion

The BBc actually had a dramatisation of that story a few years ago, and the reason the Turks said they knew nothing about it was that most of the Regiment were shot or bludgeoned to death after being captured.

 

[dhermann1]

The Turks not admitting to an atrocity? I can't believe it!

 

[dr greg]

strangely apposite

I was reading this, just a few hours ago
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6386625.stm

 

[Spitfire]

I would like to find out which S.O.B denied Adolf Hitler access to artschool.

 

[Twitch]

There are tons of interesting books on the Earhart. I got in a phase years ago and read everything I could find. Library had a lot of them.

Side note- One day while I was into that I casually asked my friend who was a USMC Corsair pilot if he'd heard anything about Earhart when he was in the Pacific. He said when they reached the Marshall Islnds they asked the natives who told them basically that "they landed but the Japs took them."

Her intended island landing, Howland, is very near Tarawa which was being fortified at the time. So here's yet another innocent and casual heresay part of a big puzzle.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Yes, I had read or heard something about the Earhardt Japanese prison camp story, also that she might have been on a spy mission for the government and the Japanese either captured her or shot her down.

As for mysteries before the Golden Era, there are so many. What really happened to the Ark of the Covenant? Where is the buried Templar gold? The grail, if there is a grail? The ship, Mary Celeste, what happened to her crew? What about all those Bermuda Triangle stories (some did take place during the Golden Era)? What about the lost Roanoke colony and Virginia Dare? The few unexplained UFO sightings? What are they?

So many mysteries, so little time....

karol

 

[KilroyCD]

How about the Normandie disaster?

Was the Normandie a victim of sabotage, or just carelessness?

 

[panamag8or]

edited because someone beat me to it.

 

[reetpleat]

Well, another mystery posibly solved as far as William Desmond Taylor's murder? I found a book written by a Hollywood reporteer in the eighties using notes and investigation done by King Vidore. Vidore seems to have solved it. I won't spoil it here though.

If anyone would like the book, I will send it to them. First posted response gets it. $2.00 shipping.

It is a great read detailing the history of Hollywood, taylor and other famous actors and actresses Mary Miles Minter, etc. And of course, the life and acreer of King Vidore. It involves false identies, rumored and real homosexuality, studio cover ups, family betrayals, long lost lovers reunited.

Very fun read.

 

[Ed Bass]

Well, another mystery posibly solved as far as William Desmond Taylor's murder? I found a book written by a Hollywood reporteer in the eighties using notes and investigation done by King Vidore. Vidore seems to have solved it. I won't spoil it here though.

If anyone would like the book, I will send it to them. First posted response gets it. $2.00 shipping.

It is a great read detailing the history of Hollywood, taylor and other famous actors and actresses Mary Miles Minter, etc. And of course, the life and acreer of King Vidore. It involves false identies, rumored and real homosexuality, studio cover ups, family betrayals, long lost lovers reunited.

Very fun read.

reetpleat,
I would very much enjoy that read! I will PM you my mailing address.
Best, Toots