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Show MARY MILES MINTED QUESTIONED TWO HOUUSi MABEL DENIES SHE QUARRELED WITH DIRECTOR Many Notables of Film World Questioned By-District By-District Attorney MORE TO BE CALLED Police Reported to Have Discovered Origin of Murder Pistol LOS ANGELES Feb. 10. Mabel Normand. motion picture actress, will be the next star in the reeling by the district attorney's office of all facts1 and circumstances that investigators can obtain to build up the real story I of the mystery drama surrounding the shooting of William Desmond Taylor, noted film director here nine days ago. j it was announced today by District At-, At-, torney Woolwlne. Mary Miles Minter was the first actress ac-tress questioned having been secret - ly examined for two hours Tuesday by Woolwlne, w in)" Taylor's funeral was I in progress. Woolwino said, j Miss Normand has held the leading i or stellar role In the spectacular developments de-velopments of the investigation thus I far. which the district attorney says has not produced one scintilla ot evidence evi-dence to connect any one with the ' murder. LAST To si L HIM. Miss Normand was the la.st person ! found by InvestlRators to have been I w Ith the slain director. The timo of i the murder has been fixed within a few minutes of the time which Miss , Normand and her chauffeur fixed as that of her departure from Taylors house, where he was slain. She was J i with him the nieht before the murder. and Taylor was deeply in love with her, and they had had a Quarrel, ac- j cording to Honry Peavey, negro houseman for the nlaln director, who left Mabel Normand and Taylor alone at the Taylor house within an hour before the fatal shooting occurred- MABEL DENIES QI HIRELING, Letters ot Mabel Normand to Taylor, Tay-lor, which she wild she feared would be misinterpreted If revealed to the public, and which Taylor treasured, were the object of search by Mis.-! Normand at the Tuylor house on the day of the murder They were missing miss-ing from the drawer of the desk in which Tuylor kept them, according to Miss Normand. and later they were found in a manner which is veiled in mystery) reported to have been in a boot In a i loset of the Taylor house on the floor above that In which the murder was committed and which they were usually kept. SWOONS IX CHURCH. The death of Taylor and funeral affected af-fected Miss Normand more visibly than any other person within the purview pur-view of friends and the public, thus culminating in her swooning In the church following the funeral service Tuesday. She was brought into the church supported by two women and accompanied by her director. When the aervice began her body quaked In spasmodic tremors, continuously contin-uously during the 30 or moro minutes of the service and the two women had to support her in the seat, entwining tin ir .inns about her s while the director di-rector called att ntion of one of them j to beads of perspiration upon her pale trembling open mouthed lace. When others left tho church she insisted in-sisted on being led to the casket, and after a glimpse at the still visage therein, she lost consciousness. M KY tjt ESTIONED. Mary Miles Minter. another actress reported to have been in love with Taylor and one of whoso love letters were found among Taylor s effects. , was engaged in examination at the j district attorney's offlco, while the funeral was being held. Mabel Normand has been known in 1 motion pictures for moro than twelve years, first entering this field In New York after previous experience as a chorus girl and model. Comedy bur- lesque was her early experience, under un-der direction of Mack Bennett, to whom she has been engaged and unci' un-ci' w hose direction sho now is and has remained practically the whole of her career For many years In the 'slap-Btii 'slap-Btii k ' comedy, she was a stage companion com-panion ol Roscoe 0. Arbuckle. Fred Bda e and Ford Sterling Continuance of the examination of witness today was delayed, District Attorney W oolwlne said, owing to tho fatigue of the examiners who were occupied oc-cupied until late hours last night. MoanwhllCj he said, investigators continued con-tinued with undiminished energy their search of details that might unravel the entanglements of circumstance.-, surrounding the death. ACTRESS ON GKLLL. LOS ANGELES. Feb. 10. Declaration Declara-tion that Mary Miles Minter was questioned ques-tioned for two hours yesterday by the district attorney In conneitlon with i out itnic.i on Pagi Two ) MARY MILES MINTER QUIZZED (Continued from Page 1 I the slaying of William Pwrnond Taylor, Tay-lor, wan printed by the Los Angeles Times this morning. Taylor wui a friend of Miss Mlnfer, and in his capacity ca-pacity of director had charge of her flmi stellar appearance In motion pictures. pic-tures. ' Miss Mlnter"s appearance at the district attorney's office and her questioning ques-tioning these have not been made known or been admitted by tho officials." offi-cials." tho story adds. in l INK To ( n.MMI NT Attorney for Miss Mlnter, according accord-ing to the story, declined to comment on the purported vllt. One of them was cji.oted as having said: "I can only say that Mary- Miles Mlnter Is co-operating with the offl-duU offl-duU and Is willing and ready to cooperate co-operate fully with them." The police are credited by the same paper as stating they had learned the .rigln of the pistol with yvhleh Taylor was killed. No details are given Mabel Normand one of the laM persons per-sons to see Tavlor alive, was .still In seclusion a her home today, recovering recov-ering from the collapse she suffered at the director's funeral Tueday. At her home, however, a denial was Issued of the report that she had stated stat-ed that she had an altercation with Taylor on the night he was murdered. Letters she had written him were tho reported subject of altercation Tho letters, for which she searched Taylor's apartments after the inquest, now are In possession of the district attorney After a beginning pronounced "satisfactory" "sat-isfactory" the district attorney's investigation inves-tigation Of the murder of William I Esmond Es-mond Taylor was expected to be continued con-tinued today th the possibility that a number of persons prominent In the motion picture World would be summoned sum-moned as witnesses TWELVE QUESTIONED Twelve persons, both men and women, wo-men, believed to have Information of value to tho investigators, have already al-ready been questioned by Thomas Lee Woolwlne, district attorney, or by William C I'oran. his chief deputy Those who have appeared at the district attorney's office so far in connection con-nection with the investigation central-j central-j lzed there. Include Charles Eyton, general manager of the Famous Play-ers-Lasky corporation studios where Taylor irai under a two-year contract. ' There has been no Intimation as to I Who would be summoned before the : district attorney today, but previous Inquiries by the police Into the case ! Indicate that among the witnesses to bo summoned eventually before the I district attorney will Include Miss Mln-i Mln-i ter, Mabel Normand. whose letters to the deud director are now In the possession pos-session of tho district attorney, Neva, Gerber. said to have been engaged to marry Taylor at one time Claire Wind-Isor. Wind-Isor. who had recently dined and mo-, mo-, tor. d with him. Edna I'urUanco, formerly for-merly leading woman for Charlie i Chaplin and a neighbor of Taylor, who 'was said to have telephoned tho news I of the director's murder to Miss Normand. Nor-mand. and a number of others more or less prominent in the motion picture pic-ture colony. Meantime the search for Edward F Sands, formerly butler-secretary for Taylor, continues by the police while tho sheriff's deputies maintain their position that Sands had nothing to do with the crime Minute details of the scene In tho home of William Desmond Taylor, film director, when his murdered body wns found, were related to District i Attorney Thomas I.es Woolwlne and his chief deputy. William C. Poran Thursday night by witnesses called to the prosecutor's office Three of the five yvltnesses gave In-' In-' formation only as to the position of the body, furniture, papers etc , in the room, the others were reported to I have added stories of events, which, lit was said, might have Important bearing on the search for the person yvho killed the film director Description of the room was given I bv Verne Dumas, director and rn- eral manager of the Cal-Mex Oil company; com-pany; Nell Harrington, an associate of I 'ii mas In tho oil business: Charles Malfne, a film director; Arthur Hoyt. an actor, and Cuptuin K. A Robertson, Robert-son, who served yvlth the American armv In the world war. s iPPED in IMERA& Malfrne was accompanied to the district dis-trict attorney's office by his wife, a fashionably dressed woman, and he clashed yvlth newspaper photographers photograph-ers who saluted the couple with a ttal-vo ttal-vo of flash lights. "Who gave you the privilege of taking tak-ing this lady's picture''" he demanded. "This Isn't a privilege; this Is work." answered the photographer, calmly. Mrs. Malgne was not questioned I 'or. m announced after the probe had been adjourned for the eyenlng Hoyt and Captain Robertson had known Taylor for several years, and were able. It was stated, to give details of hi life not hitherto known to the authorities. GROUND WORK LAID Witnesses called were wanted for the purpose of laying a ground work for tho quratlonlntc of several person rloncly nMoclatod with the luln di-rortor, di-rortor, It win Ktiit-il, anil It vviin .i J . i ! that tho dlntrlct attornry plcinnod to call several men and women prominent promi-nent In tho film buslneaa within a f.w days Ho declined to make any formal statement of tho progress of the Investigation, In-vestigation, but said merely that It was "satisfactory " |