Stockdale, a very good friend of
Mary Miles Minter's mother,
Charlotte Shelby, claimed on
the witness stand that he was with Mrs. Shelby when movie director
William Desmond Taylor--Minter's lover--was murdered, therefore Charlotte could not
have killed him. Stockdale said that he suspected Taylor's former
chauffeur, a man named Sands, was responsible for the murder. However,
after many different investigations of the murder over the years by
authors, private detectives and even director
King Vidor, most sources
familiar with the case say the evidence points to Mrs. Shelby as
Taylor's killer.