As I provided a 'catch all' posting for the 'The William Desmond Taylor Murder' I thought I would provide another for the other great scandal of that age .... the death of film producer and director Thomas Ince at a birthday party organized by press scion and billionaire William Randolph Hearst.
On November 15, 1924 a select group boarded a yacht in San Pedro, California called 'The Oneida' .... the group included:
At dinner that Sunday night, the group celebrated Ince's 42nd birthday. Early Monday morning, Ince was taken from the yacht by water taxi and brought ashore, accompanied by Dr. Goodman a licensed, though non-practicing, physician. But by Tuesday night, Thomas Ince was dead.
Although the mysterious death of Thomas Ince was ruled to have been caused by a gastro-intestinal illness, the press frenzy (but crucially not the Hearst Press) that followed, turned the event into a Hollywood legend; with various enigmatic and lurid stories being proffered by gossips. Among these, was a story of Hearst accidentally shooting Ince while aiming for Chaplin, who he believed to be having an affair with Marion Davies.
Every one's career weathered the controversy because Hearst owned most of the US press at the time.
There is a
full account of the crime with background and evidence here.
*Chaplin and Parsons are not subjects of this thread (Chaplin cos he's a male, and Parsons cos she dished it out, not took it).