DEATH SHOT RIDDLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue LXI, 12 July 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

DEATH SHOT RIDDLE.

ARRESTED MAN AND A FILM STAR. EIGHT TEARS AFTER. Los Angeles police have arrested an expert accountant, Russi Rinaldo, in connection with, the death of Mr. William Desmond Taylor, the English film director, in 1922. Rinaldo is formally charged with ''suspicion of murder." Mr. Taylor was found shot dead in his beautiful Los ADgeles apartment an hour after ho had received a visit from the late Miss Mabel Jiormand, the film comedienne. Miss Normand could throw no light on the crime. Rinaldo is alleged to have confessed that he accidentally fired the shot which killed the director; but the authorities admittedly are sceptical of his story. Before the shooting (according to the alleged "confession") there had been a quarrel between Mr. Taylor and a wellknown moving picture star at the director's home. Rinaldo has stated that he followed a famous film star, with whom he was friendly, to Mr. Taylor's home on the night of the murder. While standing outside the apartment he heard an altercation proceeding between the actress and the director. Later he entered the apartment and remonstrated with Mr. Taylor, who, according to Rinaldo, drew a gun. A scuffle followed between the two men for the possession of the weapon, during which the director was killed.