William Desmond Taylor was a well-known director in the early days of California’s film colony when he was fatally shot in 1922.

The murder remains a mystery to this day and there were several suspects in the case, including popular actress Mabel Normand, who had a reputation for using cocaine.

Another suspect was Mary Miles Minter, who was a protege of Taylor, and her controlling mother.

Margaret Gibson, a silent actress, even claimed to have committed the murder on her deathbed in 1964.

Thomas Ince, a talented silent film director, passed away aboard press magnate William Randolph Hearst’s yacht in 1924.

While the official cause of death was a heart attack, Ince’s burial took place before his wife was even aware of his passing.

There have been rumors that Hearst mistook Ince for Charlie Chaplin and shot him, as the latter was involved with Hearst’s mistress, actress Marion Davies.

The incident served as the inspiration for the film “The Cat’s Meow” in 2001, directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

Paul Bern, a writer, producer, and director, married Jean Harlow in early 1932.

Just a few months later, he was found dead with a bullet wound to the head and drenched in Harlow’s perfume.

Although the death was initially believed to be a suicide due to sexual impotence, there was a witness who heard a car leaving the scene at the time of death.

Screenwriter Ben Hecht claimed that Bern’s former lover, actress Dorothy Millette, was responsible for his death, before taking her own life.

MGM executive Eddie Mannix was also accused of being involved.

Ramon Novarro, known as the “Latin Lover” and star of the 1925 film “Ben Hur,” was murdered in 1968.

Novarro, who was also the boyfriend of Rudolph Valentino, was killed by two hustler brothers, Tom and Paul Ferguson, whom he had picked up for sx.

The pair tortured Novarro before killing him using a brass dildo that was given to him by Valentino.

Sal Mineo, a co-star of “Rebel Without a Cause,” was randomly murdered in his West Hollywood garage in 1976.

The police described the killing as “sexually related,” as gay porn was found in Mineo’s apartment.

This led to Mineo becoming a temporary gay-rights martyr. Lionel Ray Williams, a career criminal, later confessed that the murder was a random, non-sexual stabbing and served 12 years in prison.