Margaret Shelby [SEP] mother
Margaret Shelby
Margaret Reilly (June 16, 1900 – December 21, 1939), known professionally as Margaret Shelby, was an American stage and motion picture actress, daughter of actress Charlotte Shelby, older sister of silent film star Mary Miles Minter and one of many public figures noted in the scandals which followed the murder of William Desmond Taylor in 1922.
Film career.
Born as Margaret Reilly (and later also known as Alma M. Fillmore), Margaret was a successful child actress who began working professionally at a
, actress Margaret Shelby (who was by then suffering from both clinical depression and alcoholism), openly accused her mother of the murder. Shelby was widely suspected of the crime and was a favorite suspect of many writers. For example, Adela Rogers St. Johns speculated that Shelby was torn by feelings of maternal protection for her daughter and her own attraction to Taylor.
Although (like Edward Sands) Shelby feared being tried for the murder, at least two Los Angeles County district attorneys publicly declined to prosecute her. Almost 20