Birth(+)Fact(x)Death(-)Calendar ||| 16 February 1954

Birth(+)Fact(x)Death(-) Calendar

More than a dozen individuals were eventually named as suspects by both the press and the police. Newspaper reports at the time were both overwhelmingly sensationalised and speculative, even fabricated, and the murder was used as the basis for much subsequent 'true crime' fiction. Suspects included Taylor's valet and cook Edward F. Sands, valet Henry Peavey who found Taylor's body, actress and Taylor's lover Mabel Normand, neighbour Faith Cole MacLean who might have mistaken Taylor for a burglar, general manager of Paramount Pictures Charles Eyton, child star and teen screen idol Mary Miles Minter, Minter's mother Charlotte Shelby and film actress Margaret Gibson. Gibson reportedly confessed to murdering Taylor shortly before she died in 1964.
(1 February 1922)

Birth(+)Fact(x)Death(-)Calendar 1991

There are 3355 births, 3907 deaths, 1122 murders, 493 disasters and 2055 other events about 5710 people in 6403 places until today.

Birth(+)Fact(x)Death(-) Calendar is an ongoing project since 1985 by DDV.

Like BFD on Facebook
Follow BFD on Tumblr
Like DDV on Facebook
Follow DDV on Twitter

Get a daily BFD list in your mailbox.

BirthFactDeath (-) Tuesday 16th of February 1954 70 years ago
Triple murderer John Donald Merrett aka Ronald Chesney commits suicide by a shot through the head at the age of 46 in Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. Merrett shot his 55-year-old mother Bertha on 17 March 1926, she died on 1 April. Charged with murder and forgery the jury returned a verdict of not proven in February 1927. In 1954 he strangled his 43-year-old wife Veronica Bonnar and drowned her 72-year-old mother Lady Mary Menzies.