William Desmond Taylor

HOLLYWOOD. Tinseltown. Land of the stars. A city where an actor can reach the greatest heights overnight - and descend just as rapidly. What goes up must come down, and Hollywood's failing stars leave a legacy of sadness, pain and disappointment in their wake. Here, in graphic detail, are the shocking stories behind the deaths of the silver screen's most beloved celebrities, as well as it's lesser known players. Packed with stunning newsreel footage, and previously unrevealed facts, DEATH IN HOLLYWOOD documents many a celebrity's morbid demise due to suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, disease, and even murder. From the outrageous to the tragic, DEATH IN HOLLYWOOD leaves no tombstone unturned in it's quest to dig up the truth about Hollywood's dearly departed.

One way or another, the Hollywood police have been kept busy with murders on their ground. There are numerous theories about the killings of Thelma Todd, Jack Healy (Three Stooges), Elizabeth Short, alias The Black Dahlia, Bugsy Siegal and Johnny Stompano. The files of William Desmond Taylor, Raymond Navarro and Sal Mineo are also re-opened. Femmes fatales are often deadly for the man's wallet or reputation -- these ladies killed for real. From Calamity Jane, gang boss Ma Baker and New York madame Polly Adler to axe-murderess Winnie Ruth Judd and others, we look at the Black Widow Spider syndrome. Rare archival footage and many hitherto unseen interviews, film, video clip tapes, and photographs are included in this hour-long program.

Vintage Hollywood themed shockumentary.

Mildred is staying with her grandfather, Civil War veteran Jabez Burr, when she receives a letter from her father. Her father has re-married, and will be bringing his new wife home soon. But when Mildred's stepmother finds out that Jabez drinks, she takes a dislike to him, and begins to resent his closeness with Mildred...

Upon the death of his wife, George Blake, an attorney, leaves the east. He first places his pretty young daughter, Lucy, in a convent. After traveling for a few years from place to place, in an endeavor to find some location which he might be happy in, he settles in Lariat Hollow, a mining town. He soon falls in love with a woman of the dance hall named Anne. This incites the jealousy of Larkin, the political boss of the town. To break George Blake, Larkin nominates him for mayor, purposing to have him defeated. Anne suspects the plot and tries to influence Blake to refuse the nomination. But Blake has given his word to enter the contest and goes in to win. Blake's daughter writes to her father that she wishes to remain in the convent and become a nun. The father gives his consent. Now with every eastern tie severed, he asks Anne to marry him. She accepts, but says they will wait until after the election.

Directed by Ulysses Davis, the screenplay was based on a story by Marc Edmund Jones. Long thought to have been a lost film, a copy was found and put on YouTube. The film is the only known surviving film in which director William Desmond Taylor appears as an actor. In 1964 Taylor's co-star Margaret Gibson, shortly before her death, reportedly confessed to having murdered him in 1921.

A melodrama about an American who becomes a revolutionary leader battling evil government spies in Argentina.

Gordon, a young war correspondent, after being wounded in the jungles of Africa, is picked up and taken back to England by James Egerton, a wealthy rubber magnate, who has been investigating conditions on his plantation, where there has been a great shortage in the year's yield. On the voyage homeward the correspondent and Egerton's daughter Alice fall in love.

Terrorized by Guido, her drunken and brutal father, Marie receives assurance from her dying mother that the Madonna will always protect her. The father reels in just after the mother has expired, too drunk to realize the woman is dead, and finding the whiskey bottle empty, abuses the child. Marie appeals to the image of the Madonna and Guido, in a frenzy of rage, smashes it on the floor. Horrified at the sacrilege, Marie screams.

The setting is an early American village, where a young Quaker woman, Priscilla, is in love with the schoolmaster, John Hart. The local minister, Rev. Cole, who calls on her at her cabin with flowers, is an unwelcome suitor. In revenge, he has "blue laws" passed, among them is one requiring attendance at church on Sunday. Priscilla refuses to comply with the law and is arrested. After being plunged in and out of water and pilloried, she is banished from the colony. John goes with her. They are attacked by Indians and John is badly wounded. Priscilla manages to get back to the village in time to warn the Puritans of an impending attack. They defeat the Indians after a desperate battle. The Rev. Cole, who has been mortally wounded, begs Priscilla's forgiveness and the Puritans make amends for their harsh treatment of her.

Hosts Ryan & Shane discuss mysteries surrounding notorious unsolved crimes.