ELLA MARGARET GIBSON

'Margaret Gibson' aka 'Gibby' alias 'Patricia Palmer' and 'Ella Margaret Arce' aka 'Pat Lewis' (September 14, 1894 near Colorado Springs, Colorado - October 21, 1964, Los Angeles, California) was an American stage and film actress who had leading roles in Vitagraph westerns, often opposite William Clifford. She also appeared with Charles Ray in ''The Coward'' (1915) and later worked in two Westerns with William S. Hart: ''The Money Corral,'' and ''Sand''. In 1999 it was reported that in 1964 she made a deathbed confession to the murder of director William Desmond Taylor.

Contents

Career

1923 arrest

Marriage and later life

Confession and death

References

Filmography

External links

Career

By her own account, Gibson's parents had worked in show business. She began her stage career at age 12, apparently when her father left and she remained as the sole means of support for her mother. Gibson appeared on the ''Pantages Vaudeville Circuit'' for over two years. In 1909 she became a member of the ''Theodore Lorch Stock Company'' in Denver where she was cast in a wide variety of roles. She entered the film industry in 1912, getting a job with Vitagraph in Santa Monica where she stayed for three years. For six months during this period Taylor was acting in the same studio and they made four films together: ''The Love of Tokiwa,'' ''The Riders of Petersham,'' ''The Kiss,'' and ''A Little Madonna.'' An article in Variety magazine the following year notes that the 19 year old, budding film star had purchased a cliffside bungalow overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. In 1915 she left Vitagraph and went to the ''Thomas Ince Film Company'' where she played a small supporting role in ''The Coward'', the film which made Charles Ray a star. She subsequently had supporting roles in many comedy shorts and was the subject of several promotional articles in fan magazines.
Her first starring role after Vitagraph was in Mutual Masterpicture's ''The Soul's Cycle'', in which she played both an attractive Roman maiden and a modern New York heiress. Other noted roles included leads in ''The Riders of Petersham,'' ''Back to Eden,'' and ''The Outlaw.'' However, her career stalled when in 1917 Gibson was arrested for vagrancy under circumstances which included allegations of drug (opium) dealing. After a "largely attended" public trial the popular actress who "during intermissions... was the center of a bevy of young women" was acquitted but the publicity forced her to quietly change her screen name to Patricia Palmer. Her career never regained momentum, although she obtained many bit parts including a brief appearance in ''King of Kings.''

1923 arrest

On November 2, 1923 (21 months after Taylor's murder) Gibson was arrested at her home, 2324 North Beachwood Drive, Los Angeles, California on federal felony charges involving an alleged nation-wide blackmail and extortion ring. She was subsequently charged with extortion and violation of Section 145 of the Federal Criminal Code.^[1] George W. Lasher told authorities he had paid Gibson $1155 to avoid prosecution for a reputed violation of the Mann Act. Gibson was also said to be connected to two convicted blackmailers who had pleaded guilty the preceding week to extorting $10,000 from Ohio banker John L. Bushnell. In the ensuing publicity she was mentioned as both Margaret Gibson and Patricia Palmer. The charges were later dropped by the district attorney's office. Over the next six years she continued to work sporadically in bit parts and minor supporting roles but the industry's transition to sound film later marked the final end of Gibson's already thwarted career.

Marriage and later life

In 1935, for unknown reasons, she "fled" to Singapore where she married Elbert Lewis, an auditor for Socony-Vacuum (later called Mobil Oil). How they met is unknown. From the available documentation, the assumption would be they met on the dock when she arrived in Singapore but in a letter to her dated 8 February 1942 Elbert wrote, "Do you remember, dearest, the morning of your first arrival in Singapore, seven sweet years ago, when I pushed all the boats out of the harbor so your ship could come in?" which could be either romantic metaphor, or a hint he was waiting for her there (the same letter mentions a clearly metaphorical female character he calls "Elfin," to which Elbert attributes much "good luck" he apparently thinks they had in the past).
Surviving letters indicate the marriage was stable and she had no intention of ever returning to the United States. The middle-aged couple discussed retiring in either South Africa or Australia. Meanwhile they moved about constantly in the Bay of Bengal area in the Indian Ocean, staying in Ceylon, India, Burma, Straits Settlements and Java. In 1940, at the age of 45, Gibson was stricken by a bladder infection, medical treatment for which was not available in the region. With Europe overwhelmed by war and passage to South Africa and Australia threatened by German naval operations, she reluctantly returned without her spouse to Los Angeles and underwent surgery twice at Hollywood Hospital. Her husband Elbert Lewis died when the Japanese bombed Socony-Vacuum's oil facility at Penang, Straits Settlements on March 15, 1942.
By the 1950s Gibson was a recluse living very modestly on a widow's pension under the name Pat Lewis, in a small sparsely furnished house in the Hollywood Hills near Beachwood Village, very close to where she had owned residential property during the 1920s. She reportedly almost never left the house (which was behind thick vegetation), limited her activities mostly to gardening, had a dark grey cat named "Rajah" and even had her groceries delivered.

Confession and death

According to an account first published by the widely cited newsletter Taylorology in 1999, on October 21, 1964, while still living in the Hollywood hills, Gibson suffered a heart attack. A recently converted Roman Catholic and sensing that she was dying, a highly distraught Gibson asked for a priest and then confessed to neighbors the February 1, 1922 murder of Hollywood film director William Desmond Taylor.^[2] She may have made statements about a motive but in 1999 the only surviving witness to this incident wrote that at the time, he was young, distracted by the immediate crisis of her heart attack, had no knowledge of who William Desmond Taylor was or what she was talking about and as a result, could not remember many further details about what Gibson said as she lay dying on the kitchen floor of her small house. The witness did recall Gibson also said she had been "nearly caught" and had "fled the country." In 1999 he expressed his opinion that here, she was likely referring to yet another, later serious crime for which she was never prosecuted. Apparently, Gibson had made similar remarks once before during the early 1960s. While watching a local television program which featured a short, entertainment oriented segment about the unsolved murder 40 years earlier, Gibson "became hysterical and blurted out that she'd killed him and thought it was long forgotten."
In the aftermath of Taylor's murder, newspapers had speculated wildly about possible suspects and rumors circulated that his death was related to a blackmail attempt. Taylor's neighbour Faith MacLean likely saw the murderer leaving Taylor's bungalow and said the person she made eye contact with (and who smiled at her) may have been a woman dressed as a man, in clothes which were "like my idea of a motion picture burglar."
At the age of 15 during the spring and summer seasons of 1910 Gibson worked as a stage performer in Denver, Colorado at a vaudeville theater owned by Alex Pantages. That same June, Taylor worked nearby on the same street as an actor at the Tabor Grand Theater. By the age of 18 she had appeared opposite William Desmond Taylor in four films for Vitagraph (the studio fired him in 1915 for unknown reasons). Gibson was in Los Angeles at the time of the murder but her name was never mentioned during the investigation and no surviving documentation refers to any association between her and Taylor after 1914. However, soon after the murder Gibson (using the name Patricia Palmer) got work in a number of films produced by Paramount-Lasky, Taylor's studio at the time of his death. Moreoever, one of these films was among the last made by Mary Miles Minter, with whom Taylor had been involved romantically.
Gibson's reported confession does not conflict with the known historical record and is widely considered to be credible. Given her documented arrest record along with Taylor's reportedly odd remarks in the weeks leading to his murder, the inferred motive would have been somehow related to blackmail in the wake of the Roscoe Arbuckle scandal, during which the private lives of most Hollywood celebrities could easily fall under highly sensationalized public scrutiny (the evening Taylor's body was found, the Los Angeles Evening Herald carried news of Taylor's murder as a banner headline with an article about the ongoing Arbuckle trial immediately below). However, all of the police files and physical evidence had disappeared by 1940 and aside from circumstantial evidence, no independent confirmation has emerged. Margaret Gibson is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

References

1. Los Angeles Times, ''Screen Star Faces Judge'', November 3, 1923 page II1
2. Taylorology

Filmography

Most of Gibson's films are believed to be lost.

★ The Godless Girl

★ The Little Savage

★ Naughty Nanette

★ The Waster

★ Who's Your Friend

★ Without Mercy

★ The Part Time Wife

★ Hold Your Breath

★ A Pair of Hellions

★ Mr. Billings Spends His Dime

★ The Web of the Law

★ The Cowboy and the Lady

★ The Cowboy King

★ Cold Feet

★ Rounding Up the Law

★ Across the Border

★ Greater Than Love

★ Dummy Love (as Patsy Palmer)

★ Turkey Dressing

★ The Desert Wolf

★ His Bitter Half

★ Blondes

★ Sand!

★ The Honeymooners (as Margaret Gibson)

★ The Faith of the Strong

★ Mary Moves In

★ Rowdy Ann (as Margaret Gibson)

★ Tell Your Wife Everything

★ Sally's Blighted Career

★ The Money Corral

★ Sea Sirens

★ The Fifth Wheel

★ Their Seaside Tangle (as Margaret Gibson)

★ Betty Makes Up

★ Almost Divorced

★ Hearts and Clubs (as Helen Gibson)

★ Green Eyes and Bullets (as Margaret Gibson)

★ The Fourteenth Man

★ Public Approval

★ The Hidden Law

★ The Heart of Tara

★ The Soul's Cycle

★ The Homesteader

★ A Kaffir's Gratitude

★ The Lion's Nemesis

★ The Winning of Jess

★ The Arab's Vengeance

★ The Golden Trail

★ All on Account of Towser

★ The Hammer

★ His Mother's Portrait

★ The Sea Ghost

★ Clouds in Sunshine Valley

★ Almost a Hero

★ A Child of the North

★ The Taming of Rita

★ The Girl at Nolan's

★ Love Will Out

★ Kidding the Boss

★ Anne of the Mines

★ When the Gods Forgive

★ Brandon's Last Ride

★ The Horse Thief

★ Detective and Matchmaker

★ His Kid Sister

★ The Last Will

★ Tony, the Greaser

★ A Little Madonna

★ The Kiss

★ The Ghosts

★ Auntie

★ Ginger's Reign

★ The Love of Tokiwa

★ Francine

★ Any Port in a Storm

★ Bianca

★ The Race

★ Sunny; or, The Cattle Thief

★ Old Moddington's Daughters

★ The Spell

★ The Yellow Streak

★ The Wrong Pair

★ The Sea Maiden

★ Polly at the Ranch

External links

★

★ William Desmond Taylor at Literateweb