Stockdale, a very good friend of Mary Miles Minter's mother, Charlotte Shelby, claimed on the witness stand that he was with Mrs. Shelby when movie director William Desmond Taylor--Minter's lover--was murdered, therefore Charlotte could not have killed him. Stockdale said that he suspected Taylor's former chauffeur, a man named Sands, was responsible for the murder. However, after many different investigations of the murder over the years by authors, private detectives and even director King Vidor, most sources familiar with the case say the evidence points to Mrs. Shelby as Taylor's killer.