Free The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals by Michelle Morgan Page B

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    Dorothy Mackaye, meanwhile, was too ill to attend the inquest or make any statements to the police. Instead, she stayed at home with her best friend, Helen Wilkinson; they were both said to be so upset over the death of Ray Raymond that they were under the care of a doctor and on constant medication. With Mackaye’s father by her bedside and friends declaring she had suffered a nervous breakdown, she made sure the media knew she was in no condition to comment about the case. But if the woman believed that by feigning illness she could just fade into the background, she was very wrong. The shock announcement came that both she and Dr W. G. Sullivan were being indicted as “accessories after the fact”. Not only that, but the police believed that both she and the doctor had been paid by Paul Kelly himself to keep quiet about what he had done to the singer, and that Dorothy was even at Kelly’s apartment at the time Raymond eventually died, drinking gin with her lover.
    This announcement caused a sensation in the media, especially when Raymond’s mother seemed to agree that Mackaye was in some way responsible for what had happened the week before. “Dorothy could have prevented the fight that took my son’s life,” Mrs Cedarbloom declared. “I feel that she didn’t do it.”
    The grieving woman then travelled to her son’s former home – where he had been beaten just days before – and had a meeting with her daughter-in-law. The official reason for her attendance was to discuss funeral plans, and later Mrs Cedarbloom denied that there had been any talk about the circumstances surrounding her son’s death. A statement from Mackaye’s nurse, declaring that the woman was in a state of utter collapse after the meeting and surrounded by doctors, seemed to suggest otherwise.
    The animosity between the pair became evident a few days later at the funeral of Ray Raymond, which took place at Forest Lawn on 26 April and was attended by both women. At no time did either of the two even look in the other’s direction, and each caused a sensation when they collapsed at separate times, weeping loudly and becoming hysterical after viewing the body.
    The rumours of Mackaye’s whereabouts during the beating, coupled with gossip about her affair with Kelly, were so humiliating for the actress that she decided to release an official statement once and for all, through her attorney, Roger Marchetti. In the speech he denied that his client had been drinking gin fizzes with Paul Kelly as her husband lay dying, and that:
    “She will not try to delay her case in the least and if anything, will insist upon an immediate trial to prove her innocence of the charges against her.” The attorney then added that all his client was asking for was fair play, and that the public should withhold any judgement “until she can tell her side of the story and deny all these false accusations.”
    He then went on to say that Mackaye had not been at all well and that, “Mrs Raymond’s prominence on the stage has made her the unmerciful victim of a lot of things which would not have been discussed had she been an ordinary person.”
    The cases against Kelly, Mackaye and Sullivan were all being prepared when suddenly a new twist occurred as two witnesses came forward to tell their version of the death of Ray Raymond. Mr and Mrs Perry Askom – friends and colleagues of the deceased – told police that on the day of the beating they had called in to see Raymond and were shocked to discover that the man had been physically assaulted.
    “Raymond told me that Kelly came over and beat him up and that he never had a chance,” Mr Askom told police, before adding that Mackaye had arrived home right before they were about to leave, saying she had been to the dressmaker, drinking gin and was in a “pugnacious mood”. At that point, as if to predict his fate, the singer had turned to Askom and said, “Take me home with you, Perry. I’m all