In
1927 when Ray Raymond, 33, a song-and-dance man who appeared in
"The Ziegfeld Follies." discovered that his wife Dorothy
Mackaye, was having an affair with his best friend, actor Paul Kelly.
Witnesses to the mortal brawl said Kelly had furiously beat Ray,
slammed his head against a brick wall, then kicked him in the face
while he was prostrate. Ray died and Kelly was charged with
manslaughter and Dottie was charged with compounding a felony to
conceal the facts. The case beckoned tabloids like a neon sign and
gazetteers dubbed him Killer Kelly and he was sentenced to serve 1 to
10 years at San Quentin. Dottie was sentenced to 1 to 3 years.
A
model prisoner, Kelly was paroled in two years and enjoyed a
successful screen career mostly as a gangster in films with Clark
Gable, James Cagney, John Wayne and Betty Davis. In 1956 Kelly died
of a heart attack in his California home in front of his TV while
watching Duffy of San Quentin, based on Clinton
Duffy's The
San Quentin Story,
in which he played the role of the warden.
Author:
Unknown
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Last Revision March 2001