Dorothy MacKaye

Mackaye and Ray Raymond first crossed paths in 1921 during a production of "Blue Eyes." Raymond left his wife, married Mackaye, and the two performed together in vaudeville and on Broadway. By the late 1920s, they had relocated to Los Angeles with their four-year-old daughter, Valerie, eager to break into the Talkies. The Raymonds ran with a fast-living, hard-drinking circle that included actor Paul Kelly. Before long, Mackaye and Kelly were slipping away together until dawn. Raymond confronted Kelly and told him to keep his distance, but Kelly persisted, sending Mackaye love notes and eventually confessing his feelings for her directly to Raymond. On April 16, 1927, both men drunk, Kelly showed up at the Raymonds' home and a violent confrontation unfolded in front of the family's maid and young Valerie. The maid later testified that Raymond was badly outmatched — Kelly repeatedly slammed Raymond's head against a wall until he collapsed unconscious. Mackaye came home afterward and put her dazed husband to bed. The following morning she called a friend, Dr. Walter Sullivan, to sit with Raymond while she went to see Kelly. Raymond held on for two days before dying of a brain hemorrhage. Mackaye attempted to persuade police that her husband had died of natural causes, but the maid told the truth. Kelly was charged with first-degree murder; Mackaye faced a felony coverup charge. The trial became a national spectacle. Mackaye denied any affair, yet the actor's houseboy confirmed their secret meetings, and police discovered a cache of Kelly's love letters hidden in her mattress. Kelly openly declared his love for Mackaye and tried to cast the altercation as a duel rather than a murder. The jury was unconvinced, returning a manslaughter conviction. Kelly received one to ten years; Mackaye, one to three for the coverup. She served fewer than ten months, Kelly just over two years. By 1931 they had married and returned to Broadway. Eventually they moved back to California, where they raised Valerie Raymond as Mimi Kelly — she would go on to have her own modest Broadway career. Drawing on her time behind bars, Mackaye wrote a play called "Women in Prison," which was adapted into the 1933 film "Ladies They Talk About," starring Barbara Stanwyck. In 1940, at age 40, Mackaye died when she rolled her car while driving home one night.