The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals by Michelle Morgan Page A

Kelly’s apartment, but she had not been alone. Instead, she said, she was with her friend Helen Wilkinson and Kelly’s flatmate, Max Wagner. They spent time together and enjoyed drinking gin and water before Kelly made a phone call and then left for an appointment.
    “Isn’t it a fact that you knew Kelly was going over to your place?” she was asked.
    “No sir. The first thing I knew that he had had a telephone conversation with anyone was when Miss Wilkinson told me she thought she had heard him mention Ray’s name. I said to her, ‘You’re silly.’”
    Interestingly, Mackaye admitted that Wilkinson had jokingly told Kelly that Raymond wished to see the actor, though she was adamant that the whole thing had been said in jest and that Kelly did not really believe it to be so. However, she did admit to speaking about her husband with Kelly that day, telling him that things were “the same as usual” and that they had agreed to separate, but she denied that he had become angry with anything she had told him.
    “Mr Kelly never discussed my husband or my affairs in the presence of others or my friends,” she answered, clearly irritated, even though she had just described that they had been discussing her marriage in front of Helen Wilkinson. She then denied that she had waited for Kelly to come home from his “appointment”, saying that she and Helen Wilkinson had instead gone shopping for Easter eggs before heading back to the Raymond family home.
    Then came a bombshell, when love letters between Kelly and Mackaye were presented to the court. Despite Dorothy’s claims that the two were just friends, the letters showed that Kelly’s version of events was closer to the truth. In several letters Paul told the actress that he loved her, while in others he remarked how much he missed her, how he was miserable without her and how he was being awful to everyone because all he could think about was her. “I thought I’d die,” he dramatically declared. Meanwhile other letters were disclosed: “Darling Mine,” began one, while another included a row of kisses and a note which said, “Count them and that’s not enough.” Dorothy had responded during a trip to San Francisco with a wire which read, “Crazy to get home, our home. Love and everything that goes with it.” And she signed it Mrs K.
    The love between the two was further proven when Kelly’s “house boy”, Yobu, confirmed to the court that there were frequent visits by Mackaye to the house, and that the two shared a “love language” that he had been unable to understand. Gasps were heard when he then described taking water to the couple in Kelly’s bedroom, and confirming that Mackaye had stayed overnight on several occasions.
    Then it was time for Kelly to take the stand, which he did with great fanfare in the newspapers. During the testimony it became clear that Paul Kelly truly believed he had been provoked by the drunk Raymond, who was described as the aggressor and the one eager to fight. Kelly did admit, however, that he had swung the first punch. “He said, ‘Where is my wife? You ought to know, she has been living with you.’ I slapped him in the mouth. I said, ‘That is a nice way to talk about your wife, isn’t it?’” He then went on to explain how he had asked for the child to be taken out of the room, and had refused an invitation from Raymond to come back to the house later on, for fear that he planned to get friends to come there and beat him up.
    The trial of Paul Kelly continued in a rambling way, with testimony repeated and incidents described time and time again. Even the newspapers grew tired of the case and started filling their columns with comment about Kelly’s lawyer falling asleep, lady flappers in the audience who were giving the accused “the eye” and popping chewing-gum bubbles in his direction.
    Finally, however, the case was wrapped up and it was time for the jury to give its verdict. Kelly was found