Her first picture directed by William Desmond Taylor was the highly successful Anne of Green Gables (1919). Mary quickly fell in love with Taylor against her domineering mother's openly hostile objections.
The 1922 William Desmond Taylor slaying was the third major scandal to present itself in Hollywood. The first two were the drug-related suicide of beautiful young actress Olive Thomas in 1920 and the Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle sex party outrage that ended in the death of actress wannabe Virginia Rappe.
Two books have been written about the unsolved murder of William Desmond Taylor. The first by director King Vidor's biographer, Sidney Kirkpatrick, in 1986, theorizes that Mary's jealous mother, Charlotte Shelby, committed the murder and used much of Mary's money to pay off various attorneys. A second book by Robert Giroux suggests that Taylor was killed by a hit man hired by a drug kingpin (Taylor was known for trying to drive drug dealers out of Hollywood).
After Mary's contract at Paramount was bought out following the William Desmond Taylor scandal (for $350,000) in June of 1923, Mary was broached by other studios such as UFA and Pathe with film offers, but the scandal took its toll on Mary and she emotionally wanted out of the public eye. She never made another picture again.