The Alvarado Neighbors: 406 A

The proprietor of Alvarado Court was also the designer, builder, and current manager. His name is Emile Charles Jessurun, born 13 January 1875 in San Francisco. Emile’s mother, Emma Cerf died just one week after Emile’s birth and his Jamaican born father, Isaac Jessurun was a compositor, commonly referred to as a typesetter. Isaac’s parents were of English descent. Isaac died in 1910 at the age of 64.
Emile’s maternal grandfather was French. Emile’s father remarried six years after Emma’s death to Melanie Wormser, and together they had two daughters, Stella and Florence.
Emile married Olive Tuttle on 16 November 1896 in Chicago, Illinois. Olive’s maternal grandfather, Benjamin Van Buren was born in Kinderhook, New York. After Emile and Olive married, there daughter, Estelle May was born in June 1897 in Illinois. From there, the young Jessurun family, along with Olive’s mother, moved to Manhattan where Emile operated a photography business.
By November 1916, Emile and his family had moved to Los Angeles finished construction of the bungalow complex known as Alvarado Court. The Jessurun family moved into apartment # 400 A, with one side facing Alvarado Street and the back towards Maryland. Shortly before the Taylor’s murder, they moved three buildings down to 406 A, the home vacated by comedian, Charles McLean and his wife Faith, when they moved next door to 406 B.
After Taylor’s murder, Emile, Olive, & Estelle moved to Big Bear, California. Emile owned 107 acres of Big Bear property on which he built a large hot water plunge and was financing the construction of a sanatorium when he died of a heart attack in August 1926.

The Alvarado Neighbors: 406 B

In 406 B lived Douglas MacLean and his wife, Faith Cole McLean, shared a common wall in a duplex with Emile, Olive, and daughter Estelle Jessurun in the 406 Building. The MacLean’s lived on the left and the Jessurun’s on the right.
When the MacLean’s moved from the left side of the duplex to the right, they replaced a widow and her daughter, Caroline Wheat Gary and her daughter, Ava Grace. Caroline and Ava moved to Monrovia (near Pasadena) before William Taylor’s murder. Caroline’s daughter, Dora “Bernice” Gary married attorney Alfred Barstow, and their daughter, Mary Rhodes Barstow married Norman Rockwell.
Charles Douglas MacLean was born 10 Jan 1890 in Philadelphia to renowned Methodist preacher Charles Clothier MacLean and his wife Ada Manderson. Douglas was educated in Illinois and New York, having graduated from Union College and married Faith Cole, the only daughter of lawyer and former NY Speaker of the Assembly, Fremont Cole, on 8 Apr 1914 at the Cole mansion in Little Neck, Long Island, New York. Douglas’ father performed the ceremony. Douglas and Faith were fellow students at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and both were quite taken with golfing.
Douglas, with his slender build and brown hair and eyes, took to acting, especially as a comedian and later as a motion picture producer, even with his own production company. Douglas and Faith lived in Alvarado Court as early as 1920 while Douglas’ parents moved just 4 miles away from him. In 1922, while he was still acting for Thomas H Ince Productions, Bogart Rogers was his business manager. Bogart was the brother of Adela Rogers St. Johns and the son of famed lawyer, Earl Rogers. Over the next several years, Douglas moved to producing, still employing Bogart as his secretary and treasurer.
The MacLeans divorced in 1930 and both remarried the following year. Faith married Lieutenant Joseph E Moody, a decorated Marine, in Shanghai. Joseph’s brother, Frederick S Moody married a poetry loving actress and sensational tennis star, Helen Willis.
Faith had a maid who was working for her during the evening of the murder named Christine Jewett. Christine’s husband, Raymond Jewett was a taxidermist and furrier who owned a fine fur business at the corner of Pico and Alvarado.

The Alvarado Neighbors: 400 A

The first apartment to visit is 400 A, with its side to Alvarado Street and its back to Maryland. The residents were a broker named William B. Lawrence and his wife, Adeline and their 17 year old son, Thomas. The Lawrence family had moved from 6th & Bixel to Alvarado Court to the home vacated by the Jessurun family when they moved down the court to 406 B.

William and Adeline told a story to the LA Examiner after the murder. The family was downstairs during the evening of the murder until about 8:30pm when Adeline went upstairs to the bedroom. William heard a short conversation coming from outside which including a woman laughing, a man saying goodbye, and a car driving away. Adeline also said that several days prior to the murder, a man came to their home inquiring for Taylor. William said the man looked enough like Taylor to be his twin.

as published in LA Examiner on 4 Feb 1922:

(JK) Lawrence:
"There are so many automobiles passing here all of the time and their
back-fire explosions are so similar to a pistol shot that we have gotten so
we pay no attention to them whatever. I have no recollection of hearing
anything that sounded like a shot at any particular time during the evening
in which the shooting occurred, but I might have heard a dozen such sounds without feeling the slightest alarm. I think every occupant of the court should try to recollect anything he or she saw which might in any way throw light on the event."