The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (41 page)

When Brenda Metcalf took to the stand, she was nervous and near tears. Defence lawyers Richard Walton and Cletus Hanifin objected to her testifying against the brothers, although Superior Judge Mark Brandler swept their concerns aside and let the girl recall the conversation she’d had on the evening of the murder.

The girl repeated everything she had earlier told police: that Tommy Ferguson phoned her from the home and that Novarro was being beaten in a bid to find $5,000. The brunette’s story stunned jurors, particularly when she described that during the call, her boyfriend had actually managed to ask her to marry him. She did not declare what her answer was, though; she declined to look anywhere near Ferguson in the courtroom, so it was pretty clear what she thought of him at that very moment.

Next on the stand came Victor Nichols, a friend of Paul Ferguson, who admitted to everyone that he had been the one to provide the brothers with Novarro’s phone number. Not only that, but he had received a visit from them shortly after midnight on 31 October 1968, explaining that they were in trouble. When asked by Nichols what was wrong, Paul Ferguson replied, “Tom hit Ramón . . . Ramón is dead.” They had been drinking, Nichols said, and as he served coffee, Tommy Ferguson had fallen asleep on the sofa. “You better wake him up,” Nichols told Paul, before adding that he did not want to become involved with whatever had gone on that night.

When Tommy Ferguson woke up, a furious Nichols asked how he could possibly have done such a thing as kill the aging actor. “I hit him several times very hard and he is dead . . .” was all Tommy apparently had to say. Nichols had heard enough; as he had previously told Paul, he wanted nothing to do with their crimes, so he gave the brothers money for a taxi and sent them on their way. That, he hoped, would be the last he would see of the Ferguson brothers.

The testimony of both Metcalf and Nichols was confusing to say the least. One said it was Paul who had administered the beating, while the other said it was Tommy. It was very apparent early on, therefore, that this would be no easy case, and in the weeks that went by, things only became more and more bewildering.

On Friday, 22 August 1969, Dr Vernon J. Miller took to the stand to explain that Paul Ferguson suffered from a sociopathic disturbance and a chronic brain disease when drinking alcohol. The doctor said that while Novarro was attacked, Ferguson could have been mentally ill and a danger to both himself and others. He was able to come to this conclusion, he explained, because of an examination he had conducted where Ferguson was given twelve ounces of whisky and beer to drink. His “abnormalities” had come to light shortly afterwards. This excuse did not earn any sympathy from the Deputy District Attorney, however, who was placing the blame firmly at the door of Paul Ferguson, mentally ill or not.

On Monday, 25 August, came the moment for which everyone was waiting: Paul Ferguson took to the stand himself. From the moment he stood up, the gloves were off and he refused to take any blame for what had happened to Ramón Novarro. In his testimony he assured jurors that it was his brother Tommy, not himself, who had carried out the beating, and that he had been asleep the entire time. According to him, Tommy Ferguson had called his girlfriend on the house phone, before disappearing to the patio with Novarro, while Paul passed out after drinking vodka, tequila and beer.

He told the court that his brother had woken him up some time later with the words, “This guy’s dead”, and it was only then that he knew what had gone on. According to Paul he then walked into the bedroom to discover Novarro lying on the floor, covered with blood and his hands tied behind him. Then, according to the brother, he touched him on the shoulder and discovered his skin felt “starchy and tight like paper . . . I was sad,” he said. When questioned further, Paul added that he had endured two previous weeks of bad luck and was appalled that he had now been thrown into the circumstances surrounding the death of a movie star. “I wanted to know why everything was happening to me,” he told the astonished court.

Paul Ferguson went on to say how he had wanted to call the police, but that his brother put a stop to the plan by claiming they could cover everything up to look like a robbery. “Why did you join in this plan?” asked his attorney, to which Ferguson replied, “Stupidness.” He then went on to deny that he had ever hit the actor with his cane, and claimed that the first time he had seen it was when it was brought into the courtroom. This information did not sit well with Tommy Ferguson, however, who sat glaring at him from across the room, shaking his head in frustration. It was obvious to all that he couldn’t believe the words coming out of his brother’s mouth that day.

The testimony turned to what Paul Ferguson had thought of the aging actor. “I thought he was a nice guy,” he said, before explaining that Novarro had told him he could be a superstar like a young Burt Lancaster or Clint Eastwood. If the testimony was to be believed, it seemed that Ramón Novarro was so taken by Ferguson that he even called his agent to see about getting him into the movies. This little nugget of information was pounced on by the defence team, who presented it as a good reason why Paul Ferguson could not possibly be the murderer. “He would have no reason to kill a man who might have become his benefactor,” they argued.

When cross-examined, it was put to the elder brother that he was just saying his brother murdered the actor to spare himself the death sentence. This was quickly denied by Paul, however, who once again told the court, “I didn’t kill him, it was my brother,” though nobody seemed to believe him. He then alleged that he had initially lied to police to protect Tommy, though had later broken down and confessed his brother’s guilt after hours and hours of questioning.

In spite of being so adamant that Tommy had been the murderer, Paul did admit that he was continually haunted by the possibility that he had got so drunk he had murdered the man himself without realizing it. “If I killed Mr Novarro, I’d like to know that I did it,” he said, before adding somewhat sincerely that deep down he knew he hadn’t done it, because it had been Tommy who told him that Novarro was dead.

Several days later the court had a chance to hear another version of events when pale, nervous Tommy Ferguson took to the stand. It came as no surprise to anyone when he placed the blame for the death squarely on the shoulders not of himself, but on his brother, Paul. “I told a good many people I had done it because Paul told me to spread it around,” he admitted, but explained his change of mind came after hearing that the actor had been bludgeoned by his own walking stick. “It turned my stomach against Paul,” he said.

Explaining his version of events, Thomas told the court that they had both gone to Novarro’s house to “hustle” him, and had no intention of murdering or robbing the actor at all. According to Tommy, after the killing happened, Paul Ferguson suggested to his younger brother that if he confessed to the crime, he would probably get only six months in a juvenile facility because of his age.

Tommy admitted that he did think he should confess to the slaying because he felt sorry for his brother. “He kept talking himself down,” he said. He then started to speak about the visit they had made to their friend Victor Nichols’s house, where Paul told him that his younger brother was the one who had killed the actor. But while Tommy told the court that had been a lie and denied ever undertaking the killing himself, he did admit to one cover up: that of making it appear to be a robbery. The motive of that, he admitted, was to try to divert suspicion away from the two of them.

It was soon time to talk about the now infamous telephone call between Tommy Ferguson and his girlfriend. The young man described how he had been talking to Metcalf but towards the end of the conversation had heard noises. Presuming there was a fight going on in the bedroom, he proceeded to hang up the phone, get two beers from the kitchen and then go to investigate what was going on. Once in the bedroom he was shocked to find Novarro lying on the bed with blood oozing from his face, nose and lips while his brother stood nearby. “Take him to the shower and clean him up,” he reported his elder brother as saying to him.

When showering, the younger brother begged Novarro not to say anything to Paul Ferguson as he might become violent. Since it was apparent that there had already been more than a little violence in the house that night, this was a mute point, but nevertheless Tommy Ferguson told the jury that he was concerned enough for the man not to be even more hurt than he already was. “I have always been afraid of my brother,” he told the courtroom.

Unfortunately, if testimony is to be believed, his warning did not save Ramón’s life, as very soon afterwards Tommy found him lying in a pool of blood on the floor. When asked why he did not stop Paul beating him up, the younger brother strangely answered that he never saw him do anything. This was an odd answer, particularly as even if he wasn’t in the room at the time of the beating, he would surely have heard something going on, just as he had done earlier. The fact that he was now saying that he had not been aware of his brother doing anything to the actor was confusing to say the least.

More bewildering testimony came when Tommy was asked who had tied Novarro’s hands. He didn’t appear to know and then told the court that while he had a memory of his brother doing the deed, he was confused as Paul “keeps telling me . . . trying to plant in my head . . . that I tied him”. During cross-examination, however, his story changed, and he admitted that it was he, not Paul, who firstly had decided to tie the actor’s hands together, and secondly actually proceeded to do the task.

The contradictory testimony continued with a discussion as to why the brothers had written messages on the mirror and scratched marks into Novarro’s neck. “We tried to make it look like some girls had committed the murder,” Tommy said. Then, when the subject of money came up, the brother denied all knowledge of trying to find $5,000 in the apartment; they had gone there to hustle the actor, not burgle him, he claimed.

There then followed an angry scene when Tommy Ferguson told the court that when helping Novarro to the shower, the aging actor had muttered the words, “Hail Mary full of grace.” Paul Ferguson, who had been listening to the testimony closely, suddenly launched an attack on his stunned younger brother, calling him a “punk liar” and a “son of a bitch”. The brother’s yell preceded him throwing a pen at Tommy, missing him by a mere fraction.

Spectators in the gallery, who had previously been nodding off with the sheer weight of the testimony, were suddenly awake and interested to know what would happen next. They were more enthralled than the judge was, however, and he immediately sent the jury out of the room and told Paul in no uncertain terms that he would be bound and gagged if he ever disrupted the court in that way again.

There was a surprise in court on 5 September with the arrival of Mrs Lorraine Smith, the mother of the Ferguson brothers. She managed to confuse proceedings even more than before by asserting that she had received five letters from her youngest son, telling her that both brothers had been responsible for the killing of Ramón Novarro. When asked where these letters were now, she infuriated everyone by stating, “I threw them away.” She also denied rumours that she’d told Tommy to take full blame for the killing; saying “I meant I wanted him to tell the truth. I don’t think either of them did it.”

The long and disturbing testimony from both sides was finally at an end on 8 September, and on the 17th, the jury found both Ferguson brothers guilty of murder in the first degree. During the penalty trial a week later, a furious Paul Ferguson stunned onlookers by apparently calling Ideman “a pig” and accusing him of falsifying evidence and lying. He also turned his attentions to the jury; “I didn’t do it,” he wept, though no one appeared to believe him.

Meanwhile, Tommy Ferguson surprisingly decided to “admit” to the crime once and for all, by announcing, “I caused his death. He died of a broken nose and I am the one who busted his nose.” Why ever did you do such a thing? he was asked, to which he replied that he had considered Ramón Novarro to be “just an old punk”.

This revelation could have been devastating, but Ideman wasted no time in announcing to the court that he believed the younger brother’s “confession” was just a last-minute attempt to create doubts in their mind. Tommy retorted that he had decided to tell the truth because he didn’t want it on his shoulders that his brother was sent to the gas chamber, while “I sit [in prison] like Mr Cool.”

Ideman played along with the scenario and asked the younger brother straight out if he had murdered Ramón Novarro. “I caused his death . . . He caused his death . . . We both caused it. He was as much a part of it as I was,” Tommy replied. Strangely, the “we” in question, according to Ferguson, was not his brother, but Ramón Novarro himself.

Ideman then asked Ferguson if it had bothered his conscience when he had previously blamed the killing on his brother. “Not a bit,” he declared, before explaining that he had been told beforehand that Paul would likely get charged with manslaughter, while he would get off with the crime once and for all. “It’s not our fault we got a dumb jury,” he said.

But regardless of last-minute claims of guilt, in the end the two feuding brothers were sentenced to life in prison for their crimes, though by the time they were released, they had actually only served seven years. Tommy Ferguson later committed suicide, while at the time of writing, Paul Ferguson is currently in prison after committing another crime. He is said to spend his time writing books and stories.

Albert Dekker was a character actor who was best known for his part in the 1940 film
Dr Cyclops
(1940), playing the role of Dr Alexander Thorkel. However, unfortunately for him, it is for his mysterious and weird death that he is most famous these days.

Born Albert Van Ecke on 20 December 1905, he grew up in New York with plans to attend Bowdoin College in order to become a psychiatrist. However, an introduction to Broadway actor Alfred Lunt put paid to any aspirations of being a doctor, and he instead made his stage debut in 1927 in a play called
Marco’s Millions
. Albert then moved to Hollywood in 1937 to try his hand at movies, where he achieved some success, appearing in films such as
Strange Cargo
(1940) and the James Dean movie,
East of Eden
(1955).