A bad guy at heart, Voiler just couldn’t help himself
when it came to easy dough. Because Mae’s limousine was in the garage Voiler
took to chauffeuring the actress around. On one occasion Mae opened her purse
and pulled out a wad of $3,400. This plus the thousands in jewelry that Mae was
always draped in was too much for Voiler to ignore. Knowing that he would be
driving her around that night he got in touch with a couple of Los Angeles
hoodlums and set up a robbery. That
evening, September 28, Voiler picked up Mae at the Paramount Studios and drove her and her
manager back to Mae’s house. As Mae’s manager ran up to her apartment to feed
her pet monkey, a man stepped up to the car and jerked open Mae’s door. With a
gun hidden under a handkerchief, he demanded Mae’s purse and her jewelry. Once he got what he was after he he told
Voiler to take off.
Mae wanted to go to the police but Voiler said that
she should wait to see if the robbers try to ransom back her jewelry, he even volunteered
to act as her go between, so the star
agreed to wait. In the following weeks Voiler said that the bandits were
willing to negotiate and that he would have to fly to Arizona to meet with
them, so Mae sent him. Once there he called Mae and said that they had all her
jewelry and were demanding $3,200 for it and were not willing to negotiate. Mae
refused. With his plan backfired, Voiler was forced to sell the stuff elsewhere.
After the incident with Voiler Mae went to the police
and, although it took over a year, Voiler was finally uncovered as the master
mind behind the crime. Unfortunately for Mae, by that time, he was back in
Chicago and the police were unable to extradite him.
