William Herbert Wallace (29 August 1878 – 26 February 1933) was an Englishman convicted in 1931 of the murder of his wife, Julia, in their home in Wolverton Street in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
's
Anfield
Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...
district. Wallace's conviction was later overturned by the
Court of Criminal Appeal, the first instance in British
legal history
Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. Legal history is closely connected to the development of civilisations and operates in the wider context of social history. Certain jurists and histo ...
where an appeal had been allowed after re-examination of evidence. The case, with its strange background, has long been the subject of speculation and has generated many books, being regarded internationally as a classic murder mystery.
Background
![Prudential Building, Dale Street 2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Prudential_Building%2C_Dale_Street_2018.jpg)
William Herbert Wallace was born in
Millom
Millom is a town and civil parish on the north shore of the estuary of the River Duddon in southwest Cumbria, historically part of Cumberland, England. It is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, about north of Barrow-in-Furne ...
,
Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...
, in 1878. He had a younger brother and sister. On leaving school at fourteen he began training as a draper's assistant in
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
. On finishing his apprenticeship he obtained a position in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
with Messrs Whiteway Laidlaw and Company, outfitters to the
British Armed Forces
The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...
and the
Colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
,
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
and
Diplomatic Services
Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...
. In 1903, after five years' service, Wallace obtained a transfer to the company's branch in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, where he remained for two years. On the suggestion of his brother, Joseph, who lived in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, in 1905 Wallace sought another transfer to Whiteway Laidlaw's branch in that city.
A recurrent kidney complaint resulted in Wallace resigning his position and returning to England in 1907, where his left kidney was removed at
Guy's Hospital
Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre.
...
. Little is recorded of his life after this time, until he obtained a position working for the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
in
Harrogate
Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...
, rising to the post of
election agent
An election agent in elections in the United Kingdom, as well as some other similar political systems such as elections in India, is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is ...
in 1911. During his time in Harrogate, he met Julia Dennis (1861–1931), and they were married there in March 1914.
All early sources suggested that Julia was approximately the same age as Wallace, but in 2001 James Murphy demonstrated from her original birth certificate that she was actually seventeen years older than he was.
Julia's father was a ruined alcoholic farmer from near
Northallerton
Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increase ...
, who had died in 1875, leaving her an orphan at the age of 13.
In later life Julia exaggerated her antecedents, claiming her father had been a veterinary surgeon, and her mother French.
![Lisburn Lane, Liverpool L13](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Lisburn_Lane%2C_Liverpool_L13.JPG)
At the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the position of Liberal election agent in Harrogate was discontinued, owing to the
suspension of elections and a
parliamentary truce, and Wallace once again found himself looking for a job. Through the help of his father, he obtained a position as collections agent with the
Prudential Assurance Company
Prudential plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It was founded in London in May 1848 to provide loans to professional and working people.
Prudential has dual primary listings on the London Stock E ...
in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
. The Wallaces moved there in 1915, settling in the district of
Anfield
Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...
. During the 1920s, Wallace supplemented his comfortable but mundane existence as collections agent, working exclusively in the neighbouring
Clubmoor
Clubmoor is a neighbourhood of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, in the Liverpool City Council ward of Clubmoor. It is part of the Liverpool Walton Parliamentary constituency.
At the 2001 Census the population of Clubmoor ward was recorded as 13 ...
district, by lecturing part-time in
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
at
Liverpool Technical College
The College of Technology and Museum Extension in Byrom Street, Liverpool, England, was built between 1896 and 1901, the architect was Edward William Mountford. The building was constructed to provide a new College of Technology and an exten ...
. His hobbies included chemistry,
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
, and
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
, and in 1928 he learned to play the
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
to enable him to accompany Julia, who was an accomplished
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
, in "musical evenings" at their home at 29 Wolverton Street, Anfield.
The crime
![Wolverton Street, Anfield (3)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Wolverton_Street%2C_Anfield_%283%29.JPG)
Wallace, aged 52, attended a meeting of the Liverpool Central Chess Club on the evening of Monday 19 January 1931,
[''Murder in the 1930s'' p. 42] to play a scheduled chess game. While there he was handed a message, which had been received by telephone about 25 minutes before he arrived. It requested that he call at an address at 25 Menlove Gardens East, Liverpool, at 7.30pm the following evening to discuss insurance with a man who had given his name as "R. M. Qualtrough".
The next night Wallace duly made his way by
tramcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
to the south of the city at the time requested, only to discover that while there were Menlove Gardens North, South and West, there was no East. He called at 25 Menlove Gardens ''West'', and asked several passers-by in the neighbourhood for directions, but to no avail. Wallace also spoke to a policeman on his beat, and made inquiries in a nearby newsagent's, but nobody he asked was able to help him in his search for the address or the mysterious Qualtrough.
After searching the district for about 45 minutes, Wallace returned home. Neighbours John and Florence Johnston were heading out for the evening when they encountered Wallace in the back alleyway, complaining that he could not gain entry to his home at either the front or the back. While they watched, Wallace tried the back door again, which now opened. Inside he found his wife, Julia, had been brutally beaten to death in their
sitting room
In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room ( Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment ...
.
The investigation
Up to his arrest two weeks later, Wallace made four voluntary statements but was never intensively questioned by the police, although he was required to attend
CID
CID may refer to:
Film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1955 film), an Indian Malayalam film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1956 film), an Indian Hindi film
* ''C. I. D.'' (1965 film), an Indian Telugu film
* ''C.I.D.'' (1990 film), an Indian Hindi film
Television
* ''CID'' ( ...
headquarters every day and was asked specific questions about whether the Wallaces had a maid, why he had subsequently asked the man who had taken the telephone message at the chess club to be specific about the time he took it, and whether he had spoken to anyone in the street on his way back to his house from his abortive attempt to find Mr. Qualtrough. The police had evidence that the
telephone box
A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box, telephone box or public call box is a tiny structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience; usually the user steps into the booth and closes the booth ...
used by "Qualtrough" to make his call to the chess club was situated just from Wallace's home, although the person in the café who took the call was quite certain it was not Wallace on the other end of the line. Nevertheless, the police began to suspect that "Qualtrough" and Wallace were the same man. Wallace's legal team conducted timing tests that showed it was possible for someone to have made the call, catch a tram and arrive at the chess club when Wallace did, and it was equally possible for Wallace to arrive at the same time by boarding at the stop he claimed he had used, nowhere near the telephone box. These tests were not introduced as evidence at trial since, ultimately, the Prosecution offered nothing to controvert Wallace's assertion that he had boarded the tram elsewhere, and did not make the phone call.
![Liverpool 762 & Wallasey 78](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Liverpool_762_%26_Wallasey_78.jpg)
The police were also convinced that it would have been possible for Wallace to murder his wife and still have time to arrive at the spot where he boarded his tram. This they attempted to prove by having a fit young detective go through the motions of the murder and then sprint all the way to the tram stop, something an ailing 52-year-old Wallace probably could not have accomplished. The original assessment of the time of death, around 8 pm, was also later changed to just after 6 pm, although there was no additional evidence on which to base the earlier timing. A milk-boy witness who claimed to have spoken to Mrs. Wallace on her doorstep sometime after 6.30 pm further undermined the Prosecution case, leaving Wallace an extremely narrow window in which he could possibly have committed the "frenzied" crime, yet emerge blood-free and composed only minutes later to catch his tram.
Forensic examination of the crime scene had revealed that Julia's attacker was likely to have been heavily contaminated with her blood, given the brutal and frenzied nature of the assault. Wallace's suit, which he had been wearing on the night of the murder, was examined closely but no trace of bloodstains were found. The police formed the theory that a
mackintosh
The Mackintosh or raincoat (abbreviated as mac) is a form of waterproof raincoat, first sold in 1824, made of rubberised fabric.
The Mackintosh is named after its Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh, although many writers added a letter ''k' ...
, which was inexplicably found under Julia's corpse, had been used by a naked Wallace to shield himself from blood spatter while committing the crime. Examination of the bath and drains revealed that they had not been recently used, and there was no trace of blood there either, apart from a single tiny clot in the toilet pan, the origin of which could not be established, but was alleged to have been the result of inadvertent
cross-contamination by the Police.
Trial and appeal
![St_Georges_Hall_Court_Room](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/St_Georges_Hall_Court_Room.jpg)
Wallace consistently denied having anything to do with the crime, but was charged with murder and stood trial at the
Liverpool Assizes on 22 April 1931. After conducting a secret mock-trial in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, which unanimously found Wallace not guilty, the
Prudential Staff Union
The Prudential Staff Union was a trade union representing workers at the Prudential insurance company, in the United Kingdom. The only union of insurance workers to affiliate to the Labour Party, it was briefly represented on its National Ex ...
, in a unique act, sponsored his defence.
Despite the evidence against him being purely circumstantial, and the statement of a local milk delivery boy—who was certain he had spoken to Julia only minutes before her husband would have had to leave to catch his tram—Wallace was found guilty after an hour's deliberation by the Liverpool jury, and
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
.
F. J. Salfeld (1905-2001), who was present in the courtroom, commented, "what probably harmed
allacemost at his trial was his extraordinary composure. Like every other observer, I found enigmatic his seeming indifference to his surroundings. Shock? Callousness? Stoicism? Confidence? We shall never know."
In an unprecedented move, in May 1931 the
Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the verdict on the grounds that it "cannot be supported, having regard to the evidence", and Wallace was set free. The decision meant that the jury was wrong in law, and in fact there was no evidence against Wallace—appeals are usually brought on the basis of bad decisions by the presiding judge at the original trial, or by the emergence of new evidence.
No other person was charged with the murder and it remains officially unsolved.
A further mock-trial, conducted by the Merseyside Medico-Legal Society in 1977, presided over by Mr. Justice Lawton, also found Wallace not guilty. Robert Montgomery QC led for the Prosecution while
Richard Whittington-Egan led for the Defence.
Later life and death
![Wallace (Julia & William Herbert) grave, Anfield Cemetery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Wallace_%28Julia_%26_William_Herbert%29_grave%2C_Anfield_Cemetery.jpg)
After his successful appeal, Wallace returned to his job in insurance but public opinion in the areas where he lived and worked was strongly of the view that he had been guilty and had 'got away with it'. Many of Wallace's previous customers shunned him; he was subjected to hate mail and physical threats and had to take a clerical job at his employer's head office. At the same time, he moved to a bungalow in
Bromborough
Bromborough is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Cheshire, it is situated on the Wirral Peninsula, to the south east of Bebington and to the north of Easth ...
,
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
. His private diaries speak of his anguish at the loss of his wife, and whether they would be reunited in the
afterlife
The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...
, and his growing belief in the guilt of a former-colleague, and the fear even that he (Wallace) might be murdered by the same person. Testimony from a colleague, voiced in 1981, indicated that Wallace had declined an operation which might have prolonged his life. On 26 February 1933, less than two years after the appeal, and still employed by Prudential, William Herbert Wallace died aged 54 from
uraemia
Uremia is the term for high levels of urea in the blood. Urea is one of the primary components of urine. It can be defined as an excess of amino acid and protein metabolism end products, such as urea and creatinine, in the blood that would be nor ...
and
pyelonephritis
Pyelonephritis is inflammation of the kidney, typically due to a bacterial infection. Symptoms most often include fever and flank tenderness. Other symptoms may include nausea, burning with urination, and frequent urination. Complications may ...
at
Clatterbridge Hospital
Clatterbridge Hospital is a general hospital located on Clatterbridge Health Park in Bebington, Wirral, England. It is managed by Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
History
The hospital has its origins in the accommod ...
.
He was buried in
Anfield Cemetery
Anfield Cemetery, or the City of Liverpool Cemetery, is located in Anfield, a district of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It lies to the northeast of Stanley Park, and is bounded by Walton Lane (A580 road) to the west, Priory Road to the south, ...
with his wife.
Richard Gordon Parry
Jonathan Goodman, 1960s
In the 1960s, crime writer Jonathan Goodman made inquiries that led him to a junior employee at Prudential who had worked with Wallace. This man had done some of Wallace's collection work for him when the older man had been ill in 1928. Wallace had then had first-hand evidence that the younger man did not pay in all the premiums which he had collected. Yet for whatever reason, Wallace did not seem to have passed this information on to his employer. About a year later, the young man left Prudential to join another insurance firm. Wallace was later told that while this man had not been sacked he had left under something of a cloud, his father making up some of his son's shortfall. The young man was also acquainted with Julia. Goodman mentioned him, but not by name, in his book ''The Killing of Julia Wallace''.
Roger Wilkes, 1981
![Swift 10HP Drop Head Coupe (1930)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Swift_10HP_Drop_Head_Coupe_%281930%29.jpg)
Roger Wilkes, an independent radio news editor, investigated the case for a radio programme to be broadcast on the 50th anniversary of the crime in early 1981. Wilkes learned that Goodman's suspect, a man named Richard Gordon Parry, had given the police an
alibi
An alibi (from the Latin, '' alibī'', meaning "somewhere else") is a statement by a person, who is a possible perpetrator of a crime, of where they were at the time a particular offence was committed, which is somewhere other than where the crim ...
for the time of Julia's murder presumed to be from a woman to whom he was engaged. However, after Wallace's death and after being jilted by the suspect, the woman allegedly offered to swear to Wallace's solicitor that the alibi had been false. Wilkes also discovered that, on the night of the murder, Parry had visited a local garage where he had used a high-pressure hose to wash down his car. A mechanic at the garage had noticed that one of his gloves was soaked in blood. Wilkes attempted to track down Parry, only to learn that he had died but a few months previously. The same year Goodman's book was published, 1969, Parry had retired to a remote village in
North Wales
, area_land_km2 = 6,172
, postal_code_type = Postcode
, postal_code = LL, CH, SY
, image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg
, map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...
, where he was known as "Dick Parry", working part-time as a hospital telephone-switchboard operator.
In 1931, Parry was a spoilt young man of 22 who sustained a lavish lifestyle by spending recklessly. Wilkes claims that Parry knew that Wallace's insurance takings for the day would have been in a cash box at his home. Parry was familiar with Wallace's house and his habits, having assisted the older man in his collections in 1928/29. Since he also personally knew Wallace's wife, it would have been no trouble to visit her on some pretext once Wallace had been lured out of the house by means of the phone call sending him to a non-existent address. Julia's murder for the insurance takings was somewhat in vain as there was very little in the cash box that day, since Wallace had been ill during the previous week. The son of the
Detective Sergeant
Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...
on the case confirmed to Wilkes that Parry was interviewed by the police as "the prime suspect", his house and car were "turned over", but he appeared to have an "unshakeable" alibi for the time of the crime. Wilkes went ahead and named Parry in his radio programme, and later spelled out his case in a book called ''Wallace: The Final Verdict''.
The case against Parry is much stronger than that against Wallace, and ascribes a more convincing motive. There was witness evidence of a blood-stained glove found in Parry's car on the night of the murder, when he took his car to the garage for cleaning. The evidence from the man who cleaned the car was suppressed by the police at the time. Wilkes argues that there was, moreover, no motive or reason for Wallace to kill his own wife, and that he was charged because the immense publicity surrounding the case impelled the police to get a conviction at any cost. Parry died in 1980 without admitting any involvement in the crime. However, when Goodman and his friend
Richard Whittington-Egan confronted him on his London doorstep in 1966, Parry displayed an astonishingly detailed knowledge of the case, and was aware of the deaths of several obscure witnesses connected with it. He also boasted that he would never talk about it, "not if you were to offer me £2,000" (an amount ).
Parry may have been suspected long before Goodman or Wilkes began their investigations. In 1934 author
Winifred Duke
Winifred Amy Duke (March 22, 1890 - April 4, 1962) was a British author of fiction and Scottish history.
Biography
Winifred Duke was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on 22 March 1890. Her father was Edward St. Arnaud Duke who was a clergym ...
made oblique reference to the name of the killer as '
Harris
Harris may refer to:
Places Canada
* Harris, Ontario
* Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine)
* Harris, Saskatchewan
* Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan
Scotland
* Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle o ...
', a common Welsh surname which is a
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
of
Parry
PARRY was an early example of a chatbot, implemented in 1972 by psychiatrist Kenneth Colby.
History
PARRY was written in 1972 by psychiatrist Kenneth Colby, then at Stanford University. While ELIZA was a tongue-in-cheek simulation of a Rogeria ...
. Hargrave Lee Adam had also referred to the killer as "Mr. P" in his 1932 book.
James Murphy, 2001
While adopting a stance that Wallace was guilty of the crime, ''The Murder of Julia Wallace'' by James Murphy did introduce two new facts to the case. The first was that Julia was actually seventeen years older than William, and had romanticized her origins. More importantly, for the first time the police statements of Gordon Parry and his associates came into the public domain. It was apparent that, contrary to Wilkes's assumption, Parry's alibi for the time of the murder did not depend at all on his fiancée Lily Lloyd. A woman named Olivia Brine swore that Parry and others were at her house from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm on the evening of the murder. If true, it would have been impossible for Gordon Parry to have been the killer of Julia Wallace.
P. D. James, 2013
Writing in ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
Magazine'' in October 2013,
P. D. James
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014), known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring th ...
refers to the conclusions of Goodman and Wilkes, but speculates that Parry made the "Qualtrough" call as a practical joke in retaliation for Wallace's having reported Parry to their employers for dishonesty. She concludes that Wallace did in fact murder his wife and speculates that the murder weapon was an iron poker with which Wallace struck his victim, having first stripped and covered himself with the mackintosh found at the scene, spattered with Julia's blood, and that it was entirely possible for him to have done so within a reconstructed timeline of the events of that evening. She believes that "in the end justice was done, if only the fallible justice of men". This reading of the evidence must, however, be set against the fact that Wallace probably never reported his experience of Parry's dishonesty to their mutual employer and that Parry was not formally dismissed either at the time, or later. There is no evidence that Wallace attempted to use this information to coerce or
blackmail
Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...
Parry.
Ann Carlton, 2017
In 2017, Ann Carlton, in her book ''Penny Lane and All That: Memories of Liverpool'', describes how her father—the late Sir Stanley Holmes—visited Wallace in his prison cell, at Wallace's request, after he had been convicted. Holmes was then a teenager working for Liverpool Corporation and was friendly with the sons of Wallace's regular chess opponent, a Mr Caird. According to Carlton, Holmes said that Wallace revealed the name of the man he thought was the murderer; it was a man whom Holmes knew from Lister Drive School. Holmes stated the suspect was clever but a bad lot, and that some years after the murder he had seen the suspect in the dock; accused and convicted over a different matter. Speculating about Wallace's motives in asking to see her father, Carlton wrote that he may have suspected that the city's local government establishment wanted to protect the son and nephew of one of their own, and that the case against Wallace was brought to do just that. She added that she believed that the young man her parents knew and thought was a bad lot—and very possibly a murderer—was Parry.
Antony M. Brown, 2018
Author Antony M. Brown surveyed all the published theories, both evidentially and logically, in his 2018 book ''Move to Murder'', before concluding that, on balance, a previously unpublished theory "is the best explanation for one of the most puzzling murder cases in British criminal history." The new theory, first posited in 2008 by Merseyside-based researcher Rod Stringer, holds that Parry was indeed the brains behind a
distraction burglary, which turned to murder when his unknown accomplice was confronted by Julia after rifling the cash box—after first gaining entry to 29 Wolverton Street on the pretext he was “Qualtrough”.
Quotes
![Raymond Chandler (Lady in the Lake portrait, 1943)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Raymond_Chandler_%28Lady_in_the_Lake_portrait%2C_1943%29.jpg)
* "This murder, I should imagine, must be almost unexampled in the annals of crime ... murder so devised and arranged that nothing remains which will point to anyone as the murderer." (
Mr. Justice Wright, summing-up in ''
R v Wallace
''R v Wallace'' (1931) 23 Criminal Appeal Reports, Cr App R 32 is a leading England, English criminal case, the first time a conviction for murder was overturned on the ground that the verdict "cannot be supported, having regard to the evidence" ...
'')
* "The Wallace murder had no key-move and ended, in fact, in stalemate." (
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...
in ''The Anatomy of Murder'')
* "It was planned with extreme care and extraordinary imagination. Either the murderer was Wallace or it wasn’t. If it wasn't, then here at last is the perfect murder." (
James Agate
James Evershed Agate (9 September 1877 – 6 June 1947) was an English diarist and theatre critic between the two world wars. He took up journalism in his late twenties and was on the staff of ''The Manchester Guardian'' in 1907–1914. He later ...
in ''Ego 6'')
* "Almost every fact in the evidence was accepted by both prosecution and defence; but every fact could be interpreted in two ways." (John Rowland in ''The Wallace Case'')
* "Whoever killed Mrs Wallace attained a distinction accorded to few murderers. His was the perfect crime, undetected, unexplained, motiveless, unavenged." (
Winifred Duke
Winifred Amy Duke (March 22, 1890 - April 4, 1962) was a British author of fiction and Scottish history.
Biography
Winifred Duke was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England on 22 March 1890. Her father was Edward St. Arnaud Duke who was a clergym ...
in ''Six Trials'')
* "The case began to assume the unique character for which it is famous; it was not so much that the weight of the evidence swung evenly from one side to the other, it was that the entire evidence pointed equally convincingly in both directions." (
F. Tennyson Jesse in ''Checkmate'')
* "The Wallace case is more than a classic, it is ''the'' classic of criminology." (
John Brophy in ''The Meaning of Murder'')
* "... as a mental exercise, as a challenge to one’s powers of deduction and analysis, the Wallace murder is in a class by itself. It has all the maddening, frustrating fascination of a chess problem that ends in perpetual check. ... Any set of circumstances that is extracted from it will readily support two incompatible hypotheses; they will be equally consistent with innocence and guilt. It is pre-eminently the case where everything is cancelled out by something else." (
Edgar Lustgarten in ''Verdict in Dispute'')
* "The Wallace case is the nonpareil of all murder mysteries ... I call it the impossible murder because Wallace couldn’t have done it, and neither could anyone else. ... The Wallace case is unbeatable; it will always be unbeatable." (
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...
, in ''Raymond Chandler Speaking'')
* "Still unsolved, fascinating in its permutations, absolutely typical of the 1930s. Couldn't have happened at any other time, not in precisely the way it did happen... What is interesting is that the evidence, such as it was, could support either the prosecution or the defence depending on how you chose to look at it." (
P. D. James
Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, (3 August 1920 – 27 November 2014), known professionally as P. D. James, was an English novelist and life peer. Her rise to fame came with her series of detective novels featuring th ...
in ''
The Murder Room
''The Murder Room'' is a 2003 detective novel and the 12th in the Adam Dalgliesh series by P. D. James. It takes place in London, particularly the Dupayne Museum on the edge of Hampstead Heath in the London Borough of Camden.
Plot
The Dupayne ...
'', through character Conrad Ackroyd).
* "The Wallace case of 1931 is regarded as the classic English whodunnit, a labyrinth of clues and false trails leading everywhere except, it seems, to the identity of the murderer... The setting is wintrily provincial, the milieu lower middle-class, the style threadbare domestic.
J.B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator.
His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...
's fog-filled Liverpool remembrance of "trams going whining down long sad roads" is the quintessence of it. Events turn tantalisingly on finical questions of time and distance; knuckle-headed police jostle with whistling street urchins for star billing, while at the centre of the drama stands the scrawny, inscrutable figure of the accused man, William Herbert Wallace, the Man from The Pru..." (Roger Wilkes, editor, ''The Mammoth Book of Unsolved Crimes'', 2005)
* "... criminologists and crime writers are drawn to this tantalising whodunit like a fish to a brightly coloured lure." (Antony M. Brown, in ''Move To Murder'')
[Antony M Brown, ''Move to Murder'', Mirror Books, , p. 6.]
See also
*
Miscarriages of justice
A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...
*
List of unsolved deaths
This list of unsolved deaths includes well-known cases where:
* The cause of death could not be officially determined.
* The person's identity could not be established after they were found dead.
* The cause is known, but the manner of death (homi ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
''Murder Most Mysterious'' (1932)by Hargrave Lee Adam, online copy at The Internet Archive
''The Trial of William Herbert Wallace'' (1933)by W. F. Wyndham-Brown, online copy at
The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
''The Anatomy of Murder'' (1936)by
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...
, online copy at The Internet Archive
''Verdict in Dispute'' (1950)by
Edgar Lustgarten, online copy at
The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
(1953)by
F. Tennyson Jesse, essay
''Who was R. M. Qualtrough?''case summary at
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...
group ''Unsolved British Murders''
''Chess and the Wallace Murder Case''by
Edward Winter a
www.chesshistory.com''Cold Case Jury website which includes the real-time verdict of Move To Murder readers on the Wallace case''''
Daily Telegraph
Daily or The Daily may refer to:
Journalism
* Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks
* ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times''
* ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' article, 12 May 2001.
''Riddle of the Man from the Pru''''
Liverpool Echo
The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...
'' newspaper link
''The Killing of Julia Wallace''at www.geocities.com
a
www.trivia-library.comat
Anfield Cemetery
Anfield Cemetery, or the City of Liverpool Cemetery, is located in Anfield, a district of Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It lies to the northeast of Stanley Park, and is bounded by Walton Lane (A580 road) to the west, Priory Road to the south, ...
29 Wolverton Street, Anfieldat
Google Streetview
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides interactive panoramas from positions along many streets in the world. It was launched in 2007 in several cities in the United States, and has since expan ...
1949 recording of ''Music, Murder and a Mackintosh'' episode from the radio series
The Secrets of Scotland Yard, narrated by
Clive Brook
Clifford Hardman "Clive" Brook (1 June 1887 – 17 November 1974) was an English film actor.
After making his first screen appearance in 1920, Brook emerged as a leading British actor in the early 1920s. After moving to the United States ...
1952 recording of ''The Raincoat'' episode from the radio series
The Black Museum
''The Black Museum'' is a radio crime-drama program produced by Harry Alan Towers, which was broadcast in the USA on the Mutual network in 1952. It was then broadcast in Europe in 1953 on Radio Luxembourg, a commercial radio station, and was not ...
, narrated by
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
(names of the characters changed)
''Solved: The Murder of Julia Wallace''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, William Herbert
1878 births
1931 murders in the United Kingdom
1933 deaths
1930s in Liverpool
19th-century English people
20th-century English people
Burials at Anfield Cemetery
Deaths from kidney disease
English prisoners sentenced to death
Murder in Liverpool
Overturned convictions in the United Kingdom
People acquitted of murder
People from Millom
Unsolved murders in England