Julia Wallace's murder remains one of the most puzzling crimes, to have ever taken place. An enigma that continues to confound even the sharpest of minds.
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00:00This is the classic murder in that it's perfectly planned.
00:21Julia Wallace's murder remains one of the most puzzling crimes to have ever taken place,
00:27an enigma that continues to confound even the sharpest of minds.
00:31The mystery, with its strange twists and turns, has cemented itself as one of Britain's most
00:35notorious unsolved murders.
00:38It all began in the seemingly tranquil walls of the Wallace family home, where Julia Wallace
00:43met a brutal, unexpected end.
00:47Her husband, William Herbert Wallace, found himself at the heart of the investigation,
00:51first convicted of her murder, only to have the case fall apart.
00:56A real-world locked-room mystery, one that challenges logic and defies resolution.
01:02The Wallaces lived in a pretty basic house, two up, two down, but it had the inside bathroom
01:08and it was kept in very well-good order.
01:11They lived a fairly simple life, but they were content together, they liked to play
01:14music together, and William, there was nothing really to suggest that there was any violence
01:20in William whatsoever, or that the marriage was in any great difficulties.
01:24The year is 1931, and in the quiet, unassuming Wolverton Street in Anfield, William Herbert
01:30Wallace and his wife, Julia, lived together in a seemingly perfect marriage.
01:36To those on the outside, the couple appeared the epitome of domestic bliss.
01:40William, a man of impeccable reputation, worked for the Prudential Assurance Company, where
01:46his colleagues spoke of him with the utmost respect.
01:52Wallace worked for the Prudential, and he came to Liverpool in 1914 with his wife, Julia.
01:58He didn't have many friends, he was sort of a bit of a lonely sort of person, but he was
02:02avidly into chess, and he used to go down to the chess club in the city centre.
02:07He was also into music, Julia used to play the piano.
02:10So Wallace decided quite late in life to pick the violin up, and he used to, he was taught
02:16by his, he takes lessons off his Prudential boss, Joseph Crewe, who, you know, lived in
02:23the Menlove Gardens area.
02:24He also taught chemistry in the city centre.
02:27The house he lived in wasn't too bad, actually, you know, he had several bedrooms in it, and
02:32a bathroom inside, you know, when most bathrooms are outside.
02:36And he had his back room set up into a makeshift laboratory, where he'd, you know, do his chemistry
02:40tests and all that.
02:43But who was Wallace?
02:47I don't think we'll ever know properly.
02:50On the night of Monday the 19th of January, when Wallace arrived at Liverpool's Central
02:54Chess Club, a message was waiting for him.
02:58A man by the name R.M. Qualtrough had phoned to request Wallace to call at 25 Menlove Gardens
03:05East at 7.30pm the following evening to discuss insurance.
03:11The following night, Wallace set out on his mission, as a mysterious caller had instructed.
03:16He took the tram to Mossley Hill, arriving at Menlove Gardens West.
03:20As he walked around, Wallace soon realised the area had Menlove Gardens North, South
03:26and West, but no East.
03:29Wallace approached the nearest house at 25 Menlove Gardens West and knocked on the door,
03:33hoping for some clarification, but the occupant told him he was not at the right house.
03:38There was no Qualtrough here.
03:41He asked several passers-by in the neighbourhood for directions, but none could offer any assistance.
03:46Approaching a local policeman on his beat, enquiring about the mysterious address, but
03:50even the officer was unable to provide him with an answer.
03:54Wallace made enquiries in a nearby newsagent, hoping someone might know of this elusive
03:59Menlove Gardens East, but his efforts were equally fruitless.
04:03For almost 45 minutes, Wallace scoured the neighbourhood, but the address remained elusive.
04:10Little did Wallace know, this fruitless search would be the least of his troubles.
04:15The night was far from over, and the true horror was yet to unfold.
04:20Wallace got back to Wolverton Street at about quarter to nine, roughly about two hours since
04:25he'd left.
04:27When he was going past the back alleyway, his neighbours next door were coming out,
04:31the Johnstons, Florence and John Johnston.
04:35Mrs Johnston said, hello Mr Wallace, and Wallace just said to her, have you heard anything
04:40unusual?
04:41And they said, no, why?
04:42And he went, I've tried to get access to the house, I've gone to the front, gone to the
04:45back, to the front again, and I can't gain access, and they said, well, try again and
04:51we'll wait.
04:52So the Johnstons wait at the back of Wallace's backyard door.
04:55Wallace goes up to the back kitchen door and says, it opens now.
05:01He goes into the house, the Johnstons are outside and he can hear them going round the
05:05house calling Julie's name.
05:07Then about a minute and a half later, after them going in, he comes outside, anxious.
05:13He said, come in, she's been killed.
05:15So the three of them go into the front parlor, that's where the body's found.
05:20Wallace leaned over, and the body was lying there with the mackintosh tucked underneath,
05:27underneath the body.
05:29The Johnstons, Mrs. Johnston goes in the room.
05:33John Johnston just looks round the door and says, I'll go and get the police.
05:38So he goes for the police, and Wallace and Mrs. Johnston wait there.
05:43About ten past nine, the first policeman on the scene, Fred Williams, comes in.
05:51Then the CID are eventually called, and they all come out.
05:55If you look at it from the detective's point of view, who turned up on the scene, there'd
05:58be no forced entry into the property.
06:01He had made a point of making himself known in the Manlove Avenue area to make sure he
06:09had his alibi in it.
06:11I can see why the detectives started to think it could well be him here, but what they didn't
06:14have really was any motive.
06:18Did William Herbert Wallace in fact murder his wife?
06:22Well, the police seem to think so.
06:24Their theory relied on William's burnt, blood-soaked mackintosh, which had been found underneath
06:29a Julia's body.
06:31Officers surmised he had worn the coat as a shield to protect himself from blood splatter.
06:38So here stood in front of the former Anfield Road police station, which is where William
06:42Wallace was taken for questioning immediately after the body of his wife, Julia, was found
06:48on the 20th of January 1931, nearby in Wolverson Street.
06:53Pretty grimy and basic within the police station.
06:55A cell without any running water, kept in there for long, lengthy periods of time.
07:02But in reality, he was taken there really to give a statement.
07:04He wasn't necessarily under suspicion, or they certainly didn't tell him he was.
07:08It was a case of come in and give a voluntary interview, which you would call it nowadays,
07:13just to account for his movements on the night.
07:15So as much as we describe the cells as quite grim, and I've actually been in them in a
07:20previous life, I think it's fair to say he probably didn't actually go into one because
07:23he wasn't officially under caution at that time.
07:26But it would have been very basic, I think a room with a desk, a couple of policemen
07:31there, unless he was firing away questions at him.
07:35Certainly when you look at the reports into the crime, he was under suspicion from one
07:39of the officers immediately, due to his fairly ice-cold demeanour and lack of any real visible
07:45signs of obsession at the time.
07:48John McFall, the police surgeon.
07:50When he first examines Mrs Wallace's body, he says that it was probably two hours before
07:58that she'd been murdered.
08:00Now what happened is, when he's writing the statement, he comes to the conclusion that
08:06the murder occurred about four hours before, which would have been about six o'clock, which
08:12was impossible really, because the milk boy's seen her, and the milk boy delivered the milk
08:17at about twenty-five to seven.
08:19This is the classic murder, in that it's perfectly planned, either somebody has managed to get
08:27Wallace out of the house because they knew the only way to get in to Julia was to get
08:32him out, and he was a man of creature habits, you knew he might go to the chess club one
08:36night a week, to get him out on another night, it was quite difficult to do so.
08:40So you basically telephoned and said, come to this address in Walton, where the houses
08:45are big and grand, and Wallace is thinking in his head, this might be a good annuity
08:49for me, I'll get a good commission on this one.
08:53That's one way of looking at it.
08:54Another way of looking at it is if Wallace is guilty, he again has planned it to perfection
08:58and time-wise that he's done it, and he's rushed out.
09:03He's got the tram times worked out to perfection, and he's made sure he's got himself visible
09:09in as many different parts of that location of the city as he could do, to emphasise that
09:13he simply couldn't have done it because he wasn't there.
09:16One of the things as well is that there was confusions over the time of death, but one
09:19of the pathologists actually put the time of death as around 6.30pm, which was before
09:24he left the property.
09:26So they, detectives, came to the conclusion that he had actually killed Julia, gone out
09:31down to the south end of the city, to give himself that cast-iron alibi, and then returned.
09:37And that was really the turning point which led to him getting arrested about two to three
09:40weeks after the crime had been committed.
09:43He was arrested eventually at the home of his sister-in-law, where he'd been staying
09:48temporarily because of the house being a crime scene.
09:51And the police really, I think, having a look, looking at others, there was only really one
09:54other subject than Gordon Parry, whose girlfriend gave him an alibi, that he was at the pictures.
10:00The police really looked at the fact that he seemed to go out of his way to attract
10:03attention in the Menlove Avenue area and Green Lane area, by asking everybody where this
10:08address was in Menlove Gardens, each which didn't exist.
10:11Detectives hypothesised William placed the telephone call to the chess club himself from
10:17a payphone just 400 yards from his house, using a disguised voice.
10:21He then went to the chess club to receive this message, feigning cluelessness as the
10:25details of his message were relayed to him.
10:28Then the following night, Wallace lured Julia into the parlour with the pretense that he
10:33wanted her to set up the room for a musical evening before killing his wife in cold blood.
10:39After this, he put on his other coats, hid the murder weapon up his sleeve and left.
10:44On his return to their home, pretending to be unable to enter the house would have allowed
10:49Wallace to wait for a passer-by to bear witness to his discovery of Julia's body.
10:54Quite private.
10:55Although in his diaries he does give a lot of stuff away, and I remember reading Raymond
11:00Chandler, the famous detective who loved this case by the way, I remember him saying
11:06about when people write diaries, they write them almost to be published so other people
11:10see them, but he does say a lot of things in his diaries, Wallace, but he didn't seem
11:15the sort of person who would really encourage conversation, you know what I mean?
11:24And also he was, you know, into philosophy, big way, Marcus Aurelius was the Stoic Roman
11:30philosopher, he loved the writings of him.
11:34He was a member of the chess club, albeit not a very good player, you know, he liked
11:39to do it.
11:40To me it's inconceivable that someone like this could have done what they were accused
11:43of, but in the case of no other suspect, I suppose you can see why he ended up getting
11:49charged.
11:50In fact, we're all asking the same question, who killed Julie Wallace, and why?
12:05The trial of Wallace opened on Wednesday the 22nd of April 1931 in this fantastic building.
12:13It was a four-day trial, which was quite short for them, and there was a lot of nonsense
12:19about certain parts, about, you know, the timing of the body, the drop of blood on
12:24the toilet rim, a lot of hoo-ha was made about that, and it was never, ever going to determine
12:31who murdered Mrs Wallace.
12:34And after the four days, Wallace was found guilty, much to the shock of most in the courtroom,
12:42you know, an audible gasp could be heard when the floorman of the jury said guilty.
12:47It was obviously a very well-attended trial, you know, it caught the public imagination.
12:52The reality is if the appeal failed, it's unlikely it would have been commuted to life
12:55imprisonment because it appeared on the face of a cult premeditated murder of a family
13:00member.
13:01So, you know, you can't imagine what must have been going through his mind at the time.
13:05Eventually Wallace, you know, was took to Walton Prison, and his solicitors put an appeal
13:12in right away, and his appeal took place in London on May the 18th and 19th in the
13:19Royal Courts of Justice in London, where the verdict was overturned because the appeal
13:27judges said that the verdict couldn't be supported with regards to the evidence.
13:35And it did make legal history because of the first time that happened.
13:38Normally speaking, you just had to go with the jury's verdict, but on this occasion,
13:42the High Court judges felt that no reasonable jury could really have convicted on the evidence
13:46given.
13:47There are many, many theories having developed over the last century, and they really only
13:52boil down to two suspects.
13:54The first of which is William Herbert Wallace, the husband.
13:59When the police arrived at the crime scene, they would have been very keen to eliminate
14:04Wallace from the inquiry.
14:06Statistics show that if someone is bludgeoned to death in their house, that six times out
14:11of ten, it's going to be the spouse, and that normally means the husband.
14:15And when the police did get to the crime scene, and when they did lay eyes on Wallace himself,
14:22they found he had a very cool and aloof demeanour.
14:26He looked uncaring, cold.
14:29He sort of treated his wife more like a sort of mortuary exhibit.
14:33He was feeding the cat.
14:35Didn't seem right to the police.
14:38And also, the whole reason for the murder seemed to be an attempted robbery.
14:44When the police actually asked what had been robbed, Wallace got down a cash box.
14:49It was about six foot high on a bookcase, and he showed the money that had been taken.
14:56The theory was that the murder had occurred because of this robbery, yet who knew about
15:02the cash box?
15:03It was virtually hidden on the bookshelf.
15:06But what motive did William have?
15:08There's evidence Wallace was tight-fisted with the household coffers.
15:12In his own diary, he wrote about berating his wife for buying too many newspapers, and
15:17supposedly he would walk long distances just to save a little money on tram fares.
15:23Alongside this, investigators found a hidden pouch secured by a safety pin inside Julia's
15:28corset containing a small stash of money.
15:30This could suggest she'd done this to keep some of her money secret from William.
15:36With Julia's death, Wallace would gain a small life insurance payout as well as access
15:41to the money in Julia's own bank account.
15:43At the end of the day, the money was still in his name.
15:45I mean, he had about £150 in savings, which was a huge sum at that time.
15:50They lived a comfortable existence.
15:52Liverpool was a fairly desperate city at the time because of the Great Depression.
15:57But there was signs of affluence certainly in the South End where he'd gone on the wild
16:03goose chase looking for Mr. Qualtrough.
16:04But I think, generally speaking, even if she might have been a little bit miserly or
16:10he might have been miserly and felt she spent too much money, he seems to have enough there
16:14anyway.
16:15And when it comes to her, I suppose what he could have just simply done is told her he
16:19earned a lot less than he did her.
16:20I think, you know, there was doubts really as to whether he actually had the strength
16:25to actually, you know, conduct such a brutal murder the way he did her.
16:29There were probably far easier ways to have killed Julia if he wanted to do so.
16:35But there really was no motive.
16:37Wallace claimed to know exactly who killed his wife.
16:39And you ask him that particular question, who knew about the cash box and who would
16:45Julia Wallace have admitted to the house?
16:49Wallace gives a few names, but there's clearly one person he really suspects, Richard Gordon
16:55Parry.
16:56Parry had worked for Wallace.
16:58He knew all his business arrangements and he also knew Julia.
17:03So now we have a second suspect, Parry.
17:08So obviously the police bring in Parry, they interview him, get him to do a statement.
17:14They then check that statement.
17:16And one thing comes out of that checking is that Parry lied about his alibi for the night
17:26of the call.
17:29Now that automatically is a red flag.
17:32Someone has lied to the police in a statement which they signed about a murder investigation.
17:40Rather than digging deeper, the police just left it.
17:43They never followed up.
17:46Richard Gordon Parry had worked alongside Wallace at the Prudential where he'd once
17:50been under his supervision, though he'd been fired after being caught stealing.
17:56Parry knew exactly where the cash box was kept, but even more telling was his understanding
18:02of the Prudential pay and schedule.
18:04Tuesday night was the golden opportunity, the night when the cash box would be at its
18:09fullest.
18:10This was the same night Julia was found dead.
18:14Parry admitted he knew of the cafe where Wallace's chess club met.
18:18It wasn't a coincidence.
18:19He'd frequented the city cafe himself as a member of the Mersey Amateur Dramatic Society.
18:25Parry rehearsed there, and in fact it was during these very rehearsals that he'd crossed
18:29paths with Wallace on more than one occasion.
18:32Although Parry had an alibi for the night of the murder, on the night of the phone call
18:36he claimed to be with his girlfriend Lily Lloyd and her mother, which proved to be false.
18:42In fact, William Herbert Wallace himself accused Parry.
18:47He did it privately, and in all but name, he did it in public as well.
18:52Parry said nothing.
18:53He was tight-lipped.
18:54In fact, he later said he promised his father he would never speak about the case.
19:01Why?
19:02Many, many years later, we're now talking 50 years later, Parry was implicated by the
19:09testimony of a garage attendant who phoned in to a radio station, and he claimed that
19:16on the night of the murder, Parry had driven his car into the garage to get it cleaned
19:22inside and out, and inside the car, according to the garage attendant, there was blood.
19:29This evidence, because it can happen so long after the event, is highly controversial,
19:35but if taken at face value, it does implicate Parry.
19:39Yes, and I think Wallace is guilty, just for the simple fact that I don't think anyone
19:44else done it.
19:45I mean, Parry, it's been proved now that he had alibis, and now I think we're hearing
19:53the alibis could have been fabricated, but Mrs. Brine, who we were staying with, who
19:58was with that night from half six to half eight, and her daughter, Savona, and her nephew,
20:04Harold, she's hardly gonna jeopardize them or herself by, you know, giving an alibi to
20:10a possible murderer, so really, it just leaves Wallace.
20:14This is just smoke, and once the smoke clears, all we're left with is William Herbert Wallace,
20:21the man the police suspected all along.
20:25Others will say, yeah, but there's no sort of smoke without a fire, is there?
20:31Parry had lied, he was implicated, he knew about the cash box, had inside knowledge,
20:37and he was evasive about the crime, about talking about the crime for the rest of his life.
20:42A more reliable plan would have been to send Wallace on his wild goose chase using a real
20:46name and address, even an actual address at Menlove Gardens would have bought an ample
20:52amount of time for a straightforward robbery.
20:55Did they fear Wallace would check a directory?
20:58Someone might have made the call, and someone else might have killed Julia Wallace.
21:02In other words, Parry could have been involved, but might have not been the killer.
21:09One theory has been developed over the last 20 years, it's called the accomplice theory,
21:14that suggests that the motive was not murder, but robbery, which Parry had instigated,
21:20and he worked with an accomplice who arrived at the house on the night of the murder,
21:25saying there was a mix-up at the Qualtrough call.
21:27In fact, she was Qualtrough, and he got let in by Julia.
21:32The plan?
21:32It was a distraction burglary.
21:34But unfortunately, he got caught out, and to silence Julia, he murdered her.
21:40For me, I think the thing that shows that he is innocent is that he's buried in the
21:44same grave as her, and I really don't think someone who was generally a good man with
21:50a conscience would actually kill his wife and then go and get buried with her, after
21:53his own death.
21:55While many believe that William Wallace was guilty and managed to escape justice, his
21:59own lawyers even were convinced of his guilt, there are others who are certain he was an
22:04innocent man trapped in a nightmare of circumstantial evidence.
22:10William Herbert Wallace, once a respected insurance agent, returned to his job at the
22:15Prudential, but the world around him had shifted.
22:18The court's decision to clear his name didn't erase the lingering doubt that had consumed
22:23the public.
22:24Many believed Wallace was guilty, convinced he'd somehow gotten away with murder.
22:30Former clients, once trusting, now turned their backs on him.
22:34Hate mail arrived, each letter a bitter reminder of the trial that had now defined his life.
22:40More than that, physical threats began.
22:43Wallace was forced to retreat from his former role.
22:46The once proud insurance man took up a clerical job at his employer's head office.
22:52On the 26th of February 1933, just shy of two years after his appeal, William Herbert
22:58Wallace succumbed to the very ailment that had haunted him throughout his life, kidney
23:03disease.
23:04Buried in Anfield Cemetery along with his wife, Wallace's story came to a quiet end.
23:09But the whispers, the doubt and the questions about his past would follow him to the grave.
23:16The question of who brutally killed Julia Wallace in her own home remains shrouded in
23:23speculation.
23:24This is a case that remains stone cold.