The Mysterious Phone Call That Led to Murder | Forensic Files

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At around 700 [music] p.m. on Monday, January 19, 1931, the telephone rang at Codle City Cafe [music] on North of John
Street in the English port city of Liverpool. Waitress Glattis Harley picked up. On
the line was an unfamiliar, elderly sounding man with a deep voice who asked quickly, "Is that [music] the Central
Chess Club?" Liverpool's Central Chess Club was meeting at the cafe that evening, as it
did every Monday and Thursday throughout autumn, winter, and early spring. The club consisted of a small group of
mostly amateur players whose informal and friendly matches were often played among the tables on the bustling main
restaurant floor. The man on the telephone asked, "Is William Wallace there?" Glattis recognized many of the chess
club's members by sight, but she didn't know most of their names. Unsure whether William was among the
crowd that evening, she approached the club's captain, Samuel Bey, and asked, "Is William Wallace here?"
Samuel had known William through the club for 8 years. The 52-year-old initially came across as shy and
reserved, but over time developed a reputation as a pleasant, likable gentleman.
He wasn't a regular attendee at the club, appearing as little as once a fortnight, telling others it was because
he disliked leaving his wife alone at night. In [music] fact, William hadn't been
seen at the club since before Christmas, but he was expected to appear that evening for a scheduled match in the
second class championship. The highly anticipated tournament had been planned 2 months in advance with a
first prize of 10 shillings and a second prize of five. But when Samuel Bey glanced around the
cafe, he didn't see William there. This wasn't unusual as most club members didn't arrive until between 7:30 and 8.
Samuel went to the telephone and took the call on William's behalf. He [music] didn't recognize the caller's
strong, slightly gruff voice. When Samuel informed him that William hadn't arrived, the man [music] asked,
"Can you give me his address?" "I'm afraid I can't," Samuel replied. [music] The man then asked, "But will he
be there?" [music] "I can't say," Samuel answered. "He may or may not. If he is coming, he will be
here shortly. I suggest you ring up later. The caller said he was too [music] busy
to ring back and stressed the matter's importance, explaining that it was his daughter's 21st birthday and that
[music] he wished to arrange something for her that fell within Williams nature of [music] business.
I want to see him particularly, the man insisted before asking Samuel to pass on
a message. With pen in [music] hand, Samuel noted that the man wanted to meet William at
7:30 the following evening at his residence, 25 Men Love Gardens East, [music] in the southeast suburb of
Mosley Hill. Samuel repeated the details [music] which the caller confirmed. He also gave his name
RM Qualra. [music] >> [music] >> Not long after the call, Samuel Bey noticed a tall, thin, [music] bespected
man with a gray mustache seated near the cafe entrance, absorbed in a chess match.
It was William Wallace. He had arrived discreetly moments earlier, removed his hat and coat, and
quietly settled in to play his tournament game. Samuel relayed the message from RM
Qualtra to William, who responded, [music] "Qualtra, Qualra? Who is Qualra?" He asked whether the man was a member of
the chess club, [music] which Samuel denied. "I don't know," the chap, William said,
adding that he'd never heard of Menlo Gardens East either. When he suggested that the address might
have been Menlo Avenue, also in Mosley Hill, Samuel assured him it was not. William nevertheless recorded Qualra's
name and the Menlo Love Gardens address in his pocket diary, scrolling east in big block letters.
He then turned his attention back to his chess game, which concluded at 10 p.m. in Williams Victory.
Elated, he animatedly recounted the match as he left the cafe with several other club members.
Yet the peculiar request from RM Qualra lingered on his mind. He brought up the unfamiliar Men Love Gardens address to a
fellow Chess Club member during the evening and to the others as they journeyed home.
No one else had heard of it either, but they also suspected it might be somewhere off the more well-known Menlo
Love Avenue and offered suggestions on how William could get there. William jokingly remarked that he
belonged [music] to Liverpool and was therefore confident he could find his way once he reached the general area.
[music] After all, he knew Menlo Avenue quite well. [music] The road ran alongside a park he
sometimes visited with his wife to see the roses. As for Qualra, William had little to say
beyond the fact it was a peculiar name. The following morning of Tuesday, January 20, 1931, William Wallace set
off for work as an insurance agent for the Credential Assurance Company. His job required him to trudge through the
drizzly weather, making house calls to clients and collecting payments. As William walked to one of his many
appointments that day, he passed the police constable who had known him for around 2 years.
According to the constable, William kept his head down and appeared to dab his eyes with the sleeve of his coat as if
he'd been crying. He also seemed uncharacteristically haggarded and withdrawn, like he was
distressed about something. The clients who William visited throughout the day described his mood
differently. They recalled him being his usual gentlemanly self, polite, jovial, and
smiling. He gratefully accepted a cup of tea from one client and cheerfully remarked to
another, "Let's hope it's going to stay this way." when blue skies suddenly appeared.
He admired the beautiful flowers in another's window and told a fourth that he looked forward to seeing her again in
3 weeks time for their next appointment. One person remarked that they had never
met a nicer man than William Wallace. All of William's clients agreed that he was perfectly normal and quite his usual
self that day. None of them got the impression that he had been crying or distressed.
They attributed his tired appearance and habit of dabbing at his eyes to the cold
weather and poor health. William was a sickly man. He had lost one of his kidneys to disease and
doctors had told him that he only had a few years left to live as a result. He was also known as someone who never
seemed to get rid of his cold and was often seen using a handkerchief to wipe his watery eyes and blow his nose.
[music] The only thing Williams clients noted was that he would repeatedly ask for the
time and check his watch during meetings, but this was considered a normal habit of his. He was highly
timeconscious as he relied on public transport. He also had upwards of 560 house calls
to make after falling behind after recently taking time off sick. For the past week, William had been
largely housebound as he recovered from a severe bout of influenza, something he'd mentioned to chess club members the
night before. He said he wouldn't have attended if not for the long awaited tournament match,
preferring to rest at home. Some noticed a slight huskiness in his voice, suggesting he was still on the
men. William's wife, 52-year-old Julia Wallace, had also been unwell lately. She remained mostly at home, telling
visitors [music] that she had a touch of bronchitis. In truth, Julia had suffered a series of
worsening illnesses and had recently begun [music] coughing up blood. Concerned, William had called a doctor
who advised him not to be alarmed and offered guidance on easing her symptoms. In the words of a friend, [music] the
winter months tried Mr. and Mrs. Wallace. Even when unwell, Julia Wallace remained
her gentle, caring self, offering to make tea for a family member who dropped by to check in on her. When they offered
her theater tickets for later in the week, she doubted [music] she would be well enough to attend.
William, by contrast, was fairing much better. Not only had he managed to return to work, Julia mentioned that he
had attended his chess [music] club the night before. She also said that he had plans again that evening, having
received a telephone call from someone who wished to meet him in person about insurance business.
The conversation then shifted to a recent spate of burglaries in the area. Just before 6:00 p.m., William finished
with his last client of the day and headed straight home. He set out again a short while later to keep his 7:30
appointment with RM Qualtra. By 7:06, he was spotted waiting for a tram car at the junction of Smith down
Road and Lodge Lane, just over 2 mi from his home. When the tram arrived, William asked if
it went to Menlo Gardens, stressing east. The conductor said no, but told him to
stay on, explaining the tram would reach a nearby terminus where he could transfer to another that went to the
[music] area. During the journey, William remarked that he was a stranger in Mosley Hill
and something to the effect that he had important business [music] there. He mentioned Men Love Gardens East
upwards of four times [music] and urged the conductor not to forget that that was where he was heading.
At the terminus, William hurriedly boarded a second tram car that he had been told [music] went to Mosley Hill.
He spoke to its conductor requesting to be led off at Menlo Gardens East. The conductor agreed but said the
closest stop to William's destination was Men Love Gardens West. Upon arriving in Mosley Hill, the
conductor beckoned William and explained that Men Love Gardens was triangular, [music]
consisting of three roads. He pointed out two roads running off on the right and suggested that Menlo
Gardens East was [music] probably one of them. William thanked the conductor, adding,
[music] "I am a complete stranger around here before disembarking the tram." William then stopped a passer by to ask
for directions. She said she didn't know where Men Love Gardens East was, but suggested it might
be further along Men Love Gardens West. William continued only to find the road ended at a junction with a thoroughare
called Dudlow Lane. He retraced his [music] steps and approached another passerby.
In a strange turn of events, William was told that while Men Love Gardens North,
South, and West existed, there was no Men Love Gardens East. William suggested that there must have
been a mistake in the message he was given and headed to 25 Men Love Gardens West [music] instead.
An elderly lady answered the door. When William asked if anyone named Qualra lived at the premises, the lady
responded, [music] "No." William had no hope of finding his destination on Menlo Garden South or
North as those streets only contained even numbered residences. He eventually came across a local police
constable performing his rounds and [music] asked him about Menlo Gardens East. The officer replied, "There's no such
place." William explained that he was an insurance agent and had received a call
from a man named Qualra requesting his presence [music] at 25 Men Love Gardens East. He spelled out the name for the
constable, who didn't know anyone by that name in the district. The constable suggested that William
inquire at 25 Men Love Avenue, a street William was already familiar with and had long suspected might be the place he
was meant to visit. William thanked him and as he started to walk away, asked if there was somewhere
he could consult a directory, a printed book listing the contact details and addresses of local businesses and
residents. The constable pointed him toward a nearby post office and [music] police
station. William then asked, "It's not 8:00 yet, is it?" Before the officer could answer, William
checked his watch and [music] stated that it was a quart to 8. The constable confirmed the time and William bid him
good night before heading off in the direction of the post office. The post office [music] was closed, so
William checked with the news agency across the road. He spent several minutes searching through their
directory before asking the shop manager about the address he was trying to find.
Like the others, she told him that it simply didn't exist. After spending about 45 minutes trying
to figure out where he was supposed to go, William finally gave up and returned home.
Shortly before 8:45 that night, married couple John and Florence Johnston were getting ready to go out when they heard
knocking on the door of a nearby home from their living room. The sound was familiar, [music]
distinct, and delivered in the same pattern their neighbor, William Wallace, always used.
William lived next door to the Johnston's in one of the many near identical two-story Victorian brick
terrace houses that stood wall to-wall along Wolverton Street in Liverpool's Anfield District.
Over the next few minutes, the Johnston's heard William Wallace's distinctive knock at least three times.
At 8:45, as the couple stepped out the back door of their home and into the alley behind it, William passed by in a
hurry, looking worried. He was striding toward the rear of his house, [music] his manner brisk and
purposeful. As the Johnston's greeted William in passing, he surprised them by asking
anxiously if they had heard anything unusual that evening. John and Florence hadn't, and they asked
if something had happened. I've been out since4 to 7, William explained. On my return, I find the front door
bolted against me. John asked if he had tried the back door. "Yes," William replied. "I
couldn't open it." He was concerned as his wife Julia was supposed to be home and he was certain
she wouldn't have gone out because she was sick. John suggested he tried the back door
again and if it still wouldn't budge, they could help fetch a spare key. The Johnston's watched as William
approached the door and twisted its handle. It swung open easily at his touch. It opens now, he shouted to the
Johnson's. I will see if everything is all right, he remarked as he stepped into the unlit kitchen.
John said they would wait until everything was confirmed to be in order, and William didn't discourage them.
Except for a dim light from the second floor, the house was in complete darkness.
The Johnston saw lights flicker in other rooms as William moved from space to space, lighting matches to illuminate
the gas lamps within. Heavy blinds and curtains blocked the view from outside, but they heard
William call out twice, presumably to Julia, though they couldn't make out what he was saying.
About 5 minutes later, William emerged from the house looking distraught. In a hurried raised voice, he told the
Johnston's, "Oh, come in and see. She has been killed." The Johnston's followed William into the
house, fearing that Julia might have had a fatal accident, perhaps a fall down the stairs.
After [music] passing through the kitchen into the hallway, the trio entered the parlor or sitting room
towards the front of their house. A gas lamp cast light on the compact, well-kept, and richly decorated space.
The Wallace home, where the childless couple had lived for 16 years, was a picture of dignified domesticity.
Potted plants, framed photographs, floral patent cushions, and paintings of landscapes, and pastoral scenes adorned
the parlor. In front of a large window draped with deep burgundy velvet curtains stood a
small cluster of well-worn furniture, including a low armchair and a Sha's lounge.
They were arranged around the room's focal point, a dark, ornately carved wooden fireplace, [music]
which featured a small grate for a gas fire. Sprawled out on a black rug in front of
the fireplace [music] was Julia Wallace. She was face down with her head turned [music] toward the piano she loved to
play. It's lit open with a book of music on the stand. A pool of blood had formed around her
head and was spattered on the striped beige toned wallpaper on the nearby walls.
Bone and brain matter was visible from a 3-in wound above and in front of Julia's
left ear. There were further depressions to the back of her skull, [music] but her
matted hair obscured the full extent of the damage. Nothing else in the room appeared to
have been disturbed. Florence Johnston gently touched Julia's extended hand and said softly, "You poor
darling." She was still warm, though barely. William Wallace's initial distress and
agitation gave way to what appeared to be a profound shock. His face was pale as [music] he stooped beside his wife's
lifeless body and felt her hand. "Dave finished her," he repeated, his voice trembling.
He noticed her rings were missing, though he wasn't certain if she had been wearing them that day.
I wonder what they have used," he murmured, [music] seemingly pondering the murder weapon.
He ran his hand along the edge of the rug, [music] patting it as if checking for anything
hidden underneath. John told him not to disturb anything [music] and said he was going to fetch
the police. William urged him to hurry, saying, "And a [music] doctor, too, but I don't think
it will do any good." The trio stepped back into the kitchen [music] where William wandered about in
a bewildered days. The kitchen appeared relatively normal, though Julia hadn't tidied up after
dinner, suggesting she'd been attacked before she had the chance to [music] do so.
Three coins lay scattered on the floor, a half crown and two shillings, and William pointed to a damaged cabinet in
the corner. Its door rested in two broken pieces nearby. "See, they've wrenched that off," he
said, [music] implying the damage was caused by someone ransacking the otherwise intact space.
William moved to the [music] cabinet, its upper shelves mostly filled with books.
From the left side of the top shelf, he took down a cash box. John asked if anything was taken.
The box typically held the insurance payments William had collected [music] from his clients the previous week,
which he was due to hand over to his employer the following day. There was only a crumpled American $1
bill and four [music] penny stamps inside. £4 were missing, the equivalent of roughly £350
today. William returned the box to the shelf. The Johnston's didn't think he appeared
overly concerned about the missing money. Before going to the police, Jon wanted
to ensure everything was all right upstairs. William ascended the staircase alone and
[music] returned minutes later to report that several pounds in a jar upstairs had been left untouched.
Jon departed [music] and William and Florence briefly returned to Julia's body. Florence [music] touched Julia's hand
again, noticing it had grown colder. "Look at the brains," William muttered. But Florence couldn't bear to.
He scanned the room and asked, "Whatever have they used?" Nothing stood out as having been used in
the attack. William circled his wife's body, carefully stepping over the blood spatter, and pointed out a steel gray
Macintosh partially tucked around her. Often shortened to Mac, [music] a Macintosh is an overcoat made from
rubberized cotton, making it waterproof. It was a popular item in the UK at the time, suited to the wet climate before
trench coats became common. "Is it your Macintosh?" Florence asked William. "Yes, it is mine," he replied while
smoothing some of the blood soaked fabric with his fingertips. As they waited for the police, Florence
sat with William in the kitchen and [music] asked if he wanted anything. With his head in his hands, he said he
did not. He kept muttering to himself [music] and occasionally ignored Florence as she
spoke as if she weren't even there. He then busied himself by stoking the kitchen half.
By the time the police arrived at around 9:10 p.m., William and Florence were in
the lobby by the front door. A constable knocked, but when Florence tried to open it, she found it wouldn't
budge, just like William had noticed earlier. The lock was different from those in her
own home, and after a brief struggle, she said to William, "You had better do it." He stepped forward, drew back the
bolt, and opened the door with ease. "Come inside, officer. Something terrible has happened," William
announced. He led the way into the house where the officer saw Julia's body and [music]
asked, "How did this happen?" William recounted the events leading up to the grim discovery.
He stated he had left home at 6:45 p.m. with the Julia [music] bidding him farewell from the alley behind their
house. William explained how he had spent nearly an hour wandering aimlessly around Mosley Hill, searching for a
fictitious address given to him the previous night by a mysterious caller named RM Qualtra.
He said he became uneasy when he was told that the address didn't exist and mindful of the recent spate of
burglaries in Anfield hurried back home. His key wouldn't work in the front door
as it had been bolted from the inside. He tried the back door which [music] was closed but unbolted but it wouldn't open
on the first attempt. After alerting his neighbors, [music] he tried again. I entered the house and this is what I
found, William said, referring to his bludgeoned wife. After giving his statement, William sank
into a chair in the kitchen. His complexion was shallow, his shoulders heaved, and he sobbed
intermittently. As countless police officers crowded his house, examining and re-examining every
incient item, William remarked, "Julia would have gone mad if she had seen all this."
William accompanied officers as they inspected each room. In the kitchen, he pointed out the cash
box at top the cabinet, suggesting some money had been taken. When asked where he had found the box
that evening, William answered, "Where it is now?" The investigators found it odd that the
box remained neatly on the shelf with its lid closed. [music] Why would a violent intruder bother to
leave it so tidy? William merely shrugged, saying nothing. Upstairs in the main bedroom, William
collected a small ornamental jar from a mantel piece and pulled out several one-pound notes, stating they didn't
seem to have been touched by any intruders. [music] The officers immediately ordered him to
return the notes and jar back to their original position, cautioning him not to disturb anything else that might be
important for their investigation. This was despite the police's own carelessness while searching the Wallace
home, where key items were handled by multiple officers and then often returned to different locations or
positions. There appears to have been no one here, William observed of the main bedroom.
A bathroom appeared equally unremarkable, though it main bedroom were the only upstairs rooms with lights
on. The rest were in complete darkness. [music] With torches in hand, the officers
crossed the landing to a second room at the back, which William had converted into a hobby laboratory.
It had all started with a microscope he had purchased for £80, which he considered money well spent as it had
become his most prized possession. Williams fascination with chemistry, boty, and biology ran deep. [music]
He had first studied these subjects about 10 years earlier at technical college, later serving 5 years as a
part-time assistant lecturer in chemical studies. It was his dream to make some sort of
scientific discovery. His laboratory contained numerous tools that police noted could be used as
weapons. [music] As their torches swept over shelves stacked with bottles, chemicals, and
specimens, they asked William to check if anything was missing. "Everything's all right here," he confirmed. [music]
They moved on to a third room at the front used as a spare bedroom. The bed within was in disarray with
pillows on the floor and sheets and blankets pulled aside exposing the mattress.
On the bed lay two of Julia's handbags and three of her [music] hats, though a wardrobe and a drawers nearby were
closed. [music] When asked if the room had looked like this earlier, William replied, [music] "I cannot say,"
claiming he hadn't stepped foot in it for a fortnight. It was the only room in the house that
was significantly disturbed. Yet to police, the bedding appeared deliberately flung rather than rifled
through. Jewelry belonging to Julia was found in the drawers, further indicating that the
room hadn't been truly ransacked. Did you see anyone hanging around the house or [music] inside it when you
returned? The police asked William. Shaking his head, he replied, "No." Neighbors [music] John and Florence
Johnston hadn't seen anything suspicious either. There were no signs of forced entry on any doors or windows, but
William asserted that Julia wouldn't have let anyone inside unless she knew them personally.
Nevertheless, police searched lodging houses, all night cafes, railway station waiting rooms, and the homes of known
criminals for anyone with blood stains on their skin or clothing. [music] The intensive search for a suspect
continued through the night to no result. [music] >> [music] >> Back at Wolverton Street, a police
officer pointed out the rumpled Macintosh around Julia Wallace's body. William explained that it was an old one
of his before gesturing towards a hall stand where it usually hung. He had worn it that morning to shield
himself from the rain, but left it at home during his lunch break as the weather cleared by the afternoon.
Curiously, the Macintosh bore scorch marks near the right hem, which William insisted hadn't been present when he
last wore it. Three horizontal burn marks on the front of Julia's bloodstained skirt matched
those on the coat, leading police to speculate that both had come into contact with the hot glaze of [music]
the gas fire. This suggested that after being struck, Julia and the Macintosh had fallen
against the fire. Her killer then dragged her body by the neck of her jumper, tearing it in the process.
Given that her otherwise neat hairstyle was in disarray, she had also likely been dragged by her hair.
How the Macintosh ended up with Julia remained a mystery since she had no [music] plans to go out that evening.
Perhaps she had draped it over herself to ward off the chill when opening the door to her attacker.
This would explain why identical scorch marks were found on her skirt. But police began [music] to suspect the
Macintosh played a crucial role in the crime, reasoning that no one could have committed such a brutal, messy murder
without getting large amounts of blood on themselves. The killer must have worn the coat to
protect themselves from the spatter. Perhaps it was scorched because they attempted to destroy [music] it in the
fire, but quickly realized that the resulting smoke, odor, and flames might alert witnesses before they could
escape. So, they pulled it away. Although William had freely admitted to four different people that the coat was
his, he suddenly clamped up when [music] asked about it further. William was widely regarded as an
intelligent man. To the police, it appeared that he realized that the Macintosh was [music] a significant and
potentially incriminating piece of evidence and that speaking about [music] it could put him at risk.
Shortly before 1000 p.m., a medical examiner named Professor John McFall arrived at Wolverton Street to examine
Julia's body in situ. From the blood spatter, he concluded that Julia had likely been sitting on
the edge of a chair to the right of the fireplace, her head slightly forward and
turned a little to the left, [music] as if speaking to someone. The first and most severe blow caused
the deep laceration in front of her left ear. After collapsing, McFall believed she
had been struck three or four more times with terrific force, causing her scalp to burst open.
Apart from these head injuries and a small recent bruise on the inside of her upper left arm, no other marks of
violence were found on her body. Based on signs of rigor mortise in Julia's neck and the upper part of her
left arm, along with the consistency of the blood pulled around her head, Professor McFall estimated she was
killed at around 7:50 p.m. [music] Before Professor McFall's arrival, the police had briefly inspected the
upstairs bathroom and found nothing of interest. However, McFall spotted a small blood
stain on the rim of the white porcelain toilet bowl. He suggested it had been overlooked due to the room's light
casting a shadow over the bowl and because the police had only used handheld torches during their initial
check. The stain, no larger than a small pee, was divided into two parts, a central
circular clot and a faint streak extending towards the center of the bowl. Tests confirmed it was human blood and
not of menstrual origin. To McFall, the blood's presence indicated that after attacking Julia,
her killer had cleaned themselves in the bathroom, inadvertently splattering blood into the nearby toilet.
This was highly unusual. A random intruder would be expected to flee the crime scene immediately,
maximizing their chance of escape. Even if they intended to wash up, it would have made more sense to do so in
the ground floor kitchen where a quick exit out the back door was available rather than in the upstairs bathroom.
A cleaning brush in the bathroom was partially wet, but not bloody. Every other surface, including a white
towel draped over the bathtub, was completely clear. The toilet, [music] its waste pipes, the
bathroom basin, and the kitchen sink were removed and examined. Yet, not even microscopic traces of blood were found.
A thorough inspection of the Wallace house revealed no further evidence of blood beyond the parlor and bathroom.
As the initial examination of the crime scene was winding down, William Wallace agreed to attend the police station to
make a formal statement. By now, investigators were viewing William with suspicion.
In their view, he seemed too quiet and too collected for a husband who had just been confronted with his wife's shocking
murder. One detective remarked, "I didn't see any sign of emotion in him at all.
At one point, he smoked a cigarette in the parlor, casually leaning over the sideboard near Julia's body to flick ash
into a bowl, which police noted as abnormal behavior. At the station, he was asked again
whether he had noticed anyone moving about the house when he returned from Menloav Gardens.
This time, William said he thought someone might have been in the house because he couldn't open either the
front or back doors. The implication was that the killer was still present when William arrived at
the locked down house. As he moved back and forth trying to get in, the killer fled through the back,
leaving the door unlocked and allowing William to finally enter. As William was being questioned, Julia's
body was removed from the Wallace home along with several items considered significant, including her handbags, the
three coins found on the kitchen floor, and the ornamental jar from the main bedroom that contained the one notes.
A detective placed the folded notes in an envelope and took them to police headquarters where he counted them
before handing them to a station officer for safekeeping. During this process, he noticed that the
top note was smeared with blood along the left hand side. It appeared to have been caused by a bloodstained finger or
thumb being swiped across the surface. It seemed highly unlikely that after killing Julia, a random thief would have
handled the notes, yet ultimately left them in the jar, especially since money had been taken from the cash box in the
kitchen. Why would a thief steal some money but leave the rest behind? Investigators considered the simplest
explanation to be that William had transferred the blood onto the money while handling it in front of them,
implying that his hands bore blood from the murder. However, it was also possible that
William had picked it up from the bloodstained Macintosh he had touched before the police arrived.
Examination of his hands revealed no trace of blood, [music] nor any sign that they had been recently washed.
In fact, William's entire body and clothing bore no traces of blood, even when chemically tested.
This didn't mean William could be ruled out as a suspect. It simply added credence to the police's theory that the
killer used the Macintosh to protect themselves from the blood spatter. Yet crosscontamination during the police
search was also plausible. 7 hours had passed between the start of the investigation and the discovery of
the bloodstained note, during which countless officers had handled items repeatedly without documenting or
photographing them. In fact, the first photograph of Julia Wallace at the scene was taken only
after the Macintosh had been moved away from her body. It was then left bunched up by her side
with no effort made to restore it to its original position. [music] This made it hard to
definitively prove whether she had been wearing it or if her killer had left it behind.
The Wallace's [music] kitchen had only been photographed after almost all of the evidence was already
seized, [music] including the broken cabinet, coins, and cash box. Worse still, [music] a detective who
arrived at the scene intoxicated went upstairs and flushed the toilet where the stray blood stain had been found.
At the police station, William was asked, "Is there nothing more you'd like to tell us, Mr. Wallace?"
He shook his head. When asked if he was sure, he replied, "What about?" [music] After a lengthy silence, the interview
concluded and William was allowed to leave. He [music] wished to return home, saying
he didn't want to put anyone out by staying elsewhere that night. It was an absurd request as his home was still an
active crime scene. When the police refused, William grew irritated, but ultimately went to stay
with family. As news of Julia Wallace's murder spread, so did word that her husband was
the prime suspect. Yet nearly everyone interviewed by police described the couple as devoted
partners who never quarreled. Among the few rare negative opinions were a woman who disliked them both and
a family doctor who sensed some callousness in their relationship. The overwhelming majority attested that
the Wallace home was characterized by mutual trust and happiness. The only noteworthy events in the days
leading up to the murder were that the Wallacees had been unwell and that there had been reports of a burglary two doors
down. Otherwise, by all accounts, life was good. Visitors recalled the Wallace's joy in
making music together. Julia at the piano and William on the violin. Julia was a devoted wife who took great
pleasure in caring for her husband. Someone noted that Julia had concerns about William's makeshift laboratory,
but not in the way one would expect. Julia thought the room was too cold and damp, and she simply wanted her husband
to be [music] comfortable. John and Florence Johnston, who would have lived next door to the Wallacees
for 10 years, said they had never heard anything concerning coming from the household.
The walls were so thin that they could hear Julia playing the piano clearly enough to know her entire repertoire
almost by heart. They were confident that if the Wallacees had ever had even the
slightest argument, they would have heard it. The Johnston's also had a different
opinion of William's so-called quiet and unemotional behavior on the night of the
murder. They had sat with him throughout the ordeal and had seen him break down in
sobs, only to compose himself whenever the police approached so he could answer their questions as coherently as
possible. Others who knew William said he had acted appropriately in the aftermath of
Julia's death. A stoic introvert, he avoided displaying emotions publicly, which explained why
he appeared calm or even indifferent around the police. Yet, when among friends and family, William broke down
in tears and expressed his heartbreak. On the night he discovered Julia's body, he couldn't even bring himself to
undress for bed, tearfully saying, "I shall miss her terribly." Meanwhile, two police officers were
assigned to guard the Wallace home until the crime scene examination could resume
at daybreak. To pass the time, one officer browsed the kitchen shelves for a book.
Most were scientific works, though a few literary classics were mixed in. At the end of a shelf, stacked at top
one another, were four large diaries covering the years 1928 to 1931. Flipping through them, the officer
realized they were the personal diaries of William Wallace. William was a meticulous record keeper,
noting his height, weight, age, and even his hat, collar, and glove sizes in each
entry. The diaries depicted a relatively uneventful life interispersed with his personal reflections on a wide range of
subjects from philosophy to astronomy. Occasionally he recorded minor differences of opinion with Julia.
For example, her lack of enthusiasm for a radio play he had enjoyed or his own indifference to religion despite her
attending Christian services every Sunday. Yet the tone of these entries suggested
they weren't serious disagreements, merely observations he deemed worth deliberating.
On Saturday, January 7, 1928, 3 years before Julia's murder, William noted that he had fallen out with his wife.
The cause? She was buying too many newspapers. This was the only recorded instance of a
conflict between them. The rest of his entries depicted a content, if mundane, married life. He
expressed [music] a genuine concern for Julia on multiple occasions, such as when she arrived home late one evening
after being delayed by a train derailment. He [music] wrote, "It was a relief to
know she was safe and sound. Faria was getting apprehensive, fearing that she might have been run over by a motorcar
or something." In one of the final entries before Julia's death, William described
persuading her to take a night walk in a local [music] park. He wrote in detailed pros about the
wintry atmosphere, [music] including the heavy fog and the frostcovered trees, describing the scene as [music]
wonderfully beautiful. He noted that Julia was equally charmed. On Wednesday, January 21, 1931, the
morning after Julia Wallace's murder, William attended the police station again to answer further questions.
By this point, [music] investigators believed they had a promising lead. Overnight, they had received an
anonymous [music] but unsubstantiated call accusing William of infidelity with the
housemmaid. William denied the claim, stating he had never employed a full-time domestic
helper. For the past 9 months, however, [music] a cleaner had been coming to help Julia with household chores on
Wednesdays. The arrangement had been William's idea, as Julia's strength had been waning.
He claimed he didn't even know the cleaner's name, as she worked a half day while he was at work.
The police tracked the woman down. Her name was Sarah Drabar. Sarah denied any romantic relationship
with William and explained that she had not visited the Wallace home for 2 weeks
due to her husband's recent [music] death. During her previous visits, she said she
cleaned the house thoroughly with Julia assisting as best she could. Because Sarah knew the Wallace home
intimately, she was asked to inspect it [music] for anything missing. She identified two items. A metal poker
from the kitchen and a large piece of iron from the parlor where Julia had been killed.
The iron was roughly a foot long and as thick as a candle, typically [music] used to rake cigarette ends and spent
matches from beneath the gas [music] fire. Sarah recalled seeing it during her last
visit, having used it to retrieve a screw that had rolled under the fireplace. Following this discovery, William
Wallace was escorted back to his [music] home to conduct his own search. He made no mention of the missing poker
or iron piece. When asked directly, he suggested the poker might have been misplaced or
discarded during the police search and claimed to know nothing about the iron. Medical examiner, Professor John McFall,
who had [music] by then carried out Julia's autopsy, was asked whether the iron piece could have been the murder
weapon. [music] He had amended his previous findings, now stating that Julia had been struck
upwards of 12 times instead of four. After consideration, McFall concluded that given its size and shape, the piece
of iron could have been capable of delivering the blows that killed Julia Wallace.
However, Sarah Draper had described the object as heavily rusted. This raised doubts about whether it
could have withtood 12 intense [music] strikes to Julia's skull. Even if it had, no traces of rust were
found in her wounds. Nevertheless, finding the iron piece became a top priority for the police.
They reasoned that a random intruder would have no reason to remove or dispose of the weapon, [music] whereas
William Wallace might. The search focused on the areas William had traveled that night from Wolverton
Street to Men Love Gardens. A nearby park frequently visited by William was highlighted as the most
likely disposal site since it seemed unlikely he would have carried a large bloodstained [music] piece of iron any
farther, even if concealed beneath his coat or up his sleeve. For days, scores of policemen aided by
sanitation department workers combed these areas, including bins, drains, and sewers.
Neither the iron piece, the kitchen poker, nor any other object that could plausibly serve as the murder weapon was
found. [music] As the police worked to locate and interview everyone William Wallace had
come into contact with before the murder, one person remained elusive. RM Qualtra, [music] the one individual who
could make or break the case. Investigators were convinced of one thing. Whoever had placed the Qualra
call to Codle's City Cafe was responsible for Julia Wallace's murder. According to William, it was Julia who
had convinced him to [music] meet Qualra as he was initially unsure about it. Based on the little information Qualra
had provided, it appeared he wanted to arrange an endowment policy for his daughter as some sort of coming of age
gift. If so, successfully securing such a deal would have earned William a decent commission.
Assuming William was innocent, the qualore appeared designed to lure him from the house, leaving it vulnerable.
The Wallacees were financially comfortable but not wealthy. Julia was a modest woman who wore mostly handmade
clothes and many of the artworks displayed in her home were watercolors she herself had painted or needle work
she had crafted. Still, she was known to walk around with her handbag wide open. This
absent-minded habit might have caught the attention of an opportunistic thief who perceived the Wallace home as an
easy target. Perhaps the intruder hadn't expected Julia to be home that evening, or the
decision to kill her arose spontaneously, driven by panic or self-preservation rather [music] than
premeditation. If Julia had been the intended target and someone close to her harbored a
motive, the police were unable to uncover it. 14 families with the Qualra surname were
identified in the Liverpool area. Yet none had any knowledge of the call that triggered the events leading to Julia
Wallace's murder. The call assumed that Qualra knew William would attend the chess club on
Monday, January 19. This was a crucial detail since William didn't always [music] go to club meetings and had been
absent for about a month. On the night of the call, he had been booked for a tournament match that had
been arranged 2 months earlier. The schedule had been publicly displayed on a notice board at the cafe during
[music] that time. William was also recorded as playing on Mondays roughly every fortnight, [music]
which could have led someone to safely assume he would attend the Monday night before the murder.
Still, [music] William insisted that no one could have known for certain that he
would be there. He also said he almost didn't [music] go as he was still recovering from
influenza. Was it merely a coincidence that everything aligned perfectly for Qualra
that evening? Or had it all been masterfully orchestrated? After checking with the local telephone
exchange, [music] which in 1931 manually connected calls via switchboard operators, [music] the Qualtra call was
traced to a public telephone box in the Wallace's neighborhood of Anfield, roughly a 2-minute walk from their home.
The call had been made at 7:15 p.m., roughly 45 minutes before William appeared at the cafe, opening the
possibility that he could have placed it himself [music] and then hurried to appear unaware.
Curiously, two calls had been made. The first reached the switchboard operators,
but [music] due to an iniccernible error, failed to connect to Codle City Cafe. Qualra called back minutes later and
[music] this second call placed at around 7:20 successfully went through. [music]
William provided a detailed timeline of his movements that evening, stating he left home at 7:15 [music]
p.m. and walked to a tram that carried him to the cafe. This meant he was still at or just
leaving home when the first unsuccessful call from Qualtra was placed. The police made no effort to seek
independent [music] verification of this account. They did however interview those who had
direct contact with Qualtra, including cafe waitress Glattis Harley and Samuel Bey, captain [clears throat] of
Liverpool's Central Chess Club. Glattis described the man as sounding quite ordinary [music] and aside from seeming
elderly, had nothing further to add. He didn't sound nervous or agitated, [music]
and his voice bore no unusual accent or impediment, though he pronounced the word cafe in a slightly distinctive way.
Samuel characterized the voice as strong and graph, ready of utterance, [music] confident, definite in knowing what to
say, perempter. Having known William Wallace personally for 8 years, Samuel didn't believe it
was him on the line. The police considered that William could have disguised his voice when making the
call. When this possibility [music] was put to Samuel Bey, he responded, "It would take a great stretch of the
imagination." In an attempt [music] to unsettle William and provoke him into incriminating himself, police divulged
that the call from Qualra had been traced to a public telephone box in Anfield [music] and was placed around
700 p.m. William listened intently, but remained composed. He seemed oblivious to the
implications the police were drawing that he might have made the call himself. After this, William walked to a tram
stop where he unexpectedly encountered three members of Liverpool's Central Chess Club, including the club's
captain, [music] Samuel Bey. William appeared rattled, his lips quivered, and he barely responded to
their greetings. As a friend, [music] Samuel cautioned William not to discuss his troubles,
warning that anything he said might be misconstrued. William ignored the advice and asked if
Samuel could remember anything [music] about the call from Qualra, specifically the time it was placed.
Samuel guessed around 7 p.m. or shortly after. [music] William pressed for a more precise time,
but Samuel apologized. "I can't." "Well, it's important to me," William insisted, persisting for a concrete
time. Samuel remained unwilling to commit. After [music] an awkward silence, William remarked, "I've just left the
police. They've cleared me." The other men expressed their relief, and the conversation shifted to Julia's
funeral. "I don't want any fuss," William said of the [music] service. The men then boarded a tram together
before ultimately going their [music] separate ways. Unbeknownst to William, an undercover
police officer had followed him to the tram stop and overheard the entire conversation.
All of the men involved, including William, were interviewed and confirmed what had been said.
Notably, William offered a cryptic remark about why he pressed Samuel Bey for the time of the Qualra call. I have
an idea. We all have ideas. It was indiscreet of me. The tram stop conversation yielded what
the police interpreted as three damning [music] findings against William Wallace.
First, his insistence for a precise time of the qualry call appeared suspiciously
[music] defensive, as though he sensed danger. Second was his remark, "I've just left
the police. They've cleared me." The police had never suggested to William that he was a suspect, nor
implied he faced any charges. Yet, he was far from naive. Even without explicit warnings, he would have
realized the extent of the investigation and that his story was under scrutiny. After all, he had said to them, "I have
an idea. We all have ideas." implying that people were drawing conclusions about him.
William explained that his cleared me remark arose from his interpretation of the call's timing.
After being told it had been traced to around 7:00 p.m., he was led to believe the police knew he couldn't have made it
since he had left home at 7:15. [music] The third red flag was William's remark,
"It was indiscreet of me when referring to questioning Samuel about the call." William admitted that his line of
questioning could appear [music] suspicious and from that moment refrained from discussing the case in
casual conversation. If William had been the killer, the Qualra call offered a convenient alibi
by giving him a reason to leave home on the evening of January 20. It created a window in which the murder could
plausibly have been carried out while he was ostensibly away. [music] Despite the mounting suspicion against
William, the scientific evidence seemed to actually detract from the case against him. Julia's time of death, as
initially reported by medical examiner Professor John McFall in his first report, was 7:50 p.m. when William was
seen wandering around Men Love Gardens. From a medical standpoint, this ruled him out as the killer.
However, among the several alterations Professor McFall made to his initial report was a revision of Julia's
estimated time of death. He had since changed it from 7:50 [music] to 6:00 p.m. This was hugely damning for William
Wallace, suggesting that Julia had been murdered [music] before his trip to Men Love Gardens.
He insisted that Julia was alive when he left, stating they had eaten scon for dinner together beforehand.
The kitchen's dirty plates and cutlery supported his account. Yet, Professor McFall never examined Julia's stomach
contents during the autopsy. Had he done so, the presence of the scon would have confirmed or contradicted
William's story, providing the investigation with proof if he was lying or not. There were also gaps in Williams
movements before he reached the tram stop at the junction of Smithtown Road and Lodge Lane, where the first
witnesses saw him that evening. The stop was roughly 2 mi from the Wallace home, a 40-minute walk at a
moderate pace, leading police to suspect William disposed of the murder weapon along this stretch.
He denied walking altogether, stating that he had reached Smith down road by boarding a tram near his home.
Investigators were either unable or unwilling to find anyone who could corroborate this trip.
However, they did locate someone who confirmed that William often walked long distances to save money on tram fairs.
Police tracked down witnesses who had encountered William Wallace from Smith down road onwards, including tram
conductors, passers by, and even the police constable he spoke to in Menlo Gardens and the [music] manager of the
news agency he visited seeking directions. After reviewing their accounts, the police grew increasingly convinced that
William had deliberately made the journey to Menlo Gardens to establish an alibi. [music]
Their suspicion rested on three key observations. William repeatedly reminded the tram conductors of his
intention to go to Menlo Gardens East, almost as if imprinting the detail on their memory.
He approached multiple people, including a police officer, even after being told
the address didn't [music] exist, seemingly to secure as many witnesses as possible.
And when walking away from the officer, he deliberately mentioned the time as a quarter to wait and had the officer
confirm it as though trying to establish a precise record of his presence in the
area. William explained that he only inquired about the time because the officer had
given him directions to a post office [music] and he believed the business would be closed by 8:00 p.m.
William also claimed that he had mostly followed the same route home, but no witnesses, including tram conductors or
passengers, came forward to report having seen him. One woman claimed she had seen William
in the alley by the back entry of Wolverton Street talking to another figure in a dark overcoat and cap
[music] whom she described as being about 5'8 in tall and of stocky build. Maybe William didn't kill Julia, but had
conspired with someone [music] else to carry out the crime. William denied this encounter, asserting
that he hadn't spoken to a single person on his journey home, aside from the tram
conductors from whom he purchased tickets. If the stocky person did indeed exist,
they never came forward to rule themselves out of the investigation. To the police, it seemed logical that
William's neighbors, the Johnston's, [music] had been unwittingly incorporated into his plan. He likely
timed his return to coincide with their departure, ensuring he would encounter them and use their presence [music] to
stage the discovery of his wife's body. However, the Johnston's made it clear that their decision to go out that
evening was last minute. There was no way William could have known as they hadn't discussed their plans with him
beforehand. The notion that William had masterfully orchestrated the elaborate crime
appealed to the image of him as a cunning, strategic chess player, intuitive, calculating, and cautious.
This perception ignored a simple fact about William. [music] Despite being well educated and
studious, he was notoriously bad at chess. He lost far more often than he won, and his victory on the night of the
Qualra call was unexpected [music] and rare. Fellow club members described William as
a chess vandalist, an enthusiastic duffer, and insisted he ought to be hanged for being such a bad player.
The police went to exhaustive lengths to implicate William Wallace, including compiling a detailed dossier on his
life, repeatedly testing the timings of his Men Love Gardens journey for [music]
themselves and placing him under covert surveillance. Locals eager to pin down a motive
speculated wildly. Some focused on William's profession as an insurance provider, imagining he
might have killed Julia to claim a payout. Yet, Julia's [music] life was insured for only £20, just enough for
funeral expenses. Her personal savings amounted to a mega 90, while William had 152. [music]
Some entertained the idea that the murder might have been a mercy [music] killing, reasoning that Julia's recent
illness could have driven William to end her suffering. But if that had been the case, then
others questioned why it was carried out with such brutality. William maintained a laboratory stocked
with various chemicals and had extensive knowledge of poisons, providing far less
violent alternatives to sympathetically [music] end his wife's life. Others speculated darker possibilities.
Perhaps Julia's illness was the result of his experiments. Maybe William harbored a hidden cruelty,
[music] taking perverse satisfaction in making her suffer before ultimately ending her life.
But then why make the final act so violent that the police would inevitably get involved?
Some went even further, believing that William's fascination [music] with science might conceal an illicit opium
den or perhaps a secret interest in black magic. A rumor spread that William had plotted
with a lover to remove Julia so that they could finally be together. Another claimed that Julia was the one
having an affair and had met her lover that night, which might explain the disheveled bed in the spare room, only
for William to discover [music] it and lash out. One of the stranger theories suggested
that William had grown too happy with Julia [music] and killed her out of boredom with their
contented life. As time wore on, the prospect of solving Julia Wallace's murder seemed
increasingly remote. The case against William Wallace was built on speculation and conjecture, and
his story held firm, corroborated by the accounts of multiple witnesses. In the words of one investigator, the
Wallace case was challenging, and it only became more convoluted as news of the murder spread. [music]
When 14-year-old Alan Close learned of the crime, he quickly realized he might be the missing link in determining
William's guilt. Alan had been delivering milk along Wolverton Street for nearly 3 years,
including on the night of Tuesday, January 20. Alan remembered arriving at the Wallace home at around 6:45 p.m.,
which was corroborated by the timing of the other deliveries he made that evening.
Julia answered the door looking unwell. She mentioned having a cough before urging Alan to hurry along.
A jug of fresh milk in the Wallace kitchen confirmed that Alan Close had made a delivery that evening.
When asked, William Wallace said he couldn't recall the delivery occurring before he left for Men Love Gardens, but
acknowledged it might have happened while he was upstairs preparing to go out. Sightings of William on the trams to Men
Love Gardens established that he could not have left the house any later than 6:49 p.m.
While this meant it was theoretically possible that William was home when Alen Close delivered the milk at 6:45. It
left him with fewer than 5 minutes to carry out the brutal murder, clean himself, stage a burglary, dispose of
the weapon, and reach the Smith downro tram stop 2 mi away. Given William's distinctive appearance
with [music] his lean, tall frame, sprinting through Anfield to catch the tram would have been almost impossible
for witnesses to overlook. This scenario was made even more questionable given that William was an
ailing, slowmoving 52-year-old man recovering from the flu. Alan Close's account was relayed to
medical examiner Professor John McFall, who was immediately dismissive and firmly maintained his latest conclusion
that Julia had been killed around 6:00 p.m. As detectives pondered this dilemma, a
younger officer suggested expanding the investigation to other potential suspects.
After a brief pause, a senior detective remarked, "No, the milk boy must be mistaken."
[music] Alan Close was brought in for another police interview. Who conducted it, [music] what was said,
and for how long remains unclear. Whatever happened, Alan emerged with a different story.
He now claimed that he didn't see or speak to Julia Wallace on January 20, [music] but only saw her arm collect the
milk jugs he left on her doorstep. As expected, this dramatic revelation led to more wild speculation.
Most of it centered on the possibility that the person Alan witnessed wasn't Julia at all. Maybe it was William in
disguise wearing his wife's clothes. But that wasn't all. Alan Close also admitted that his original time of 6:45
p.m. was mistaken. He asserted that he had actually delivered the milk to the Wallace home
at 6:31 p.m. While this would have required him to move astonishingly fast while carrying a
heavy crate of milk cans and bottles, it significantly strengthened the case against William Wallace.
This adjustment expanded the available window for William to commit the murder, clean [music] up, stage the scene, and
depart for Menlo Gardens from 4 to roughly 18 minutes. In the eyes of the police, that was more
than sufficient, and a warrant was promptly issued for his arrest. [music] William Wallace sat in silence as the
police informed him he was under arrest for the willful murder of his wife. After a moment, he responded,
"What can I say in answer to a charge of which I am absolutely innocent?" No reply was given.
He repeated a similar statement when he first appeared in court, [music] telling
the judge he had nothing to say except that he was absolutely innocent. Lawyer Hector Monroe, a fellow member of
Liverpool's Central Chess Club, agreed [music] to represent William in court. The prosecution's case relied on the
abundance of circumstantial evidence. The crux of their case was the timing of the murder, specifically when Julia
Wallace was last seen alive. [music] It was therefore crucial for Hector to reaffirm Alan Closer's original sighting
at 6:45 p.m. Alan had originally been encouraged to go to the police after admitting to
several friends that he had seen Julia on the night of her murder. Hector spoke [music] with those friends,
four of whom independently confirmed that Alan had told them he saw Julia [music] at 6:45.
Another boy who had also been delivering milk that evening recalled having crossed paths [music] with Alan at 6:40
p.m. at which point he said he was heading to the Wallace home on Wolverton Street.
Hector also located another two witnesses whose recollections supported Allen's original statement.
Taken together, these accounts strongly suggested that Allan hadn't arrived at the Wallace house as early as 6:31 p.m.
as his amended statement claimed. These witnesses provided statements to the police. But when Hector Monroe
checked the 35 witnesses to be called by the prosecution for William Wallace's committal hearing, they were
conspicuously absent. The second major pillar of the prosecution's case was the blood stain
found in the Wallace's toilet bowl, which they argued supported the theory that William had washed himself
immediately after killing Julia. In response, [music] Hector Monroe arranged a series of
experiments, 118 in total, using drops of blood at varying stages of freshness. These were released onto porcelain from
different heights to examine how fresh blood behaved in terms of shape, consistency, and moisture.
To strengthen the credibility of the findings, a professor of pathology independently replicated the tests.
The results were clear. The blood stain in the Wallace's toilet bowl was not fresh blood.
The blood stain had originally been discovered by medical examiner Professor John McFall during his insitu
examination of Julia's body. In some expert opinions, this was far from the only questionable aspect of his
findings. They challenged the various times of a death he supposedly drew from the
presence of rigor mortise and the blood staining on the rug. Specifically, his most recent claim was that she had been
killed at least 3 hours before her body was found. Neither could support his assertions
with any real certainty given the many variables involved. Most notably, environmental factors such
as room temperature can significantly accelerate or delay post-mortem changes. Florence Johnston, the Wallace's
neighbor, recalled touching Julia's hand as her body lay in the parlor. It felt warm and had only slightly
cooled [music] when she touched it again minutes later, suggesting that Julia had
died recently. Crucially, [music] Professor McFall had failed to record Julia's body temperature using a rectal
thermometer, widely regarded by medicalico legal experts as [music] the most reliable indicator of the time
elapsed since death. Without this [music] key measurement, any estimation of her time of death
couldn't be considered precise. [music] McFall himself didn't seem very confident in his own findings, given he
had altered the estimated time of death without justification, but in a way that
implicated William. Hector Monroe questioned whether the issues he was uncovering in the case
were merely a series of coincidental oversightes. He found it far more likely that the
police were bending the rules by disregarding established [music] facts in their determination to secure a
conviction. This was made especially clear to Hector during the committal hearing where he
noticed police witnesses were emitting key details that were favorable to William, [music] most notably his
meticulously kept personal diaries which portrayed his marriage to Julia in a positive light.
When the defense read passages from the diary aloud in court, Williams usually unshakable composure gave way. He
covered his eyes with his hands and began [music] to tremble. Before the judge delivered his decision
on whether William would stand trial for Julia's murder, he was asked if there was anything he wished to say.
William stood and said quietly but firmly, "I would like to say that my wife and I
lived together on the very happiest terms during the period of some 18 years of our married life. Our [music]
relations were of complete confidence in and affection for each other. The suggestion that I murdered my wife
is monstrous, that I should attack and kill her, is to all who know me unthinkable, [music]
and the more so, when it must be realized that I could not possibly obtain one advantage by committing such
a deed, nor so the police suggest that I gained any advantage. On the contrary, in actual fact, I have
lost a devoted and loving comrade. My home life is completely [music] broken up, and everything that I hold
dear has been ruthlessly parted and torn from [music] me. I am now to face the torture of this
nerve-wracking ordeal. I protest once more that I am entirely innocent of this terrible crime."
In his response, [music] the judge insisted that he had followed the evidence very clearly before
committing William Wallace to stand trial for murder. Hector Monroe was prepared to defend
William with the team convinced of his innocence. But a more immediate problem loomed. William couldn't afford the
cost. [music] Relief came from an unexpected source. The union of his employer of 16 years.
the [music] Credential Assurance Company. In an unprecedented move, they agreed to
fully fund Williams defense on one condition, that a secret mock trial be held. [music]
Under this arrangement, Hector would present the case as he intended to at trial, after which union officials would
cast anonymous votes. If an overwhelming majority supported the defense, the union would cover their cost.
The votes were sorted into two piles, guilty and not guilty. In the end, only one pile existed.
Every single vote declared William not guilty. William's actual trial commenced [music]
in April 1931, 2 months after Julia's murder. The real jury deliberated for an hour
before returning [music] with their verdict. guilty. The silence in the court following the
verdict was eventually broken by someone at the back whistling in surprise. Several gasps arose from elsewhere in
the crowd, and soon the entire courtroom erupted into a mix of cheers and shocked
exclamations. The only two women on the jury began to cry. William Wallace was asked if he had
anything to say. He paused for a moment before replying, "I am not guilty. I cannot say anything
else." The judge immediately pronounced for the crime of murder by the law of this country. There is only one
sentence. That sentence I now pass upon you. It is that you be taken from hence to a place of lawful execution, and you
be there hanged by the neck until you be dead. and that your body be afterwards buried within the precincts of the
prison in which you shall last have been confined. May the Lord have mercy on your soul."
William was led from the court, still projecting his calm and collected demeanor.
To those who believed in his innocence, it was this extraordinary composure that
seemingly worked against him. His stoicism was interpreted in numerous negative ways, from overconfidence to
callousness. It wasn't until he was taken into prison and made to strip naked to receive his
gray uniform that he finally began to cry. He was led to the cell where he would
remain until his untimely death scheduled just 2 weeks later. William spent his final isolated days
mostly confined to his small cell. He was allowed minor comforts, including a few cigarettes, a violin he couldn't
bring himself to play, and a chessboard. For the first time, he found himself winning games consistently.
He believed this was only because the guards, who agreed to be his opponents, took pity on him.
For an hour each day, he was permitted to stand alone in a small enclosed garden filled with irises and loopins.
William wrote about the flowers during his imprisonment. They became an obsession with me, he
noted. In fact, my sole remaining interest in life. The plants were in bud. Almost
unceasingly, I propounded to myself the question, would they be in flower before
I died? It wasn't until the guilty verdict was handed down that public perception of
William Wallace began to shift. As details of the trial spread, people started to realize just how much of the
prosecution's case was circumstantial. Even those who remained convinced of Williams guilt began to question how he
could have been found guilty. In a letter to a Liverpool newspaper, a local stated, "In my reading of the
Wallace trial, I could not for the life of me discern in the evidence any what I
might term major points against the accused [music] man. I feel that in such a serious matter, especially when there
is no apparent motive, circumstantial evidence should be much more convincing." It was this belief that the verdict was
unreasonable and unsupported by the evidence that formed the basis of William Wallace's appeal.
Yet his attorney, Hector Monroe, remained quietly pessimistic. For the appeal to succeed, the judges
would have to overturn the jury's decision, a feat that had never occurred since the Court of Criminal Appeal was
established in 1907. There was no possibility of a reduced sentence, such as a conviction for
manslaughter or a substitution to life imprisonment. Julia Wallace's murder had been far too
cold-blooded and brutal. The outcome was stark. Either William would be released
as a free man or he would be condemned to die. The decision was left to three judges.
Unlike the trial, which had descended into something of a mockery with the jurors falling asleep, people shouting
exploitives, laughter at the word menstrual, a judge who did nothing to curb the misbehavior, and allegations
that jury members threatened others to vote guilty. The appeal judges approached their roles with the utmost
seriousness and sincerity. They had thoroughly prepared and were well-versed in the facts of the case.
The hearing took place over 2 days after which the judges retired to deliberate.
When they returned, William appeared tired, sullen, and swayed slightly as he listened.
He endured a 14-minute judgment speech delivered slowly with deliberate dramatic [music] pauses that seemed
designed to prolong it. Witnesses later described it as completely sadistic. We are not concerned here with
suspicion, however grave, or with theories, however ingenious, the judge finally announced.
The conclusion to which we have arrived, is that the case against the appellant,
which we have carefully and anxiously considered and discussed, was not proved with that certainty which is necessary
in order to justify a verdict of guilty. The result is that disapp,000 [music] in today's money.
He wouldn't receive any form of monetary compensation as the home secretary ruled
that his case did not fall under the category of a miscarriage of justice despite it being studied in law schools
as a classic example to this day. While William was ultimately relieved by the outcome, [music] the ordeal had
taken a severe toll on his body and health. He recalled the days leading up to his
appeal as both the longest and shortest of his life, saying, "I have no wish to remember them, [music] but the agony of
those days is impossible to forget. They were a nightmare." Reflecting on the moment he awaited
[music] the appeal judge's verdict, he added, "Nothing that ever happened to me in the hours of my blackest humiliation
[music] was ever half as hateful and horrible as the 14 minutes when I waited to hear the
judge's decision." The result was not without controversy. Those convinced of William's guilt
argued that the appeal didn't prove he wasn't a murderer. It only showed that the evidence was insufficient to sustain
the conviction. To them, the outcome reinforced the notion that William was cunning [music]
and diabolical. Some felt that if he had gotten away with murder once, what was to stop him
from doing it again? Rumors [music] continued to follow him, painting him as an adulterer, a sadist,
even a mad scientist. Yet even after being advised against it, William chose to continue living in
Liverpool postrelease, unwilling to let the opinions of others dictate his life.
He even remained at his Wolverton Street home and returned to his old job. But by
then, the town's folk had decided to shun him. People retreated into their homes, clutched their children tightly
or lowered their heads as he walked past. His chess club abandoned him. [music] Neighbors avoided him, and he received
scathing letters. Children played cruel pranks on his home, and adults were equally
mean-spirited, calling him Killy Willie and visiting the Wallace house in the middle of the night to taunt him with
menacing chants. Julia. Julia. What's happened to Julia? [music] She's all chopped up. Chop.
Chop. Chop. Morbid. Onlookers pressed their [music] faces to the parlor windows, attempted
to break in through the kitchen door to test their own theories, and even damaged the property to take pieces as
Macab souvenirs. William lasted a little over a month before moving away permanently.
Seeking some measure of justice from his ordeal, he settled out of court with several printers [music] and publishers
who he claimed had exposed him to public scandal, hatred, and contempt through their greatly prejudiced [music]
reporting. All parties agreed to a settlement of £200. [music] William's life thereafter was, in his
own words, one marked by apprehension, nervousness, depression, [music] loneliness, grief, and anguish.
He continued to keep a [music] personal diary at one point writing, "Julia, Julia, my dear, why were you
taken [music] from me? Why, why should this have been so? It is a [music] question to which I can
get no answer. The same question plagued investigators when the inquiry into Julia Wallace's
murder was reopened, but the case went nowhere, ultimately being described as infinitely unbeatable
and the perfect murder. While many still believed that William got away with it, others, especially
those who knew him best, maintained that he was completely innocent, whatever side of the argument one takes,
the central question endured. If not William, then who? In the second statement William gave to
police following his wife's murder, he was asked to list the names of men whom his wife would allow into their house
without question. >> [music] >> The first name he provided was Richard Perry, better known as Gordon, and the
second was Joseph Marsden. William described both young men as friends of himself and Julia.
Both had previously worked for the Credential Assurance Company where William had acted as their supervisor.
He had allegedly caught each of them quote cooking the books which was basically stealing but there was no
record of him reporting the issue. The men were nevertheless fired or left of their own accord.
Perry and Marsden knew each other well. While working under William, they had entered the Wallace home and William had
shown them the location of the cash box where he stored the insurance [music] payments. the very same spot it occupied
on the night Julia was murdered. They were aware that Prudentials [music] pay-in day was Wednesday, meaning
William's cash box typically contained the most money on a Tuesday night. It is important to note that the cash
box would have held substantially more on the night of Tuesday, January 20, 1931, [music] had William not skipped
collections that week due to illness. Gordon Perry himself admitted to police that he knew William was a regular at
Codle City Cafe, which Perry also attended every Thursday evening for a drama club.
During their investigation into various Qualras living in Liverpool, the police encountered an RJ Qualtra who had been a
client of Joseph Marsden's. Marsden's alibi for the night of the murder was that he was home in bed with
the flu. Gordon Perry claimed he spent the night with others who could only loosely place
him at their home between [music] 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. that night. He also took his car to a
garage for cleaning where a witness reportedly saw a blood stained glove inside the vehicle.
Regarding the night of the Qualra phone call, Perry asserted that he had spent the day and evening with his girlfriend
Lily. However, both Lily and her mother stated that he didn't arrive at her house until
7:35 [music] p.m. partway through a piano lesson Lily was giving. He then left on his [music]
own before returning much later. The evidence against Gordon Perry and Joseph Maren was largely suppressed by
the police during the original investigation. The spotlight on both men emerged decades after the crime as armchair
[music] sleuths and authors took interest in the puzzling case. One witness came forward claiming to have
confronted Gordon Perry on his doorstep [music] in 1966, 35 years after Julia's murder.
Harry allegedly displayed an astonishingly detailed knowledge of the crime [music] and was aware of the
deaths of several obscure witnesses connected to it. He also boasted that he would never
speak about it, even if offered a large sum of money. Both Perry and Marsden died without ever
admitting any involvement in the [music] crime. The Wallace case, though seemingly
straightforward, is often compared to a real life Agatha Christie novel, a who done it murder mystery featuring
intricate puzzles, a closed circle of suspects, and detectives who solve crime using psychology rather than forensics.
The police's theory of how the crime occurred, portraying a suited gentleman turned sadistic killer wielding a blunt
instrument and wearing a waterproof coat to avoid getting soaked in blood, evokes
imagery reminiscent of Patrick Baitman, [music] the protagonist of Brad Easton Ellis's
controversial 1991 cult [music] classic horror novel American Psycho, which some
believe might have been inspired [music] by the Wallace murder. To this day, the case is still
scrutinized in search of answers [music] with numerous new theories put forward,
such as Julia harboring a secret double life or the possibility that the Qualtra
call was a red herring. Perhaps it was simply a prank call and William did [music] in fact murder
Julia. William then leveraged the existence of the call to his advantage, complicating
what might otherwise have been a relatively straightforward case of domestic homicide.
On Saturday, February 25, 1933, just over 2 years after Julia Wallace was murdered, William Wallace died from
the kidney [music] disease that had troubled him for most of his life. His last words spoken to his nephew
before slipping into the coma from which he never awoke were, "Do good with your life."
William was buried in the same plot as Julia with their shared headstone describing her as his beloved wife.
It is said that [music] in Anfield Cemetery, Qualra's two victims share a common grave.
In the words of English crime novelist and playwright Dorothy Saiers, the Wallace murder had no key move
[music] and ended in fact in stalemate. [music] >> [music]

When 52-year-old Julia Wallace was found brutally murdered in her Liverpool home in 1931, no one could have anticipated the complex and challenging investigation that would follow, centring on her husband, William, and a mysterious figure known only as R. M. Qualtrough.

CREDITS Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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Brief Summary

The episode covers the murder of Julia Wallace, the investigation into her husband William, and the unresolved questions surrounding the case.

Key points

The Mysterious Caller. An urgent call for William Wallace raises questions about his whereabouts.
A Disturbing Discovery. William Wallace finds his wife Julia dead in their home, leading to panic.
A Gruesome Discovery. William returns to find Julia's body, leading to a chilling investigation.
Suspicion Arises. As the investigation unfolds, William's behavior raises eyebrows among the police.
William's Concern for Julia. William expressed genuine concern for Julia's safety after she was delayed by a train derailment.
The Qualra Call Mystery. The police traced a mysterious call to a public phone box, raising suspicions about William's involvement.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I want to see him particularly.

A mysterious caller's urgency about meeting William Wallace.

3:47WatchJun 13, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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