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Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please
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contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers, for confidential support, and for a more
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detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website.
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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
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Street in the English port city of Liverpool. Waitress Glattis Harley picked up. On
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the line was an unfamiliar, elderly sounding man with a deep voice who asked quickly, "Is that [music] the Central
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Chess Club?" Liverpool's Central Chess Club was meeting at the cafe that evening, as it
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did every Monday and Thursday throughout autumn, winter, and early spring. The club consisted of a small group of
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mostly amateur players whose informal and friendly matches were often played among the tables on the bustling main
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restaurant floor. The man on the telephone asked, "Is William Wallace there?" Glattis recognized many of the chess
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club's members by sight, but she didn't know most of their names. Unsure whether William was among the
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crowd that evening, she approached the club's captain, Samuel Bey, and asked, "Is William Wallace here?"
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Samuel had known William through the club for 8 years. The 52-year-old initially came across as shy and
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reserved, but over time developed a reputation as a pleasant, likable gentleman.
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He wasn't a regular attendee at the club, appearing as little as once a fortnight, telling others it was because
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he disliked leaving his wife alone at night. In [music] fact, William hadn't been
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seen at the club since before Christmas, but he was expected to appear that evening for a scheduled match in the
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second class championship. The highly anticipated tournament had been planned 2 months in advance with a
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first prize of 10 shillings and a second prize of five. But when Samuel Bey glanced around the
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cafe, he didn't see William there. This wasn't unusual as most club members didn't arrive until between 7:30 and 8.
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Samuel went to the telephone and took the call on William's behalf. He [music] didn't recognize the caller's
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strong, slightly gruff voice. When Samuel informed him that William hadn't arrived, the man [music] asked,
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"Can you give me his address?" "I'm afraid I can't," Samuel replied. [music] The man then asked, "But will he
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be there?" [music] "I can't say," Samuel answered. "He may or may not. If he is coming, he will be
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here shortly. I suggest you ring up later. The caller said he was too [music] busy
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to ring back and stressed the matter's importance, explaining that it was his daughter's 21st birthday and that
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[music] he wished to arrange something for her that fell within Williams nature of [music] business.
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I want to see him particularly, the man insisted before asking Samuel to pass on
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a message. With pen in [music] hand, Samuel noted that the man wanted to meet William at
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7:30 the following evening at his residence, 25 Men Love Gardens East, [music] in the southeast suburb of
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Mosley Hill. Samuel repeated the details [music] which the caller confirmed. He also gave his name
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RM Qualra. [music] >> [music] >> Not long after the call, Samuel Bey noticed a tall, thin, [music] bespected
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man with a gray mustache seated near the cafe entrance, absorbed in a chess match.
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It was William Wallace. He had arrived discreetly moments earlier, removed his hat and coat, and
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quietly settled in to play his tournament game. Samuel relayed the message from RM
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Qualtra to William, who responded, [music] "Qualtra, Qualra? Who is Qualra?" He asked whether the man was a member of
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the chess club, [music] which Samuel denied. "I don't know," the chap, William said,
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adding that he'd never heard of Menlo Gardens East either. When he suggested that the address might
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have been Menlo Avenue, also in Mosley Hill, Samuel assured him it was not. William nevertheless recorded Qualra's
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name and the Menlo Love Gardens address in his pocket diary, scrolling east in big block letters.
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He then turned his attention back to his chess game, which concluded at 10 p.m. in Williams Victory.
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Elated, he animatedly recounted the match as he left the cafe with several other club members.
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Yet the peculiar request from RM Qualra lingered on his mind. He brought up the unfamiliar Men Love Gardens address to a
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fellow Chess Club member during the evening and to the others as they journeyed home.
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No one else had heard of it either, but they also suspected it might be somewhere off the more well-known Menlo
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Love Avenue and offered suggestions on how William could get there. William jokingly remarked that he
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belonged [music] to Liverpool and was therefore confident he could find his way once he reached the general area.
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[music] After all, he knew Menlo Avenue quite well. [music] The road ran alongside a park he
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sometimes visited with his wife to see the roses. As for Qualra, William had little to say
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beyond the fact it was a peculiar name. The following morning of Tuesday, January 20, 1931, William Wallace set
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off for work as an insurance agent for the Credential Assurance Company. His job required him to trudge through the
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drizzly weather, making house calls to clients and collecting payments. As William walked to one of his many
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appointments that day, he passed the police constable who had known him for around 2 years.
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According to the constable, William kept his head down and appeared to dab his eyes with the sleeve of his coat as if
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he'd been crying. He also seemed uncharacteristically haggarded and withdrawn, like he was
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distressed about something. The clients who William visited throughout the day described his mood
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differently. They recalled him being his usual gentlemanly self, polite, jovial, and
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smiling. He gratefully accepted a cup of tea from one client and cheerfully remarked to
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another, "Let's hope it's going to stay this way." when blue skies suddenly appeared.
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He admired the beautiful flowers in another's window and told a fourth that he looked forward to seeing her again in
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3 weeks time for their next appointment. One person remarked that they had never
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met a nicer man than William Wallace. All of William's clients agreed that he was perfectly normal and quite his usual
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self that day. None of them got the impression that he had been crying or distressed.
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They attributed his tired appearance and habit of dabbing at his eyes to the cold
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weather and poor health. William was a sickly man. He had lost one of his kidneys to disease and
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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
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seemed to get rid of his cold and was often seen using a handkerchief to wipe his watery eyes and blow his nose.
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[music] The only thing Williams clients noted was that he would repeatedly ask for the
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time and check his watch during meetings, but this was considered a normal habit of his. He was highly
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timeconscious as he relied on public transport. He also had upwards of 560 house calls
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to make after falling behind after recently taking time off sick. For the past week, William had been
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largely housebound as he recovered from a severe bout of influenza, something he'd mentioned to chess club members the
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night before. He said he wouldn't have attended if not for the long awaited tournament match,
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preferring to rest at home. Some noticed a slight huskiness in his voice, suggesting he was still on the
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men. William's wife, 52-year-old Julia Wallace, had also been unwell lately. She remained mostly at home, telling
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visitors [music] that she had a touch of bronchitis. In truth, Julia had suffered a series of
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worsening illnesses and had recently begun [music] coughing up blood. Concerned, William had called a doctor
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who advised him not to be alarmed and offered guidance on easing her symptoms. In the words of a friend, [music] the
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winter months tried Mr. and Mrs. Wallace. Even when unwell, Julia Wallace remained
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her gentle, caring self, offering to make tea for a family member who dropped by to check in on her. When they offered
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her theater tickets for later in the week, she doubted [music] she would be well enough to attend.
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William, by contrast, was fairing much better. Not only had he managed to return to work, Julia mentioned that he
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had attended his chess [music] club the night before. She also said that he had plans again that evening, having
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received a telephone call from someone who wished to meet him in person about insurance business.
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The conversation then shifted to a recent spate of burglaries in the area. Just before 6:00 p.m., William finished
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with his last client of the day and headed straight home. He set out again a short while later to keep his 7:30
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appointment with RM Qualtra. By 7:06, he was spotted waiting for a tram car at the junction of Smith down
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Road and Lodge Lane, just over 2 mi from his home. When the tram arrived, William asked if
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it went to Menlo Gardens, stressing east. The conductor said no, but told him to
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stay on, explaining the tram would reach a nearby terminus where he could transfer to another that went to the
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[music] area. During the journey, William remarked that he was a stranger in Mosley Hill
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and something to the effect that he had important business [music] there. He mentioned Men Love Gardens East
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upwards of four times [music] and urged the conductor not to forget that that was where he was heading.
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At the terminus, William hurriedly boarded a second tram car that he had been told [music] went to Mosley Hill.
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He spoke to its conductor requesting to be led off at Menlo Gardens East. The conductor agreed but said the
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closest stop to William's destination was Men Love Gardens West. Upon arriving in Mosley Hill, the
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conductor beckoned William and explained that Men Love Gardens was triangular, [music]
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consisting of three roads. He pointed out two roads running off on the right and suggested that Menlo
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Gardens East was [music] probably one of them. William thanked the conductor, adding,
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[music] "I am a complete stranger around here before disembarking the tram." William then stopped a passer by to ask
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for directions. She said she didn't know where Men Love Gardens East was, but suggested it might
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be further along Men Love Gardens West. William continued only to find the road ended at a junction with a thoroughare
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called Dudlow Lane. He retraced his [music] steps and approached another passerby.
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In a strange turn of events, William was told that while Men Love Gardens North,
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South, and West existed, there was no Men Love Gardens East. William suggested that there must have
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been a mistake in the message he was given and headed to 25 Men Love Gardens West [music] instead.
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An elderly lady answered the door. When William asked if anyone named Qualra lived at the premises, the lady
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responded, [music] "No." William had no hope of finding his destination on Menlo Garden South or
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North as those streets only contained even numbered residences. He eventually came across a local police
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constable performing his rounds and [music] asked him about Menlo Gardens East. The officer replied, "There's no such
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place." William explained that he was an insurance agent and had received a call
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from a man named Qualra requesting his presence [music] at 25 Men Love Gardens East. He spelled out the name for the
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constable, who didn't know anyone by that name in the district. The constable suggested that William
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inquire at 25 Men Love Avenue, a street William was already familiar with and had long suspected might be the place he
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was meant to visit. William thanked him and as he started to walk away, asked if there was somewhere
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he could consult a directory, a printed book listing the contact details and addresses of local businesses and
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residents. The constable pointed him toward a nearby post office and [music] police
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station. William then asked, "It's not 8:00 yet, is it?" Before the officer could answer, William
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checked his watch and [music] stated that it was a quart to 8. The constable confirmed the time and William bid him
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good night before heading off in the direction of the post office. The post office [music] was closed, so
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William checked with the news agency across the road. He spent several minutes searching through their
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directory before asking the shop manager about the address he was trying to find.
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Like the others, she told him that it simply didn't exist. After spending about 45 minutes trying
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to figure out where he was supposed to go, William finally gave up and returned home.
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Shortly before 8:45 that night, married couple John and Florence Johnston were getting ready to go out when they heard
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knocking on the door of a nearby home from their living room. The sound was familiar, [music]
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distinct, and delivered in the same pattern their neighbor, William Wallace, always used.
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William lived next door to the Johnston's in one of the many near identical two-story Victorian brick
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terrace houses that stood wall to-wall along Wolverton Street in Liverpool's Anfield District.
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Over the next few minutes, the Johnston's heard William Wallace's distinctive knock at least three times.
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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
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hurry, looking worried. He was striding toward the rear of his house, [music] his manner brisk and
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purposeful. As the Johnston's greeted William in passing, he surprised them by asking
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anxiously if they had heard anything unusual that evening. John and Florence hadn't, and they asked
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if something had happened. I've been out since4 to 7, William explained. On my return, I find the front door
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bolted against me. John asked if he had tried the back door. "Yes," William replied. "I
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couldn't open it." He was concerned as his wife Julia was supposed to be home and he was certain
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she wouldn't have gone out because she was sick. John suggested he tried the back door
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again and if it still wouldn't budge, they could help fetch a spare key. The Johnston's watched as William
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approached the door and twisted its handle. It swung open easily at his touch. It opens now, he shouted to the
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Johnson's. I will see if everything is all right, he remarked as he stepped into the unlit kitchen.
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John said they would wait until everything was confirmed to be in order, and William didn't discourage them.
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Except for a dim light from the second floor, the house was in complete darkness.
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The Johnston saw lights flicker in other rooms as William moved from space to space, lighting matches to illuminate
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the gas lamps within. Heavy blinds and curtains blocked the view from outside, but they heard
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William call out twice, presumably to Julia, though they couldn't make out what he was saying.
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About 5 minutes later, William emerged from the house looking distraught. In a hurried raised voice, he told the
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Johnston's, "Oh, come in and see. She has been killed." The Johnston's followed William into the
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house, fearing that Julia might have had a fatal accident, perhaps a fall down the stairs.
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After [music] passing through the kitchen into the hallway, the trio entered the parlor or sitting room
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towards the front of their house. A gas lamp cast light on the compact, well-kept, and richly decorated space.
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The Wallace home, where the childless couple had lived for 16 years, was a picture of dignified domesticity.
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Potted plants, framed photographs, floral patent cushions, and paintings of landscapes, and pastoral scenes adorned
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the parlor. In front of a large window draped with deep burgundy velvet curtains stood a
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small cluster of well-worn furniture, including a low armchair and a Sha's lounge.
00:20:16
They were arranged around the room's focal point, a dark, ornately carved wooden fireplace, [music]
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which featured a small grate for a gas fire. Sprawled out on a black rug in front of
00:20:29
the fireplace [music] was Julia Wallace. She was face down with her head turned [music] toward the piano she loved to
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play. It's lit open with a book of music on the stand. A pool of blood had formed around her
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head and was spattered on the striped beige toned wallpaper on the nearby walls.
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Bone and brain matter was visible from a 3-in wound above and in front of Julia's
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left ear. There were further depressions to the back of her skull, [music] but her
00:21:02
matted hair obscured the full extent of the damage. Nothing else in the room appeared to
00:21:08
have been disturbed. Florence Johnston gently touched Julia's extended hand and said softly, "You poor
00:21:17
darling." She was still warm, though barely. William Wallace's initial distress and
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agitation gave way to what appeared to be a profound shock. His face was pale as [music] he stooped beside his wife's
00:21:34
lifeless body and felt her hand. "Dave finished her," he repeated, his voice trembling.
00:21:43
He noticed her rings were missing, though he wasn't certain if she had been wearing them that day.
00:21:50
I wonder what they have used," he murmured, [music] seemingly pondering the murder weapon.
00:21:56
He ran his hand along the edge of the rug, [music] patting it as if checking for anything
00:22:01
hidden underneath. John told him not to disturb anything [music] and said he was going to fetch
00:22:08
the police. William urged him to hurry, saying, "And a [music] doctor, too, but I don't think
00:22:16
it will do any good." The trio stepped back into the kitchen [music] where William wandered about in
00:22:26
a bewildered days. The kitchen appeared relatively normal, though Julia hadn't tidied up after
00:22:32
dinner, suggesting she'd been attacked before she had the chance to [music] do so.
00:22:38
Three coins lay scattered on the floor, a half crown and two shillings, and William pointed to a damaged cabinet in
00:22:45
the corner. Its door rested in two broken pieces nearby. "See, they've wrenched that off," he
00:22:54
said, [music] implying the damage was caused by someone ransacking the otherwise intact space.
00:23:02
William moved to the [music] cabinet, its upper shelves mostly filled with books.
00:23:08
From the left side of the top shelf, he took down a cash box. John asked if anything was taken.
00:23:16
The box typically held the insurance payments William had collected [music] from his clients the previous week,
00:23:22
which he was due to hand over to his employer the following day. There was only a crumpled American $1
00:23:29
bill and four [music] penny stamps inside. £4 were missing, the equivalent of roughly £350
00:23:37
today. William returned the box to the shelf. The Johnston's didn't think he appeared
00:23:46
overly concerned about the missing money. Before going to the police, Jon wanted
00:23:53
to ensure everything was all right upstairs. William ascended the staircase alone and
00:23:59
[music] returned minutes later to report that several pounds in a jar upstairs had been left untouched.
00:24:07
Jon departed [music] and William and Florence briefly returned to Julia's body. Florence [music] touched Julia's hand
00:24:15
again, noticing it had grown colder. "Look at the brains," William muttered. But Florence couldn't bear to.
00:24:25
He scanned the room and asked, "Whatever have they used?" Nothing stood out as having been used in
00:24:33
the attack. William circled his wife's body, carefully stepping over the blood spatter, and pointed out a steel gray
00:24:42
Macintosh partially tucked around her. Often shortened to Mac, [music] a Macintosh is an overcoat made from
00:24:50
rubberized cotton, making it waterproof. It was a popular item in the UK at the time, suited to the wet climate before
00:24:59
trench coats became common. "Is it your Macintosh?" Florence asked William. "Yes, it is mine," he replied while
00:25:08
smoothing some of the blood soaked fabric with his fingertips. As they waited for the police, Florence
00:25:18
sat with William in the kitchen and [music] asked if he wanted anything. With his head in his hands, he said he
00:25:25
did not. He kept muttering to himself [music] and occasionally ignored Florence as she
00:25:31
spoke as if she weren't even there. He then busied himself by stoking the kitchen half.
00:25:40
By the time the police arrived at around 9:10 p.m., William and Florence were in
00:25:46
the lobby by the front door. A constable knocked, but when Florence tried to open it, she found it wouldn't
00:25:53
budge, just like William had noticed earlier. The lock was different from those in her
00:26:00
own home, and after a brief struggle, she said to William, "You had better do it." He stepped forward, drew back the
00:26:08
bolt, and opened the door with ease. "Come inside, officer. Something terrible has happened," William
00:26:16
announced. He led the way into the house where the officer saw Julia's body and [music]
00:26:22
asked, "How did this happen?" William recounted the events leading up to the grim discovery.
00:26:30
He stated he had left home at 6:45 p.m. with the Julia [music] bidding him farewell from the alley behind their
00:26:38
house. William explained how he had spent nearly an hour wandering aimlessly around Mosley Hill, searching for a
00:26:46
fictitious address given to him the previous night by a mysterious caller named RM Qualtra.
00:26:53
He said he became uneasy when he was told that the address didn't exist and mindful of the recent spate of
00:27:00
burglaries in Anfield hurried back home. His key wouldn't work in the front door
00:27:07
as it had been bolted from the inside. He tried the back door which [music] was closed but unbolted but it wouldn't open
00:27:15
on the first attempt. After alerting his neighbors, [music] he tried again. I entered the house and this is what I
00:27:24
found, William said, referring to his bludgeoned wife. After giving his statement, William sank
00:27:36
into a chair in the kitchen. His complexion was shallow, his shoulders heaved, and he sobbed
00:27:43
intermittently. As countless police officers crowded his house, examining and re-examining every
00:27:50
incient item, William remarked, "Julia would have gone mad if she had seen all this."
00:27:58
William accompanied officers as they inspected each room. In the kitchen, he pointed out the cash
00:28:05
box at top the cabinet, suggesting some money had been taken. When asked where he had found the box
00:28:12
that evening, William answered, "Where it is now?" The investigators found it odd that the
00:28:20
box remained neatly on the shelf with its lid closed. [music] Why would a violent intruder bother to
00:28:26
leave it so tidy? William merely shrugged, saying nothing. Upstairs in the main bedroom, William
00:28:36
collected a small ornamental jar from a mantel piece and pulled out several one-pound notes, stating they didn't
00:28:43
seem to have been touched by any intruders. [music] The officers immediately ordered him to
00:28:49
return the notes and jar back to their original position, cautioning him not to disturb anything else that might be
00:28:56
important for their investigation. This was despite the police's own carelessness while searching the Wallace
00:29:03
home, where key items were handled by multiple officers and then often returned to different locations or
00:29:10
positions. There appears to have been no one here, William observed of the main bedroom.
00:29:19
A bathroom appeared equally unremarkable, though it main bedroom were the only upstairs rooms with lights
00:29:26
on. The rest were in complete darkness. [music] With torches in hand, the officers
00:29:33
crossed the landing to a second room at the back, which William had converted into a hobby laboratory.
00:29:40
It had all started with a microscope he had purchased for £80, which he considered money well spent as it had
00:29:47
become his most prized possession. Williams fascination with chemistry, boty, and biology ran deep. [music]
00:29:57
He had first studied these subjects about 10 years earlier at technical college, later serving 5 years as a
00:30:04
part-time assistant lecturer in chemical studies. It was his dream to make some sort of
00:30:10
scientific discovery. His laboratory contained numerous tools that police noted could be used as
00:30:18
weapons. [music] As their torches swept over shelves stacked with bottles, chemicals, and
00:30:24
specimens, they asked William to check if anything was missing. "Everything's all right here," he confirmed. [music]
00:30:34
They moved on to a third room at the front used as a spare bedroom. The bed within was in disarray with
00:30:41
pillows on the floor and sheets and blankets pulled aside exposing the mattress.
00:30:47
On the bed lay two of Julia's handbags and three of her [music] hats, though a wardrobe and a drawers nearby were
00:30:55
closed. [music] When asked if the room had looked like this earlier, William replied, [music] "I cannot say,"
00:31:03
claiming he hadn't stepped foot in it for a fortnight. It was the only room in the house that
00:31:10
was significantly disturbed. Yet to police, the bedding appeared deliberately flung rather than rifled
00:31:17
through. Jewelry belonging to Julia was found in the drawers, further indicating that the
00:31:23
room hadn't been truly ransacked. Did you see anyone hanging around the house or [music] inside it when you
00:31:31
returned? The police asked William. Shaking his head, he replied, "No." Neighbors [music] John and Florence
00:31:41
Johnston hadn't seen anything suspicious either. There were no signs of forced entry on any doors or windows, but
00:31:48
William asserted that Julia wouldn't have let anyone inside unless she knew them personally.
00:31:56
Nevertheless, police searched lodging houses, all night cafes, railway station waiting rooms, and the homes of known
00:32:03
criminals for anyone with blood stains on their skin or clothing. [music] The intensive search for a suspect
00:32:11
continued through the night to no result. [music] >> [music] >> Back at Wolverton Street, a police
00:32:24
officer pointed out the rumpled Macintosh around Julia Wallace's body. William explained that it was an old one
00:32:32
of his before gesturing towards a hall stand where it usually hung. He had worn it that morning to shield
00:32:39
himself from the rain, but left it at home during his lunch break as the weather cleared by the afternoon.
00:32:46
Curiously, the Macintosh bore scorch marks near the right hem, which William insisted hadn't been present when he
00:32:53
last wore it. Three horizontal burn marks on the front of Julia's bloodstained skirt matched
00:33:00
those on the coat, leading police to speculate that both had come into contact with the hot glaze of [music]
00:33:06
the gas fire. This suggested that after being struck, Julia and the Macintosh had fallen
00:33:13
against the fire. Her killer then dragged her body by the neck of her jumper, tearing it in the process.
00:33:21
Given that her otherwise neat hairstyle was in disarray, she had also likely been dragged by her hair.
00:33:28
How the Macintosh ended up with Julia remained a mystery since she had no [music] plans to go out that evening.
00:33:36
Perhaps she had draped it over herself to ward off the chill when opening the door to her attacker.
00:33:42
This would explain why identical scorch marks were found on her skirt. But police began [music] to suspect the
00:33:49
Macintosh played a crucial role in the crime, reasoning that no one could have committed such a brutal, messy murder
00:33:56
without getting large amounts of blood on themselves. The killer must have worn the coat to
00:34:02
protect themselves from the spatter. Perhaps it was scorched because they attempted to destroy [music] it in the
00:34:08
fire, but quickly realized that the resulting smoke, odor, and flames might alert witnesses before they could
00:34:15
escape. So, they pulled it away. Although William had freely admitted to four different people that the coat was
00:34:23
his, he suddenly clamped up when [music] asked about it further. William was widely regarded as an
00:34:30
intelligent man. To the police, it appeared that he realized that the Macintosh was [music] a significant and
00:34:37
potentially incriminating piece of evidence and that speaking about [music] it could put him at risk.
00:34:45
Shortly before 1000 p.m., a medical examiner named Professor John McFall arrived at Wolverton Street to examine
00:34:52
Julia's body in situ. From the blood spatter, he concluded that Julia had likely been sitting on
00:34:59
the edge of a chair to the right of the fireplace, her head slightly forward and
00:35:04
turned a little to the left, [music] as if speaking to someone. The first and most severe blow caused
00:35:12
the deep laceration in front of her left ear. After collapsing, McFall believed she
00:35:18
had been struck three or four more times with terrific force, causing her scalp to burst open.
00:35:26
Apart from these head injuries and a small recent bruise on the inside of her upper left arm, no other marks of
00:35:32
violence were found on her body. Based on signs of rigor mortise in Julia's neck and the upper part of her
00:35:41
left arm, along with the consistency of the blood pulled around her head, Professor McFall estimated she was
00:35:47
killed at around 7:50 p.m. [music] Before Professor McFall's arrival, the police had briefly inspected the
00:35:58
upstairs bathroom and found nothing of interest. However, McFall spotted a small blood
00:36:04
stain on the rim of the white porcelain toilet bowl. He suggested it had been overlooked due to the room's light
00:36:12
casting a shadow over the bowl and because the police had only used handheld torches during their initial
00:36:18
check. The stain, no larger than a small pee, was divided into two parts, a central
00:36:26
circular clot and a faint streak extending towards the center of the bowl. Tests confirmed it was human blood and
00:36:35
not of menstrual origin. To McFall, the blood's presence indicated that after attacking Julia,
00:36:42
her killer had cleaned themselves in the bathroom, inadvertently splattering blood into the nearby toilet.
00:36:50
This was highly unusual. A random intruder would be expected to flee the crime scene immediately,
00:36:57
maximizing their chance of escape. Even if they intended to wash up, it would have made more sense to do so in
00:37:04
the ground floor kitchen where a quick exit out the back door was available rather than in the upstairs bathroom.
00:37:12
A cleaning brush in the bathroom was partially wet, but not bloody. Every other surface, including a white
00:37:20
towel draped over the bathtub, was completely clear. The toilet, [music] its waste pipes, the
00:37:27
bathroom basin, and the kitchen sink were removed and examined. Yet, not even microscopic traces of blood were found.
00:37:37
A thorough inspection of the Wallace house revealed no further evidence of blood beyond the parlor and bathroom.
00:37:47
As the initial examination of the crime scene was winding down, William Wallace agreed to attend the police station to
00:37:54
make a formal statement. By now, investigators were viewing William with suspicion.
00:38:02
In their view, he seemed too quiet and too collected for a husband who had just been confronted with his wife's shocking
00:38:09
murder. One detective remarked, "I didn't see any sign of emotion in him at all.
00:38:18
At one point, he smoked a cigarette in the parlor, casually leaning over the sideboard near Julia's body to flick ash
00:38:25
into a bowl, which police noted as abnormal behavior. At the station, he was asked again
00:38:33
whether he had noticed anyone moving about the house when he returned from Menloav Gardens.
00:38:39
This time, William said he thought someone might have been in the house because he couldn't open either the
00:38:45
front or back doors. The implication was that the killer was still present when William arrived at
00:38:51
the locked down house. As he moved back and forth trying to get in, the killer fled through the back,
00:38:59
leaving the door unlocked and allowing William to finally enter. As William was being questioned, Julia's
00:39:07
body was removed from the Wallace home along with several items considered significant, including her handbags, the
00:39:15
three coins found on the kitchen floor, and the ornamental jar from the main bedroom that contained the one notes.
00:39:24
A detective placed the folded notes in an envelope and took them to police headquarters where he counted them
00:39:31
before handing them to a station officer for safekeeping. During this process, he noticed that the
00:39:38
top note was smeared with blood along the left hand side. It appeared to have been caused by a bloodstained finger or
00:39:46
thumb being swiped across the surface. It seemed highly unlikely that after killing Julia, a random thief would have
00:39:54
handled the notes, yet ultimately left them in the jar, especially since money had been taken from the cash box in the
00:40:01
kitchen. Why would a thief steal some money but leave the rest behind? Investigators considered the simplest
00:40:10
explanation to be that William had transferred the blood onto the money while handling it in front of them,
00:40:16
implying that his hands bore blood from the murder. However, it was also possible that
00:40:23
William had picked it up from the bloodstained Macintosh he had touched before the police arrived.
00:40:29
Examination of his hands revealed no trace of blood, [music] nor any sign that they had been recently washed.
00:40:36
In fact, William's entire body and clothing bore no traces of blood, even when chemically tested.
00:40:44
This didn't mean William could be ruled out as a suspect. It simply added credence to the police's theory that the
00:40:51
killer used the Macintosh to protect themselves from the blood spatter. Yet crosscontamination during the police
00:40:59
search was also plausible. 7 hours had passed between the start of the investigation and the discovery of
00:41:07
the bloodstained note, during which countless officers had handled items repeatedly without documenting or
00:41:14
photographing them. In fact, the first photograph of Julia Wallace at the scene was taken only
00:41:21
after the Macintosh had been moved away from her body. It was then left bunched up by her side
00:41:28
with no effort made to restore it to its original position. [music] This made it hard to
00:41:34
definitively prove whether she had been wearing it or if her killer had left it behind.
00:41:41
The Wallace's [music] kitchen had only been photographed after almost all of the evidence was already
00:41:46
seized, [music] including the broken cabinet, coins, and cash box. Worse still, [music] a detective who
00:41:54
arrived at the scene intoxicated went upstairs and flushed the toilet where the stray blood stain had been found.
00:42:03
At the police station, William was asked, "Is there nothing more you'd like to tell us, Mr. Wallace?"
00:42:11
He shook his head. When asked if he was sure, he replied, "What about?" [music] After a lengthy silence, the interview
00:42:22
concluded and William was allowed to leave. He [music] wished to return home, saying
00:42:29
he didn't want to put anyone out by staying elsewhere that night. It was an absurd request as his home was still an
00:42:36
active crime scene. When the police refused, William grew irritated, but ultimately went to stay
00:42:43
with family. As news of Julia Wallace's murder spread, so did word that her husband was
00:42:54
the prime suspect. Yet nearly everyone interviewed by police described the couple as devoted
00:43:01
partners who never quarreled. Among the few rare negative opinions were a woman who disliked them both and
00:43:09
a family doctor who sensed some callousness in their relationship. The overwhelming majority attested that
00:43:16
the Wallace home was characterized by mutual trust and happiness. The only noteworthy events in the days
00:43:23
leading up to the murder were that the Wallacees had been unwell and that there had been reports of a burglary two doors
00:43:30
down. Otherwise, by all accounts, life was good. Visitors recalled the Wallace's joy in
00:43:40
making music together. Julia at the piano and William on the violin. Julia was a devoted wife who took great
00:43:48
pleasure in caring for her husband. Someone noted that Julia had concerns about William's makeshift laboratory,
00:43:56
but not in the way one would expect. Julia thought the room was too cold and damp, and she simply wanted her husband
00:44:05
to be [music] comfortable. John and Florence Johnston, who would have lived next door to the Wallacees
00:44:11
for 10 years, said they had never heard anything concerning coming from the household.
00:44:17
The walls were so thin that they could hear Julia playing the piano clearly enough to know her entire repertoire
00:44:24
almost by heart. They were confident that if the Wallacees had ever had even the
00:44:29
slightest argument, they would have heard it. The Johnston's also had a different
00:44:35
opinion of William's so-called quiet and unemotional behavior on the night of the
00:44:40
murder. They had sat with him throughout the ordeal and had seen him break down in
00:44:46
sobs, only to compose himself whenever the police approached so he could answer their questions as coherently as
00:44:53
possible. Others who knew William said he had acted appropriately in the aftermath of
00:44:59
Julia's death. A stoic introvert, he avoided displaying emotions publicly, which explained why
00:45:07
he appeared calm or even indifferent around the police. Yet, when among friends and family, William broke down
00:45:15
in tears and expressed his heartbreak. On the night he discovered Julia's body, he couldn't even bring himself to
00:45:23
undress for bed, tearfully saying, "I shall miss her terribly." Meanwhile, two police officers were
00:45:33
assigned to guard the Wallace home until the crime scene examination could resume
00:45:37
at daybreak. To pass the time, one officer browsed the kitchen shelves for a book.
00:45:45
Most were scientific works, though a few literary classics were mixed in. At the end of a shelf, stacked at top
00:45:53
one another, were four large diaries covering the years 1928 to 1931. Flipping through them, the officer
00:46:02
realized they were the personal diaries of William Wallace. William was a meticulous record keeper,
00:46:11
noting his height, weight, age, and even his hat, collar, and glove sizes in each
00:46:16
entry. The diaries depicted a relatively uneventful life interispersed with his personal reflections on a wide range of
00:46:25
subjects from philosophy to astronomy. Occasionally he recorded minor differences of opinion with Julia.
00:46:34
For example, her lack of enthusiasm for a radio play he had enjoyed or his own indifference to religion despite her
00:46:42
attending Christian services every Sunday. Yet the tone of these entries suggested
00:46:48
they weren't serious disagreements, merely observations he deemed worth deliberating.
00:46:56
On Saturday, January 7, 1928, 3 years before Julia's murder, William noted that he had fallen out with his wife.
00:47:06
The cause? She was buying too many newspapers. This was the only recorded instance of a
00:47:14
conflict between them. The rest of his entries depicted a content, if mundane, married life. He
00:47:22
expressed [music] a genuine concern for Julia on multiple occasions, such as when she arrived home late one evening
00:47:28
after being delayed by a train derailment. He [music] wrote, "It was a relief to
00:47:35
know she was safe and sound. Faria was getting apprehensive, fearing that she might have been run over by a motorcar
00:47:42
or something." In one of the final entries before Julia's death, William described
00:47:49
persuading her to take a night walk in a local [music] park. He wrote in detailed pros about the
00:47:56
wintry atmosphere, [music] including the heavy fog and the frostcovered trees, describing the scene as [music]
00:48:03
wonderfully beautiful. He noted that Julia was equally charmed. On Wednesday, January 21, 1931, the
00:48:16
morning after Julia Wallace's murder, William attended the police station again to answer further questions.
00:48:24
By this point, [music] investigators believed they had a promising lead. Overnight, they had received an
00:48:31
anonymous [music] but unsubstantiated call accusing William of infidelity with the
00:48:36
housemmaid. William denied the claim, stating he had never employed a full-time domestic
00:48:43
helper. For the past 9 months, however, [music] a cleaner had been coming to help Julia with household chores on
00:48:51
Wednesdays. The arrangement had been William's idea, as Julia's strength had been waning.
00:48:58
He claimed he didn't even know the cleaner's name, as she worked a half day while he was at work.
00:49:05
The police tracked the woman down. Her name was Sarah Drabar. Sarah denied any romantic relationship
00:49:14
with William and explained that she had not visited the Wallace home for 2 weeks
00:49:19
due to her husband's recent [music] death. During her previous visits, she said she
00:49:25
cleaned the house thoroughly with Julia assisting as best she could. Because Sarah knew the Wallace home
00:49:33
intimately, she was asked to inspect it [music] for anything missing. She identified two items. A metal poker
00:49:41
from the kitchen and a large piece of iron from the parlor where Julia had been killed.
00:49:48
The iron was roughly a foot long and as thick as a candle, typically [music] used to rake cigarette ends and spent
00:49:55
matches from beneath the gas [music] fire. Sarah recalled seeing it during her last
00:50:01
visit, having used it to retrieve a screw that had rolled under the fireplace. Following this discovery, William
00:50:10
Wallace was escorted back to his [music] home to conduct his own search. He made no mention of the missing poker
00:50:17
or iron piece. When asked directly, he suggested the poker might have been misplaced or
00:50:24
discarded during the police search and claimed to know nothing about the iron. Medical examiner, Professor John McFall,
00:50:33
who had [music] by then carried out Julia's autopsy, was asked whether the iron piece could have been the murder
00:50:39
weapon. [music] He had amended his previous findings, now stating that Julia had been struck
00:50:45
upwards of 12 times instead of four. After consideration, McFall concluded that given its size and shape, the piece
00:50:54
of iron could have been capable of delivering the blows that killed Julia Wallace.
00:51:00
However, Sarah Draper had described the object as heavily rusted. This raised doubts about whether it
00:51:07
could have withtood 12 intense [music] strikes to Julia's skull. Even if it had, no traces of rust were
00:51:15
found in her wounds. Nevertheless, finding the iron piece became a top priority for the police.
00:51:24
They reasoned that a random intruder would have no reason to remove or dispose of the weapon, [music] whereas
00:51:30
William Wallace might. The search focused on the areas William had traveled that night from Wolverton
00:51:37
Street to Men Love Gardens. A nearby park frequently visited by William was highlighted as the most
00:51:44
likely disposal site since it seemed unlikely he would have carried a large bloodstained [music] piece of iron any
00:51:50
farther, even if concealed beneath his coat or up his sleeve. For days, scores of policemen aided by
00:51:59
sanitation department workers combed these areas, including bins, drains, and sewers.
00:52:06
Neither the iron piece, the kitchen poker, nor any other object that could plausibly serve as the murder weapon was
00:52:13
found. [music] As the police worked to locate and interview everyone William Wallace had
00:52:22
come into contact with before the murder, one person remained elusive. RM Qualtra, [music] the one individual who
00:52:30
could make or break the case. Investigators were convinced of one thing. Whoever had placed the Qualra
00:52:39
call to Codle's City Cafe was responsible for Julia Wallace's murder. According to William, it was Julia who
00:52:48
had convinced him to [music] meet Qualra as he was initially unsure about it. Based on the little information Qualra
00:52:56
had provided, it appeared he wanted to arrange an endowment policy for his daughter as some sort of coming of age
00:53:02
gift. If so, successfully securing such a deal would have earned William a decent commission.
00:53:11
Assuming William was innocent, the qualore appeared designed to lure him from the house, leaving it vulnerable.
00:53:20
The Wallacees were financially comfortable but not wealthy. Julia was a modest woman who wore mostly handmade
00:53:28
clothes and many of the artworks displayed in her home were watercolors she herself had painted or needle work
00:53:35
she had crafted. Still, she was known to walk around with her handbag wide open. This
00:53:42
absent-minded habit might have caught the attention of an opportunistic thief who perceived the Wallace home as an
00:53:48
easy target. Perhaps the intruder hadn't expected Julia to be home that evening, or the
00:53:55
decision to kill her arose spontaneously, driven by panic or self-preservation rather [music] than
00:54:02
premeditation. If Julia had been the intended target and someone close to her harbored a
00:54:08
motive, the police were unable to uncover it. 14 families with the Qualra surname were
00:54:16
identified in the Liverpool area. Yet none had any knowledge of the call that triggered the events leading to Julia
00:54:23
Wallace's murder. The call assumed that Qualra knew William would attend the chess club on
00:54:30
Monday, January 19. This was a crucial detail since William didn't always [music] go to club meetings and had been
00:54:37
absent for about a month. On the night of the call, he had been booked for a tournament match that had
00:54:44
been arranged 2 months earlier. The schedule had been publicly displayed on a notice board at the cafe during
00:54:52
[music] that time. William was also recorded as playing on Mondays roughly every fortnight, [music]
00:54:58
which could have led someone to safely assume he would attend the Monday night before the murder.
00:55:05
Still, [music] William insisted that no one could have known for certain that he
00:55:09
would be there. He also said he almost didn't [music] go as he was still recovering from
00:55:15
influenza. Was it merely a coincidence that everything aligned perfectly for Qualra
00:55:22
that evening? Or had it all been masterfully orchestrated? After checking with the local telephone
00:55:30
exchange, [music] which in 1931 manually connected calls via switchboard operators, [music] the Qualtra call was
00:55:38
traced to a public telephone box in the Wallace's neighborhood of Anfield, roughly a 2-minute walk from their home.
00:55:46
The call had been made at 7:15 p.m., roughly 45 minutes before William appeared at the cafe, opening the
00:55:54
possibility that he could have placed it himself [music] and then hurried to appear unaware.
00:56:01
Curiously, two calls had been made. The first reached the switchboard operators,
00:56:07
but [music] due to an iniccernible error, failed to connect to Codle City Cafe. Qualra called back minutes later and
00:56:15
[music] this second call placed at around 7:20 successfully went through. [music]
00:56:21
William provided a detailed timeline of his movements that evening, stating he left home at 7:15 [music]
00:56:27
p.m. and walked to a tram that carried him to the cafe. This meant he was still at or just
00:56:34
leaving home when the first unsuccessful call from Qualtra was placed. The police made no effort to seek
00:56:42
independent [music] verification of this account. They did however interview those who had
00:56:48
direct contact with Qualtra, including cafe waitress Glattis Harley and Samuel Bey, captain [clears throat] of
00:56:55
Liverpool's Central Chess Club. Glattis described the man as sounding quite ordinary [music] and aside from seeming
00:57:03
elderly, had nothing further to add. He didn't sound nervous or agitated, [music]
00:57:08
and his voice bore no unusual accent or impediment, though he pronounced the word cafe in a slightly distinctive way.
00:57:18
Samuel characterized the voice as strong and graph, ready of utterance, [music] confident, definite in knowing what to
00:57:27
say, perempter. Having known William Wallace personally for 8 years, Samuel didn't believe it
00:57:36
was him on the line. The police considered that William could have disguised his voice when making the
00:57:43
call. When this possibility [music] was put to Samuel Bey, he responded, "It would take a great stretch of the
00:57:52
imagination." In an attempt [music] to unsettle William and provoke him into incriminating himself, police divulged
00:58:03
that the call from Qualra had been traced to a public telephone box in Anfield [music] and was placed around
00:58:09
700 p.m. William listened intently, but remained composed. He seemed oblivious to the
00:58:17
implications the police were drawing that he might have made the call himself. After this, William walked to a tram
00:58:26
stop where he unexpectedly encountered three members of Liverpool's Central Chess Club, including the club's
00:58:33
captain, [music] Samuel Bey. William appeared rattled, his lips quivered, and he barely responded to
00:58:40
their greetings. As a friend, [music] Samuel cautioned William not to discuss his troubles,
00:58:48
warning that anything he said might be misconstrued. William ignored the advice and asked if
00:58:55
Samuel could remember anything [music] about the call from Qualra, specifically the time it was placed.
00:59:02
Samuel guessed around 7 p.m. or shortly after. [music] William pressed for a more precise time,
00:59:10
but Samuel apologized. "I can't." "Well, it's important to me," William insisted, persisting for a concrete
00:59:20
time. Samuel remained unwilling to commit. After [music] an awkward silence, William remarked, "I've just left the
00:59:30
police. They've cleared me." The other men expressed their relief, and the conversation shifted to Julia's
00:59:38
funeral. "I don't want any fuss," William said of the [music] service. The men then boarded a tram together
00:59:47
before ultimately going their [music] separate ways. Unbeknownst to William, an undercover
00:59:54
police officer had followed him to the tram stop and overheard the entire conversation.
01:00:00
All of the men involved, including William, were interviewed and confirmed what had been said.
01:00:07
Notably, William offered a cryptic remark about why he pressed Samuel Bey for the time of the Qualra call. I have
01:00:14
an idea. We all have ideas. It was indiscreet of me. The tram stop conversation yielded what
01:00:24
the police interpreted as three damning [music] findings against William Wallace.
01:00:29
First, his insistence for a precise time of the qualry call appeared suspiciously
01:00:33
[music] defensive, as though he sensed danger. Second was his remark, "I've just left
01:00:42
the police. They've cleared me." The police had never suggested to William that he was a suspect, nor
01:00:49
implied he faced any charges. Yet, he was far from naive. Even without explicit warnings, he would have
01:00:59
realized the extent of the investigation and that his story was under scrutiny. After all, he had said to them, "I have
01:01:08
an idea. We all have ideas." implying that people were drawing conclusions about him.
01:01:16
William explained that his cleared me remark arose from his interpretation of the call's timing.
01:01:23
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
01:01:31
since he had left home at 7:15. [music] The third red flag was William's remark,
01:01:38
"It was indiscreet of me when referring to questioning Samuel about the call." William admitted that his line of
01:01:46
questioning could appear [music] suspicious and from that moment refrained from discussing the case in
01:01:52
casual conversation. If William had been the killer, the Qualra call offered a convenient alibi
01:02:01
by giving him a reason to leave home on the evening of January 20. It created a window in which the murder could
01:02:08
plausibly have been carried out while he was ostensibly away. [music] Despite the mounting suspicion against
01:02:18
William, the scientific evidence seemed to actually detract from the case against him. Julia's time of death, as
01:02:26
initially reported by medical examiner Professor John McFall in his first report, was 7:50 p.m. when William was
01:02:34
seen wandering around Men Love Gardens. From a medical standpoint, this ruled him out as the killer.
01:02:42
However, among the several alterations Professor McFall made to his initial report was a revision of Julia's
01:02:50
estimated time of death. He had since changed it from 7:50 [music] to 6:00 p.m. This was hugely damning for William
01:03:00
Wallace, suggesting that Julia had been murdered [music] before his trip to Men Love Gardens.
01:03:07
He insisted that Julia was alive when he left, stating they had eaten scon for dinner together beforehand.
01:03:15
The kitchen's dirty plates and cutlery supported his account. Yet, Professor McFall never examined Julia's stomach
01:03:23
contents during the autopsy. Had he done so, the presence of the scon would have confirmed or contradicted
01:03:30
William's story, providing the investigation with proof if he was lying or not. There were also gaps in Williams
01:03:39
movements before he reached the tram stop at the junction of Smithtown Road and Lodge Lane, where the first
01:03:45
witnesses saw him that evening. The stop was roughly 2 mi from the Wallace home, a 40-minute walk at a
01:03:53
moderate pace, leading police to suspect William disposed of the murder weapon along this stretch.
01:04:00
He denied walking altogether, stating that he had reached Smith down road by boarding a tram near his home.
01:04:08
Investigators were either unable or unwilling to find anyone who could corroborate this trip.
01:04:15
However, they did locate someone who confirmed that William often walked long distances to save money on tram fairs.
01:04:25
Police tracked down witnesses who had encountered William Wallace from Smith down road onwards, including tram
01:04:31
conductors, passers by, and even the police constable he spoke to in Menlo Gardens and the [music] manager of the
01:04:38
news agency he visited seeking directions. After reviewing their accounts, the police grew increasingly convinced that
01:04:46
William had deliberately made the journey to Menlo Gardens to establish an alibi. [music]
01:04:54
Their suspicion rested on three key observations. William repeatedly reminded the tram conductors of his
01:05:00
intention to go to Menlo Gardens East, almost as if imprinting the detail on their memory.
01:05:07
He approached multiple people, including a police officer, even after being told
01:05:12
the address didn't [music] exist, seemingly to secure as many witnesses as possible.
01:05:19
And when walking away from the officer, he deliberately mentioned the time as a quarter to wait and had the officer
01:05:25
confirm it as though trying to establish a precise record of his presence in the
01:05:30
area. William explained that he only inquired about the time because the officer had
01:05:37
given him directions to a post office [music] and he believed the business would be closed by 8:00 p.m.
01:05:44
William also claimed that he had mostly followed the same route home, but no witnesses, including tram conductors or
01:05:52
passengers, came forward to report having seen him. One woman claimed she had seen William
01:05:59
in the alley by the back entry of Wolverton Street talking to another figure in a dark overcoat and cap
01:06:05
[music] whom she described as being about 5'8 in tall and of stocky build. Maybe William didn't kill Julia, but had
01:06:14
conspired with someone [music] else to carry out the crime. William denied this encounter, asserting
01:06:22
that he hadn't spoken to a single person on his journey home, aside from the tram
01:06:26
conductors from whom he purchased tickets. If the stocky person did indeed exist,
01:06:33
they never came forward to rule themselves out of the investigation. To the police, it seemed logical that
01:06:41
William's neighbors, the Johnston's, [music] had been unwittingly incorporated into his plan. He likely
01:06:48
timed his return to coincide with their departure, ensuring he would encounter them and use their presence [music] to
01:06:55
stage the discovery of his wife's body. However, the Johnston's made it clear that their decision to go out that
01:07:02
evening was last minute. There was no way William could have known as they hadn't discussed their plans with him
01:07:10
beforehand. The notion that William had masterfully orchestrated the elaborate crime
01:07:17
appealed to the image of him as a cunning, strategic chess player, intuitive, calculating, and cautious.
01:07:25
This perception ignored a simple fact about William. [music] Despite being well educated and
01:07:32
studious, he was notoriously bad at chess. He lost far more often than he won, and his victory on the night of the
01:07:41
Qualra call was unexpected [music] and rare. Fellow club members described William as
01:07:47
a chess vandalist, an enthusiastic duffer, and insisted he ought to be hanged for being such a bad player.
01:07:59
The police went to exhaustive lengths to implicate William Wallace, including compiling a detailed dossier on his
01:08:06
life, repeatedly testing the timings of his Men Love Gardens journey for [music]
01:08:10
themselves and placing him under covert surveillance. Locals eager to pin down a motive
01:08:18
speculated wildly. Some focused on William's profession as an insurance provider, imagining he
01:08:25
might have killed Julia to claim a payout. Yet, Julia's [music] life was insured for only £20, just enough for
01:08:34
funeral expenses. Her personal savings amounted to a mega 90, while William had 152. [music]
01:08:44
Some entertained the idea that the murder might have been a mercy [music] killing, reasoning that Julia's recent
01:08:50
illness could have driven William to end her suffering. But if that had been the case, then
01:08:56
others questioned why it was carried out with such brutality. William maintained a laboratory stocked
01:09:04
with various chemicals and had extensive knowledge of poisons, providing far less
01:09:09
violent alternatives to sympathetically [music] end his wife's life. Others speculated darker possibilities.
01:09:18
Perhaps Julia's illness was the result of his experiments. Maybe William harbored a hidden cruelty,
01:09:25
[music] taking perverse satisfaction in making her suffer before ultimately ending her life.
01:09:31
But then why make the final act so violent that the police would inevitably get involved?
01:09:38
Some went even further, believing that William's fascination [music] with science might conceal an illicit opium
01:09:45
den or perhaps a secret interest in black magic. A rumor spread that William had plotted
01:09:51
with a lover to remove Julia so that they could finally be together. Another claimed that Julia was the one
01:09:59
having an affair and had met her lover that night, which might explain the disheveled bed in the spare room, only
01:10:05
for William to discover [music] it and lash out. One of the stranger theories suggested
01:10:11
that William had grown too happy with Julia [music] and killed her out of boredom with their
01:10:16
contented life. As time wore on, the prospect of solving Julia Wallace's murder seemed
01:10:26
increasingly remote. The case against William Wallace was built on speculation and conjecture, and
01:10:33
his story held firm, corroborated by the accounts of multiple witnesses. In the words of one investigator, the
01:10:41
Wallace case was challenging, and it only became more convoluted as news of the murder spread. [music]
01:10:49
When 14-year-old Alan Close learned of the crime, he quickly realized he might be the missing link in determining
01:10:56
William's guilt. Alan had been delivering milk along Wolverton Street for nearly 3 years,
01:11:03
including on the night of Tuesday, January 20. Alan remembered arriving at the Wallace home at around 6:45 p.m.,
01:11:12
which was corroborated by the timing of the other deliveries he made that evening.
01:11:17
Julia answered the door looking unwell. She mentioned having a cough before urging Alan to hurry along.
01:11:26
A jug of fresh milk in the Wallace kitchen confirmed that Alan Close had made a delivery that evening.
01:11:34
When asked, William Wallace said he couldn't recall the delivery occurring before he left for Men Love Gardens, but
01:11:40
acknowledged it might have happened while he was upstairs preparing to go out. Sightings of William on the trams to Men
01:11:48
Love Gardens established that he could not have left the house any later than 6:49 p.m.
01:11:56
While this meant it was theoretically possible that William was home when Alen Close delivered the milk at 6:45. It
01:12:03
left him with fewer than 5 minutes to carry out the brutal murder, clean himself, stage a burglary, dispose of
01:12:11
the weapon, and reach the Smith downro tram stop 2 mi away. Given William's distinctive appearance
01:12:20
with [music] his lean, tall frame, sprinting through Anfield to catch the tram would have been almost impossible
01:12:25
for witnesses to overlook. This scenario was made even more questionable given that William was an
01:12:33
ailing, slowmoving 52-year-old man recovering from the flu. Alan Close's account was relayed to
01:12:42
medical examiner Professor John McFall, who was immediately dismissive and firmly maintained his latest conclusion
01:12:49
that Julia had been killed around 6:00 p.m. As detectives pondered this dilemma, a
01:12:56
younger officer suggested expanding the investigation to other potential suspects.
01:13:02
After a brief pause, a senior detective remarked, "No, the milk boy must be mistaken."
01:13:09
[music] Alan Close was brought in for another police interview. Who conducted it, [music] what was said,
01:13:19
and for how long remains unclear. Whatever happened, Alan emerged with a different story.
01:13:27
He now claimed that he didn't see or speak to Julia Wallace on January 20, [music] but only saw her arm collect the
01:13:34
milk jugs he left on her doorstep. As expected, this dramatic revelation led to more wild speculation.
01:13:44
Most of it centered on the possibility that the person Alan witnessed wasn't Julia at all. Maybe it was William in
01:13:51
disguise wearing his wife's clothes. But that wasn't all. Alan Close also admitted that his original time of 6:45
01:14:03
p.m. was mistaken. He asserted that he had actually delivered the milk to the Wallace home
01:14:09
at 6:31 p.m. While this would have required him to move astonishingly fast while carrying a
01:14:17
heavy crate of milk cans and bottles, it significantly strengthened the case against William Wallace.
01:14:25
This adjustment expanded the available window for William to commit the murder, clean [music] up, stage the scene, and
01:14:31
depart for Menlo Gardens from 4 to roughly 18 minutes. In the eyes of the police, that was more
01:14:40
than sufficient, and a warrant was promptly issued for his arrest. [music] William Wallace sat in silence as the
01:14:54
police informed him he was under arrest for the willful murder of his wife. After a moment, he responded,
01:15:03
"What can I say in answer to a charge of which I am absolutely innocent?" No reply was given.
01:15:11
He repeated a similar statement when he first appeared in court, [music] telling
01:15:15
the judge he had nothing to say except that he was absolutely innocent. Lawyer Hector Monroe, a fellow member of
01:15:23
Liverpool's Central Chess Club, agreed [music] to represent William in court. The prosecution's case relied on the
01:15:31
abundance of circumstantial evidence. The crux of their case was the timing of the murder, specifically when Julia
01:15:39
Wallace was last seen alive. [music] It was therefore crucial for Hector to reaffirm Alan Closer's original sighting
01:15:47
at 6:45 p.m. Alan had originally been encouraged to go to the police after admitting to
01:15:55
several friends that he had seen Julia on the night of her murder. Hector spoke [music] with those friends,
01:16:02
four of whom independently confirmed that Alan had told them he saw Julia [music] at 6:45.
01:16:10
Another boy who had also been delivering milk that evening recalled having crossed paths [music] with Alan at 6:40
01:16:17
p.m. at which point he said he was heading to the Wallace home on Wolverton Street.
01:16:23
Hector also located another two witnesses whose recollections supported Allen's original statement.
01:16:31
Taken together, these accounts strongly suggested that Allan hadn't arrived at the Wallace house as early as 6:31 p.m.
01:16:39
as his amended statement claimed. These witnesses provided statements to the police. But when Hector Monroe
01:16:47
checked the 35 witnesses to be called by the prosecution for William Wallace's committal hearing, they were
01:16:53
conspicuously absent. The second major pillar of the prosecution's case was the blood stain
01:17:00
found in the Wallace's toilet bowl, which they argued supported the theory that William had washed himself
01:17:06
immediately after killing Julia. In response, [music] Hector Monroe arranged a series of
01:17:12
experiments, 118 in total, using drops of blood at varying stages of freshness. These were released onto porcelain from
01:17:22
different heights to examine how fresh blood behaved in terms of shape, consistency, and moisture.
01:17:30
To strengthen the credibility of the findings, a professor of pathology independently replicated the tests.
01:17:37
The results were clear. The blood stain in the Wallace's toilet bowl was not fresh blood.
01:17:45
The blood stain had originally been discovered by medical examiner Professor John McFall during his insitu
01:17:52
examination of Julia's body. In some expert opinions, this was far from the only questionable aspect of his
01:18:00
findings. They challenged the various times of a death he supposedly drew from the
01:18:07
presence of rigor mortise and the blood staining on the rug. Specifically, his most recent claim was that she had been
01:18:14
killed at least 3 hours before her body was found. Neither could support his assertions
01:18:21
with any real certainty given the many variables involved. Most notably, environmental factors such
01:18:28
as room temperature can significantly accelerate or delay post-mortem changes. Florence Johnston, the Wallace's
01:18:36
neighbor, recalled touching Julia's hand as her body lay in the parlor. It felt warm and had only slightly
01:18:44
cooled [music] when she touched it again minutes later, suggesting that Julia had
01:18:48
died recently. Crucially, [music] Professor McFall had failed to record Julia's body temperature using a rectal
01:18:57
thermometer, widely regarded by medicalico legal experts as [music] the most reliable indicator of the time
01:19:03
elapsed since death. Without this [music] key measurement, any estimation of her time of death
01:19:10
couldn't be considered precise. [music] McFall himself didn't seem very confident in his own findings, given he
01:19:18
had altered the estimated time of death without justification, but in a way that
01:19:23
implicated William. Hector Monroe questioned whether the issues he was uncovering in the case
01:19:31
were merely a series of coincidental oversightes. He found it far more likely that the
01:19:37
police were bending the rules by disregarding established [music] facts in their determination to secure a
01:19:43
conviction. This was made especially clear to Hector during the committal hearing where he
01:19:52
noticed police witnesses were emitting key details that were favorable to William, [music] most notably his
01:19:58
meticulously kept personal diaries which portrayed his marriage to Julia in a positive light.
01:20:05
When the defense read passages from the diary aloud in court, Williams usually unshakable composure gave way. He
01:20:14
covered his eyes with his hands and began [music] to tremble. Before the judge delivered his decision
01:20:21
on whether William would stand trial for Julia's murder, he was asked if there was anything he wished to say.
01:20:28
William stood and said quietly but firmly, "I would like to say that my wife and I
01:20:35
lived together on the very happiest terms during the period of some 18 years of our married life. Our [music]
01:20:42
relations were of complete confidence in and affection for each other. The suggestion that I murdered my wife
01:20:50
is monstrous, that I should attack and kill her, is to all who know me unthinkable, [music]
01:20:56
and the more so, when it must be realized that I could not possibly obtain one advantage by committing such
01:21:02
a deed, nor so the police suggest that I gained any advantage. On the contrary, in actual fact, I have
01:21:11
lost a devoted and loving comrade. My home life is completely [music] broken up, and everything that I hold
01:21:18
dear has been ruthlessly parted and torn from [music] me. I am now to face the torture of this
01:21:25
nerve-wracking ordeal. I protest once more that I am entirely innocent of this terrible crime."
01:21:35
In his response, [music] the judge insisted that he had followed the evidence very clearly before
01:21:41
committing William Wallace to stand trial for murder. Hector Monroe was prepared to defend
01:21:48
William with the team convinced of his innocence. But a more immediate problem loomed. William couldn't afford the
01:21:55
cost. [music] Relief came from an unexpected source. The union of his employer of 16 years.
01:22:03
the [music] Credential Assurance Company. In an unprecedented move, they agreed to
01:22:10
fully fund Williams defense on one condition, that a secret mock trial be held. [music]
01:22:17
Under this arrangement, Hector would present the case as he intended to at trial, after which union officials would
01:22:24
cast anonymous votes. If an overwhelming majority supported the defense, the union would cover their cost.
01:22:33
The votes were sorted into two piles, guilty and not guilty. In the end, only one pile existed.
01:22:43
Every single vote declared William not guilty. William's actual trial commenced [music]
01:22:51
in April 1931, 2 months after Julia's murder. The real jury deliberated for an hour
01:22:58
before returning [music] with their verdict. guilty. The silence in the court following the
01:23:08
verdict was eventually broken by someone at the back whistling in surprise. Several gasps arose from elsewhere in
01:23:16
the crowd, and soon the entire courtroom erupted into a mix of cheers and shocked
01:23:22
exclamations. The only two women on the jury began to cry. William Wallace was asked if he had
01:23:30
anything to say. He paused for a moment before replying, "I am not guilty. I cannot say anything
01:23:38
else." The judge immediately pronounced for the crime of murder by the law of this country. There is only one
01:23:48
sentence. That sentence I now pass upon you. It is that you be taken from hence to a place of lawful execution, and you
01:23:57
be there hanged by the neck until you be dead. and that your body be afterwards buried within the precincts of the
01:24:04
prison in which you shall last have been confined. May the Lord have mercy on your soul."
01:24:13
William was led from the court, still projecting his calm and collected demeanor.
01:24:19
To those who believed in his innocence, it was this extraordinary composure that
01:24:23
seemingly worked against him. His stoicism was interpreted in numerous negative ways, from overconfidence to
01:24:31
callousness. It wasn't until he was taken into prison and made to strip naked to receive his
01:24:38
gray uniform that he finally began to cry. He was led to the cell where he would
01:24:44
remain until his untimely death scheduled just 2 weeks later. William spent his final isolated days
01:24:54
mostly confined to his small cell. He was allowed minor comforts, including a few cigarettes, a violin he couldn't
01:25:02
bring himself to play, and a chessboard. For the first time, he found himself winning games consistently.
01:25:10
He believed this was only because the guards, who agreed to be his opponents, took pity on him.
01:25:18
For an hour each day, he was permitted to stand alone in a small enclosed garden filled with irises and loopins.
01:25:26
William wrote about the flowers during his imprisonment. They became an obsession with me, he
01:25:32
noted. In fact, my sole remaining interest in life. The plants were in bud. Almost
01:25:40
unceasingly, I propounded to myself the question, would they be in flower before
01:25:46
I died? It wasn't until the guilty verdict was handed down that public perception of
01:25:54
William Wallace began to shift. As details of the trial spread, people started to realize just how much of the
01:26:02
prosecution's case was circumstantial. Even those who remained convinced of Williams guilt began to question how he
01:26:10
could have been found guilty. In a letter to a Liverpool newspaper, a local stated, "In my reading of the
01:26:18
Wallace trial, I could not for the life of me discern in the evidence any what I
01:26:23
might term major points against the accused [music] man. I feel that in such a serious matter, especially when there
01:26:31
is no apparent motive, circumstantial evidence should be much more convincing." It was this belief that the verdict was
01:26:40
unreasonable and unsupported by the evidence that formed the basis of William Wallace's appeal.
01:26:47
Yet his attorney, Hector Monroe, remained quietly pessimistic. For the appeal to succeed, the judges
01:26:55
would have to overturn the jury's decision, a feat that had never occurred since the Court of Criminal Appeal was
01:27:01
established in 1907. There was no possibility of a reduced sentence, such as a conviction for
01:27:09
manslaughter or a substitution to life imprisonment. Julia Wallace's murder had been far too
01:27:16
cold-blooded and brutal. The outcome was stark. Either William would be released
01:27:22
as a free man or he would be condemned to die. The decision was left to three judges.
01:27:31
Unlike the trial, which had descended into something of a mockery with the jurors falling asleep, people shouting
01:27:38
exploitives, laughter at the word menstrual, a judge who did nothing to curb the misbehavior, and allegations
01:27:45
that jury members threatened others to vote guilty. The appeal judges approached their roles with the utmost
01:27:51
seriousness and sincerity. They had thoroughly prepared and were well-versed in the facts of the case.
01:28:00
The hearing took place over 2 days after which the judges retired to deliberate.
01:28:06
When they returned, William appeared tired, sullen, and swayed slightly as he listened.
01:28:14
He endured a 14-minute judgment speech delivered slowly with deliberate dramatic [music] pauses that seemed
01:28:22
designed to prolong it. Witnesses later described it as completely sadistic. We are not concerned here with
01:28:31
suspicion, however grave, or with theories, however ingenious, the judge finally announced.
01:28:39
The conclusion to which we have arrived, is that the case against the appellant,
01:28:44
which we have carefully and anxiously considered and discussed, was not proved with that certainty which is necessary
01:28:52
in order to justify a verdict of guilty. The result is that disapp,000 [music] in today's money.
01:29:16
He wouldn't receive any form of monetary compensation as the home secretary ruled
01:29:21
that his case did not fall under the category of a miscarriage of justice despite it being studied in law schools
01:29:28
as a classic example to this day. While William was ultimately relieved by the outcome, [music] the ordeal had
01:29:36
taken a severe toll on his body and health. He recalled the days leading up to his
01:29:42
appeal as both the longest and shortest of his life, saying, "I have no wish to remember them, [music] but the agony of
01:29:51
those days is impossible to forget. They were a nightmare." Reflecting on the moment he awaited
01:29:59
[music] the appeal judge's verdict, he added, "Nothing that ever happened to me in the hours of my blackest humiliation
01:30:07
[music] was ever half as hateful and horrible as the 14 minutes when I waited to hear the
01:30:12
judge's decision." The result was not without controversy. Those convinced of William's guilt
01:30:21
argued that the appeal didn't prove he wasn't a murderer. It only showed that the evidence was insufficient to sustain
01:30:27
the conviction. To them, the outcome reinforced the notion that William was cunning [music]
01:30:33
and diabolical. Some felt that if he had gotten away with murder once, what was to stop him
01:30:40
from doing it again? Rumors [music] continued to follow him, painting him as an adulterer, a sadist,
01:30:47
even a mad scientist. Yet even after being advised against it, William chose to continue living in
01:30:55
Liverpool postrelease, unwilling to let the opinions of others dictate his life.
01:31:02
He even remained at his Wolverton Street home and returned to his old job. But by
01:31:08
then, the town's folk had decided to shun him. People retreated into their homes, clutched their children tightly
01:31:15
or lowered their heads as he walked past. His chess club abandoned him. [music] Neighbors avoided him, and he received
01:31:23
scathing letters. Children played cruel pranks on his home, and adults were equally
01:31:29
mean-spirited, calling him Killy Willie and visiting the Wallace house in the middle of the night to taunt him with
01:31:36
menacing chants. Julia. Julia. What's happened to Julia? [music] She's all chopped up. Chop.
01:31:44
Chop. Chop. Morbid. Onlookers pressed their [music] faces to the parlor windows, attempted
01:31:51
to break in through the kitchen door to test their own theories, and even damaged the property to take pieces as
01:31:57
Macab souvenirs. William lasted a little over a month before moving away permanently.
01:32:06
Seeking some measure of justice from his ordeal, he settled out of court with several printers [music] and publishers
01:32:12
who he claimed had exposed him to public scandal, hatred, and contempt through their greatly prejudiced [music]
01:32:19
reporting. All parties agreed to a settlement of £200. [music] William's life thereafter was, in his
01:32:28
own words, one marked by apprehension, nervousness, depression, [music] loneliness, grief, and anguish.
01:32:37
He continued to keep a [music] personal diary at one point writing, "Julia, Julia, my dear, why were you
01:32:46
taken [music] from me? Why, why should this have been so? It is a [music] question to which I can
01:32:53
get no answer. The same question plagued investigators when the inquiry into Julia Wallace's
01:33:03
murder was reopened, but the case went nowhere, ultimately being described as infinitely unbeatable
01:33:11
and the perfect murder. While many still believed that William got away with it, others, especially
01:33:19
those who knew him best, maintained that he was completely innocent, whatever side of the argument one takes,
01:33:26
the central question endured. If not William, then who? In the second statement William gave to
01:33:35
police following his wife's murder, he was asked to list the names of men whom his wife would allow into their house
01:33:42
without question. >> [music] >> The first name he provided was Richard Perry, better known as Gordon, and the
01:33:49
second was Joseph Marsden. William described both young men as friends of himself and Julia.
01:33:58
Both had previously worked for the Credential Assurance Company where William had acted as their supervisor.
01:34:05
He had allegedly caught each of them quote cooking the books which was basically stealing but there was no
01:34:12
record of him reporting the issue. The men were nevertheless fired or left of their own accord.
01:34:21
Perry and Marsden knew each other well. While working under William, they had entered the Wallace home and William had
01:34:28
shown them the location of the cash box where he stored the insurance [music] payments. the very same spot it occupied
01:34:35
on the night Julia was murdered. They were aware that Prudentials [music] pay-in day was Wednesday, meaning
01:34:42
William's cash box typically contained the most money on a Tuesday night. It is important to note that the cash
01:34:50
box would have held substantially more on the night of Tuesday, January 20, 1931, [music] had William not skipped
01:34:58
collections that week due to illness. Gordon Perry himself admitted to police that he knew William was a regular at
01:35:06
Codle City Cafe, which Perry also attended every Thursday evening for a drama club.
01:35:13
During their investigation into various Qualras living in Liverpool, the police encountered an RJ Qualtra who had been a
01:35:21
client of Joseph Marsden's. Marsden's alibi for the night of the murder was that he was home in bed with
01:35:29
the flu. Gordon Perry claimed he spent the night with others who could only loosely place
01:35:35
him at their home between [music] 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. that night. He also took his car to a
01:35:42
garage for cleaning where a witness reportedly saw a blood stained glove inside the vehicle.
01:35:49
Regarding the night of the Qualra phone call, Perry asserted that he had spent the day and evening with his girlfriend
01:35:55
Lily. However, both Lily and her mother stated that he didn't arrive at her house until
01:36:02
7:35 [music] p.m. partway through a piano lesson Lily was giving. He then left on his [music]
01:36:09
own before returning much later. The evidence against Gordon Perry and Joseph Maren was largely suppressed by
01:36:18
the police during the original investigation. The spotlight on both men emerged decades after the crime as armchair
01:36:26
[music] sleuths and authors took interest in the puzzling case. One witness came forward claiming to have
01:36:33
confronted Gordon Perry on his doorstep [music] in 1966, 35 years after Julia's murder.
01:36:41
Harry allegedly displayed an astonishingly detailed knowledge of the crime [music] and was aware of the
01:36:46
deaths of several obscure witnesses connected to it. He also boasted that he would never
01:36:53
speak about it, even if offered a large sum of money. Both Perry and Marsden died without ever
01:37:00
admitting any involvement in the [music] crime. The Wallace case, though seemingly
01:37:08
straightforward, is often compared to a real life Agatha Christie novel, a who done it murder mystery featuring
01:37:15
intricate puzzles, a closed circle of suspects, and detectives who solve crime using psychology rather than forensics.
01:37:25
The police's theory of how the crime occurred, portraying a suited gentleman turned sadistic killer wielding a blunt
01:37:32
instrument and wearing a waterproof coat to avoid getting soaked in blood, evokes
01:37:37
imagery reminiscent of Patrick Baitman, [music] the protagonist of Brad Easton Ellis's
01:37:42
controversial 1991 cult [music] classic horror novel American Psycho, which some
01:37:48
believe might have been inspired [music] by the Wallace murder. To this day, the case is still
01:37:54
scrutinized in search of answers [music] with numerous new theories put forward,
01:37:59
such as Julia harboring a secret double life or the possibility that the Qualtra
01:38:04
call was a red herring. Perhaps it was simply a prank call and William did [music] in fact murder
01:38:12
Julia. William then leveraged the existence of the call to his advantage, complicating
01:38:18
what might otherwise have been a relatively straightforward case of domestic homicide.
01:38:25
On Saturday, February 25, 1933, just over 2 years after Julia Wallace was murdered, William Wallace died from
01:38:34
the kidney [music] disease that had troubled him for most of his life. His last words spoken to his nephew
01:38:41
before slipping into the coma from which he never awoke were, "Do good with your life."
01:38:49
William was buried in the same plot as Julia with their shared headstone describing her as his beloved wife.
01:38:58
It is said that [music] in Anfield Cemetery, Qualra's two victims share a common grave.
01:39:07
In the words of English crime novelist and playwright Dorothy Saiers, the Wallace murder had no key move
01:39:15
[music] and ended in fact in stalemate. [music] >> [music]