William Herbert Wallace
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William Herbert Wallace, born 1878 in Broughton-in-Furness, Cumbria, was convicted in 1931 of the murder of his wife Julia in their home in Wolverton Street in Liverpool's Anfield district. His conviction was later overturned by by the Court Of Criminal Appeal, the first instance in British legal history where an appeal had been allowed after re-examination of evidence . The case has long been the subject of speculation and has generated many books, being regarded internationally as a classic murder mystery.
Wallace, an agent for the Prudential Assurance Company, attended a meeting of the Liverpool Chess Club on the evening of the 19th January, 1931 and was there handed a message, which had been received by telephone shortly before he arrived. It requested that he call at an address in Menlove Gardens East the following evening to discuss insurance with a man who had given his name as "Qualtrough." On the 20th of January, Wallace duly made his way by tramcar to the address in the south of the city at the time requested, only to discover that whilst there was a Menlove Gardens North, South and West - there was no East. Wallace made enquiries in a nearby newsagents and also spoke to a policeman on his beat, but neither were able to help him in his search for the address and he returned home. There he found his wife Julia had been savagely beaten to death in her sitting room.
Arrested two weeks later, Wallace was questioned at some length. The police had discovered that the phone box used by "Qualtrough" to make his call to the chess club was just a few hundred yards from Wallace's home, although the person who took the call was quite certain it was not Wallace on the other end of the line. They were also convinced that it would have been possible, just, for Wallace to murder his wife and still have time to arrive at the spot were he boarded his tram. This they attempted to prove by having a fit young detective go through the motions of the murder and then sprint all the way to the tram stop, something an ailing fifty three year old Wallace could never have accomplished.
Forensic examination of the crime scene had revealed that Julia Wallace's attacker was likely to have been heavily contaminated with her blood, given the brutal and frenzied nature of the assault. Wallace's suit, which he had been wearing on the night of the murder was examined closely but no trace of bloodstaining was found.
Wallace consistently denied having anything to do with the crime, but was charged with murder and stood trial at Liverpool's Crown Court. Despite the evidence against him being purely circumstantial, and the statement of a local milk delivery boy - who was certain he had spoken to Julia Wallace only minutes before her husband would have had to leave to catch his tram - Wallace was found guilty and sentenced to death.
After his successful Appeal, (1931) 23 Cr App Rep 32, he returned to his job in insurance but ill-health led to his retirement and he moved to the Wirral, dying in 1933 in Clatterbridge Hospital.
Despite much theorising as to the identity of the murderer, the case remains unsolved.
