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They were a nightmare.'"

Reflecting on the moment he awaited the appeal judge's verdict, he added, Nothing that ever happened to me in the hours of my blackest humiliation was ever half as hateful and horrible as the 14 minutes when I waited to hear the judge's decision.

The result was not without controversy.

Those convinced of William's guilt argued that the appeal didn't prove he wasn't a murderer, it only showed that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction.

To them, the outcome reinforced the notion that William was cunning and diabolical.

Some felt that if he had gotten away with murder once, what was to stop him from doing it again?

Rumours continued to follow him, painting him as an adulterer, a sadist, even a mad scientist.

Yet, even after being advised against it, William chose to continue living in Liverpool post-release, unwilling to let the opinions of others dictate his life.

He even remained at his Wolverton Street home and returned to his old job.

But by then, the townsfolk had decided to shun him.

People retreated into their homes, clutched their children tightly or lowered their heads as he walked past.

His chess club abandoned him, neighbours avoided him and he received scathing letters.

Children played cruel pranks on his home and adults were equally mean-spirited, calling him Killy Willy and visiting the Wallace house in the middle of the night to taunt him with menacing chants.

Julia, Julia, what's happened to Julia?

She's all chopped up, chop, chop, chop.

Morbid onlookers pressed their faces to the parlor windows, attempted to break in through the kitchen door to test their own theories, and even damaged the property to take pieces as macabre souvenirs.

William lasted a little over a month before moving away permanently.

Seeking some measure of justice from his ordeal, he settled out of court with several printers and publishers who he claimed had exposed him to public scandal, hatred and contempt through their greatly prejudiced reporting.

All parties agreed to a settlement of 200 pounds.

William's life thereafter was, in his own words, one marked by apprehension, nervousness, depression, loneliness, grief and anguish.