Anonymous Host

He continued to keep a personal diary, at one point writing, Julia, Julia, my dear, why were you taken from me?

Why, why should this have been so?

It is a question to which I can get no answer.

The same question plagued investigators when the inquiry into Julia Wallace's murder was reopened.

But the case went nowhere, ultimately being described as infinitely unbeatable and the perfect murder.

While many still believed that William got away with it, others, especially those who knew him best, maintained that he was completely innocent.

Whatever side of the argument one takes, the central question endured.

If not William, then who?

In the second statement William gave to police following his wife's murder, he was asked to list the names of men whom his wife would allow into their house without question.

The first name he provided was Richard Parry, better known as Gordon, and the second was Joseph Marsden.

William described both young men as friends of himself and Julia.

Both had previously worked for the Prudential Assurance Company, where William had acted as their supervisor.

He had allegedly caught each of them, quote, cooking the books, which was basically stealing, but there was no record of him reporting the issue.

The men were nevertheless fired or left of their own accord.

Parry and Marsden knew each other well.

While working under William, they had entered the Wallace home and William had shown them the location of the cash box where he stored the insurance payments, the very same spot it occupied on the night Julia was murdered.

They were aware that Prudential's pay-in day was Wednesday, meaning William's cash box typically contained the most money on a Tuesday night.

It is important to note that the cash box would have held substantially more on the night of Tuesday January 20 1931 had William not skipped collections that week due to illness.

Gordon Parry himself admitted to police that he knew William was a regular at Cottle's City Café, which Parry also attended every Thursday evening for a drama club.

During their investigation into various Qualtras living in Liverpool, the police encountered an R.J.