UNSOLVED: Julia Wallace 2
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What is the background of Julia Wallace’s murder and the initial investigation?
Hi, everyone. It's Carter. Real quick before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show I think you might like hosted by Vanessa Richardson and forensic psychologist Dr. Tristan Ingalls. It's called Serial Killers and Murderous Minds. Every Monday and Thursday, they take you deep into the psychology of the most chilling murderers and uncover what drives them to kill. Follow Serial Killers and Murderous Minds available wherever you listen to podcasts.
This is Crime House. There's this old idea that there's no such thing as a perfect murder. That every killer slips up somewhere and leaves something behind. A fingerprint, a witness, a motive. Something that sooner or later gives them away. The murder of Julia Wallace is the case people point to when they want to argue the opposite. In 1931, 69-year-old Julia Wallace was killed in her own home in Liverpool, England, while her husband was clear across the city chasing a business appointment that turned out not to exist. The police were sure they knew who did it. The trouble was proving it. They had no murder weapon and no motive to point to. All they had was a strange phone call and a nagging sense that one man's story didn't quite add up.
So what do the police do when they're certain they've got their guy but can't prove a thing?
People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end, but you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far too soon, and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder, True Crime Stories, a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. New episodes come out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with Friday's episodes covering the cases that deserve a deeper look. Thank you for being part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review, and follow the show. And for early ad-free access to every episode, subscribe to Crime House Plus. You'll get part one and part two at the same time, plus exclusive bonus content.
To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or tap try free on the Murder True Crime Story show page on Apple Podcasts. This is the second of two episodes on the murder of Julia Wallace, and one of the strangest unsolved cases in British history. Last time, I introduced you to Julia and her husband William, an ordinary, devoted couple living a quiet life in a working-class corner of Liverpool. Then on the night of January 20th, 1931, Julia was beaten to death in their front room. Before long, the police had started to suspect the one man who'd been closest to her, the husband who found her body. Today, I'll take you through the rest of it. The investigation, the arrest, and the trial that would make legal history.
It's a case where almost a century later, most people agree on the facts. But they still can't agree on what they mean. All that and more, coming up.
On the night of January 20, 1931, 69-year-old Julia Wallace was beaten to death in the front room of her home in Liverpool, England. Her husband, 52-year-old William, found her body at around 8.45 p.m. after getting home from a business meeting that never happened. The night before Julia died, a stranger called William's chess club and left a message asking William to come talk about an insurance policy the next evening. The caller gave the name R. M. Qualtrough and an address in the south of the city, 25 Menlove Gardens East. When William went looking for it the next night, he found out the address didn't even exist. So the detectives started where anyone would, with the mystery caller. Their first theory was simple.
Qualtrough, whoever he was, had used a fake address to lure William out of the house, then killed Julia when she was home alone. There were a couple of problems with that idea, though. The first was Julia herself. She had no enemies, or at least none the police could dig up. By all accounts, she was a quiet, reserved woman who spent her days painting, playing piano, and looking after a husband whose health was always failing. If you went hunting for someone with a reason to want Julia Wallace dead, you came up empty.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the background of Julia Wallace’s murder and the initial investigation?
0:01–7:41
2
How did the police develop the theory that William Wallace staged the murder?
7:41–15:34
3
What evidence did detectives use to challenge Wallace’s alibi on the night of the killing?
15:34–26:51
4
How did the 1931 trial present the case against William Wallace and what were the key arguments?
26:51–34:37
5
Why did the Court of Criminal Appeal overturn Wallace’s conviction and what legal precedent was set?
34:37–41:37