March 26, 2025 • 38 mins
In 1931, William and Julia Wallace had what seemed to be the perfect life. The couple had been married for over 16 years and resided in Liverpool. This perfect life, however, came to a screeching halt when Julia Wallace had her skull smashed in with a blunt object on the night of January 20, 1931, in the Wallace family home. This heinous crime led investigators in England on quite the journey, ending with the most usual suspect in these types of crime: the husband. But did William really kill his wife that night? Or is our killer more clever and sneaky than anticipated?
SOURCES:
1) The Julia Wallace Murder Foundation
2) William Herbert Wallace -- Wikipedia
SOURCES:
1) The Julia Wallace Murder Foundation
2) William Herbert Wallace -- Wikipedia
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
This episode ma contain content of a graphic nature, including
descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Listener discretion is advised. Hi, this is Tanya.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hi, this is Shannon, and we are Crimes.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I am doing good today. It's a for Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It is Friday, and it's so nice out little chili.
But yeah, the weather report at the beginning of every
episode that we have, because we do speak weather quite
a bit, it affects my.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Moods, yes, exactly. It affects my moods. Like at the
beginning of the week, I was so depressed and it's
because of this weather. I'm telling you, I can't wait
for a spring because like, okay, I'm deeply wallowing in
my seasonal depression. And we had beautiful weather on Wednesday
where it was like seventy degrees and that just gives
me a little hope and it kind of digs me
(01:25):
out of that hole. And here we are and hopefully
it will be here soon. So yeah, I'm doing good.
Though otherwise, you know, the weekend's coming. It's always a
good time. When it's the weekend, don't have to worry
about work or get up early and whatever. Spend the
time with you now.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
So exactly a Friday afternoon with the gales, and I
do know what you mean about the Wednesday good weather.
I was all sensitive to the well, like it's sunny,
and I'm like, I am going to work out, I'm
going on a brisk walk. I'm going to do that.
And then it's seven o'clock at night and I've done
nothing by it changes because the weather's nice. You know,
(02:03):
there truly isn't enough hours in the day. No, you know,
you gotta get shit done, and then you want to
have time to do what you want to do. And
that's curtail to about twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But so I have a good story today. It's an
older one. I do like the older ones. I find
them really interesting. It's from the thirties, so it's almost
one hundred years ago. But before I get into it,
I just would like to remind everyone to hit the
subscribe or follow button on whatever app you're listening to.
So I am just going to get into it. I'm
(02:36):
gonna tell you a story about William Herbert Wallace. He
was the oldest of three siblings and he was born
in eighteen seventy eight. William's family was quite well off
and he had an enjoyable childhood. William was a very
smart boy as well, and he actually jumped ahead in
school when he was five years old. By the young
(02:57):
age of fourteen, William began working to earn an apprenticeship
as a draper or someone who sold clothing. This job
allowed William to see the world. He even lived in
India and China for a few years while he was
in his twenties. His world travels came to an end
and brought him back to England after he was having
health issues regarding his kidneys. In nineteen oh six, William
(03:21):
resigned from his job, moved back to England and had
his left kidney removed. This really put William's life on
hold for a few years, and it wasn't until nineteen
eleven that William started working again for the Liberal Party
as an election agent. This new job brought William to
Yorkshire and he was really suffering with loss, heartbreak and
(03:43):
just overall sadness from the troubles and obstacles he was
encountering in his life. But in nineteen eleven. William was
also lucky enough to meet a woman and fall in love.
Julia Dennis was born in eighteen sixty one to loving
parents and in William George Dennis. Julia was the second
oldest of six siblings, and in eighteen seventy one, while
(04:04):
giving birth to the seventh Dnnist child, her mother passed away.
Up until this point, the Dunnist's own and ran a
very successful farm in the area where they lived, but
William George had to give up the family farm after
the death of his wife. During this time, William George
really leaned into his drinking habit and was becoming a
(04:24):
full blown alcoholic.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
And I got you said, he really leaned, and he
really leaned into it nice. I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
In eighteen seventy three, William George became the innkeeper at
a place called the Railway, in which, unbeknownst to him,
would be the last job he would ever have. By
eighteen seventy five, William George died of liver disease. Surprise, surprise, right,
And Julia, who is now just a teenager in eighteen
seventy five and one of the oldest of her siblings,
(04:56):
she got a job working as an assistant governess at
the kens Wwick House Ladies School in London. As a governess,
she was someone who provided education and child care to families.
The Kenswick House was also home to Robert and Charlotte Smith,
who were husband and wife. Charlotte was the governess of
the household, and together Julia and Charlotte took care of
(05:17):
and taught the Smith's three children, maud Matilda and Rose
like what great name for you? Yes, and three other
kids who were boarders in the home. So essentially they
had a little boarding school situation going on, and Charlotte
was the head governess and Julia got hired as her
assistant to help with the children. And being a governess
was a common job during that time period, and even
(05:40):
Julia's two biological younger sisters worked as governesses and other homes.
After spending nearly a decade at the Kenswick House Ladies' School,
Julia left London and moved to Yorkshire and was a
governess at another home called Elmhouse. At Elmhouse, she worked
for a family who also had the same last name
of Smith, Robert John and Sophia Smith and their children Sarah, Sophia,
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Claude and Robert. Julia worked for the Smith family at
Elmhouse for many years until seemingly leaving governessing altogether and
moving back to London into her own flat for a
few years before again going back to Yorkshire. In Yorkshire,
Julia's sister Annie would stay with her for a few years,
and Julia would actually become the landlord of one of
(06:27):
the buildings that she lived. Now here's where things get fishy, Okay,
so give you us a little bit of background. In
nineteen eleven a census was taken and on one of
the documents taken the name Miss Dennis is listed and
on the other Jane Dennis is listed. Both documents have
the same listed address, but the birthdates are different. The
(06:48):
birthday listed for Miss Dennis is the actual birthday of
Julia Dennis, which was April twenty eighth, eighteen sixty one.
And for those of us who are not good at math,
in nineteen eleven, Julia would have been fifty years old.
The census with Jane Dennis listed and said that Julia
was only thirty two years old. Either way, Julia had
(07:10):
really come into herself by nineteen eleven, and she possessed
many talents and hobbies, especially in the arts. Julia could
speak fluent French. She did watercolor paintings and also was
a talented singer and pianist. It was said that her
home was just filled with the most beautiful watercolor paintings
that she had done herself. Some described Julia as shy
(07:32):
and timid, while others saw her as extremely prideful and
honestly kind of weird. So in nineteen eleven, Julia owned
the flat that she lived in and life seemed pretty good.
William and Julia, remember I told you about William earlier.
They lived just two blocks from each other, so they
were bound across paths eventually, and when they did, their
(07:53):
relationship quickly flourished. William spoke about Julia as if she
truly made him a better man. The pair had tons
of things in common, including a love for music, the
English countryside, in literature. During their time dating, William's mother
passed away, and there's no doubt that William leaned on
Julia during that difficult time. The couple got married in
(08:16):
nineteen fourteen, and together William and Julia loved to host
friends over and the night with music in their parlor,
as William was a novice violinist and Julia could sing
and play piano. Seemingly, the only thing the couple didn't
do together was go to church, because William was the
more agnostic, where Julia was active in their local church
and she didn't mind going to services alone. Now we
(08:39):
know that Julia was significantly older than William, and she
was lying to him about it. William, who was born
in eighteen seventy eight, was only thirty five years old
in nineteen thirteen, and Julia would have been fifty two.
Another strange thing Julia did was that on their marriage
license she listed that her father was a veterinary surgeon,
(08:59):
when we know for a fact that he was a
farmer and a drunk who died. Like a weird thing to.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Lie about, but the less, you know, some embellishments here
right right?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
You know it sounded sexy. I guess William's sister Jesse
and the couple's neighbor j s Allenson signed the marriage
license as witnesses. Since meeting Julia, William had continued to
work for the Liberal Party as an election agent, but
in nineteen fourteen, the entire world changed forever. With the
start of World War One, William tried and failed six
(09:33):
plus times to fight in the war, but due to
his single kidney, he was never going to qualify to fight.
It's clear that this fact took a toll on him
as he continued to try and join the armed forces.
Finally accepting his fate, William settled on taking an insurance
agent job in Liverpool. William and Julia moved to the
place they would call home, which was located in an
(09:53):
area of Liverpool called Clubmore. Clubmore was considered to be
a relatively poor neighborhood. Being an insurance agent was not
what William wanted his career to be. He had a
passion for the sciences and had a dream of one
day making a scientific discovery that would change mankind forever,
so much so that he turned one of the upstairs
(10:15):
bedrooms in their home into a laboratory. Also on the side,
William earned an education from the Liverpool Technical College and
started lecturing there about electricity and chemistry. In nineteen twenty two,
William and his friend neighbor James started a chess club,
and that was something William was passionate about as well.
(10:35):
For fifteen years, William and Julia really just settled into
what was seemingly a normal life for a couple in
the nineteen hundreds. Julia went to church, William went to chess,
and they of course continued to have their parties that
ended in music. Neighbors of the Wallaces stated that they
really were a devoted couple, and after nearly two decades
(10:56):
of living by them, they had never heard as much
as a verbal disagreement between the two. Both Julia and
William were very drawn to intellectual pursuits rather than social pursuits.
Once they were married, their social lives dwindled, and the
couple spent most of their time with William's brother, his wife,
and their son. Julia would sometimes stay after church for
a cup of tea, but was often eager to get
(11:17):
home to her husband. Some of the women in their
congregation believed that William had Julia under lock and key,
while others just believed that this was the life that
they both chose to live and they were content with it.
It was obvious that amongst all the hobbies and interests,
chess was the one that William enjoyed the most. In
nineteen thirty one, William was part of a chess club
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dubbed the Liverpool Central Chess Club. Even though it seemed
that William loved chess a lot, he was reportedly really
bad at it, but still this was a community he
was part of and he knew the other local chess
players for nearly a decade. At this point, I don't
know how to play chess, do you?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I do. I'm not good at it either. I've been
known to flip a board in anchor.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I won't give you DT.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Then yes, he went someone who has much better strategy.
You look at the board and people know how to
do ten moves ahead. We've heard that expression, oh you
know there are so many moves ahead. I am more
of a play it by ear now, so I don't.
My strategy ways are non scientific.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
The Liverpool Central Chess Club met on Mondays and Thursdays
every week, even during the harsh winter months. While William
was passionate and dedicated to the chess club, he really
only attended one meeting a week to play a match
or cell. William was a hard and dedicated worker, so
he didn't have as much free time from his insurance ventures. However,
every other Monday he ensured he would be able to
(12:49):
play chess. Monday, January nineteenth, nineteen thirty one was one
of those Mondays that William planned to enjoy himself rather
than work. William was actually hesitant to go to the
chess club on that Monday night because he was just
getting over the flu and Julia was sick with bronchitis
and their pet cat, whose name was Puss, had accidentally
gotten out and was yet to come home, but Julie
(13:11):
insisted that he go. Around seven forty five that evening,
William showed up to the chess club and club director
Samuel Betty had a message for him. Just about thirty
minutes before his arrival, someone by the name of R. M.
Waltrow called the cafe where the club was hosted and
asked to speak to William. Since William had not yet arrived,
(13:32):
Samuel took the call and a message for him. The
person on the other line asked for William's address since
he wasn't yet at the chess club, but Samuel refused
to give him this information and agreed to take the message.
The mysterious caller asked Samuel to tell William to meet
him the following evening at seven thirty pm at twenty
five Men Love Gardens East to discuss business regarding his
(13:55):
daughter turning twenty one. When Samuel relayed this message to William,
no one was able to figure figure out who this
rm Qualtro was. Samuel and William actually asked around the
club if anybody knew who this guy was or if
they knew about the address he wanted to meet at,
and no one did. Other players had heard of Men
Love Gardens North, South and West and Men Love Avenue West,
(14:18):
but not Men Love Gardens East. Several players offered suggestions
of how William might get there the next evening. Oddly enough,
that same night, another man asked Samuel for William's address.
So at the Liverpool Central Chess Club, if you arrived
later than seven thirty pm, you basically threw the match
and automatically lost. William was late. He arrived at seven
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forty five, so the match he was scheduled to play
he didn't end up playing this other guy. James cared
realized that William didn't have anyone to play at the
moment and offered to play William, but he refused this
game because James was in a higher playing class and
he probably knew what's gonna lose. Yes. After William refre
refused James, James walked over to the check and table
(15:02):
and asked Samuel for William's address. During James's conversation with Samuel,
William found another guy to play a match against and
settled into that. Samuel refused to give James the address
and just directed him to go talk to William himself.
Was this a really weird coincidence or is James cared
ur M Barni Paltrow? Is he just being shitty?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
No, right right. William played a successful game against his
new opponent, winning and left the club around ten to
fifteen pm that night. He was seen leaving the club
with none other than James Cared. During the conversation, James
told William that he knew a man by the name
of Qualtrow. Not only that, but James had recommended for
(15:44):
William about the best way to get to men Love
Garden East to meet this mysterious R. M.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Qualtrow.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
The pair walked for a bit together before going their
separate ways to their respective homes. William arrived home around
eleven pm that night and Juliet had dine waiting for him.
This was not unusual for Julia and William to have
dinner so late. This was actually their normal practice, and
they went to bed around midnight. After good night's sleep,
William was off again by ten thirty am to start
(16:12):
his day of insurance collection rounds. After making rounds for
about two hours, he stopped at home for lunch and
then headed back out again to continue working. When he
returned home, she had dinner ready, and the couple eight
together and discussed the strange message and meeting invitation that
William had received the night before. Again, William was hesitant
to go to the meeting, but he claimed that Julia
(16:33):
convinced him to go. After all, commission is commission, and
both Julia and William were considered hard dedicated workers. William
left again that day, this time around six forty five pm,
and he decided to take the tram instead of walking
to meet R. M. Qualtrow. Because he wasn't completely sure
of what the meeting place was, William decided to head
(16:54):
to the area where Menlove Avenue West was and try
to find his way from there. To get to mend Avenue,
he had to take three different trams. William was relying
on the conductor of the trams to help get him
to his final destination. On the second tram, the conductor
told him where to get off to change trams, and
on the third tram, the conductor explained to William the
layout of the men Love Garden's neighborhood and where he
(17:18):
would most likely find his destination. But seriously, these directions
didn't help him at all. He walked in circles around
the neighborhood and stopped a few different people on the
street to ask them for directions. He even went and
knocked on the door of the house at twenty five
men Love Gardens West to see if the address was
written down incorrectly, like maybe he was supposed to go there. Yeah,
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but he hit a dead end, and he hit dead
end after dead end. When William was finally close to
giving up, he ran into a police officer on the
street and asked him where he could find the address.
The officer informed him that there was no such place
as at men Love Gardens East. This officer gave him
yet another suggestion of a place to try, and that
if William went to the post office or a police station,
(18:00):
he may be able to find a map to help
him out. William followed the officer's advice and went to
a nearby post office, but they did not have a
street directory, and suggested that he try the newspaper shop
as they might have one. I mean, this poor guy's
going he really wants his permission?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Does?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
When William arrived at the newspaper shop just before nine pm,
he got lucky because they did in fact have a
street directory. William and the store clark cuddled over the map,
and William asked her for help finding the address, but
again they had no luck. Defeated in just cranky at
this point in time, William gave up on a search
and decided to head back home. He rode basically the
(18:40):
same three trams on his route home, but this time
no witnesses remember seeing him. So what was Julia doing
all day while William was working? On January twentieth, nineteen
thirty one, she had a pretty laid back day. It's
unsure what she spent her morning doing, but around three
point thirty pm that day, her sister in law, Amy
came by for a visit. Amy reported that Julia told
(19:01):
her about William's business meeting that was scheduled for later
that night. The duo also discussed how there had been
a surge of break ins in the area. While Amy
was visiting, the baker's son stopped by to deliver Julia
her brad. The son actually asked Julia how she was doing,
because he said that she looked really sick and not
like herself. Around four thirty PM, Amy left, and as
(19:24):
she was leaving, the window cleaner was arriving to clean
Julia and William's home windows. The window cleaner was arriving
to clean Julia and William's home windows that night, around
six thirty Julia had another visitor. This time it was
the milkman's son to deliver the weekly milk. The son
knocked at the door and then left the milk on
the step and moved on to the next home. By
(19:45):
the time he was at the next door, Julia came out,
gave the son too empty curtains, and instructed him to
hurry home because it was cold outside. In between these
visits and various chores, we know that Julia made William
lunch and dinner and ate those meals with him. When
William arrived home at around ten forty. That evening, he
tried his front door key, but the door wouldn't open.
The house Julia and William lived in also hit a
(20:06):
door in the back that they typically used, but at
night it was most common for them to use the
front door to be able to keep their home more secure.
William lightly knocked in the front door before making his
way to the back. The back door was also locked,
which he expected, and he knocked lightly again, which was
heard by the neighbors. Julia wasn't opening the door, so
William went around to the front again. He was knocking
(20:29):
and knocking again, now with some level of worry building
inside him, He decided again that he was going to
check the back door, and this time on his way
around the house, he ran into two other neighbors, John
and Florence Johnson. William immediately asked the couple if they
had heard anything unusual happening that night. William told John
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and Florence that he was unable to get into his
home and was getting worried about his wife since she
was home sick. William tried again with his neighbors at
his side, and the door thankfully opened. Suggested that he
and Florence stay on the porch while William took a
look inside to make sure everything was okay. The first
place William checked was the upstairs middle bedroom, where he
(21:09):
and Julia slept, thinking maybe she went to betterly since
she was sick. When she wasn't in there, he went
back downstairs to check the parlor. Upon lighting the match
and opening the door slightly, William saw his wife Julia
laying face down on the floor in a pool of
her own blood. Come and see she's been killed, William
shouted to John and Florence as he ran back to
(21:31):
the doorway where they were standing in complete disbelief and shock.
John followed William back into the home and into the parlor.
At first glance, no furniture had been moved, but the
closer John looked, the more horrors he saw. Blood had
been sprayed over seven feet high onto the walls and ceilings.
Many of Julia's paintings were covered in her blood. Julia
(21:52):
had a very large wound on the back of her head,
which seemed to be oozing brain and skull matter. Along
with the pool of blood Julia was laying in, there
were two other large pools of blood near the fireplace.
Florence was the only one to approach the body to
ensure that Julia was dead. Of course, she's the brave one,
right right. William noticed that one of the cabinets in
the kitchen had been ripped off, and all of William's
(22:14):
insurance collections from that day had been stolen. All that
was left was a single dollar bill and some stamps,
and with that John ran out of the house to
find the nearest doctor while Florence and William waded in
the kitchen. I'll tell you a little bit about John,
Florence and their family. They lived next door to the wallaces,
and the way the houses were set up, they would
(22:35):
have basically shared a wall with each other, so I'm
thinking it's like a row of homes. Right at the
home with John and Florence was their daughter Nora. Nora
was engaged to a man named Francis, and he was
frequently over their house to visit Nora. On the night
of January twentieth, Francis was at the Johnson household. Also
when the house was another son, Russell and his wife Sarah.
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When Russell heard what was going on and that his
parents were at the way else's house. He went over
there right away. He found his mother and William in
the kitchen, and William was actually cutting up meat for
Julia's cat, who had returned home at some point that day.
Russell found that site pretty unsettling, considering his wife was
in the other room dead. It was just kind of yeah, right, like.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yes now, and I'm cutting meat. Yeah, her brain matter
is oozing out just right.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Like what the hell?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Oh your audience read.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
The room, dude, thank you. At this point, John is
still gone to get a doctor and police to bring
to the Wallace's house, and Florence and William are still waiting.
They decided to go back into the parlor and check
out the scene further. Florence again felt Julia and noticed
that she was colder than she was when they first
arrived on the scene. The pair wandered together what the
(23:49):
killer had used to kill her. William then noticed the
jacket he was wearing earlier in the day was on
the floor in the parlor, along with Julia's jacket. Not
knowing how they got there, Florence and William went back
to the kitchen. Since they were still waiting, Florence suggested
they start a fire, and that's exactly what she did.
During the time they waited, William cried multiple times and
(24:11):
sat with his hut in his hands. The first officers
to the house did a horrible job at preserving the
crime scene. They did such a bad job that an
officer literally showed up to the crime scene drunk and
went to the bathroom and flushed the toilet in the house.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
But let's back up a little bit to when the
first officer arrived at the scene. That officer was named
Constable Williams, and when he first arrived, William took him
on a walk through the home. First, they went upstairs
and took a look in the bathroom and then the
bedroom and Julia and Williams's bedroom. There was a mantle
and the couple had a jar with coins inside. William
showed this to Constable Williams, and as he was showing
(24:48):
it to him, he picked up a few coins that
were inside. Immediately, Constable Williams told William to put those
back and not touch anything further. This was another example
of how the crime scene was not properly protect did
before investigation. William took the Constable into the other two bedrooms,
the one which was the makeshift laboratory and the other
one which was used as a spare room. And the
(25:09):
spare room, the sheets were kind of pulled down and
off the bed and some of the pillows were on
the floor. William told the constable that he hadn't been
in that room in like two weeks, and so he
didn't know if it had been like that or not.
After the tour, many other officers, medics, and investigators arrived
on the scene and the investigation was in full swing.
The first suspect, as is usually suspected when a wife
(25:32):
is murdered, is the husband. People suspected William on the
first night of the investigation, but there just wasn't enough
evidence to back that theory up. According to the autopsy,
Julia's time of death was seven fifty PM and was
caused by three to four blows with a blunt object.
At that time, William would have been across town searching
for the address that R. M. Qualtrow requested he meet
(25:55):
a matt There were also no bloodstains anywhere except in
the parlor. The chances that after murdering his wife, William
was able to go upstairs change his clothes and wash
off without leaving a single trace. Officers needed a Hail Mary.
If they were going to be able to charge William
with the murder of his wife. They had to be
missing something, But what was it? They finally had the
(26:18):
aha moment. William's outdoor coat was found in the parlor
under Julia's dead body. Maybe William was able to travel
to Menlove Gardens without a trace of the crime on
him because he was wearing his coat during the murder
and then took it off because it had blood splatter
on it. Police finally put together their theory of what
happened that faithful night. They believed that on January nineteenth,
(26:38):
William went to a payphone and made a call to
the cafe where his chess club would be meeting. He
masked his voice and left the mysterious message that Samuel
would later give to William himself. After making the mysterious call,
William headed to the chess club meeting, which he arrived
too late, and when he got to the chess club,
he faked his cluelessness and regarded the mysterious message, all
(27:00):
to create an alibi for himself. Then the next night,
police believed that he waited until the milk boy came
to see Julia alive, quickly killed her, took off the jacket,
and went on his way to the pretend meeting that
he had set up. William strongly refuted this theory and
maintained his innocence. It was proven by witnesses across town
(27:21):
that saw and spoke to William that he did actually
go looking for R. M. Qualtrow, and while he continued
to maintain his innocence, he was very vocal about who
he thought was his wife's true killer, Richard Gordon Perry.
There were many people in the community who believed that
William was innocent and that he was just caught up
in a tragic and horrible experience. Richard Perry used to
(27:43):
work under William at the insurance company, and he was
either fired or left on his own because William caught
him stealing money from the company and cooking the books.
William stated that Richard did work alone and there were
other men he supervised that we're also stealing. One was
Joseph K. Martsen. William caught the men stealing and they
(28:03):
left the company, but continued to be friends. After departing.
Both of the men had been to Williams's house on
multiple occasions and knew where he kept the cash box
that he put his insurance collections in. Richard also admitted
to police that he knew and was a regular at
the Liverpool Center Chess Club, and he knew what cafe
they met at regularly, so he would have known where
(28:25):
to call and leave a message. Another interesting finding regarding
the potential involvement of Richard and Joseph is that when
the police were looking into all the people with the
name Qualtro, they found a man named R. J. Qualtrow,
and he just so happened to be a client of
Joseph's new insurance company. Joseph claimed that the night of
the murder he was sick in bed with the flu
(28:47):
that was terrorizing Liverpool that winter. Richard claimed that the
day of the murder, he spent the entire afternoon with
some friends, who verified this. However, this alibi for the
phone call was quite suspicious. Richard told officers that the
night the phone call was made, he was with his
girlfriend Lily. Lily, however, said that he was not with
(29:08):
her during the time the phone call was made. When
he did show up to her house. She was annoyed
because he was late. It was very unclear what actually
happened over the course of January nineteenth to twentieth, nineteen
thirty one. The first place that officers zoomed in on
was the phone call. They wanted to analyze all the
details around this and see what they could find. The
(29:28):
first thing considered was the distance between William and Julia's
house and the phone booth. The phone booth that made
the call was very close to William's home, and he
could have left home at the time he said he
did quickly stopped and still made it to the chest
cloud by seven forty five ish. William was eventually charged
with Julia's murder, and on April twenty second, nineteen thirty one,
(29:49):
he stood trial, and, despite the fact that all the
evidence around him was strictly circumstantial, after only one hour
of deliberation, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him
to death that same day.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
What oh my gosh, right, fine, insane, I know that's
April twenty second, nineteen thirty one.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
By May of nineteen thirty one, William's sentence was overturned
in an appeal and he was released.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
I know.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
The Court of Criminal Appeals said that there was simply
not enough evidence against William to charge and convict him
with the murder of his wife. This was incredibly shocking
to the public, especially since it was super uncommon in
the nineteen hundreds. After William was set free, he returned
to his insurance job, but life wasn't easy for him.
There were still tons of people in the community who
believed that he killed his wife and just got away
(30:38):
with it. William lost clients and friends. William received hate
mail and even physical threats made against his life. William
lived in fear that the person who killed his wife
may come after him now that he was free and
the case wasn't solved. William continued to struggle with kidney
issues after having one removed in emergency surgery that I
told you about, and he ended up using surgery that
(30:58):
would have prolonged his life. He died in the hospital
at age fifty four and was then buried next to
his wife in nineteen thirty three. Now that William is
a free man, Now what other possible situations happened that night? First,
there could have been someone who was watching William and
waiting for him to leave that evening so they could
commit the crime. It would have honestly been easy for
(31:20):
a person to set this up if they spent even
just a few weeks watching William and Julia, because they
were very routine oriented people. Sound yeah right, I mean
they did things always at the same time clockwork. Not
only that, but the chess schedule was posted on a
board in a public place for anyone to see. And
if this possible Stoker made the phone call, they were
already setting William up for failure by giving him a
(31:42):
fake address, knowing that would keep him out of the
home for an extended period of time, giving them enough
time to commit the crime without anyone seeing them. There
was also a lot of different clubs that met at
that specific cafe, so that board got a lot of
traction and attention by round. The other theory is that
Richard Gordon Pear is the killer with the potential help
of Joseph Caleb Mardsen to get William back for catching
(32:05):
and calling them out for stealing insurance money. Not only
did he know where the Wallaces lived and where William
kept his cash box, and when William went to play chess,
he knew that too. He also had a criminal record
and included things like vandalism, stealing, and sexual abuse, which
he was acquitted from. But all of these crimes appeared
to be spur of the moment and involved no planning
(32:26):
at all, and he typically got caught right away, which
might indicate that maybe he wasn't responsible for the murder.
But he did give a fake account to where he
was at night that the phone call was made, saying
he was with his girlfriend when he actually wasn't. To
this day, the murderer of Julia Wallace has never been
found and her case remains unsolved, and people still question
whether or not Richard Gordon Perry was involved, or if
(32:48):
William did it, or if it was something random. So
it's crazy. Story, that is crazy.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
And do you think William killed his wife? I'm not
feeling it because what's the mine?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
But what's the motive?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Right? He hates her, they can't stand each other. She's
a drunk, he's a drunk taking a.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Pick, yes, And none of that seemed to be apparent.
The only thing that sounded like they didn't do together
was go to church. So okay, a lot of couples
don't go to church together. But it just doesn't seem like, like,
what one day he just decided he couldn't stand her
and decided to kill her.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
That does not make sense at all. And that what's
his name, Roger? What's the other Richard?
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah? Yeah, Richard Gordon Perry.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
And he's the one who's stolen money from the insurance company. Yeah,
and William had to fire him.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Is that how it went?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Okay, so you can't really be friends with the person
who fired you because you had said, oh yeah, he
got fire. But there they still remain friends.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
There, No one person is in the darkness above the friendship.
There is no friendship. I'm thinking I would go I'm
leaning more towards richeh just he seems to have the
most motive to try to fuck over William in a
way it ruined his life. If William didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I know, it's it seems odd. I don't know. I
don't think I like you. I have this feeling that
William didn't do it. I don't know. I think to
go on this wild goose chase one thing to set
the story up. Okay, yes, so you set this story
up that this guy calls and you're going to go
to this fake address and whatever. But do you actually
(34:29):
spend hours and hours searching for this fake address if
if you really need an alibi? Maybe not.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
I don't know, I put in I would spend Usually
people are just very the thinking mind is, let me
just be seen, let me have the post office, see
me this police officer. Then I'm head right back home.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Right, I'm done, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
That's I don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I don't know, but yeah, I don't. I don't get
the feeling William did it. Although William did feed the cat.
I don't know. That was weird. But we will do
weird shit when they're like, that's right, you know, when
you're in shock and you do weird stuff. I think
I do weird shit all the time. So I mean yes, and.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
It was an act of love in a shocking state.
I can see like, oh, the cat's back, she'd be
so happy. So you dote down the cat in a way.
But that's just me, you know, pulling out a story
of things I wasn't there for, I know, but I
would surmise could see happening. Yeah, that's it's so. And
then nineteen eleven when you said that he had his
(35:31):
kidney removed William Yeah, you know, were that advanced in
nineteen eleven? Right?
Speaker 1 (35:38):
And he survived it, and yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, it's up and down on the sciences for us.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Curiously, did they have like were they killing germs back
in nineteen eleven? Did they like use and they must have, right?
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Oh please?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
I don't know when. And bacteria and stuff were discovered,
but there's always been probably vodka.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, or bleach maybe, and you know, these people were
dealing with their problems with cocaine and morphine, so it
couldn't have been that. You know, what I love about
his wife is that she lived for fifty years with
no husband, and I thought, oh, he's using her for money,
you know, because if you have no children and if
(36:19):
it's just you and you can travel and you can
learn water color, Oh my gosh, I'm living the life
in nineteen eleven, right, right, or you were born before
your time? I love it. And that's why, you know,
who's gonna marry, especially at that time. What man in
his thirties is gonna marry someone who would be considered
(36:39):
a spinster?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
You know? Yeah, why isn't he marrying a woman who's seventeen?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah, so he's making choices obviously that she fulfills a
part of him. Right. Oh now I'm gonna say, William,
I can be proven wrong. I have no you know,
I have no stronghold on my uh guesses.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And your stands.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yes, I know, I know I'd be curious to know
what people thought. So anyway too, But thank you, Tanya.
I love that story. You're welcome that are unsolved are
just as intriguing, I know, just as even more so
in different ways, but pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Thank you, Yes, thank you for listening, and thank you
everyone for listening to this week's episode. And before we go,
I just like to remind everyone to hit the subscriber
follow button and whatever app you're listening to, and you
can't go to our website Crimes Andconsequences dot com. I
still have to catch up from last week's episode from
weeks ago. Sorry, Shannon, I keep forgetting to do that.
(37:40):
And then you can also if you would like to
hear more episodes, we have a Patreon. You can go
to patreon dot com slash TNT crimes and you can
get another episode per week. We do one free one
like this one, and we do a episode that you
pay for and You can also sign up through the
Apple Podcast app and pay a little monthly fee and
(38:02):
get an episode every week. And I think that's everything.
So until our next episode.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Until our next timetime to me, I will see you.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Bye bye,
This episode ma contain content of a graphic nature, including
descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Listener discretion is advised. Hi, this is Tanya.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hi, this is Shannon, and we are Crimes.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I am doing good today. It's a for Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It is Friday, and it's so nice out little chili.
But yeah, the weather report at the beginning of every
episode that we have, because we do speak weather quite
a bit, it affects my.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Moods, yes, exactly. It affects my moods. Like at the
beginning of the week, I was so depressed and it's
because of this weather. I'm telling you, I can't wait
for a spring because like, okay, I'm deeply wallowing in
my seasonal depression. And we had beautiful weather on Wednesday
where it was like seventy degrees and that just gives
me a little hope and it kind of digs me
(01:25):
out of that hole. And here we are and hopefully
it will be here soon. So yeah, I'm doing good.
Though otherwise, you know, the weekend's coming. It's always a
good time. When it's the weekend, don't have to worry
about work or get up early and whatever. Spend the
time with you now.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
So exactly a Friday afternoon with the gales, and I
do know what you mean about the Wednesday good weather.
I was all sensitive to the well, like it's sunny,
and I'm like, I am going to work out, I'm
going on a brisk walk. I'm going to do that.
And then it's seven o'clock at night and I've done
nothing by it changes because the weather's nice. You know,
(02:03):
there truly isn't enough hours in the day. No, you know,
you gotta get shit done, and then you want to
have time to do what you want to do. And
that's curtail to about twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
But so I have a good story today. It's an
older one. I do like the older ones. I find
them really interesting. It's from the thirties, so it's almost
one hundred years ago. But before I get into it,
I just would like to remind everyone to hit the
subscribe or follow button on whatever app you're listening to.
So I am just going to get into it. I'm
(02:36):
gonna tell you a story about William Herbert Wallace. He
was the oldest of three siblings and he was born
in eighteen seventy eight. William's family was quite well off
and he had an enjoyable childhood. William was a very
smart boy as well, and he actually jumped ahead in
school when he was five years old. By the young
(02:57):
age of fourteen, William began working to earn an apprenticeship
as a draper or someone who sold clothing. This job
allowed William to see the world. He even lived in
India and China for a few years while he was
in his twenties. His world travels came to an end
and brought him back to England after he was having
health issues regarding his kidneys. In nineteen oh six, William
(03:21):
resigned from his job, moved back to England and had
his left kidney removed. This really put William's life on
hold for a few years, and it wasn't until nineteen
eleven that William started working again for the Liberal Party
as an election agent. This new job brought William to
Yorkshire and he was really suffering with loss, heartbreak and
(03:43):
just overall sadness from the troubles and obstacles he was
encountering in his life. But in nineteen eleven. William was
also lucky enough to meet a woman and fall in love.
Julia Dennis was born in eighteen sixty one to loving
parents and in William George Dennis. Julia was the second
oldest of six siblings, and in eighteen seventy one, while
(04:04):
giving birth to the seventh Dnnist child, her mother passed away.
Up until this point, the Dunnist's own and ran a
very successful farm in the area where they lived, but
William George had to give up the family farm after
the death of his wife. During this time, William George
really leaned into his drinking habit and was becoming a
(04:24):
full blown alcoholic.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
And I got you said, he really leaned, and he
really leaned into it nice. I love it.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
In eighteen seventy three, William George became the innkeeper at
a place called the Railway, in which, unbeknownst to him,
would be the last job he would ever have. By
eighteen seventy five, William George died of liver disease. Surprise, surprise, right,
And Julia, who is now just a teenager in eighteen
seventy five and one of the oldest of her siblings,
(04:56):
she got a job working as an assistant governess at
the kens Wwick House Ladies School in London. As a governess,
she was someone who provided education and child care to families.
The Kenswick House was also home to Robert and Charlotte Smith,
who were husband and wife. Charlotte was the governess of
the household, and together Julia and Charlotte took care of
(05:17):
and taught the Smith's three children, maud Matilda and Rose
like what great name for you? Yes, and three other
kids who were boarders in the home. So essentially they
had a little boarding school situation going on, and Charlotte
was the head governess and Julia got hired as her
assistant to help with the children. And being a governess
was a common job during that time period, and even
(05:40):
Julia's two biological younger sisters worked as governesses and other homes.
After spending nearly a decade at the Kenswick House Ladies' School,
Julia left London and moved to Yorkshire and was a
governess at another home called Elmhouse. At Elmhouse, she worked
for a family who also had the same last name
of Smith, Robert John and Sophia Smith and their children Sarah, Sophia,
(06:05):
Claude and Robert. Julia worked for the Smith family at
Elmhouse for many years until seemingly leaving governessing altogether and
moving back to London into her own flat for a
few years before again going back to Yorkshire. In Yorkshire,
Julia's sister Annie would stay with her for a few years,
and Julia would actually become the landlord of one of
(06:27):
the buildings that she lived. Now here's where things get fishy, Okay,
so give you us a little bit of background. In
nineteen eleven a census was taken and on one of
the documents taken the name Miss Dennis is listed and
on the other Jane Dennis is listed. Both documents have
the same listed address, but the birthdates are different. The
(06:48):
birthday listed for Miss Dennis is the actual birthday of
Julia Dennis, which was April twenty eighth, eighteen sixty one.
And for those of us who are not good at math,
in nineteen eleven, Julia would have been fifty years old.
The census with Jane Dennis listed and said that Julia
was only thirty two years old. Either way, Julia had
(07:10):
really come into herself by nineteen eleven, and she possessed
many talents and hobbies, especially in the arts. Julia could
speak fluent French. She did watercolor paintings and also was
a talented singer and pianist. It was said that her
home was just filled with the most beautiful watercolor paintings
that she had done herself. Some described Julia as shy
(07:32):
and timid, while others saw her as extremely prideful and
honestly kind of weird. So in nineteen eleven, Julia owned
the flat that she lived in and life seemed pretty good.
William and Julia, remember I told you about William earlier.
They lived just two blocks from each other, so they
were bound across paths eventually, and when they did, their
(07:53):
relationship quickly flourished. William spoke about Julia as if she
truly made him a better man. The pair had tons
of things in common, including a love for music, the
English countryside, in literature. During their time dating, William's mother
passed away, and there's no doubt that William leaned on
Julia during that difficult time. The couple got married in
(08:16):
nineteen fourteen, and together William and Julia loved to host
friends over and the night with music in their parlor,
as William was a novice violinist and Julia could sing
and play piano. Seemingly, the only thing the couple didn't
do together was go to church, because William was the
more agnostic, where Julia was active in their local church
and she didn't mind going to services alone. Now we
(08:39):
know that Julia was significantly older than William, and she
was lying to him about it. William, who was born
in eighteen seventy eight, was only thirty five years old
in nineteen thirteen, and Julia would have been fifty two.
Another strange thing Julia did was that on their marriage
license she listed that her father was a veterinary surgeon,
(08:59):
when we know for a fact that he was a
farmer and a drunk who died. Like a weird thing to.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Lie about, but the less, you know, some embellishments here
right right?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
You know it sounded sexy. I guess William's sister Jesse
and the couple's neighbor j s Allenson signed the marriage
license as witnesses. Since meeting Julia, William had continued to
work for the Liberal Party as an election agent, but
in nineteen fourteen, the entire world changed forever. With the
start of World War One, William tried and failed six
(09:33):
plus times to fight in the war, but due to
his single kidney, he was never going to qualify to fight.
It's clear that this fact took a toll on him
as he continued to try and join the armed forces.
Finally accepting his fate, William settled on taking an insurance
agent job in Liverpool. William and Julia moved to the
place they would call home, which was located in an
(09:53):
area of Liverpool called Clubmore. Clubmore was considered to be
a relatively poor neighborhood. Being an insurance agent was not
what William wanted his career to be. He had a
passion for the sciences and had a dream of one
day making a scientific discovery that would change mankind forever,
so much so that he turned one of the upstairs
(10:15):
bedrooms in their home into a laboratory. Also on the side,
William earned an education from the Liverpool Technical College and
started lecturing there about electricity and chemistry. In nineteen twenty two,
William and his friend neighbor James started a chess club,
and that was something William was passionate about as well.
(10:35):
For fifteen years, William and Julia really just settled into
what was seemingly a normal life for a couple in
the nineteen hundreds. Julia went to church, William went to chess,
and they of course continued to have their parties that
ended in music. Neighbors of the Wallaces stated that they
really were a devoted couple, and after nearly two decades
(10:56):
of living by them, they had never heard as much
as a verbal disagreement between the two. Both Julia and
William were very drawn to intellectual pursuits rather than social pursuits.
Once they were married, their social lives dwindled, and the
couple spent most of their time with William's brother, his wife,
and their son. Julia would sometimes stay after church for
a cup of tea, but was often eager to get
(11:17):
home to her husband. Some of the women in their
congregation believed that William had Julia under lock and key,
while others just believed that this was the life that
they both chose to live and they were content with it.
It was obvious that amongst all the hobbies and interests,
chess was the one that William enjoyed the most. In
nineteen thirty one, William was part of a chess club
(11:38):
dubbed the Liverpool Central Chess Club. Even though it seemed
that William loved chess a lot, he was reportedly really
bad at it, but still this was a community he
was part of and he knew the other local chess
players for nearly a decade. At this point, I don't
know how to play chess, do you?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I do. I'm not good at it either. I've been
known to flip a board in anchor.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I won't give you DT.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Then yes, he went someone who has much better strategy.
You look at the board and people know how to
do ten moves ahead. We've heard that expression, oh you
know there are so many moves ahead. I am more
of a play it by ear now, so I don't.
My strategy ways are non scientific.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
The Liverpool Central Chess Club met on Mondays and Thursdays
every week, even during the harsh winter months. While William
was passionate and dedicated to the chess club, he really
only attended one meeting a week to play a match
or cell. William was a hard and dedicated worker, so
he didn't have as much free time from his insurance ventures. However,
every other Monday he ensured he would be able to
(12:49):
play chess. Monday, January nineteenth, nineteen thirty one was one
of those Mondays that William planned to enjoy himself rather
than work. William was actually hesitant to go to the
chess club on that Monday night because he was just
getting over the flu and Julia was sick with bronchitis
and their pet cat, whose name was Puss, had accidentally
gotten out and was yet to come home, but Julie
(13:11):
insisted that he go. Around seven forty five that evening,
William showed up to the chess club and club director
Samuel Betty had a message for him. Just about thirty
minutes before his arrival, someone by the name of R. M.
Waltrow called the cafe where the club was hosted and
asked to speak to William. Since William had not yet arrived,
(13:32):
Samuel took the call and a message for him. The
person on the other line asked for William's address since
he wasn't yet at the chess club, but Samuel refused
to give him this information and agreed to take the message.
The mysterious caller asked Samuel to tell William to meet
him the following evening at seven thirty pm at twenty
five Men Love Gardens East to discuss business regarding his
(13:55):
daughter turning twenty one. When Samuel relayed this message to William,
no one was able to figure figure out who this
rm Qualtro was. Samuel and William actually asked around the
club if anybody knew who this guy was or if
they knew about the address he wanted to meet at,
and no one did. Other players had heard of Men
Love Gardens North, South and West and Men Love Avenue West,
(14:18):
but not Men Love Gardens East. Several players offered suggestions
of how William might get there the next evening. Oddly enough,
that same night, another man asked Samuel for William's address.
So at the Liverpool Central Chess Club, if you arrived
later than seven thirty pm, you basically threw the match
and automatically lost. William was late. He arrived at seven
(14:40):
forty five, so the match he was scheduled to play
he didn't end up playing this other guy. James cared
realized that William didn't have anyone to play at the
moment and offered to play William, but he refused this
game because James was in a higher playing class and
he probably knew what's gonna lose. Yes. After William refre
refused James, James walked over to the check and table
(15:02):
and asked Samuel for William's address. During James's conversation with Samuel,
William found another guy to play a match against and
settled into that. Samuel refused to give James the address
and just directed him to go talk to William himself.
Was this a really weird coincidence or is James cared
ur M Barni Paltrow? Is he just being shitty?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (15:24):
No, right right. William played a successful game against his
new opponent, winning and left the club around ten to
fifteen pm that night. He was seen leaving the club
with none other than James Cared. During the conversation, James
told William that he knew a man by the name
of Qualtrow. Not only that, but James had recommended for
(15:44):
William about the best way to get to men Love
Garden East to meet this mysterious R. M.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Qualtrow.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
The pair walked for a bit together before going their
separate ways to their respective homes. William arrived home around
eleven pm that night and Juliet had dine waiting for him.
This was not unusual for Julia and William to have
dinner so late. This was actually their normal practice, and
they went to bed around midnight. After good night's sleep,
William was off again by ten thirty am to start
(16:12):
his day of insurance collection rounds. After making rounds for
about two hours, he stopped at home for lunch and
then headed back out again to continue working. When he
returned home, she had dinner ready, and the couple eight
together and discussed the strange message and meeting invitation that
William had received the night before. Again, William was hesitant
to go to the meeting, but he claimed that Julia
(16:33):
convinced him to go. After all, commission is commission, and
both Julia and William were considered hard dedicated workers. William
left again that day, this time around six forty five pm,
and he decided to take the tram instead of walking
to meet R. M. Qualtrow. Because he wasn't completely sure
of what the meeting place was, William decided to head
(16:54):
to the area where Menlove Avenue West was and try
to find his way from there. To get to mend Avenue,
he had to take three different trams. William was relying
on the conductor of the trams to help get him
to his final destination. On the second tram, the conductor
told him where to get off to change trams, and
on the third tram, the conductor explained to William the
layout of the men Love Garden's neighborhood and where he
(17:18):
would most likely find his destination. But seriously, these directions
didn't help him at all. He walked in circles around
the neighborhood and stopped a few different people on the
street to ask them for directions. He even went and
knocked on the door of the house at twenty five
men Love Gardens West to see if the address was
written down incorrectly, like maybe he was supposed to go there. Yeah,
(17:38):
but he hit a dead end, and he hit dead
end after dead end. When William was finally close to
giving up, he ran into a police officer on the
street and asked him where he could find the address.
The officer informed him that there was no such place
as at men Love Gardens East. This officer gave him
yet another suggestion of a place to try, and that
if William went to the post office or a police station,
(18:00):
he may be able to find a map to help
him out. William followed the officer's advice and went to
a nearby post office, but they did not have a
street directory, and suggested that he try the newspaper shop
as they might have one. I mean, this poor guy's
going he really wants his permission?
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Does?
Speaker 1 (18:18):
When William arrived at the newspaper shop just before nine pm,
he got lucky because they did in fact have a
street directory. William and the store clark cuddled over the map,
and William asked her for help finding the address, but
again they had no luck. Defeated in just cranky at
this point in time, William gave up on a search
and decided to head back home. He rode basically the
(18:40):
same three trams on his route home, but this time
no witnesses remember seeing him. So what was Julia doing
all day while William was working? On January twentieth, nineteen
thirty one, she had a pretty laid back day. It's
unsure what she spent her morning doing, but around three
point thirty pm that day, her sister in law, Amy
came by for a visit. Amy reported that Julia told
(19:01):
her about William's business meeting that was scheduled for later
that night. The duo also discussed how there had been
a surge of break ins in the area. While Amy
was visiting, the baker's son stopped by to deliver Julia
her brad. The son actually asked Julia how she was doing,
because he said that she looked really sick and not
like herself. Around four thirty PM, Amy left, and as
(19:24):
she was leaving, the window cleaner was arriving to clean
Julia and William's home windows. The window cleaner was arriving
to clean Julia and William's home windows that night, around
six thirty Julia had another visitor. This time it was
the milkman's son to deliver the weekly milk. The son
knocked at the door and then left the milk on
the step and moved on to the next home. By
(19:45):
the time he was at the next door, Julia came out,
gave the son too empty curtains, and instructed him to
hurry home because it was cold outside. In between these
visits and various chores, we know that Julia made William
lunch and dinner and ate those meals with him. When
William arrived home at around ten forty. That evening, he
tried his front door key, but the door wouldn't open.
The house Julia and William lived in also hit a
(20:06):
door in the back that they typically used, but at
night it was most common for them to use the
front door to be able to keep their home more secure.
William lightly knocked in the front door before making his
way to the back. The back door was also locked,
which he expected, and he knocked lightly again, which was
heard by the neighbors. Julia wasn't opening the door, so
William went around to the front again. He was knocking
(20:29):
and knocking again, now with some level of worry building
inside him, He decided again that he was going to
check the back door, and this time on his way
around the house, he ran into two other neighbors, John
and Florence Johnson. William immediately asked the couple if they
had heard anything unusual happening that night. William told John
(20:49):
and Florence that he was unable to get into his
home and was getting worried about his wife since she
was home sick. William tried again with his neighbors at
his side, and the door thankfully opened. Suggested that he
and Florence stay on the porch while William took a
look inside to make sure everything was okay. The first
place William checked was the upstairs middle bedroom, where he
(21:09):
and Julia slept, thinking maybe she went to betterly since
she was sick. When she wasn't in there, he went
back downstairs to check the parlor. Upon lighting the match
and opening the door slightly, William saw his wife Julia
laying face down on the floor in a pool of
her own blood. Come and see she's been killed, William
shouted to John and Florence as he ran back to
(21:31):
the doorway where they were standing in complete disbelief and shock.
John followed William back into the home and into the parlor.
At first glance, no furniture had been moved, but the
closer John looked, the more horrors he saw. Blood had
been sprayed over seven feet high onto the walls and ceilings.
Many of Julia's paintings were covered in her blood. Julia
(21:52):
had a very large wound on the back of her head,
which seemed to be oozing brain and skull matter. Along
with the pool of blood Julia was laying in, there
were two other large pools of blood near the fireplace.
Florence was the only one to approach the body to
ensure that Julia was dead. Of course, she's the brave one,
right right. William noticed that one of the cabinets in
the kitchen had been ripped off, and all of William's
(22:14):
insurance collections from that day had been stolen. All that
was left was a single dollar bill and some stamps,
and with that John ran out of the house to
find the nearest doctor while Florence and William waded in
the kitchen. I'll tell you a little bit about John,
Florence and their family. They lived next door to the wallaces,
and the way the houses were set up, they would
(22:35):
have basically shared a wall with each other, so I'm
thinking it's like a row of homes. Right at the
home with John and Florence was their daughter Nora. Nora
was engaged to a man named Francis, and he was
frequently over their house to visit Nora. On the night
of January twentieth, Francis was at the Johnson household. Also
when the house was another son, Russell and his wife Sarah.
(22:57):
When Russell heard what was going on and that his
parents were at the way else's house. He went over
there right away. He found his mother and William in
the kitchen, and William was actually cutting up meat for
Julia's cat, who had returned home at some point that day.
Russell found that site pretty unsettling, considering his wife was
in the other room dead. It was just kind of yeah, right, like.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yes now, and I'm cutting meat. Yeah, her brain matter
is oozing out just right.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Like what the hell?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Oh your audience read.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
The room, dude, thank you. At this point, John is
still gone to get a doctor and police to bring
to the Wallace's house, and Florence and William are still waiting.
They decided to go back into the parlor and check
out the scene further. Florence again felt Julia and noticed
that she was colder than she was when they first
arrived on the scene. The pair wandered together what the
(23:49):
killer had used to kill her. William then noticed the
jacket he was wearing earlier in the day was on
the floor in the parlor, along with Julia's jacket. Not
knowing how they got there, Florence and William went back
to the kitchen. Since they were still waiting, Florence suggested
they start a fire, and that's exactly what she did.
During the time they waited, William cried multiple times and
(24:11):
sat with his hut in his hands. The first officers
to the house did a horrible job at preserving the
crime scene. They did such a bad job that an
officer literally showed up to the crime scene drunk and
went to the bathroom and flushed the toilet in the house.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
But let's back up a little bit to when the
first officer arrived at the scene. That officer was named
Constable Williams, and when he first arrived, William took him
on a walk through the home. First, they went upstairs
and took a look in the bathroom and then the
bedroom and Julia and Williams's bedroom. There was a mantle
and the couple had a jar with coins inside. William
showed this to Constable Williams, and as he was showing
(24:48):
it to him, he picked up a few coins that
were inside. Immediately, Constable Williams told William to put those
back and not touch anything further. This was another example
of how the crime scene was not properly protect did
before investigation. William took the Constable into the other two bedrooms,
the one which was the makeshift laboratory and the other
one which was used as a spare room. And the
(25:09):
spare room, the sheets were kind of pulled down and
off the bed and some of the pillows were on
the floor. William told the constable that he hadn't been
in that room in like two weeks, and so he
didn't know if it had been like that or not.
After the tour, many other officers, medics, and investigators arrived
on the scene and the investigation was in full swing.
The first suspect, as is usually suspected when a wife
(25:32):
is murdered, is the husband. People suspected William on the
first night of the investigation, but there just wasn't enough
evidence to back that theory up. According to the autopsy,
Julia's time of death was seven fifty PM and was
caused by three to four blows with a blunt object.
At that time, William would have been across town searching
for the address that R. M. Qualtrow requested he meet
(25:55):
a matt There were also no bloodstains anywhere except in
the parlor. The chances that after murdering his wife, William
was able to go upstairs change his clothes and wash
off without leaving a single trace. Officers needed a Hail Mary.
If they were going to be able to charge William
with the murder of his wife. They had to be
missing something, But what was it? They finally had the
(26:18):
aha moment. William's outdoor coat was found in the parlor
under Julia's dead body. Maybe William was able to travel
to Menlove Gardens without a trace of the crime on
him because he was wearing his coat during the murder
and then took it off because it had blood splatter
on it. Police finally put together their theory of what
happened that faithful night. They believed that on January nineteenth,
(26:38):
William went to a payphone and made a call to
the cafe where his chess club would be meeting. He
masked his voice and left the mysterious message that Samuel
would later give to William himself. After making the mysterious call,
William headed to the chess club meeting, which he arrived
too late, and when he got to the chess club,
he faked his cluelessness and regarded the mysterious message, all
(27:00):
to create an alibi for himself. Then the next night,
police believed that he waited until the milk boy came
to see Julia alive, quickly killed her, took off the jacket,
and went on his way to the pretend meeting that
he had set up. William strongly refuted this theory and
maintained his innocence. It was proven by witnesses across town
(27:21):
that saw and spoke to William that he did actually
go looking for R. M. Qualtrow, and while he continued
to maintain his innocence, he was very vocal about who
he thought was his wife's true killer, Richard Gordon Perry.
There were many people in the community who believed that
William was innocent and that he was just caught up
in a tragic and horrible experience. Richard Perry used to
(27:43):
work under William at the insurance company, and he was
either fired or left on his own because William caught
him stealing money from the company and cooking the books.
William stated that Richard did work alone and there were
other men he supervised that we're also stealing. One was
Joseph K. Martsen. William caught the men stealing and they
(28:03):
left the company, but continued to be friends. After departing.
Both of the men had been to Williams's house on
multiple occasions and knew where he kept the cash box
that he put his insurance collections in. Richard also admitted
to police that he knew and was a regular at
the Liverpool Center Chess Club, and he knew what cafe
they met at regularly, so he would have known where
(28:25):
to call and leave a message. Another interesting finding regarding
the potential involvement of Richard and Joseph is that when
the police were looking into all the people with the
name Qualtro, they found a man named R. J. Qualtrow,
and he just so happened to be a client of
Joseph's new insurance company. Joseph claimed that the night of
the murder he was sick in bed with the flu
(28:47):
that was terrorizing Liverpool that winter. Richard claimed that the
day of the murder, he spent the entire afternoon with
some friends, who verified this. However, this alibi for the
phone call was quite suspicious. Richard told officers that the
night the phone call was made, he was with his
girlfriend Lily. Lily, however, said that he was not with
(29:08):
her during the time the phone call was made. When
he did show up to her house. She was annoyed
because he was late. It was very unclear what actually
happened over the course of January nineteenth to twentieth, nineteen
thirty one. The first place that officers zoomed in on
was the phone call. They wanted to analyze all the
details around this and see what they could find. The
(29:28):
first thing considered was the distance between William and Julia's
house and the phone booth. The phone booth that made
the call was very close to William's home, and he
could have left home at the time he said he
did quickly stopped and still made it to the chest
cloud by seven forty five ish. William was eventually charged
with Julia's murder, and on April twenty second, nineteen thirty one,
(29:49):
he stood trial, and, despite the fact that all the
evidence around him was strictly circumstantial, after only one hour
of deliberation, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him
to death that same day.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
What oh my gosh, right, fine, insane, I know that's
April twenty second, nineteen thirty one.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
By May of nineteen thirty one, William's sentence was overturned
in an appeal and he was released.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
I know.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
The Court of Criminal Appeals said that there was simply
not enough evidence against William to charge and convict him
with the murder of his wife. This was incredibly shocking
to the public, especially since it was super uncommon in
the nineteen hundreds. After William was set free, he returned
to his insurance job, but life wasn't easy for him.
There were still tons of people in the community who
believed that he killed his wife and just got away
(30:38):
with it. William lost clients and friends. William received hate
mail and even physical threats made against his life. William
lived in fear that the person who killed his wife
may come after him now that he was free and
the case wasn't solved. William continued to struggle with kidney
issues after having one removed in emergency surgery that I
told you about, and he ended up using surgery that
(30:58):
would have prolonged his life. He died in the hospital
at age fifty four and was then buried next to
his wife in nineteen thirty three. Now that William is
a free man, Now what other possible situations happened that night? First,
there could have been someone who was watching William and
waiting for him to leave that evening so they could
commit the crime. It would have honestly been easy for
(31:20):
a person to set this up if they spent even
just a few weeks watching William and Julia, because they
were very routine oriented people. Sound yeah right, I mean
they did things always at the same time clockwork. Not
only that, but the chess schedule was posted on a
board in a public place for anyone to see. And
if this possible Stoker made the phone call, they were
already setting William up for failure by giving him a
(31:42):
fake address, knowing that would keep him out of the
home for an extended period of time, giving them enough
time to commit the crime without anyone seeing them. There
was also a lot of different clubs that met at
that specific cafe, so that board got a lot of
traction and attention by round. The other theory is that
Richard Gordon Pear is the killer with the potential help
of Joseph Caleb Mardsen to get William back for catching
(32:05):
and calling them out for stealing insurance money. Not only
did he know where the Wallaces lived and where William
kept his cash box, and when William went to play chess,
he knew that too. He also had a criminal record
and included things like vandalism, stealing, and sexual abuse, which
he was acquitted from. But all of these crimes appeared
to be spur of the moment and involved no planning
(32:26):
at all, and he typically got caught right away, which
might indicate that maybe he wasn't responsible for the murder.
But he did give a fake account to where he
was at night that the phone call was made, saying
he was with his girlfriend when he actually wasn't. To
this day, the murderer of Julia Wallace has never been
found and her case remains unsolved, and people still question
whether or not Richard Gordon Perry was involved, or if
(32:48):
William did it, or if it was something random. So
it's crazy. Story, that is crazy.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
And do you think William killed his wife? I'm not
feeling it because what's the mine?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
But what's the motive?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Right? He hates her, they can't stand each other. She's
a drunk, he's a drunk taking a.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Pick, yes, And none of that seemed to be apparent.
The only thing that sounded like they didn't do together
was go to church. So okay, a lot of couples
don't go to church together. But it just doesn't seem like, like,
what one day he just decided he couldn't stand her
and decided to kill her.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
That does not make sense at all. And that what's
his name, Roger? What's the other Richard?
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah? Yeah, Richard Gordon Perry.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
And he's the one who's stolen money from the insurance company. Yeah,
and William had to fire him.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Is that how it went?
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Okay, so you can't really be friends with the person
who fired you because you had said, oh yeah, he
got fire. But there they still remain friends.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
There, No one person is in the darkness above the friendship.
There is no friendship. I'm thinking I would go I'm
leaning more towards richeh just he seems to have the
most motive to try to fuck over William in a
way it ruined his life. If William didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I know, it's it seems odd. I don't know. I
don't think I like you. I have this feeling that
William didn't do it. I don't know. I think to
go on this wild goose chase one thing to set
the story up. Okay, yes, so you set this story
up that this guy calls and you're going to go
to this fake address and whatever. But do you actually
(34:29):
spend hours and hours searching for this fake address if
if you really need an alibi? Maybe not.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
I don't know, I put in I would spend Usually
people are just very the thinking mind is, let me
just be seen, let me have the post office, see
me this police officer. Then I'm head right back home.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Right, I'm done, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
That's I don't know.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I don't know, but yeah, I don't. I don't get
the feeling William did it. Although William did feed the cat.
I don't know. That was weird. But we will do
weird shit when they're like, that's right, you know, when
you're in shock and you do weird stuff. I think
I do weird shit all the time. So I mean yes, and.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
It was an act of love in a shocking state.
I can see like, oh, the cat's back, she'd be
so happy. So you dote down the cat in a way.
But that's just me, you know, pulling out a story
of things I wasn't there for, I know, but I
would surmise could see happening. Yeah, that's it's so. And
then nineteen eleven when you said that he had his
(35:31):
kidney removed William Yeah, you know, were that advanced in
nineteen eleven? Right?
Speaker 1 (35:38):
And he survived it, and yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Yeah, it's up and down on the sciences for us.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Curiously, did they have like were they killing germs back
in nineteen eleven? Did they like use and they must have, right?
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Oh please?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
I don't know when. And bacteria and stuff were discovered,
but there's always been probably vodka.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, or bleach maybe, and you know, these people were
dealing with their problems with cocaine and morphine, so it
couldn't have been that. You know, what I love about
his wife is that she lived for fifty years with
no husband, and I thought, oh, he's using her for money,
you know, because if you have no children and if
(36:19):
it's just you and you can travel and you can
learn water color, Oh my gosh, I'm living the life
in nineteen eleven, right, right, or you were born before
your time? I love it. And that's why, you know,
who's gonna marry, especially at that time. What man in
his thirties is gonna marry someone who would be considered
(36:39):
a spinster?
Speaker 1 (36:41):
You know? Yeah, why isn't he marrying a woman who's seventeen?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah, so he's making choices obviously that she fulfills a
part of him. Right. Oh now I'm gonna say, William,
I can be proven wrong. I have no you know,
I have no stronghold on my uh guesses.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And your stands.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yes, I know, I know I'd be curious to know
what people thought. So anyway too, But thank you, Tanya.
I love that story. You're welcome that are unsolved are
just as intriguing, I know, just as even more so
in different ways, but pretty awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Thank you, Yes, thank you for listening, and thank you
everyone for listening to this week's episode. And before we go,
I just like to remind everyone to hit the subscriber
follow button and whatever app you're listening to, and you
can't go to our website Crimes Andconsequences dot com. I
still have to catch up from last week's episode from
weeks ago. Sorry, Shannon, I keep forgetting to do that.
(37:40):
And then you can also if you would like to
hear more episodes, we have a Patreon. You can go
to patreon dot com slash TNT crimes and you can
get another episode per week. We do one free one
like this one, and we do a episode that you
pay for and You can also sign up through the
Apple Podcast app and pay a little monthly fee and
(38:02):
get an episode every week. And I think that's everything.
So until our next episode.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Until our next timetime to me, I will see you.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Bye bye,
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