Do you think William Herbert Wallace was guilty?

[Spitfire]

Also, I meant to ask previously - what's the most recent recommended 'serious' book on The Wallace Case? I need to get myself up-to-date.

I can only recommend that don't read Ronald Bartle's work on the subject. A very poorly edited book that is full of grammatical and factual errors. For example, did you know that Timothy Evans was executed in 1966 and Derek Bentley in 1968? No, well according to Mr Bartle they were.

[harry]

the sujjested motive was robbery.There was money missing,according to Wallace.What if Julia had taken it? Could one build a theory around a wife that might regularly have been dipping her hand in the box.Possibly,though I do not think it happened.
Then again who knows?Couples squabbling over money matters have resulted in more than one death.The answer to her death I am sure,is centred around what occurred in the confines of the house.

[Graham]

I can only recommend that don't read Ronald Bartle's work on the subject. A very poorly edited book that is full of grammatical and factual errors. For example, did you know that Timothy Evans was executed in 1966 and Derek Bentley in 1968? No, well according to Mr Bartle they were.

So I've heard.....reminds me of at least one recent 'work' on the A6 Case.

Graham

[Graham]

the suggested motive was robbery.There was money missing,according to Wallace

Indeed, but also according Wallace there was money in the house that hadn't been taken. I honestly don't think the motive was just robbery - there was more to it than that. It's possible that whoever killed her - and I'm coming more and more round to the belief that it wasn't Wallace - took some money as a cover, or was disturbed or panicked before he could lay his hands on more.

Graham

[Rosella]

Julia had about £90 in her post office savings account. That's around £600 in today's money, a large sum by the standards of 1931. She had £5 tucked away in her corset for everyday expenses, at a time when bread, milk, meat, cost a fraction of what it does today. She had no need to raid her husband's cash box.

[Spitfire]

So I've heard.....reminds me of at least one recent 'work' on the A6 Case.

Graham

Yes, indeed.

I've now got hold of Jonathan Goodman's 1969 book "The Killing of Julia Wallace" which has a favourable introduction in a Foreword written by Edgar Lustgarten, who rather spills the beans by saying that Goodman concludes that he offers conclusive proof that Wallace did not murder his wife.

[Spitfire]

Julia had about £90 in her post office savings account. That's around £600 in today's money, a large sum by the standards of 1931. She had £5 tucked away in her corset for everyday expenses, at a time when bread, milk, meat, cost a fraction of what it does today. She had no need to raid her husband's cash box.

You can add cigarettes to that list. Beattie bought a packet of 20 for 8d, or put it another way he could have bought 600 cigarettes for £1.

[Graham]

Per www.thisismoney, £90 in 1931 would be worth approx. £5000 in 2016, when inflation is taken into account. You could buy a decent house in England for about £350 before WW2. However you calculate what Julia's little nest-egg would be worth today, she did indeed have a bob or two - and most of it out of reach of a thieving murderer.

Spitfire,

I think I read Goodman's book many years ago. He was as I recall given the name of Gordon Parry by a Mr Goate (?who he?), and along with the crime-writer Richard Whittington-Egan managed to locate Parry in London and visited him as I remember. I don't think Goodman referred to Parry by name in his book - another 'Mr X'.

Graham

[Mayerling]

Per www.thisismoney, £90 in 1931 would be worth approx. £5000 in 2016, when inflation is taken into account. You could buy a decent house in England for about £350 before WW2. However you calculate what Julia's little nest-egg would be worth today, she did indeed have a bob or two - and most of it out of reach of a thieving murderer.

Spitfire,

I think I read Goodman's book many years ago. He was as I recall given the name of Gordon Parry by a Mr Goate (?who he?), and along with the crime-writer Richard Whittington-Egan managed to locate Parry in London and visited him as I remember. I don't think Goodman referred to Parry by name in his book - another 'Mr X'.

Graham

Hi Graham,

Jonathan didn't refer to Parry by name because he was still alive at the time of the publication of the book. He was worried about libel suits. Parry died within a couple of years. Then in the book, "The Burning of Evelyn Foster", Jon mentioned Parry's finally.

Due to an uneasy experience Jon had during double checking the records office regarding Parry (he found some suspicious evidence that someone was checking up on him), he only would interview Parry when accompanied by his friend Richard Whittington-Egan (as protection for each other), and they conducted the interview on the outside door of Parry's abode (it was in view of a street - not in a recess out of view of the public). Parry gave, from what I recall, vague and unsatisfying responses.

Jeff

[ColdCaseJury]

Also, I meant to ask previously - what's the most recent recommended 'serious' book on The Wallace Case? I need to get myself up-to-date.

Graham,

I cannot possibly comment.

Antony Matthew Brown
Author of Move to Murder

P.S. For arguments FOR Wallace being the murderer, James Murphy is arguably the best. Goodman and Wilkes remain the best books for arguments AGAINST Wallace. John Gannon argues for a conspiracy theory.

For an assessment of the evidence and discussion of the four major theories... [coughs self-consciously]... that's why one becomes an author!

[Graham]

Hi Graham,

Jonathan didn't refer to Parry by name because he was still alive at the time of the publication of the book. He was worried about libel suits. Parry died within a couple of years. Then in the book, "The Burning of Evelyn Foster", Jon mentioned Parry's finally.

Due to an uneasy experience Jon had during double checking the records office regarding Parry (he found some suspicious evidence that someone was checking up on him), he only would interview Parry when accompanied by his friend Richard Whittington-Egan (as protection for each other), and they conducted the interview on the outside door of Parry's abode (it was in view of a street - not in a recess out of view of the public). Parry gave, from what I recall, vague and unsatisfying responses.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Evelyn Foster....now there's a mystery for you.

The bit I read about Goodman was actually in a short piece I have by Colin Wilson (him again) in an old compendium of unsolved crime, which I've just laid my hands on again. Wilson says that via another person he had heard that someone called Joseph Gaute had identified Parry as the killer. According to Wilson, Wallace himself, during questioning by the police, had stated that he was suspicious of Parry. (I don't think this information was exactly privy to Wilson and his pals). Again according to Wilson, Joseph Gaute had located Parry's whereabouts (this is the early 1960's) by looking through telephone directories............uh huh!

By means not specified by Wilson, Goodman and Whittington-Egan were made aware of Gaute's findings, and off they went to London and confronted Parry on the doorstep of his house. During this al fresco interview, Parry, instead of telling them to bugger off, told them that he knew a lot about Wallace, who he described as 'very strange' and also as 'sexually odd'. He also, according to Goodman, knew the later history of everyone involved in the case. Goodman called him 'Mr X'.

As far as i can make out, the actual identity of Parry was established by a man called Roger Wilkes, who worked for a Liverpool radio station, who named him. Wilkes discovered that Parry now lived in North Wales (by now it was 1980) and had died in April of that year.

I always liked Colin Wilson, but sometimes he convolutes his tales to the extent that they become hard or impossible to understand. I don't doubt that both Goodman and Wilkes found Parry, but I do doubt that anything Parry said to either of them would have proved beyond doubt that he was the killer of Julia Wallace.

Graham

CCJ - no need for such modesty, my friend....I shall look for your book as well as those by other authors that you mention. This has become quite a riveting thread.

[Spitfire]

CCJ - no need for such modesty, my friend....I shall look for your book as well as those by other authors that you mention. This has become quite a riveting thread.

I've splashed out and treated myself to it. After Goodman it's next on my list, provided I can get my Kindle to work.

[Graham]

I just had a quick shufti at the old Casebook thread on this case, and wonder if anyone today has any comments regarding a certain Joseph Caleb Marsden and also a certain Stanley Young?

Graham

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff,

Evelyn Foster....now there's a mystery for you.

]I always liked Colin Wilson, but sometimes he convolutes his tales to the extent that they become hard or impossible to understand. I don't doubt that both Goodman and Wilkes found Parry, but I do doubt that anything Parry said to either of them would have proved beyond doubt that he was the killer of Julia Wallace.

Graham

Hi Graham,

If you haven't read it read "The Burning of Evelyn Foster", where Jon also comes to a conclusion of whom he blames for her death. It has a powerful moment in it that comes from Jon's reaction to what he felt happened to Evelyn, and I have never seen any other notable criminal historian make such a statement.

I always had a problem with Wilson - he actually came up with a theory regarding the impulse of people to turn into murderers or criminals based on a society failure to create a real world of growth opportunity for many people who could be producers of real achievement but were stymied by the social system as it is (also the economic system for that matter). It was the sort of theory that seemed to have potential for further development, but Wilson never could prove what (if anything) somebody like (for the sake of argument) John George Haigh or Nevil Heath was capable of doing in a positive light. It remains like a cracked egg - leaking when examined closely, although it seemed so promising as a theory when it came out.

Jeff

[sdreid]

I just had a quick shufti at the old Casebook thread on this case, and wonder if anyone today has any comments regarding a certain Joseph Caleb Marsden and also a certain Stanley Young?

Graham

Don't know much about them except-I believe-they were coworkers of Wallace who he named along with Parry as people police should take a look at. Don't know if the cops checked them much or not.