Move to Murder: Who Killed Julia Wallace?

[Abby Normal]

A former poster, AS, also believes this might be a viable theory.

Wallace with an accomplice? too risky to get someone else involved IMHO.

and if he did have an accomplice no need for qualtrough craziness. just do it when Wallace is at work.

[etenguy]

Wallace with an accomplice? too risky to get someone else involved IMHO.

and if he did have an accomplice no need for qualtrough craziness. just do it when Wallace is at work.

That holds for Parry and Accomplice also.

[moste]

Thanks for the clarification regarding the heating, but can I just confirm that Julia Wallace was killed in the room where there was a coal fire? That would bring a poker into play.


In my childhood my father controlled the poker, to open the 'damper' inside the chimney that might allow the boiler to be heated. My mother controlled the kitchen; her symbolic power came through the breadknife. The message was clear: Men- stay out of the kitchen; Women- stay away from the hearth.

LOL ohh memories of my childhood also.

Actually ,Julia’s body was found in the parlour where the gas fire was.

[cobalt]

Thanks everyone for the clarification regarding the fires.

So there was probably no poker or iron bar in the parlour where Julia was found dead; these items, reported missing by the cleaning lady, would have been situated in the kitchen?

[cobalt]

It seems I can answer my own question.

I have just read that the cleaning lady reported the items missing from the parlour where Julia was found dead. Presumably they lay in the hearth for ornamental reasons.

[moste]

Thanks everyone for the clarification regarding the fires.

So there was probably no poker or iron bar in the parlour where Julia was found dead; these items, reported missing by the cleaning lady, would have been situated in the kitchen?

Yes that's correct Cobalt.

My wife just read an informative fact to me from a book on forensics.

Luminol, used in the detection of blood i.e. at the scene of the crime is useless when 'bleach' is present. Wallce will have known this I believe (an amateur chemist) as well as the police. I thought that was interesting.

[RodCrosby]

Jane Sarah Draper, examined by Mr. Hemmerde —

DRAPER: I had known the accused and Mrs. Wallace nine months. I used to go to their house once a week to do cleaning. The last time I went was on January 7th.

HEMMERDE KC: Did you go on the 21st, with Detective-Inspector Gold ?
DRAPER: Yes.

HEMMERDE KC: Did you find anything missing that you had been used to finding there ?
DRAPER: Yes, a poker out of the kitchen.

HEMMERDE KC: A small poker ?
DRAPER: Yes.

HEMMERDE KC: Did you notice something else was missing ?
DRAPER: Yes, a piece of iron out of the sitting-room fireplace, which was always kept there.

HEMMERDE KC: Do you know what it was used for ?
DRAPER: For cleaning under the gas-fire.

HEMMERDE KC: Was it as heavy as this ? [Iron bar handed.]
DRAPER: Yes, about the same weight.

HEMMERDE KC: Used it to stand up in the fireplace ?
DRAPER: Yes, sometimes it was laid underneath the kerb.

HEMMERDE KC: Do you remember particularly when you last saw it there?
DRAPER: On January 3rd.

HEMMERDE KC: What makes you remember that particularly it that morning.
DRAPER: I used it that morning.

HEMMERDE KC: For what?
DRAPER: Under the gas-fire, to find a screw that had come off the gas-bracket.

HEMMERDE KC: Who was there when you were doing that?
DRAPER: Mrs. Wallace.

HEMMERDE KC: Used it to stand up there ?
DRAPER: Sometimes it stood by the fireplace, and sometimes it was laid underneath the kerb.

HEMMERDE KC: Was it there the whole time you were attending at their house ?
DRAPER: Yes.

HEMMERDE KC: And you found it was missing ?
DRAPER: Yes, on the 21st.

[moste]

It seems I can answer my own question.

I have just read that the cleaning lady reported the items missing from the parlour where Julia was found dead. Presumably they lay in the hearth for ornamental reasons.

Ornamental in the parlour, but the kitchen will have also a proper working poker I would wager.

[RodCrosby]

Yes that's correct Cobalt.

My wife just read an informative fact to me from a book on forensics.

Luminol, used in the detection of blood i.e. at the scene of the crime is useless when 'bleach' is present. Wallce will have known this I believe (an amateur chemist) as well as the police. I thought that was interesting.

Luminol was not in use in the UK in 1931. Benzidine was the test for blood.
(source: pathologist Dr. Charles St. Hill, 1981)

[moste]

Ornamental in the parlour, but the kitchen will have also a proper working poker I would wager.

Just my opinion, but the missing tools from the fire heath are red herrings. The poker whether ornamental or otherwise, wouldn't be the weapon, for shape and size reasons,. the so called iron bar,(possibly used to scrape and clean off the cinder clinker from under the coal fire grate) I believe the witness said was about a foot long, this would not work either, when held at one end it would only leave about 7 inches of tool in which to inflict the horrendous wounds to Julia's head. I am of the opinion that the weapon was something along the lines of a 2\12 pound ball peen hammer, with 12 inch wooden handle, ,of the sort used by trades people , like mechanics and such.

[Abby Normal]

I find it highly suspicious that the poker and bar were missing and that it was the maid that had to bring it up.

Wallace should have been all over it that they were missing.

this clearly points to him as the killer IMHO.

[Abby Normal]

did Wallace tell Julia that his business meeting was specifically with a man called qualtrough?

[RodCrosby]

We don't know for certain about mentioning the name Qualtrough.
He certainly told Julia of the appointment, because she told Amy Wallace, who recounted it in her later statement to the Police.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Parry often gets praised as a clever planner. I can’t see it myself.

1. Why would Parry come up with a plan where it would have been obvious to the police that the thief knew where the cash box was so that he could sneak straight to it without Julia knowing, remove the cash and return it to the shelf?

2. Why would Parry be stupid enough to mention a 21st birthday during the Qualtrough phone call and then be forced to admit that he’d been discussing a 21st birthday on the night of the murder?

3. Why would Parry leave a message for Qualtrough at the chess club when one of the first questions that the police would ask would be “who knew that Wallace frequented the club?” Especially when Parry’s drama group rehearsed at the same cafe.

4. If it’s a possibility that Parry might have been aware that Julia was reluctant to let just anyone in when William wasn’t there then surely he might have been aware that he’d be on any list of ‘possibles.’

5. Parry had already been responsible for money going missing whilst collecting on Wallace’s round. More reason to bring him into the frame.

How stupid was Parry? Surely he couldn’t have picked a worse target or plan?

Cue the parrot “ yawn, yawn, misinformation, disinformation, Pretty Polly.”

[Herlock Sholmes]

did Wallace tell Julia that his business meeting was specifically with a man called qualtrough?

The whole Accomplice theory hangs on this fact being mentioned. The point is that there’s absolutely no way that Parry could have had any level of confidence in William going into detail about his evenings business. Without mention of Qualtrough they couldn’t have even hoped that Julia would have let the accomplice in.