Move to Murder: Who Killed Julia Wallace?

[Graham]

Graham are you completely unfamiliar with the idea of a motive festering beneath the surface. Why do you think every crime needs to be so neat and tidy. Tell me Jack The Rippers motive?

I think he just liked killing people - not unknown, HS.

But then Jack The Ripper was probably not an educated, quiet, middle-aged chess-player and part-time college lecturer.

Graham

[NickB]

Hemmerde suggested Wallace could have easily talked to a Prudential Agent of the Calderstones area and found MGE did not exist. However, to the latter, Wallace only replied "It was not necessary" rather than "It was too late" etc.

Even if he was not breaching Prudential guidelines, I imagine Wallace felt a bit concerned that he was cutting across the local Prudential Agent by making the visit, so I can understand Wallace's reluctance to contact him.

[RodCrosby]

Even if he was not breaching Prudential guidelines, I imagine Wallace felt a bit concerned that he was cutting across the local Prudential Agent by making the visit, so I can understand Wallace's reluctance to contact him.

Not quite right. "it was not necessary" because...

OLIVER KC: Would he have any right to have business in such a district as Menlove Gardens ?
CREWE; Every right.

OLIVER KC: Just tell us why that would be right ?
CREWE: Because he is only restricted to his own area for industrial premiums, that is weekly premiums ; for any other class of business he can go where he likes.

OLIVER KC: You mean for such a thing as a proposal for an endowment policy ?
CREWE: Yes, he can go where he likes.

[Abby Normal]

Hi Herlock - aided by Cobalt's admirable direction, you have reached a good place.

Best regards,
OneRound

Yes new year lets try new approach

[RodCrosby]

a remarkable document, from a gentler, more reflective, pre-internet era.
Yet another unique event in this extraordinary case...

[Herlock Sholmes]

I think he just liked killing people - not unknown, HS.

But then Jack The Ripper was probably not an educated, quiet, middle-aged chess-player and part-time college lecturer.

Graham

But he might have been a 31 year old university educated barrister and schoolteacher Graham

I agree that we don’t have an obvious motive but that can’t discount one that only surfaced when William and Julia we’re together. Or it might even have been some growing resentment that built up inside William that Julia knew nothing about?

[Herlock Sholmes]

Yes new year lets try new approach

I suggest that, as this thread was started by Antony, that he might want to lead the discussion/debate? We tend to jump from one aspect of the case to another. Antony could select an aspectmof the case, lead the discussion, and decide when to move on? We have to accept that we will probably come to an ‘agree to disagree’ point on most aspects.

I’ll leave it with Antony and other posters.

[Graham]

But he might have been a 31 year old university educated barrister and schoolteacher Graham:

Might have been, but it wasn't.

I agree that we don’t have an obvious motive but that can’t discount one that only surfaced when William and Julia we’re together. Or it might even have been some growing resentment that built up inside William that Julia knew nothing about?

If every couple in a long-term yet not always blissfully happy marriage decided to settle matters once and for all with a coal-chopper or whatever, then I would personally be a rather concerned husband of 47 years. Obviously, we don't know what went on behind the scenes in the Wallaces' marriage, but apart from a comment or two by their neighbours I don't recall reading that they were at each other hammer-and-tongs. I do recall reading somewhere that it was speculated by someone that Wallace may have been jealous of his wife, as it seems she was somewhat more accomplished in many areas than he. But would that be a reason for him to bludgeon her to death? I somehow don't think so....but one never knows.

Has it ever been discovered that in Wallace's past he had demonstrated a tendency towards violence?

Graham

[RodCrosby]

Has it ever been discovered that in Wallace's past he had demonstrated a tendency towards violence?

Possibly...

"he was fond of football, cricket and other sports in his youth..."
J.T. Ferguson (a boyhood friend of Wallace), 1931

[/sarcasm]

[Abby Normal]

Great question.

Wallace told the police about the maid almost as soon as he was questioned. In this post-Victorian era, men still did not do any housework. It is possible he was clueless, especially about the bar in the parlour which was for cleaning only. Kitchen poker less so, I would say.

Of course, Wallace could have used a spanner* but fiendishly disposed of both poker and bar on the Monday and hoped the charwoman would discover they were missing to create a brilliant red herring... There's a novelist in me yet!

Parry and 21 birthdays.... a bit of a coincidence, isn't it?

* He suggested this might have been the implement in his John Bull articles. And just to show we all have a sense of humour: Wallace gave the spanner to Parkes!

Hi antony
He may not have done housework but he would have known what tools were in his house. This was not a big house with lots of kids who sometimes take and lose things like tools. It was a small seemingly well maintained house with basically just him another adult and there maid with frequent access. Also were not talking about brushes and rags here... but large heavy tools. He would have known about them. And that he plays dum, leaves it to the maid to bring it up, or not, and then later says something else might have been used when its obvious that the bar and or poker were the murder weapons is big red flag for me.


As is the major coincidence of parry and q both mentioning the 21 year old party... way too much of the coincidence. What are the chances?!?!?I can see parry slipping up when pushed to call back.

But with much in the case theres stuff on either side that dont make any sense its a conundrum for sure.

[RodCrosby]

I would posit that the fact there was a maid employed at all in this small house, is indicative that Wallace was - in fact - clueless, or declined to take any interest in domestic matters...

He gives the impression of being obsessed with his wireless, his microscope, his laboratory, and his books, when not out tramping the grey streets of Clubmoor.
Enlivened only by an occasional musical evening with Julia, or a roam around some of Liverpool's beautiful public parks.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Might have been, but it wasn't.

We can’t know that for certain Graham

If every couple in a long-term yet not always blissfully happy marriage decided to settle matters once and for all with a coal-chopper or whatever, then I would personally be a rather concerned husband of 47 years. Obviously, we don't know what went on behind the scenes in the Wallaces' marriage, but apart from a comment or two by their neighbours I don't recall reading that they were at each other hammer-and-tongs. I do recall reading somewhere that it was speculated by someone that Wallace may have been jealous of his wife, as it seems she was somewhat more accomplished in many areas than he. But would that be a reason for him to bludgeon her to death? I somehow don't think so....but one never knows.

Has it ever been discovered that in Wallace's past he had demonstrated a tendency towards violence?

Graham

No evidence at all that Wallace was ever violent. But I’d add that there was probably never any evidence that Crippen had a propensity for violence. It’s been a long time since I read anything on Crippen but didn’t everyone say that they appeared a fairly happy couple? Of course I accept that Crippen had ‘the other woman’ and there’s no evidence or genuine suggestion that Wallace did, but couples do split up without murder and dismemberment.

Those that say that the Wallace’s appeared a happy and contented couple can’t simply be brushed aside of course but the Wallace’s weren’t exactly party animals. They had a small circle of friends who they saw occasionally. Even their next door neighbours of ten years barely knew them. And even more so than today couples were sensitive of ‘wagging tongues.’ Keeping up appearances was the order of the day. William and Julia were both born and raised in the Victorian era of course with all the dread of scandal and gossip.

And as we can brush aside those that said that they appeared contented we shouldn’t brush aside those with the opposing view. Two people, for example, with no known axe to grind (one of whom actually lived in with the Wallace’s for a period) To quote from Antony’s book (apologies if you already have it.)

Nurse Wilson remembered William and Julia as a peculiar couple. She observed during her three-week stay that the relationship appeared strained and devoid of sympathy and affection. Dr Louis Curwen, who attended both William and Julia through their many complaints over a period of five years,, did not believe they were a happy couple: he thought that harmony was sustained only by indifference. According to Alfred Mather, the retired agent, Julia had always shown contempt for her husband’s occupation. ( my own words here: I also recall Mather saying something like ‘Wallace was the most soured man that he’d ever met and a fad tempered devil.) Such an attitude often coexists with an underlying contempt for the husband.

Sarah Draper, the cleaner, could only say that they were on ‘pretty friendly’ terms. And Wallace’s sister-in-laws felt that he was condescending towards Julia.

None of this of course is proof of a motive but it shows that one might have existed. Especially if resentment and unhappiness festered over the years as Wallace saw however long he had left to live was going to be spent looking after his wife. A women, let’s recall, who was actually 17 years older than him.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I would posit that the fact there was a maid employed at all in this small house, is indicative that Wallace was - in fact - clueless, or declined to take any interest in domestic matters...

He gives the impression of being obsessed with his wireless, his microscope, his laboratory, and his books, when not out tramping the grey streets of Clubmoor.

Possibly combined with the fact that, in those days, men were far less likely to undertake domestic chores. Also, I wonder if the Wallace’s were the only family in the street to employ a cleaner in such a small house? Maybe it was also seen by them (or possibly only Julia) as a kind of minor status symbol? A slight pretension to gentility?

[RodCrosby]

Numerous people came forward with good words to say about Wallace, and were prepared to say them in open court.

After traipsing round the alehouses and flophouses of Liverpool for any tittle-tattle they could find, the ONLY person the Police could find who didn't like Wallace was an ass-hat named Mather, who could not resist giving full vent to his malignant spleen. [of course, none of it made it into court]

By applying the same 'logic', I must be a mass-murderer...

[RodCrosby]

Nice review of Antony's book...

https://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com/2019/01/12/move-to-murder-antony-m-brown/