Julie Wallace

[sdreid]

Hi Mark,

I will also probably always be a "don't know". At present, I'm only about 51% against Wallace. Two years ago, I would have been about 60% against Parry. It was recently the knock thing that swung me.

[Marko]

Hi Stan,

Yes, I'm the same. Some days I get up and I think Wallace was innocent, the next day I think he was guilty!

[sdreid]

After the reversal of Wallace's verdict, does anyone know if there was any serious thought given to retrying him or appealing the judgement or is that even possible in the U.K.? Legal eagles correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe in America either the reversal could have been appealed by the prosecution or the trial could have been done over. In the case of a pardon, it would have been final but I don't think that is what we had here.

[Tel]

I'm sure there w0oud have been some way of doing that, Stan, but I believe it was the right decision - Wallace was innocent.

[Graham]

Jonathan Goodman tracked down Gordon Parry in 1980, who at the time of the murder was in debt and apparently knew about Wallace's collection money (he was an insurance rep, collecting weekly premiums house-to-house). Parry knew the Wallaces and visited them at their house. Wallace told police that he was suspicious of Parry.

Parry told Goodman that Wallace was 'sexually strange' and that he knew him and Julia rather well. There was apparently a hint that Parry and Julia had been lovers. Later, in 1980, the journalist Roger Wilkes went looking for Parry, and found that he'd died shortly before; however, he also found a Lily Lloyd, who at the time of the original investigation had provided Parry with a water-tight alibi. Wilkes was told by Miss Lloyd that the alibi was false, and at the time Parry said he was with her she was actually playing piano at a cinema. Wilkes also tracked down a man who'd worked at a garage and who said that Parry drove his car to the garage soon after the murder and washed it down with a hose. There was also, according to the garage-man, a blood-soaked glove in the car...

...none of which proves anything, but I'd say that the chances of Wallace bumping-off his missus are pretty remote.

Thanks to Colin Wilson for the above, which I hope I've remembered correctly.

Cheers,

Graham

[babybird67]

ohhh a new mystery...how exciting...

thanks to Hatchett for both drawing my attention to this mystery and for discussing it with me in chat the other evening...

One thing that strikes me about this case is the depiction of Wallace as some kind of masterly analytical chess master and the contemporary inferences drawn from this that he must have had a mind capable of planning and executing the perfect murder. From the brief reading i have done so far, i would question this depiction. From his own accounts and those of his acquaintances at the chess club, it appears that Wallace was not a particularly good chess player, in fact he was quite poor at it.

For example, this is from Jonathan Goodman's The Killing of Julia Wallace:

"He was by no means a regular attender at the club. Looking back, Beattie supposed that he came along about once every fortnight. He had not been at the club since before Christmas. Wallace had once explained, excused, his infrequent appearances by saying that he did not like leaving his wife alone at night. This seemed a reasonable explanation because, although he was a poor chessplayer, he obviously derived much enjoyment from the game."

It has to be said that Wallace had actually won a game the night before the murder and was full of excitement and effervescence regarding his triumph, which suggests to me it was an experience that was not too common for him.

He describes his poor chess playing abilities in a journal entry himself, which reads:

‘6 November 1930. The tournaments [chess] are now up, and I see I am in Class Three [sic]. (This about represents my strength of play.) I suppose I could play better, but I feel it is too much like hard work to go in for chess wholeheartedly: hence my lack of practice keeps me in a state of mediocrity – good enough for a nice game, but not good enough (but no good) for really first-class play.’

These snippets of information are from

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/wallace.html

I think contemporary depictions of Wallace as fiendishly clever and manipulative because of his prowess at chess were misapprehensions of the time and prejudiced the jury against him. That he played infrequently, and that, when he did play, he did not often win, suggest to me his abilities at chess were over-rated at the time, and perhaps played on by the prosecution to bolster a case based only on circumstantial evidence.

Currently i am on the Wallace was innocent side of the fence, however i have much reading still to do (and have still not yet finished my Hanratty reading!) so no doubt my mind may well change as i gather more information about the case!

[Marko]

Yes, you're right of course regarding the preconception that due to the fact WHW was a chess player, he was a murderer...(and also the fact that he was into the sciences). His appearance also didn't tally very well with the general public - my great aunt would pay Wallace on his rounds and she was convinced of his guilt. "I always knew there was something about him - it was those cold hands"

I notice you are in Wales. I suppose that you already know that Parry spent the last years of his life and died there in 1980? He lived near Llangernyw.

Here are a couple of items I put up on the net;

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Wallace&GSfn=William+&GSmn=Herbert+&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=28263568&

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=46790145&GRid=28263702&

[babybird67]

hi Marko

thanks for those links. Very interesting.

Yes i was aware Parry lived and died in Wales. Do you know if the girlfriend who gave him his alibi is still alive?

[Graham]

Hi Jen,

the last reference I can find to Lily Lloyd was when Roger Wilkes tracked her down in 1980 or thereabouts. If she's still chugging today, she must be a rather elderly lady.

Cheers,

Graham

[Marko]

thanks for those links. Very interesting.
Do you know if the girlfriend who gave him his alibi is still alive?

Hi Babybird67

I think Lily Lloyd died in 1987 (but I might be mistaken...). She lived (and I presume died) on the Isle of Man. Yes Graham, she was tracked down by Roger Wilkes/Radio City but didn't want to say anything regarding the murder.

I actually went to the same school that she attended - Lister Drive. Parry and John Parkes (the garage hand that claimed he washed Parry's car the night of the killing) also went to Lister Drive.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi all,

I ordered a copy of Goodman's 'The Killing of Julia Wallace' from the internet (less than $5!) and just received it yesterday. I look forward to reading it. For those most knowledgable in this case, is there a single other volume on the case that could be considered up to the level of Goodman and worth reading?

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Stewart P Evans]

Out Of Date

Hi all,
I ordered a copy of Goodman's 'The Killing of Julia Wallace' from the internet (less than $5!) and just received it yesterday. I look forward to reading it. For those most knowledgable in this case, is there a single other volume on the case that could be considered up to the level of Goodman and worth reading?
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott

It's a great case Tom, but Jonathan Goodman's book is a bit out of date now. There's little doubt that Wallace did it and the jury found him guilty.

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Stewart,

I'm surprised to hear that as I thought the Wallace case was a true mystery, unlike (for instance) Lizzie Borden, where there's a lot of evidence that makes it clear only she could have committed the murder. Goodman is fun to read nonetheless, so I look forward to seeing why he was swayed the other way regarding Wallace.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Stewart P Evans]

Touted

Hi Stewart,
I'm surprised to hear that as I thought the Wallace case was a true mystery, unlike (for instance) Lizzie Borden, where there's a lot of evidence that makes it clear only she could have committed the murder. Goodman is fun to read nonetheless, so I look forward to seeing why he was swayed the other way regarding Wallace.
Yours truly,
Tom Wescott

It's touted as probably the best murder mystery ever and appears in a lot of anthologies, but you know those early crime writers were a bunch of romantics. You have lots of books to collect if you are interested in this one!

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Stewart. Yes, I've seen that there's a number of Wallace books (most with only a chapter devoted to it), although I've also read how erred and useless many of them are. After Goodman's I will probably read a few written since his book. I think the JonBenet case, which I've read every book on, might be the most frustrating case I've come across thus far (outside of Jack, of course!).

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott