Julie Wallace

[Mayerling]

The newsboy was not regarded as reliable.if the timings of the death were between 6 and 6.30 Wallace did it . No one else could have done it . The police thought he was naked under the mac. He could been wearing underwear. How long would it take to batter a frail old woman? A couple of minutes? Then take off the mac lay it by the fire push the body on to it, put on trousers shirt tie jacket coat. 10 mins maybe or less. Leave house.

It is the perfect murder, and my gut feel is that Wallace did it, there was something about the man. The case has parallels with that of John Selby Watson, the respectable Victorian Schoolmaster who, in his sixties battered his wife of many years to death in a fit of rage.1871. I think it was the first time balence of mind disturbed was used as a defence. There was a lot going on under the surface in both these marriages, but I think Wallace planned the death of his wife.
Beryl Bainbridge wrote a marvellous novel about the Watson marriage called Watson's Apology.

Miss Marple

I hate to slightly switch murders in the middle of the stream, Miss Marple, but the Watson case is interesting.

Thoughout the 19th Century up to today there has been a suspicion about the use of mental defenses in homicide cases. In the 1860s there were a pair of murders, one of George Townley who in 1863 cut his ex-girlfriend's throat when she dumped him, while at the same time a poor man named Samuel Wright killed his wife in a similar means. Townley's family was well-to-do (not rich, as the public suspected) while Wright had nothing like Townley for a defense. Wright was found guilty and hanged, while Townley was (after a long series of examinations) determined to be insane and sent to an asylum. The public started screaming about one law for the rich (again Townley was not rich) and one for the poor. To show the reality of the situation, Townley threw himself off a second floor landing for a staircase onto a stone floor in 1865 killing himself. I've gone over the case and Townley strikes me as insane. Perhaps Wright was too, but just could not get a good lawyer.

Townley by the way had a quiet, if determined demeanor - sort of like Wallace, if you care to consider it.

Selby Watson tragedy was not of his nor his wife's actual making. It was a culmination due to poverty and mean spirited employers. A first rate scholar, his translation of Polybius was still in print twenty years ago in the U.S. He was the headmaster (shades of Mr. Valentine) of a public school near London, I believe) and had always had a really bad salary. In fact he tried to augment his income by his publications, but how many Victorians cared to read Polybius or Watson's book on the history of the Papacy? On top of that his wife had the bad habit of drinking. They fortunately had no children. She was nagging about his lack of financial success. It built up.

Then the trustees of the school fired him (nicely - they "retired" him for a younger replacement). They did not give him a pension on this. His wife increased her complaining and drinking, and he finally had enough and bludgeoned her to death. After somewhat hiding her body, Watson tried to commit suicide with poison but failed.

In his case perhaps a degree of official charity saved him from the gallows. There were debates in the House of Commons on the matter, and at one point a digression about whether Watson translated some Latin correctly (imagine that today). Found guilty at his trial, his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment at Broadmoor (where his neighbors included the equally mad but talented murderer Richard Dadd). In 1884, while sleeping in his cell in a hammock, Watson fell out of the hammock, hit his head on the floor, and died.

From what I recall about the Wallace's, money was no problem - he did well in the insurance business. He and his wife actually enjoyed music together.
This does not mean everything was perfect between them, but it suggests that Wallace was not having the aggravation that drove Selby Watson to his sad tragedy.

Jeff

[sdreid]

BBM

The newsboy was not regarded as reliable.if the timings of the death were between 6 and 6.30 Wallace did it . No one else could have done it . The police thought he was naked under the mac. He could been wearing underwear. How long would it take to batter a frail old woman? A couple of minutes? Then take off the mac lay it by the fire push the body on to it, put on trousers shirt tie jacket coat. 10 mins maybe or less. Leave house.

Watch that-I'm the same age Julia was at the time.

At any rate, over the past few years, I've been of the opinion that Wallace probably did it-I'm only about 60% on that though.

[miss marple]

Julia was seventeen years older than Wallace was she not? Born in 1861 which would make her seventy. Fairly frail I would have thought, she was no marshal arts expert!

Mayerling, Watson did did have more obvious factors in his life to make him crack but the grinding dullness of the Wallace existance, his failing health, the burden of looking after an older wife in the future, lack of childen to share things with, who knows? Perhaps he resented her and had grown to hate their life and the endless 'musical evenings' the lack of variety, perhaps even a lack of communication.

Miss Marple

[Rosella]

People rarely discussed ages at the time when the Wallaces wed, their own or other people's. Julia put her age down a lot on the marriage certificate but probably Wallace never queried it.

As for looking after an elderly wife in the years to come it would be more likely to have been a widowed Julia facing an uncertain future. Wallace had one kidney removed and his remaining one was failing in 1930-31. Indeed he didn't long survive his wife, dying in February 1933 from kidney disease.

[sdreid]

Julia was born on April 28 of 1861 so she was 69 (my age) about 14 weeks short of her 70th birthday. I can do more chin ups now than I could do when I was 16 so not all of us are broken down old wrecks at that age.

[Rosella]

Yes, that's right, lots of people are fit and healthy in their late sixties (and their seventies.) Apart from a tendency to colds Julia seemed in reasonable health. At least she wasn't suffering from a serious and deteriorating condition like her husband was. Wallace was also a heavy smoker. There's no motive whatsoever, and, like Graham, I just can't see Wallace as a murderer.

[miss marple]

Of course, seventy year olds today are much younger and fitter, I know plenty of young seventies, with plenty of vim and fun lives, but seventy was old in the 1930s. A woman of that age would have been regarded as an old lady. The reverse situation could apply to Wallace, perhaps being unfit he worried about what what happen to Julia if he died. Poison could be easily traced so is not an option.

I don't go with the idea had because Wallace was sick and middle age he could not have been a murderer. Domestic murderers have no template. Plenty of quite respectable middle aged men and women have committed murders. Wallace spent a two years in Cacutta, an experience so different from his English life. He may of been aware of th Hindu practice of Suttee where the grieving widow is thrown on the funeral pyre of her husband. He may have been worried about Julia being left behind with no financial support.
It is interesting to speculate on the motives of Wallace if one believes he was responsible, which is all I am doing.

This case continues to fascinate.

Miss Marple

[Hatchett]

It could have been that a crack had appeared in their "comradeship." Perhaps she had grown disrespectful towards him. Perhaps nothing that great in today's world where people tend to have so many outside interests. But in that cloying isolated house that they lived in, it could have reached gigantic betrayal proportions in Wallace's mind.

[caz]

I'm not sure a specific motive is needed, or ever likely to surface, if this was indeed a case of domestic murder.

With no children as witnesses, who knows what goes on between husband and wife behind closed doors? Husbands can verbally abuse wives for decades, and wives can nag away at husbands from day one, without anyone suspecting a thing - until the abused spouse can take no more and takes drastic and unexpected measures to end it for good. While the abuse is ongoing it can be too humiliating for either party to admit to any problems outside the home. They can often come across as the perfect couple when in company with family or friends.

If it all ends in murder, and there is no confession, the killer is unlikely to spill the beans about the true nature of the relationship.

Love,

Caz
X

[Robert]

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

[Mayerling]

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

Very interesting site - well illustrated too. Thank you.

[caz]

Two questions if I may:

Has there ever been a film, tv doc or drama based on this case?

Which book would be the best to get hold of?

Thanks in advance chaps or chapesses!

Love,

Caz
X

[Robert]

A few TV progs, Caz :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herbert_Wallace

[caz]

Cheers Robert. I'd love to see a new docu-drama on the Wallace case.

There have been some good real crime dramas made in recent years based on the Lucan case, Harold Shipman (James Bolam is chillingly good), John George Haigh (A is for Acid starring Martin Clunes) and so on.

Love,

Caz
X

[sdreid]

Bruce Robinson was supposedly thinking about writing a screeplay for a new Wallace Case movie but decided to write the 127th, or whatever, Ripper book instead.