The Murder of Julia Wallace (1931) - Full DPP case files

[WallaceWackedHer]

Interesting stuff but it’s difficult to connect them due to the phone call.

They're not the only ones. There was the same thing in St. Helens, Liverpool with a different gang, all with skeleton keys, breaking into homes with two or more people at a time in 1930. Some of the gang were like mid 20s so it's not even just a kid thing.

And then the string of "duplicate key" burglaries in Anfield, 19 Wolverton Street being hit just a month prior. This was very clearly a super common crime at the time, dupe keys and multiple intruders. Multiple gangs carrying out strings of 20+ skeleton key robberies all over Liverpool in all different districts around the time when Julia was murdered. With break ins happening at Menlove Gardens almost a month to the day earlier - the burglars being remanded for a week it would seem, and/or fined.

I'd say this is good evidence that multiple people entering a home was not remotely out of the ordinary, and well I already knew the skeleton keys being rife thing.

The similarities outweigh the single difference by quite a lot. It's a significant finding. I'm positive Gordon called the club anyway...

But it does help give credence to the idea of two people having entered the home to burgle it. Like I said it's obviously common that many housebreakers were working that way in groups of 2 to 4 at a time.

[Herlock Sholmes]

They're not the only ones. There was the same thing in St. Helens, Liverpool with a different gang, all with skeleton keys, breaking into homes with two or more people at a time in 1930. Some of the gang were like mid 20s so it's not even just a kid thing.

And then the string of "duplicate key" burglaries in Anfield, 19 Wolverton Street being hit just a month prior. This was very clearly a super common crime at the time, dupe keys and multiple intruders. Multiple gangs carrying out strings of 20+ skeleton key robberies all over Liverpool in all different districts around the time when Julia was murdered. With break ins happening at Menlove Gardens almost a month to the day earlier - the burglars being remanded for a week it would seem, and/or fined.

I'd say this is good evidence that multiple people entering a home was not remotely out of the ordinary, and well I already knew the skeleton keys being rife thing.

The similarities outweigh the single difference by quite a lot. It's a significant finding. I'm positive Gordon called the club anyway...

But it does help give credence to the idea of two people having entered the home to burgle it. Like I said it's obviously common that many housebreakers were working that way in groups of 2 to 4 at a time.

I certainly wouldn’t say that it’s impossible that someone could have gotten in using the method that you’ve suggested. It’s certainly not a far fetched idea in itself. As I said though my issue would be the call which I’m utterly convinced was connected to the crime and was quite deliberate. I also believe that Richard Gordon Parry played no part in this crime at all but it’s unlikely that we will ever agree on that one unless new evidence surfaces and I’m forced to change my opinion. Another issue for me is that even after such a paltry haul there was zero effort made to look for cash or valuables. I realise that this wasn’t exactly a great piece of robbery staging but with Close being late and William realising that he was under time constraint plus the increased stress of knowing he’d have to convince the police that he hadn’t killed Julia could easily explain this.

[WallaceWackedHer]

I certainly wouldn’t say that it’s impossible that someone could have gotten in using the method that you’ve suggested. It’s certainly not a far fetched idea in itself. As I said though my issue would be the call which I’m utterly convinced was connected to the crime and was quite deliberate. I also believe that Richard Gordon Parry played no part in this crime at all but it’s unlikely that we will ever agree on that one unless new evidence surfaces and I’m forced to change my opinion. Another issue for me is that even after such a paltry haul there was zero effort made to look for cash or valuables. I realise that this wasn’t exactly a great piece of robbery staging but with Close being late and William realising that he was under time constraint plus the increased stress of knowing he’d have to convince the police that he hadn’t killed Julia could easily explain this.

I'm suggesting that Parry is involved and placed the telephone call, I just think it strengthens my idea some, since now I can prove that it was actually commonplace for multiple people to enter properties at the same time.

Don't worry about staging time because that's going to be done in advanced anyway, I have never counted that time against him. I've always considered he would do it before he kills Julia or conversely, after he goes into the home with the Johnstons waiting outside.

Parry seems to use "his girl" as his default excuse when lying and put on the spot... Picking up his young lady Lily from somewhere he can't remember on the day of the telephone call, his girl's 21st when surprised by a request from Beattie to call back later, "late for an appointment with his girl" as an excuse for why he was trying to steal a car (years later, that is).

Once Julia has been killed, if they just went in there to rob the place, that's the END of the robbery right there and then when they realize what's happened. At that point it's gone horribly, horribly wrong and it's time to run the F away as it were.

Given more than one person in the house, there's a lot of permutations. And there's actual news reports from the time suggesting this was a very common M.O. for housebreaking at the time.

It's bizarre, in one of the reports for example, one of the burglars randomly incinerated some (but not all) of the notes he had stolen when he thought he might get caught. Others shoved jewelry down drains. It makes me wonder if maybe that blood-smeared note WAS left/placed in the pot given what I'm reading happened in some of these other cases. But you know me I randomly brainstorm all the time.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I’m currently following your lead by writing my own version of events. Whether it will be of interest to anyone is another matter of course. I’ve done 4,500 words so far have just got William arriving to search for MGE.

[WallaceWackedHer]

I’m currently following your lead by writing my own version of events. Whether it will be of interest to anyone is another matter of course. I’ve done 4,500 words so far have just got William arriving to search for MGE.

Well I'm sure it will be, I found that stuff actually came to me that I didn't notice before in the midst of writing so it appears helpful...

[WallaceWackedHer]

Here's something... It's a bit confusing because the newspaper report from the 30th of December 1930 says they've been remanded for a week. Then the next report says they beat up a bunch of old ladies and stole their handbags and broke into a bunch of homes etc. I can't quite tell... But while one of the guys who broke into Menlove Gardens, David Martin, was on bail at whatever point this was, he and buddies mugged a few old ladies and broke into a bunch more homes. One was left barely conscious on the ground.

Two other old ladies were injured, one with a busted up nose, another just fell over and was shaken up.

He said they spoke among themselves and realized that after being busted the first time for housebreaking (so prior to the 30th of December report?), they'd definitely be sent to borstal for a few years, so wanted to go on "one last spree":



The above report is on the 24th of January 1931.

David Martin when released, would later continue to offend. The papers refer to him as a "gangster", this in 1933 I think. Saying many of his fellow gang members are in "various institutions" which I suppose means prisons.

The "link" between the two gangs Joseph Shipley would fall overboard into the river off a boat a few years later. The friend he was with said he (Shipley) just suddenly said he felt dizzy and fell overboard. His body was never recovered.

---

I also have this statement from one of the housebreakers as to how they did it:

"The window was partly open and Stonehouse climbed up the ladder and through the window. Before doing this he took his boots off and put on a pair of goloshes. He opened the side door and let Hughes and me in."

[WallaceWackedHer]

I was trying to see if it's at all possible Gordon could know any of the mentioned individuals. The "ringleader" of the burglaries (one of two boys said to have masterminded the crimes) Joseph Shipley lived in Clubmoor, close to Lily Lloyd's house - while the rest of the gang lived close to each other in Wavertree.

Small map I have made:



The death of Joseph Shipley:



This same Joseph Shipley died just four years later by falling over the railings of a ferry, accompanied by a friend from Wellington Avenue, Wavertree, as per the newspaper report above.

[WallaceWackedHer]

Okay done researching for the day. I updated my article. I think most or all of these specific individuals who were caught and arrested would've been in custody on the 20th of January albeit I'm not sure. But what I have been able to gather is this:

1. An address at Menlove Gardens had been broken into by three people on the 21st of December 1930, about one month exactly before Julia's murder.

2. This same group had decided to go on "one more spree" while out on bail, committing numerous crimes including breaking into homes and violent assaults against elderly women.

3. Over 20 housebreakings had been committed by the gang in Allerton in December alone.

4. Stonehouse who sounds to me to be the nastiest PoS would take off his boots and put on rubber shoes when about to enter a property.

5. Stonehouse and two other men including one of the men who'd broken in at Menlove Gardens battered three old ladies, beating one woman of over 70 so bad she was barely conscious by the time police arrived, just to take a handbag.

6. There'd been an extensive string of recent housebreakings in Anfield all using skeleton or duplicate keys.

7. A house just a few doors down from Wallace (19 Wolverton) had been broken into with a dupe key one month prior.

8. Joseph Shipley lived half a mile from Lily Lloyd and was one of two ringleaders of the aforementioned Allerton/Menlove Gardens gang, with connections to more than one gang and convicted of involvenent in housebreakings in more than one district.

9. Other housebreaking gangs had been found in possession of large quantities of skeleton keys.

10. The gang did weird things when looting. For example taking a box of jewelry, throwing most of it in a bush and pocketing some rings. Another example, burning some of the money they had taken. Another, throwing items they had taken down drainage grids.

11. In all cases more than one person entered the house at once. In no case did a person enter alone.

12. The perpetrators of the Anfield housebreakings were AFAIK never caught.

13. Shipley came from a very respectable family like Gordon.

14. Anfield housebreakings halted after Julia's death. Though that's expected.

...

So evidently at the very time this murder happened, gangs of housebreakers are rife, skeleton keys are rife, break-ins with multiple people are rife, Wolverton Street had been targeted one month prior, Menlove Gardens had been targeted one month prior, and the people who took part in the Menlove Gardens housebreaking were convicted of violent assaults on elderly women.

Clearly these are truly nasty people, the scum of society.

Stonehouse in particular, who took part in assaulting all three of the old women they were caught for.

Evidently, people like this have NO moral concern about battering old defenseless women to near-death just to run off with a handbag. They would attack someone like Julia without giving a ****. I'm not even sure they'd bother necessarily with trying to distract and rob. People that scummy seem like they literally would be willing to just straight up murder her and run off with what's in the box.

[WallaceWackedHer]

If we can find the names of the men responsible for the Anfield housebreakings I think we'll at last have the name of the man who murdered Julia Wallace.

Even if William is guilty I think it's clear he didn't kill her with his own hand.

It looks like it's Parry, one of these scummy thugs, and then whatever else comes to mind. Like the police initially said in newspapers. I don't think the earlier burglary with a skeleton key a month earlier is coincidence.

[Ven]

Do you know what time of night or day they would break in?
How many people were home when they did break in?
I assume the handbag snatches were out on the street, during the day, is this correct?

[WallaceWackedHer]

Do you know what time of night or day they would break in?
How many people were home when they did break in?
I assume the handbag snatches were out on the street, during the day, is this correct?

7 til 12 were the typical hours. Reading newspaper reports it puts many of the crimes at 9 pm.

I also, like you, assume the attacks on the elderly were in broad daylight.

Stonehouse is accused of violently assaulting 4 elderly women not 3. He's the one who'd change into rubber shoes before breaking into homes. I think he may have been in police custody when Julia was killed? Kinda hard to tell from the papers tbh.

The "one last spree" is either discussing the attacks that took place in December, or recent ones (that report is 24th January 1931 - and in any case the crimes were committed while the boys were awaiting trial).

[Ven]

You know I'm in the "Wallace did it" camp but happy to change if sufficient evidence comes up.
Do you know if a fake phone call was used regularly, or at all, for any of the other break ins? (Their MO!)
Were people home when the break ins happened?

I'm still stuck on the mackintosh being used and no blood being found anywhere around the house.
If Julia was hit multiple times without it be draped over her after the first hit, and she lying on the floor, there would be blood all over the place.Raising and swinging a bloody "pipe" would have blood all over the room.

[WallaceWackedHer]

You know I'm in the "Wallace did it" camp but happy to change if sufficient evidence comes up.
Do you know if a fake phone call was used regularly, or at all, for any of the other break ins? (Their MO!)
Were people home when the break ins happened?

I'm still stuck on the mackintosh being used and no blood being found anywhere around the house.
If Julia was hit multiple times without it be draped over her after the first hit, and she lying on the floor, there would be blood all over the place.Raising and swinging a bloody "pipe" would have blood all over the room.

I don't think any phone call was used in the break-ins of this gang OR others in Liverpool (though the Anfield burglaries get zero coverage in the papers). If there were that would be truly disgraceful on the part of the police that it was never brought up. In other housebreakings I've seen reported the perpetrators did sometimes encounter residents when they entered.

But it looks to me like Julia admitted someone willingly, and it does look like she had the jacket round her shoulders.

It is important to note - and this is a very rarely discussed tidbit- but Wallace said when he went to chess Julia would sometimes play piano by herself to pass time. So there is a possibility of her entering the parlour of her own accord, not only for a visitor.

It just fits the facts for Julia to have the jacket on, since we can almost say with certainty Julia fell skirt-first into the fireplace (horizontal scorch marks on her skirt suggesting contact with the fireclays of the fire). And with that, it does make sense that anything else she was wearing may have caught light too.

Her skirt goes in the fireplace but there's no scorching on her upper body, yet the jacket is heavily burned. I think the defence may be right to suggest the burning was one accident rather than two.

It may also have been used as a shield perhaps? Or even as a makeshift cloth to wipe something? Not sure... But burning of the jacket seems more likely if it wasn't worn by the attacker.

There is actually blood all over the room. The spatter is on the ceiling as well as the walls. It's the awful quality of photographs in those days that hides it. Officers on the scene described the room as a "jam pot".

Higher definition photos of the crime scene do show blood spray, but I think it's still not showing the full extent as might be expected of modern photography.

[Ven]

But it looks to me like Julia admitted someone willingly, and it does look like she had the jacket round her shoulders.

Speculation only... nothing looks like she had the mackintosh around her shoulders or that she admitted someone willingly!

[Ven]

Officers on the scene described the room as a "jam pot".

Yet there is no blood found anywhere else in the house?? and there are no other photos's of the "blood splats". The mackintosh was laid over her head before the last blows were done.