Julia Wallace Murder Case

[SteH]

If he did know his attendance routine at the club, he got it wrong, he wasn't there when he rang.

If Wallace was the murder he was a clever one, but not clever enough to split himself in two and ring himself eh!

[Ged]

Aye. Another question is - did the caller botch the call up on purpose knowing it would be traced - or not.

Certainly if Wallace was the caller, he would'nt want it known it was a call box near to his home so why not ring in from near the cafe, then turn up 5 mins later? He could easily have been seen, being known in the area too so when the call trace transpired it was near his home and he'd been spotted, that would be that.

Could the 'real murderer' have botched it on purpose knowing the call would be traced to a box near Wallace's home and so put him in the frame.

Would any caller know that a call could be traced?

[steve miller]

Personally I don't hold much weight by the fact that the call box was near Wallaces' home. It was also near a load more homes!

[lierbag]

My sister used to work with the GPO from about 1965 onwards - mainly at the Heswall telephone exchange, then later at the (haunted!) one just off Lodge Lane, in Liverpool. She always used to say that any suggestion of a call being traced - even as late as the 60s - would have meant engineers wheeling in massive amounts of equipment, and even then it would have had to have been in anticipation of an actual call needing tracing. Whether she's right or wrong on this, I don't know, but I should imagine it was something of a no-no for the 1930s.

The call to Wallace bears some thinking about, if we assume it to be directly related, in some way, to Julia Wallace's murder - and not just purely coincidental.

If you wanted him out of the way for an hour or so - so you could creep in and murder his wife - why would you take the risk of supplying a fictional address which, in his line of work and with such an expansive clientele, he might well have tumbled to at once? Then again, given the necessarily pedantic nature of of someone in the insurance trade, you might have fully expected him to check up on the location of his destination before he actually left the house. Really, you just wouldn't take that risk. Seems to me, he wanted an alibi for his whereabouts on that night circulated as widely as possible. Which isn't to suggest he was the actual murderer - but I still strongly suspect he was connected in some way with its planning.

[Ged]

But he knew where Menlove Gardens West was so he could easily assume he'd find East when he got up there. Why not create an alibi with a real address then, knock on the house (only obviously to be told he was mistaken) and still have an alibi, why rely on meeting a bobby on patrol. He could even knock next door first pretending he thought it was the house so he could be told no it's next door you want. Why not an address further out that would give him longer? Doing all of this, he could still have pestered the tram conductor as he did to make sure he got off at the right stop etc.

[steve miller]

Hi Murphy deals with the fictional address quite well in his book
He says that the caller meant to say West and not east but made a mistake
Of course Murphy is working on the assumption that Wallace was the caller
When the message is relayed to Wallace he begins to write the address down as West but he is corrected.

[Mark R]

There is some controversy concerning the telephone call - Gladys Harley stated that the line wasn't engaged and no-one had used the phone for about half an hour at the cafe. Yet there was talk that the operator said the line was engaged. Telephone technician Leslie Heaton stated in his testimony that the phone had a technical fault. Bear in mind that the call was traced the Wednesday 21st (I believe). The phone could actually have recieved the fault after the Monday message. I suppose we'll never know exactly.

Re: Tracing of call. Personally I have always thought that the idea of WHW using a box so close to his home is questionable. When I first read this case many, many years ago, the first thing I thought was that it was someone else deliberately going out of their way to cause enough commotion for the call to be traced, thereby implicating Wallace. I think that there is a good chance that Qualtrough (whether it be Wallace or someone else) could have thought the call could have been traced. Wallace had a scientific mind and, after all, it was actually traced.

[Mark R]

I recreated the Close Route that he took on the evening of 20th January 1931, and I have to say that I do not believe he would have completed that part of the round in 6 minutes. I used a stopwatch and it took me 5 minutes 31 seconds just to walk the route, not taking into consideration the stops Close would have had to make. I was also walking at a fair pace. I know some of the route is inaccessible but I recreated it in a way to overcome some of the obstacles. I honestly believe that Close would have at least taken 8 minutes.

[Mark R]

In his statement Wallace claimed he walked up here on 20th January 1931. The steps are virtually unchanged since then.

[Ged]

Great stuff Mark. Thanks for the photies and info. They do look ancient.

[chippie]

Cor, I used to live around there for awhile and have walked up those steps many times. To think I,ve walked in the steps of a murderer. Or maybe not.
It,s spooky

[lindylou]

Those steps, I have walked up and down them literally trillions of times.
That walk from Sedley st down to Wolverton st was part of my childhood.
There was a little shop at the top of the steps (that's the side wall of it on Marks photo) .. I spent my pocket money in there every week.
We used to leg it up the hill from Wolverton st so we always refered to the shop as 'up the slope' .. '' mum ! can I have sixpence to go up the slope !''
The shop is empty now and boarded up. I still pass by that way quite often.

The front bay window of our house looked over to the Wallace house. When we were kids we used to try and scare each other with tales about there being blood on the walls !

[Mark R]

Interesting reminiscences Lindylou - great stuff!

[lindylou]

.. and here is the little shop 'up the slope'


It's a shame to see it derelict, it used to be thriving. I remember very well the Irish people who owned it.

[Ged]

Is that an arrow bar wrapper on the floor?