Speaker 1: This episode ma contain content of a graphic nature, including
Speaker 1: descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. Hi, this is Tanya.
Speaker 2: Hi, this is Shannon, and we are Crimes.
Speaker 1: And Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast.
Speaker 2: Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya, how are you?
Speaker 1: I am doing good today. It's a for Friday.
Speaker 2: It is Friday, and it's so nice out little chili.
Speaker 2: But yeah, the weather report at the beginning of every
Speaker 2: episode that we have, because we do speak weather quite
Speaker 2: a bit, it affects my.
Speaker 1: Moods, yes, exactly. It affects my moods. Like at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the week, I was so depressed and it's
Speaker 1: because of this weather. I'm telling you, I can't wait
Speaker 1: for a spring because like, okay, I'm deeply wallowing in
Speaker 1: my seasonal depression. And we had beautiful weather on Wednesday
Speaker 1: where it was like seventy degrees and that just gives
Speaker 1: me a little hope and it kind of digs me
Speaker 1: out of that hole. And here we are and hopefully
Speaker 1: it will be here soon. So yeah, I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: Though otherwise, you know, the weekend's coming. It's always a
Speaker 1: good time. When it's the weekend, don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about work or get up early and whatever. Spend the
Speaker 1: time with you now.
Speaker 2: So exactly a Friday afternoon with the gales, and I
Speaker 2: do know what you mean about the Wednesday good weather.
Speaker 2: I was all sensitive to the well, like it's sunny,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I am going to work out, I'm
Speaker 2: going on a brisk walk. I'm going to do that.
Speaker 2: And then it's seven o'clock at night and I've done
Speaker 2: nothing by it changes because the weather's nice. You know,
Speaker 2: there truly isn't enough hours in the day. No, you know,
Speaker 2: you gotta get shit done, and then you want to
Speaker 2: have time to do what you want to do. And
Speaker 2: that's curtail to about twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: But so I have a good story today. It's an
Speaker 1: older one. I do like the older ones. I find
Speaker 1: them really interesting. It's from the thirties, so it's almost
Speaker 1: one hundred years ago. But before I get into it,
Speaker 1: I just would like to remind everyone to hit the
Speaker 1: subscribe or follow button on whatever app you're listening to.
Speaker 1: So I am just going to get into it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you a story about William Herbert Wallace. He
Speaker 1: was the oldest of three siblings and he was born
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy eight. William's family was quite well off
Speaker 1: and he had an enjoyable childhood. William was a very
Speaker 1: smart boy as well, and he actually jumped ahead in
Speaker 1: school when he was five years old. By the young
Speaker 1: age of fourteen, William began working to earn an apprenticeship
Speaker 1: as a draper or someone who sold clothing. This job
Speaker 1: allowed William to see the world. He even lived in
Speaker 1: India and China for a few years while he was
Speaker 1: in his twenties. His world travels came to an end
Speaker 1: and brought him back to England after he was having
Speaker 1: health issues regarding his kidneys. In nineteen oh six, William
Speaker 1: resigned from his job, moved back to England and had
Speaker 1: his left kidney removed. This really put William's life on
Speaker 1: hold for a few years, and it wasn't until nineteen
Speaker 1: eleven that William started working again for the Liberal Party
Speaker 1: as an election agent. This new job brought William to
Speaker 1: Yorkshire and he was really suffering with loss, heartbreak and
Speaker 1: just overall sadness from the troubles and obstacles he was
Speaker 1: encountering in his life. But in nineteen eleven. William was
Speaker 1: also lucky enough to meet a woman and fall in love.
Speaker 1: Julia Dennis was born in eighteen sixty one to loving
Speaker 1: parents and in William George Dennis. Julia was the second
Speaker 1: oldest of six siblings, and in eighteen seventy one, while
Speaker 1: giving birth to the seventh Dnnist child, her mother passed away.
Speaker 1: Up until this point, the Dunnist's own and ran a
Speaker 1: very successful farm in the area where they lived, but
Speaker 1: William George had to give up the family farm after
Speaker 1: the death of his wife. During this time, William George
Speaker 1: really leaned into his drinking habit and was becoming a
Speaker 1: full blown alcoholic.
Speaker 2: And I got you said, he really leaned, and he
Speaker 2: really leaned into it nice. I love it.
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy three, William George became the innkeeper at
Speaker 1: a place called the Railway, in which, unbeknownst to him,
Speaker 1: would be the last job he would ever have. By
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five, William George died of liver disease. Surprise, surprise, right,
Speaker 1: And Julia, who is now just a teenager in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy five and one of the oldest of her siblings,
Speaker 1: she got a job working as an assistant governess at
Speaker 1: the kens Wwick House Ladies School in London. As a governess,
Speaker 1: she was someone who provided education and child care to families.
Speaker 1: The Kenswick House was also home to Robert and Charlotte Smith,
Speaker 1: who were husband and wife. Charlotte was the governess of
Speaker 1: the household, and together Julia and Charlotte took care of
Speaker 1: and taught the Smith's three children, maud Matilda and Rose
Speaker 1: like what great name for you? Yes, and three other
Speaker 1: kids who were boarders in the home. So essentially they
Speaker 1: had a little boarding school situation going on, and Charlotte
Speaker 1: was the head governess and Julia got hired as her
Speaker 1: assistant to help with the children. And being a governess
Speaker 1: was a common job during that time period, and even
Speaker 1: Julia's two biological younger sisters worked as governesses and other homes.
Speaker 1: After spending nearly a decade at the Kenswick House Ladies' School,
Speaker 1: Julia left London and moved to Yorkshire and was a
Speaker 1: governess at another home called Elmhouse. At Elmhouse, she worked
Speaker 1: for a family who also had the same last name
Speaker 1: of Smith, Robert John and Sophia Smith and their children Sarah, Sophia,
Speaker 1: Claude and Robert. Julia worked for the Smith family at
Speaker 1: Elmhouse for many years until seemingly leaving governessing altogether and
Speaker 1: moving back to London into her own flat for a
Speaker 1: few years before again going back to Yorkshire. In Yorkshire,
Speaker 1: Julia's sister Annie would stay with her for a few years,
Speaker 1: and Julia would actually become the landlord of one of
Speaker 1: the buildings that she lived. Now here's where things get fishy, Okay,
Speaker 1: so give you us a little bit of background. In
Speaker 1: nineteen eleven a census was taken and on one of
Speaker 1: the documents taken the name Miss Dennis is listed and
Speaker 1: on the other Jane Dennis is listed. Both documents have
Speaker 1: the same listed address, but the birthdates are different. The
Speaker 1: birthday listed for Miss Dennis is the actual birthday of
Speaker 1: Julia Dennis, which was April twenty eighth, eighteen sixty one.
Speaker 1: And for those of us who are not good at math,
Speaker 1: in nineteen eleven, Julia would have been fifty years old.
Speaker 1: The census with Jane Dennis listed and said that Julia
Speaker 1: was only thirty two years old. Either way, Julia had
Speaker 1: really come into herself by nineteen eleven, and she possessed
Speaker 1: many talents and hobbies, especially in the arts. Julia could
Speaker 1: speak fluent French. She did watercolor paintings and also was
Speaker 1: a talented singer and pianist. It was said that her
Speaker 1: home was just filled with the most beautiful watercolor paintings
Speaker 1: that she had done herself. Some described Julia as shy
Speaker 1: and timid, while others saw her as extremely prideful and
Speaker 1: honestly kind of weird. So in nineteen eleven, Julia owned
Speaker 1: the flat that she lived in and life seemed pretty good.
Speaker 1: William and Julia, remember I told you about William earlier.
Speaker 1: They lived just two blocks from each other, so they
Speaker 1: were bound across paths eventually, and when they did, their
Speaker 1: relationship quickly flourished. William spoke about Julia as if she
Speaker 1: truly made him a better man. The pair had tons
Speaker 1: of things in common, including a love for music, the
Speaker 1: English countryside, in literature. During their time dating, William's mother
Speaker 1: passed away, and there's no doubt that William leaned on
Speaker 1: Julia during that difficult time. The couple got married in
Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, and together William and Julia loved to host
Speaker 1: friends over and the night with music in their parlor,
Speaker 1: as William was a novice violinist and Julia could sing
Speaker 1: and play piano. Seemingly, the only thing the couple didn't
Speaker 1: do together was go to church, because William was the
Speaker 1: more agnostic, where Julia was active in their local church
Speaker 1: and she didn't mind going to services alone. Now we
Speaker 1: know that Julia was significantly older than William, and she
Speaker 1: was lying to him about it. William, who was born
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy eight, was only thirty five years old
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirteen, and Julia would have been fifty two.
Speaker 1: Another strange thing Julia did was that on their marriage
Speaker 1: license she listed that her father was a veterinary surgeon,
Speaker 1: when we know for a fact that he was a
Speaker 1: farmer and a drunk who died. Like a weird thing to.
Speaker 2: Lie about, but the less, you know, some embellishments here
Speaker 2: right right?
Speaker 1: You know it sounded sexy. I guess William's sister Jesse
Speaker 1: and the couple's neighbor j s Allenson signed the marriage
Speaker 1: license as witnesses. Since meeting Julia, William had continued to
Speaker 1: work for the Liberal Party as an election agent, but
Speaker 1: in nineteen fourteen, the entire world changed forever. With the
Speaker 1: start of World War One, William tried and failed six
Speaker 1: plus times to fight in the war, but due to
Speaker 1: his single kidney, he was never going to qualify to fight.
Speaker 1: It's clear that this fact took a toll on him
Speaker 1: as he continued to try and join the armed forces.
Speaker 1: Finally accepting his fate, William settled on taking an insurance
Speaker 1: agent job in Liverpool. William and Julia moved to the
Speaker 1: place they would call home, which was located in an
Speaker 1: area of Liverpool called Clubmore. Clubmore was considered to be
Speaker 1: a relatively poor neighborhood. Being an insurance agent was not
Speaker 1: what William wanted his career to be. He had a
Speaker 1: passion for the sciences and had a dream of one
Speaker 1: day making a scientific discovery that would change mankind forever,
Speaker 1: so much so that he turned one of the upstairs
Speaker 1: bedrooms in their home into a laboratory. Also on the side,
Speaker 1: William earned an education from the Liverpool Technical College and
Speaker 1: started lecturing there about electricity and chemistry. In nineteen twenty two,
Speaker 1: William and his friend neighbor James started a chess club,
Speaker 1: and that was something William was passionate about as well.
Speaker 1: For fifteen years, William and Julia really just settled into
Speaker 1: what was seemingly a normal life for a couple in
Speaker 1: the nineteen hundreds. Julia went to church, William went to chess,
Speaker 1: and they of course continued to have their parties that
Speaker 1: ended in music. Neighbors of the Wallaces stated that they
Speaker 1: really were a devoted couple, and after nearly two decades
Speaker 1: of living by them, they had never heard as much
Speaker 1: as a verbal disagreement between the two. Both Julia and
Speaker 1: William were very drawn to intellectual pursuits rather than social pursuits.
Speaker 1: Once they were married, their social lives dwindled, and the
Speaker 1: couple spent most of their time with William's brother, his wife,
Speaker 1: and their son. Julia would sometimes stay after church for
Speaker 1: a cup of tea, but was often eager to get
Speaker 1: home to her husband. Some of the women in their
Speaker 1: congregation believed that William had Julia under lock and key,
Speaker 1: while others just believed that this was the life that
Speaker 1: they both chose to live and they were content with it.
Speaker 1: It was obvious that amongst all the hobbies and interests,
Speaker 1: chess was the one that William enjoyed the most. In
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one, William was part of a chess club
Speaker 1: dubbed the Liverpool Central Chess Club. Even though it seemed
Speaker 1: that William loved chess a lot, he was reportedly really
Speaker 1: bad at it, but still this was a community he
Speaker 1: was part of and he knew the other local chess
Speaker 1: players for nearly a decade. At this point, I don't
Speaker 1: know how to play chess, do you?
Speaker 2: I do. I'm not good at it either. I've been
Speaker 2: known to flip a board in anchor.
Speaker 1: I won't give you DT.
Speaker 2: Then yes, he went someone who has much better strategy.
Speaker 2: You look at the board and people know how to
Speaker 2: do ten moves ahead. We've heard that expression, oh you
Speaker 2: know there are so many moves ahead. I am more
Speaker 2: of a play it by ear now, so I don't.
Speaker 2: My strategy ways are non scientific.
Speaker 1: The Liverpool Central Chess Club met on Mondays and Thursdays
Speaker 1: every week, even during the harsh winter months. While William
Speaker 1: was passionate and dedicated to the chess club, he really
Speaker 1: only attended one meeting a week to play a match
Speaker 1: or cell. William was a hard and dedicated worker, so
Speaker 1: he didn't have as much free time from his insurance ventures. However,
Speaker 1: every other Monday he ensured he would be able to
Speaker 1: play chess. Monday, January nineteenth, nineteen thirty one was one
Speaker 1: of those Mondays that William planned to enjoy himself rather
Speaker 1: than work. William was actually hesitant to go to the
Speaker 1: chess club on that Monday night because he was just
Speaker 1: getting over the flu and Julia was sick with bronchitis
Speaker 1: and their pet cat, whose name was Puss, had accidentally
Speaker 1: gotten out and was yet to come home, but Julie
Speaker 1: insisted that he go. Around seven forty five that evening,
Speaker 1: William showed up to the chess club and club director
Speaker 1: Samuel Betty had a message for him. Just about thirty
Speaker 1: minutes before his arrival, someone by the name of R. M.
Speaker 1: Waltrow called the cafe where the club was hosted and
Speaker 1: asked to speak to William. Since William had not yet arrived,
Speaker 1: Samuel took the call and a message for him. The
Speaker 1: person on the other line asked for William's address since
Speaker 1: he wasn't yet at the chess club, but Samuel refused
Speaker 1: to give him this information and agreed to take the message.
Speaker 1: The mysterious caller asked Samuel to tell William to meet
Speaker 1: him the following evening at seven thirty pm at twenty
Speaker 1: five Men Love Gardens East to discuss business regarding his
Speaker 1: daughter turning twenty one. When Samuel relayed this message to William,
Speaker 1: no one was able to figure figure out who this
Speaker 1: rm Qualtro was. Samuel and William actually asked around the
Speaker 1: club if anybody knew who this guy was or if
Speaker 1: they knew about the address he wanted to meet at,
Speaker 1: and no one did. Other players had heard of Men
Speaker 1: Love Gardens North, South and West and Men Love Avenue West,
Speaker 1: but not Men Love Gardens East. Several players offered suggestions
Speaker 1: of how William might get there the next evening. Oddly enough,
Speaker 1: that same night, another man asked Samuel for William's address.
Speaker 1: So at the Liverpool Central Chess Club, if you arrived
Speaker 1: later than seven thirty pm, you basically threw the match
Speaker 1: and automatically lost. William was late. He arrived at seven
Speaker 1: forty five, so the match he was scheduled to play
Speaker 1: he didn't end up playing this other guy. James cared
Speaker 1: realized that William didn't have anyone to play at the
Speaker 1: moment and offered to play William, but he refused this
Speaker 1: game because James was in a higher playing class and
Speaker 1: he probably knew what's gonna lose. Yes. After William refre
Speaker 1: refused James, James walked over to the check and table
Speaker 1: and asked Samuel for William's address. During James's conversation with Samuel,
Speaker 1: William found another guy to play a match against and
Speaker 1: settled into that. Samuel refused to give James the address
Speaker 1: and just directed him to go talk to William himself.
Speaker 1: Was this a really weird coincidence or is James cared
Speaker 1: ur M Barni Paltrow? Is he just being shitty?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: No, right right. William played a successful game against his
Speaker 1: new opponent, winning and left the club around ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen pm that night. He was seen leaving the club
Speaker 1: with none other than James Cared. During the conversation, James
Speaker 1: told William that he knew a man by the name
Speaker 1: of Qualtrow. Not only that, but James had recommended for
Speaker 1: William about the best way to get to men Love
Speaker 1: Garden East to meet this mysterious R. M.
Speaker 2: Qualtrow.
Speaker 1: The pair walked for a bit together before going their
Speaker 1: separate ways to their respective homes. William arrived home around
Speaker 1: eleven pm that night and Juliet had dine waiting for him.
Speaker 1: This was not unusual for Julia and William to have
Speaker 1: dinner so late. This was actually their normal practice, and
Speaker 1: they went to bed around midnight. After good night's sleep,
Speaker 1: William was off again by ten thirty am to start
Speaker 1: his day of insurance collection rounds. After making rounds for
Speaker 1: about two hours, he stopped at home for lunch and
Speaker 1: then headed back out again to continue working. When he
Speaker 1: returned home, she had dinner ready, and the couple eight
Speaker 1: together and discussed the strange message and meeting invitation that
Speaker 1: William had received the night before. Again, William was hesitant
Speaker 1: to go to the meeting, but he claimed that Julia
Speaker 1: convinced him to go. After all, commission is commission, and
Speaker 1: both Julia and William were considered hard dedicated workers. William
Speaker 1: left again that day, this time around six forty five pm,
Speaker 1: and he decided to take the tram instead of walking
Speaker 1: to meet R. M. Qualtrow. Because he wasn't completely sure
Speaker 1: of what the meeting place was, William decided to head
Speaker 1: to the area where Menlove Avenue West was and try
Speaker 1: to find his way from there. To get to mend Avenue,
Speaker 1: he had to take three different trams. William was relying
Speaker 1: on the conductor of the trams to help get him
Speaker 1: to his final destination. On the second tram, the conductor
Speaker 1: told him where to get off to change trams, and
Speaker 1: on the third tram, the conductor explained to William the
Speaker 1: layout of the men Love Garden's neighborhood and where he
Speaker 1: would most likely find his destination. But seriously, these directions
Speaker 1: didn't help him at all. He walked in circles around
Speaker 1: the neighborhood and stopped a few different people on the
Speaker 1: street to ask them for directions. He even went and
Speaker 1: knocked on the door of the house at twenty five
Speaker 1: men Love Gardens West to see if the address was
Speaker 1: written down incorrectly, like maybe he was supposed to go there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but he hit a dead end, and he hit dead
Speaker 1: end after dead end. When William was finally close to
Speaker 1: giving up, he ran into a police officer on the
Speaker 1: street and asked him where he could find the address.
Speaker 1: The officer informed him that there was no such place
Speaker 1: as at men Love Gardens East. This officer gave him
Speaker 1: yet another suggestion of a place to try, and that
Speaker 1: if William went to the post office or a police station,
Speaker 1: he may be able to find a map to help
Speaker 1: him out. William followed the officer's advice and went to
Speaker 1: a nearby post office, but they did not have a
Speaker 1: street directory, and suggested that he try the newspaper shop
Speaker 1: as they might have one. I mean, this poor guy's
Speaker 1: going he really wants his permission?
Speaker 2: Does?
Speaker 1: When William arrived at the newspaper shop just before nine pm,
Speaker 1: he got lucky because they did in fact have a
Speaker 1: street directory. William and the store clark cuddled over the map,
Speaker 1: and William asked her for help finding the address, but
Speaker 1: again they had no luck. Defeated in just cranky at
Speaker 1: this point in time, William gave up on a search
Speaker 1: and decided to head back home. He rode basically the
Speaker 1: same three trams on his route home, but this time
Speaker 1: no witnesses remember seeing him. So what was Julia doing
Speaker 1: all day while William was working? On January twentieth, nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty one, she had a pretty laid back day. It's
Speaker 1: unsure what she spent her morning doing, but around three
Speaker 1: point thirty pm that day, her sister in law, Amy
Speaker 1: came by for a visit. Amy reported that Julia told
Speaker 1: her about William's business meeting that was scheduled for later
Speaker 1: that night. The duo also discussed how there had been
Speaker 1: a surge of break ins in the area. While Amy
Speaker 1: was visiting, the baker's son stopped by to deliver Julia
Speaker 1: her brad. The son actually asked Julia how she was doing,
Speaker 1: because he said that she looked really sick and not
Speaker 1: like herself. Around four thirty PM, Amy left, and as
Speaker 1: she was leaving, the window cleaner was arriving to clean
Speaker 1: Julia and William's home windows. The window cleaner was arriving
Speaker 1: to clean Julia and William's home windows that night, around
Speaker 1: six thirty Julia had another visitor. This time it was
Speaker 1: the milkman's son to deliver the weekly milk. The son
Speaker 1: knocked at the door and then left the milk on
Speaker 1: the step and moved on to the next home. By
Speaker 1: the time he was at the next door, Julia came out,
Speaker 1: gave the son too empty curtains, and instructed him to
Speaker 1: hurry home because it was cold outside. In between these
Speaker 1: visits and various chores, we know that Julia made William
Speaker 1: lunch and dinner and ate those meals with him. When
Speaker 1: William arrived home at around ten forty. That evening, he
Speaker 1: tried his front door key, but the door wouldn't open.
Speaker 1: The house Julia and William lived in also hit a
Speaker 1: door in the back that they typically used, but at
Speaker 1: night it was most common for them to use the
Speaker 1: front door to be able to keep their home more secure.
Speaker 1: William lightly knocked in the front door before making his
Speaker 1: way to the back. The back door was also locked,
Speaker 1: which he expected, and he knocked lightly again, which was
Speaker 1: heard by the neighbors. Julia wasn't opening the door, so
Speaker 1: William went around to the front again. He was knocking
Speaker 1: and knocking again, now with some level of worry building
Speaker 1: inside him, He decided again that he was going to
Speaker 1: check the back door, and this time on his way
Speaker 1: around the house, he ran into two other neighbors, John
Speaker 1: and Florence Johnson. William immediately asked the couple if they
Speaker 1: had heard anything unusual happening that night. William told John
Speaker 1: and Florence that he was unable to get into his
Speaker 1: home and was getting worried about his wife since she
Speaker 1: was home sick. William tried again with his neighbors at
Speaker 1: his side, and the door thankfully opened. Suggested that he
Speaker 1: and Florence stay on the porch while William took a
Speaker 1: look inside to make sure everything was okay. The first
Speaker 1: place William checked was the upstairs middle bedroom, where he
Speaker 1: and Julia slept, thinking maybe she went to betterly since
Speaker 1: she was sick. When she wasn't in there, he went
Speaker 1: back downstairs to check the parlor. Upon lighting the match
Speaker 1: and opening the door slightly, William saw his wife Julia
Speaker 1: laying face down on the floor in a pool of
Speaker 1: her own blood. Come and see she's been killed, William
Speaker 1: shouted to John and Florence as he ran back to
Speaker 1: the doorway where they were standing in complete disbelief and shock.
Speaker 1: John followed William back into the home and into the parlor.
Speaker 1: At first glance, no furniture had been moved, but the
Speaker 1: closer John looked, the more horrors he saw. Blood had
Speaker 1: been sprayed over seven feet high onto the walls and ceilings.
Speaker 1: Many of Julia's paintings were covered in her blood. Julia
Speaker 1: had a very large wound on the back of her head,
Speaker 1: which seemed to be oozing brain and skull matter. Along
Speaker 1: with the pool of blood Julia was laying in, there
Speaker 1: were two other large pools of blood near the fireplace.
Speaker 1: Florence was the only one to approach the body to
Speaker 1: ensure that Julia was dead. Of course, she's the brave one,
Speaker 1: right right. William noticed that one of the cabinets in
Speaker 1: the kitchen had been ripped off, and all of William's
Speaker 1: insurance collections from that day had been stolen. All that
Speaker 1: was left was a single dollar bill and some stamps,
Speaker 1: and with that John ran out of the house to
Speaker 1: find the nearest doctor while Florence and William waded in
Speaker 1: the kitchen. I'll tell you a little bit about John,
Speaker 1: Florence and their family. They lived next door to the wallaces,
Speaker 1: and the way the houses were set up, they would
Speaker 1: have basically shared a wall with each other, so I'm
Speaker 1: thinking it's like a row of homes. Right at the
Speaker 1: home with John and Florence was their daughter Nora. Nora
Speaker 1: was engaged to a man named Francis, and he was
Speaker 1: frequently over their house to visit Nora. On the night
Speaker 1: of January twentieth, Francis was at the Johnson household. Also
Speaker 1: when the house was another son, Russell and his wife Sarah.
Speaker 1: When Russell heard what was going on and that his
Speaker 1: parents were at the way else's house. He went over
Speaker 1: there right away. He found his mother and William in
Speaker 1: the kitchen, and William was actually cutting up meat for
Speaker 1: Julia's cat, who had returned home at some point that day.
Speaker 1: Russell found that site pretty unsettling, considering his wife was
Speaker 1: in the other room dead. It was just kind of yeah, right, like.
Speaker 2: Yes now, and I'm cutting meat. Yeah, her brain matter
Speaker 2: is oozing out just right.
Speaker 1: Like what the hell?
Speaker 2: Oh your audience read.
Speaker 1: The room, dude, thank you. At this point, John is
Speaker 1: still gone to get a doctor and police to bring
Speaker 1: to the Wallace's house, and Florence and William are still waiting.
Speaker 1: They decided to go back into the parlor and check
Speaker 1: out the scene further. Florence again felt Julia and noticed
Speaker 1: that she was colder than she was when they first
Speaker 1: arrived on the scene. The pair wandered together what the
Speaker 1: killer had used to kill her. William then noticed the
Speaker 1: jacket he was wearing earlier in the day was on
Speaker 1: the floor in the parlor, along with Julia's jacket. Not
Speaker 1: knowing how they got there, Florence and William went back
Speaker 1: to the kitchen. Since they were still waiting, Florence suggested
Speaker 1: they start a fire, and that's exactly what she did.
Speaker 1: During the time they waited, William cried multiple times and
Speaker 1: sat with his hut in his hands. The first officers
Speaker 1: to the house did a horrible job at preserving the
Speaker 1: crime scene. They did such a bad job that an
Speaker 1: officer literally showed up to the crime scene drunk and
Speaker 1: went to the bathroom and flushed the toilet in the house.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: But let's back up a little bit to when the
Speaker 1: first officer arrived at the scene. That officer was named
Speaker 1: Constable Williams, and when he first arrived, William took him
Speaker 1: on a walk through the home. First, they went upstairs
Speaker 1: and took a look in the bathroom and then the
Speaker 1: bedroom and Julia and Williams's bedroom. There was a mantle
Speaker 1: and the couple had a jar with coins inside. William
Speaker 1: showed this to Constable Williams, and as he was showing
Speaker 1: it to him, he picked up a few coins that
Speaker 1: were inside. Immediately, Constable Williams told William to put those
Speaker 1: back and not touch anything further. This was another example
Speaker 1: of how the crime scene was not properly protect did
Speaker 1: before investigation. William took the Constable into the other two bedrooms,
Speaker 1: the one which was the makeshift laboratory and the other
Speaker 1: one which was used as a spare room. And the
Speaker 1: spare room, the sheets were kind of pulled down and
Speaker 1: off the bed and some of the pillows were on
Speaker 1: the floor. William told the constable that he hadn't been
Speaker 1: in that room in like two weeks, and so he
Speaker 1: didn't know if it had been like that or not.
Speaker 1: After the tour, many other officers, medics, and investigators arrived
Speaker 1: on the scene and the investigation was in full swing.
Speaker 1: The first suspect, as is usually suspected when a wife
Speaker 1: is murdered, is the husband. People suspected William on the
Speaker 1: first night of the investigation, but there just wasn't enough
Speaker 1: evidence to back that theory up. According to the autopsy,
Speaker 1: Julia's time of death was seven fifty PM and was
Speaker 1: caused by three to four blows with a blunt object.
Speaker 1: At that time, William would have been across town searching
Speaker 1: for the address that R. M. Qualtrow requested he meet
Speaker 1: a matt There were also no bloodstains anywhere except in
Speaker 1: the parlor. The chances that after murdering his wife, William
Speaker 1: was able to go upstairs change his clothes and wash
Speaker 1: off without leaving a single trace. Officers needed a Hail Mary.
Speaker 1: If they were going to be able to charge William
Speaker 1: with the murder of his wife. They had to be
Speaker 1: missing something, But what was it? They finally had the
Speaker 1: aha moment. William's outdoor coat was found in the parlor
Speaker 1: under Julia's dead body. Maybe William was able to travel
Speaker 1: to Menlove Gardens without a trace of the crime on
Speaker 1: him because he was wearing his coat during the murder
Speaker 1: and then took it off because it had blood splatter
Speaker 1: on it. Police finally put together their theory of what
Speaker 1: happened that faithful night. They believed that on January nineteenth,
Speaker 1: William went to a payphone and made a call to
Speaker 1: the cafe where his chess club would be meeting. He
Speaker 1: masked his voice and left the mysterious message that Samuel
Speaker 1: would later give to William himself. After making the mysterious call,
Speaker 1: William headed to the chess club meeting, which he arrived
Speaker 1: too late, and when he got to the chess club,
Speaker 1: he faked his cluelessness and regarded the mysterious message, all
Speaker 1: to create an alibi for himself. Then the next night,
Speaker 1: police believed that he waited until the milk boy came
Speaker 1: to see Julia alive, quickly killed her, took off the jacket,
Speaker 1: and went on his way to the pretend meeting that
Speaker 1: he had set up. William strongly refuted this theory and
Speaker 1: maintained his innocence. It was proven by witnesses across town
Speaker 1: that saw and spoke to William that he did actually
Speaker 1: go looking for R. M. Qualtrow, and while he continued
Speaker 1: to maintain his innocence, he was very vocal about who
Speaker 1: he thought was his wife's true killer, Richard Gordon Perry.
Speaker 1: There were many people in the community who believed that
Speaker 1: William was innocent and that he was just caught up
Speaker 1: in a tragic and horrible experience. Richard Perry used to
Speaker 1: work under William at the insurance company, and he was
Speaker 1: either fired or left on his own because William caught
Speaker 1: him stealing money from the company and cooking the books.
Speaker 1: William stated that Richard did work alone and there were
Speaker 1: other men he supervised that we're also stealing. One was
Speaker 1: Joseph K. Martsen. William caught the men stealing and they
Speaker 1: left the company, but continued to be friends. After departing.
Speaker 1: Both of the men had been to Williams's house on
Speaker 1: multiple occasions and knew where he kept the cash box
Speaker 1: that he put his insurance collections in. Richard also admitted
Speaker 1: to police that he knew and was a regular at
Speaker 1: the Liverpool Center Chess Club, and he knew what cafe
Speaker 1: they met at regularly, so he would have known where
Speaker 1: to call and leave a message. Another interesting finding regarding
Speaker 1: the potential involvement of Richard and Joseph is that when
Speaker 1: the police were looking into all the people with the
Speaker 1: name Qualtro, they found a man named R. J. Qualtrow,
Speaker 1: and he just so happened to be a client of
Speaker 1: Joseph's new insurance company. Joseph claimed that the night of
Speaker 1: the murder he was sick in bed with the flu
Speaker 1: that was terrorizing Liverpool that winter. Richard claimed that the
Speaker 1: day of the murder, he spent the entire afternoon with
Speaker 1: some friends, who verified this. However, this alibi for the
Speaker 1: phone call was quite suspicious. Richard told officers that the
Speaker 1: night the phone call was made, he was with his
Speaker 1: girlfriend Lily. Lily, however, said that he was not with
Speaker 1: her during the time the phone call was made. When
Speaker 1: he did show up to her house. She was annoyed
Speaker 1: because he was late. It was very unclear what actually
Speaker 1: happened over the course of January nineteenth to twentieth, nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty one. The first place that officers zoomed in on
Speaker 1: was the phone call. They wanted to analyze all the
Speaker 1: details around this and see what they could find. The
Speaker 1: first thing considered was the distance between William and Julia's
Speaker 1: house and the phone booth. The phone booth that made
Speaker 1: the call was very close to William's home, and he
Speaker 1: could have left home at the time he said he
Speaker 1: did quickly stopped and still made it to the chest
Speaker 1: cloud by seven forty five ish. William was eventually charged
Speaker 1: with Julia's murder, and on April twenty second, nineteen thirty one,
Speaker 1: he stood trial, and, despite the fact that all the
Speaker 1: evidence around him was strictly circumstantial, after only one hour
Speaker 1: of deliberation, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him
Speaker 1: to death that same day.
Speaker 2: What oh my gosh, right, fine, insane, I know that's
Speaker 2: April twenty second, nineteen thirty one.
Speaker 1: By May of nineteen thirty one, William's sentence was overturned
Speaker 1: in an appeal and he was released.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: The Court of Criminal Appeals said that there was simply
Speaker 1: not enough evidence against William to charge and convict him
Speaker 1: with the murder of his wife. This was incredibly shocking
Speaker 1: to the public, especially since it was super uncommon in
Speaker 1: the nineteen hundreds. After William was set free, he returned
Speaker 1: to his insurance job, but life wasn't easy for him.
Speaker 1: There were still tons of people in the community who
Speaker 1: believed that he killed his wife and just got away
Speaker 1: with it. William lost clients and friends. William received hate
Speaker 1: mail and even physical threats made against his life. William
Speaker 1: lived in fear that the person who killed his wife
Speaker 1: may come after him now that he was free and
Speaker 1: the case wasn't solved. William continued to struggle with kidney
Speaker 1: issues after having one removed in emergency surgery that I
Speaker 1: told you about, and he ended up using surgery that
Speaker 1: would have prolonged his life. He died in the hospital
Speaker 1: at age fifty four and was then buried next to
Speaker 1: his wife in nineteen thirty three. Now that William is
Speaker 1: a free man, Now what other possible situations happened that night? First,
Speaker 1: there could have been someone who was watching William and
Speaker 1: waiting for him to leave that evening so they could
Speaker 1: commit the crime. It would have honestly been easy for
Speaker 1: a person to set this up if they spent even
Speaker 1: just a few weeks watching William and Julia, because they
Speaker 1: were very routine oriented people. Sound yeah right, I mean
Speaker 1: they did things always at the same time clockwork. Not
Speaker 1: only that, but the chess schedule was posted on a
Speaker 1: board in a public place for anyone to see. And
Speaker 1: if this possible Stoker made the phone call, they were
Speaker 1: already setting William up for failure by giving him a
Speaker 1: fake address, knowing that would keep him out of the
Speaker 1: home for an extended period of time, giving them enough
Speaker 1: time to commit the crime without anyone seeing them. There
Speaker 1: was also a lot of different clubs that met at
Speaker 1: that specific cafe, so that board got a lot of
Speaker 1: traction and attention by round. The other theory is that
Speaker 1: Richard Gordon Pear is the killer with the potential help
Speaker 1: of Joseph Caleb Mardsen to get William back for catching
Speaker 1: and calling them out for stealing insurance money. Not only
Speaker 1: did he know where the Wallaces lived and where William
Speaker 1: kept his cash box, and when William went to play chess,
Speaker 1: he knew that too. He also had a criminal record
Speaker 1: and included things like vandalism, stealing, and sexual abuse, which
Speaker 1: he was acquitted from. But all of these crimes appeared
Speaker 1: to be spur of the moment and involved no planning
Speaker 1: at all, and he typically got caught right away, which
Speaker 1: might indicate that maybe he wasn't responsible for the murder.
Speaker 1: But he did give a fake account to where he
Speaker 1: was at night that the phone call was made, saying
Speaker 1: he was with his girlfriend when he actually wasn't. To
Speaker 1: this day, the murderer of Julia Wallace has never been
Speaker 1: found and her case remains unsolved, and people still question
Speaker 1: whether or not Richard Gordon Perry was involved, or if
Speaker 1: William did it, or if it was something random. So
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Story, that is crazy.
Speaker 2: And do you think William killed his wife? I'm not
Speaker 2: feeling it because what's the mine?
Speaker 1: But what's the motive?
Speaker 2: Right? He hates her, they can't stand each other. She's
Speaker 2: a drunk, he's a drunk taking a.
Speaker 1: Pick, yes, And none of that seemed to be apparent.
Speaker 1: The only thing that sounded like they didn't do together
Speaker 1: was go to church. So okay, a lot of couples
Speaker 1: don't go to church together. But it just doesn't seem like, like,
Speaker 1: what one day he just decided he couldn't stand her
Speaker 1: and decided to kill her.
Speaker 2: That does not make sense at all. And that what's
Speaker 2: his name, Roger? What's the other Richard?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, Richard Gordon Perry.
Speaker 2: And he's the one who's stolen money from the insurance company. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and William had to fire him.
Speaker 1: Is that how it went?
Speaker 2: Okay, so you can't really be friends with the person
Speaker 2: who fired you because you had said, oh yeah, he
Speaker 2: got fire. But there they still remain friends.
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: There, No one person is in the darkness above the friendship.
Speaker 2: There is no friendship. I'm thinking I would go I'm
Speaker 2: leaning more towards richeh just he seems to have the
Speaker 2: most motive to try to fuck over William in a
Speaker 2: way it ruined his life. If William didn't do it.
Speaker 1: I know, it's it seems odd. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't think I like you. I have this feeling that
Speaker 1: William didn't do it. I don't know. I think to
Speaker 1: go on this wild goose chase one thing to set
Speaker 1: the story up. Okay, yes, so you set this story
Speaker 1: up that this guy calls and you're going to go
Speaker 1: to this fake address and whatever. But do you actually
Speaker 1: spend hours and hours searching for this fake address if
Speaker 1: if you really need an alibi? Maybe not.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I put in I would spend Usually
Speaker 2: people are just very the thinking mind is, let me
Speaker 2: just be seen, let me have the post office, see
Speaker 2: me this police officer. Then I'm head right back home.
Speaker 1: Right, I'm done, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: That's I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but yeah, I don't. I don't get
Speaker 1: the feeling William did it. Although William did feed the cat.
Speaker 1: I don't know. That was weird. But we will do
Speaker 1: weird shit when they're like, that's right, you know, when
Speaker 1: you're in shock and you do weird stuff. I think
Speaker 1: I do weird shit all the time. So I mean yes, and.
Speaker 2: It was an act of love in a shocking state.
Speaker 2: I can see like, oh, the cat's back, she'd be
Speaker 2: so happy. So you dote down the cat in a way.
Speaker 2: But that's just me, you know, pulling out a story
Speaker 2: of things I wasn't there for, I know, but I
Speaker 2: would surmise could see happening. Yeah, that's it's so. And
Speaker 2: then nineteen eleven when you said that he had his
Speaker 2: kidney removed William Yeah, you know, were that advanced in
Speaker 2: nineteen eleven? Right?
Speaker 1: And he survived it, and yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's up and down on the sciences for us.
Speaker 1: Curiously, did they have like were they killing germs back
Speaker 1: in nineteen eleven? Did they like use and they must have, right?
Speaker 2: Oh please?
Speaker 1: I don't know when. And bacteria and stuff were discovered,
Speaker 1: but there's always been probably vodka.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or bleach maybe, and you know, these people were
Speaker 2: dealing with their problems with cocaine and morphine, so it
Speaker 2: couldn't have been that. You know, what I love about
Speaker 2: his wife is that she lived for fifty years with
Speaker 2: no husband, and I thought, oh, he's using her for money,
Speaker 2: you know, because if you have no children and if
Speaker 2: it's just you and you can travel and you can
Speaker 2: learn water color, Oh my gosh, I'm living the life
Speaker 2: in nineteen eleven, right, right, or you were born before
Speaker 2: your time? I love it. And that's why, you know,
Speaker 2: who's gonna marry, especially at that time. What man in
Speaker 2: his thirties is gonna marry someone who would be considered
Speaker 2: a spinster?
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah, why isn't he marrying a woman who's seventeen?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's making choices obviously that she fulfills a
Speaker 2: part of him. Right. Oh now I'm gonna say, William,
Speaker 2: I can be proven wrong. I have no you know,
Speaker 2: I have no stronghold on my uh guesses.
Speaker 1: And your stands.
Speaker 2: Yes, I know, I know I'd be curious to know
Speaker 2: what people thought. So anyway too, But thank you, Tanya.
Speaker 2: I love that story. You're welcome that are unsolved are
Speaker 2: just as intriguing, I know, just as even more so
Speaker 2: in different ways, but pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Yes, thank you for listening, and thank you
Speaker 1: everyone for listening to this week's episode. And before we go,
Speaker 1: I just like to remind everyone to hit the subscriber
Speaker 1: follow button and whatever app you're listening to, and you
Speaker 1: can't go to our website Crimes Andconsequences dot com. I
Speaker 1: still have to catch up from last week's episode from
Speaker 1: weeks ago. Sorry, Shannon, I keep forgetting to do that.
Speaker 1: And then you can also if you would like to
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Speaker 1: get an episode every week. And I think that's everything.
Speaker 1: So until our next episode.
Speaker 2: Until our next timetime to me, I will see you.
Speaker 1: Bye bye,