UNSOLVED MURDER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 549, 5 June 1933, Page 2

UNSOLVED MURDER

DEATH REVIVES STORV I ■ — . ' 4 CONDEMNED MAN FREED BY COURT OF APPEAL. STRONG PUBLIC FEELING. One of the most amazing murder mysteries tha't everf came before the English Courts was recalled to mind a few weeks ago hy the death in Olatterhridge Infirmary, Wirral, Cheshire, of a man wh'o was freed hy the Court of Criminal Appeal after h'e had spent nearly a month in a condemned cell as a convicted murderer. He was William Herbert Wallace, aged 53, insuranee agent, of Liverpool, who was known as "the man they did not

hang." Wallace had heen suffering from caneer for years, and for three weeks he had hovered hetween life and death. Sometimes he was in delirium, yct never did he give a clue that might have helped to clear up the mystery of the "Bogus Teleph'one ' Call Murder," also referred to as "The Perfect Crime," for which he was' condemned and then finally acquitted. His funeral took place at Anfield, Liverpool, his body heing interred in his wife's grave. Wallace was found guilty at Liverpool Assizes 011 April 25, 1931, of the murder of his wife, Julie, wh'o was found battered to death in her home at Anfield.

The prosecution propounded the theory that Wallace murdered his wife in the sitting room of their little semi-detached house — while he was unclothed — that he stripped hiinself before the crime and took a bath after it so that there should be no bloodstains to tell the tale. Fuss Over a Twopenny Call. A telephone message sent to Mr. Wallace's chess club was one of the few clues, and his arrest would never have come about * but f ori the fuss made by the person sending the message over the loss of twopence by heing given a wrong number. This caused the operator to make a note of the incident at the time. It was found that the murderer had used a telephone box only a few hundred yards from Mr. Wallace's mouse. Mr. Justice Wright in summing up at the trial, described the tragedy as unexampled in the annals of crime. The crime, he said, was,cso- skilfully devised and executed and there was such an absence of anything to incriminate anyhody, as to make it difficult to bring it home to anyhody in particular. After remarking on the lack of motive in the murder, he said whoever committed the crime must have been serioufcly splashed with hlood, and added: "How in the name of Providence did the murderer go without leaving a trace behind!'

Unexpected Yerdict. The verdict, after a f our-days' trial, frankly surprised the court. The general impression was that the jury would either acquit or disagree on the evidence. The prisoner's cairn was amazing, and at the end, he quietly said, "I am not guilty. I don't want to say anything else." Protests came from all over the country at the verdict, and there were hot debates wherever men and women met. vVallace's colleagues in the company for which he worlced tried his case in private, and decided he was innocent. A meeting of his trade union executive, held in London, drew up an appeal for funds, and money poured in from all parts of the country. On the eve of the Appeal Court hearing in May, 1931, intercessions were offered in Liverpool Cathedral praying "that his Majesty's judges may be guided in true judgment.'^ Throughout the appeal proceedings Wallace hore himself with remarkable fortitude, and even when the court directed that his sentence should be quashed he displayed no emotion. The Appeal Allowed. The appeal was allowed on the ground. that there had heen insufficient evidence to warrant W^allace heing found guilty, although Lord Chief Justice Hewart added that the summing up of Mr. Justice Wright had heen extremely fair and there was no reflection on the police. Following his release, Mr. Wallace, who spent the whole of his life's savings, over £1500, on his defence, was granted & month's holiday by his employers, the Prudential Assiirance Company, and was then transferred to another district, where he continued in his usual typje of work. Mr. Wallace took a bungalow in Meadowside Road, Bromborough, Cheshire, and there tried to start a new life. He was greatly helped by the devoted care of his housekeeper, Miss Mason. As he left his bungalow for the hospital during his last illness he wept as he said good-bye to-'her, adding, "You have been goodness itself to me." After Mr. Wallace's death it was learned that Miss Mason was lying dangerously ill in the bungalow, attended hy a neighbour.