The Man Who was Tried for the

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 111, 13 May 1933, Page 16

The Man Who was Tried for the

"Perfect Crime 59

One of the most amazing murder mysteries that ever came before the English Courts was recalled to mind a few weeks ago by the death in C'latfcerbridge Infirmary, Wirral, Cheshire, of a man who was freed by the Court of Criminal Appeal after he had spent nearly a month in a condemned cell as a convicted murderer. He was William Herbert Wallace, aged 53, insurance agent, of .Liverpool, who was known as "the man they did not hang." Wallace had been suffering from cancer for years, and for three weeks he had hovered between life and death. Sometimes he was in delirium, yet never did he give a clue that might have helped to clear up the mystery of the "Bogus Telephone 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 being interred in his wife's grave. Wallace was found guilty at Liverpool Assizes on April 25, 1931, of the murder of his wife, Julia, who 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 semidetached house—while ho waa unclothed —that he stripped himself before the crime and took a bath after it so that there should be no bloodstains to tell the tale 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 for the fuss made by the person sending the message over the loss of twopence by" being 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 house. Mr. Justice Wright, in summing-up at the trial, described the tragedy as "unexampled in the annals of crime." Tho crime, he said, Was so skilfully devisod and executed, and there was such an absence of anything to incriminate anybody, as to make it'difficult to bring it home to anybody in particular. After remarking on tho. lack of motive in the murder, he said whoever committed the crime must have been seriously splashed with blood, and

[added: "How in the name of Providence did the murderer go without leaving a trace 'behind!" The verdict, after a four-days' trial, frankly surprised the court. The general impression was that the jury would either acquit or disagree on the evidence. The prisoner's calm 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. Wallace's colleagues in the co'inpany for which ho worked retried 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 bore himself with remarkable fortitude, and even when the court directed that his sentence should be quashed he displayed no emotion. The appeal was allowed on the ground that there had been insufficient evidence to warrant Wallace being found guilty, although Lord Chief Justice Hewart added that the summingup of Mr. Justice Wright had been 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 a month's holiday by his employers, and was then transferred to another, district, where he continued his usual type of work. Mr. Wallace took a bungalow in Mcadowside 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." After Mr. Wallace's death it was learned that. Miss Mason was lying dangerously ill in the bungalow, attended by a neighbour. j