The Killing of Julia Wallace

True Crime History

by Jonathan Goodman

The brutal murder of Julia Wallace in 1931 became one of Britain’s great unsolved murders. People began arguing about the case almost immediately and continue to do so to this day.

Julia was the middle-aged wife of a mild-mannered Liverpool insurance agent, William Herbert Wallace. By all accounts they were a quiet, unassuming, devoted couple. In January 1931 William Wallace received a telephone message to come to an address in Liverpool the following evening to discuss an insurance policy. Unable to find the house after searching for hours, Wallace determined there was no such address and returned home. There he found Julia bludgeoned to death on the parlor floor. In addition to the terrible shock and his unbearable loss, Wallace was accused of the crime and ultimately convicted.

Using original sources, Jonathan Goodman re-creates Wallace’s trial, witness by witness. Through his meticulous reconstruction, it becomes evident that the police and the medical examiner went out of their way to twist and even manufacture evidence. Their attention to proving Wallace guilty ignored a lead to a likely suspect given to them by Wallace. The man was a fellow insurance agent, whom Goodman identifies in the book as Mr. X. The police ignored the suggestion.

In 1969, when The Killing of Julia Wallace was first published in the United Kingdom, Goodman had picked up on the lead the police disregarded.

As a result, he was convinced that Wallace was unjustly convicted. In 1981 Goodman revealed the name of the suspect, who was by then deceased. The suspect had a long record of criminal charges that had been dropped or dismissed due to his family connections—his father and uncle were local officials; his father’s secretary was the daughter of the police superintendent.

True crime fans will welcome the return of this classic unsolved mystery by the inimitable Jonathan Goodman.

Genres: True Crime, Crime, History, British Literature, Journalism, Nonfiction

323 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1969

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Jonathan Goodman was one of Britain's leading historian of crime. The American critic and historian Jacques Barzun described him as "the greatest living master of the true-crime literature", and Julian Symons, another big name in true-crime, thought of him as "the premier investigator of crime past".

His career as a full-time writer began in the 1970s when he edited the Celebrated Trials series which itself was a successor to Notable British Trials. Then in the 1980s, he worked on numerous anthologies, such as The Railway Murders (1984) and The Seaside Murders (1985), often persuading his many friends to provide a chapter and then writing a short introduction. He also continued to research old murder cases, writing books on the Newcastle upon Tyne murder of Evelyn Foster, the New York locked-room mystery of card-playing womaniser Joseph Elwell and, in 1990, The Passing of Starr Faithfull, the daughter of a Manhattan society couple whose body was washed up on Long Beach, New York, in 1931, for which he received the Crime Writers' Association's gold dagger for non-fiction.

He is most well known for uncovering a solution to Britain's most baffling real-life whodunnit, the murder of Julia Wallace in Liverpool in 1931; he not only exonerated the dead woman's husband but identified and traced the man he believed to be the real murderer. This was documented in The Killing of Julia Wallace (1969).

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sought out this book as part of a "project" to read the "honor roll" of 10 classic crime stories listed by James Hitchcock in an American Scholar essay "Murder as One of the Liberal Arts" which I photocopied years ago, probably in the 1990s. By classic, Hitchcock means a crime story which has endured and remained of interest over the years usually because some mystery still surrounds the case.

This is an interesting case. One feels the husband could not have killed his beloved wife, yet while the lack of motive seems to absolve the husband there also exists a lack of motive for the somewhat sophisticated plot to murder the wife by the unknown assailant. After all, a small amount of money was taken from the premises.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: in 1931 William Wallace was acquited of murdering his wife. At the time of her murder, he had an appointment at a non-existent place.

[Lord Bathcanoe of Snark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who did it?
Was it me or was it him?

[Paul Stansfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is about the famous 1931 Liverpool murder of Julia Wallace. Suspicion immediately fell on her husband, William Herbert Wallace, who police felt was too calm and sedate while being questioned. Also, his business trip across town right around the presumed murder time seemed to be an elaborate attempt at establishing an alibi. The book covers the investigation, the trial, and the aftermath. As well as the author's personal theory about who committed this crime. I really enjoyed this one. Author Jonathan Goodman has passed on, but he left many other true crime books. I plan on giving some of those a try as well.

[Alex Knipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was WILD and I can't believe I hadn't heard of this infamous, unsolved crime, often dubbed the "Impossible Murder." This account is thorough, detailed, and provides a really good overview of the case and the suspects.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This account was recommended by a true crime podcast I've listened to on occasion. While the information provided was abundant, the way the story was told was awkward. There were many interjections that I felt unnecessary.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very detailed book on an unsolved case. Recommended for true crime and mystery readers.