Mysterious origin
The story begins in the evening of193119. As usual, Wallace came to the Liverpool Central Chess Club to participate in the local chess match there. Just as he was in the middle of a fierce battle with his opponent McCartney, Betty, who works in the club, sent him a message: 25 minutes ago, a man who claimed to be R.M.Qualtrough called and asked Wallace to meet at No.25, No.25 Road, Menlovegardernest, at 7: 30 tomorrow night to discuss insurance matters.
However, the next night, when Wallace arrived in the west of the city by tram at the appointed time, he found that the address he was looking for did not exist at all (although Manluowu Huayuan South Road, North Road and West Road were all nearby). Wallace asked several pedestrians for directions and went to No.25, Garden West Road, Manlowood, but the Quayle Trough never appeared. After wandering around these blocks for 45 minutes, Wallace decided to go home. However, around 8: 45 pm, when Wallace returned home, he found that his home had been visited by robbers. His wife, JuliaWallace, fell to the floor of the living room and was hit hard on the head with a stick, dead.
Suspicious case
Obviously, the mysterious phone call that successfully lured Wallace away from the mountain the night before the murder became the key to revealing the case. Beatty recalled that he picked up the phone and had the following conversation with each other:
Excuse me, is Mr Wallace there? "
Sorry, I'm afraid not. "
But he will arrive later, won't he? "
I'm not sure, but if he comes, it will be soon. I suggest you call later. "
However, this Mr. Quartz didn't take this suggestion, but asked Beatty to take a message to Wallace for him. Although Beatty, who had known Wallace for eight years, insisted that the voice on the other end of the phone was "low and hoarse" and could not be Wallace, the police began to suspect that this mysterious "Quarrel Trough" was Wallace himself.
The investigation found that the telephone booth used by Qualtrough that night was next to the station, only 400 yards (about 360 meters) away from Wallace's home. According to the time when Beatty answered the phone, Wallace arrived at the club about 25 minutes before and after. Suppose the murderer is really Wallace. In order to provide an alibi for his murder plan the next day, he left home to make a phone call and then arrived at the club by bus. This is completely feasible in time. In addition, the investigator in charge of the case, Herbert? HebertGold also pointed out that the membership system of the chess club is very strict, and outsiders can't find the phone number of the club through the ordinary phone book.
Another reason why the police listed Wallace as a major suspect is that only Wallace knew whether he would go to the club the night before the murder. You know, Wallace is not a frequent visitor to the club. Before that, he had not played chess for at least two weeks. The existence of this shadow killer "Qualtrough" seems far-fetched. He not only happened to catch up with Wallace's appearance at the right time, but also conveyed his "message" smoothly, and also helped Wallace to make an alibi by the way, and through a third party Beatty who had nothing to do with the interests of this case. So, without any other suspects, the police arrested Wallace and prepared to charge him with murder.
1931April 22nd, the trial officially started. Just as the game between the two armies is common, every hypothesis in this case may be overturned by another completely opposite hypothesis, and every piece of evidence seems to support two mutually exclusive inferences at the same time. During the trial, a chess card became the key material evidence for the debate between the prosecution and the defense.
It turns out that as early as 165438+ on June 6th, a few months ago, Beatty posted the game table of this tournament on the bulletin board at the entrance of the club, which listed the pairing of the participating members and the specific date of each round in detail. In other words, anyone can learn about Wallace's game schedule. Wallace's defense lawyer Roland? In his defense, rolando River took out a photo of the bulletin board, which clearly showed that Wallace would come here to participate in his fourth round on June+10/9, 65438, and the prosecution's assertion that "only Wallace knows whether he will go to that club" was shattered.
However, the prosecution does not show weakness. He also captured another detail from this competition table: According to the competition schedule, Wallace should also participate in the competitions of165438+1October 24th and 65438+February 5th. However, he didn't show up-the record on the match table showed that Wallace took part in the match with Lampir at 1 10 and won: his serial number "6" was marked with "W" representing victory, while 165438+24 October and 65438. In other words, Wallace has never seen each other since the first round.
Therefore, even if the behind-the-scenes killer Quayle Trough really exists and knows Wallace's whereabouts through the game table, he still can't guarantee that the latter will suddenly return on June+10/October 19, 65438 and receive his "message" smoothly.
In addition, the defense also pointed out in the trial that from the investigation of the crime scene, the murderer who attacked Julia was bound to be covered with blood, but after testing, Wallace did not have any blood on his clothes on the night of the crime. However, according to a rubber raincoat found at the scene, the police put forward a new hypothesis: if Wallace is the real murderer, he is likely to wear a raincoat naked at the time of committing the crime to prevent his clothes from being stained with blood. The test report also showed that the bathroom and sewer in the room had not been used, and no blood was found. But there is a little blood clot in the toilet, and the source is unknown.
A tortuous ending
The Wallace case was rated as "the second in Jack the Ripper" by the British media, which aroused widespread concern. Due to the intervention of the media, the people in Liverpool think Wallace is the real murderer of this case, and the notoriety of "wife killer" is also buckled on Wallace's head. In order not to affect the verdict, the court specially selected the jury from outside Liverpool.
On April 25th, 193 1, the four-day trial came to an end. Although Wallace insisted that he was innocent and Judge White tended to acquit him in his concluding remarks, after an hour of deliberation, the jury finally found Wallace guilty of murder based on the testimony of a milkman and hanged him. When the judge asked Wallace what he had to say, he said, "I'm innocent, but I have nothing to say."
1931may 18, the CourtofCriminalAppeal in London accepted Wallace's appeal and dismissed the original judgment on the grounds of "insufficient evidence"-which meant that the jury was wrong, which was very rare at that time. Usually, the reason for the success of an appeal is the emergence of new evidence. /kloc-In May of 0/9, Wallace was acquitted.
Wallace tried to return to a quiet life after he got out of prison, but everything had already changed. His former friends avoided him, and it is impossible to play chess now. He used to like playing chess very much. Wallace was originally sickly and mentally tortured, and died of kidney disease a year later.
After Wallace's death, the truth of the murder case was buried with him forever. The murder weapon used by the murderer has never been found, and the motive of the murderer has never been known. If it weren't for Wallace, he did commit a perfect crime: no witnesses, no clues. In the words of Judge White, this is "a genius murder of an era that passed before me. Behind me, where is the next generation? In the history of crime. " If Wallace is the murderer, he will be close to perfection. With the right layout and the right alibi, he was not convicted when he was alive-even less after death.