Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with Me Richard McClane Smith, where
Speaker 1: for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories
Speaker 1: and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the previous show. In last week's episode, A
Speaker 1: Room with No View, we followed the mysterious case of
Speaker 1: Artemis Ogletree and his apparent assault in Room ten forty
Speaker 1: six at the President Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri that
Speaker 1: led to his death. Ogletree's murder presents as a hugely
Speaker 1: puzzling real world locked room mystery, whereby everything of note
Speaker 1: appears to have taken place in one room in which
Speaker 1: nobody apart from Artemis was ever seen coming in or
Speaker 1: out of. Part of the fun, of course, as stragic
Speaker 1: as it was for the victim who's trying to decipher
Speaker 1: just what exactly occurred, the case, I believe is all
Speaker 1: the more tragic since Ogletree, who it appears was gay,
Speaker 1: may well have escaped his deeply conservative hometown of Birmingham, Alabama,
Speaker 1: in search of the freedom to love whoever he wanted,
Speaker 1: only to be murdered by someone who he'd become romantically
Speaker 1: involved with. Since any investigation into who'd attacked him would
Speaker 1: likely lead to him being outed. With all sexual acts
Speaker 1: between persons of the same sex being illegal at the time,
Speaker 1: there would have been immense pressure not to reveal anything
Speaker 1: about what had taken place, all of which is mere speculation.
Speaker 1: Of course. In the end we are left only with
Speaker 1: the small smattering of clues and any number of possible theories. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: such stories a great fodder for writers of crime fiction
Speaker 1: forever on the hunt for more ingenious and unusual ideas
Speaker 1: to bambooz all their readers with. And there is one
Speaker 1: case in particular that has enthralled and mystified some of
Speaker 1: the world's best from p D. James Raymond Chandler, which
Speaker 1: took place only a few years before Ogletree's death in Liverpool, England,
Speaker 1: back in nineteen thirty one. It was, as Chandler himself described,
Speaker 1: the impossible murder because the main suspect couldn't possibly have
Speaker 1: done it, but neither could anyone else. On the evening
Speaker 1: of Monday January nineteenth, nineteen thirty one, down at the
Speaker 1: Liverpool Chess Club on Eberley Street, as members began arriving
Speaker 1: for their weekly seven thirty matchups, the club's telephone started
Speaker 1: to ring. Taking it off the hook, the club's captain
Speaker 1: asked who was calling. A man on the other end
Speaker 1: of the line identified himself as a mister R. M.
Speaker 1: Qualtro who wanted to speak to William Wallace, one of
Speaker 1: the members of the Chess Club. Since Wallace was yet
Speaker 1: to arrive, the man left a message instead the captain
Speaker 1: to inform Wallace that he wished to meet him at
Speaker 1: his home at twenty five men Love Gardens East the
Speaker 1: following night at seven thirty pm sharp to discuss an
Speaker 1: endowment policy for his daughter. Wallace arrived a few minutes
Speaker 1: later and was duly handed the message by the captain.
Speaker 1: Though it was a little unusual for a potential client
Speaker 1: to try and reach him at the chess Club, since
Speaker 1: Wallace was an insurance agent, the request at least made
Speaker 1: some sense, however, as Wallace was quick to note to
Speaker 1: the club captain he'd never heard of anyone called Qualtroux before,
Speaker 1: nor of any street named men Love Gardens East, although
Speaker 1: he and some of his fellow members did know of
Speaker 1: a men Love Avenue. At fifty two years old, Wallace
Speaker 1: appeared to be every inch the typical, quietly dedicated suburban professional,
Speaker 1: living out a fairly mundane existence with his wife Julia, who,
Speaker 1: at seventeen years his senior, was sixty nine at the time.
Speaker 1: Wallace's past, however, was anything but mundane, having spent time
Speaker 1: working in Calcutta, India and later Shanghai in China as
Speaker 1: a draper for the British Armed Forces, before a kidney
Speaker 1: problem forced him to return to England, where the errant
Speaker 1: kidney was later removed. After a brief stint in local politics, Wallace,
Speaker 1: having by then met Julia, eventually settled in Liverpool after
Speaker 1: getting a job working for the Prudential Insurance Company. For
Speaker 1: sixteen years, he and Julia had rented a property on
Speaker 1: Wolverton Street, where they could often be found in the
Speaker 1: evening dueting together as Julia played the piano and William
Speaker 1: tried his best to accompany her on the violin. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: Wallace occupied himself with amateur studies in chemistry and electronics,
Speaker 1: while also conducting the occasional lecture of the local Technical College.
Speaker 1: All in all, by nineteen thirty one, his and Julia's
Speaker 1: was very much the quiet life, which only made what
Speaker 1: happened next all the more shocking. Is there something interfering
Speaker 1: with your happiness or preventing you from achieving your goals.
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Speaker 1: happier life to day. The day After the peculiar phone call,
Speaker 1: the couple were seen in their home at a round
Speaker 1: six forty five p m by a milk boy who'd
Speaker 1: called round to collect his bill for that week. At
Speaker 1: precisely seven oh six p m. William Wallace, having seemingly
Speaker 1: set out to attend the seven thirty meeting with the
Speaker 1: mysterious r M. Qualtro, was seen boarding a tram roughly
Speaker 1: two miles away from his home, where he asked the
Speaker 1: conductor directions to men Love Gardens East. Having been told
Speaker 1: to get off at Penny Lane to transfer to the
Speaker 1: five A tram, Wallace spent the next ten minutes continuing
Speaker 1: asking the conductor to call out when they arrived there.
Speaker 1: After boarding the next tram at seven fifteen pm, Wallace
Speaker 1: then asked its conductor again for directions to Menlove Gardens East,
Speaker 1: not knowing where it was. However, this conductor suggested he
Speaker 1: get off at Menlove Avenue, half a kilometer up the road.
Speaker 1: At some time around seven thirty pm, the residence of
Speaker 1: twenty five men Love Gardens West heard a knock at
Speaker 1: their door. Opening it, they found an exasperated Wallace wanting
Speaker 1: to know of a mister r M. Qualtroux lived at
Speaker 1: the property. As he explained, he'd been given the address
Speaker 1: east but had only been able to find north, south
Speaker 1: and west and had begun to wander if he had
Speaker 1: the address wrong. The occupants, however, had never heard of
Speaker 1: the man. A few minutes later, Wallace approached a nearby
Speaker 1: police officer and proceeded to explain his predicament, asking again
Speaker 1: for directions to men Love Gardens East, before pointedly asking
Speaker 1: whether it was eight pm yet, to which the police
Speaker 1: officer confirmed it was not. Next, Wallace dashed over to
Speaker 1: a local newsstand to search a local directory, where he
Speaker 1: also asked the seller working there if they'd ever come
Speaker 1: across men Love Gardens East. When they said they hadn't either,
Speaker 1: Wallace finally gave up the search and returned home. Wallace
Speaker 1: was next seen around eight forty five pm standing outside
Speaker 1: the front door of his house, looking confused. When his
Speaker 1: neighbors Florence and Jack Johnston asked him what the matter was.
Speaker 1: He explained that neither his front or back door key
Speaker 1: seemed to be working, and that his wife, Julia, who'd
Speaker 1: made no plans to go out that evening, didn't appear
Speaker 1: to be inside, Asking the Johnston's to escort him round
Speaker 1: the back. Wallace attempted to access the house again, where
Speaker 1: this time he was able to unlock the door. While
Speaker 1: Florence and Jack waited for him, Wallace dashed inside, appearing
Speaker 1: moments later with a look of horror on his face.
Speaker 1: Come and see, he said, she's been killed. The Johnstone
Speaker 1: screamed in shock at the sight of Julia on the
Speaker 1: floor by the gas fireplace, her head a bloody pulp
Speaker 1: having been smashed open. Underneath her was a half burned
Speaker 1: Macintosh coat, while all about the walls were splattered with blood.
Speaker 1: They finished her, muttered Wallace, look at her brains. Police
Speaker 1: found little evidence of disturbance in the property. Although Wallace
Speaker 1: was convinced that some money had been stolen, nothing else
Speaker 1: of any note, including the murder weapon, was found. The
Speaker 1: medical professional called to the scene determined that Julia had
Speaker 1: died at some time between six and seven pm, although
Speaker 1: no formal tests were carried out to confirm this. With
Speaker 1: little else to go on. As the only credible suspect,
Speaker 1: William Wallace was promptly arrested and two weeks later put
Speaker 1: on trial for his wife's murder. Over four days, the
Speaker 1: prosecution and defense argued the merits of the case. With
Speaker 1: the phone call from the mysterious R. M. Qualtro, who
Speaker 1: was never identified, found to have been placed only four
Speaker 1: hundred meters from the Wallace home. The prosecution argued that
Speaker 1: Wallace made the call himself, then carried out his very
Speaker 1: public search for the meeting location the following night in
Speaker 1: order to construct an alibi. And yet if Julia was
Speaker 1: last seen alive at six forty five pm but died
Speaker 1: around seven pm at the latest, it simply wasn't possible
Speaker 1: for William only moments later to have been seen on
Speaker 1: the tram looking clean and presentable two miles away. As
Speaker 1: for the murder weapon, the couples cleaner testified that a
Speaker 1: small iron bar and a fire poker appeared to have
Speaker 1: been removed from the property. With the media and the
Speaker 1: public having had a field day with the crime, conjuring
Speaker 1: up all sorts of wild theories as to how and
Speaker 1: why he'd done it, it appears the jury's opinion was
Speaker 1: already made up. After only an hour deliberating the case,
Speaker 1: they returned with a verdict of guilty. Wallace was sentenced
Speaker 1: to death by hanging. However, Wallace quickly appealed the decision, and,
Speaker 1: having been disturbed by a conviction determined on only the
Speaker 1: flimsiest of evidence, the Court of Criminal Appeals moved to
Speaker 1: overturn the decision. His freedom was short lived, however, when
Speaker 1: he finally succumbed to the kidney issues that had plagued
Speaker 1: him for much of his life, dying in February nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty three after a miserable two years being relentlessly harassed
Speaker 1: for having seemingly got away with murder. Many years later,
Speaker 1: during a renovation of the old Wallace home, the iron bar,
Speaker 1: thought to have been a possible murder weapon, was found
Speaker 1: at the back of the fireplace. It was later analyzed
Speaker 1: but found to have no bloodstains on it. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can
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Speaker 1: how large or small, are greatly appreciated. Unexplained the book
Speaker 1: and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never before been
Speaker 1: covered on the show, is now available to buy worldwide.
Speaker 1: You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones,
Speaker 1: among other bookstores. All elements have Unexplained, including the show's music,
Speaker 1: produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate
Speaker 1: the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free
Speaker 1: to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding
Speaker 1: the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have
Speaker 1: an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You
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