MURDERER SCOT-FREE A Solution to the Wallace Puzzle.

Hardback. England's only 'Non-Proven' murder judgement. Julia Wallace's bludgeoned body was found by her husband William in their Liverpool home, on January 19, 1931. So began the investigation of a murder mystery that aroused fierce public feeling. William Wallace was eventually convicted by the jury and sentenced to be hanged; but he was saved by a unique reversal of the verdict by the Court of Criminal Appeal. The true identity of the murderer has never been known. Yet the solution to the case, according to the author, lay in a thorough examination of neglected evidence, which he offers here. The background to the crime and the trial evidence are carefully analysed, and the inferior investigatory methods used by the police at the time are shown to be clues to some of the many puzzles in the case. It is shown how Wallace's jury could not avoid being prejudiced, how tendentiously the police worked, how untypically the prosecution was pressed, and a dramatic event - how Lord Hewart, heading the Court of Criminal Appeal and himself an outstanding champion of trial by jury, quashed the jury's finding as based on insufficient evidence. A fascinating account of a vintage crime. Illus., Appendices, Bibliog. and Index. 200pp. 8vo. h/back. Ex-lib. but with v. discreet markings and no pockets or dockets. Lacks ffep and bep. G++ in G++ dw.