1930–1939
On January 20, 1931, Julia Wallace, 52, was found brutally bludgeoned to death in the parlor of her home at 29 Wolverton Street in Anfield, Liverpool. Despite the violent nature of the attack, cash and valuables were largely untouched, suggesting robbery was not the motive. Earlier that evening, her husband, William Herbert Wallace—an insurance agent—had received an anonymous telephone call from a man calling himself “Qualtrough,” arranging a meeting at a non-existent address. While Wallace was away attempting to keep the appointment, the killer appears to have entered the locked house without being detected. Wallace was later arrested, tried, and convicted based on circumstantial evidence, including questions surrounding the phone call and inconsistencies in his alibi. However, the conviction was overturned on appeal due to insufficient evidence, and he was acquitted. Despite ongoing speculation and later theories implicating possible accomplices such as Richard Gordon Parry, the murder remains unsolved.
In early May 1932, the body of 32-year-old sex worker Lilly Lindström was discovered in her ground-floor apartment in Stockholm’s Atlas district in Sweden. She had been strangled and stabbed 19 times, with wounds to her neck that had drained a significant amount of blood. Investigators also found residue on a soup ladle, leading to speculation that the killer had consumed her blood—a detail that gave the case its chilling nickname, the “Atlas Vampire,” or Vampirmordet.
The apartment showed signs of a violent struggle and defensive injuries, yet there was no evidence of forced entry or theft, suggesting Lindström knew her attacker. Police questioned numerous individuals, including a suspicious tenant in the building, but the forensic limitations of the era—long before DNA analysis—prevented definitive conclusions. More than 90 years later, the identity of Lilly Lindström’s killer remains unknown.
