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Walter Graham
ROWLAND
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Labourer who
was twice convicted of murder
Status: Executed by hanging
at Strangways prison on February
27, 1947
On October 20, 1946, Olive Balchin, age 40, was found dead at a World War II bomb site in Manchester, England, her skull crushed with a hammer left at the scene. Descriptions of a suspect seen with the woman led authorities to Rowland, whose criminal record included a prior conviction for child-murder.
At his trial, Rowland was convicted of the slaying despite a confession from Liverpool jail inmate David John Ware. Sentenced to die, Rowland was hanged at Strangways prison on February 27, 1947. Ware, his would-be benefactor, was confined to an asylum in 1951, after trying to murder another woman.
Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia
of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans
Rowland, Walter Graham
Walter Graham Rowland was a 39-year-old labourer who
was twice convicted of murder. On 20th October 1946 the body of 40-year-old
Olive Balchin was discovered on a bomb-site in Manchester. The murder
weapon was a bloodstained leather-beater's hammer which lay nearby.
A description of the purchaser of the hammer by the
shopkeeper who sold it, coupled with a description of a man seen with
Olive Balchin on the night of her death, led police to interview Rowland.
He admitted that he knew the woman but denied killing her. Forensic
examination of his clothes showed up bloodstains that matched the blood
group of the dead woman and particles of dust that had come from the
bomb-site.
He was tried at Manchester Assizes in December 1946
and found guilty. It was later disclosed that he had previously been
convicted of the murder of a child, but had been reprieved. While
Rowland awaited his appointment with the gallows David John Ware, an
inmate at Walton Jail, Liverpool, confessed to Olive Balchin's murder.
Rowland appealed but the appeal was dismissed. Ware
admitted to a Home Office inquiry that his confession had been false and
the original sentence was confirmed. Rowland was executed at Strangeways
Prison by Albert Pierrepoint on 27th February 1947.
Real-crime.co.uk
Walter Graham Rowland
Rowland was a 39-year-old labourer,
from Mellor in Derbyshire, who was twice convicted of murder. On 20th
October 1946 the body of Olive Balchin was discovered on a bombsite in
Cumberland Street, Deansgate, Manchester. The dead woman was a forty-year-old
prostitute from Birmingham. The murder weapon was a bloodstained leather-beater's
hammer that lay nearby.
A description of the purchaser of
the hammer, by Edward MacDonald the shopkeeper who sold it, coupled with
a description of a man seen with Olive Balchin on the night of her death,
led police to interview Rowland. He admitted that he knew the woman but
denied killing her. Forensic examination of his clothes showed up
bloodstains that matched the blood group of the dead woman and particles
of dust that had come from the bomb-site.
Rowland was tried at Manchester
Assizes in December 1946 and found guilty and sentenced to death. It was
later disclosed that he had, in 1934, been convicted of the murder of
his two-year-old daughter, Mavis Agnes, and sentenced to death but had
been reprieved
While Rowland awaited his
appointment with the executioner for the Balchin killing, David John
Ware, an inmate at Walton Jail, Liverpool, confessed to Olive Balchin's
murder. Rowland appealed but the appeal was dismissed. Ware admitted to
a Home Office inquiry that his confession had been false and the
original sentence was confirmed. Rowland was executed Albert Pierrepoint
at Strangeways Prison on Thursday 27th February 1947.
On 10th July 1951 David Ware bought
a hammer and tried to kill a woman, Phyllis Fuidge, in Bristol. He told
police "I don't know what is the matter with me. I keep having an urge
to hit women on the head." On 16th November he was found guilty but
insane and sent to Broadmoor. He hanged himself there on 1st April 1954.
Murder-UK.com
Walter Graham Rowland
Walter Graham Rowland, hanged on
February 27th 1947 for the murder of his lover, Olive Balchin, whose
body was found at a bomb site battered to death with a hammer.
Walter's alibi included a police
sergeant and two of his officers who were drinking in the same pub as
him at the same time as the murder and the landlord of the place he was
staying, including the signing in book (which was common at the time)
detailing when he got home. These eye witnesses placed him well away
from the murder scene.
However, Walter
had form. He'd been convicted of killing his daughter in 1934 when he
was reprieved from the noose and eventually released from prison. The
jury convicted him despite there being no evidence and what would look
like a water tight alibi.
When waiting on
death row someone else confessed to the murder. David Ware, who was now
in jail for robbing the Salvation Army, made a detailed confession to
the police - but an inquiry decided Ware was lying and that Walter was
unquestionably guilty... he was executed on February 27th 1947.
David Ware on July
10th 1951 murdered another woman in a hammer attack, an attack he was
arrested for, he went on to hang himself in his cell. Walter's case was
never re-opened and he remains, in the eyes of the law, guilty.
Jimjay.blogspot.com
SEX: M RACE: W TYPE: T MOTIVE: PC
DATE(S):
1930s-46
VENUE:
Manchester, England
VICTIMS:
Two
MO: Killed a child and a
40-year-old woman
DISPOSITION:
Imprisoned on first count; hanged on second
count, Feb. 27, 1947.
