Murder of Olive Balchin

Olive Balchin (c. 1906 – 20 October 1946) was a British murder victim whose body was found near a bomb site in Manchester, England. The murder weapon, a bloodstained hammer, was found nearby. After a lengthy investigation, police were given a description of a man who purchased a hammer from a local shopkeeper, which was similar to the description that eyewitnesses provided of a man last seen in the company of Balchin on the night of her murder.[1] Based on this information, police questioned Walter Graham Rowland, a man who had been convicted in 1934 of murdering his two-year-old child.[1][2] His death sentence for that crime had been commuted after serving eight years, due to the onset of World War II and the need for able-bodied men.[1]

A forensic examination of Rowland's clothes showed a bloodstain as well as dust particles and plant debris traced to the bomb site.[3] Police arrested Rowland for Balchin's murder. Upon being arrested he allegedly remarked "You don't want me for killing that woman, do you?", although he denied this.[4] He was convicted and held at Strangeways Prison.[5]

While Rowland was in prison awaiting execution, a prisoner at Walton Jail in Liverpool, David J. Ware, made unprompted three confessions to the crime - first in writing to the governor of the prison, then to police, and finally to Rowland's lawyer.[3] The confession was quickly followed by a retraction wherein Ware admitted to confessing because he wanted to appear "swank," and said that he had obtained details of the murder from newspapers he read in prison.[3][6] There were also questions as to Ware's mental state, as he had been discharged from the British Army in 1943 after a diagnosis of manic depressive psychosis.[3] Additionally, unlike Rowland, there was no forensic evidence found that tied Ware to the murder scene.[3]

Despite the retraction, Rowland's lawyer argued for his conviction to be overturned on appeal because of Ware's confession. Several witnesses also claimed to have seen a man resembling Rowland drinking at a pub in Stockport on the night of the murder.[4] The motion failed and Rowland was hanged on 27 February 1947.[7] A Home Office inquiry determined that Ware had made a false confession, and therefore found no impropriety with regards to the conviction.[1]

In 1951, Ware attacked a woman with a hammer, and was found guilty of attempted murder.[8] He was deemed not criminally responsible due to insanity and was committed to Broadmoor Hospital.[9][10] This attack, coupled with his prior confession to the Balchin murder, led some in Britain to believe that Rowland had been falsely convicted and was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.[1][6] The matter is still occasionally raised in debates about the death penalty and wrongful convictions in Britain.[6][8]