Who is james hanratty

I'm thinking. It had originally been planned for the Old Bailey, and it is not known why it was re-sited to Bedfordshire, where there was, unsurprisingly, strong feeling against the defendant. Among the prosecution team at the trial was Geoffrey Lane, who was subsequently appointed Lord Chief Justice. Hanratty's initial defence was that he had been in Liverpool on the day of the murder, but then, halfway through the trial, he changed part of his story, claiming that he had in fact been in Rhyl in North Wales.

At that time there was no conclusive forensic evidence to connect Hanratty with the car or the murder scene. Although Hanratty's blood group was the same as the murderer's, it was a common blood type shared by half the population, and there was no evidence that Hanratty had ever been in the Maidenhead area.

Hanratty did not know either of the two victims, and did not appear to have any logical motive to commit the murder. First defence — The Liverpool alibi. Hanratty claimed that he was staying with friends in Liverpool at the time of the murder, but never identified the people involved.

Hanratty claimed that his suitcase had been handed in to Lime Street Station by a 'man with a withered or turned hand'. At the trial the prosecution called Peter Stringer, who had an artificial arm, but who denied ever having seen the suitcase or Hanratty. However, there was another person called William Usher, who did have two fingers missing from one hand, which looked withered.

He did admit to remembering Hanratty and the suitcase, and remembered the name of the man as 'Ratty'; he was located by private detectives working for the defence, but was never called as a witness.

Hanratty said he had called into a sweetshop in Scotland Road and asked directions to 'Carleton' or 'Tarleton' Road. The Police tracked down a Mrs Dinwoodie, who did indeed run a sweetshop in Scotland Road, who recalled a man like Hanratty asking for directions.

On the other hand, there was also plenty of evidence that Hanratty had been in London all day on Monday 21st. In the morning he had definitely collected a suit from a dry cleaners' in Swiss Cottage; he had definitely been to his friend Charles France's house on the Monday afternoon, and at the Vienna Hotel in the evening. This defence therefore claimed that he could not have travelled to Liverpool to the sweetshop incident and then back in time to commit the murder at 9 p.

Just before the defence opened its case, Hanratty changed part of his alibi. Second defence — The Rhyl alibi. He then stated that he had in fact been in the Welsh coastal town of Rhyl. According to this, Hanratty had gone to Rhyl to sell a stolen watch to a 'fence'.

He had arrived there late in the evening of Tuesday 22nd and had stayed in a boarding house near the railway station, in the attic room, which had a green bath. She remembered a man resembling Hanratty, and was sure it was during the week of August.

Following the prosecution's dropping of the book's leaves all over the court, her hotel registers and accounts were in chaos, and little information could be extracted from them; and worse, the prosecution produced a string of witnesses who showed that all the rooms were fully occupied at the time. However, counsel for the defence managed to salvage something, showing in fact the attic was empty on the night of the 22nd and a bedroom exactly described by Hanratty was free on the 23rd, showing that he could have stayed there as claimed.

Hanratty's appeal was dismissed on 13 March, and despite a petition signed by more than 90, people, Hanratty was hanged at Bedford on 4 April , still protesting his innocence. John Skillet picked out Hanratty as the driver of the Morris Minor as it sped down Eastern Avenue his companion, Edward Blackall, who had a closer view of the man, did not.

Another prosecution witness was Roy Langdale, who was serving time in prison, and claimed that Hanratty confessed to him. Two others that Hanratty exercised with said that Hanratty consistently denied any involvement.

Charlie France, a friend of Hanratty's, testified that Hanratty had said to him once that 'the back seat of a bus was a good place to hide something'- Defence evidence.

No witnesses with the sole exception of Valerie Storie were able to place Hanratty in the vicinity of Dorney Reach. The gunman said "I've been in institutions since I was eight": Hanratty would not use words like "institutions". Mary Lanz, proprietor of the Old Station Inn, Taplow where Gregsten and Storie had last been before the cornfield was later able to identify Alphon as having also been there. Even if the Rhyl alibi is disregarded, Hanratty's meeting with Olive Dinwoodie would make his presence in Dorney Reach by 9 p.

Although the cartridge cases were found in the Hotel Vienna, no one ever adequately explained how they came to be there the day before the murder.. Hanratty disposed of his suit jacket six weeks after the crime; Alphon disposed of his raincoat straight away Unlike the gunman's description of himself, Hanratty had never lived in a house with a cellar let alone been locked in one and given only bread and water , was not coming up for PD, had not served five years for housebreaking and had already been in prison on the Isle of Wight.

Alphon wrote to the Home Secretary in saying "I killed Gregsten". James Hanratty was 25 but Peter Alphon was It was instrumental in uncovering new evidence, albeit too late. Twelve years after the execution, the Committee discovered the original statement made by Valerie Storie, which was neither referred to nor available at the trial or the appeal.

By , the A6 Committee had found six substantial witnesses to testify that Hanratty had been to Rhyl. They had also found a fairground worker called Terry Evans who admitted to letting Hanratty stay at his house early in , and to fencing a stolen watch for him. The problem here for the conviction was that there were now six witnesses who could positively say they had seen or spoken to Hanratty on the 23rd, and what is more, that the day in question was the only day that all six were in Rhyl at the same time.

During , the case caught the interest of a businessman called Jean Justice. Justice tracked down Peter Alphon in February , and began a long friendship with him for the purposes of establishing the truth. Justice attended the trial every day, being driven there by his chauffeur, and Alphon accompanied him from time to time.

Slowly, over the months, Alphon began to confess to Justice, including drawing diagrams of the murder scene and demonstrating precise knowledge of details of the events on Deadman's Hill. He started to bombard his own solicitor with threatening phone calls and letters, and Charles France was also bombarded with phone calls, with the message: "If Hanratty dies, you die. France left behind several letters for his family, the contents of which have never been made public. Alphon's account.

Alphon's continued confessions formed a picture. There was a plan for this eventuality: Alphon says he travelled to Southend and gave the gun to France, who was to dispose of it. France had a grudge against Hanratty, who had had an affair with France's daughter, so he planted the gun under the bus seat and the two cartridges in the hotel.

Alphon stuck with his confession and continued to repeat it up to about He subsequently withdrew his claims. Sceptics noted that he had been paid considerable sums of money by Justice and had recanted after he had secured his payments. However, Bob Woffinden writes in Chapter 20 at page in the paperback that there was only one occasion when Justice and Jeremy Fox supported Alphon financially when Fox paid a hotel bill for him.

The A6 Committee made a list of facts which, they contended, indicated that Alphon was the murderer:. The A6 Committee have claimed that the police refused to investigate Alphon's confessions and credibility in the light of this material. In the London Review of Books, 11 December p. He certainly didn't know what he alleged — that Mrs Gregsten was the prime mover in commissioning the murder.

The surviving exhibits from the trial were lost until , when they were found in envelopes in a laboratory drawer. Hanratty's body was exhumed in in order to extract DNA. It was also compared with semen preserved in the underwear worn by Storie when she was raped. At the subsequent appeal hearing Michael Mansfield QC, the barrister acting for the Hanratty family, admitted that if contamination could be excluded the DNA evidence demonstrated that Hanratty had committed the murder and rape.

He argued that the evidence may have been contaminated because of lax handling procedures. Among the surviving evidential items a vial had been broken which could account for contamination. However, neither sample yielded DNA from any second male source, as would presumably have been expected if another male had committed the crimes and the samples had subsequently been contaminated.

The argument for contamination was dismissed as "fanciful" by the judges, who concluded that the "DNA evidence, standing alone, is certain proof of guilt". Peter Alphon died in January following a fall at his home. The following month Richard Ingrams, a close friend and colleague of Paul Foot, wrote a brief article about Alphon's part in the case in The Independent.

Ingrams said that Alphon, in conversations with Foot and others, had spoken obsessively about the case, frequently incriminating himself. Ingrams said that Foot continued until his own death to believe in Hanratty's alibi, despite the DNA tests of Valerie Storey was having an affair with Michael John Gregsten who had quite recently separated from his wife.

They met on the 22 August and went for a drink together at a pub in Taplow before driving to a spot known as Deadman's Hill. While they were sat in the car talking there was a tap on the window. Gregsten wound down the window to find himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

The man climbed into the back seat and began by robbing them of their watches and money. For two hours they sat in the car together before he ordered Gregsten to get into the boot. After Valerie Storey begged him the man changed his mind and told Gregsten to drive towards London. In was now early in the morning and the man told Gregsten to pull into a lay-by on the A6 road.

Once they had stopped the gunman asked Gregsten to pass him a laundry bag. As Gregsten leaned forward the man shot him twice in the head, killing him instantly. He then told Valerie to get into the back seat where he raped her. Afterwards he made Valerie help him move the body from the car. The man then got her to show him how to work the gears on the car. When she went back to her dead lover's body the man shot her several times.

He went over to her body and kicked her, convinced that she was dead the man drove away. Valerie Storey was found at by a passing motorist at daybreak. She was still alive, but paralysed. In hospital she was able to describe her attacker as having dark hair and deep-set brown eyes.

The car was later found abandoned in Ilford and the murder weapon was discovered under a seat on a London bus. As well as Miss Storey's description, the police also had one from a witness who saw the man driving the car. Both descriptions differed so the police released two Identikit pictures to the public. Believing the man to be worried the police published an appeal to landlady's who might have a guest who was keeping a low profile. As a result of this appeal, police attention was drawn to a man named Durrant who had booked into a hotel in Amersham the day after the murder and had stayed in his room ever since.

When police questioned the man he was identified as Peter Alphon. He said that he had spent the night of the killing at the Vienna Hotel, Maida Vale. Meanwhile another report came in that on 7 September, Mrs Dalal of Richmond had been assaulted by a man with brown hair. He had enquired about a room that she had to let and had grabbed her, tied her up and told her that he was the 'A6 killer.

The manageress of the Vienna Hotel was moving the chairs in room 24 when two cartridge cases fell out of one of them. The police put him in an identity parade. The paralysed Valerie Storie fails to pick him out. In fact, she goes straight past him and picks an innocent airman who was there just to make up the numbers. So the police focus on the occupant in the Vienna Hotel before Alpon. Ryan are published in the newspapers.

A nationwide search is launched. As this J. Like Alphon, he says he has an alibi: He was in Liverpool on the night of the murder. It went to the heart of post-war England. And here is a cold-blooded murder, nearly a double murder.

A gun has been used at a time when gun violence was almost unheard of On 11 October, Hanratty is arrested in Blackpool. In London, Alcott and Oxford interrogate him. Hanratty says he has an alibi.

He was in Liverpool with three friends. So the police ask Valerie Storie to do another identity parade. He actually looked like a Belisha beacon. And in the identity parade, the police themselves at one stage thought, this is unfair. With two positive identifications, six months after the murder, Hanratty is charged with murder. At am a farm labourer sees Valerie and alerts John Kerr, an Oxford student carrying out a road census.

He finds Valerie. He flags down a car that rings for an ambulance and returns to her:. John took notes of everything she told him on the back of the census forms on his clipboard. When the police arrive a man with a peaked cap approaches John:.

The notes are never presented as evidence in the subsequent trial. Their whereabouts are still a mystery. Her blood stained clothes are given to a police exhibits officer.

A piece of her underwear is marked as Exhibit Valerie survives. But she is paralysed from the waist down. I think they shouted a fair bit of abuse at him as well! The police call on this gentleman, and find out that he is Peter Louis Alphon. Michael is married and he and his wife Janet have two boys, Simon, eight, and Anthony, nearly two. But Michael is having an affair with his year-old lab assistant, Valerie Storie.

Their relationship started over a mutual love of car rallies, music and theatre. It had quickly stopped being platonic. Later, at around 9pm, the pair drive to a nearby cornfield in Dorney Reach by the Thames in Buckinghamshire. After the sound, comes the sight of a gun. Open the back door and let me in. The man takes the keys from Michael and sits in the back seat. The bottom of his face is covered with a handkerchief. He forces the couple to drive further into the field.

I think the most likely suggestion was that he was driven there by someone else or drove there and his car broke down There were enough isolated houses locally that one might think he was there because he was burglarizing houses There had been some disagreement? Or the car that he personally drove to get there had broken down and he was looking for some other way to get back? They had to stop at a milk bar Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, is expected to announce within the next few weeks that he is to refer the case to the Court of Appeal, where the conviction is expected to be quashed.

The reappraisal of the case follows more than three decades of campaigning by members of Hanratty's family and his supporters. Many of the campaigners believe the real killer was Peter Alphon, who is alleged to have admitted to the crime on numerous occasions.

There is also a string of evidence that links Mr Alphon to the murder, though in an interview with The Independent he protested his innocence. Hanratty, a petty burglar, was convicted of abducting Michael Gregsten, 36, and his mistress Valerie Storie, 22, at gunpoint from a cornfield at Taplow, near Maidenhead, in Berkshire, in August The lovers were forced to drive about 60 miles to a lay-by on the A6 near Bedford, known as Dead Man's Hill.

At the end of the two-hour trip Mr Gregsten, a research scientist, was shot dead. Miss Storie was then sexually assaulted before being shot repeatedly at close range. Hanratty was arrested in Blackpool two months later, on 9 October. Reports at the time said this followed the "amazing" identification of Hanratty by Janet Gregsten, the wife of the dead man, who saw him on a London street and her "intuition" told her he was the killer even though at that stage he was not a suspect.

He was convicted largely on the identification evidence of Miss Storie, despite her only seeing her assailant for a few seconds and only identifying Hanratty in a second line-up. She later admitted that her memory of the attacker was fading.

On the morning of his execution at Bedford jail Hanratty wrote to his family, insisting he was innocent and asking them to clear his name. Valerie Storie was raped, shot five times and left for dead. Hanratty, from north London, was arrested, tried and convicted of murder. The jury did not believe his story that he was miles away at the time of the attack.

But the case became a cause celebre, with politicians and pop stars, legal experts and writers joining the campaign to prove he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. After a lengthy campaign, the family of James Hanratty finally made a breakthrough in June when the Criminal Cases Review Commission agreed to send the case to the Court of Appeal. But what happened in the months after that re-opened the controversy. The Crown took advantage of modern DNA profiling to carry out new tests on the exhibits in the case.

The mother and brother of James Hanratty both provided samples of DNA to enable a comparison to be made with traces of DNA found on Valerie Storie's underwear and a handkerchief wrapped around the murder weapon. The comparison showed a match. Lawyers for the Crown told the Court of Appeal that this was strong evidence - the DNA was two and a half million times more likely to belong to Hanratty than anyone else.

But to put the matter beyond doubt, they needed to extract a sample of DNA from his remains, buried in a Hertfordshire cemetery.