The attack on Swedish housewife Mrs Meike Dalal on Thursday, September 7th 1961

[moste]

He was also effectively groomed by Jean Justice (and to a lesser extent by Jeremy Fox, although I believe the latter was nowhere near as convinced of Alphon's guilt as Justice [i]appeared[i] to be).
Hi, Graham, There is that piece of video though, on the Mystery of Dead mans Hill documentary, where Fox explains, during a discussion with Alphon "At that moment I was convinced Alphon was indeed the A6 killer". Unless something happened after this to change his mind.

[Graham]

There is that piece of video though, on the Mystery of Dead mans Hill documentary, where Fox explains, during a discussion with Alphon "At that moment I was convinced Alphon was indeed the A6 killer". Unless something happened after this to change his mind.

Hi Mr M,

Yes, but I didn't mean to imply that Fox did not believe that Alphon was the A6 killer. I meant that in the two-man team of Justice and Fox, Jean Justice was the stronger character, the one with the lolly, and the one who kept Alphon in the limelight for a while. He was also the one who had a kind of relationship with Alphon, who as always went along with it so long as Justice was also showing him the high life. Fox had to watch himself because of his self-proclaimed position in the Establishment, and kept a lower profile. He never struck me as being quite as convinced of Alphon's guilt as his pal Justice.

Graham

[NickB]

"At that moment I was convinced Alphon was indeed the A6 killer".

He said he was convinced because of the "anguish" Alphon showed. But it appears that he was just playing up to what they wanted to hear. In the May-67 ITN interview Alphon showed no anguish at all.

On 2-Sep-67 Alphon was fined in Marylebone Magistrates Court for making nuisance calls to Lord Russell and others. The magistrate accepted that he did this under a sense of grievance at being falsely accused of the A6 murder.

So within 4 months of the Paris press conference he was back into professing his innocence. Yet those campaigning for Hanratty clung on to Alphon’s confession.

It is easy to see why. Parts of the case for Hanratty’s innocence (e.g. the cartridge cases in the Vienna) were much easier to explain with Alphon as the murderer. He usefully plugged some of the holes in their case. And it is a more powerful argument to say ‘Hanratty did not do it’ and then add ‘... and I know who did’.

[Sherlock Houses]

He said he was convinced because of the "anguish" Alphon showed. But it appears that he was just playing up to what they wanted to hear.In the May-67 ITN interview Alphon showed no anguish at all.

How so ? To whom does/did it appear that Alphon was "just playing up" ?

You omitted to mention [for the benefit of anyone unfamiliar with the Fox Youtube video clip] that a little earlier on in that Alphon/Fox conversation [at the Blue Angel Club in July 1962] Alphon looked Fox straight in the eye, privately confessing to him that he "did that murder". A little later on in their conversation Fox recalled [with reference to how badly Hanratty's mother felt about her son being hanged for a murder he didn't commit] ...."the look of anguish that came over Alphon's face at that moment, finally convinced me that he was indeed the A6 killer."

As for that May 1967 interview in Paris, by that time 5 years had passed and Alphon was a much calmer person. Any anguish he might have once displayed had gradually subsided. He was 36 years old and a far more self-confident individual to the agitated and suspicious one he was way back in 1961/62. Hanging had been abolished 18 months earlier and no longer posed any threat to him. Self-preservation had always been a driving factor in Alphon's mind which was probably why he had never before made a public confession to the A6 murder.

The full Jeremy Fox clip can be seen just before the 51 minute point of that Youtube video..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TntFELB2Yw

[Sherlock Houses]

Front Page of the Express that was at the bottom of Alphon's suitcase

Things began to change on the evening of the 27th when two police officers, alerted by the hotel manager to Alphon's very suspicious behaviour, after some initial questioning took him to their police station for a more prolonged interrogation lasting about two hours. Seemingly satisfied with Alphon's statement the interviewing police officer allowed him to leave around 10.00pm.

When Kilner and Dean searched Alphon's suitcase at the Alexandra Court Hotel that Sunday evening, buried at the bottom of the case was a recent copy of the Daily Express. The front page, which is what Kilner saw first looked like this...............

[caz]

When Kilner and Dean searched Alphon's suitcase at the Alexandra Court Hotel that Sunday evening, buried at the bottom of the case was a recent copy of the Daily Express. The front page, which is what Kilner saw first looked like this...............

It might have been more unusual around that date for anyone to have had a newspaper that wasn't featuring the A6 crime and its aftermath. Isn't this a case of reading (sorry!) too much into it? If Alphon wanted to line his case with newspaper, a recent one would be a likely choice. You'd have had to question many thousands of newspaper readers during the Yorkshire Ripper years on that basis.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

I don't quite understand your indignation about Alphon.There was a nationwide search for him Caz,and he actually confessed to being the A6 murderer in a public statement.

Hi Nats,

No, you don't understand, do you? It's not indignation about Alphon specifically.

It's all about equal treatment under the law - you know, all the principles of fairness and justice and seeking the truth, regardless of who is having the finger pointed at them. You believe there was a miscarriage of justice in Hanratty's case, yet you can't see that there are blatantly insufficient grounds on which to put Alphon back in the frame, and doing so on the existing evidence is no less dodgy than you insist it was in Hanratty's case.

Do you really not see the awful irony of implying that anyone who makes any kind of confession is somehow 'fair game'? What about the mentally ill and all those who have ever made false confessions? Do they lose the right to be presumed innocent in your eyes, as if the truth matters less than swallowing an unreliable confession that ticks all your boxes?

How many innocent people do you think would have been locked up or hanged if a confession was considered a good enough substitute for actual physical evidence (such as the hanky with Hanratty's DNA)?

How could Alphon, if he was the gunman, have accessed Hanratty's hanky, and why would he have bothered, in an era when it could not have been tied to anyone forensically?

In my opinion, Hanratty put the gun on the bus before heading straight for Liverpool to send that telegram, hoping the latter would pass for an alibi for the former. Nothing else makes much sense when looked at with objective eyes.

Love,

Caz
X

[Natalie Severn]

With regard to the almanac men, I would have to say that once you'd met Alphon you probably wouldn't forget him. We don't know how successful he was at selling the almanacs, probably not very, so we can't tell how often he went to the warehouse (or whatever it was) for a fresh stock, but I would suggest that the men who ran the business knew Alphon by sight pretty well, well enough to convince the police that they had provided a sound alibi for him.

Re: the Alexandra Court, other guests complained about Alphon's noisy behavior, and the manager, who was aware that the police were asking hotels, b&b's, boarding-houses, etc., if they had any peculiar clients, contacted the police who came to investigate. I doubt if the other guests went shrieking down to the manager's office about the hotel harbouring the desperate A6 killer! To them, Alphon was just a damn nuisance.

No, Alphon didn't have a tight alibi for the night of the murder, but you know how I'm going to counter that, don't you, Nats?!? By saying that I don't believe Hanratty had an alibi either.....

No, the car produced not a single trace of Hanratty, neither did it produce a single trace of Alphon. Not a hair, not a fingerprint from either of them. Nats, unless I'm going senile (quite likely), I can't remember there being a bloody handprint on the rear window of the car? If it wasn't Hanratty's, did the police identify whose it was? I'd have said it must have been Valerie's.

SH, you're quite correct about the time Alphon was filmed pacing like a madman up and down that platform.

Graham

Thanks Graham.Yes I can appreciate these thoughts about Alphon and certainly its one way of looking at the case of Alphon that I can appreciate .
When I was doing research for my book on the case I was quite interested in his ramblings of themselves ,often stretching over several hours in telephone conversations with Paul Foot .I have seen some of the transcripts taken from taped recordings .These were not the ramblings of say somebody who was drunk--they are more the ramblings of somebody who was unwell mentally.His letters-I have copies of several of them, are the same, rambling and slightly maniacal-sometimes incoherent and making no sense.
Another aspect of his personality that intrigues me is both his choice of job as an almanac seller and his lack of a job at various other times .Drifters such as Alphon with the sort of intelligence we know he must have had ,since he got a place at what was then a significant London public school ,indicate that he may have had a schizoid or borderline schizophrenic personality and if he did ,then that personality type can indeed commit such crimes as the A6 murder and there are several documented that I can cite. Just my personal opinion.Norma

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Nats,

No, you don't understand, do you? It's not indignation about Alphon specifically.

It's all about equal treatment under the law - you know, all the principles of fairness and justice and seeking the truth, regardless of who is having the finger pointed at them. You believe there was a miscarriage of justice in Hanratty's case, yet you can't see that there are blatantly insufficient grounds on which to put Alphon back in the frame, and doing so on the existing evidence is no less dodgy than you insist it was in Hanratty's case.

Do you really not see the awful irony of implying that anyone who makes any kind of confession is somehow 'fair game'? What about the mentally ill and all those who have ever made false confessions? Do they lose the right to be presumed innocent in your eyes, as if the truth matters less than swallowing an unreliable confession that ticks all your boxes?

How many innocent people do you think would have been locked up or hanged if a confession was considered a good enough substitute for actual physical evidence (such as the hanky with Hanratty's DNA)?

How could Alphon, if he was the gunman, have accessed Hanratty's hanky, and why would he have bothered, in an era when it could not have been tied to anyone forensically?

In my opinion, Hanratty put the gun on the bus before heading straight for Liverpool to send that telegram, hoping the latter would pass for an alibi for the former. Nothing else makes much sense when looked at with objective eyes.

Love,

Caz
X

Caz-sure I see.Of course I do.
But please calm down Ma'am.

[Natalie Severn]

When Kilner and Dean searched Alphon's suitcase at the Alexandra Court Hotel that Sunday evening, buried at the bottom of the case was a recent copy of the Daily Express. The front page, which is what Kilner saw first looked like this...............

Thanks for this fascinating find SH. Interesting this hitch hiker thing they got hold of in the press -was it just an invention or was this something they got from Valerie initially?and clearly somebody must have been quite insistent about the description of the guy as having 'deep set brown eyes' !Can we be sure it was just a policeman bungling the description? Or was this how Valerie initially remembered him in the brief time she saw him. I understand that Michael Clark who was the first man Valerie Storie 'identified' was the exact same height as Alphon,5' 9", and that he had 'mousey hair' according to his aunt,and that he was 'heavily built' according to Acott..
Hanratty on the other hand was very slim, and two inches shorter and at the time of the murder had dark almost black hair.

[caz]

Thanks Graham.Yes I can appreciate these thoughts about Alphon and certainly its one way of looking at the case of Alphon that I can appreciate .
When I was doing research for my book on the case I was quite interested in his ramblings of themselves ,often stretching over several hours in telephone conversations with Paul Foot .I have seen some of the transcripts taken from taped recordings .These were not the ramblings of say somebody who was drunk--they are more the ramblings of somebody who was unwell mentally.His letters-I have copies of several of them, are the same, rambling and slightly maniacal-sometimes incoherent and making no sense.
Another aspect of his personality that intrigues me is both his choice of job as an almanac seller and his lack of a job at various other times .Drifters such as Alphon with the sort of intelligence we know he must have had ,since he got a place at what was then a significant London public school ,indicate that he may have had a schizoid or borderline schizophrenic personality and if he did ,then that personality type can indeed commit such crimes as the A6 murder and there are several documented that I can cite. Just my personal opinion.Norma

How does this do anything at all for the cause of justice and fair play, Nats? If anyone says anything remotely similar about Hanratty, you come down on them like a ton of bricks.

I'm sorry but I just don't get it. No evidence that the mentally fragile Alphon did commit the A6 murder, yet you feel it's perfectly okay to suggest it anyway in his case, while expressing disgust that people ever did so in Hanratty's.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

Caz-sure I see.Of course I do.
But please calm down Ma'am.

If you do see, Nats, then what is your explanation for abandoning all the principles you claim when defending Hanratty, whenever you discuss Alphon? All I see is blatant hypocrisy, so make me see what it really is - please.

Look - if anyone had tried to prosecute Hanratty on the same grounds you are seeking to use against Alphon, they would have come seriously unstuck.

And there's no need to patronise me, I've never been calmer.

Love,

Caz
X

[Natalie Severn]

Caz-What on earth is going on here? Why are you deliberately stonewalling any discussion on Alphon and choosing instead to make offensive and personal attacks on me, calling me names like hypocrite and taking the high moral ground ? Get Lost.

[moste]

How does this do anything at all for the cause of justice and fair play, Nats? If anyone says anything remotely similar about Hanratty, you come down on them like a ton of bricks.

I'm sorry but I just don't get it. No evidence that the mentally fragile Alphon did commit the A6 murder, yet you feel it's perfectly okay to suggest it anyway in his case, while expressing disgust that people ever did so in Hanratty's.

Love,

Caz
X

Hey Caz Part of the problem here with this back and forth argument re- Alphon v Hanratty, Lies in your belief that Alphon was mentally fragile. Alphon I believe was a cunning ,misleading, calculating, ne'er-do-well and about as mentally fragile as Einstein. Gregsten was mentally fragile, check out Woffindens book chapter 2. Poor man needed medical help he wasn't getting.

[Spitfire]

There wasn't a great deal going for the notion that Alphon was the A6 Murderer back in 1962. There is even less going for it 53 years later after Hanratty's 1962 Counsel (Sherrard) has said the wrong man was not hanged and his 2002 Counsel (Mansfield) has said that Alphon did not commit the crime.

Other facts point to Hanratty rather than Alphon, the spent cartridge cases were found in Room 24, a room occupied by Hanratty not Alphon. Hanratty's DNA was found on the hanky and knicker fragment, Aphon's was absent.