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

[caz]

"My lord, I didn't tell Supt Acott because at that point I did not know the name of the street, the number of the
house, or even the name of the people in the house. At that stage I knew that I was only wanted for
interviewing, not for the actual murder charge ...... or the truth would have been told straight away."

and..........

"At this stage it is quite obvious to a man with a criminal record that to come into the witness box and change
his alibi as I have done is ridiculous if it is not the truth. If I was lying I would keep to my old story. It is quite
obvious to millions of people."

Well he would say that, wouldn't he?

Love,

Caz
X

[NickB]

The two reasons given by Hanratty, that he would not be able to identify the boarding house and that he did not realise he was being interviewed for murder, do not make sense.

Swanwick : “How did you find your way back to the boarding-house?”
Hanratty : "I know what you are going to say : 'How did you remember it then if you can't remember it now?'."
Swanwick : “You are a bit fly, aren't you?”
Hanratty : "No, I'm not being a bit fly."
Swanwick : “How did you find your way back to the boarding-house?”
Hanratty : "I found my way back in the normal way."

”At that stage I knew that I was only wanted for interviewing, not for the actual murder charge ...... or the truth would have been told straight away."

Earlier in that paragraph he had said: “I read in the papers that the police wanted to interview me in a murder which took place.”

[Sherlock Houses]

Earlier in that paragraph he had said: “I read in the papers that the police wanted to interview me in a murder which took place.”

Attached is the whole of that paragraph [and what preceded it] forming part of James Hanratty's questioning by his counsel, Michael Sherrard, on February 7th 1962. This extract is taken from the Evening Times of that date. The underlined part is important. After the police case fell through with Valerie Storie's non-identification of their strong prime suspect, Alphon, they decided to turn their focus on the occupant of room 24 of the Vienna Hotel, a J.Ryan, simply because that was the room where 2 spent cartridge cases were found almost 3 weeks later.

[Sherlock Houses]

Well he would say that, wouldn't he?

Only if he was being truthful.

[cobalt]

The big hole in Hanratty’s alibi is not, as is often assumed, the accumulated evidence of railway station attendants, sweet shop owners, bed and breakfast owners and snooker hall managers. All of these parties gave testimony which, it is generally accepted, gave grounds for reasonable doubt in the prosecution case.

The real problem was the people who Hanratty did actually meet in his sojourn to Liverpool/Rhyl and who slunk into the shadows. He must have been in contact with a number of criminal contacts who could have verified his presence in the area, but they failed to stand up when he needed them. Why?

1. How much use is a confessed fence/criminal in a capital case? Would the good burghers of Bedfordshire have been swayed by the testimony of a plausible Scally? Swanwick would have had them for breakfast.

2. Appearing in court would have alerted the Merseyside Police to the shady activities of the witnesses and made life rather more uncomfortable thereafter.


3. Most important in my view. The Merseyside Police had a reputation under Bert Balmer for solving capital crimes by fitting up a reasonable suspect. The Cameo Murder case of Kelly has, I think, been officially acknowledged as a miscarriage of justice. The case of Devlin and Burns, who like Hanratty claimed an alibi of being on criminal activity out with the locus (they said they were in Manchester), has received less attention over the years. These notorious cases were around 1949/1951, but still very much part of Liverpool underworld folklore. The message Balmer gave out was clear: if you grass on a suspect you are safe from prosecution. Get your word in first. Kelly, Devlin ad Burns, all young working class men with a criminal background, rather similar to Hanratty, took the walk to the scaffold.

These cases are, in my view, far more serious miscarriages of justice than that of Hanratty, whose alleged guilt has at least a semblance of forensic support. But my point is that no criminal in the Merseyside area would want to be put anywhere remotely near a capital murder charge as long as Bert Balmer was running the show, which I am pretty sure he was in 1961. Kelly, who swung for the Cameo Murder, was in all probability a bystander to events in the mould of Alphon.

I repeat endlessly what is becoming tiresome I am sure to those of a different view: this is a case full of dogs which did not bark.

[cobalt]

To develop my point vis a vis the alleged miscarriages of justice in Merseyside.

The 1949 Cameo Murder was high profile but no headway was being made until suspects starting leading police towards potential evidence. The suspicion was that these witnesses were being coerced into giving such evidence.

The 1951 Devlin/Burns case is remarkably similar. After hitting a brick wall, the Liverpool Police eventually decided alibi evidence of a criminal associate was less trustworthy that that of an alleged statement made to a girlfriend by one of the alleged perpetrators.

I am relying on memory here, but I think this is a reasonably accurate version of events. It is not difficult to see a common thread between Nudds, Dixie France and Hanratty's 'girlfriend' and the witnesses who emerged during these two notorious murder trails in Merseyside.

The Merseyside criminal fraternity knew that Balmer could fit up people on a murder rap. It was part of their heritage. Hanratty, I suspect, was slow to realise the enormity of what could be done under the aegis of the law. He was fretting over a burglary rap when the Liverpool lads could have told him that he could be taking the 8 o'clock walk. They stayed well out of it.

[cobalt]

In Liverpool, December 1961, a still baffling murder of a mother in her house with two young children occurred. There was no obvious motive and fortunately the children were unharmed. It remains totally inexplicable to this day, and is referred to as the Knotty Ash murder.

I attach an extract from the case which seems to confirm the reputation of Bert Balmer, Head of Merseyside Police as a man who would fit up suspects. This was a view expressed at the very time Hanratty was desperately searching for witnesses in the Liverpool area.

Chief Superintendent James Morris, head of Liverpool CID, led the investigation into the "Knotty Ash Murder" and Old Swan Police Station became the murder squad HQ. A gaggle of news reporters were allowed in the murder house days later to interview Deputy Chief Constable Bert Balmer.

The senior policeman showed the pressmen a wooden figure of the Polynesian idol Tiki and stated that the murder of Maureen Ann Dutton had been a ritual sacrifice, carried out by Tiki worshippers, and that such sacrifices were carried out at the time of a full moon on the winter solstice.

Balmer's bizarre theory was met with disbelief by junior members of the Lancashire police, but the Deputy Chief Constable began to visit Polynesian clubs and restaurants, and even listened to "Tiki music" on vinyl records. At that time in Liverpool, a number of Polynesian restaurants had opened, and "Tiki" food became a fad. Balmer somehow regarded the fad as a "cult" and actually believed Maureen Ann Dutton's murder was a sinister offering to the Polynesian Idol.

Several residents on Thingwall Lane said they had seen a youth in a leather jacket, wearing a green jumper, on the afternoon of the murder, and Balmer sought the help of Interpol to find this character, without success.

This man telephoned me 40 years later at Radio Merseyside. He had been working for a delivery firm when his van had broken down on Thingwall Lane. He walked to a phone to get help from a friend, but when he came back he found the engine had merely been affected by the freezing fog, and it started first time.

When the man saw his photo fit in the newspapers, he got rid of his jacket. "Knowing the reputation of Balmer," he told me, "I thought I'd end up hanged. I was too scared to come forward, and I certainly wasn't some Tiki-worshipper."

[moste]

Good research, cobalt.A trio of very enlightening posts

[NickB]

After changing alibi Hanratty did not claim to have met or stayed with any criminal friends in Liverpool during the week of the crime.

[Derrick]

After changing alibi Hanratty did not claim to have met or stayed with any criminal friends in Liverpool during the week of the crime.

Nick

I completely agree.

Cobalt's analysis on this is way wide of the mark and practically useless.

Del

[moste]

Nick

I completely agree.

Cobalt's analysis on this is way wide of the mark and practically useless.

Del

Don't you think though, it offers a good understanding of policing methods of the kind you wouldn't expect at that level?

[moste]

After changing alibi Hanratty did not claim to have met or stayed with any criminal friends in Liverpool during the week of the crime.

And you don't think that Hanratty was influenced at all by anyone, when Sherrard virtually pleaded with him not to do this, on Jims insistence to change his alibi?

[Natalie Severn]

1]I have always believed the reason Hanratty gave Liverpool as his alibi was
that that was were he did go on the 22nd August 1961!
He was hoping to sell his stuff to mates such as Aspinall who he had met in prison who fenced stolen goods . Mrs Dunwoody and her granddaughter are quite certain they saw him in the sweetshop in Scotland Road Liverpool -her granddaughter quite sure it was on the Tuesday unlike Mrs Dunwoody who decided it must have been the Monday after several 'discussions 'with policemen.

2] Hanratty knew France was going to act as a prosecution witness .This I believe to be crucial in understanding what followed on from this .It has always appeared to me as well that France had some financial help from whatever Hanratty had managed to fence in Liverpool [possibly that Thursday afternoon on 24th August] and that Hanratty knew France would want him to keep quiet about that in court because France receiving stolen goods or receiving money gained from fenced goods via Hanratty was a criminal offence that France could have gone down for.So both Hanratty and France knew they had to keep quiet on that score.Remember too France spoke surprisingly warmly of Hanratty in court -as did his daughter Carole --despite France having gone behind his back to the police about the back seat of the bus incident Hanratty had told him about as well as the postcards France had had from him from Ireland---but this was unknown to Hanratty who had not been allowed to speak to him since his arrest as France was a prosecution witness ! So Hanratty did not drop France in it in court.Hence the curiously worded letter Hanratty sent France from court.
SO
3] returning to why Hanratty did not mention to France about his visit to Rhyl the reason becomes clear : France would not be able to back it up in court if he was asked as France had never been told anything about any visit to Rhyl.And the reason seems pretty obvious to me.When Hanratty had got back to London on 25th August he had boasted to France about his stay at the Vienna Hotel in London on the 21st August and had even shown France the bill and France had insisted on seeing it .Then on returning from Liverpool he had asked the France's if they had got his telegram that he had written as promised [he had actually promised to send a postcard to Charlotte France ] he actually seems to have sent the telegram instead of a postcard from the PO area at the side of St George's Hall Liverpool around 8pm on 24th August i.e. at the very last minute before he boarded the overnight train from Liverpool Lime Street .No mention was made to the France's about Rhyl or trying to fence his bits and pieces of jewellery there----why would he? It had come to nothing and he would not have wanted to lose face having acted like Mr Big with the France's at that time ,France being desperately poor having lost his doorman's job at the Rehearsal Club and relying on Hanratty to help him out financially .France would also fence what he could for Hanratty who helped out the France's in return for letting him stay at their flat ---he actually gave money for the washing Mrs France did for him to take on his visit to Liverpool [£15 to be exact- a huge amount for that time ].Quite easy to understand in my opinion.

[cobalt]

Nickb,

Hanratty may not have stayed with criminal associates, but he was not heading north to Liverpool on a wing and a prayer. He had stolen gear to offload and had contacts, even if deciding to stay in Bed and Breakfast accommodation. (I accept you might not concur with me on the actual dates he visited the area.)

Bert Balmer, head honcho of Merseyside police, is available on youtube somewhere, casting his pearls of wisdom regarding the Chinese and their propensity to criminal activity in the Merseyside area. I cannot find the link, but it is a social history of Liverpool in the 1960s. Like Ewer and Alphon it would be fair to say, I think, that Balmers's politics instincts veer towards those of Ghengis Khan.

Jim Hanratty could not have found a worse place to find criminals to stand up and vouch for him than Liverpool in the early 1960s. Balmer was notorious, as any browsing of the internet will confirm, and the fact that the unsolved murder in Notty Ash was up for grabs would have concentrated the minds of Liverpool's criminal fraternity. Go read up on the Cameo Murder of 1949 and the Devlin/Burns case of 1951, both which I am pretty sure involved Bert Balmer, and you will appreciate I think why no Liverpool wide boys surfaced to support the alibi of Jim Hanratty. They could have swung for the Notty Ash murder had Balmer put his machine to work.

[Natalie Severn]

Nickb,

Hanratty may not have stayed with criminal associates, but he was not heading north to Liverpool on a wing and a prayer. He had stolen gear to offload and had contacts, even if deciding to stay in Bed and Breakfast accommodation. (I accept you might not concur with me on the actual dates he visited the area.)

Bert Balmer, head honcho of Merseyside police, is available on youtube somewhere, casting his pearls of wisdom regarding the Chinese and their propensity to criminal activity in the Merseyside area. I cannot find the link, but it is a social history of Liverpool in the 1960s. Like Ewer and Alphon it would be fair to say, I think, that Balmers's politics instincts veer towards those of Ghengis Khan.

Jim Hanratty could not have found a worse place to find criminals to stand up and vouch for him than Liverpool in the early 1960s. Balmer was notorious, as any browsing of the internet will confirm, and the fact that the unsolved murder in Notty Ash was up for grabs would have concentrated the minds of Liverpool's criminal fraternity. Go read up on the Cameo Murder of 1949 and the Devlin/Burns case of 1951, both which I am pretty sure involved Bert Balmer, and you will appreciate I think why no Liverpool wide boys surfaced to support the alibi of Jim Hanratty. They could have swung for the Notty Ash murder had Balmer put his machine to work.

Quite apart from the ludicrous idea that they would have been volunteering ,as receivers of stolen goods from Hanratty, for a hefty prison sentence in doing so .Hanratty was in a no win situation from the moment he rang up Acott and later trying to get his ex prisoner friends to come court and say they were receiving stolen goods from him to make money from.They would have gone straight to jail.