a6 murder

[jimarilyn]

Hi Graham,

My thoughts precisely. You can't undo a hanging. Maybe that's part of the reason capital punishment in the UK was abolished a couple of years later.

PS. I wonder if Michael Clark is still alive. I'd love to see a photo of him circa 1961.

[Graham]

Hi Graham,

My thoughts precisely. You can't undo a hanging. Maybe that's part of the reason capital punishment in the UK was abolished a couple of years later.

PS. I wonder if Michael Clark is still alive. I'd love to see a photo of him circa 1961.

Hi JM,

Capital Punishment was finally abolished in the UK in 1965. It had a lot to do with a number of 'questionable' cases (Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley, for example; but not Hanratty) and also the first Labour Government since 1950 was elected in 1963. I'm sure that politics had a lot to do with it.

Bob Woffinden tried to locate Michael Clark, but couldn't. Apparently Clark emigrated in 1965. He did locate Clark's aunt, though, who said his hair was a 'mousey colour'. Acott stated in court that Clark did not have 'fair hair'. Not the only bit of Acott's evidence that was dodgy.

A mate of mine was asked to take part in an ID parade a few years ago. It was 'only' a mugging. The lady concerned stood in front of my mate for long enough that he became extremely uneasy, but she eventually moved on and, as it happened, couldn't identify anyone. Although, as it turned out, the guilty party was indeed on the parade, but was nailed courtesy of other evidence.

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

hi Steve

according to the person i have corresponded with at Beds. CC, the evidence of Nudds on 5th day, is missing, but his evidence from when he was recalled later is there.

interesting thing...

my contact also said, that the firm of stenographers who produced the transcript may have a residual copyright in it. [ larue goes into puzzled mode. copyright, in a public trial????? ] can somebody please explain?


atb

larue

Hi Larue

Sorry for the late reply – just back from an overseas business trip. It is puzzling that copyright exists in a public trial. I didn’t know that, but I had always understood that the transcript could only be viewed by attending the Court House in Bedford.

Thanks for re-posting all the old posts – it must have taken you forever.

Kind regards,
Steve

[Steve]

Hi Steve,

I find it very remiss of the police if they did not retain possession of this vital piece of evidence ( the murder car ). Surely storage space could easily have been found for this Morris Minor, after all it was potentially much more important than a very small piece of a rape victim's knickers. Trying to visualise in one's mind (however difficult that might be) what happened in the confines of the back seat of that car while Michael Gregsten lay dead ( or dying ) leads one to speculate that someone's fingerprints, hairs, fibres or whatever must have been left there. If anything was ripe for future DNA detection that Morris Minor was. Perhaps the car is still around and the police are closing ranks and saying nothing.

Hi jimarilyn

You are absolutely right – the interior of the car should in theory have provided better DNA evidence, and it would have been difficult to argue cross-contamination!

Kind regards,
Steve

[Steve]

PS

Was the Morris Minor a two door or four door car ? Also, how far away from the lay by was the person doing the night shift for that traffic census ? Very strange that he heard no gun shots. Perhaps he was deaf.

Jimarilyn, it was a four door Morris Minor. The traffic census didn’t start until after the shooting which is why they didn’t hear the shots.

[Steve]

Hi all,

He should never have hanged - guilty or innocent, but he was certainly ripe for a good long stretch.

Hi Limehouse

I agree entirely that he should not have been hanged on the evidence presented at trial.

Kind regards,
Steve

[jimarilyn]

Jimarilyn, it was a four door Morris Minor. The traffic census didn’t start until after the shooting which is why they didn’t hear the shots.

Hi Steve,

I stand corrected on that one. I thought I had read somewhere that John Kerr took over the 6am shift from the person doing the night shift.

[Steve]

Hi jimarilyn, wasn't an earlier traffic census located further down the A6, and then moved to the lay-by?

[Steve]

Re: Hanratty, I honestly think he was the architect of his own downfall in court. Had he not changed his alibi or gone into the witness-box, I really do think he'd have been acquitted. Even the judge was visibly shaken by the verdict. I believe Sherrard actually advised JH not to go in the witness-box, and when he insisted made him sign a statement absolving the defence of any responsibility for the consequences.

Cheers,

Graham

Hi Graham

This is spot-on. His defence team did strongly advise him against changing his alibi so late in the day, the obvious reason being that it would portray him to the jury as someone who didn’t tell the truth all of the time, and also of course because they had so little time to investigate and substantiate the alibi. It could well be at this point that the jury decided he was guilty.

Kind regards,
Steve

[jimarilyn]

Hi Steve,

I would imagine that if Valerie Storie could turn back the hands of time she might never have embarked on an affair with a married man. I can't help thinking that this was all a planned event. If not, I find it very puzzling that a murderer/rapist would just happen upon a couple in a remote cornfield armed with a gun and loads of ammunition. Valerie in a statement to the police said that "Jim was obviously not the killer's real name". For her to have said this I would imagine that the killer displayed some hesitancy or suchlike when the couple asked him his name.

[Steve]

Hi jimarilyn

I really don’t believe that Gregsten being married had any real relevance to the events that August evening. The majority of the facts point to it being just a random event that spiralled out of control to tragic result.

At the point that Hanratty climbed into the Morris Minor he was neither a murderer or a rapist. He was probably planning nothing more than a stick-up robbery, to take money, the car and whatever else he could steal from the couple. Perhaps at some point he took a fancy to the young Miss Storie as was claimed and decided on a course of rape at that point. Perhaps he even believed that she would agree to sex, and perhaps he went to the gallows still believing that sex had been consensual and that he was not guilty of rape. Of course he was never charged with rape, and it is also possible that he felt himself innocent of the crime of murder. Hanratty could well have believed that he acted in self defence, that he shot Gregsten because he was about to be attacked. Looking at contemporary pictures of Gregsten I would say that he would have been physically capable of overpowering Hanratty given the opportunity to do so.

If the killer was Hanratty ‘Jim’ might have been the only name he could think of at that moment, and if by then he had decided to shoot and kill Miss Storie it would not have mattered that he gave his real name. All the same, Hanratty would have had to have thought about it for a second which would explain the momentary hesitation

One other point, the cornfield is often referred to as being ‘remote’ but this is not really the case. There are buildings close to where the couple were abducted, houses overlooking the cornfield, admittedly at some distance, and many other homes in the fairly immediate vicinity. I can think of many other far more ‘remote’ places than Dorney Common.

Kind regards,
Steve

[Steve]

Dorney Common ....

... a fairly recent photo showing how close the houses were, relatively speaking.

[Steve]

Here is another view of ....

.... Dorney Common.

This shows someone apparently walking across the field. In fact there are many paths across the fields at Dorney Common and would be an easy mistake to make thinking that someone using one of these paths is actually walking across the field.

Hanratty could easily have been apparently walking across the field when he was really walking along one of these paths.

[jimarilyn]

Hi Steve

I can see that the A6 murder intrigues you as much as it intrigues me. You are to be congratulated for the amount of time and effort you have put in over the months in photographing all the many interesting locations which have some connection with this murder. The quality of all these photos has been excellent. With regards to the last two do we know if this is the exact location at Dorney reach where the gunman happened upon Michael and Valerie ? In addition how far away approximately was the Station Inn to this spot ?

[Steve]

Evening jimarilyn

Yes, this is the exact location where the abduction happened. Initially the car was parked closer to the road. ‘Just inside the gate,’ and later they moved further into the field. Of course the field has changed significantly over the years, especially in recent years.

The Old Station Inn is 2 miles away, the same distance by foot as it is by car if you drive taking the obvious route. On the night of the abduction Gregsten did not take the obvious route.

Kind regards,
Steve