a6 murder

[Graham]

Hi JM,

I think the reason many people weren't convinced of JH's guilt results from the manner in which the trial was conducted. At the time of the trial there was no public outrage at the verdict, nor were there any demonstrations outside Bedford Prison when he was executed. The A6 Crime was a particularly dreadful one, and the public were relieved that the guilty man had been caught and punished. It was only later that a few people began to express their unease at the verdict, for several reasons including what began to seem like withholding of evidence from the defence; a whiff of police malpractise; the prosecution's treatment of more than one defence-witness; the fact that it was down to the identification evidence of just one person who had only a fleeting glimpse of the accused's face; the judge's summing-up which appeared to everyone present to favour JH; and not least the judge's plain and obvious shock when the guilty-verdict was brought in. The trial was seen as simply unfair, whether JH was guilty or not, and as has been said a million times here and elsewhere, under 'normal' circumstances JH would never have been found guilty.

What if JH had been acquitted and years later DNA showed that he'd been guilty all along? It's a "Waking The Dead" scenario, but chances are there'd be public outrage at how the law in 1962 could have got it so wrong.

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

Hi jimarilyn

I am sure that there will still be people not convinced of Hanratty’s guilt, but I feel certain that there will have been far fewer since the DNA results. I think it’s fair to say that even the campaigners including the family have fallen quiet on the subject and are perhaps even resigned now to the truth.

I think the idea of two abductors is really a non-starter, and Valerie’s version of the event has held firm throughout all the years. I don’t think that she has held back any information material to the investigation or to the trial. She could have been reticent, for personal reasons, about the odd thing, but I don’t believe that she deliberately misled anyone about that night’s events.

Yes, true that there were wrong identifications, and the other things you mention are also quite true, the hair etc. And, yes, some strange things were occurring in the immediate aftermath of the crime. Perhaps that is why we all find the A6 murder so fascinating.

Kind regards,
Steve

[Steve]

Hi Graham

There has never been what you could call a public outrage about Hanratty’s fate, and I think most people felt that the jury had reached the correct verdict. Should he have been executed? That’s a different matter, and I think most people would feel that he should not have been. Perhaps the knowledge that he would have to sentence Hanratty to death explains why the Judge was so shocked at the guilty verdict.

The people who came to believe that Hanratty had been innocent were those who listened to the campaigners, and read the Foot and Woffinden books. These were all very persuasive in convincing listeners and readers that a conspiracy had taken place.

Yes, public outrage would have been appropriate if Hanratty had walked free from the court, the crime had remained unsolved, and DNA evidence later proved that Hanratty had been guilty all along. Of course, Hanratty or his family members would have had to have been very stupid to agree to DNA testing.

In all probability if Hanratty had been acquitted at the trial he would have just gone back to his criminal ways and probably spent most of his life in prison any way.

Kind regards,
Steve

[jimarilyn]

Hi All

One of the most truly bafflling aspects about this case regards the 2 identikit photos issued by the police on the 29th August 1961.

I think most people on this forum would agree that there is a marked similarity between Peter Alphon and the 1st identikit photo (the Valerie Storie one which shows the hair slicked back). What is most remarkable however, is that the 2nd identikit photo (compiled primarily from Edward Blackhall's description of the driver of the Morris Minor) looks incredibly like the very rarely seen (or spoken about) photo of Peter Alphon which is displayed on page 54 of Louis Blom-Cooper's 1963 book about the A6 murder. Blom-Cooper's book "The A6 Murder - Regina v. James Hanratty, the semblance of truth" is the only book which shows this particular photo of Alphon. Anyone who has a copy of this book (which is definitely anti-Hanratty) can't help but have noticed this themselves as on the opposite page are the 2 identikit photos.

Unfortunately at the moment I do not have a scanner, otherwise I would upload it (if that's the word) onto this forum for all to see. I find this incredibly strange that 2 completely different photos of Alphon should strongly resemble the 2 different identikit photos. I wonder what the odds would be on this happening ?

[jimarilyn]

H again,

Especially when it's patently clear that Alphon and Hanratty look nothing like each other.

[Steve]

Two ...

.... Identikit pictures .....

[Steve]

Peter Louis Alphon .....

[Steve]

Hanratty ....

.... at the waxworks!

[Limehouse]

Hmm. I had to find an image of Hanratty and Alphon to test your theory and looked from the two photos to the identikit images and I have to say that to me, the indetikits look more like Hanratty. The image I used of Hanratty was the face-to-camera image, and his nose is very like that in both indetikits. The hair is irrelevant really because the murderer could have swept it back or changed it in some way on the night of the crime (and Hanratty is known to have dyed his hair, unlike Alphon).

The indetikit images clearly don't convince ME that Hanratty is not the one but clearly, in real life, Hanratty and Alphon were not alike.

What IS strange about this case is Alphon's behaviour after the crime. Leaving aside his several confessions and retractions over the years, immediately after the crime, he allegedly broke into lonely homes occupied by lone women and attacked them, claiming to be the A6 killer. It seems he really wanted to be considered man enough to have carried out the crime - but I wonder how far his behaviour would have gone if he was placed in the dock, charged with the crime itself. What would his allibi have been, how would he have defended himself and what would the outcome have been?

[Steve]

What IS strange about this case is Alphon's behaviour after the crime. Leaving aside his several confessions and retractions over the years, immediately after the crime, he allegedly broke into lonely homes occupied by lone women and attacked them, claiming to be the A6 killer. It seems he really wanted to be considered man enough to have carried out the crime - but I wonder how far his behaviour would have gone if he was placed in the dock, charged with the crime itself. What would his allibi have been, how would he have defended himself and what would the outcome have been?

Wasn't there some doubt if it was Alphon who conned his way into those houses? Whoever it was didn't actually 'break-in' in the conventional sense. Alphon's strange behaviour that brought him to the attention of the police initially involved pacing up and down a hotel room immediately after the murder, and playing loud music, etc.

[Steve]

The hotel that Alphon was staying in after the murder has been demolished, but this picture is of a very similar hotel next door.

[jimarilyn]

.... at the waxworks!

Hi Steve

Are you sure this is not a waxworks model of a younger Kirk Douglas. Seriously though, the three or four photos I have seen of the adult James Hanratty don't look much like this waxworks model. Methinks Madame Two Swords has deliberately given Hanratty a mean and moody look for effect. The waxwork is made to look about 40 years old.

[Steve]

That made me chuckle - I see what you mean about Kirk Douglas. I agree, I thought it unlike any of the other images of Hanratty, but of course I never met him so can't really say. But then I suppose whoever made the wax model hadn't met him either and only had photographs to work from. I wonder if they bought the suit from Hepworths?

[jimarilyn]

Wasn't there some doubt if it was Alphon who conned his way into those houses? Whoever it was didn't actually 'break-in' in the conventional sense. Alphon's strange behaviour that brought him to the attention of the police initially involved pacing up and down a hotel room immediately after the murder, and playing loud music, etc.

Hi Steve & Limehouse,

You make a very good point about Alphon's behaviour during his 4 or 5 days stay at the Alexandra Court Hotel. I wonder what had disturbed him so much to cause him to act in such a manner. A far cry from the relaxed Peter Alphon of May 1967 when giving a press conference in his Paris Hotel room.

[Steve]

That has always been a real puzzle, and gave another reason for some people to strongly suspect that Alphon was the real A6 murderer. When the police interviewed him, I think I am right in saying, he had newspaper clippings relating to the murder in his case.