Just passing through, but here are a couple of points:
1] Re: sightings of the car. Charles Drayton, a milkman, had to slam on his anchors to avoid a collision with a car that jumped the lights at the junction of Ampthill Road and St John's Street in Bedford, at 5.25 a.m. on 23rd August. Mr Drayton made a note of the registration which was 847 BHN. He said there was no passenger. This I believe was the only genuine sighting of the car before it entered the Greater London area, and if it was Hanratty behind the wheel (as I believe it was) bang goes your image of a careful, accomplished, steady driver. (One small point - Bedford is north of Deadmans Hill - possibly reinforcing the claim of sightings even further north - and if JH left the crime scene at shortly after 3.00am it took him a long time to get there. I wonder if he might have driven aimlessly around the lanes for a time, or perhaps parked in a quiet lane to spend some time cleaning the inside of the car. Don't know).
2] I had a distant relative who owned a guest-house near Margate and he was put out of business in the early 1960's for (a) owing a bomb to the Inland Revenue and (b) not maintaining his premises to the required standard. We were somewhat shocked to hear this, as this relative had always been a paragon of virtue, etc., etc. Just shows.
3] I went with a friend in his car to a job interview and sat in the car while he was in the company's premises. When he came out he was hopping mad over what had been said to him, and damn near killed us a couple of times on our way home, driving like a raving maniac. This bloke also happened to be a rally-driver - and it was the last time I ever got into a car with him.
Have fun.
Graham
1] Re: sightings of the car. Charles Drayton, a milkman, had to slam on his anchors to avoid a collision with a car that jumped the lights at the junction of Ampthill Road and St John's Street in Bedford, at 5.25 a.m. on 23rd August. Mr Drayton made a note of the registration which was 847 BHN. He said there was no passenger. This I believe was the only genuine sighting of the car before it entered the Greater London area, and if it was Hanratty behind the wheel (as I believe it was) bang goes your image of a careful, accomplished, steady driver. (One small point - Bedford is north of Deadmans Hill - possibly reinforcing the claim of sightings even further north - and if JH left the crime scene at shortly after 3.00am it took him a long time to get there. I wonder if he might have driven aimlessly around the lanes for a time, or perhaps parked in a quiet lane to spend some time cleaning the inside of the car. Don't know).
2] I had a distant relative who owned a guest-house near Margate and he was put out of business in the early 1960's for (a) owing a bomb to the Inland Revenue and (b) not maintaining his premises to the required standard. We were somewhat shocked to hear this, as this relative had always been a paragon of virtue, etc., etc. Just shows.
3] I went with a friend in his car to a job interview and sat in the car while he was in the company's premises. When he came out he was hopping mad over what had been said to him, and damn near killed us a couple of times on our way home, driving like a raving maniac. This bloke also happened to be a rally-driver - and it was the last time I ever got into a car with him.
Have fun.
Graham
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