a6 murder

[Steve]

The transformation at the bottom of Marsh Lane has certainly been huge; it has changed out of all recognition even since I first started regularly visiting the Slough area in the 1970s.

What convinced me that the cornfield entrance was at the very bottom was the thought that when the couple came around the bend (heading towards Marsh Lane) it would seem logical for them to turn off the road, making a left turn, into the first available gate. I couldn't image that they would pass that entrance and carry on the few yards further up the lane before turning off. Also, the bottom entrance is more isolated. The entrance further up the lane has properties on either side of it and would seem less of an option for a couple seeking privacy.

[Steve]

Hi Steve,

I can go along with you on the Dorney aspect, even though I've never been there. Visited Krakow for 3 or 4 days in early March (cheap EasyJet flight) with my ex-girlfriend and while there we went on a coach trip to Auschwitz which is only an hour or so away. It was a very sunny day in Auschwitz and a very, very moving, powerful and unforgettable experience but because it was such a warm sunny day the impact was much less than if it had been a grey, cold and overcast day. What atrocious conditions, torture and treatment those concentration camp victims at Auschwitz and nearby Birkenau must have endured did not hit home fully simply because it was sunny. So yes, sunny weather does bring out smiling faces.

Hi jimarilyn

I've never been there, even though it is a place I would very much like to visit one day. I travel extensively throughout Europe as a business traveller which means I have to be content with visiting interesting and historical locations close to the business centres!

Kind regards,
Steve

[jimarilyn]

Hi Steve

Maybe one of your next business trips might take you to Krakow which is a very beautiful city (especially the Old Town) full of so many architecturally. beautiful buildings. As I say Auschwitz is only about 50 or 60 kilometres away.

[Steve]

Hi Steve

Maybe one of your next business trips might take you to Krakow which is a very beautiful city (especially the Old Town) full of so many architecturally. beautiful buildings. As I say Auschwitz is only about 50 or 60 kilometres away.

Hi jimarilyn

It would be good, but unfortunately Poland and the former Eastern-bloc countries don't figure prominently in my line of business. Not at the moment, but who knows what will happen in the future. These countries economies are developing quickly!

KR
Steve

[jimarilyn]

Hi Steve,

I know they are. Right next to the train station in Krakow there is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) modern Shopping Malls in Europe. I know you're a good salesman as you've been trying so hard to sell me on the idea of Hanratty being the A6 murderer. On that point we'll just have to agree to disagree.

[jimarilyn]

I'm sure you'll agree there's so much more to this perplexing case than meets the eye. So very much that's worthy of further investigation.

[simon]

Hello!
I stumbled across this website a few days ago. May I explain why I've been so fascinated by the A6 murder for decades ? As a boy at prep school I saw a photo of Peter Alphon in a newspaper, and thought to myself - "He looks like Sidney Tafler". Years later, reading the Paul Foot book, I came across the sentence..'He also said that his passenger had looked like the actor Sidney Tafler', and I can still remember the proverbial chill running down the proverbial spine. It seemed such an extraordinary coincedence that, there and then, there could be no doubt, as far as I was concerned, that it had been Alphon in Marsh Lane a couple of weeks before the murder, and therefore it was Alphon who was the killer.
Post DNA, I have to look at it with a more cynical eye. Foot's line is suspiciously throwaway, it now seems to me. But if Fogarty-Waul was telling the truth, and not merely whipping out the Tafler similarity years after the event, then I can't help thinking that Alphon might have been involved in some way. On the other hand, Leonard Miller's book..which I hope to be reading in a few weeks time...will probably make me see the whole thing in a new light.
If only poor Michael Gregston had known, when he got in that car, that here we'd be - all these years later - still talking about the events of that night.

[Graham]

Hi all.

I've been away most of this week, so need to catch up on the A6 stuff that's been posted. Can't stick around at the moment but hope to be back later tonight.

In the meantime, I'd be very, very interested to know if Jimarilyn can put forward some definite proof that Alphon was the A6 killer. I know this sounds a bit like the crap questions that get asked on the Ripper Diary threads, but even so I hope Jimarilyn understands the reasons I ask this question, and doesn't blow his top like they do on the Diary threads! I've read and re-read piles of books about the A6 Case over the years, and given that Valerie failed to identify him, I can't find one little bit of genuine evidence that would have put Alphon in the dock other than a direct ID by Valerie.

Anyway, hope to catch you later.

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

Sydney Tafler

Hello Simon

Interesting post, and interesting that there are still people who lean towards Alphon being the A6 killer. I would have thought the DNA evidence would have convinced just about everyone that Hanratty was the killer all along.

It is also worth pointing out again that much of the Marsh Lane & Old Station Inn stuff came from members of the committee, who definitely had an axe to grind on the subject.

Kind regards,
Steve

[Steve]

In the meantime, I'd be very, very interested to know if Jimarilyn can put forward some definite proof that Alphon was the A6 killer. I know this sounds a bit like the crap questions that get asked on the Ripper Diary threads, but even so I hope Jimarilyn understands the reasons I ask this question, and doesn't blow his top like they do on the Diary threads! I've read and re-read piles of books about the A6 Case over the years, and given that Valerie failed to identify him, I can't find one little bit of genuine evidence that would have put Alphon in the dock other than a direct ID by Valerie.

Hi Graham

Yes, I would too, and I feel sure that jimarilyn will respond fully at his earliest opportunity!!!

Kind regards,
Steve

[Steve]

The Cornfield Entrance

The kerb stones that are still there give a clue.

Peter

It is a fact that as each year goes by more and more of the landscape changes or disappears altogether. Earlier this month contractors built a pedestrian walkway along that side of Marsh Lane from the terrace houses to the cottages near the bottom of the lane. They have, however, looped the path around behind some trees to avoid having to chop them down!

KR
Steve

[simon]

Hello Steve,
Thanks for your reply. I don't actually believe any more that Alphon was the murderer : the whole DNA business put paid to that. If, as you suggest, the Sidney Tafler comment was a Fogarty-Waul/ Foot concoction, then I guess I was hoodwinked for all those years. Is Fogarty-Waul still around, does anybody know ?

Simon

[Steve]

Hi Simon

I honestly don't know, but given that he was getting on a bit 40 years ago I wouldn't have thought so.

KR
Steve

[Steve]

The Cornfield

This is a very recent photograph of how the cornfield entrance looks today.

[Graham]

Hello again!

Steve, I've visited Dorney Reach a few times over the years, and to this day I have to say I'm not 100% certain which entrance to the field is THE entrance. For some reason, I've thought that THE entrance is the one in which these days there is an electricity sub-station or pumping-house or whatever it is. I do know that there has been some pretty major re-development of that area in recent times, but I think in terms of nearby dwellings not much has changed. Maybe another visit is called for - but I will NOT repeat my earlier silliness of walking from Taplow Station to the cornfield - I damn near did myself in!

Re: Sidney Tafler. As far as I'm aware, only Woffinden mentioned the likeness, viz-a-viz the statement by Fogerty-Waul, but in rather typical fashion Woffinden then adds: "This was interesting, as others had commented that Alphon reminded them of Sidney Tafler". What others? I hope I'm not beiing too cynical if I say that I rather think that Fogerty-Waul (who, it seems, lived a bit of an eccentric and solitary life) found a band-wagon he could jump onto. If that's the case, then he wasn't the only one. The A6 Case did seem to attract such people - their 15 minutes of fame? I rather think that Mary Lanz could well be included...after all, gay or not, good old Jean Justice was a hell of a fellow with a magnetic personality, by all accounts...capable of charming the birds off the very trees...

It would take a very powerful argument to convince me that Alphon wasn't connected with the A6 Case other than by almost-incredible coincidence. He was virtually tailor-made for it: a loner, a chancer, a sponger and, if his filmed performances are anything to go by, an extremely talented actor.

Simon,

As and when you read Miller's book, then you'll perceive the weaknesses of many of the arguments that put Alphon in the back seat of the Morris Minor. Miller is not perfect by any means - he rambles a bit, it has to be said - but he does address a lot of the misunderstandings that have grown around this weird case. The trouble is, the one person I would love to talk to has put herself beyond contact, which I totally and completely respect.

Cheers,

Graham