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James,
can you please give some meat to your theory that Gregsten and Storie were being watched and, quote, 'deliberately targeted'? OK, I accept that Gregsten was perhaps fazed by the fact that his family and his employer were not at all pleased that he was (a) living apart from his wife and (b) having an affair with Valerie Storie (and probably other women too), and I accept that he was having treatment for depression and could have been suffering from paranoia, but where is the evidence that he and Storie were being watched? I can't recall that she ever mentioned it.
I was never comfortable with the suggestion that Gregsten's family were somehow behind the A6 Crime. Gregsten came from what could fairly accurately be described as 'impoverished middle class'. He was well-educated, urbane, good-looking, had a salaried job, but hadn't got two ha'pennies to rub togethere, and neither, it would seem, had his family. If he and Janet were in such dire financial straits that she had to sell his beloved piano, if his family had the wherewithal to hire a gunman to scare him off his bit of naughtiness with Valerie, then surely they could have bunged him a few quid to keep the wolf from the door? Ewer is a non-starter in the dosh stakes, too: he may have run an 'antiques business' or an 'umbrella-repair shop', or both, but no way did he ever have the means to cough up £5000 or whatever it was to a gunman. (And before anyone raises the subject, yes I do know that he once bid a substantial amount of money for something at auction, but he was in fact a proxy bidder acting for someone else). The Gregsten Family being behind the A6 Crime just doesn't hold water.
I don't believe that Hanratty's motive was sex. It's been said so many times before on this thread that he had a normal sex-life, a mix of legit affairs with girl-friends and regular visits to a knocking-shop, so why should he risk himself holding up a courting couple with a gun purely for sex? No way. I agree with you and Julie on that point. However, I would suggest that Hanratty had taken possession of the gun only that day, that he was away from his normal Northwest London stomping-ground in order to collect the weapon from whoever supplied it, and that he was determined to test his bottle when he had a gun in his hand. A courting-couple was probably precisely what he was looking for. Perhaps he wanted to see for himself the difference a shooter made to an otherwise ordinary petty crook. Why he stayed in that car for 5+ hours only Valerie knows (but she did drop a hint or two).
One other small point: I've mentioned before (and no-one has ever really addressed it) that Gregsten and Storie went that evening to Hunterscombe Lane first, and then for whatever reason chose on a whim to leave that spot and go to the cornfield at Dorney, only a mile or so away. If Hanratty had been [I]sent[I] to the cornfield, how did he know that they'd be there on that particular evening? Or did he follow them on foot to Hunterscombe Lane and then again to the cornfield? They left the Old Station Inn at about 9.20pm according to Woffinden, so if they stayed at Hunterscombe Lane for say, 10 minutes, before leaving for Marsh Lane and the cornfield, then Hanratty, if he really did follow them, must have been a candidate for the England Olympic Team.
Graham
can you please give some meat to your theory that Gregsten and Storie were being watched and, quote, 'deliberately targeted'? OK, I accept that Gregsten was perhaps fazed by the fact that his family and his employer were not at all pleased that he was (a) living apart from his wife and (b) having an affair with Valerie Storie (and probably other women too), and I accept that he was having treatment for depression and could have been suffering from paranoia, but where is the evidence that he and Storie were being watched? I can't recall that she ever mentioned it.
I was never comfortable with the suggestion that Gregsten's family were somehow behind the A6 Crime. Gregsten came from what could fairly accurately be described as 'impoverished middle class'. He was well-educated, urbane, good-looking, had a salaried job, but hadn't got two ha'pennies to rub togethere, and neither, it would seem, had his family. If he and Janet were in such dire financial straits that she had to sell his beloved piano, if his family had the wherewithal to hire a gunman to scare him off his bit of naughtiness with Valerie, then surely they could have bunged him a few quid to keep the wolf from the door? Ewer is a non-starter in the dosh stakes, too: he may have run an 'antiques business' or an 'umbrella-repair shop', or both, but no way did he ever have the means to cough up £5000 or whatever it was to a gunman. (And before anyone raises the subject, yes I do know that he once bid a substantial amount of money for something at auction, but he was in fact a proxy bidder acting for someone else). The Gregsten Family being behind the A6 Crime just doesn't hold water.
I don't believe that Hanratty's motive was sex. It's been said so many times before on this thread that he had a normal sex-life, a mix of legit affairs with girl-friends and regular visits to a knocking-shop, so why should he risk himself holding up a courting couple with a gun purely for sex? No way. I agree with you and Julie on that point. However, I would suggest that Hanratty had taken possession of the gun only that day, that he was away from his normal Northwest London stomping-ground in order to collect the weapon from whoever supplied it, and that he was determined to test his bottle when he had a gun in his hand. A courting-couple was probably precisely what he was looking for. Perhaps he wanted to see for himself the difference a shooter made to an otherwise ordinary petty crook. Why he stayed in that car for 5+ hours only Valerie knows (but she did drop a hint or two).
One other small point: I've mentioned before (and no-one has ever really addressed it) that Gregsten and Storie went that evening to Hunterscombe Lane first, and then for whatever reason chose on a whim to leave that spot and go to the cornfield at Dorney, only a mile or so away. If Hanratty had been [I]sent[I] to the cornfield, how did he know that they'd be there on that particular evening? Or did he follow them on foot to Hunterscombe Lane and then again to the cornfield? They left the Old Station Inn at about 9.20pm according to Woffinden, so if they stayed at Hunterscombe Lane for say, 10 minutes, before leaving for Marsh Lane and the cornfield, then Hanratty, if he really did follow them, must have been a candidate for the England Olympic Team.
Graham
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