a6 murder

[Graham]

Just noticed a copy of Jean Justice's "Murder v Murder" for sale at Horseunderwater Books for £264; Amazon have 3 copies each going for £25!

Graham

[Graham]

Blimey!

Being bored out of my skull on a boring Sunday evening I'm passing the time Googling things A6, as you might guess....this is from the Bedford Today website.

Published Date: 30 November 2004
Police hunt offender who struck at Dead Man's Hill
A man was subjected to a serious sexual assault just yards away from busy rush hour traffic.

The 54-year-old victim was travelling home from work last Thursday when he pulled into the Dead Man's Hill lay-by, on the A6 near Maulden, and went into the woods to answer a call of nature.

But as he returned to his car a man approached, threatened to stab him and assaulted him.

It happened around 5.15pm just after the offender had asked the man if he had a light for his cigarette. The victim replied that he did not smoke.

The man Bedfordshire Police are looking for is white, middle-aged, about 6ft tall, of stocky, muscular build with small eyes and stubble on the top of his cheekbones.

He spoke with a rough local accent and was wearing a dark, thin wool scarf over the bottom part of his face and a dark hooded top which had a light colour trim.

The hood was pulled over his head but there was a dark, straight fringe of hair sticking out.

He also wore dark coloured baggy jogging bottoms, dark gloves and white Adidas training shoes.

There were two other vehicles parked in the lay-by at the time. The first was a dark coloured van, possibly a Fiat, and the other a smaller van with two seats and a high roof.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Det Con Mark Crone of Dunstable CID, has urged the drivers or passengers of these vehicles to come forward and speak to him in confidence.

He said: "The victim has been left devastated by what has happened to him and we need the public's assistance to track down the offender.

"The victim did hear a vehicle leave the lay-by just as he returned to his vehicle. This vehicle had a very noisy engine and was possibly diesel driven."

Anyone with any information relating to this incident can contact Det Con Crone, in confidence, on 01582 473331 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

[Natalie Severn]

Sherlock was on BBC 1 and its brilliant! You missed out on that Graham.
Interesting find. I wonder if he was ever caught?

[Natalie Severn]

Just noticed a copy of Jean Justice's "Murder v Murder" for sale at Horseunderwater Books for £264; Amazon have 3 copies each going for £25!

Graham

I have a copy on loan from the library---it looks like its a first edition too! I am allowed to renew it up to four times so long as nobody else wants it. £264---thats amazing!

[Limehouse]

I have a copy of this book - very kindly sent to me by poster Tony. I have read it through several times and I keep dipping into it as it gives a very interesting insight into the mind and behaviour of Alphon. It is not always a comfortable read because Justice's obsession with Alphon and his conviction of Alphon's guilt is very graphically described. I think the relationship between Alphon and Justioce was very destructive for them both and Justice unintentionally revealed this in the book.

[Graham]

I read "Murder v. Murder" years ago, and my reaction to it was very much the same as Julie's. I don't think there's much doubt that Justice had another agenda as far as the A6 was concerned - he was well-known as an upper-class mischief-maker who appeared to have something of a grudge against the legal establishment. As I posted before, to my mind he was very much Alphon's own personal Svengali, and Alphon of course lapped it up - but even he appeared eventually to grow somewhat wary of M Justice.

Re: books. I remember about 10 years ago searching high and low for a copy of "Who Killed Hanratt?", and was offered copies for anything up to £100! I eventually located a first edition in good condition from a shop in Hay-on-Wye (where else?) for £15 plus however much it cost to post it. Be very careful with your "Murder v Murder", Norma.....

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

I will indeed be careful with it ,Graham! The copy of Paul Foot"s book I have is also from the library and it too dates back to an early publication.
I dont quite agree about Jean Justice.I think he proved an appreciative listener to Alphon"s unusual trains of thought---not just on his rationale and expositions on the A6 murder but also the reason"s Alphon was so enthralled to Hitler and fascism.I noticed Alphon got very short shrift when he tried it on with Supt Acott who had actually fought Hitler and the fascists in WW2.
While it cannot be doubted that Justice found Alphon"s ideas about fascism and Hitler just as abhorrent,he had no such qualms when it came to his real aim of getting Alphon to reveal himself and eventually confess to the A6 murder. So I think that the very experience of finding someone who was at last willing to listen and even "encouraging" him to express himself ,must have been like manna from heaven for Alphon so soon after the war had ended and most people would have wanted him tried for treason.
What I have also noticed is how clever Alphon is to obfuscate by giving different facts and figures to his story lines---he never presents a 100% case for himself as the gunman or that could be used in court to identify himself as the killer---not even in the telephone conversations to Foot that he didnt realise were being taped.---they do come nearer than any other to a viable explanation of how he could have been the killer,but there is always a loophole or outlet for him to wriggle through if ever called to account again.
Personally I think Alphon ran rings round everybody, including Justice who he correctly perceived as having been a false "friend" and that Alphon had a genius for evasion-including evading the law.

[jimarilyn]

I read "Murder v. Murder" years ago, and my reaction to it was very much the same as Julie's. I don't think there's much doubt that Justice had another agenda as far as the A6 was concerned - he was well-known as an upper-class mischief-maker who appeared to have something of a grudge against the legal establishment. As I posted before, to my mind he was very much Alphon's own personal Svengali, and Alphon of course lapped it up - but even he appeared eventually to grow somewhat wary of M Justice.

I couldn't disagree with you more about Jean Justice. Your biased analysis of him is very much a right-wing pro-Establishment stance. Anyone who has taken the time to read and study his two books [one of which, "Le crime de la route A6" was published in France and written in French] would come to a completely different conclusion. Jean Justice, at one time (pre 1962) was a very heavy drinker who was prone to act irresponsibly and engage in some high spirited activities. When his own personal epiphany occurred and he realised the folly of his previous behaviour he became a much more serious minded person. He attended the committal proceedings at Ampthill and then the trial itself at Bedford. He came to believe passionately that a great miscarriage of justice had occurred re. the A6 murder case and that an innocent man had been wrongly executed. For the remainder of his days [he abstained from alcohol until his death in 1990] he fought Hanratty's corner heroically and passionately, and, like a lot of other people, gradually became convinced that Peter Alphon was the A6 killer. And he didn't come to this conclusion lightly ! He came to this conclusion only after getting to know and understand Peter Alphon extremely well.

Jean Justice was a truth seeker and very aptly named.

[Graham]

James,

the same as you I am entitled to my opinion, and I can't agree with your analysis of Jean Justice.

Graham

[RonIpstone]

I was pulled up for my theory that Hanratty might not have sent the telegram telephoned in from outside Liverpool Lime Street on Thursday 24 August 1961; the proof that he did being apparently his inability to get into the Winstone/Jackson bout at Liverpool Stadium that night. Suitably chastised I sat down to read what Bob Woffinden had to say about the episode.

The edition of Bob’s book which I have is the 1999 Pan edition and the relevant account begins at the end of page 127. Bob has described, amongst other things Hanratty’s trip to Liverpool, the bus ride to Rhyl and the quest for digs in a seaside town in the middle of the holiday season. Bob now turns to the return bus ride from Rhyl, which Bob assures us took place in the morning of Thursday 24 July after Hanratty had resolved he could return to London (the Smoke) in ersatz triumph. So far so good; we know that the bus journey is not speedy, the outbound journey taking 2hours 19 minutes, so if Bob is right then Hanratty should have been in Liverpool by 14.20 pm.

Bob does not condescend to giving particulars of times, however, and it is a matter of guesswork as to when it is contended that Hanratty arrived at the Pool but for the moment we can give Jim and Bob the benefit of the doubt. On the second paragraph of page 128 Bob writes as follows:

“At that point the pretence was discarded and Hanratty could tell that the actual truth.”

He then paraphrases Hanratty’s account; going to the left luggage, having a meal, going to the flicks, sending the telegram, trying to get into the Winstone fight, and then off to New Brighton and the funfair.

Bob now quotes Hanratty (page128):

'I was on my own. I came back about 10 o'clock. I went back to the flat, picked up my luggage and took a large sum of cash with me. I went to the station about 10.15. I again put my case in the left luggage-it was a different man-I gave him a 6d tip.’

I assume that Bob has just transplanted the events of 24th August 1961 of the first alibi story into the second alibi story. What flat is Bob talking about? How can Hanratty have put his luggage in the left luggage office twice without removing it in between times? Where has the large amount of cash appeared from?

There are other questions which arise out of Hanratty’s alleged return to Liverpool. Why did he go back there in the first place? Why embark on an enervating 2 hour 20 minute journey by local bus to Liverpool to hang around there for ten hours or so, only to get a midnight train back to the Smoke? There were direct trains from Rhyl to London, why not get one of those? Or a train to Crewe and take one of the many from there down (up) to London? Did the train he says he eventually got pass via Crewe? That the guesthouse he ‘stayed’ in was near the station appears from his own account, a short walk, a few questions and he would have saved himself a long bus journey and a 10 hour wait in Liverpool, a city in which he had been duffed up a month or so previous.

So I still maintain that it is far more likely that Hanratty either travelled to Liverpool on 24 August for the purpose of trying to buy an alibi, or got someone else to send a telegram on that date, than it is that he travelled from Rhyl to the Pool and then sent the telegram.

[Natalie Severn]

posted by RonIpstone :
"I assume that Bob has just transplanted the events of 24th August 1961 of the first alibi story into the second alibi story. What flat is Bob talking about? How can Hanratty have put his luggage in the left luggage office twice without removing it in between times? Where has the large amount of cash appeared from?"

I noticed this myself Ron.I thought it was an errata !

There are other questions which arise out of Hanratty’s alleged return to Liverpool. Why did he go back there in the first place? Why embark on an enervating 2 hour 20 minute journey by local bus to Liverpool to hang around there for ten hours or so, only to get a midnight train back to the Smoke? There were direct trains from Rhyl to London, why not get one of those? Or a train to Crewe and take one of the many from there down (up) to London? Did the train he says he eventually got pass via Crewe? That the guesthouse he ‘stayed’ in was near the station appears from his own account, a short walk, a few questions and he would have saved himself a long bus journey and a 10 hour wait in Liverpool, a city in which he had been duffed up a month or so previous.

I may be able to answer some of these.The combined fair by return Crosville coach to Rhyl from Liverpool Lime St and from there to Euston used to cost a lot less than the rail fare from Euston to Rhyl return direct especially if he had bought a Euston to Liverpool return for the same price as a single was----and still is----it was also often quicker too as the London train stopped in Chester and a number of other stops and some times for half an hour in Crewe -its how I used to visit my parents in Eastham which was the same bus on exactly the same route as the Rhyl bus.The Rhyl bus stopped in Birkenhead and by request in Eastham -it went [still does ] through the Mersey tunnel cutting out the need to go via the railway to Crewe then towards Hollyhead [the route of the Rhyl service] .
Rhyl bus station is next to the railway station so its little odds.Ingledene more or less backs onto the railway---there is a picture house one end-now a bingo hall and the old bridge divides it from the bus station and the railway station ----there is a small street of newer houses dividing Ingledene in Kinmel Street from the railway itself.
It all makes perfect sense to me apart from the stuff about a flat and a money stash.....

[Natalie Severn]

Ron or RonIpstone, your post also left out from page 128.

"He[Hanratty] sent a telegram by phone .Hanratty:" The porter at the GPO wrote the telegram out for me and told me to phone it through " "Hanratty did so from a phone box on the forecourt of St George"s Hall in Lime Street.The telegram was timed at 8.40 pm. It read "...etc etc
It all sounds perfectly plausible quite frankly.Just the sort of thing people do when bored and hanging around for a train.
When I was about ten we used to take the ferry from Birkenhead to Liverpool and go back and forth on it for about 3d!Then we would get the number 10 bus to New Brighten and go to the fairground there,first going to the one armed bandits to see if we could get a cash flow!If we couldnt we would beg outside for coppers to go on the dodgems! Our mums and dads never knew that!Wonderful place New Brighton in the late 50"s!

[NickB]

What useful information did the telegram give to the recipient?

The location was given as 'Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London' and it said he would be back on Friday, whereas the France family say he did not appear until the Saturday. Indeed had he arrived on the Friday morning he may well have beaten the telegram.

[Natalie Severn]

Why did it have to be useful? I text before I leave places-and on trains too!

[RonIpstone]

Hello Natalie or Norma and NickB,

According to Bob Woffinden, Hanratty bought a ticket from Liverpool to Euston on the night of 24 August, implying that he had not bought a return from Euston when he set off on 22 August.

I suppose if Hanratty had bought a return on the Crossville bus, then he might be unwilling to waste it. I cannot say what, if any, was the price difference between Rhyl/ Euston and Liverpool/Euston. I would be surprised if it warranted a 2 hour plus bus journey.

I think that there was a disagreement between the Frances who said Hanratty returned on the Saturday and the man himself who said his odyssey ended on Friday morning.

The other point which I wonder about, is why a telegram and why not give Dixie a call on the blower? The obvious advantage of a telegram is that there would be an independent record of it being sent, which would not be true of the making of a phone call. Did Hanratty have an idea to how this might play out in court?

Ron