a6 murder

[jimarilyn]

Greeting one and all

Don’t know about the number of Morris Minors that have parked in Avondale Crescent over the years, but I visited Deadmans Hill on the fortieth anniversary of the crime and couldn’t move for the number of cars occupied by people innocently eating their lunch. Can’t complain, I was one of them.

Peter

Hi,

Do you feel that most of them were there for the same reason as you or was that just typical of an August day at Deadman's Hill ?

[jimarilyn]

Hi,

Are those houses (house ?) still there that were there in 1961 ? They seem very close to where Gregsten was killed.

[Steve]

The houses at the top of Deadman's Hill shown in the contemporary photographs are still there. They are screened off now by tall trees.

[simon]

Thanks for those photos, Steve.

At the risk of repeating myself..As someone whose interest in the murder was sparked by that single sentence about Tafler in Paul Foot's book, having myself idly spotted the resemblence years beforehand..the Fogarty-Waul account is key. If true, as far as I'm concerned, it would imply that Alphon had some connection to a plan, even though DNA has surely eliminated him and incriminated JH re: the actual killing. On the other hand, if - as has been suggested - Tafler's name was just a convenient device to add weight to the campaign (by drawing in suckers like me)..and if, who knows, F-W's account was just a lot of bunkum anyway..then maybe, after all, the 'random' theory is the correct one. (And I, for one, don't have a problem with JH pleading his innocence to the end. Rather that than tell his poor family the truth ?).

A few years before he died, and before cynicism about Tafler/Alphon had crept in, I wrote to Foot about all this. Interesting, pehaps, that he never replied ?!

[Steve]

Hi Simon

Fogarty-Waul could have been correct, he could possibly have seen Alphon when and where he said he did. It is perfectly possible that Alphon did wander around this area without actually having any involvement with the abduction and subsequent murder. Unlikely, I would agree, and it would be a huge coincidence. But then as we often noted the whole A6 murder case was full of confidences.

What is known is that Alphon did visit the Slough dog track. Even so, why he should venture down Marsh Lane would still be a mystery.

The other possibility is that Fogarty-Waul was mistaken in his identification. I know very little about him and don’t want to seem uncharitable towards him, but he does come across to me as something of an … shall we say an eccentric?

Kind regards,
Steve

[Graham]

According to Paul Foot, after F-W joined the A6 Committee in 1969, a strange test was devised to prove one way or the other if the man seen in Marsh Lane by F-W was actually Alphon. By then, Alphon's parents were living in Marine Parade, Brighton. Foot and the others on the Committee told F-W that Alphon was likely to be in Brighton over the Whitsun weekend, but told him only that Alphon's parents lived in a house between numbers 150 and 170. So F-W drives to Brighton, walks up and down Marine Parade for 'hours', then (fortuitously) sees a man looking out of an upper-floor window who he recognised as the man he'd seen at Slough dogs and in Marsh Lane a mere 8 years previously! They spoke, and according to Foot Alphon also recognised F-W. Following this encounter, Alphon apparently contacted the police to get them to arrest F-W. Even Paul Foot says that this story is 'exaggerated' by F-W.

The whole thing sounds totally contrived and utterly unrealistic, not just 'exaggerated' by F-W, and I feel lends weight to the distinct possibility that F-W was a publicity-seeker and a band-wagon rider, who maybe thought there was a few bob in it for him.

All in Paul Foot's book, pages 387-9.

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

I feel lends weight to the distinct possibility that F-W thought there was a few bob in it for him.

Hi Graham

Do you think F-W ever made any money from his involvement in the A6 Murder Committee?

Kind regards,
Steve

[Graham]

Hi Graham

Do you think F-W ever made any money from his involvement in the A6 Murder Committee?

Kind regards,
Steve

I'd honestly doubt it, Steve. I just wondered if perhaps he thought that some of Justice's wealth might just filter on down to him...

I rather think that F-W was just in it for the craque, as they say on Ireland. As you said, he does come across as something of an eccentric.

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

Hi Graham

His travel expenses, including the trip to Brighton, probably left him out of pocket. As far as I am aware he continued to live in a caravan in a farm field.

I haven't really tried to find Peck's Farm, or to locate where the caravan was situated, but I have never noticed any sign of where it is (or was) when I visit Marsh Lane. Do you have any knowledge of where F-W's caravan was?

Kind regards,
Steve

[Graham]

Hi Graham

His travel expenses, including the trip to Brighton, probably left him out of pocket. As far as I am aware he continued to live in a caravan in a farm field.

I haven't really tried to find Peck's Farm, or to locate where the caravan was situated, but I have never noticed any sign of where it is (or was) when I visit Marsh Lane. Do you have any knowledge of where F-W's caravan was?

Kind regards,
Steve

Hi Steve,

Sorry, I haven't a clue. On my various visits to Marsh Lane I never saw a sign for Pecks Farm, and I've just entered the name into various search sites and haven't come up with anything. Paul Foot says that Pecks Farm is 'a field' off Marsh Lane - could be anywhere.

Cheers,

Graham

[simon]

Hi Graham,
I don't disagree with your doubts about Fogerty-Waul but, to be fair, he had good reason to recognise Alphon in Brighton even if 8 years had passed. He presumably hadn't forgotten what Sidney Tafler looked like !

Best wishes,
Simon

[Steve]

Hi Simon

A fair assumption!

KR
Steve

[Graham]

Hi Graham,
I don't disagree with your doubts about Fogerty-Waul but, to be fair, he had good reason to recognise Alphon in Brighton even if 8 years had passed. He presumably hadn't forgotten what Sidney Tafler looked like !

Best wishes,
Simon

Hi Simon.

I quite agree, but even so the whole Brighton episode sounds manufactured to me.

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

I quite agree, but even so the whole Brighton episode sounds manufactured to me.

It has 'publicity stunt' written all over it ....

[Steve]

Hi Graham

Almost 50 years has gone by since the A6 Murder took place and most things in the world have changed in the intervening years. Today, taking a drive or a walk down the considerable length of Marsh Lane it has the feel of suburbia surrounded by overgrown meadows and divided by intersecting public footpaths. You could be forgiven for thinking of this part of rural Berkshire as never having had anything to do with agriculture or farming. Yet, little less than 50 years ago this area must have been a farming community, at least to some degree. Pecks Farm, combine harvester in the cornfield, farmer’s cottage to the north, are all references from the 60s to this area, yet unrecognisable today!

Kind regards,
Steve