a6 murder

[Tony]

Good Morning Jimarilyn,

I have received the Miller book this morning and I am looking forward to reading it. I have my reservations about it, bearing in mind your comments and other reviewers’ thoughts but I will try to read it with an open mind.

This is certainly very kind of you and I see there is a fair amount of postage costs which you haven’t asked me to cover. I will return it when I have read it, maybe twice, and will enclose a little something to cover your costs and time.

Tony.

[jimarilyn]

Good Morning Jimarilyn,

I have received the Miller book this morning and I am looking forward to reading it. I have my reservations about it, bearing in mind your comments and other reviewers’ thoughts but I will try to read it with an open mind.

This is certainly very kind of you and I see there is a fair amount of postage costs which you haven’t asked me to cover. I will return it when I have read it, maybe twice, and will enclose a little something to cover your costs and time.

Tony.

Hi Tony,

No problem at all. Keep hold of the book as long as you like. My comments on the book were just my own personal opinion. Others might come to a different conclusion upon reading it.

[Lord Buckley]

good evening all.

ive read through a bit of this thread and still find it fascinating. i did post a few times on the old thread. ive been thinking about it and come up with a few things:

why did hanratty ask for the car to be driven further up the field? could it have been part of the plan - get somewhere quiet and kill gregsten, but perhaps he couldnt go through with it. this would also fit with the car been driven for miles around before the murder.

however, what i think is the most likely scenario is that it was a random hold-up. perhaps hanratty (after a failed burglery attempt) decided to sleep somewhere around the cornfield until the next day when he could get the bus. however, he saw the car in the field and thought about hi-jacking it. eventually he decided on it and went over to them. not knowing how to drive it he forced michael to drive. on the way back he perhaps thought they would go straight to the police and that his disguise might not be good enough. perhaps he shot them so they could not identify him? there are loads of cases where the only reason the killer murdered their victim was so they could not identify them.

[Graham]

M'Lord.

Bloody hell, the aristocracy are taking an interest in the A6 Case!

What seems to have been missed by many people interested in the case is that Gregsten and Storie (according to the latter) first parked their car some way from the infamous cornfield; Huntercombe Lane to be precise. They stayed there for a short time, then for whatever reason drove off again and stopped at the entrance the the cornfield. If Hanratty was waiting for them, if it had been 'planned' that he would intercept them at the cornfield, then he must have been possessed of ESP.

I think you're absolutely spot-on regarding your scenario. It was a random hold-up, maybe he just initially wanted the car, but again, for whatever reason, he decided to stay with the couple and play God. Had he just pinched the car, and even had they been able to identify him at some later date, he'd have gone down for a spell; and maybe that's what he was really afraid of - going back to stir. It is also highly possible that - again, for whatever reason - he took a dislike to Gregsten and Storie, and decided to have some 'fun' at their expense. I think he simply lost control of the situation, which ran away with him. I do not think that JH set out that evening to murder and rape. It is also possible that, confronted with two people whose intelligence and education far surpassed his own, he rapidly became, shall we say, disenchanted.

Good post, your Grace.

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

Graham

Aristocracy? I thought the Lord Buckley was that pub overlooking the village green!

KR
Steve

[Graham]

Graham

Aristocracy? I thought the Lord Buckley was that pub overlooking the village green!

KR
Steve

Our village green is now a trendy development...

Cheers,

Graham

[Graham]

That reminds me....

...does anyone posting to this thread know owt about the ruined church in the vicinity of Deadman's Hill that was (is?) the scene of Black Magic rituals?
I think there was something on the old boards about this.

Also - does anyone know how that particular stretch of road in Bedfordshire became known as Deadman's Hill?

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

Come to think of it our village green is now a not-so trendy development. In fact most of the greenery around here is being built on! There's nowhere to play cricket any more, so thank goodness for the pub!

[Steve]

That reminds me....

...does anyone posting to this thread know owt about the ruined church in the vicinity of Deadman's Hill that was (is?) the scene of Black Magic rituals?
I think there was something on the old boards about this.

Also - does anyone know how that particular stretch of road in Bedfordshire became known as Deadman's Hill?

Cheers,

Graham

http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/bedfordshire/bedfordshire1.html

[Graham]

That's the place, Steve! Thanks!

During all my visits to Deadman's Hill I've never thought to have a look at this place, which does seem to be rather eerie.....

Cheers,

Graham

[Steve]

Me neither, but then I'm always in a hurry!

[Steve]

Hello Lord Broccoli and Graham

They took a circuitous route that fateful evening, that’s for sure, which certainly precludes a pre-meditated kidnap at the cornfield, unless the gunman waited there on several occasions for the couple to arrive in their Morris Minor. I think this possibility to be very unlikely.

Lord B, there were no reported burglary attempts in the Taplow/Dorney/Eton area that day. But of course that is not to say there were no unreported burglaries, attempted or otherwise. One huge possibility for Hanratty being in that area during the day was the rich pickings available in that wealthy area close to London.

Graham, your summary agrees with my own thoughts. It was a random hold-up, for whatever reason and, circumstances including possibilities outlined previously, conspired to the final tragic outcome. Hanratty could initially have intended to steal the car, possibly decided that he wanted ‘to possess’ Valerie and finally come to despise Gregsten, then ultimately reacted to Gregsten’s final and futile attempt to alter the balance of power in the only way available to him at that time, to open fire!

Kind regards
Steve

[Graham]

Hi Steve,

JH may well have decided he just wanted to nick the Morris, in which case i rather think he'd have just ordered the occupants out, and driven off there and then. However, he had a lately-acquired gun, which probably cost him the proverbial arm and a leg, so he thought he might as well put his expensively-acquired new 'toy' to good use. Maybe if Gregsten and Storie had been compliant, he might have had his 'bit of fun', and driven off with their car; but the impression I have is that neither Mike nor Valerie were the types to be thus threatened without fighting back. Their resistance proved to be tragic.

Cheers,

Graham

[Lord Buckley]

Hello Lord Broccoli and Graham

They took a circuitous route that fateful evening, that’s for sure, which certainly precludes a pre-meditated kidnap at the cornfield, unless the gunman waited there on several occasions for the couple to arrive in their Morris Minor. I think this possibility to be very unlikely.

he could have followed them?

[Steve]

Do you mean he could have followed them on foot?