A6 Rebooted

[moste]

morris Minor fuel gauge.

Here is the dash board of the model of Morris Minor we are concerned with.
Note the fuel gauge location, and the ease of reading, even for someone sat in the middle of the back seat.
Now, given the information we have,that Gregsten was keeping a strict log of miles travelled between petrol fill ups, I was always under the impression that this was as a result of him being involved in rally's ,and that he was probably a stickler for details. However, I am now of the opinion that the fuel gauge like Jims Jaguar was also broken. The assailant asked "How much fuel is there in the tank?" when he actually would have been able to see for himself! Gregsten supposedly bought 3 gallons of petrol yesterday(21 st.) or earlier today (22nd)., that would be good for about 90 miles, at approx.. 30 to the Gal. and since the M.M holds 6 1/2 gallons ,even with a trip down from Abbotts Langley, and some mooching around Slough, the gauge would have still been registering over a quarter of a tank in the corn field. Storie maintains, that they told the man that the car didn't have much fuel in it, so they put two gallons in. I'm not sure what all this means, or what, if any, difference it makes, however, if the carjacker knew anything at all about cars he would have read the gauge.

[moste]

choke

Further to the above, note the left hand knob,(I marked it, as the original 'c' was worn away) this is the manual choke control. I contend as a possible means to thwarting the assailants endeavors, this choke could have been fully operated without the knowledge of the guy in the back , while the engine is at full heat and while, say, taking off from a traffic light ,this would have had the effect of causing the engine to start running rough, before almost certainly stalling. Gregsten would have known this , the car has basically now broken down. To then compound this breakdown to good effect Gregsten would also know that to continually pump the gas pedal before trying to start the engine again would flood the carburetor, completing the deception that the car is now out of order. Yes I know , 'one never knows what one will do ......' I think Gregsten had a reason to be going along with this so called intruder.
P S The car, when supposedly started for the murderer, was left running for too long in the layby, and stalled because the choke hadn't been returned to its normal position . More than likely.

[OneRound]

Moste - turning to the car's mileage as no mileage in the Matthews report.

OneRound

[Spitfire]

As the latest theory is that the killer was never in the car until after the murder when, while wearing a plastic suit with rubber buttons and/or velcro fastenings, he got into the vehicle , it seems somewhat academic to speculate on what he may or may not have seen on the car's dashboard on the way to Deadman's Hill.

[Spitfire]

1956, model, Jaguar mk. seven . This is the same model car Hanratty had a spare key for ,stolen in London then used to head north to Manchester. Manual gearbox floor mounted stick shift with overdrive. Just reading Woffindens explanation of this series of events, it seems the fuel gauge was broken (quite unusual defect) ( interesting, big, coincidence coming up in next post!)
Hanrartty spent over 4 pound on 16 gallons of petrol, just to be on the safe side.

According to the Jaguar Club of North America the Jags of this period all had twin fuel tanks, one on either side of the car. The left tank held 8 gallons (Imperial) and the right 9 gallons, a total of 17 gallons. If Hanratty had put 16 gallons into the vehicle then it would have had very little petrol to begin with. I am not sure in those circumstances how a diagnosis that the petrol gauge was broken could be made.

Read under the sub-heading 'Miscellaneous'.

[Graham]

Just seen the comment reproduced below in a daily newspaper. Obviously I can't vouch for the veracity of the claim, but has anyone heard of 'Snowy'?


James hanratty knocked on the door of my mothers house in Rhyl asking if my brother snowy could take him to see terry star real name terry evens.He was dressed in a suit very smart with fairish hair and not that tall.He was wearing a suit in the early afternoon that was something you didn't see in Rhyl.I said if he came back later around tea time snowy might be home.he said he wasnt going to be in Rhyl long.I am ninety nine percent sure it was James I can't understand how the Dna proved otherwise to think he was in rhyl

Hi JKettle,

can you please advise in what context the above article was published? Or was it a reader's letter, maybe? Any idea of the date the article was published in the Express?

Thanks,

Graham

[ansonman]

Further to the above, note the left hand knob,(I marked it, as the original 'c' was worn away) this is the manual choke control. I contend as a possible means to thwarting the assailants endeavors, this choke could have been fully operated without the knowledge of the guy in the back , while the engine is at full heat and while, say, taking off from a traffic light ,this would have had the effect of causing the engine to start running rough, before almost certainly stalling. Gregsten would have known this , the car has basically now broken down. To then compound this breakdown to good effect Gregsten would also know that to continually pump the gas pedal before trying to start the engine again would flood the carburetor, completing the deception that the car is now out of order. Yes I know , 'one never knows what one will do ......' I think Gregsten had a reason to be going along with this so called intruder.
P S The car, when supposedly started for the murderer, was left running for too long in the layby, and stalled because the choke hadn't been returned to its normal position . More than likely.

In addition to the above (rendering the car out of order) , he could have told the garage attendant that he had a nutter in the back of the car armed with a gun, given the attendant the car registration and asked him to call the police 2 minutes after he left. One never knows what one will do but I have always felt that to do nothing was odd in the extreme.
Ansonman

[j.kettle1]

Hi JKettle,

can you please advise in what context the above article was published? Or was it a reader's letter, maybe? Any idea of the date the article was published in the Express?

Thanks,

Graham

Hi, Graham.
As I recall it was a comment under an article regarding James Hanratty. I know that the poster called him/herself 'welshy', but that's about all I know, sorry.

[j.kettle1]

Sorry that didn't appear in quote, Graham. Still getting used to this iPad.
Anyway, should have added that I was mooching around when I saw it, and can't find it now. I think the comment was made a while after the article though.

[gallicrow]

See comments below article at http://www.express.co.uk/expressyour...ller-all-along

[j.kettle1]

Thank you, gallicrow.

[Graham]

Thanks both. I've seen that article before, but without the comments. Odd.

As Welshy didn't indicate the date of Hanratty's claimed visit to his/her house, then his/her comment isn't worth much. However, he/she did get Terry Evans' nickname - Terry Star - correct, but of course Evans was at that time a very well-known character in Rhyl. If what he/she claims happened upset him/her so much, then why didn't he/she contact the authorities?
All a bit dubious.

Graham

[Sherlock Houses]

4. Was there really enough time for Hanratty to have visited the sweet shop and to have done all the other things he claimed between arriving in Liverpool by train and catching the coach to Rhyl?

OneRound, in my considered view there was ample time for Hanratty to have done all the things he claimed to have done between arriving at Lime Street and leaving on a double decker bus for Rhyl.

Hanratty originally claimed to have arrived at Lime Street Station around about 3.30 pm on August 22nd. This would tally with the 3.25 pm arrival time of the 10.35 am train from Euston. [Foot p189]. Later on, for some unclear reason, Hanratty estimated the arrival time of his train as being about an hour later. It's important to bear in mind that Hanratty by mid-October had no reason to recall the exact arrival time of a train he had used almost 2 months earlier. In common with probably the vast majority of people [including Albert Harding] he was not a clock-watcher. He even admitted as much himself. At this juncture I would say that, unless they kept a detailed diary to jog their memory, 99% of people would be unable to accurately recall the time of say a very recent family visit. In all likelihood they would be an half hour or more out.

My own firmly held belief is that Hanratty caught the 10.35 am train, arriving at Lime Street Station at 3.25 pm. I find it very hard to believe that the itchy-footed Hanratty would have had the patience to linger at Euston Station for almost 3 hours waiting for the 12.15pm train to Liverpool to depart.

For argument's sake let's accept that he did arrive at Lime Street Station at 3.25 pm. It is reasonable to suppose that he would have been able to deposit his luggage at the left luggage office, have a wash and brush up and also have a hot drink at the station's buffet by 4.00 pm. Coming out of the station around 4.00 pm and then enquiring of passers-by for the whereabouts of a Carlton or Tarleton Road it is a fair assumption that he boarded a Scotland Road bound bus within 5 or 10 minutes, maybe less, since lots of buses went along Scotland Road. David Cowley's sweetshop was about 1.1 miles away from Lime Street Station in an almost straight line. The bus journey would have taken about 5 minutes allowing for fare stops and traffic lights and Hanratty would have reached the sweetshop around 4.20 pm. after making further enquiries of passers-by for directions to Tarleton or Carlton Road.

Exiting the shop between 4.20 and 4.25 pm and not having any joy in finding his ex-prison mate Aspinall's address he decided to walk back to Lime Street which would have taken a fit 24 year old male about 15-17 minutes. He would have gotten back to Lime Street around 4.40 pm'ish giving him ample time to have something to eat and drink at Lyons's cafe at 51 Lime Street, cross diagonally over the road to the nearby Reynolds Billiard Hall and return to the left-luggage office to collect his pigskin case before boarding the 6.00 pm bus to Rhyl at the side of Lime Street Station.


So in answer to your 4th point OneRound, in my opinion there would have been time enough to spare for Hanratty to do the things he claimed to have done between arriving at Lime Street Station and leaving for Rhyl.

[Graham]

One small but nevertheless important point that is usually overlooked about the Liverpool 'Alibi' is that although Hanratty was arrested on 11 October he did not, according to Acott, mention the sweet-shop in his initial account to Acott of his claimed visit to Liverpool. It is thus implied that Hanratty invented the sweet-shop at some point after his arrest and initial interview with the police. Acott said that he heard about the sweet-shop not from Hanratty himself but from his defence counsel on about 16 October. Following this, Acott contacted Liverpool CID to ask them to check on this, hence the unfortunate DC Pugh traipsing along Scotland Road to call at every one of its 29 sweet-shops. None of this makes one too confident that Hanratty was ever in a sweet-shop around that time; nor, indeed, anywhere near Liverpool.

Graham

[NickB]

My own firmly held belief is that Hanratty caught the 10.35 am train, arriving at Lime Street Station at 3.25 pm.

What Hanratty did remember was that:
A) The train stopped at Crewe;
B) He did various things at Euston station waiting for the train to arrive.

The 10.20 fast train did not stop at Crewe, so presumably he did not get that one. But if he had arrived before 10.20 that would have been the obvious train to get. If he arrived after the 10.20 train had departed, he would not need to wait around for the 10.35.

At you say Hanratty's evidence at trial was that his train arrived in Liverpool at about 4.30 (as reported in The Times, also Appeal section 62) and the jury were told he got the train arriving at 4.45 (Appeal section 185). Woffinden thinks he arrived at 4.54.