A6 Rebooted

[Sherlock Houses]

Moreover the tailor’s assistant from Hepworth’s who served Hanratty, William Clapp, gave evidence on 25-Jan-62 and was asked to identify the trousers.

However nothing was mentioned by William James Clapp as to whether the trousers had a buttoned or zipped fly.

[moste]

On July 8th 1961 James Hanratty, accompanied by his brother Michael, went to Hepworth's Tailors in Burnt Oak to be measured for a bespoke suit. A bespoke suit differs from a made to measure one in that is individually crafted to a customer's own personal specifications and cut from a pattern drafted from scratch.

He collected the suit 6 weeks later on August 18th and started wearing it from that point onwards.

If the trousers to that Hepworth suit had a buttoned fly as opposed to a zipped fly then that eliminates, at one stroke, James Hanratty from being the A6 murderer.

Why ?? you might well ask.



Because Valerie Storie's own testimony at the Bedford trial was that the murderer..."undid the zip of the fly of his trousers, pushed me back into a half-lying, half-sitting position, leaning against the bag of washing, and without removing any more of his clothing he raped me."

Very good point SH.

However, I feel certain that if pressed on the subject ,Ms. Storie would simply have parried the questioning with. 'Well ... I was about to be sickeningly violated,'(pause for effect,and allow pity to resurface)' I may be wrong about the method that his trousers fastened,' (one of her little frowns to add emphases ) 'the point is he was readying himself to rape me, what difference does it make'?
None of the jury after this would have given a hoot about zipper or buttons,and that little matter would have gone under the carpet along with the misidentification farce,Acotts adjusted notes,the use of self admitted liars as witnesses,and the host of other oddities and screw ups that favoured the prosecution.

[Sherlock Houses]

However, I feel certain that if pressed on the subject ,Ms. Storie would simply have parried the questioning with. 'Well ... I was about to be sickeningly violated,'(pause for effect,and allow pity to resurface)' I may be wrong about the method that his trousers fastened,' (one of her little frowns to add emphases ) 'the point is he was readying himself to rape me, what difference does it make'?

That would not surprise me in the slightest, Moste, given Valerie's penchant for forgetfulness, misidentifications, contradictory statements and economy with the truth when it best suited her interests.

[OneRound]

Sherlock,

I'm on record as being highly critical of the (apparent) weight that was given to Valerie Storie's identification evidence. However, I consider it staggeringly unfair of you and moste to judge her here on the basis of an answer she never gave to a question she was never asked about something you don't know and which Hanratty's defence counsel may have anyway checked and dismissed.

Regards,

OneRound

[moste]

Sherlock,

I'm on record as being highly critical of the (apparent) weight that was given to Valerie Storie's identification evidence. However, I consider it staggeringly unfair of you and moste to judge her here on the basis of an answer she never gave to a question she was never asked about something you don't know and which Hanratty's defence counsel may have anyway checked and dismissed.

Regards,

OneRound

Oh! Ok.

[moste]

(Factual)J H. said he was looking for Talbot, Tarleton or something like that. .This is a view of Taliesin street 1965.
At the end of this street on the right, and on the corner of Scotland road, is Cowley"s tobacconists. (speculative)Could it have been Taliesin that he was looking for, and directed to, and the name from memory simply didn't seem right. Or,
being of a very suspicious nature, and with another dash of speculative thinking, I wonder if , Hanratty was actually looking for 'Mr.Cowley' for the purpose of 'getting rid of his bits and pieces?
(Factual) Vauxhall, this area of north Liverpool, was soon to become due for slum clearance, Mr.Cowley when this photo was taken, in 1965, would have been acquainted, if not on regular friendly terms with 'Acting Chief Constable, Herbert Richard Balmer ,as by this time Cowley was Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Interesting I thought.

[cobalt]

I wouldn't have thought a tobacconist and local alderman would have been a likely fence for stolen goods. David Cowley became Mayor of Liverpool in 1965 and had a brick lobbed at him when opening a controversial reservoir in North Wales. The demonstrators had managed to cut the microphone wires so his great moment went largely unheard above the catcalls.

There was an Inspector Cowley on the Liverpool police force back in 1944, but whether this was a relation would be hard to find out.

Bert Balmer was certainly around at that time, and seems to have had the knack of making a good pinch. Sir Sydney Jones, a local shipowner and Mayor during WW2, was robbed and badly beaten up in 1945, later dying partly due to his injuries. Bert nabbed the villains responsible and was awarded 10GBP for his efforts, this at a time when a beat bobby was on around 5GBP per week.

[moste]

I wouldn't have thought a tobacconist and local alderman would have been a likely fence for stolen goods. David Cowley became Mayor of Liverpool in 1965 and had a brick lobbed at him when opening a controversial reservoir in North Wales. The demonstrators had managed to cut the microphone wires so his great moment went largely unheard above the catcalls.

There was an Inspector Cowley on the Liverpool police force back in 1944, but whether this was a relation would be hard to find out.

Bert Balmer was certainly around at that time, and seems to have had the knack of making a good pinch. Sir Sydney Jones, a local shipowner and Mayor during WW2, was robbed and badly beaten up in 1945, later dying partly due to his injuries. Bert nabbed the villains responsible and was awarded 10GBP for his efforts, this at a time when a beat bobby was on around 5GBP per week.

Very interesting. I remember the valley flooding in Wales ,total devastation for all the people with farms ,the villagers ,and cottage home owners. There was probably an empty valley over the next hillside with a river flowing through it but they didn't want to spend the time and money running a longer pipe .Cowley getting hot and bothered,trying to make speeches over the din of protesters and with duff microphones
I believe the 'powers that be' apologized years later to the Welsh people.
As for newsagents not being fences, why not ?I know of an umbrella repair man who probably was.

[Sherlock Houses]

(Factual)J H. said he was looking for Talbot, Tarleton or something like that. .This is a view of Taliesin street 1965.
At the end of this street on the right, and on the corner of Scotland road, is Cowley"s tobacconists. (speculative)Could it have been Taliesin that he was looking for, and directed to, and the name from memory simply didn't seem right.

This is an acute observation Moste and one I've often wondered about, given Hanratty's educational limitations and learning difficulties.
A good example of this can be seen in one of his statements he made. soon after his arrest, about staying with three Liverpool friends

......."During the three days I was in Liverpool I stayed with McNally in a block of flats known as the Bull Ring or the Gardens in Scotland Road, or a road just off it, Skellone Road."

This statement I find very interesting indeed. The reason being that there is no such road as Skellone Road. There is however a well known (to Liverpudlians) road called Skelhorne Street (at the side of Lime Street Station) at the top end of which is located St Andrew's Gardens, often referred to as the Bull Ring because of it's layout and design. It is quite feasible that the Gerrard Gardens (off Scotland Road) mentioned at the trial could have mixed up with St Andrews Gardens. Both were very similar in design. Food for thought.

Very interesting photo of Taliesin Street incidentally, especially seeing the coal wagon which was very popular in those days.

[Sherlock Houses]

Another good example of Hanratty's slight mis-remembering of the name of a place relates to the Stanmore burglaries of September 30th/October 1st 1961. He thought the name of one of the houses was "Trethorne" when in fact it was "Trevonne" (Foot book) or "Trevone" (Woffinden's book).

[NickB]

Ched Evans is grandson of Terry Evans

From the 'Daily Mail', 19-Oct-16:

Footballer Ched Evans, sensationally cleared of rape last week, is not the first of his family to have his day in court.

His late grandfather, fairground worker Terence Michael Evans, was an associate of notorious A6 murderer James Hanratty and a star witness at his unsuccessful appeal hearing in 1962.

He claimed Hanratty couldn't have committed the murder because he was with him in Rhyl at the time.

Hanratty was hanged in 1962 and Evans, described in court reports as a 'local villain', sold his story to a tabloid in return for a ten shilling note. He died in 1999.

[OneRound]

Hi Nick, thanks for that item about the Evans family.

I've followed the Ched Evans case in the media with some interest but was unaware of his late grandfather being Terry Evans.

I'm sure there's a joke there trying to get out about the man known as Terry Star having been 'a star witness'.

Best regards,

OneRound

[NickB]

Of course, contrary to what the Mail says, Terry Evans did not give Hanratty an alibi in 1962. His most notable action in court was detrimental to the defence – exposing Grace Jones for lying on oath.

However in 1966 he persuaded Charlie Jones to provide a false alibi on ‘Panorama’, and then in ‘The Mystery of Deadman’s Hill’ documentary he made a strange claim about his taxi.

Narrator: “Hanratty recalled going first to the fair hoping to see a friend who always parked his black taxi out front. But that particular evening the taxi wasn’t there.”

Evans: “It was back on the fair the next day. It was definitely not there on the night of the murder. Yeah I believe that he definitely did come to the fair to look for me, and he could see that if the taxi wasn’t there I wasn’t there. So then he went looking for digs.”

But Hanratty said he did not go to the fairground first, on the night of the murder, but the following evening. So if, as Evans claims, the taxi was back on the fair the next day Hanratty would have seen it!

[caz]

...If Hanratty had told his defence prior to Mr Dutton contacting them that he had tried to sell a watch in Rhyl, then that would have been extremely impressive...

Hi Graham
I would imagine that at that stage of the trial, having changed his alibi to Rhyl, he was more concerned with conveying the description of the boarding house than other minor details, so his agents could trace the landlady.
Del

Hi Del,

Beginning to catch up with this thread, I just read the above and something struck me.

If Hanratty had genuinely been in Rhyl, for purposes which included trying to sell a watch, I'd have thought his best bet would have been to describe each potential customer he had approached, and what was said during those conversations, assuming this Dutton chap was not the first and last to be shown the item. After all, Hanratty was supposedly hanging around Rhyl over two nights. Encounters like this, with more than one genuine witness who would have seen the same watch, heard the same sales patter, yet not been tempted to take the timepiece off his hands, would hardly have been 'minor' details. Any one of them could have proved invaluable.

I submit that he was only concerned with describing a Rhyl boarding house because Sherrard's warning was still ringing in his ears about being taken to Liverpool to identify where he had stayed on the crucial night. However unlikely that was to happen, would Hanratty have wanted to take any chances? It makes sense that this would have concentrated his mind on coming up with a safer solution - a boarding house like so many he could have stayed in, so he'd have an excuse ready this time for his inability to supply exact details, such as the name or address or room number - or, more to the point, to locate and identify the place if called upon to do so.

Apologies if anyone has made a similar point in the posts I've yet to read.

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

Very good point SH.

However, I feel certain that if pressed on the subject ,Ms. Storie would simply have parried the questioning with. 'Well ... I was about to be sickeningly violated,'(pause for effect,and allow pity to resurface)' I may be wrong about the method that his trousers fastened,' (one of her little frowns to add emphases ) 'the point is he was readying himself to rape me, what difference does it make'?
None of the jury after this would have given a hoot about zipper or buttons,and that little matter would have gone under the carpet along with the misidentification farce,Acotts adjusted notes,the use of self admitted liars as witnesses,and the host of other oddities and screw ups that favoured the prosecution.

I have to say, the above post reaches a sickeningly new low. Hardly the victim's fault for being 'sickeningly violated' by a man whose murder weapon was disposed of with a hanky which would - decades later - turn out to have been provably used by the very man she identified as her attacker. Or perhaps moste would like to question if Valerie was 'sickeningly violated' at all?

Hardly the victim's fault that nobody - Hanratty included - protested long and loud about that identification, IF the trousers shown in court had very clearly had buttons where she had described a zip.

Again, my question is why on earth would Hanratty have been his own worst enemy like this, unless he was either unwilling or totally unable to help himself?

Another question is why would moste even think of writing stuff like this unless he gets some kind of thrill out of it - or just can't help himself?

Love,

Caz
X