A6 Rebooted

[Alfie]

If he was not a police ‘snout’ then we were wasting our taxes.

Who was he snitching on, racecourse touts? Fake almanac distributors?

[cobalt]

Alfie,

Alphon was a bit more than a door-to-door salesman of almanacs. He was a very well-read man with a particular interest in Theosophy and Fascism, something he shared with William Ewer. He also had attacked a woman in her home and attempted to tie her up. Later he attacked Mrs. Hanratty. In between times and thereafter, he launched vitriolic verbal assaults on all and sundry via telephone. That was when he was not admitting to being the A6 murderer. Not your average almanac salesman. Yet he was never done for so much as Breach of the Peace. Amazing really.

To me you have accepted the Drummer Rigby narrative. Lee Rigby was a UK soldier who was mercilessly attacked on the streets of London and hacked to death some years ago, identified by his assailants as being a member of the British Army. It was a horrific attack, much of the aftermath captured on video. But Lee Rigby was not attacked because he was a drummer; he was attacked because he was professional soldier trained to kill on behalf of the British State. To refer to him, as the media ceaselessly did, as Drummer Rigby was to suggest he had been attacked while playing his instrument, which was not the case. He was Private Rigby, professional killer.

Alphon as almanac salesman is irrelevant to the A6 Case. He lived off an ‘inheritance’ we are told. I have never in my entire life met anyone who could do this, and have only read of it in Victorian novels. His father, we are told was a humble clerk in Scotland Yard, yet Alphon was leading the life of Reilly. He had no gainful employment so far as we know at any point in his life.
He was almost certainly a snout reporting on low level criminality and right wing political extremism, which explains his uncanny ability to avoid justice.

And of course his ability to eke out a living in hotels.

[moste]

Alfie,

Alphon was a bit more than a door-to-door salesman of almanacs. He was a very well-read man with a particular interest in Theosophy and Fascism, something he shared with William Ewer. He also had attacked a woman in her home and attempted to tie her up. Later he attacked Mrs. Hanratty. In between times and thereafter, he launched vitriolic verbal assaults on all and sundry via telephone. That was when he was not admitting to being the A6 murderer. Not your average almanac salesman. Yet he was never done for so much as Breach of the Peace. Amazing really.

To me you have accepted the Drummer Rigby narrative. Lee Rigby was a UK soldier who was mercilessly attacked on the streets of London and hacked to death some years ago, identified by his assailants as being a member of the British Army. It was a horrific attack, much of the aftermath captured on video. But Lee Rigby was not attacked because he was a drummer; he was attacked because he was professional soldier trained to kill on behalf of the British State. To refer to him, as the media ceaselessly did, as Drummer Rigby was to suggest he had been attacked while playing his instrument, which was not the case. He was Private Rigby, professional killer.

Alphon as almanac salesman is irrelevant to the A6 Case. He lived off an ‘inheritance’ we are told. I have never in my entire life met anyone who could do this, and have only read of it in Victorian novels. His father, we are told was a humble clerk in Scotland Yard, yet Alphon was leading the life of Reilly. He had no gainful employment so far as we know at any point in his life.
He was almost certainly a snout reporting on low level criminality and right wing political extremism, which explains his uncanny ability to avoid justice.

And of course his ability to eke out a living in hotels.

I wonder, given Mr. Acotts almost certainty of Alphon being the man they were after, what would have happened if the police ID line up had not taken place, due to their feeling that Storie wasn't confident enough to point a finger. Or alternatively, We are told that the police had no option but to let Alphon go when she picked out someone else, were their hands tied on the matter? Storie must have convinced Acott that she would be able to pick out the killer, so when she picked out the innocent air force man, why could they not have pressed on with the theory that Alphon could well be their man regardless? What maybe really happened is, sometime between Acott putting out an all nation alert to pull in Alphon giving his full name, (never being heard of before by top newspaper journalists of the day)and the ID parade taking place, someone at the top send word to 'back off'
Storie was quite distraught,( and I would contend confused) when she picked out 'the wrong man', did she pick out the wrong man, or was she instructed at the last minute? did she actually know the right man was in the line up? Her identikit picture drawn up not long after the attack would suggest that looking back and forth along the lineup would have brought her face to face with the person she had convinced everyone was a close resemblance to the assailant.
All this might sound too far fetched, but I believe there is something seriously wrong with Peter Alphons IMPUNITY!

[Spitfire]

To me you have accepted the Drummer Rigby narrative. Lee Rigby was a UK soldier who was mercilessly attacked on the streets of London and hacked to death some years ago, identified by his assailants as being a member of the British Army. It was a horrific attack, much of the aftermath captured on video. But Lee Rigby was not attacked because he was a drummer; he was attacked because he was professional soldier trained to kill on behalf of the British State. To refer to him, as the media ceaselessly did, as Drummer Rigby was to suggest he had been attacked while playing his instrument, which was not the case. He was Private Rigby, professional killer.

Cobalt

I’ve thought most of your arguments to be amusingly daft. This one I found quite sickening (and daft).

[Alfie]

Hanratty's return to London from Liverpool: Fri Aug 25 or Sat Aug 26?

I haven't seen this discrepancy satisfactorily explained. Hanratty says he arrived early Friday morning, the France family say they saw him about 9 o'clock the following morning.

I'm inclined to believe the Frances, but that raises the question of why Hanratty would lie about such a thing? Why would he want to put his arrival in London a day earlier than it really was? And what was he doing during that extra day?

Or was it simply a case of a faulty memory? Any ideas?

[cobalt]

Spitfire,

The attack on Lee Rigby was sickening since he was an unarmed man walking along a road who was deliberately struck with a car before being attacked by two assailants. I fail to see what is offensive about me pointing out that he was targeted because he was a British soldier, and by definition a trained killer. That was his job, and if you have a problem with that then best take it up with the government or the armed forces.

As a convert in the A6 Case it’s understandable that your views will be expressed with great zeal in order to expiate your guilt at previously believing Hanratty to be innocent. Rather than making unsupported value judgments, identifying the failings in my reasoning would be appreciated. Any information you can produce regarding a fuller background of Alphon, Gregsten and Miss Storie would be welcomed by me as well. Ditto for William Ewer’s war record and the de Havilland Car Club. You might stop me from barking up the wrong tree.

While I still feel Hanratty was innocent of the crimes I try to keep an open mind, and some contributors have given me pause for thought with their observations about Hanratty’s likelihood of going to the wrong railway station or his failing to notice a betting shop in Rhyl, or today’s point about a difference in the reported times of his arriving back in London.

Moste,

Maybe the first ID parade is worthy of more attention but to be fair to Acott, Alphon was put on an ID parade on very flimsy grounds from what we know. Given what little he had, Acott would have been justified in not holding one in the first place. Alphon’s apparent immunity seems to have come about after Hanratty entered the picture.

[NickB]

I haven't seen this discrepancy satisfactorily explained. Hanratty says he arrived early Friday morning, the France family say they saw him about 9 o'clock the following morning.

I'm inclined to believe the Frances, but that raises the question of why Hanratty would lie about such a thing? Why would he want to put his arrival in London a day earlier than it really was? And what was he doing during that extra day?

Or was it simply a case of a faulty memory? Any ideas?

Louise Anderson also said he did not appear until the Saturday evening and her evidence on this fits in with that of the France family.

I think that having travelled up to Liverpool to send the telegram he would not have felt like going straight back and, for timing reasons I gave recently about his trip to New Brighton, think it likely he stayed at a b&b there. But he did not want the police interviewing a New Brighton b&b owner who might have contradicted aspects of his Liverpool alibi. For example, saying that he had his case with him when he had said he left it at the flat while he visited New Brighton. Safer just to say he came back on the Friday and close down any enquiries about that night, leaving just two nights unaccounted for.

[Limehouse]

One feature of the A6 Case is that apart from Hanratty, who was an established burglar but allegedly a wannabe armed robber who became a murderer, everyone else’s activity seems to be downplayed.

The most outstanding example of this is clearly William Ewer who was laughably described as running an umbrella repair shop. He owned two expensive properties as I understand and engaged in high value transactions in both art and antiques. Notwithstanding that, he doubtless had an awareness of criminal undertakings in the antique trade. According to Jean Justice, Ewer was a committed fascist who claimed he had fought in the Spanish Civil War on Franco’s side. If he was not, at the very least, on a retainer from MI5 then we must have been wasting our taxes.

Malcolm Gregsten is regularly described as a ‘physicist’ although this definition has been challenged I know. We seem to know little of his academic background or what his qualifications were. A physicist has a high degree of mathematical knowledge as did indeed Valerie Storie, who sat her A Level Mathematics. Not many girls stayed on at school after 15 in those days and even fewer stayed on to do A Level Maths. Valerie Storie must have been seriously bright, as her later interviews indicate.

Both Gregsten and Storie are portrayed as humdrum civil servants working in the rather prosaic area of transport, whose eyes met when serving on the canteen committee at their place of work. But Valerie Storie was 20 years old when she went to work there so must have been employed somewhere previously. Where was Gregsten working beforehand?

Finally, we have Alphon’s father, reportedly a Records Clerk at Scotland Yard. Alphon, a self-proclaimed fascist like Ewer, is usually tagged as a drifter or door-to-door salesman yet seems to have an ‘inheritance’ which allows him to hang around race courses with mixed success and stay at swanky hotels. He admits to scrounging off his mother although so far as we know she is reliant on the humble clerical salary of her husband. If he was not a police ‘snout’ then we were wasting our taxes.

Some interesting points colbalt - and I think there could very well be one thing that links all these oddities. Freemasonry. The investigating officers, possibly Alphon's father, possibly Ewer and perhaps even Gregsten. Only a thought.

[Spitfire]

I haven't seen this discrepancy satisfactorily explained. Hanratty says he arrived early Friday morning, the France family say they saw him about 9 o'clock the following morning.

I'm inclined to believe the Frances, but that raises the question of why Hanratty would lie about such a thing? Why would he want to put his arrival in London a day earlier than it really was? And what was he doing during that extra day?

Or was it simply a case of a faulty memory? Any ideas?

Hi Alfie,

Hanratty as the A6 Murderer would have found himself on 24th August 1961 as Britain's most wanted man. He needed to get rid of the revolver and start buttressing his Liverpool alibi with corroborating facts. That he was not thinking straight is evidenced by the disposal of the gun under the back seat of the bus.

He may have believed that some of his Scouse associates would corroborate his "alibi", he obviously had not realised the revolting nature of the crimes which he had committed. So to Liverpool he went, presumably from Euston by train and presumably having taken part of the journey on the No36A bus. It may have been an idea on the spur of the moment to get rid of the gun before alighting from the bus. Who knows? But that would explain why he didn't jettison the weapon in the Thames.

On arrival at Liverpool, Hanratty the incompetent cold-blooded killer, sends the telegram stating he will be home on Friday for "business". Was he aware that the day he was sending the telegram was Thursday? Or had the stress of the last couple of days caused him to lose track of time?

In truth, the arrival in London on Friday (25th) or Saturday (26th) would not affect the alibi, the relevant time was the night of 22nd/23rd but it was important to establish that he was in Liverpool as early as possible, so on getting off the train the first thing he does is send the telegram; 8.40 pm on 24th.

He might have thought that 3 hours would be sufficient time to make contact with his "alibi" witness or witnesses and procure his or their agreement to stand alibi for him and make his way back to Lime Street and the overnight train back to the Smoke which we are told left shortly after midnight. In the event, it was not sufficient and Hanratty missed his train. The alternatives are (1) that he stayed with his criminal associates for one night, having been warned by them that if they were mentioned they would grass on Hanratty or (2) stayed in a doss house/guest house in Liverpool or the Wirral or (3) slept rough.

But this does not explain why Hanratty insisted that he had arrived back on the Friday. He could easily have adapted his false alibi in Liverpool by saying that after sending the telegram he changed his mind and went back to stay another night with the three friends near the Bull Ring.

S

[OneRound]

I haven't seen this discrepancy satisfactorily explained. Hanratty says he arrived early Friday morning, the France family say they saw him about 9 o'clock the following morning.

I'm inclined to believe the Frances, but that raises the question of why Hanratty would lie about such a thing? Why would he want to put his arrival in London a day earlier than it really was? And what was he doing during that extra day?

Or was it simply a case of a faulty memory? Any ideas?

Hi Alfie and all - if Hanratty was lying about returning on the Friday morning, he did (perhaps rather uncharacteristically) put a bit of planning and forethought into that lie.

Para 44 of the Court of Appeal's 2002 judgement confirms that the telegram was sent to the Frances at 8.40 on the Thursday evening and stated, ''See you early on Friday morning.''

Furthermore, the telegram was sent from opposite Lime Street Station which at least suggests he was in a position to board a late night train.

The details for the sender of the telegram are strange. The sender is recorded as being ''P. Ryan of Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London''.

Possibly the initial letter ''P'' was just a typo. However, I'm not aware of why the Imperial Hotel address would have been used.

Best regards,

OneRound

PS and Edit: when this post was submitted, I hadn't seen Spitfire's post which speculates as to why Hanratty might have been saying late on the Thursday that he would return early on the Friday.

[NickB]

I'm not aware of why the Imperial Hotel address would have been used

I expect because he felt saying ‘This is to confirm I am in Liverpool’ would be too overt.

He was told after submitting it that it would not be delivered until the following morning. Perhaps it was then that he decided not to take the return train that night and risk beating it back.

I doubt that he was seeking alibis until he went on the run. He told Acott (7-Oct) that he was going to Liverpool to get his friends to stand by their alibi and then phoned from Liverpool to say that they had refused to do so.

[Spitfire]

I expect because he felt saying ‘This is to confirm I am in Liverpool’ would be too overt.

He was told after submitting it that it would not be delivered until the following morning. Perhaps it was then that he decided not to take the return train that night and risk beating it back.

I doubt that he was seeking alibis until he went on the run. He told Acott (7-Oct) that he was going to Liverpool to get his friends to stand by their alibi and then phoned from Liverpool to say that they had refused to do so.

He could have just phoned France to say he would be back tomorrow. The Frances had a telephone in an age when many did not but that would not have left the necessary written record.

On further reflection, I'm inclined to agree that it would be unlikely for Hanratty to be setting up his alibi witnesses before he went on the run.

[moste]

Almanacs my foot!

“ Alphon was a bit more than a door-to-door salesman of almanacs”

Hi Cobalt, This Almanac selling business has always in my opinion been something of a front. A lazy bone idle piece of work like this man,who sponges constantly off his mother, never stays in the same place for long, frequents dog tracks , ( a veritable haven for the criminally inclined) lies incessantly, uses aliases , need I go on ? Well, my point is ,he is not a man who will set off for the day with his satchel full of ‘Old Farmers’ or whatever they were , in order to make a decent living.
It would have been interesting to visit the shop where the books were issued , I wonder if the police ever did ,
The only purpose for his involvement in this line of operations that I can come up with ,is that he was using the almanac selling as an excuse ,a licence if you will, to meander up and down peoples driveways and paths knocking on doors, and basically ,’ I believe the phrase is ,casing the joints’
If then at the end of a hard days trundling he had flogged a dozen or more books , that would be a bonus, but he would also have possibly a dozen more addresses, of houses where in his opinion the folks were away on holidays.
Enter say someone like ‘Jim Hanratty’ .For Alphons list of empty homes he gets a cut of the proceeds, after the booty has been processed and moved on by the likes of Louise Anderson and Bill Ewer. All guess work of course,but what a great team they may have been had they known each other. And how do we know they didn’t?
Incidently .Can’t you just see the character of Peter Alphon having become embroiled in the horrors of the A6 crimes, cunningly entrapping Hanratty the gullible , and carefully organizing all the props of a set-up, so that Jim swung instead of himself.
Didn’t Alphon say “Hanratty is dispensable “

[moste]

B Movie '61

A movie mentioned for viewing on these boards on YouTube some time back was ' The man in the back seat'. I checked at the time and it had been removed, though it also went by the title 'Killer in the back seat'.
From June 1961, it stars Darrin Nesbitt and Keith Faulkner, acting is quite good, the plot is ok but leaves you thinking things like, 'would they do that in real life'? A bit like someone hiding a revolver that they had used to commit murder with, under the back seat of a bus.
Something I did pick up on though was when Nesbitt while trying to calm his partner in crime down , states,"There's a hundred hot cars in London every night of the week!"

[NickB]

It would have been interesting to visit the shop where the books were issued , I wonder if the police ever did

In his first police interview, when he was staying at the Alexandra Court Hotel, Alphon told them where he collected his Old Moore’s Almanacs - Moore & Dewar, Little Brittain, near St Martin-le-Grand.

Instead of launching a nationwide appeal the police could have gone round there, asked when he would next appear and intercept him. Whilst there they could have asked the Almanac people if they knew where Alphon had been at the time of the Dalal attack.