A6 Rebooted

[NickB]

If my understanding of newspaper editions is correct, the lower one was the early edition and the higher one was the later edition - indicated by three stars in the dateline. So it could be that the story in the early edition was found to be incorrect and therefore not included in the later one.

[Alfie]

Curnow describes Valerie as a red head. Makes me wonder about the accuracy of the rest of his account.

[Sherlock Houses]

Curnow describes Valerie as a red head. Makes me wonder about the accuracy of the rest of his account.

She was a red haired girl. I have come across several sources [HP excluded] over the years which confirm this. Makes me wonder what colour hair you thought she had.

[Alfie]

She was a red haired girl. I have come across several sources [HP excluded] over the years which confirm this. Makes me wonder what colour hair you thought she had.

Really? I'd be interested to know which sources. I've never once seen her referred to as a red-head.

This is how the Evening Times described her appearance in the Bedford courtroom: "Then a door behind the judge’s bench opened and Valerie was gently lifted on to a red-coloured wheelchair. Valerie, with her arms around the neck of a woman attendant, smiled at her as she eased herself into the wheelchair. There was a pause while the attendants fixed the chair. Valerie’s wavy brown hair was freshly coiffured. She was wearing a yellow heavy-knit cardigan, tartan slacks, brown shoes and spectacles."

[Graham]

Regarding the claim that Valerie was a red-head, this is total rubbish. Check the video she made, later in life, when she was at home and showing her new lift. She was quite grey. It is a fact that red-heads do not turn grey in later years in the same way as people with dark hair. Check also the photo of her in old age, which I've appended below. She was a brunette when she was younger. I fear the claim she was a red-head is yet more disinformation concerning Valerie.



Graham

[Sherlock Houses]

Really? I'd be interested to know which sources. I've never once seen her referred to as a red-head.

This is how the Evening Times described her appearance in the Bedford courtroom: "Then a door behind the judge’s bench opened and Valerie was gently lifted on to a red-coloured wheelchair. Valerie, with her arms around the neck of a woman attendant, smiled at her as she eased herself into the wheelchair. There was a pause while the attendants fixed the chair. Valerie’s wavy brown hair was freshly coiffured. She was wearing a yellow heavy-knit cardigan, tartan slacks, brown shoes and spectacles."

Interesting that this Glasgow newspaper's description of Valerie Storie's hair colour as it was on January 23rd 1962 contrasts with the Daily Express's description of her hair colour that very same day. Who knows, perhaps both reporters suffered from colour blindness.....

[Sherlock Houses]

Really? I'd be interested to know which sources. I've never once seen her referred to as a red-head.

You obviously don't do much research then. Here's just 4 sources [early ones] to be going on with for the time being.......

Aberdeen Evening Express 23-08-1961....


Aberdeen Evening Express 24-08-1961.........



Newcastle Evening Chronicle 23-08-1961......


Coventry Evening Telegraph 23-08-1961.......

[Graham]

Whoever first described her as a 'redhead' was wrong, and he was copied by other journalists. It happens. Her photo in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle shows her hair to be dark. Now you'll be claiming she wore wigs.... And if she was a 'redhead', how come she went grey?

Graham

[Sherlock Houses]

Regarding the claim that Valerie was a red-head, this is total rubbish. Check the video she made, later in life, when she was at home and showing her new lift. She was quite grey. It is a fact that red-heads do not turn grey in later years in the same way as people with dark hair. Check also the photo of her in old age, which I've appended below. She was a brunette when she was younger. I fear the claim she was a red-head is yet more disinformation concerning Valerie.

Graham

What an outlandishly sweeping statement !! Give over lad. Obviously you must have known Valerie Storie extremely well to be able to state so categorically that she was not a red-head and did not have red hair on August 23rd 1961. Turning the tables on you here for a second [and coining a well used and favourite expression of yours] where is your evidence for this ?? So it's a fact that that red-heads don't go as grey as brunettes in later years ??? Do you make this up as you go along, lol ??

[Sherlock Houses]

Whoever first described her as a 'redhead' was wrong, and he was copied by other journalists.

Graham

Yeah, sure. Must be, if you say so. Of course the person looking at her hair that August Wednesday didn't see red. Perhaps Valerie was bald and just had a red head from too much sun-bathing.

[Graham]

For the love of God, man, does she look like a redhead in that photo of her in your post?

Graham

[moste]

For the love of God, man, does she look like a redhead in that photo of her in your post?

Graham

For the love of Pete ! We thought Cilla Black was Brown haired until our Dad bought us a colour tv in 1970ish. Then it was’ surprise,surprise LOL.

[cobalt]

We know that newspapers often get names and ages wrong, especially in early reports. One of these has Gregsten aged 25. ‘Red-head’ was an attractive tag for tabloid newspapers back in the day and carried an implication of a fiery temperament. I would side with Graham that there is nothing visually in the admittedly black and white photos I have seen to suggest Valerie Storie was red-haired but I accept the Cilla Black reference. Is it possible Valerie Storie changed her hair colour to look more demure for the trial?

What interests me more are two details from these early reports, both presumably from police sources. The hitch-hiker claim is well known but these reports seem to be quite specific about the attacker ‘thumbing a lift.’ Maybe just a bit of journalistic licence but there is the suggestion this is coming direct from Valerie Storie.

The telephone box story is quite astonishing. If it was a guilty party or associate making the call from a nearby phone booth then presumably the mystery of when the car was dumped is now clear. Why did the police not feel the engine in any case? I could see that there might be some misunderstanding about who phoned in about the car and it was actually a neighbour, but this news report cannot surely be pure fiction: it locates the phone box, the sound of the caller’s voice and the fact a false name and address was supplied. This can only have come from a police source, so it is a bit more than hearsay. Was this some of the documentation seen by Matthews?

I think I am right in saying that the caller could not have been James Hanratty if the information regarding the phone box is correct, although that would not establish his innocence of course.

[Sherlock Houses]

For the love of God, man, does she look like a redhead in that photo of her in your post?

Graham

Blaspheming, eh ? How can you tell from a black and white photo whether a person has dark brown or dark red hair ?
The whole digitalised copy of that newspaper article is dark so the photo does not give a true impression of Valerie Storie's hair colour
This much clearer photo of her does not in any conceivable way portray a woman with dark brown hair ......

[OneRound]

We know that newspapers often get names and ages wrong, especially in early reports. One of these has Gregsten aged 25. ‘Red-head’ was an attractive tag for tabloid newspapers back in the day and carried an implication of a fiery temperament. I would side with Graham that there is nothing visually in the admittedly black and white photos I have seen to suggest Valerie Storie was red-haired but I accept the Cilla Black reference. Is it possible Valerie Storie changed her hair colour to look more demure for the trial?

What interests me more are two details from these early reports, both presumably from police sources. The hitch-hiker claim is well known but these reports seem to be quite specific about the attacker ‘thumbing a lift.’ Maybe just a bit of journalistic licence but there is the suggestion this is coming direct from Valerie Storie.

The telephone box story is quite astonishing. If it was a guilty party or associate making the call from a nearby phone booth then presumably the mystery of when the car was dumped is now clear. Why did the police not feel the engine in any case? I could see that there might be some misunderstanding about who phoned in about the car and it was actually a neighbour, but this news report cannot surely be pure fiction: it locates the phone box, the sound of the caller’s voice and the fact a false name and address was supplied. This can only have come from a police source, so it is a bit more than hearsay. Was this some of the documentation seen by Matthews?

I think I am right in saying that the caller could not have been James Hanratty if the information regarding the phone box is correct, although that would not establish his innocence of course.

Hi Cobalt - good post. In my humble opinion, the colour of Miss Storie's hair is far less significant than the reported phone call.

Best regards,
OneRound