A6 Rebooted

[Limehouse]

I definitely think those cartridge cases were planted. At the time they were found, the gun and spare cartridge cases were in the possession of the police. The leading officer wanted to justify his belief that the person responsible for the crime would be found in a cheap hotel - just like the person responsible for a previous muder he had investigated - there's your first 'suspect'. Now, Hanratty apparently showed Charles France the receipt he was given at the Vienna Hotel. Who knows why he would do so, but if France had supplied the gun to Hanratty and suspected it had been used in a very serious crime.... there's your other suspect??

[Graham]

Hi Julie,

I hope you're well and nice to hear from you.

If the cases were planted - and I'm not saying they absolutely and definitely were not - then I don't think the police were responsible. And of course we don't know precisely when they were planted - if indeed they were planted. In my post I was kind of nudging towards Dixie France. I posted long ago that Dixie had at one time been 'manager' (for want of a better word) of a sleazy jazz cafe on Soho's Archer Street. (http://www.classiccafes.co.uk/confessional_harmony.htm). He was known to have kept an 'arsenal' of weapons under the counter in case - or, rather when - trouble broke out. And the cafe was frequented by some choice Soho underworld characters, the best known of them being the sinister Jack Spot. I don't think that there is any doubt that Dixie 'knew' a lot of people...serious people. To his family, he was a caring husband and father, of that I have no doubt whatsoever, but after dark, so to speak, he was someone altogether different. And perhaps most telling of all, not long before Hanratty's execution he committed suicide (at his second attempt) and left behind him some letters apparently written to his family but which never saw the light of day. With one exception - in which he effectively cursed the day he ever met James Hanratty, expressing his horror and remorse that he had ever known such a person. This letter can be read in Woffinden, Page 378, and it makes harrowing reading. And as you correctly state, Julie, he knew that Hanratty had stayed at The Vienna on the night in question. And he also knew where Hanratty stashed unwanted items - under the back seat of buses.

It can now never be proven that France did supply the gun to Hanratty, but if the cases were indeed planted at The Vienna then someone must have been in possession of them and must have placed them there in a deliberate attempt to link Hanratty with the A6 crime. It may be that the gun came with a couple of chambers containing spent cartridge-cases, which were retained....just in case. And as the supplier of the gun grew ever more nervous, then the cases were planted at The Vienna. All this is speculation, of course, and in a way I hope it wasn't Charles France, because for all his misdemeanours his wife and children quite plainly loved him. I believe his eventual suicide speaks volumes, yet if his unpublished letters do in fact contain the truth about his involvement, then I doubt if I'll ever see them.

Or it could simply be that James Hanratty, whilst re-loading the gun after 'practicing' with it somewhere, accidentally dropped a couple of spent cases down the back of a chair in Room 24 and didn't notice.................................

Graham

[Limehouse]

Hi Graham,

I agree with your depiction of Charles France. He was definitely a shadowy character in London's underworld but I get the feeling he was a 'gofa' and a rather ineffectual type at that. I think that Hanratty had often put his hand in his pocket to aid France's wife when money was short. Charles France may well have claimed to regret the day he met Hanratty but, in reality, it was Hanratty's life that spiraled out of control within weeks of bumping into his old prison lag, Dixie. Shortly after this accidental meeting, Hanratty had abandoned the business with his father and returned to his bad old ways, passing a good amount of loot from his burglaries to his 'new friend' Louise Anderson, a woman introduced to him by Dixie. And there were Dixie and Anderson, key witnesses for the prosecution, helping to send Hanratty to the gallows. None of them come out of the whole sordid episode looking like model citizens. I wonder how different things would have been for the Hanratty and France families if that fateful meeting had never taken place?

[moste]

France’s second and successful suicide . Interesting, He may have been a loving father , but was in great fear of someone or something , (remember, they will crucify us all) and his only ‘out’ which I believe he thought was in the best interest of his loving family was to take his own life. None of which I could see as being Hanratty’s fault. I think it much more likely that Hanratty was the one that rued the day that he’d got back in with Dixie, and as he’d admitted ,them damn dog races.

[NickB]

There was no point in planting the cartridge cases to implicate Hanratty unless a note was left with them explaining that he was Ryan. Without this link it was more likely that the police would go after Alphon, which they did in a big way.

Now if France had planted them it could be argued that he then tipped off the police. But the police search in Ireland indicates that this was the source of their Ryan-Hanratty link, not France who could have told them that Hanratty was back in London.

[cobalt]

The police knew who Ryan was after they visited Swiss Cottage, prior to the cartridges being found. We still don't know why they were there, unless we accept Ewer's account.

Can we suppose that the gun was provided by Dixie French? Who he gave it to, and who it may have been passed on subsequently can be further debated, but from what little we know I think it is reasonable to assume that the murder weapon at some point was in the possession of Dixie France. Not only that, but the police discovered this and made this very clear to him indeed. A condition of his immunity was that he gave favourable testimony in the case. He did, and later topped himself.

Were the cartridge in the Vienna Hotel planted to incriminate Alphon or Hanratty? I have no idea. But everything points to their having being planted. The investigation was effectively stalled until that very lucky break. The detail of their accidental discovery by an over manager- a man from whose hotel chain both Alphon and Hanratty had been re-directed to the Vienna incidentally -has never quite convinced me. Why would an over manager be checking a chair in a basement? Why would he discover more than a cleaner or a maid?

[moste]

Why indeed.!

Further more, the business of the gun stored in the airing cupboard at the top of the stairs. It is not outside the realms of possibility that France had pointed out this hiding place to Hanratty, And he then foolishly mentions the gun location to Anderson, not a giant leap for me.
I have always considered the idea that Hanratty hiding a weapon in that location in a home that he visits only occasionally is unlikely to say the least.

[NickB]

But the motivation to plant them depends on who was intended to be incriminated, so I think you need to choose whether it was Alphon or Hanratty and build the case for one or the other. If they were planted it would have been with a specific person in mind. If the manager was involved in some sort of conspiracy, as suggested above, it is worth noting he actually mentioned Alphon in his police statement.

If they were planted to incriminate Hanratty the planting itself was not sufficient (as many posts on this forum presume) there needed to be something else to link him to Ryan. And if you wanted to tip off the police to Hanratty you could just do it directly, not bother with the 2-stage process of planting the cartridges first.

[Graham]

With regard to the actual discovery of the cartridges. They were found by Robert Crocker, who was the overall manager of the two hotels owned by Mr Frederick Pichler, and a Spanish employee at The Vienna, Mrs Juliana Galvez. At Mr Pichler's request, Crocker visited The Vienna on 11 September to sack William Nudds and his 'wife', who were paid to run The Vienna but according to Crocker did virtually nothing and were absent on frequent intervals. (Mrs Galves, whose husband was also employed at The Vienna, had seen Nudds on TV, at a horse-racing meeting, when he was supposed to be too ill to go to work at The Vienna). Crocker fired Nudds and his 'wife', then he and Mrs Galves went on a tour of the hotel to assess its condition. In Room 24 Crocker saw a torn strip of fabric hanging down under a chair, and when he moved it a cartridge case fell off the chair, and Mrs Galves found a second still within the chair's upholstery.

There was nothing suspicious in the visit of Mr Crocker to The Vienna, as Cobalt seems to suggest - he was there to fire two useless employees and to check on the condition of the hotel as a result of their uselessness. Crocker had been with Mr Pichler's hotel 'group' only since 8 August, and quit before the end of September. There was no question of Crocker's having any involvement with any individual connected with the A6 case.

It is tempting to consider that the cartridges were planted at The Vienna in order to incriminate Hanratty, who had stayed in Room 24, but although I guess there is a very slight chance of this being so, I am convinced that Hanratty accidentally dropped the cases as he was either re-loading or just fiddling with his gun. It was, after all, a new toy for him, and one assumes that he hoped it would help to make him rich. I agree with NickB that merely planting the cases was insufficient, as the police would still have had no idea of the identity of the A6 gunman.

Also, as Nick states, Crocker in his statement to the police told them that Alphon a.k.a. Durrant had stayed in the hotel on the night of 22 - 23 August, which set Acott off on a widely-publicised manhunt for Alphon (who eventually of his own free will gave himself up). Mrs Galves, in her statement, confirmed that Alphon/Durrant had stayed at The Vienna that night (which Alphon had freely admitted at the time of The Alexander Court naughtiness), but in another room. The police still desperately wanted to interview him, nonetheless.

Graham

[Limehouse]

Regardless of who may have planted the cartridge cases and for what reason, I think there should have been much more exploration, during the trial, of where the gun came from. It seems to me crucial evidence and an opportunity missed by the defence team. I can only conclude that it must have been a frequent occurrence that an accused found themselves in the dock accused of a gun-related crime with no steps taken to investigate who supplied the firearm. A similar pattern can be seen in the Ruth Ellis case. It is obvious that she intended to kill DB and that she did so using a firearm. However, more explanation of the supply of the firearm may (and probably would) have identified a second shadowy figure in the background with an incentive to see DB out of the picture. I know that armed robberies were frequent in those days, due to the frequency of cash in transit and cash transactions being the norm. I know also that there were many firearms sitting around in drawers in people's homes, guns that were issued to servicemen during two wars. However, in a case like the A6 crime, with no real motive being offered for the purpose of the crime, much more should have been made of the origins of the gun. I suppose the defence team did not want to explore this avenue too much as it would involve concluding that Hanratty was probably guilty, but in collaboration with others. I suppose it was better to try to prove that he was nowhere near area on that night.

[Graham]

I would be surprised if Acott & Co didn't make extensive inquiries as to the origin of the gun. Hanratty himself admitted that he'd spoken to Donald Slack about getting a gun which, naturally, Slack denied. However, in those days, guns in private hands were far more common than today, and in addition most second-hand shops would have had guns for sale. (My father came home one evening during the 1950's with a small .22 pistol he'd bought in a junk shop for a pound or two; no bullets, though). I honestly don't think that Hanratty or anyone else would have had much difficulty in obtaining a gun in or around Soho. And of course there was, during a telephone conversation with Acott, the question asked by Hanratty regarding the gun found on a bus: 'What size were the bullets?' Why, I wonder, did he need to ask such a question if he'd never owned a gun?

Re: Ruth Ellis, she maintained until her death that the gun she used was supplied by her admirer and lover Desmond Cussens. Who, no surprise, denied it. But if I remember correctly he disappeared very shortly after the murder of Blakeley, and I can't recall if he was ever actually formally questioned by the police.

Graham

[cobalt]

At a first glance dropping cartridge cases down the back of a chair would seem to fit with what we know of James Hanratty. He was a careless thief and none too careful driver either apparently.

However a man who was often caught due to leaving fingerprints at the scene was very careful to leave none on the two cartridge cases. This must be very difficult for I presume bullets have to be carefully inserted into a revolver by use of the fingers. Since leaving the cartridge cases could only have been as a result of carelessness, Hanratty would not have taken the precaution to wipe them clean of prints beforehand. That is one reason why I think the cases were planted.

[moste]

At a first glance dropping cartridge cases down the back of a chair would seem to fit with what we know of James Hanratty. He was a careless thief and none too careful driver either apparently.

However a man who was often caught due to leaving fingerprints at the scene was very careful to leave none on the two cartridge cases. This must be very difficult for I presume bullets have to be carefully inserted into a revolver by use of the fingers. Since leaving the cartridge cases could only have been as a result of carelessness, Hanratty would not have taken the precaution to wipe them clean of prints beforehand. That is one reason why I think the cases were planted.

Well done detective, I think you may be right on the money. Left there by careless Hanratty = fingerprints. Planted = no fingerprints. They were planted weren’t they ? Certainly they were!

[Graham]

Cobalt, have another look at Nick B's post 5918.

And do we know for a fact that there were no prints on the cases? There could have been prints from several different fingers superimposed, which would leave them unidentifiable. I can't recall ever reading that the police found no prints on the cases. And strange that the gun found on the bus had been wiped clean......presumably by the hankie in which it was wrapped and which was afterwards shown to contain Hanratty's DNA.

Also, to remove spent cartridge cases from most revolvers would not necessarily require the use of fingers to extract them. In some weapons they would simply fall out if the cylinder was held inverted; in other weapons there was a spring-loaded ejector which would push out the cases. I don't know enough about guns to say whether the A6 murder weapon was one or the other.

Graham

[moste]

It’s odds on though that the manager fingered the cartridges when discovering them, rather than not touching them and calling the police.