A6 Rebooted

[NickB]

Further thought ... If a fake Durrant had turned up to check into the Broadway he could have been told: "Certainly sir, a room is available here." Meanwhile the cartridge cases have already been left by the 'real' Durrant in the Vienna!

[Graham]

I'm still somewhat surprised that Alphon wasn't placed on an ID parade viewed by Mr Pichler, and I can't find any reference to Mr Pichler's even being shown a photo of him (amongst others, of course...) by the police. Rather odd. Even so, there is no doubt that it was Alphon who went to The Broadway first and then to The Vienna.

As far as I'm aware anything vouchsafed to a priest during confessional is supposed to remain secret for ever. My brother (see above) would under no circumstances even refer to the bonds of the confessional, apart from confirming its absolute secrecy. But I'm not religious, never even been inside an RC church as far as I can recall, so perhaps others here could comment.

Graham

[moste]

Being slightly obsessed as the wife would have it , I have over the years drawn from other examples of crime, to make comparisons with the A6 question ,be it factual as in historical news , or fictional as in films ,television series productions and so forth.
I have watched over the years the Dennis Potter production of ‘Pennies from Heaven’ a couple of times ,and watched it again recently. I find it fascinating for various reasons , but I’m left wondering whether Potter was not influenced to a degree by the murder at ‘deadman’s hill. For those who have watched it , I hope you’ll agree. If not I recommend it , If only as a suggestion of a possible alternative to that which has been discussed on here over the years.
Pennies from Heaven is in series form over 6 episodes. The players going off on a brief tangent, for the music scores , may not be everyone’s cuppa tea, but I love the 30s music so it’s a bonus for me.
And Hey ! since were all ‘hunkered down’ why not.
Apart from my slight suspicion of Alphon, and/or a Ewer involvement , I have to think , if not some kind of establishment handled conspiracy, then we may be looking for, (as intimated in Limehouse’s profile) ‘A Gentleman Of The Road‘

[Graham]

The A6 Case is simple and straightforward compared with 'Pennies From Heaven', which had more twists and turns than a Cornish lane......!

Graham

[moste]

The A6 Case is simple and straightforward compared with 'Pennies From Heaven', which had more twists and turns than a Cornish lane......!

Graham

LOL. Nice one Cyril.

[cobalt]

Wrong case Moste.

I think Potter was inspired by the Alfred Rouse case of the 1930s, a promiscuous travelling salesman who was running short of cash. He was charming, glib with a few wives in different ports and after a head knock, prone to extreme measures. His past was catching up with him and he tried to disappear by picking up a hitchhiker and then burning the car, pretending it was his corpse. Bad idea and he was executed, although I don’t think they ever established who was the victim.

[Graham]

I've read a bit about the Rouse Case, Cobalt. He was a real charmer, wasn't he? There was a TV documentary a good few years ago, and I thought that the dead man had been identified, but perhaps not. Very mysterious. Rouse also ended his days at Bedford Prison.

Graham

[moste]

The aspect though of an armed Tramp loping along the A 6 enroute from Bedford to Luton , with an ultimate aim of London . Stumbling across a parked up Morris 1000 ,just about the location that Sidney Burton spotted it. Sees the car rocking and rolling in the dead of night, and decides he’s found his ride to the smoke. Can’t get more simple than that.

[moste]

Wrong case Moste.

I think Potter was inspired by the Alfred Rouse case of the 1930s, a promiscuous travelling salesman who was running short of cash. He was charming, glib with a few wives in different ports and after a head knock, prone to extreme measures. His past was catching up with him and he tried to disappear by picking up a hitchhiker and then burning the car, pretending it was his corpse. Bad idea and he was executed, although I don’t think they ever established who was the victim.

Ok I wasn’t familiar with that one. However whatever works . My thoughts were , the police handling of the Arthur Parker suspect, and he ,making a complete hash of his defence,( the cops seemingly always going to see to it that he would hang) .Arthur Colley brilliantly playing the Looney, I could very easily see that character at the A6 scene.

[Graham]

The aspect though of an armed Tramp loping along the A 6 enroute from Bedford to Luton , with an ultimate aim of London . Stumbling across a parked up Morris 1000 ,just about the location that Sidney Burton spotted it. Sees the car rocking and rolling in the dead of night, and decides he’s found his ride to the smoke. Can’t get more simple than that.

That is until the critically injured Valerie told John Kerr, "We picked up a man near Slough". Which initially suggested that it was a 'hitch-hiker' crime.

Graham

[moste]

Well that case of Alfred Rouse is fascinating . just read the Wikipedia on it. Hard to believe Rouse didn't bother to ask who his victim was ,name or anything .

[moste]

That is until the critically injured Valerie told John Kerr, "We picked up a man near Slough". Which initially suggested that it was a 'hitch-hiker' crime.

Graham

Quite right Graham. But when a theory of a passing psychopath is considered, then everything that Storie had to say, In fact the entire Acott investigation, including all of the volumes of books ,television coverage ,interviews, so called witnesses, THE WORKS ! all based on Stories testimony, goes down the proverbial toilet.

[moste]

In this theory ,Storie lies as a means of self preservation .Not wanting to share their plan of travelling through the night , on a dummy run of the upcoming rally, ending with a love making session in a secluded lay by . In the horrendous aftermath she feels unbearably guilty,
So blurts out the immortal words,’ We picked up a man in slough.’ There’s no going back after this. With this possibly hard to accept scenario, the unknown killer disappears into the night , and since he leaves no evidence of himself in the car, with only a hint of luck, gets away with it. Meanwhile, Acott and co. are feverishly scrambling for something, anything to get their teeth into.
Of course, corruption is corruption so Hanratty would have hanged anyway,or some other expendable ne’er do well.

[Alfie]

In his third statement to police (Sept 25), Nudds said (inter alia): "When the police came to the Vienna Hotel making inquiries about the murder and checking on the movements of the guest named Durrant, I jumped to the conclusion that they wanted Durrant for the murder."

This gave Nudds an excuse for the lies he told in his second statement: "I wanted to help the police."

But would Nudds have been given reason to believe at this time that the police were seeking Durrant as part of the A6 murder investigation? Isn't it more likely that Kilner in his two telephone conversations with the "hotel manager" (presumably Nudds, on Aug 27, 28) would merely have asked him to confirm the day and time that Durrant checked in, without mentioning the reason for his inquiry?

[cobalt]

There’s no record of Nudds making an actual statement on 27 August when the police were checking Alphon’s alibi. We assume he was spoken to directly and confirmed that Alphon had stayed the night.

Nudds’ first police statement came after the cartridge cases had been found at the Vienna Hotel and must have been on, or very soon after, 11^th September. Although Nudds had just been dismissed he was very likely aware of the discovery in room 24 before he made his first statement. (Some suspect it was he who planted the evidence but preferred not to ‘make’ the discovery himself.) That statement was pretty helpful to Alphon and placed the focus on Mr. Ryan. At this point Nudds should really have left the story and returned to his twilight world, unremembered by history.

That he didn’t seems down to the police. They presumably put pressure on him to change his story and being a dodgy character wishing to be helpful, he did exactly that. Those supportive of the prosecution case assume this was a hamfisted attempt by the police to make a case against Alphon, one which has clouded the investigation to this day and required a third Nudds’ statement which verified his first account and rendered his second account obsolete.

The other possibility is that the police knew Nudds’ first statement was concocted nonsense and ‘broke’ him to get the truth. Armed with the truth they could put Alphon on an ID parade but then hit a brick wall.