A6 Rebooted

[NickB]

The front/back seat sighting was one of the grounds of appeal in 2002 and in response it was suggested that the best way of reconciling the two statements was that there were two glimpses with one deemed 'proper'.

Woodin was interviewed on the Channel 4 programme about Storie and said she had talked about the gunman having blue eyes right from the start. (I suspect she also said this when interviewed for the Woffinden documentary but it did not make the final cut!) If this is true there were some things Storie said early on which which were not fully typed up.

[Graham]

Not till two-and-a-half weeks later apparently.

Foot (p.87-88): "On Thursday, September 28, the London Evening Standard reported that Mr Acott had that morning again interviewed Valerie Storie: 'Several new lines of inquiry are being followed by detectives, and they want to interview a number of men who may be able to help inquiries. Some of the men are missing from their last-known addresses, and a team of detectives is trying to trace them.' The Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph narrowed down the number of these suspects to five. There had, they said, been a top-level conference in the office of Sir Joseph Simpson, Metropolitan Commissioner, to trace the movements of these five men. The hunt for these five men arose from Valerie Storie's information that the man in the car had said he had 'done the lot'. The expression ... in prison jargon means 'served the whole sentence without remission'."

The address 'Ryan' had written in The Vienna register was 72 Wood Lane, Kingsbury, and this was visited by Acott and Oxford on 26 September.
Mr Pratt, the occupier, said no-one called Ryan lived there, but showed them a letter he had received from Ireland and addressed to a Mr Ryan.
The letter was from a car-hire firm in Dublin. The same afternoon, Acott and Oxford went to Hanratty's family hone, 12 Sycamore Grove and told Mr and Mrs Hanratty that James was wanted for car theft. As they hadn't seen or heard from him since early July they couldn't help. I believe some mystery has always surrounded how the police made the link from Ryan to Hanratty. Could it be that 'done the lot' was actually investigated before 28 September, and the results passed to Acott and Oxford between their visit to Mr Pratt and the Hanrattys?

Graham

[NickB]

In the back of Woffinden he lists Valerie's statements. V5 is clearly the 11th Sept interview, then V6 is on 18th October. So he appears to miss out 28th Sept.

[Graham]

In the back of Woffinden he lists Valerie's statements. V5 is clearly the 11th Sept interview, then V6 is on 18th October. So he appears to miss out 28th Sept.

Hmmmm....suggestive, or what? There's no doubt in my mind that the Ryan-Hanratty link has never been satisfactorily explained - why this should be I have no idea. But I've often wondered just why 'done the lot' seems to have been glossed over by the books.

Graham

[Alfie]

Graham - It seems Acott knew Ryan/Hanratty had been to or was still in Ireland when he called on the Hanrattys on Sept 26, ostensibly to enquire about Jim running stolen cars to the Republic. I still think Gerrard Leonard and the 72 Wood Lane address to which the car hire firm sent mail is the likely source of the Ryan-Hanratty link, and Hanratty's name showing up on the 'Done the Lot' list would have just served to confirm Acott's suspicions.

As it happened, Jim's parents had no idea where he was. Two days later Acott returned to Sycamore Grove and asked Hanratty Sr if he knew Jim's friend Lanigan - a name that would have come up in a search for Hanratty's old prison acquaintances - apparently in the hope Hanratty might put him onto Lanigan and a fresh lead. In the event it was Oct 11 before the police got a statement off Lanigan. So a day after seeing Hanratty Sr Acott flew to Ireland, presumably to try to pick up Jim's trail there.

[NickB]

I think it is more likely Acott said something like: "We would like to ask your son about a car stolen in Ireland", referring to the rental car that had not been returned.

[Graham]

I rather feel that Acott's modus operandi was 'festina lente' - hurry slowly. I am becoming more and more convinced that 'done the lot' is the key to Ryan being identified as Hanratty, and that Acott's calling in his parents regarding a stolen car in Ireland was merely to confirm that they were indeed the parents of James Hanratty, who was one of very few who really had 'done the lot'. It is possible that they also checked on the other four miscreants who had 'done the lot', and discarded them.

The Leonard connection relies upon Gerard Leonard remembering not only the name Hanratty -not uncommon in Ireland, in fairness - but also the address in London of the Hanrattys to which Jim asked him to write the postcard. On top of this, it seems that Acott's solicitor - who stated the above - would also have us believe that Leonard remembered not only Mr and Mrs Hanratty's address in London, but also the names of Louise Anderson and Dixie France. Woffinden to his credit states that this cannot possibly be true, as on 25th September, the day Leonard allegedly wrote these cards, Acott & Co had thus far not connected the name Ryan with the A6 Case. At that stage he was just the man who had stayed at The Vienna and in whose room the cartridge cases had been found.

Also, according to Woffo, Hanratty had forgotten Louise Anderson's surname, and had asked Leonard to address them to 'Louise Andrew'. In essence, Acott's solicitor was quite wrong.

Woffinden also mentions a further possibility regarding the link, that it was made when Dixie France went to Scotland Yard with the postcard Hanratty had sent him from Ireland. As Woffo said, this is really speculation, but if Acott already knew via France that Ryan = Hanratty, then why did he bother to visit George Pratt?

Whatever, Acott had to have information that Ryan was Hanratty, and I am still thinking in terms of the 'done the lot' being the crucial link. Or I'm totally wrong.

Graham

[cobalt]

I’m not clear about how a letter addressed to a Mr. Ryan at a false address would allow police to make a link with Hanratty.

The police had the opportunity to establish the Ryan/Hanratty link when they were making enquiries at Swiss Cottage around September 1^st. That’s the best part of a month before they go knocking on the door of the Hanratty family. Their enquiries were effective in discovering that a Mr. Ryan had inquired about trousers which had been altered and that a person believed to be the same had sent flowers to ‘his mum’ (according to the florist) at the Hanratty address.

We don’t know why detectives turned up at Swiss Cottage, but since they took the trouble to do so, you would have expected them to progress their knowledge about a man who had been brought to their attention. Maybe they did and took no action. Which is a pity since, according to the prosecution, there were two incriminating shell cases lying in the Vienna Hotel waiting to be discovered. The Ryan/Hanratty link was in police hands by September 1st.

[NickB]

Scotland Yard put out an appeal for someone called Louise who had received a post card from Ireland, so it appears Leonard could remember only her first name anyway.

[Graham]

I’m not clear about how a letter addressed to a Mr. Ryan at a false address would allow police to make a link with Hanratty.

The police had the opportunity to establish the Ryan/Hanratty link when they were making enquiries at Swiss Cottage around September 1^st. That’s the best part of a month before they go knocking on the door of the Hanratty family. Their enquiries were effective in discovering that a Mr. Ryan had inquired about trousers which had been altered and that a person believed to be the same had sent flowers to ‘his mum’ (according to the florist) at the Hanratty address.

We don’t know why detectives turned up at Swiss Cottage, but since they took the trouble to do so, you would have expected them to progress their knowledge about a man who had been brought to their attention. Maybe they did and took no action. Which is a pity since, according to the prosecution, there were two incriminating shell cases lying in the Vienna Hotel waiting to be discovered. The Ryan/Hanratty link was in police hands by September 1st.

Cobalt,

if you are alluding to the SHE SAW HIM AT THE CLEANERS story, followed by William Ewer's tale of roses sent by a man he saw in a cafe and who then, followed by Ewer, went to a florist's shop and ordered roses to be sent to a Mrs Hanratty, then I have to say that you must also believe in fairies. As doubtless did one Peter Duffy, who wrote this fairy-tale for the Daily Sketch, a paper which even in 1962 was not noted for verisimilitude. Ewer, according to Paul Foot, did remember talking to a Daily Sketch reporter, but dismissed this story as a 'farrago of nonsense'. Janet Gregsten agreed. I believe that much of the problem was down to Ewer himself, who apparently liked talking to the press, but didn't like to be mis-quoted. Well, you can't take one without the other!

Graham

[cobalt]

Don’t allow the froth on the surface of the ludicrous story blind you to the substance underneath.

Did the police visit Swiss Cottage around the 1^st of September?
Yes.

Why did plainclothes detectives make enquiries there?
We don’t know, even after all these years, but presumably Matthews would have found out.

Did Ewer call Hanratty to the attention of the police at this time?
We don’t know. The newspaper said yes, based on the daft ‘vision.’ Ewer denied the accuracy of the story but never, so far as I am aware, denied he called the police.

Did the police enquire after a man believed to be, or resembling Hanratty?
Yes. In fact they successfully identified him as both Mr Ryan and the man who sent flowers to his mum at the Hanratty home address. This is according to the shopkeepers in Swiss Cottage. Yet having spent time making enquiries, they did nothing about it apparently. Which caused Ewer great consternation and required an explanation as to why he called the police in the first place. He sought refuge in a smokescreen of a story, a bit like Trump or Johnson might do today. He shifted the reposibility from himself on to a recent widow.

The police had the Hanratty/Ryan link in their possession by September 1^st.

[Graham]

Nice try, Cobalt....

Graham

[Alfie]

Regarding Acott's visit to Valerie on Sept 28: three days earlier she'd been transferred from Guys to Stoke Mandeville, so Acott wasn't just popping around the corner for a chat. I wonder if he took with him photos of the five who'd 'done the lot', and if so, whether Valerie picked out Hanratty?

[NickB]

Three days earlier is also the date that Acott, through his solicitor, said he became aware of Hanratty. This chimes with what Oxford said at the trial: "Actually on the 25th September, we had in fact identified the man Ryan as being possibly Hanratty."

[moste]

Three days earlier is also the date that Acott, through his solicitor, said he became aware of Hanratty. This chimes with what Oxford said at the trial: "Actually on the 25th September, we had in fact identified the man Ryan as being possibly Hanratty."

Through Hanratty’s solicitor?