A6 Rebooted

[NickB]

Acott's submission to the Hawser enquiry via his solicitor HPM Reay dated 30-Aug-74.

[moste]

Acott's submission to the Hawser enquiry via his solicitor HPM Reay dated 30-Aug-74.

Ok. Ta.

[NickB]

On 27-Aug 61 Hanratty's parents were asked to inform the police as soon as they heard from their son. As mentioned before, I believe they would have done so and told the police when they received a post card from Ireland. If so this could have been a key factor in establishing the Ryan/Hanratty connection. The parents may not have been aware of this, even after they knew their son was wanted for the murder.

Headlines like 'Hanratty was shopped by his parents' would have seemed like the police were rubbing their noses in it, and there would have been no advantage to the case in revealing it. So if there was something prior to the Leonard information that led the police to Hanratty, this could be it.

[Alfie]

Nick - I must have missed the reference to the Hanrattys' Aug 27 assurance. Where is it mentioned?

[Graham]

Same here - in his Chronology, Woffo says that 'the police' visited the Hanratty home on 27 August to advise his parents that James was wanted for housebreakings. Can't find a reference to this in the bulk of the book, though.

Graham

[cobalt]

I refer you to my previous comment. The police had the Ryan/Hanratty connection in their possession by September 1^st. They established that a man called Ryan inquired about his trouser repairs and in a nearby shop established that presumably the same man (the one they seemed to be making enquiries about for reasons never explained) sent flowers to his mum, Mrs. Hanratty, from a florists. That’s as remembered by the shop assistants.

Now having gone to the bother of making enquiries for whatever reason, you think the police might have joined the dots. After all the cartridge cases were presumably lying in the Vienna Hotel and had they pursued this man for questioning they would have checked out his alibi and possibly found them. That would have been quite a breakthrough and saved Peter Alphon a whole load of grief into the bargain.

I can only assume one of two things. Either the police at Swiss Cottage were sloppy and did not bring the Ryan/Hanratty link to the attention of senior officers so that it could be investigated. Or they did so, only for the senior officers to consider it unimportant.

[NickB]

Can't find a reference to this in the bulk of the book, though.

It is on page 134. It doesn't say the parents were asked to tell the police when they heard from Hanratty, and I can't find where I got that from (if anywhere) but I think it is a reasonable assumption.

You may recall I raised this idea when Roger Forsdyke mentioned it on a page advertising his book 'Deadman's Hill'. Yes it is a novel, but he was a career policeman and said his research included talking to retired policemen who were involved in the case. In an explanatory note on this page he said: "James Hanratty senior had taken one of the postcards written out by Gerrard Leonard to the police." I don't know whether this was from inside information, but it struck me as far more likely than France taking his postcard to the police.

[Graham]

Thanks Nick. Like I said, I'm long overdue for a re-read of my A6 books. Yes, I would expect the police most certainly asked his parents to advise them if they saw James - who they hadn't seen since early July, I think. And I agree it was more likely to be James Hanratty Snr who complied with the request, rather than Dixie France, but I don't think we can be absolutely certain. Dixie was suicidal with remorse after the trial verdict and sentence, but as all but one (or two?) of his suicide letters were confiscated and never seen since, we'll never know precisely why he took his own life.

I've never read Forsdyke's book, but it got good reviews so I think I'll treat myself (and add it to the ever-growing list of books I intend to read...)

Graham

[NickB]

Why would Dixie have taken the postcard to the police? If it was to implicate Hanratty in the A6 murder he would have told the police he was back in London, saving Acott and Oxford their trip in pursuit.

[Graham]

Well, as I said, it was more like to have been Hanratty Snr who contacted the police. Precisely why Dixie killed himself has never been revealed, and his family have, understandably, kept silent.

Graham

[NickB]

I have downloaded Deadman's Hill to my Kindle. (It is free!)

For dramatic purposes in the narrative he has Acott and Oxford discovering the Hanratty connection during their trip to Ireland. Then at the end of the book he has a section called Author's Notes where he explains how the story differs from what actually happened. This includes the claim that in reality they knew before they went to Ireland that 'Ryan' was probably Hanratty because his father had taken his postcard to the police.

[Graham]

Nick, Kindle's great, but it strains my eyes after a while, so I'll get the paperback. It sounds like a highly enjoyable and worthwhile read.

Graham

[Alfie]

A couple of excerpts from Valerie's trial testimony: "He [the gunman] asked us who we were and what our names were and he asked us if we were married and we said ‘No’"

"When the attendant put two gallons in, he gave back to Mike a ten shilling note and a threepenny piece. The man said, 'I will have that', so without turning round, Mike held up the ten shilling note and the threepenny piece. The man took them, and giving the threepenny piece to me, said, 'You can have that as a wedding present.'"

Both statements suggest that, contra the conspiracy theorists, the gunman regarded them as a courting couple and was not aware that Gregsten was married.

[Alfie]

Hanratty had Leonard write the postcards over breakfast at the hotel in Cork on Sept 7. Presumably he posted them the same day. If Forsdyke is right, the issue then becomes: when did the Hanrattys receive theirs, and when and to whom did they give the information? If Acott and Oxford only made the Hanratty-Ryan connection 18 days later on Sept 25, that would suggest either (1) James Sr took his time in notifying the police, or (2) the information took an age to filter through to Acott. Or perhaps it was a bit of both.

[NickB]

... and/or Acott was too focused on Alphon.