A6 Rebooted

[Observer]

Hi again

Just had a look at the Fred Dinage documentary, and the photo of Valerie Storie opposite the field entrance. It looks as if it's about turn from my initial thoughts, for that photo shows a location at the bottom of Marsh Lane, location number 2. You can see the turn off to the right, now the entrance to Eton Collage rowing facility. If the pylon photo is authentic, it could be the pylon in line with the farmhouse, the trees in the distance make more sense. Also, the bails of hay in the field would make sense, the abduction taking place in October.

[moste]

Or August?

[NickB]

My first reaction to that photo was the same, that it was looking towards the bottom of Marsh Lane and thereby suggested location 2. But the National Speed Limit sign suggests otherwise; would the speed limit change up to 70 just before a right angle bend?

With regard to the wire fence running away to the left, I think this can suggest either location. If you look at the photo of location 2 there is a hedge on the left indicating a border line which could well have been a wire fence previously.

[Observer]

Or August?

Oooopps sorry August.

[Observer]

My first reaction to that photo was the same, that it was looking towards the bottom of Marsh Lane and thereby suggested location 2. But the National Speed Limit sign suggests otherwise; would the speed limit change up to 70 just before a right angle bend?

With regard to the wire fence running away to the left, I think this can suggest either location. If you look at the photo of location 2 there is a hedge on the left indicating a border line which could well have been a wire fence previously.

Yes I see what you mean, the Dinage doc photo must be Deadman's Hill then?

[Observer]

With regard to the wire fence running away to the left, I think this can suggest either location. If you look at the photo of location 2 there is a hedge on the left indicating a border line which could well have been a wire fence previously.

Yes I agree.

[Observer]

Incidently, in 1972 I was in the Army stationed at Arborfield 12 miles from Dorney Reach, I know the area well. Pity I wasn't aware of the location back then. Travelled down the A4 many a time seem to remember the Old Station Inn.

[Observer]

For what it's worth (very little) just been thinking, my fellow Squaddie/friend Ian D, was raised in Bracknell Berkshire. So, on the night of the abduction he will have been sitting only 8 miles from the field in Dorney Reach. He is older than me, I reckon he'll have been about 16 at the time. I was in touch with him until about 2 years ago. Wonder if he remembers anything from that time?

[Observer]

Again for what it's worth (again very little) in the 90's and onwards, I became interested in photography, and visited quite a few infamous murder sites and took photographs, JTR of course, Jack The Stripper, the Crippen case, and the A6 murder, among others. Sad I know, but there you go.

[NickB]

Across the cornfield from location 1, there is a big house near the river in which lived Ernie Wise until his death. However he could not have been the intended target as he only moved there in 1977.

[moste]

Across the cornfield from location 1, there is a big house near the river in which lived Ernie Wise until his death. However he could not have been the intended target as he only moved there in 1977.

Regardless of the year he moved in though, he could not have been the intended target because he had ‘short, fat, hairy, legs!

[Observer]

Regardless of the year he moved in though, he could not have been the intended target because he had ‘short, fat, hairy, legs!

Well, he was arrested in Blackpool perhaps he was looking for Morcambe

[Derrick]

How can anyone be persuaded by the DNA evidence when a number of additional DNA markers not attributed to Hanratty were explained away by the Crown in 2002 as belonging to Miss Storie and Gregsten?
Especially since no DNA reference profile of Gregsten was ever produced.

[moste]

How can anyone be persuaded by the DNA evidence when a number of additional DNA markers not attributed to Hanratty were explained away by the Crown in 2002 as belonging to Miss Storie and Gregsten?
Especially since no DNA reference profile of Gregsten was ever produced.

When they exhumed Hanratty's body, why did they not exhume Gregstens? I suppose they would have needed permission from the family.
But in any case the whole DNA farce was a means to an end , as we've agreed before (some of us) ,It served as a tool to put the thing to bed ,once and for all.
and of course the authorities knew they had the Hanratty's on board,which made things so much easier.

[cobalt]

They might not have needed family permission. Scots Law is different but there was an exhumation some years ago of a man suspected of the notorious ‘Bible John’ murders in Glasgow in the late 1960s. This was effectively ordered by legal decree and very unfairly, the name of the suspect (who had committed suicide some years before) was made public, much to his surviving family’s distress. The DNA results were initially described as inconclusive, then later the police stated the suspect had no involvement with the three murders.

Curiously, a reasonable suspect did surface some years later in the form of Peter Tobin, a vile character who was eventually apprehended and jailed for at least three murders. Tobin had been known to frequent the Glasgow dance hall where all three victims were last seen and his sexual violence was already established as a character trait. He was on the young side in terms of witness descriptions given but surely DNA would solve the issue one way or another? Apparently not, is the view of the eternal ‘police spokesman.’ The original DNA collected from the final murder scene in 1969 has degraded too much. Well, maybe too much for a court conviction but surely they must have the readings from the time of the exhumation, so why not compare Tobin’s DNA with what was available then? I have to assume this has already been done and the answer is negative, but not what the public want to hear.

I posted last year about a development in the USA which could retrieve latent fingerprints from cartridge cases after they had been fired. This means the cartridge cases found at the scene of the A6 murder could presumably be tested to see if fingerprints could be retrieved. If Hanratty’s were to be found on these it would not prove his guilt as such but surely at the very least indicate he had some involvement with the crime or the person who did. Yet, as with Tobin, there seems to be no desire to carry out these tests.