A6 Rebooted

[cobalt]

Moste,

It was claimed some time ago on this site that the business for which Alphon worked did not deal exclusively in almanacs. The business also sold books and pamphlets relating to obscure religions, philosophies and the paranormal.

This would tie in with Alphon’s interest in philosophy, particularly Theosophy which was fairly popular at one time although later tainted (unfairly I think) with connections to Naziism. There is in Theosophy the concept of a new type of spiritual being evolving from the rather messy material world we inhabit at present, and this may well have been an attractive idea to Alphon, from what little we know about him. There is some overlap between Theosophy and the Nietzschean concept of the ‘superman’ which influenced Naziism, the concept of a new type of man, one beyond conventional morality, who must fulfill his mission in life. Alphon, like Ewer, was no ‘Boot Boy’ fascist but someone capable of rationalizing his political opinions.

None of this takes us very much further forward I know. Theosophy would never condone violence whilst, in his Paris interview, Alphon sounds more like Disgusted Tunbridge Wells rather than a man ready to break the shackles of conventional morality. It does however offer a possible connection between Alphon and Ewer based on shared interests.

[cobalt]

NickB,

The police decision to name Alphon as a suspect does seem an over reaction. Perhaps they feared he might strike again, having a made a potential link between Alphon and the attack on Mrs. Delal on 7th September, so needed to flush him out. Yet he was hardly a master of disguise beyond the reach of the law and, as far as the police knew, had dumped his gun and ammunition.

Nudds’ first statement connected Ryan to the room where the cartridge cases were found. So while its is understandable that the police should pursue Alphon, an earlier suspect who gave his alibi as The Vienna Hotel, it is difficult to understand why the character Ryan was not pursued with the same vigour.

After all, the real identity of Ryan was effectively known to the police by that time, according to William Ewer and Paul Foot. Whatever embellishments Ewer offered about the reasons for the police visiting his shopping arcade in Swiss Cottage, there is no dispute that they were making enquiries there on September 1st. Whether these were routine enquiries relating to shoplifters or enquiries relating to the A6 Case I am not sure, but Foot’s witnesses confirmed that, as they remembered the incident, a definite link was made by the attending police between Ryan and the Hanratty family home.

[cobalt]

Moste,

Killer in the Back Seat, starring Darren Nesbitt and Carol White (of Cathy Come Home), is still on youtube. Not quite film noir but a decent B movie. The fatal car crash happens as the killers are escaping to Birmingham, presumably on the newly opened M1.

There is a connection to the A6 Case here because of the sighting by Mr. Lee of Matlock who claimed to see the murder car in the early morning. This could easily be discounted as an honest mistake, as the mileage recordings seem to indicate, were it not for the tantalizing detail of a green bobble hat he remembered the driver wearing; such a hat was reportedly photographed later in the boot of the car.
Another northern connection was reported in a Yorkshire newspaper on the 23rd of August, where it was claimed that the ‘hitch-hiker’ wanted to go to Leeds. Since neither John Kerr nor Valerie Storie are ever known to have mentioned this detail, it is assumed a sub editor was taking some licence to give the news article some local flavour.

Regarding possible political conspiracy, I have spent the last couple of days trawling through the history of the Road Research Laboratory in Slough, the life of Transport minister Ernie Marples, and on a side-note the Profumo Affair and later Jeremy Thorpe affair which revealed the mechanics of a UK political assassination. As a result I am now conversant with some of the valuable work that was done by the likes of Gregsten and Valerie Storie, work which has undoubtedly saved many lives in the years which have followed. I even discovered that cables were laid under a small stretch of the M1 before it was built in order to test the concept of driverless cars, something which has taken 60 years to bear fruit. The Head of the RRL had worked alongside the better known Barnes Wallace to develop the ‘Bouncing Bomb’ of Dambuster fame.

Were there opportunities for civil servants such as Gregsten and Valerie Storie to blackmail or gain financially from insider information back in 1961? In theory I think the answer is yes. Marples was developing the UK motorway system to the personal benefit of a construction company he effectively owned, in fact there were tenders which were controversially accepted or rejected during this time. But none of this was quite top secret and I doubt the financial details were available to Gregsten or Valerie Storie.

More interesting to me was the amount of work done by the RRL on braking systems and tyre/tarmac combinations. At the time the UK was reputedly at the cutting edge, in Europe at least, in road safety, so advance knowledge of test results could have had enormous financial implications for companies which supplied the booming motor car industry. There would also have been the possibility of test results being ‘manipulated’ or suppressed at the behest of these major companies.

The botched attempted assassination of Norman Scott in 1977 (never officially linked to Jeremy Thorpe) tells us that even those close to the centre of power can hire a poor assassin. In that case the assassin killed Scott’s dog, called Rinka as many will recall, but the gun jammed when he aimed at Scott.

What’s missing for me is something which jumps off the page to connect the victims to wider political considerations. It’s there with Lee Harvey Oswald, Dr. Stephen Ward and Dr. David Kelly, whatever one’s opinions about their deaths. In the A6 Case, if there were a conspiracy of some sort, I cannot find a political motivation.

[moste]

Some very absorbing stuff there Cobalt.

So , with what we do know about Alphon, including his taped conversations, television interviews , manipulation of the press, not to mention the police.
Would you consider his passion for his Theosophy, and other isms he was in the business of studying, would be strong enough for him to quite legitimately,pound the pavements with his paraphernalia rather JW style,( not to cast aspersions on that particular organization) in an attempt to convince members of the public to accept, and hopefully even join in with his way of thinking. Rather than believe as I do, that he was a conniver with ulterior motives?

[cobalt]

Moste,

Alphon is an enigmatic character, so at best we are just making what we hope are intelligent guesses. As far as I am aware he had no previous criminal convictions, which suggests that despite his door-to-door activities and hanging around race tracks he did not engage in criminal liaisons with the likes of Dixie France or James Hanratty. By the age of 30 you would imagine Alphon would have fallen foul of the law at some point if he were doing so. Unless he was a police informer.

I don’t think conspiring with petty criminals would have fulfilled Alphon’s sense of being a man apart from the common herd. Money does not seem to have been much of a driving force in his life- his sense of being in possession of rare knowledge and being smarter than those whom he encountered seems more important. That bravura performance in the Paris hotel is Alphon living life to the full; I doubt he was even paid for the interview.

What I find more likely is that Alphon, who comes across as a very plausible character as well as being a moralist, would have been able to convince a third party that he was the very man to take on a private detective type of role and sort out an awkward situation. His two weeks in National Service could be effortlessly expanded into active service in Korea, his father’s employment at Scotland Yard exaggerated into his being head of some undercover police activity, his almanac shop claimed merely a cover for a private detective agency. Alphon even had a long raincoat to help carry the deception off, a confident man capable of walking down either mean streets or dusky cornfields. With a gun as insurance of course.

[Alfie]

... the sighting by Mr. Lee of Matlock who claimed to see the murder car in the early morning. This could easily be discounted as an honest mistake, as the mileage recordings seem to indicate, were it not for the tantalizing detail of a green bobble hat he remembered the driver wearing; such a hat was reportedly photographed later in the boot of the car.

Is there a source for this "bobble-hat-in-the-boot" story?

[Derrick]

Is there a source for this "bobble-hat-in-the-boot" story?

Yeah. The 2002 ruling at P152(i).

Although the CACD conveniently omitted the colour, green, which would make the sighting even more convincing.

[Spitfire]

Why has no one published this photo? I’ve never seen it, has anyone else?

[gallicrow]

No mention of photo of hat in boot?

Yeah. The 2002 ruling at P152(i).

Although the CACD conveniently omitted the colour, green, which would make the sighting even more convincing.

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2002/1141.html

[Graham]

Unfortunately Mr Lee's 'sighting' is undermined by the Minor's odometer readings, which as far as I'm aware have never been challenged.

I too have never seen 'the' photo of the contents of the boot. Does anyone know if and where this was published? And if it was, it would have to be in colour for the bobble-hat to be described as green.

Bobble- (or 'pom-pom' hats) were extremely popular back then - as they are again now. I frankly don't think Mr Lee's claimed sighting is at all strengthened by his claiming to see a bobble-hat worn by the driver.

The one claimed sighting of the car which seems to have been been consistently overlooked is that of a couple driving down Deadman's Hill, i.e., south, early in the morning of 23 August. They said a Morris Minor was parked at the side of the road, and when they stopped to ask the driver if he had a problem the man 'swore at them', so they drove off. If anyone on this forum knows any more about this claimed sighting, I'd be interested to know. (I think it was actually discussed here a long time ago, but I haven't found the relevant posts yet).

Graham

[cobalt]

Graham,

Purely from memory, I think the weakness with the sighting your referred to is that it came at least ten years after the events. There was a stage play on the A6 Case in the early 1970s and I think the two witnesses surfaced at that point. It is difficult to understand why they did not report the sighting at the time.

Again, from memory, the couple mentioned a green bobble hat, but that detail could have been in the public domain by then.

[Graham]

Graham,

Purely from memory, I think the weakness with the sighting your referred to is that it came at least ten years after the events. There was a stage play on the A6 Case in the early 1970s and I think the two witnesses surfaced at that point. It is difficult to understand why they did not report the sighting at the time.

Again, from memory, the couple mentioned a green bobble hat, but that detail could have been in the public domain by then.

Cobalt, you're quite correct - whoever the couple were, it was certainly a long time after the event when they came forward with their claimed sighting.

If the stage play you refer to is 'Hanging Hanratty' by Michael Burnham, then IIRC it was first produced in the late 1990's, so if it's this which jogged the memories of the couple, then it was a good 35 years after the event.

Graham

[moste]

Unfortunately Mr Lee's 'sighting' is undermined by the Minor's odometer readings, which as far as I'm aware have never been challenged.

I too have never seen 'the' photo of the contents of the boot. Does anyone know if and where this was published? And if it was, it would have to be in colour for the bobble-hat to be described as green.

Bobble- (or 'pom-pom' hats) were extremely popular back then - as they are again now. I frankly don't think Mr Lee's claimed sighting is at all strengthened by his claiming to see a bobble-hat worn by the driver.

The one claimed sighting of the car which seems to have been been consistently overlooked is that of a couple driving down Deadman's Hill, i.e., south, early in the morning of 23 August. They said a Morris Minor was parked at the side of the road, and when they stopped to ask the driver if he had a problem the man 'swore at them', so they drove off. If anyone on this forum knows any more about this claimed sighting, I'd be interested to know. (I think it was actually discussed here a long time ago, but I haven't found the relevant posts yet).

Graham

I have never seen a photo of the contents of the boot either, however I fail to see how if Mr Lee claims he saw a green bobble hat on the suspects head , then one shows up in the boot this does not strengthen his claim that he saw the car in matlock ,given that he gave the cars correct plate number.Unless your saying he had seen the contents of the trunk from newspaper articles.

[moste]

Graham,

Purely from memory, I think the weakness with the sighting your referred to is that it came at least ten years after the events. There was a stage play on the A6 Case in the early 1970s and I think the two witnesses surfaced at that point. It is difficult to understand why they did not report the sighting at the time.

Again, from memory, the couple mentioned a green bobble hat, but that detail could have been in the public domain by then.

The couple may well have thought better of coming foreword at the time for reasons of ‘not wanting to get involved’ or were advised strongly not to get involved by family or friends. When Hanratty had hanged they just decided to forget about it

Much like the anonymous call put through to the defence from a woman in London who stated something along the lines ‘ I know it was not the accused that committed this crime , I know who it was,’ saying she couldn’t talk then ,but will call back tomorrow, then never did. Someone ,maybe her hubby put the block on it. Mmhh, wonder if that woman was Pamela Patt, the bus guard?

[Graham]

With regard to Mr Lee's claimed sighting of the Morris in Matlock, I back-tracked a bit through these boards and it seems that the number of the Morris, 847 BHN, was first broadcast by the BBC at about 7.10 am the morning after the murder. Mr Lee claims he saw a Morris Minor with this number at about 6.30am near Matlock, but [I]do we know at approximately what time he reported this claimed sighting to the police?[I]

With regard to the famous green bobble hat which Mr Lee said the driver was wearing (and was never reported by anyone else who claimed to see the murder car), until I see a colour photo of the contents of the boot of the Morris Minor, which clearly includes said headgear, or a police list of its contents specifically mentioning a green bobble hat, I will continue to suspect that this was concocted somewhere along the line by a Hanratty supporter in an attempt to add verisimilitude to Mr Lee's claim.

Other sightings in which witnesses claimed to have seen a Morris Minor with the registration 847 BHN include:

- by John Douglas a petrol attendant at a garage in Birstall, Leics, at about midday on the 23rd August. Mr Douglas said the occupants of the car were a man and a woman, and he said the man spoke with 'a Somerset accent'.

- at about 1.00pm somewhere between Hitchin and Ippollits which if true suggests that the car never actually left the general area of Bedford.

- at about 5.25pm in Coventry, which is obviously impossible as the car was spotted about an hour later in Avondale Crescent by Alan Medwar. Unless of course it was supersonic or equipped with a warp-speed facility.

Or there just happened to be several grey Morris Minors with the registration 847 BHN. Unless I am mistaken, neither Skillet, Blackhall, Trower or Hogan claimed to have seen the registration number of the Morris they stated they saw.

Graham