scan of Hanratty statement re Rhyl alibi

[Natalie Severn]

Michael Sherrard QC-Hanratty's trial barrister in 1962: "It is often said that Hanratty changed his alibi from LIverpool to Rhyl and that is really not quite right,the substance of the Liverpool alibi was maintained----"May 2002

The trial judge -Judge Gorman said this about Hanratty and his alibi:

"HE DOES NOT HAVE TO PROVE HIS ALIBI.THE FAILURE OR OTHERWISE OF THE ALIBI DOES NOT MAKE HIM GUILTY."
However there is no doubt that by changing his story in the middle of the trial,Hanratty gave the impression that the alibi was false.Michael Sherrard states in his 2009 biography:The huge gave the jury perfectly good direction.He was bursting himself to indicate to the jury that he did not think the case was strong enough



Here is a copy of Hanratty"s dictated letter to his solicitor of 29th january 1962:

[Natalie Severn]

This is the first statement Hanratty made on 29th January 1962.

[Natalie Severn]

When Hanratty was first asked by Supt Acott for his alibi of the night of 22nd /23rd August 1961 it was during a telephone conversation on October 6th or 7th soon after the first suspect in the case, Peter Alphon,had been dropped from police inquiries.The murder had taken place some six weeks before in a lay-by of the A6 in Bedfordshire,Southern England on August 22/23rd 1961.
Hanratty had telephoned Scotland Yard almost immediately he had realised he was a suspect on October 6th at 11.05 am to say he had had nothing whatever to do with the crime.The policeman in charge of the case asked him to come and see him at once but Hanratty had not long been out of jail for stealing cars etc and had during the previous few days of late September 1961 been burgling houses and he explained to Acott that he knew he would get five years if he now handed himself over to the police.He also insisted to his trial barrister and others that from the beginning he thought he had nothing to fear since he was so convinced his innocence would be sufficient to clear him of being a suspect. So when asked where he was that night he hurriedly answered that he had been in Liverpool and that he had friends and 'fences' in Liverpool -that he had done 'business' with who he thought would give him an alibi without any trouble whereas he couldn't even remember the name of the landlady whose boarding house he had stayed in or the name of the street the house was in.

However for the very first time I have seen his statement of 29th January in full and will be scanning and posting a very important section of it below
---his statement finally explains two curious inconsistencies in three crucial Rhyl witness statements -two of which were received by the defence after the trial was over----although the prosecution had in their possession the one by Mr Larman on 15th February -that is two days before Hanratty was sentenced to death on 17th February 1962.
[i]The first is the mystery of the missing case----
The second mystery was which room he stayed in; Hanratty remembered the attic bedroom with the green bath and described it very clearly---he had booked a room first of all for only one night---then he later booked for another night---- but read on.....

[Natalie Severn]

Mrs Jones's Boarding House where he left his case

for me,this statement made several days before Mrs Jones the landlady had even been found--solves the mystery of the three women witnesses who gave statements too late for the trial- Mrs Margaret Walker , Mrs Ivy Vincent and Mrs Betty Davies who all said he came knocking on their doors at it was getting dark that night-22nd August 1961- in Rhyl- but that he was not carrying any case.Mr Larman, another late witness didn't see him with a case either.

[louisa]

Norma - what a great researcher you are to have come up with that statement, written by the man himself. His writing isn't too bad at all, especially at the beginning. I've seen a lot worse written by educated people.

The flow of the handwriting says quite a lot to me. It's as though he didn't pause for thought but just wrote it all down as he remembered it. I think if he'd been inventing details the writing would have had a more faltering flow to it, but I'm no expert on handwriting (as no doubt will be pointed out to me).

Thanks so much for posting it Norma.

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks Louisa.This came via a friend of Bill Beadle who has done acres of research on the case in the past and sometimes looks in on casebook.The book was almost finished when I came across this 29 January 1962 statement.It actually appears to me it might have been the solicitors handwriting.I will definitely look into it as the writing here is similar to that written across the top of the Letter of Clemency which was definitely in Hanratty's hand.
Will get back to you
AtB
Norma

[Natalie Severn]

Last page of statement made on 29th January 1962 .It refers to hump back bridge[at far end of Kinmel St] also to Woolworths on Rhyl High Street.
[29/01/61 statement predated the discovery of any Rhyl witnesses-detectives had to go and search for these in final week of trial].

[Natalie Severn]

picture from page of my book-the houses at the bottom of the page are taken from Rhyl Railway and Coach Station at far end of KInmel Street.The first street with the little houses is South Kinmel Street where the witnesses Margaret Walker and Ivy Vincent lived.The larger houses seen in the background are those next-door but one to Mrs Jones and Mrs Betty Davies who was living next door to Mrs Jones at that time in 1961.

[louisa]

Thanks for those, Norma. It's interesting to see those old photographs of circa 1962.

I've had a look at 'Ingledene' via Google Maps street view. It's changed of course since 1962. I wonder what it's like inside now....whether the green bath is still there?

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Louisa, it looks exactly the same as it did then judging from the photographs.I went there with James and his friend June last April and even the sign was still up 'Ingledene'. They have removed it since and they told us the green bath had only recently been removed.
Cheers
Norma

[louisa]

They could have got a fortune for that green bath on ebay.

I actually thought that Ingledene looked better in 1962 than it does today.

[caz]

Norma - what a great researcher you are to have come up with that statement, written by the man himself. His writing isn't too bad at all, especially at the beginning. I've seen a lot worse written by educated people.

The flow of the handwriting says quite a lot to me. It's as though he didn't pause for thought but just wrote it all down as he remembered it. I think if he'd been inventing details the writing would have had a more faltering flow to it, but I'm no expert on handwriting (as no doubt will be pointed out to me).

Thanks so much for posting it Norma.

Hi Louisa,

I don't know about the other statements, including the one you are talking about here, but the one Nats posted in #2 was not written by Hanratty, as the final sentence shows:

This has been read to me: I fully understand it and hereby sign to this effect.

It's a great pity that Hanratty didn't come up with the green bath and his Rhyl 'bookings' (which were not true bookings since they were not entered into any book) to begin with, but chose instead to rely on his criminal pals to give him a false Liverpool alibi for the crucial night.

It makes no difference that he gamely stuck with the first part of his Liverpool story when tacking Rhyl on the end, because he completely changed the details of where he was during the hours when the crime was actually taking place. I'm not sure I've heard of any innocent person doing that in the long history of crime, but certainly not when their very life was at stake. What's the risk of a five-year stretch compared with having your neck stretched?

Love,

Caz
X

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Caz,
With regard to him changing his story:
Lets take a brief look again at what had been happening:
On 11th September,some 19 days after the murder police had been led via Alphon and used cartridge cases back to the Vienna Hotel-where they had been on 27th August, involving Alphon as a suspect. William Ewer was there [why?] who had previously helped police with their inquiries about the A6 murder by pointing out to them Hanratty on 1st September 1961 ,who Ewer said he thought might be the murderer --he had selected Hanratty out of 8 million Londoners and 50 miles from the A6 because 'this young man had eyes like a carbuncle" and therefore he thought might well be the murderer.
But the police,apart from thinking the Vienna Hotel had a part to play in this ,appear to have been very disinterested in Ryan/Hanratty and much more interested in Peter Alphon alias Durrant who they had interviewed previously with regard to the murder.On 23rd September they had put out a nationwide search,naming Alphon publicly as their prime suspect. Valerie had a go at her first line up identification but identified her rapist as a man 'she thought looked like Alphon'[ her words during the trial]-only it wasn't Alphon it was Michael Clark-a totally innocent line up volunteer-[this alone would disqualify Valerie from making a second identification by today's rules].
Alphon is then dropped -rather rapidly and back the police go to the Vienna Hotel. William Ewer had already led them to Hanratty on 1st September 1961, and the press had been informed [the Sketch and the Mail- said they had been informed by William Ewer at the time of Janet Gregsten's intuitive sighting ] that 'Ryan ' was Hanratty and police had discovered from the flower shop lady[Dorothy Morrell at Swiss Cottage at that time, that Ryan /Hanratty had sent flowers to his mother Mrs Hanratty---so police actually knew who Hanratty was through Mrs Hanratty's address and knew Ryan's real name-[as-presumably- did William Ewer].
Ok-what next?
All this time Hanratty was saying at the France's or Louise's - chauffeuring Louise Anderson back and forth to her shop in Soho each morning and dating various pretty girls etc
He was also busy burgling houses-----and police had been to his mum's telling her he was wanted for questioning about various burglaries.
And that Caz, was the problem.
When Alphon was dropped and Hanratty became their suspect he was suddenly 'dropped in it' and was in the most hideous position anybody could ever wish to find themselves in.
He knew if he handed himself in for questioning he would be put back in jail -possibly for 5 years.
So he telephoned Scotland yard to vehemently protest his innocence of the murder -6 October 1961-and in the final call he made to them that day [11pm] was asked about his alibi.
He could not remember his landlady's name in Rhyl---or the name of the road---it had been over 6 weeks before---what to do?
Not for one minute did he think he would have any trouble proving his innocence when he knew nothing at all about it!His innocence he believed would see him ok on this---nobody was going to fit him up for murder after all-----
so he thought it best to get his friends in Liverpool where he had arrived on 22nd August to give him an alibi for that night and not crack on about going to Rhyl----but how many fences and crooks would want do get involved in a murder trial?
They refused---McNally had seen him he said but 'if he won't open up why should I?' and he ended up contradicting himself and saying he hadn't seen him since he left prison.

What a dreadful state of affairs for Hanratty to find himself in.

ps---Why I can never accept it was Hanratty who was the gunman is partly due to the role I believe William Ewer played in all this---think about the fact that if it was Hanratty ,Ewer would never , not in a million years have been pointing him out to police---not, that is ,if Hanratty was connected to the crime in any way as Alphon claimed---Ewer's role may have been very mild-had nothing to do with guns---France may have bungled something up over it all as Alphon told the papers ---who knows---France apologised to Ewer we know that for certain from Ewer's own statement--- but Hanratty was the patsy when guns started going off however accidently---it was then that I believe it all went pear shaped!!!

[caz]

...so he thought it best to get his friends in Liverpool where he had arrived on 22nd August to give him an alibi for that night and not crack on about going to Rhyl----

Hi Nats,

You make it sound like Rhyl would have been a guilty admission. Why would it have hurt him to 'crack on' about staying the night in Rhyl, if it was the plain and innocent truth? You keep saying that he didn't have to prove his whereabouts, but he evidently thought lying about them was preferable to telling the truth.

What a dreadful state of affairs for Hanratty to find himself in.

He didn't 'find himself' burgling those houses, Nats. If he was facing a five stretch it was because he was willing to take that risk every time he set out to burgle. More fool him for not leaving a nice clear paper trail on the few occasions he went anywhere innocently - like Rhyl - so he couldn't be accused of crimes he had not committed as well as the crimes he had.

I'm sorry, but wouldn't five years have been a small price to pay compared with hanging for a crime you insist he did not commit? What did he think was coming to him if his criminal pals refused to support his false alibi? A slap on the wrist?

Love,

Caz
X

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Caz,
I have always been amazed by some of the comments I have seen about staying in Bed and Breakfasts-its something I have done frequently since moving to London--I often drive up to the North West via Stratford and in the early days of doing this would call on those Boarding houses advertising vacancies.We rarely asked the landlady's name or noted the address unless it was a particularly good boarding house so had we needed to explain where we stayed and who we stayed with six weeks after the event I doubt we could have done so.
In the case of Hanratty does anyone seriously think he would have enjoyed tracking down Mrs Jones on 6th October with the police on his trail-Mrs Jones a stranger he only met for a few minutes on arrival and when he handed over his 25 shillings for his two night stay-and asking her if she would stand alibi for him as the police were after him for the A6 murder?
It doesn't really need explaining any further now dies it Caz!
AtB
Norma xx