The attack on Swedish housewife Mrs Meike Dalal on Thursday, September 7th 1961

[Natalie Severn]

By the way, Nats is a big girl
Love,
Caz
X

No need for the personal remarks Caz ...not that big I hope

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Caz,


Hi Nick,

despite Nats's recent post, you can bet your bippie

If this is a rude word Graham I shall have to report you to the headmaster.

[Natalie Severn]

The question is not whether Ewer lied, but to what extent he lied.

The Sunday Times claimed that, in Ewer’s statement to them, 9 of the 15 points were demonstrably inaccurate or contradicted what he had said elsewhere.

I believe France sold on his bits and pieces -silver napkin rings, odd bits of jewellery etc to Ewer who being 'in the trade' with his little umbrella shop to give shade , clearly was able to create a front for various 'Art deals' some a bit shady like the selling of the William Steer - Steer being such a hugely important English landscape painter the sale of which would have brought him huge profits-even then and I mean huge.As for the now priceless Holbein,clearly Ewer was in with multi millionaires by now -the big time wheelers and dealers of the Art houses and auction rooms.Of that there is no question at all.
The question to ask about William Ewer and Janet Gregsten's possible involvement in the A6 is not, in my opinion,whether one or both were in some way involved , but rather in what way they were involved?
How could either William Ewer or Janet Gregsten possibly have 'identified' Hanratty so soon after the murder-6 days to be precise -a murder that took place 50 miles away---and the day after the gunman's description was changed on 31st August 1961 from the gunman having deep set brown eyes to saucer like light blue eyes?

I refuse to accept that William Ewer ever intended any physical harm to come to either Valerie or Michael Gregsten.This man, who became a mover and a shaker in the Art World -dealing with Steers , Holbein and the like, was not at that stage interested in anything more than helping Janet deal with what he saw as a wastrel of a husband of hers ,a man who not content with fathering her two small children had to have a mistress and what was even worse,up to his ears in debt was now about to abandon them physically and financially.Ewer was nearly 20 years older than Janet,she was his wife's sister and had only them to turn to.It was beholden on him as the older man in the family to try to sort this character Gregsten out. Give him a good seeing to.Thing was he wasn't keen on getting his own hands dirty.So hire a guy with a gun who will put the frighteners on ,leave no traces,and tell them both to quit their game or next time it would be for real.Who would believe them if they had gone to the police about it? Answer is Nobody.Who got him the gun? why France.Who got him a gunman? Possibly France did that too but one person it most definitely was not was Hanratty.He was never seen in London or the South East in that Cornfield or by a station master a train user or a farmer -not once anywhere after he left the Vienna Hotel.But 14 people came forward to say they had seen him in either Liverpool or in Rhyl .Also Neither Ewer nor France were so stupid as to stage the 'she saw him in the cleaners' story unless they wished to have Hanratty as the scapegoat.

[Sherlock Houses]

He moved from The Arcade, Swiss Cottage to Regent Street around 1965/66.

No he didn't soft lad, he moved to Oxford Street not Regent street. Cut out the deliberate mistakes will you ?

If that November '69 auction at Sotheby's is anything to go by it would seem that 'anonymity' was the name of the game.

[Sherlock Houses]

Attachment from old thread........

Yep SH -Umbrella repair man my foot! A very successful Art House dealer in fact-on this occasion via the multi million pound empire of Sotheby's

I recall reading something about this on the old thread Natalie. I've pinched the following attachment from that particular thread which gives more information on that Sotheby's auction.

Re. whether Ewer was a freemason I definitely remember reading something to that effect several years ago. It would definitely fit.

Ewer was definitely an art dealer from at least 1948 to 1969 and is listed in the London Phone books as such.

He moved from The Arcade, Swiss Cottage to Regent Street around 1965/66.

[Derrick]

Aha! Well, that makes more sense. And of course it is no big deal, I was just fascinated and surprised by the - very - odd name.
Thanks, Graham!

Fisherman

The latest announcement on the most popular names for last year put Muhammad at the top of the list for boys names in London.

HTH Del

[Graham]

By the way, Nats is a big girl and can look after herself. We go way back and there is never any malice behind our disagreements. I am hardly responsible if she feels 'tempted' into a meaningless back and forth of 'catty innuendos' as you charmingly describe my observations and questions and her reactions to them. If you find it tiresome you are a big boy and can always skip the posts I address directly to Nats and her responses.

Well said, Caz.

Graham

[caz]

Dupplin Muir,

Do not underestimate the human capacity for hypocrisy.

Ewer strikes me as a man who would be much more at ease in the present day UK than he was in the changing scene of the early 1960s. He comes across as the worst type of Daily Mail reader, a man who could rail against immigration yet would be happy, in the modern age, to employ cheap immigrant labour in his shop or his home.
A man who could write letters to the paper about moral turpitude and teenage girls getting pregnant in order to get council housing ( in which he never lived) yet would have an affair with his sister-in-law.
A man who could denounce the intolerable tax burden placed on the small businessman, but roar support for megabuck military intervention overseas, all the while fiddling his own tax return.

Ewer would be in his element today! He was the coming man.

God, cobalt, this Ewer character sounds absolutely foul!

But where is the evidence he was involved in a conspiracy resulting in the A6 rape and murder and a fall guy being hanged for it?

Love,

Caz
X

[caz]

Not shown to be his. However what they did have as you know in '61 was 'O' positive rhesus negative in the mucus, which France may well have known would have eliminated himself, and possibly others who did not share Hanratty's blood group. Incidentally ,I think as well as myself, I speak for others when I say the onslaught of petty quibbling, you seam to enjoy tempting Natalie into meaningless back and forth catty innuendos, is neither enjoyable, or helpful, to members of this wonderful forum, who are trying to concentrate on important issues. I mean we all like a bit of fun now and again, but it can become tiresome.

Hi moste,

I'm not at all sure how France is meant to have known a) Hanratty's blood group; or b) that in 1961 snot from a hanky could be blood typed (and thanks for that info - I didn't know this was done at the time or was even possible); or c) - most importantly, when planting said hanky - that Valerie's rapist had left semen of the same blood group as the chosen fall guy, Hanratty.

By the way, Nats is a big girl and can look after herself. We go way back and there is never any malice behind our disagreements. I am hardly responsible if she feels 'tempted' into a meaningless back and forth of 'catty innuendos' as you charmingly describe my observations and questions and her reactions to them. If you find it tiresome you are a big boy and can always skip the posts I address directly to Nats and her responses.

Love,

Caz
X

[NickB]

I cannot find that particular miniature on any current list of Hans Holbein the Younger’s paintings. Perhaps it turned out to be a dud.

[Graham]

I understand that Ewer had made bids at auctions on behalf of the actual buyers of various lots. Don't know about the Holbein miniature, though, but I wouldn't rule it out that Ewer was acting proxy.

Strange, but on the pre-crash boards I once dared suggest that Ewer wasn't simply an umbrella-repair man - who ever made a living from that (apart from Flanagan & Allen and their naff wartime song) - and was shot down. Could be that arch-socialist Paul Foot insisted upon describing him as such. Dunno.

Don't know if anyone watches "Fake Or Fortune", but the other night Philip Mould commented that dealing in fine art always carries a risk, just like any other investment. He was referring to a couple who'd sold a painting for £11000 as there was some doubt as to its authenticity, yet when it was eventually proved genuine it was valued at over £300000. You pays your money....

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

Yep SH -Umbrella repair man my foot! A very successful Art House dealer in fact-on this occasion via the multi million pound empire of Sotheby's

date of Sotheby's auction November 1969

[Natalie Severn]

Ewer was still living at this address in 1984.

-Umbrella repair man my foot !

Yep SH -Umbrella repair man my foot! A very successful Art House dealer in fact-on this occasion via the multi million pound empire of Sotheby's

[Fisherman]

Mrs Dalal was first erroneously described as Swedish by Paul Foot, and the mistake stuck. She is (she's still alive) actually German, and her surname Dalal is because she is, or was, married to an Indian man. The mistake was corrected on this forum long ago, but the title of the thread hasn't been corrected. I honestly don't think it's any big deal.

Graham

Aha! Well, that makes more sense. And of course it is no big deal, I was just fascinated and surprised by the - very - odd name.
Thanks, Graham!

[NickB]

[I]However it does require the police (and presumbably the police investigating the A6 murder) to be, coincidentally, making routine(?) enquiries at the florists' shop around the same time.

In the original article the florist Dorothy Morrell did not say the police who called were investigating the A6 murder.

I have already given a reason why the police would have called following their visit to Hanratty's parents.