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

[Natalie Severn]

At the time of his marriage to Janet's half-sister Valerie in 1948 he was listed as an Art Dealer at 7 The Arcade, Swiss Cottage. ......
Sometime between 1951 and 1952 he moved to 10 The Arcade, Swiss Cottage, probably a bigger premises.
Umbrella repair man my foot !

Thanks SH
So Ewer already had connections with the 'Art Dealer' world in 1961 ?
Was Ewer a freemason?

[cobalt]

He went into the photographers in genuine pursuit of someone he thought matched the identikit picture. Then when he found out much later that the police had visited the florist nearby he had another ‘what if?’.

That's a reasonable interpretation of his going to the photographer's shop, and then later embellishing his tale.

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.
No one at present has been able to make a definite link between the police arriving at the florists's and a telephone call by Ewer, but it seems strange to be investigating the A6 Murder and to be making enquiries in a florist's in Swiss Cottage.

[NickB]

He went into the photographers in genuine pursuit of someone he thought matched the identikit picture. Then when he found out much later that the police had visited the florist nearby he had another ‘what if?’.

The guy in the photographers gives the Sunday Times a somewhat different version of Ewer’s visit and does not corroborate that he phoned the police from his shop.

[cobalt]

NickB,

Whenever he heard it, it must have spooked him. While he and Janet were in the shop having just seen the identikit pictures, Hanratty’s suit was in the cleaners nearby. Hanratty could have visited the cleaners that day enquiring whether it was ready and they could have unwittingly seen him

I follow your logic here, even if the coincidence of these events is quite striking.

But how would Ewer have known to go into a photographic shop in pursuit of a potential suspect to make the story more sellable, when at the time of doing so he did not have a story to sell?

[cobalt]

Graham,

I am not aware of any poster on here who has given the impression that Hanratty was on the first ID parade. As I have said before, an ID should not resemble an elimination waltz, or a voting system akin to the Single Transferrable Vote. The ID of Hanratty was unsafe.

Ewer cannot have been making the entire ‘vision’ story up since he did, reportedly, make a nuisance of himself by pursuing enquiries into a sighting at photographer’s shop. And police apparently involved in the A6 Murder inquiry, did turn up rather bafflingly at a nearby florists’ in Swiss Cottage.

Whether Ewer’s activities in drawing attention to a potential suspect make him a well intentioned Captain Mainwaring type or a Machiavellian Josef Goebbels is hard to judge. Paul Foot would presumably have had little truck with Ewer whichever of these characters he most resembled, yet this highly respected investigative journalist does not appear to have turned up very much concerning Ewer’s background, finances and associates.

[NickB]

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. He even admitted some of it was untrue in an interview with them. This included point 6 (above) where subsequently he said the police had told him about Hanratty visiting the cleaners. But even if he had not heard it from the police he would have heard it at the trial.

Whenever he heard it, it must have spooked him. While he and Janet were in the shop having just seen the identikit pictures, Hanratty’s suit was in the cleaners nearby. Hanratty could have visited the cleaners that day enquiring whether it was ready and they could have unwittingly seen him. But leaving it as a ‘What if?’ was not a sellable story.

Duffy’s role in this was not as an investigative journalist – quite the opposite, he wanted the most sensational story possible. Provided he put what Ewer said in quotation marks, and had a record of it, he was covered.

[Graham]

Hi Caz,

nice to see you back, from wherever you've been. I've said more than once that on the first ID parade it was not who Valerie did pick out that was crucial, but who she didn't pick out, i.e., Peter Alphon. And I do think that there is more than one poster on this forum who still thinks that that that first ID parade at Guy's Hospital actually included James Hanratty.

Hi Nick,

despite Nats's recent post, you can bet your bippie that if the Hanratty Supporters Club either ignore a post, or resort to insults, you've got them rattled. I fully agree with you that your photos of the Swiss Cottage shops effectively cast serious doubt Ewer's claim.


However, that doesn't mean to say that Ewer was making it all up as he went along. I am reasonably convinced that there is some truth in what he claimed with regard to his 'sighting' of the A6 killer, but then he goes a little too far and spoils it. There is also - and this has bugged me for years and years - the fact that he did state that he knew Louise Anderson, though he denied it later, and there is, therefore, a possibility that she mentioned Hanratty to him, along (who knows?) with her suspicions. Hanratty did, or at least he did as far as we know, tell France that he had done something bad, something he didn't understand. Did he tell Louise Anderson the same thing? Did she pass this on to Ewer? Again, who knows? Sorry for the speculation, normally anathema to my essentially fact-based soul.

Ewer's problem is that he presses too hard on the pencil. Apart from his other dubious claims in the infamous Sunday Times statement he says:

Point 6: "....my only other contact with the police [apart from the 'sighting' incident, that is] was when I approached Scotland Yard for permission to attend the trial". This really is bullshit - in the UK a criminal trial is a public procedure, and anyone can attend (so long as you can physically get into the court-room if it's a high-profile affair).

Point 8: "I did not know or have any business dealings with a woman called Louise Anderson. However, as we were both in the antiques business it is possible that she may have had some glancing acquaintance with me, as a result that she did know me". I.e., they knew each other.

Point 11: "my sister-in-law Janet Gregsten never at any time claimed to have made an intuitive sighting of Mr Hanratty". I believe him. I really do.

Ewer? Not a bad bloke IMHO, but a bullshitter if not an out-and-out liar, and a bloke somewhat puffed up with his own self-importance. The "Mr X" behind the A6 murder, the bloke who forked out £5000 to an unknown so he could get his hands on his wronged (and highly fancied) sister-in-law? Never.

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

I agree that Ewer would have said the things to Duffy that are attributed to him and are in quotation marks. Ewer was the liar. At the time Ewer probably thought it was a harmless wheeze, but when Foot's book came out it came back to bite him. He then made a statement to the Sunday Times, who quickly showed that he also lied in that.

I think so too.

[caz]

She didn't though did she? On her first identification parade she selected a dark eyed, heavily built man of 5ft 9ins named Michael Clarke who was totally innocent and just a volunteer.Nowadays this would not only make all subsequent 'identifications' null and void but would simply be totally discredited.

No, Valerie didn't finger your conspirators' chosen scapegoat - Hanratty - first time round. How could she? He wasn't there. She did finger him second time round though, which was my point. How obliging of her to do so, both for the criminal gang who had supposedly framed him and the prosecutors who were supposedly happy to fit him up.

And still the judge warned the jury that they had to be sure, on the evidence presented.

Love,

Caz
X

[Natalie Severn]

So how could the entrance to Burtol cleaners at 129 Finchley Road be visible from his shop at 10 The Arcade?

Those arcades often have windows at perpendicular angles to one another Nick-but very rarely two entrance doors--- but its possible to see through such angled windows into what is happening-the windows shown in your picture are huge so you must have been able to see counter transactions easily.nx
ps
thanks for the brilliant old photos of the row of shops and the arcade-always wondered what it looked like!

[Natalie Severn]

I still submit that this reason does not stand up to scrutiny, regardless of where he actually spent that night.

and of course Caz you are entitled to your opinion. nx

[caz]

No its not the reason he gave Caz---look it up yourself --quite frankly all you seem to want to do is sneer

I have looked it up, Nats - I was the one who gave you the post number! #633

I don't need to 'sneer'. The reason is right there, in Hanratty's own words. He claimed he had lied about spending the night of August 22nd in Liverpool because at the time he knew he was only wanted for an interview in connection with having shared the same hotel as the suspected murderer. He claimed he would have told the truth straight away (that he had in fact spent that night in Rhyl) if he had been facing a murder charge instead.

I still submit that this reason for lying does not stand up to scrutiny, regardless of where he actually spent that night.

Love,

Caz
X

[NickB]

So how could the entrance to Burtol cleaners at 129 Finchley Road be visible from his shop at 10 The Arcade?

Perhaps there was a back door at Burtol facing into the arcade. From the photo, it looks like if you enter by the front door the counter goes all the way across in front of you - suggesting there is no back door.

[Sherlock Houses]

William Ewer......

Janet Gregsten went to live with William and Valerie Ewer at 77 Wentworth Road, London NW 11,from 1963 until 1965 at least. Probably for a few years afterwards too.

Ewer was still living at this address in 1984.
At the time of his marriage to Janet's half-sister Valerie in 1948 he was listed as an Art Dealer at 7 The Arcade, Swiss Cottage. It's unclear for how long he had been an Art Dealer prior to his marriage.
Sometime between 1951 and 1952 he moved to 10 The Arcade, Swiss Cottage, probably a bigger premises.

Umbrella repair man my foot !

[NickB]

According to Google Earth they are 2.5 miles apart along the A598. The car was variously described as belonging to the aunt, mum or both.

Cater the florist shop is now occupied by Cottage Flowers at 15 Northways Parade, Finchley Road, NW3 5EN.

http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/images/venues/images_all/10015288.jpg