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

[Dupplin Muir]

Ed James wrote:

If France had 'contracte ' Hanratty to undertake the hi- jacking wouldn't he have developed some greater distance from the rapist and kept him away from his family. Yet such distancing is not readily apparent. Didn't for example France have a drive of Hanratty's car.

But if France was involved in fitting Hanratty up he'd want to keep tabs on him to take advantage of any opportunity to plant evidence.

[Limehouse]

Nats,

I wonder if Hanratty's girl-friends would have thought him 'kind and gentle' had they known that he visited prostitutes on a regular basis? By his own admission, two or three times a week sometimes!

Dupplin Muir,

Hanratty showed France The Vienna receipt by his own volition - he wasn't asked. Why should he do that, I wonder? Making conversation, perhaps? Showing off to the Frances that he could afford what he plainly thought to be an expensive hotel?

However, I can't actually rule out that the cartridges were planted at The Vienna, even though I don't think they were.

Graham

Hi Graham,

It is quite possible, even likely, that he did this out of respect to those girlfriends who did not want a sexual relationship. They may have been happy with a bit of kissing and smooching and with dates to the cinema and dances, but not a sexual relationship.

Kind regards,

Julie

[Ed James]

I want to consider the case for Alphon being financed as the gunman. Like much of what we can only do, is try to place a reasonable interpretation on known facts.

Paul Foot reckoned that some £5,000 paid by cash into Alphon's newly opened accounts was unexplained. This may be an overestimate but certainly the origin of a sizeable sum is at issue.

To summarise arguments on the A6 murders threads, those sceptical of the hired gunman thesis, say no one would have paid the large sum involved (a professional assassin could have been engaged for less), a humble umbrella repair man wouldn't have access to such monies and that as a skilled gambler Alphon was lucky on the dogs and in any case who would have hired an unstable character like Alphon.

Those who give some credence to Alphon being hired, suggest Ewer was well heeled and far from being an umbrella repair man and that the regularity/frequency /round figures and timing of payments( in the aftermath of Alphon ceasing to be a suspect and during the criminal process against Hanratty) don't point to successful and sustained gambling winnings- so what other source of funds could have been involved.

What has troubled me ,if Alphon was the gunman, was why was the money paid in the first place (surely he wouldn't incriminate himself) and, if it was blackmail ,why did the payments abruptly stop. I rule out the money as being payment for a job done. It was certainly well above the rate for the job. Could it have been that those behind any hiring were troubled by the cranky and unpredictable Alphon: although the perpetrator, he was capable of owning up or at least saying he had been approached but turned the job down. and could blow their cover at a critical time before Hanratty's conviction.


I suspect if Ewer was the principal he would not have been initially known to the gunman and that any dealings were between France and Alphon. Certainly Alphon spent the money on luxury accommodation as if he expected the payments to continue. But the payments stopped in March 1962 shortly before France committed suicide.

Did Alphon lose his contact and even if suspecting Ewer to be the principal could Ewer be dismissive once Hanratty had been executed? It would be horribly ironic if Ewer had used the £2,000 or so made available to him by Janet to pay off Alphon ,rather as a down payment on a larger house to help accommodate her.

Ed

[Graham]

Good post, Ed. I have never considered the A6 Crime as being carried out by a hired gunman, but of course Mr Alphon and his weird personality traits certainly gave that impression to, for example, Paul Foot. The problem with Alphon was that he changed his story and his mind about as often as I change my socks - he also lapped up the attention he was receiving, especially from Messrs Justice and Fox.

Another point to consider is that a hired gunman would, I should think, have demanded at least part-payment for their services prior to carrying out their assignment. The earliest 'large' deposit into Alphon's account (according to Paul Foot) was on October 9th 1961 - well after the murder. (The Krays bumped off someone they'd paid to do a killing - and a lot less that £5000, incidentally - when the bloke didn't carry out his appointed task).

Paul Foot's analysis of Alphon's finances is interesting reading. I posted a good deal of it some time ago, but basically Alphon received about £7500 between October 1961 and June 1962, most of it in cash. As Foot says, Alphon collected fees from various newspapers for his story, Foot thinks about £2500, and also compensation from the police. Foot goes on to say that Alphon almost certainly had some spectacular wins at the races during this period, doubtless because he could afford to lay large bets.

The thing is, most of the sums paid into his account are round figures, so someone, somewhere, was handing over large wads of money in neat sums from £100 to £800. Foot also expresses some astonishment that Alphon spent nearly the entire ca. £7500 that passed through his hands in the same time-period as it was paid into his account. He lived at the Ariel Hotel (4-star) for four months, hired private cars, paid off his lawyers, bought a greyhound, etc., etc. Foot suggests that even such a high lifestyle wouldn't account for all his money over the given period, so a good deal of it was spent in unknown ways.

We will now never know how much of that £7500 was as a direct result of Alphon's 'activities' regarding the A6 Crime, but there's no doubt that good old Peter Louis made a bob or two out of it.

Graham

[Sherlock Houses]

What I find more than a bit interesting regarding the payments [into Alphon's deposit and current accounts] is the fact that in May 1967, approximately two and a half years before giving Paul Foot access to copies of his bank statements, Alphon had told journalists that £5,000 had been paid into his accounts in about 8 instalments over the course of a couple or so months. It's not as if the whole 5 grand was paid in one lump sum which seems to have been the mistaken perception on this forum over the last several years. These round figured payments smack very much of blackmail payments and perhaps the agreed contract was for less than £1,000, which was subsequently reneged on forcing Ewer to come up with the required hush money.

[Graham]

There was, of course, another potential blackmail target - a pair of targets, in fact. Any ideas???

Graham

[Ed James]

There was, of course, another potential blackmail target - a pair of targets, in fact. Any ideas???

Graham

Graham

There is no evidence whatsoever that Alphon was blackmailing Fox and Justice. Nor evidence that money continued to flow Alphon's way as could be expected if they were being blackmailed by him..

The key points of my post are that the source of funds are not satisfactorily explained and the payments stopped abruptly .Why ? Whether you believe Alphon the perpetrator or not , these are important issues to challenge any individual's thinking.

I know you believe Justice led Alphon and encouraged him to feed back suggestions. But I feel that Alphon, whether involved or not, showed some remarkable interpretations of the bizarre events that seemed to elude other commentators at the time. For example , that the aim was to separate the couple, that the rape (which lasted one minute or so) was to disguise the true purpose of the abduction and that Hanratty was expendable. Plus Hanratty seizing upon France as a target of his malicious phone calls.

It would be interesting to time line the expression of Alphon's 'insights' with the generally available information at the time.

I can think of a number of grounds upon which to dismiss Alphon's involvement , but there equally a number of others that suggest he had some inside knowledge.

atb
Ed

[Sherlock Houses]

There was, of course, another potential blackmail target - a pair of targets, in fact. Any ideas???

If you're implying Justice and Fox, Graham, that suggestion doesn't hold much water as their first ever meeting with Alphon did not occur until February 11th 1962 [if my memory serves me correcty]. That's a full 4 months after Alphon opened his deposit account with Lloyds bank.

[Graham]

There is no evidence whatsoever that Alphon was blackmailing Fox and Justice. Nor evidence that money continued to flow Alphon's way as could be expected if they were being blackmailed by him..

Of course there isn't, Ed, same as there is no evidence that some of Alphon's lolly came from William Ewer, but that's never stopped Hanratty's supporters from claiming as such.

However, SH has neatly shot down my little suggestion - he's right, Alphon never met Justice until 11th February 1962 at the Ariel Hotel.

Graham

[Ed James]

Of course there isn't, Ed, same as there is no evidence that some of Alphon's lolly came from William Ewer, but that's never stopped Hanratty's supporters from claiming as such.

However, SH has neatly shot down my little suggestion - he's right, Alphon never met Justice until 11th February 1962 at the Ariel Hotel.

Graham

Graham

I took your suggestion regarding Justice and Fox as being playful ,though I have noted your tendency to vilify Justice (if not the man, the part he played). But equally you were ducking the fundamental question as to where did Alphon , once a leading suspect , receive large regular cash payments.


You don't have to be a Hanratty supporter to consider it to be potentially hush money for somebody who knew too much.

atb

Ed

[Graham]

Graham

I took your suggestion regarding Justice and Fox as being playful ,though I have noted your tendency to vilify Justice (if not the man, the part he played). But equally you were ducking the fundamental question as to where did Alphon , once a leading suspect , receive large regular cash payments.


You don't have to be a Hanratty supporter to consider it to be potentially hush money for somebody who knew too much.

atb

Ed

Hi Ed,

I'm not vilifying Justice at all - but as Foot and Woffinden agreed, he was what you might call 'mischievous' in his tendency to attack the legal establishment of his day. I've read one of his books ("Murder vs Murder) many years ago (I had it pinched) and it was a reasonably good read, but he did go off into flights of fancy. He it was who boosted and encouraged Alphon in all his various confessions and counter-confessions - had it not been for Justice I doubt if Alphon would have played the part he did. Like a lot of high living, hard-drinking, well-bred hell-raisers, he paid the price and ended up in relative poverty. But I doubt if he cared a jot.

I don't think I 'duck the fundamental question' about Alphon and the source of some of his money - I've made it pretty plain over the years I've been posting here that I do not believe Alphon's money was as a result of his carrying out the A6 murder. They [I]may[I] have been blackmail payments, and if so then plainly William Ewer must be a possible blackmailee, but I do not believe that Ewer had anything to do with the A6 crime.

Alphon was consistently careful not to reveal the sources of his brief wealth - he only gave some details to Foot after his bank had destroyed the payment records after the required period. Foot was as puzzled as everyone else, and it was Foot who thought initially that Alphon was the A6 killer. But we also have to consider that Alphon had a life other than the high-profile one we know him for, and his money could, ultimately, have absolutely nothing at all to do with the A6. It could have been the proceeds from other criminal activity. We'll never know. As I've said many times in the past, in my opinion (for what it's worth) Alphon's presence in the aftermath of the A6 was down to pure coincidence (and I believe Sherrard thought the same).

Graham

[Sherlock Houses]

I can think of a number of grounds upon which to dismiss Alphon's involvement , but there equally a number of others that suggest he had some inside knowledge.

For someone who ticks so many boxes I find it truly amazing how Alphon is so easily dismissed by some people.

Like many people before me I've never been convinced by anyone that Alphon was not the A6 gunman.

[Ed James]

For someone who ticks so many boxes I find it truly amazing how Alphon is so easily dismissed by some people.

Like many people before me I've never been convinced by anyone that Alphon was not the A6 gunman.

First , thanks to Graham for carefully clarifying his position .It seems that the belief that the crime was not commissioned is a key factor in concluding the cash payments were not hush money. What other short lived activities could explain Alphon's wealth before he lost the knack. And blackmail of Ewer as a source would only work if Ewer had something to hide .

Like Sherlock , I don't feel Alphon should be 'easily dismissed' . If Valerie had identified him there would have been enough circumstantial and carefully selected evidence by Acott to have led to a conviction.

That doesn't mean to say I am convinced that Alphon was the killer but I believe in testing the known evidence and drawing reasonable inferences from it, regardless of any preconceived view of the perpetrator.

Ed

[Graham]

I tbhink we have to look at Alphon in the very cold light of day. His "entree" into the A6 Case came about because of his weird behaviour at The Alexandra Court Hotel, whose manager contacted the police following complaints from other guests. The police interviewed Alphon, and because of the very recent A6 murder checked with him his whereabouts on the murder nights, and then forgot about him. Alphon annoyed other guests at the Alexandra because that's what he was like: basically, a nutter. A former landlady of his testified that he did similar odd things when he was under her roof. It was only when the cartridge cases were found at The Vienna that Alphon once more came a focus of police attention. Now forgive me if I'm being slightly too simplistic for the taste of Hanratty supporters here, but surely that rather smacks of coincidence? Given his strange and generally unpredictable behaviour, Alphon rather than spending that particular night at The Alexandra might well have been kipping under Southend Pier (as he stated he had once done). He also had a history of leaving hotels without paying his bill, and this is almost certainly what he intended to do at The Alexandra, given that he had checked in using a false name and address. Only when the cartridges were found at The Vienna did the police know that Alphon had stayed there at the critical time - had he not made such an arse of himself at The Alexandra the police would never have known.

After Alphon had been eliminated as an A6 suspect, via his non-identification by Valerie, that really should have been that as far as he was concerned. But then along came Jean Justice, who saw a way, via Alphon, of giving British 'justice' a good hammering which, at the time, was his 'thing'. Probably anyone other than Alphon would have scooted.

And, of course, why was it Hanratty's DNA on the underwear and the hankie, and not Alphons's? From whom, as you know, samples were taken.

I repeat, for the zillionth time, and for the benefit of anyone who cares to listen, that Alphon's involvement in the A6 was purely and simply coincidental. The black person in this particular woodpile being Peter Alphon himself. I am prepared, as always, to listen to anyone who feels that he or she has proof positive that Alphon was the A6 killer. Let's have your proof!

Graham

[Spitfire]

I repeat, for the zillionth time, and for the benefit of anyone who cares to listen, that Alphon's involvement in the A6 was purely and simply coincidental. The black person in this particular woodpile being Peter Alphon himself. I am prepared, as always, to listen to anyone who feels that he or she has proof positive that Alphon was the A6 killer. Let's have your proof!

Your protestations on behalf of Alphon may be having an effect, if not exactly the desired effect. If you look on the "Valerie Storie's 3 part story as published in 'Today' magazine, June 1962" thread on this forum, you will see that the Hanratty supporters are turning their attention to a work colleague (as yet unnamed) of Miss Storie at the Road Research Laboratory as being the murderer of Gregsten and the raper of Miss Storie.

Those that make these allegations seem blissfully unaware of the enormity of the libel which they commit with the suggestion that Miss Storie all along knew the identity of Gregsten's killer.