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

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Natalie,
All points worth repeating, but there was of course one very important sighting of James Hanratty at the scene of the crime: the one by Valerie Storie. The jury were bound to be influenced by that, despite their misgivings about possible sightings elsewhere.

All very interesting about Gillbanks Cobalt ! Yes, Valerie saw her attacker but only for a few seconds.Her first identification of Michael Clarke a dark eyed ,well built man of 5 ft 9 ins who clearly looked nothing like the the blue eyed,very slim 5 ft 7 and a half Hanratty makes no sense-it really doesn't.

[cobalt]

Still on the topic of private detectives, is it possible that Alphon might have been trying to pass himself off as such? The idea of him marketing himself as a hitman has understandably been ridiculed, but the role of private investigator would have suited what we know of his character, and he seemed to enjoy playing a part. He could walk the mean streets to the dog track but was equally at home, apparently, inside expensive hotels when the need arose. The moralistic side to the job would no doubt have appealed, as would the air of mystery. Did he manage to convince someone that he was the sort of person who could sort out an awkward mess, what with his greyhound track contacts as well as a family member who worked at Scotland Yard? It’s just about credible.

So was it Alphon, rather than Hanratty, who got in over his head when trying to play out the role not of a stick up man but of a private detective? Who knows? Alphon’s account of the kidnap (which may well be pure fantasy partly gleaned from his police interrogations)) does seem to contain some credible psychological elements. His dislike of Gregsten would make sense, for Gregsten was in many ways what Alphon no doubt aspired to be and had failed to become: a self-confident man with easy charm and the ability to make meaningful relationships. Alphon, despite his solid family background and slightly exotic French name, was busking around greyhound tracks and selling door to door, with no fixed abode.

Inside the car his attempts to dominate Gregsten probably fell on stony ground, despite the weapon in his hand, and but for his protective instincts towards Valerie Storie it is hard to imagine Gregsten could have put up with very much of Alphon’s incoherent babble before trying to overpower him. In a way Alphon’s inadequacy would have been more pronounced with a gun in his hand, for he was still failing to convince his captives, let alone himself, that he was the Sam Spade of Slough. The journey through the night was a metaphor for Alphon’s entire life: drifting aimlessly in the hope that he might actually achieve something.

Maybe the first shot was involuntary, but the events thereafter suggest anger and resentment. Gregsten was killed because he was the man Alphon could never be; Valerie Storie was to be killed because she had witnessed at first hand his inadequacy. Being Alphon, he failed when trying to play the part of the cold blooded executioner.

O.K. this is just psychological conjecture, and basing any theory on what Alphon claimed happened has serious limitations. However from what we do know he does seem a slightly better fit for the killer than James Hanratty, from whom he may have received the murder weapon.

[Graham]

Hi Nats,

you have to remember that the claimed sightings of Alphon in and around Dorney Reach, and the claimed sightings of Hanratty in Rhyl, were made only after photos of these two men were published in the press. This is human nature in a nutshell. You also have to bear in mind that no-one on the Liverpool to Rhyl bus claimed to have seen Hanratty or anyone like him (yes, I know that there is a story that the conductor, if there actually was one, on this bus was interviewed and did claim to have seen Hanratty or someone like him; but if this is true, why wasn't it used by the defence? If anyone has a press-report of this claimed sighting, I'd like to see it).

Also, no-one on the train from Euston to Liverpool came forward to say that he or she had seen Hanratty on the train, despite pleas from the defence. Public-spirited though Michael da Costa undoubtedly was, his evidence is really useless and patently wasn't accepted as useful by Sherrard. Who, as you know, went to some lengths to locate the 'clerky gent' whom Hanratty claimed to have shared a compartment with; but was, I honestly believe, only a figment of Hanratty's quite vivid imagination.

I've lived in the same quiet road for 34 years, and I could walk up and down it ten times a day and I could almost guarantee that no-one would notice me, same as I take little or no notice of anyone who walks along my road. Yet put my ugly mush on TV, and my neighbours would be queuing up to say they saw me!

Gillbanks, whether his old gaffer was Bert Balmer or Knacker of the Yard, seems to have been a hard-working and quite effective investigator, but from Day One he was on a hiding to nothing. (How come none of the writers on the A6 have ever mentioned this Bert Balmer bloke, with whom friend Cobalt seems to entertain a certain fixation?) I think it may be significant that when Paul Foot tried to meet and interview Gillbanks some years later (by which time Gillbanks was running a burglar-alarm business), Gillbanks refused to see him. Perhaps this was because he was no longer interested in what he saw as a 'dead' case; or perhaps there was a deeper reason?

Graham

[Natalie Severn]

However from what we do know he does seem a slightly better fit for the killer than James Hanratty, from whom he may have received the murder weapon.

Cobalt , for all we know the A6 murderer was just some piece of scum from the criminal gangs we learn hung around Redditch in 1961 who acquired a gun -for a sum- from the Rehearsal Club possibly via Charles Dixie France .
On the other hand even if he was not the killer , did Alphon play some part in all this? I remain persuaded because the Vienna Hotel Diary went missing after Oxford took it on 11th September and kept it until at least the 20th September during which time the hotel records could have been tampered with .[remember too ,the Vienna Hotel diary was taken by Supt Oxford the day the trial ended and has never been seen since].

The following is of crucial importance [IMHO] and you will need to look up the books for what Nudds said in his second statement implicating Alphon .

At the trial-and on oath Juliana Galves the deputy manager of the Vienna Hotel raised a very serious issue when she questioned the nonsense of Alphon's supposed £1-7s -6 pence deposit-dismissed / ignored by Swanwick.

Juliana Galves: " I do not understand that part of the entry "£1-7-6 pence because if the guest Durrant[Alphon] had telephoned this hotel in the morning he could not have paid a deposit before his arrival.If he telephoned this hotel in the morning ,there was no need for him to call at the Broadway House before coming here.If he had come direct to this hotel without calling at the Broadway and had paid for his room here he would have been given a receipt by the Glickbergs [Nudds] or myself,and there would have been no need to show in the hotel diary that he paid a deposit of £1-7s 6d ."

The word 'deposit' here is therefore not utterly meaningless as Swanwick tried to make out.It is of extreme importance.The only conceivable explanation for it is the one Nudds [Glickberg] gave in his second statement : that Alphon made a telephone booking ,called in the hotel at lunchtime ,and was shown the larger room which he didn't like and for which ,moreover, Nudds intended to charge him more for.But Alphon left his case there,in the larger room ,where , on September 11th ,the bullet cases suddenly appeared on the very day Nudds was sacked [and also on the day William Ewer was interviewed by Police ] Thus began the massive nationwide hunt for Alphon [as per second statement]the suspected A6 killer .

NB Alphon btw did indeed have a criminal record.It was for taking and driving away a motor car on 6th October 1953 .He was convicted at the Guildhall.

[Spitfire]

Cobalt , for all we know the A6 murderer was just some piece of scum from the criminal gangs we learn hung around Redditch in 1961 who acquired a gun -for a sum- from the Rehearsal Club possibly via Charles Dixie France .
On the other hand even if he was not the killer , did Alphon play some part in all this? I remain persuaded because the Vienna Hotel Diary went missing after Oxford took it on 11th September and kept it until at least the 20th September during which time the hotel records could have been tampered with .[remember too ,the Vienna Hotel diary was taken by Supt Oxford the day the trial ended and has never been seen since].

The following is of crucial importance [IMHO] and you will need to look up the books for what Nudds said in his second statement implicating Alphon .

At the trial-and on oath Juliana Galves the deputy manager of the Vienna Hotel raised a very serious issue when she questioned the nonsense of Alphon's supposed £1-7s -6 pence deposit-dismissed / ignored by Swanwick.

Juliana Galves: " I do not understand that part of the entry "£1-7-6 pence because if the guest Durrant[Alphon] had telephoned this hotel in the morning he could not have paid a deposit before his arrival.If he telephoned this hotel in the morning ,there was no need for him to call at the Broadway House before coming here.If he had come direct to this hotel without calling at the Broadway and had paid for his room here he would have been given a receipt by the Glickbergs [Nudds] or myself,and there would have been no need to show in the hotel diary that he paid a deposit of £1-7s 6d ."

The word 'deposit' here is therefore not utterly meaningless as Swanwick tried to make out.It is of extreme importance.The only conceivable explanation for it is the one Nudds [Glickberg] gave in his second statement : that Alphon made a telephone booking ,called in the hotel at lunchtime ,and was shown the larger room which he didn't like and for which ,moreover, Nudds intended to charge him more for.But Alphon left his case there,in the larger room ,where , on September 11th ,the bullet cases suddenly appeared on the very day Nudds was sacked [and also on the day William Ewer was interviewed by Police ] Thus began the massive nationwide hunt for Alphon [as per second statement]the suspected A6 killer .

NB Alphon btw did indeed have a criminal record.It was for taking and driving away a motor car on 6th October 1953 .He was convicted at the Guildhall.

The second Nudds statement depends upon there being a cancellation of a booking of the single room No 6, the one Alphon occupied on the night of 22 August. According to Foot the second statement said it was Mr Bell who cancelled yet Foot says this cannot be right as Mr Bell is recorded as being registered as a guest for 22 August.

The second statement also depends upon the room rate of No 24 being the complicated arrangement described therein. When Hanratty had occupied No 24 he paid the single room rate of £1 7s 6d without conditions as to further payment should he be the sole occupant. If it be said that it was late in the day and there were unlikely to be further occupants, then why was Hanratty not charged the full rate of £2 15s ?

If Alphon had indicated that he intended to stay more than one night but was not willing to commit until the following morning, then the entry of £1 7s 6d as a 'deposit' against what would be the eventual total bill would fit the facts.

[uncle_adolph]

you have to remember that the claimed sightings of Alphon in and around Dorney Reach, and the claimed sightings of Hanratty in Rhyl, were made only after photos of these two men were published in the press. This is human nature in a nutshell.
Graham

In the same way as it would be human nature for Valerie to pick out Hanratty at the ID parade when she knew full well the suspect had strange colour hair and a distinctive accent. The fact that she had picked out someone else entirely at a previous ID seriously undermines the quality of that identification anyway.

In all seriousness, Acott might as well have stuck a "pick me" sign above Hanratty's head.

[NickB]

Re the deposit - maybe the word ‘deposit’ was added by Nudds (in collusion with Acott) at the time of his second statement to give it credibility.

With regard to people who did or did not identify Hanratty, I think an important factor is that his photograph was not published until after the trial. Today when someone is on the run or arrested their photo is released and witnesses come forward.

What might have happened if his photo had been published is shown by the many witnesses who responded to the appeal for anyone who had seen the car. Of these Skillett and Trower identified Hanratty.

Incidentally at the Committal it was reported that: ‘The car was also seen by a Mr Draper, who got a good view of the driver. He saw the car turn into Avondale Crescent.’ I wonder what became of him?

When his photo was finally published I think there probably were people who thought they had seen him during the week of the crime in a way that contradicted his evidence - but it was then 6 months later and he had been found guilty anyway, so there was no impetus for them to come forward.

Also Mrs D’s identification of Hanratty was prompted – not only when she was shown the one photo of him, but also in court when she was given the photo again and Sherrard asked if she could see that person anywhere in the room.

[Spitfire]

In the same way as it would be human nature for Valerie to pick out Hanratty at the ID parade when she knew full well the suspect had strange colour hair and a distinctive accent. The fact that she had picked out someone else entirely at a previous ID seriously undermines the quality of that identification anyway.

In all seriousness, Acott might as well have stuck a "pick me" sign above Hanratty's head.

Agreed, but this point was taken before the jury and the good jury members decided that they had no doubt that Hanratty was the murderer. They must have taken into account the first mis-identification by Valerie Storie and the evidence of Mrs Dinwoodie (not Mrs Dinwoody) but decided that the preponderance of evidence was in favour of a guilty verdict.

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Nats,

you have to remember that the claimed sightings of Alphon in and around Dorney Reach, and the claimed sightings of Hanratty in Rhyl, were made only after photos of these two men were published in the press. This is human nature in a nutshell.
Graham

Thanks Graham.But this does not explain the complete absence of any sightings in London ,Slough or Dorney Reach of Hanratty [-or even Alphon come to that - except for the man the Cobbs saw who may possibly have been him on 22nd August 1961 in Marsh Lane . But when there was a full scale murder hunt going on isn't it even more extraordinary that nobody remembered seeing Hanratty or any suited and booted man on any train heading for Reading /Slough/ getting off the train in the middle of the country carrying a bulky pile of ammunition? Not even at Taplow ticket office do we have one single recollection recorded that August or later when photos had been published of both Alphon and Hanratty ? Not a single person-not one from the South East of England -and yet---and yet on NImmo's list , there were a total of 19 names and addresses of people who came forward after February 6th hearing about Hanratty's Rhyl alibi and believing they had seen Hanratty ---[only 8 of these being later interviewed in Nimmo's inquiry.

But for me the account of the sighting by Trevor Dutton in Rhyl on the morning of 23rd August 1961 is perhaps the most astonishingly remiss of all. I know the lady in Rhyl who runs the Print shop to be a person of scrupulous integrity by the way .She knew Trevor Dutton well because of business dealings with him and in 2012 was still having business dealings with his two sons.Dutton was on a bus on February 8th 1961 reading the reports of the A6 trial and noticed the report about Kempt, manager of the Billiards Hall in Liverpool about a young man trying to sell him a gold watch -near the date of August 26th. It immediately triggered the memory of a highly unexpected approach Dutton had had by a young man aged between 25 and 30 whose face he couldn't remember but who he remembered had "an accent which I can't place or maybe it was a dialect of Irish or cockney or a mixture of the two." wearing a dark jacket or suit two toned who suddenly appeared out of a shop doorway, flourishing a gold watch in Rhyl High Street somewhere between the Old Post Office and Burton's where he had parked his car. Rhyl High Street in 1961was a sedate business road where such an encounter would have been highly unusual.[nowadays there is a weekly market there and traffic free zone and shopping centre there so such an encounter might be a bit less unusual. Dutton a person of excellent reputation who was a successful poultry farmer in Kinmel Bay , only went to Barclay's Bank twice a year and when he got home immediately looked up his bank statements to see if the dates of his encounter might match the reported sightings in Liverpool .There was the entry-deposited on etc etc
Wednesday 23rd August 1961 the later morning of the A6 murder.He went immediately to Abergele police station and made a full statement [which Abergele police allege was sent to Acott].Having made his statement to Abergele police on 9th February 1962 Dutton heard nothing more whatever until 6 years later when the A6 committee tracked him down.Yet Nimmo who must have known about the statement never ever contacted Dutton in any way Why? since this was what Jenkins termed "Nimmo's thorough and exhaustive inquiries "! The defence didn't either-though all there was was a scribbled note from a clerk in the solicitors office , on the back of an envelope , "these names may interest you "- Sherrard himself maintained ,swearing on his honour , that he had never even heard of Mr Dutton's statement until Paul Foot's A6 committee brought it to light . Nobody saw Hanratty on a train to Taplow, at the ticket office there ,approaching a cornfield, or anywhere at all in the South East after Nudds said goodbye to him at 8.30 am on 22nd August 1961.Yet some 19 people believed they saw him in Liverpool or in Rhyl on 22nd or 23rd August.

[Natalie Severn]

Agreed, but this point was taken before the jury and the good jury members decided that they had no doubt that Hanratty was the murderer. They must have taken into account the first mis-identification by Valerie Storie and the evidence of Mrs Dinwoodie (not Mrs Dinwoody) but decided that the preponderance of evidence was in favour of a guilty verdict.

The judge had reprimanded them after 5 hours out deliberating when they returned and to ask him what reasonable doubt meant. The Judge answered sharply ,"If you have reasonable doubt then you are not sure .You understand that do you not?"

[Natalie Severn]

Of these Skillett and Trower identified Hanratty.

Trower's evidence was was thoroughly and scientifically discredited in court by Sherrard .
Skillet who was driving was further away than Blackhall who was in the passenger seat and had rolled down the window of the car to see the erratic driver of the Morris Minor.Blackhall was also the one asked by police to help draw up the identikit of the car driver and Blackhall insisted that the driver looked nothing like Hanratty.

[NickB]

The credibility of witnesses (on both sides) can be argued about, but I was responding to your question about why there were so few.

When the public were given something they could identify – like the car – they came forward.

There were two who saw it on the A6 ...

Rex Mead, of Park Hill, Ampthill, an engineer, said he was driving along the A6 from Luton to Ampthill between 12 and 12.45 am on August 23. He saw a small car in front of him. He noticed something peculiar about the car, although he could not remember exactly what that was. He thought it might have been a flashing brake light. He overtook the car, and as he passed it saw there were three people in it, two in the front and one in the back.

Airman First Class Ronald Lewis Chiodo, of the American Air Force, of Mayfield Road, Stopsley, said he finished work at 12.30am and was driving on the A6 near Warden Hills. A car passed him going in the opposite direction, towards Bedford. He noticed in his rear driving mirror that a white reversing light was on at the back of the car. It was not flashing.

[Graham]

Hi Nats,

I agree that it is very highly likely that the prosecution and the police failed to pass to Hanratty's defence, as they should have done, information which the defence might have found useful. Also, the inquiries at Rhyl by Nimmo were not as thorough as they might have been (apart from his establishing that the newspaper vendor Charlie Jones had admitted to lying).

The problem with Mr Dutton's statement is that:

1] we don't know, and as far as I'm aware he never said, what time it was on the morning of the 23 August when he claimed a young man tried to sell him a gold watch. You see what I'm getting at, don't you? At the risk of 'doing an Acott' it was, in theory, possible for Hanratty to get back to London from Deadman's Hill in time to catch a train to Liverpool and then a bus to Rhyl. We know that he was in Liverpool later that week. Obviously I think this scenario is so highly unlikely as to be impossible - but I do believe that Hanratty could genuinely have been in Rhyl some time after 22 August.

2] Mr Dutton made no mention of anything unusual about the appearance of the young man - nothing, for example, about his hair colour which, as we know, other claimed sightings in Rhyl made mention of.

3] Mr Dutton stated that he would not be able to recognise the young man again.

4] Hanratty himself made no mention of trying to sell a gold watch in Rhyl.

5] After their visit to Rhyl on Whitsun Bank Holiday in 1968, the 'A6 Committee' took their findings to the Home Office. Over 3 months later they received a reply, which advised them that after he contacted the police the name and address of Mr Dutton were forwarded to the defence during the trial. Yet Mr Dutton was not contacted. Either this was an oversight on the part of the defence or, I suggest more likely, they didn't see Mr Dutton's evidence as crucial or even helpful; or Mr Dutton's details were not passed to the defence at all (which I find unlikely, given that this information came from the Home Office and not the police).

'Sightings evidence' is always susceptible to error. The two men who ran the Almanac distribution and who confirmed Alphon's alibi regarding the Dalal Attack, were believed by the police because they knew Alphon and had seen him before many times. (Stand by for protestations regarding Valerie's identification of Hanratty...!).

One of the myriad 'sightings' of Lord Lucan was by a woman who had known him and had seen him many times in The Clermont, the gambling club he frequented nearly every night. This 'sighting' was, as many were, in South Africa, but the woman blew it by saying that he had dyed his hair blond and shaved off his 'tache. Therefore, as the police quickly decided, the man could have been anyone with a vague, passing resemblance to Lord Lucan.

No-one 'saw' Hanratty at Taplow, Dorney, Slough, or anywhere else in the vicinity because at the time of the abduction and murder he was a complete unknown; his photo hadn't been in the papers or on TV. And when it was, no-one's memory was jogged. Compare with the claimed 'sightings' of Alphon in the area. These arose largely because Tony Mason, the local journalist, along with Justice and Fox, and on at least one occasion Alphon himself, made a big fuss in the area, interviewing locals and making a general nuisance of themselves. With a few friendly nudgings, one or two of the locals then said that they had actually seen a man like Alphon in the area at the time of the abduction. Of course they had..........

Graham

[uncle_adolph]

The credibility of witnesses (on both sides) can be argued about.

Quite so. The difficulty I have is that the one prosecution witness (Valerie) who can definitely link Hanratty to the crime may well have been influenced by her advance knowledge of the person the police were looking for and that her evidence was clearly enough to sway the jury when weighing it against the many supposed sightings of him in Liverpool and Rhyl.

That makes me very uneasy.

[Sherlock Houses]

Incidentally at the Committal it was reported that: ‘The car was also seen by a Mr Draper, who got a good view of the driver. He saw the car turn into Avondale Crescent.’ I wonder what became of him?

No mystery here. This is a typo error in the Glasgow Evening Times and clearly refers to James Trower.
The Evening Times reporter obviously misheard the name Trower as Draper during prosecuting counsel E.G.MacDermott's opening address on November 22nd 1961.
Five days later, when Trower actually testified at the Ampthill Court, the same newspaper has him down as Trower in one paragraph and then Trotter in the following paragraph. There were lots of typo errors in the newspaper reports from that time.