Valerie Storie's 3 part story as published in 'Today' magazine, June 1962

[Sherlock Houses]

With regard to your suggestion that they drove to Deadmans Hill to meet someone, don't forget that Harry Hirons, the attendant at the Shell Garage on Kingsbury Circle, came forward to say that he remembered the Morris stopping there shortly after midnight on the morning of the murder, and that there were three people in it. He was shown the Morris at Scotland Yard and said he was confident it was the same car. He was one of the people who took part in the ID parade on which Alphon stood, but he did not pick out Alphon. At a later parade, Mr Hirons did not pick out Hanratty. Acott was confident - well, he would be, wouldn't he? - that Hirons had seen the murder car at his garage, but because he had failed to identify anyone when shown photos and a Photofit, he was not called as a witness. Also, the garage where he worked was not the garage that Valerie said they stopped at for petrol. So who was mistaken - Valerie or Mr Hirons? Easy to dismiss Mr Hirons, but he approached the police on his own initiative, so he must have been pretty confident that he had seen the murder car and its three occupants. Of course, he may have been totally mistaken, but the police seemed to take Mr Hirons very seriously, at least at first.

A very good post Graham. That's one of those 64,000 dollar questions isn't it, which one of the two witnesses were mistaken [unless of course both were mistaken and it was another garage] ? I certainly don't dismiss Harry Hirons's evidence. Unless he was lying he clearly remembered serving a Morris Minor with 3 occupants. I suppose a lot depends upon just how busy the garage he worked at was around midnight on a Tuesday evening and how many cars stopped for petrol. What time did that particular service station close ? There were far fewer cars on the roads back in 1961, how many people would be out and about at that time anyhow and how many would be driving a similar Morris Minor ?

[moste]

You raise some good points, Mr Moste. Quite rightly, never should we forget that Valerie Storie is still alive.

With regard to your suggestion that they drove to Deadmans Hill to meet someone, don't forget that Harry Hirons, the attendant at the Shell Garage on Kingsbury Circle, came forward to say that he remembered the Morris stopping there shortly after midnight on the morning of the murder, and that there were three people in it. He was shown the Morris at Scotland Yard and said he was confident it was the same car. He was one of the people who took part in the ID parade on which Alphon stood, but he did not pick out Alphon. At a later parade, Mr Hirons did not pick out Hanratty. Acott was confident - well, he would be, wouldn't he? - that Hirons had seen the murder car at his garage, but because he had failed to identify anyone when shown photos and a Photofit, he was not called as a witness. Also, the garage where he worked was not the garage that Valerie said they stopped at for petrol. So who was mistaken - Valerie or Mr Hirons? Easy to dismiss Mr Hirons, but he approached the police on his own initiative, so he must have been pretty confident that he had seen the murder car and its three occupants. Of course, he may have been totally mistaken, but the police seemed to take Mr Hirons very seriously, at least at first.

Graham

Well, good points, however, Mr.Hirons can't be ignored as one of those who may simply have wanted to get in on the deal!
Valerie, on the other hand though terribly traumatised, thwarted any effect Hirons may have had on the proceedings, by making the statement to Acott, and I quote: "Can I just say how I know it was a Regent garage? Acott:"Yes" Valerie: "Because as we drove into the garage, I looked at the pumps, and I thought, Oh Lord, its Regent petrol. Mike doesn't like Regent in his car".
As a sceptic of Valeries statements, I still find this statement pretty solid. The Regent garage is at Heathrow airport on the A4, (where there is now a Texaco.) It is unlikely that Valerie would have remembered this Regent station, at this location, especially since Mike would not have used it.
If I may help with how busy the garage was, in answer to S H. ponderings. According to Bob Woffinden. The petrol station, states a John Ward on duty on the night in question, 'served about 150 cars between 10 pm and midnight.' about 40% of customers would have asked for 2 gallons on fuel. He couldn't help the police with any descriptions.

[Spitfire]

I've just dipped into Paul Foot's book to see what he says about the refueling of the Morris Minor on that fateful night. Foot seems to accept that the alliteratively named Harry Hirons did sell Gregsten two gallons of petrol in the early hours of 23 August 1961.

Foot does not disclose the garage that Hirons was working at, nor the brand of petrol which it sold. In fact Hirons' garage was a Shell garage and was situated on Kingsbury Circle, a good 15 mile (or so) drive from Heathrow. Foot does not go into much detail with regard to Hirons, save he does mention (on two occasions) his age as being eighty years.

Woffinden gives Hirons age as 64 years. He states that Miss Storie's recollection was that the garage sold Regent petrol, and was near Heathrow on the A4, shortly after the Colnbrook Bypass. As has been mentioned above, the garage was found but the attendant could not assist in identifying the murder car or its occupants.

[NickB]

There is a photo (by ‘Steve’) of the site of the Regent petrol station, now a Texaco one, at post 1883 on the original thread.

I don’t think the Shell station is there any more. I’ve been all the way round Kingsbury Circle on Google maps and cannot see it.

[Sherlock Houses]

For the sake of argument , if it were a choice between Alphon or Hanratty as the gunman purely on the basis of the route and demeanour I would go for Alphon (even though he's not a fashionable perpetrator on the A6 murders (sic) site). Both knew Northolt, Harrow and Stanmore - but Hanratty was less likely to mistake St Albans for Watford. But I understand the link to Bedford in relation to Hanratty.

I've never come across anything, Ed, stating that Hanratty was familiar with the Northolt area.
Alphon, on the other hand, admitted to knowing his London very well. What I find rather revealing is that when the police issued their circulated description of Alphon a month after the murder it stated amongst other things that "he [Alphon] is known to frequent Streatham, Victoria, Putney, Kilburn, Northolt and Kingsbury."
Four of those six mentioned areas make very interesting reading and provide much food for thought....Victoria and Kilburn featuring prominently with regard to the 36A bus route, Kingsbury for obvious reasons and Northolt, according to Valerie Storie, was where the gunman wanted to head for as he knew of a café there where they could get something to eat.

[Limehouse]

I am going to be really controversial here and possibly throw a spanner in the works, but an idea has been forming in my head for months now and since we are discussing the possible significance of the journey, I'm going to express it.

Let's wind back to long before the events of that night. VS and MG were berated at work for their liaison. VS was angry about this and, in discussion with a male colleague, said that if he took her out, she would stop seeing MG. They went out a few times and, one night, she took him via the field that would later feature in the events of that night and told him 'that's where Mike and I usually stop'.

Now, the week before the event, MG had been on holiday with his family. He had not seen VS. Apparently, (according to discussion on another A6 thread)MG and VS had not made love on the night of the event and the semen deposits 'attributed' to MG were several days old. How? He had been on holiday and had not seen VS.

Are we looking at an angry colleague who took them on a bizarre 'rally' that night?

[Pcdunn]

Hello, Limehouse:

Interesting. But that would mean she knew their captor, if it was "a male colleague", wouldn't it? So she deliberately picked someone else? (definitely controversial!)

I'll add to the controversial ideas, going the other way. VS seems in the articles to be very attached to MG, perhaps clinging. Did he really want to break up with her? Did he arrange for the frightening event to happen, so she'd want no more late night rallies? I'm thinking of him telling her at the gas station, "don't worry, everything will be all right", and basically going along with everything the abductor wanted.
Perhaps it was sort of planned-- except for the ending.

[Ed James]

Now, the week before the event, MG had been on holiday with his family. He had not seen VS. Apparently, (according to discussion on another A6 thread)MG and VS had not made love on the night of the event and the semen deposits 'attributed' to MG were several days old. How? He had been on holiday and had not seen VS.

Are we looking at an angry colleague who took them on a bizarre 'rally' that night?

Hi Limehouse
First , I welcome your speculation - a bit like brainstorming upon which others can positively build. I recognise that some may see this as disrespectful to Valerie who is undoubtedly a strong , determined and courageous woman. However , I don't think we should artificially close down debate.

It is documented that both Valerie and Mike G had other 'relationships' during their 4 year affair and I believe that Valerie had said she doubted that they would form a permanent relationship with Mike free from Janet.

But I can't build easily on the idea of colleague as abductor , since the location and discovery of the murder weapon and cartridges would seem to point away from this theory. But I do faintly recall previous suggestions (regarded by some as distasteful) on the A6 threads about the timing of and responsibility for the semen deposits. I am reminded of this by a recent you tube film I posted where a courting couple were separated by a gunman and raped the girl. The DNA results /interpretation where revisited and revised when the rape victim

[Ed James]

Sorry sent by accident prematurely

The DNA results /interpretation were reviewed and revisited, as the result of a miscarriage of justice case, when the rape victim revealed several years later that she had been intimate that day with another lover.

atb

Ed

[Ed James]

I think Derrick on this thread told us that Valerie told Acott that Mike and her were intimate on the Sunday before the abduction.

Although Mike had taken Janet away he did leave his family away and come back in the week apparently to paint his new flat.

[moste]

I am going to be really controversial here and possibly throw a spanner in the works, but an idea has been forming in my head for months now and since we are discussing the possible significance of the journey, I'm going to express it.

Let's wind back to long before the events of that night. VS and MG were berated at work for their liaison. VS was angry about this and, in discussion with a male colleague, said that if he took her out, she would stop seeing MG. They went out a few times and, one night, she took him via the field that would later feature in the events of that night and told him 'that's where Mike and I usually stop'.

Now, the week before the event, MG had been on holiday with his family. He had not seen VS. Apparently, (according to discussion on another A6 thread)MG and VS had not made love on the night of the event and the semen deposits 'attributed' to MG were several days old. How? He had been on holiday and had not seen VS.

Are we looking at an angry colleague who took them on a bizarre 'rally' that night?

Hi Julie. I did mention the other day,"I wonder how thorough the detectives were when interviewing all of the colleagues at Road Research Labs," alluding also to this chap from work, that Val took into her confidence, took, to her favourite spot in that special quiet world of hers, took, to where else one may wonder.
However, Valerie was supposedly in the corn field with Mike, on the Sunday the 20th, before the tragedy.(that's why the corn field would have been already flattened down , if the statement about where the journey began on the 22nd was in fact a red herring.) Of course we may still be looking at an angry colleague. Angry colleague though would probably be the understatement of the century if he was in fact responsible for the evenings carnage.

[moste]

Sorry sent by accident prematurely

The DNA results /interpretation were reviewed and revisited, as the result of a miscarriage of justice case, when the rape victim revealed several years later that she had been intimate that day with another lover.

atb

Ed

Very interesting documentary, and I wonder given human failings, how many similar stories there are out there.

[Limehouse]

Hi Limehouse
First , I welcome your speculation - a bit like brainstorming upon which others can positively build. I recognise that some may see this as disrespectful to Valerie who is undoubtedly a strong , determined and courageous woman. However , I don't think we should artificially close down debate.

It is documented that both Valerie and Mike G had other 'relationships' during their 4 year affair and I believe that Valerie had said she doubted that they would form a permanent relationship with Mike free from Janet.

But I can't build easily on the idea of colleague as abductor , since the location and discovery of the murder weapon and cartridges would seem to point away from this theory. But I do faintly recall previous suggestions (regarded by some as distasteful) on the A6 threads about the timing of and responsibility for the semen deposits. I am reminded of this by a recent you tube film I posted where a courting couple were separated by a gunman and raped the girl. The DNA results /interpretation where revisited and revised when the rape victim

Hi Ed,

I recognise that we should be sensitive to VS's feelings. The event changed her life for ever and she lost the man she loved deeply and for whom she had sacrificed a great deal. However, in the articles she is very candid about the relationship with Mike and it is not so disrespectful to speculate that she may have had (and was entitled to have) other liaisons.

The issue of the gun on the bus is, slightly, problematic in this theory but as for the cartridge cases, I believe they were planted to provide a firmer suspect in the form of Alphon when, almost immediately, he was cleared and the police had to switch their attention because how else could the cartridge cases be explained?

I realise this is a long shot, but at least it provides a credible motive. Is it any more ridiculous that the idea of a London cat burglar creeping around cornfields looking for a couple in a car on whom to practise hold-ups?

Kind regards,

Julie

[Limehouse]

Hello, Limehouse:

Interesting. But that would mean she knew their captor, if it was "a male colleague", wouldn't it? So she deliberately picked someone else? (definitely controversial!)

I'll add to the controversial ideas, going the other way. VS seems in the articles to be very attached to MG, perhaps clinging. Did he really want to break up with her? Did he arrange for the frightening event to happen, so she'd want no more late night rallies? I'm thinking of him telling her at the gas station, "don't worry, everything will be all right", and basically going along with everything the abductor wanted.
Perhaps it was sort of planned-- except for the ending.

Hi PC, welcome to the A6 thread.

Your scenario is one that has crossed my mind in the past. However, I am not so sure who would be willing to do that sort of thing as a favour to a colleague or friend, given the risk they were taking in being caught with a gun and ammunition. Also, would someone hired under those circumstances need so such ammunition? Or any at all?

Kind regards,

Julie

[Limehouse]

Hi Julie. I did mention the other day,"I wonder how thorough the detectives were when interviewing all of the colleagues at Road Research Labs," alluding also to this chap from work, that Val took into her confidence, took, to her favourite spot in that special quiet world of hers, took, to where else one may wonder.
However, Valerie was supposedly in the corn field with Mike, on the Sunday the 20th, before the tragedy.(that's why the corn field would have been already flattened down , if the statement about where the journey began on the 22nd was in fact a red herring.) Of course we may still be looking at an angry colleague. Angry colleague though would probably be the understatement of the century if he was in fact responsible for the evenings carnage.

Hi Moste,

Just checked my 'Woffinden' and you are right, VS and MG spent most of that Sunday together. However, it still doesn't completely rule out the 'colleague' theory. If VS spent time with this colleague whenever Mike was out of the picture for short periods he may have got very worked up and would have known the most likely place to find then that Tuesday night as Mike picked VS up from their workplace.

I do realise this theory is a very big long shot, and the biggest problem with it is why Vs did not identify this person as her attacker. I do have some ideas about that but would like to see if any debate emerges from others and take it from there.

Kind regards,

julie