Hanratty - did he rape and murder?

There followed a string of events culminating in one of the most talked-about crimes ever: In the case known as the A6 Murder, Michael Gregsten was shot dead, and Valerie Storie was raped and left for dead.

The man police arrested and charged was James Francis Hanratty, 24, from Wembley.

Hanratty was a persistent offender, with form for car theft and housebreaking. He "never wore gloves", a reason, perhaps, for his being repeatedly captured. But did he kill Michael Gregsten? And did he rape and attempt to kill Valerie Storie?

To return a guilty verdict, a case must be proved beyond reasonable doubt. In my opinion, based on the evidence given at Hanratty's trial at Bedford Assizes, the case was not proven to this degree.

Hanratty was hanged nevertheless, giving rise to the question: is the death penalty appropriate when redress, if applicable, cannot be made?

The circumstances of the crime, evidence of identification and, to some extent, the conduct of the prosecution, and subsequent events by those campaigning on Hanratty's behalf, cannot be thoroughly examined here.

Perhaps, though, the overall picture can be presented. If so, we should begin with events of the late evening of August 22, when Gregsten and Storie left the Old Station Inn, and travelled to a nearby cornfield where they parked up.

To analyse events that followed, we must, of course, rely almost entirely on the testimony of Storie, for Gregsten was shot dead and James Hanratty always maintained he was not the gunman.

The gunman, whoever he was, got into the back seat of the car and told Gregsten to drive off, first around the cornfield, when Gregsten was forced to hand over his money; then, near midnight, through north west London, Watford, Aldenham, St Albans and up the A6.

The gunman ordered Gregsten to stop at a lay-by at the ironically-named Deadman's Hill, near Maulden, Bedfordshire.

There, he shot Gregsten twice in the back of the head, and forced Storie to sit in the back of the car with him, where he raped her.

He forced Storie to help him remove Gregsten's body from the car, whereupon he shot her. She feigned death as he fired several times more. Somehow, Storie survived, though for the rest of her life she was disabled.

The gunman fled in the car. Events that followed seem muddled in a labyrinth of identification of the car and the man, mistaken or otherwise.

Whatever, the car was found abandoned in east London, and the following evening the murder weapon and 60 rounds of ammunition were found hidden under the back seat of a number 36A London bus.

A description was circulated, together with a photofit of the man driving the car, which had been seen in various locations, being driven erratically.

One feature of the description given by Valerie Storie was the gunman's "icy-blue, large saucer-like eyes".

As was custom at that time, a senior detective from New Scotland Yard was assigned to the case Detective Superintendent Bob Acott.

It was not an easy case: an abduction in Berkshire; a murder and rape in Bedfordshire; the car abandoned in London; the murder weapon and ammunition found hidden on a bus.

But things took a turn, seemingly for the better, when two spent cartridge cases were found in the Vienna Hotel, Maida Vale, by the hotel manager, Robert Crocker. They were identified as coming from the murder weapon.

Mr Crocker had sacked a member of staff, Mr Nudds, who reported sick, then appeared on television at a horse race meeting. Crocker checked the hotel rooms, and, in Room 24, discovered the cartridges, apparently secreted in the upholstery of a chair.

The police had already made contact with the hotel regarding a guest named Frederick Durrant, real name Peter Alphon, who had been booked in on the night of the murder. Alphon had not stayed in Room 24, which had been occupied by another man, a Mr Ryan.

For a variety of reasons, police sought to interview Alphon in connection with the murder, and even appealed for help to find him on BBC television.

Alphon responded by presenting himself to the Yard. He stood on an identification parade, in which Storie mistakenly picked out an airman. Belatedly, police turned their attention to the man known as Mr Ryan.

The police identified, correctly, Mr Ryan to be James Hanratty. How they did so remains a mystery to this day. On information, one supposes.

As for Hanratty being the man, one can hardly place credibility on a reported sighting by Mr Ewer, none other than Janet Gregsten's brother-in-law, who reported seeing a man in a florists, and identified him as the gunman solely on description.

Still less on Janet Gregsten herself, who identified the man by "sixth sense".

Both sightings, it seems, were supposedly of James Hanratty, based on his "staring eyes".

It should be mentioned none of the fingerprints found in Gregsten's Morris Minor were Hanratty's (remember, he never wore gloves), who was arrested in a caf in Blackpool.

Hanratty took part in two identification parades. On the first, he was picked out by some, not all, witnesses; on the second, Storie picked him out, identifying not his appearance, but his voice. It would hardly be surprising if she could not recognise his face; at the time of the abduction the gunman sat behind her in the car, and it was in the black of night when he raped her. Hanratty was charged with murder.

The evidence, it seemed, comprised the recovery of the two spent cartridges from the Vienna Hotel, and identification by witnesses. On the first point, no-one knows how long the cartridges were secreted in the chair's upholstery (it should be noted these cartridges must have been discharged before the murder). On the second, identification is not always reliable; although several witnesses picked Hanratty out; the most important, Storie, did so only after "identifying" another man (the airman) first.

Still, if Hanratty had an alibi which he would if he was innocent then he could quickly discredit the evidence.

At first, Hanratty said he was in Liverpool at the time of the murder. He had met three friends, he said, whom he would not name, as all were of the criminal fraternity.

His reticence placed his alibi in serious doubt, not least because his life depended on it. Then he changed his story, saying he was in Liverpool on the Monday, and in Rhyl, north Wales, on the Tuesday. If true, he could not have abducted Gregsten and Storie on the Tuesday night. In the Rhyl alibi, Hanratty maintained he could produce independent witnesses, for he had sought bed and breakfast in the town. One must ask, as the jury must have asked, why he did not mention Rhyl in the first place.

Enquiries into Hanratty's alibi were never conclusive. Witnesses were seen, and seen again, even years after he was hanged.

I believe withholding information on his alibis caused more damage to Hanratty's defence than anything. Quite simply, the jury did not believe a man who, under threat of death, would not tell the truth without hesitation.

Did Hanratty receive a fair trial? I do not think he did. His case was moved to the Old Bailey, yet strangely switched to Bedford Assizes, where the jury were asked to consider the case against a man charged with murder in their own county.

In any event, Hanratty was found guilty, and hanged at Bedford gaol on April 4, 1962. His body was interred within the prison but, in 1966, his remains were moved to Carpenders Park cemetery, near Watford.

Over the years, many other killers, facing death, have confessed their crime. Hanratty maintained his innocence to the last.

JAMES HANRATTY'S parents campaigned vigorously to clear their son's name. Now they are both dead.

The fight to clear his name continues by his brothers and their families, and possibly other interested groups. Only the Court of Appeal can clear his name, in which case Hanratty's relatives will make a fortune (cynical old me).

MICHAEL GREGSTEN'S wife Janet died in 1995. For the record, she did not believe in capital punishment and did not want Hanratty to hang. (The court would have had no option, as murder then was a capital offence). Only the Home Secretary could pardon him.

VALERIE STORIE, raped and shot, is alive, and lives in Berkshire. She has never received compensation she never sought any.

PETER ALPHON is still alive. He is 65 and regarded as mad. He has admitted the murder several times over. There is no proof he didn't do it, or at least was involved. He was a persistent telephone caller, harassing anyone from the police to judges.

January 30, 2002 13:54