In the late 60s I interviewed 14 witnesses who, with varying degrees of certainty, supported Hanratty’s story, including Margaret Walker, a landlady in a neighbouring guest house, who was certain of the date a young man looking like Hanratty came to her house looking for lodgings. It was the night of the A6 murder. The more the inquiries went on, the firmer became Hanratty’s alibi.
It was, in the light of all this, impossible to believe that Hanratty had not been to Ingledene. Did he go there at some other time? I went through his known movements for every week after his first visit to Rhyl in July 1961. All the subsequent weeks could be accounted for. None of the various (secret) police inquiries since, nor the (secret) Hawser inquiry in 1974, nor the criminal cases review commission has come up with a single substantial piece of evidence to refute the Rhyl alibi.
Unless I see such evidence, I prefer to stick with the view that if there is DNA to show that a man staying in Rhyl committed a murder 200 miles away, there is something seriously wrong with the DNA. That will be the approach of the Hanratty family lawyers at the court of appeal where the matter will be argued out, I imagine, at a higher level than that reached by the crime reporters of the Sun and the Mail or by Jack Straw’s new noose-happy Tory sentencing adviser. Paul Foot, article Guardian Unlimited 25th July 2000
Even a lord justice of appeal can work out that if you are in Rhyl, you cannot commit a murder near Bedford. The essence of the case for the innocence of James Hanratty, who was hanged in 1962 for the A6 murder, is that on the day of the murder he travelled to Liverpool, and then on to Rhyl. Soon after his arrest in October 1961, he told his lawyers that in Liverpool he had called at a sweetshop in the Scotland Road to ask the way to Tarleton or Carlton Road. Mrs Olive Dinwoodie gave evidence to say a) that she recalled a man looking like Hanratty calling at her shop and asking the way to Tarleton or Carlton Road and b) that she was only serving in the shop for two days – on August 21 and 22, 1961 – the day of the murder ...
After interviewing all these witnesses in the late 1960s, I was convinced that Hanratty was in Rhyl on the night of the 22nd. I wrote a book about the case. The case was referred to the criminal cases review commission in 1997. Their inquiries were led by Bill Skitt, former chief constable of Hertfordshire. All the initial inquiries pointed to Hanratty’s innocence. Right at the end, the commission carried out DNA tests on fragments connected with the murder.
For years, those of us campaigning for Hanratty’s innocence had been asking for these DNA tests, but were told that no DNA could be recovered from the exhibits. In November 1997 scientists took a swab from Michael Hanratty, the dead man’s brother. To the astonishment of the commission, there was a match with his DNA and a handkerchief wrapped around the murder gun when it was found after the murder, and a small square of knickers worn by Valerie Storie on the night she was raped and she and her lover, Michael Gregsten, shot.
In April 1998, a further swab was taken from Hanratty’s mother. Michael Hanratty, Jim’s brother, and his wife Maureen remember going to the old lady’s bedside with Mr Skitt to take the swab. She remembers Skitt saying: ‘Your brother was innocent – we just can’t explain the DNA.’ Another match was found, and later confirmed when James Hanratty’s body was dug up later that year. In spite of the findings, the case was still referred to the court of appeal, which heard the appeal over the past few weeks. The DNA findings conflicted grotesquely with the alibis. If Hanratty was guilty, as the DNA suggested, he could not have been in Liverpool and Rhyl. If he was in Liverpool and Rhyl, there must be something wrong with the DNA. Paul Foot, Guardian Unlimited 13th May 2002
The case of James Hanratty who was hanged thirty-seven years ago is to be referred back to the Court of Appeal. James Hanratty was executed for killing a man on the A-6 in Bedfordshire in 1962. BBC News 1999
Three judges at the Court of Appeal have dismissed the appeal on behalf of James Hanratty, who was hanged for the A6 murder in Bedfordshire 40 years ago. The court ruled that 25-year-old Hanratty was not wrongly convicted in 1962 of murdering scientist Michael Gregsten.
Hanratty, one of the last people to be executed before the abolition of capital punishment in the UK, had always claimed he was 250 miles away from the scene – in Rhyl, north Wales.
But on Friday, the three judges ruled that DNA evidence had established his guilt ‘beyond doubt’. Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, said: ‘In our judgment ... the DNA evidence establishes beyond doubt that James Hanratty was the murderer.’ He added that the DNA evidence ‘made what was a strong case even stronger.’ BBC News 10th May 2002
Murdered Hanratty. John & Oko Lennon’s protest placard
Eleven Witnesses Swear He Was In Rhyl 200 Miles Away When The Crime Was Committed. I Demand A Public Inquiry. And Justice To Be Done. James Hanratty’s father’s protest placard
The police were lying. Tamsin Allen, Hanratty family solicitor
Two or three thousand undisclosed statements – files and files and files – we have a list of twelve thousand documents ... And there may be many more to find. Tamsin Allen
It almost looks as if they’re casting around for the next available person. Tamsin Allen
Tonight Horizon tells the extraordinary story of how breakthroughs in DNA science have transformed a bitter case of conflicting evidence of murder and justice. Horizon: The A-6 Murder, BBC 2002
Forty years ago a small-time thief called James Hanratty with no history of violent crime was hanged for a motiveless and horrific murder. But vital evidence withheld from the original trial suggested Hanratty may have been executed wrongly. ibid.
Could science now resolve the case of the A-6 killer? ibid.
Exhibit 26 and sent for analysis – hidden in the microscopic fibres was proof Valerie Storie had been raped. ibid.
A case was brought against twenty-five-year-old James Hanratty who was executed six months after the murder on the basis of other non-forensic evidence. Hanratty went to his death protesting his innocence, claiming he had been set up by the police. ibid.
Then came DNA. ibid.
In fact nothing was ever found to link Hanratty forensically to the murder. Instead, his arrest was as the result of a strange and complex sequence of discoveries. ibid.
Hanratty was charged with the murder of Michael Gregsten and put on trial for his life. ibid.
Paralysed for life by a crime of shocking violence, Valerie Storie was a powerful witness, utterly unshakeable in her conviction that James Hanratty was indeed the killer. ibid.
In 1997 DNA work began again on the Hanratty case ... Science suggesting that the person who had raped Valerie Storie had also handled the murder weapon. ibid.
The interview record has been altered. ibid.
This time Valerie Storie picked out the correct police suspect ... A suspect because he was staying in the same hotel as the man police first arrested ... Witnesses whose sighting was questionable ... The failure of Valerie Storie’s first flawed identification of an entirely innocent man. ibid.
His brother Michael and mother Mary volunteered samples of their own DNA ... The results surprised everyone. ibid.
But what else apart from Hanratty’s guilt could explain the DNA? ibid.
What scientists call contamination is a genuine and alarming outcome of PCR. ibid.
During the trial itself clothing from Hanratty and Valerie Storie was transported to and from court in the same cardboard boxes. ibid.
If James Hanratty is not the killer, then where is the DNA? ibid.
The DNA is only Hanratty’s. ibid.