James Hanratty

"The DNA evidence does not “stand alone” and the Court refers to some of the more striking coincidences in the light of the DNA evidence if James Hanratty was not guilty. He would have been wrongly identified by three witnesses at identification parades; first as the person at the scene of the crime and secondly (by two witnesses) driving a vehicle close to where the vehicle in which the murder was committed was found. He had the same identifying manner of speech as the killer. He stayed in a room the night before the crime from which bullets that had been fired from the murder weapon were recovered. The murder weapon was recovered from a place on a bus which he regarded as a hiding place and the bus followed a route he could well have used. His DNA was found on a piece of material from Valerie Storie’s knickers where it would be expected to be if he was guilty; it was also found on the handkerchief found with the gun. The Court concludes that this number of alleged coincidences mean that they are not coincidences but provide overwhelming proof of the safety of the conviction from an evidential perspective."

- The UK Court of Appeal rejecting Hanratty's posthumous appeal in 2002.

James Hanratty, AKA The A6 Murderer and James Ryan (4th October 1936 - 4th April 1962) was a British criminal and one of the last eight people to be hanged in Britain, for the murder of Michael Gregsten and the rape and attempted murder of Valerie Storie. Although there was substantial doubt about Hanratty's guilt at the time, most doubts were quashed in 2002, when Hanratty's posthumous appeal was rejected on the grounds of DNA evidence that proved his guilt. His motivation is unknown, but it is known that he was diagnosed as a psychopath in 1955.

A6 Murder
On 22nd August 1961, Hanratty approached a parked Morris Minor Traveller driven by Michael Gregsten and his mistress Valerie Storie and pulled a gun on them, ordering them to let him get in the car. Hanratty then forced Gregsten and Storie to to drive him round the country, with seemingly no actual plan other than to antagonize them. At about 130am the following morning, the car was driving down the A6 when Hanratty ordered them to pull into a layby. He then tied Storie's hands together and ordered Gregsten to pass him a duffel bag full of clean clothing. When Gregsten turned to pass him the bag, Hanratty shot him twice in the head, killing him. Hanratty told Storie that Gregsten's sudden movement had startled him, then forced her to kiss him, before removing her clothes and raping her at gunpoint. After forcing Storie to remove Gregsten's body, Hanratty prepared to kill her, but she told him to take the car and leave. Hanratty began to walk back towards the car, before turning round and shooting Storie five times, leaving her paralysed. He then left in the car, unaware that Storie was still alive and would be found and saved by John Kerr and Sydney Burton several hours later.

Arrest
During the investigation, Peter Louis Alphon and a man known as "James Ryan" (later identified as Hanratty) were named as the prime suspects, as they were the last two occupants of a hotel room where cartridges matched to the bullets that killed Gregsten were found. Alphon was temporarily detained, but later released after Storie denied he was the man who had killed Gregsten. The police then investigated further, and identifed Hanratty as James Ryan. On 11th October 1961, Hanratty was formally booked, and on 14th October Storie identified him as the killer. He was then charged with murder, rape, attempted murder and kidnapping.

Trial and execution
During the trial, Hanratty claimed he was in Liverpool at the time of the murder to sell some stolen jewellery, pointing to two witnesses: William Usher, a fence who he claimed to have sold the jewellery to, and a Mrs. Dinwoodie, whose shop he had briefly entered to ask for directions. Both witnesses remembered seeing Hanratty, but Mrs. Dinwoodie claimed he had visited on a different day. Hanratty later admitted this was the case, and claimed that he was in fact in the Welsh town of Rhyl on the day of the murder. The landlady of the boarding-house where he had allegedly stayed was called as a witness, and stated that a man resembling Hanratty had checked in, however the prosecution pointed out that all the rooms at the boarding-house were accounted for and accused her of being an unreliable witness.

After nine hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously declared Hanratty guilty. Despite a petition signed by 90, 000 people for his release (as sufficient technology to find the DNA evidence that later proved his guilt had not been developed yet) Hanratty was executed by hanging at Bedford Gaol on 4th April 1962.