39 Facts About James Hanratty

James Hanratty, known as the A6 Murderer, was a British criminal who was one of the final eight people in the UK to be executed before capital punishment was abolished.

James Hanratty was hanged at Bedford Jail on 4 April 1962, after being convicted of the murder of scientist Michael Gregsten, aged 36, who was shot dead in a car on the A6 at Deadman's Hill, near Clophill, Bedfordshire in August 1961.

James Hanratty's testimony was critical in securing a guilty verdict, but this was questioned by many who felt the supporting evidence too weak to justify conviction, and Hanratty's brother fought for decades to have the verdict overturned.

James Hanratty was born on 4 October 1936 in Farnborough, Kent, the eldest of four sons of James Francis Hanratty and his wife Mary Ann Hanratty nee Wilson.

Shortly after his discharge, James Hanratty left home for Brighton, where he obtained casual work with a road haulier.

James Hanratty was sent to recuperate at an aunt's home in Bedford, a place he and his brother Michael had visited as children on holiday.

James Hanratty found a job there driving a mechanical shovel for the company of Green Brothers, which made breeze blocks, and remained with the firm for three years.

On 7 September 1954, aged 17, James Hanratty appeared before Harrow Magistrates' where he was placed on probation for taking a motor vehicle without consent, and for driving without a licence or insurance.

In October 1955, aged 18, James Hanratty appeared at the County of Middlesex Sessions, where he was sentenced to two terms of two years' imprisonment, to run concurrently, for housebreaking and theft.

On 3 July 1957, aged 20, five months after his release from Wormwood Scrubs, James Hanratty was sentenced at Brighton Magistrates' Court to six months' imprisonment for a variety of motoring offences, including theft of a motor vehicle and driving without a licence.

James Hanratty was sent to Walton Prison, Liverpool, where he was again diagnosed as a psychopath.

In March 1958, aged 21, at the County of London Sessions, James Hanratty was again convicted of car theft, and of driving while disqualified, and sentenced to three years' corrective training at Wandsworth Prison, and then to Maidstone Prison.

James Hanratty attempted to escape that facility as well, and was sent to Strangeways Prison, Manchester.

James Hanratty told Gregsten to pass the bag but, as Gregsten moved, there were two shots.

James Hanratty refused and, having managed to free her hands, tried to disarm him but was overpowered; after he threatened to shoot her, she relented.

James Hanratty then retrieved a cloth from the duffle bag, covered Gregsten's bloodied head with it, and ordered Storie to clamber into the back of the car, over Gregsten's body.

James Hanratty then ordered Storie to drag Gregsten's body out of the car to the edge of the lay-by 2 or 3 metres away, before ordering her back into the car to start it for him and demonstrate the operation of the gears and switches.

James Hanratty telephoned Scotland Yard several times, saying he had fled because he had no credible alibi for the date in question, but repeated each time that he had nothing to do with the A6 murder.

James Hanratty claimed that he was staying with friends in Liverpool at the time of the murder, where he had gone to see one of his criminal friends and former cell mate Terry McNally from Dingle to sell some jewellery.

James Hanratty claimed that his suitcase had been handed in to Lime Street Station to a 'man with a withered or turned hand'.

James Hanratty said he had called into a sweetshop in Scotland Road and asked directions to 'Carleton' or 'Tarleton' Road.

The Police tracked down a Mrs Dinwoodie, who served in a sweetshop in Scotland Road, and who recalled a man like James Hanratty asking for directions.

James Hanratty's defence claimed that Mrs Dinwoodie was mistaken about the date.

Just before the defence opened its case, James Hanratty changed part of his alibi.

James Hanratty confessed to his defence barrister that he had invented part of the Liverpool story as he was unsure he could prove where he was.

James Hanratty then stated that he had in fact been in the Welsh coastal town of Rhyl.

James Hanratty's appeal was dismissed on 13 March, and despite a petition signed by more than 90,000 people, James Hanratty was hanged by executioner Harry Allen at Bedford on 4 April 1962, still protesting his innocence.

James Hanratty was initially buried in the grounds of Bedford Gaol, but, on 22 February 1966, his remains were exhumed and re-interred in a grave at Watford, later shared with his aunt.

James Hanratty started to bombard his own solicitor with threatening phone calls and letters.

James Hanratty wrote a suicide letter to Hanratty; it was full of spite and venom, but at no point actually accused him of committing the murder.

James Hanratty wrote a letter to the coroner, in which he referred to the great harm done to the family by Hanratty.

The James Hanratty family acting through their solicitor, Sir Geoffrey Bindman, repeatedly called for further inquiries into the case.

James Hanratty's body was exhumed in 2001 to extract his DNA.

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.

James Hanratty would have been wrongly identified by three witnesses at identification parades; first as the person at the scene of the crime and secondly driving a vehicle close to where the vehicle in which the murder was committed was found.

James Hanratty had the same identifying manner of speech as the killer.

James Hanratty stayed in a room the night before the crime from which bullets that had been fired from the murder weapon were recovered.

James Hanratty's 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 found on the handkerchief found with the gun.

At the appeal hearing in 2002, Michael Mansfield QC, the barrister acting for the James Hanratty family, said that a vial, among surviving evidential items, had been broken which could account for contamination.