The day before James Hanratty was hanged for murder at Bedford Prison in 1962, he pleaded with his father to clear his name. Thirty-seven years on and due in part to the determination of his family to prove his innocence, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) yesterday decided to refer his case back to the Court of Appeal.
The decision to ask judges to consider again one of the longest-running alleged miscarriages of justice was welcomed by the lawyer acting for the Hanratty family as "excellent news" and vindicated their long campaign to clear his name. Mr Geoffrey Bindman said Hanratty's mother, Mary, and his three brothers were delighted with the CCRC's decision and he insisted that it was not a waste of money to consider the case of a man who was already dead.
An innocent man had been sent to death, he said, and the appeal highlighted once again the dangers of capital punishment. He also denied Hanratty's family were "obsessed" with the case: "They gave a solemn pledge to James Hanratty. It was the last thing he asked of them, to clear his name, and they have carried it out in a committed and courageous way." James Hanratty's conviction for the murder in April 1961 of the scientist, Mr Michael Gregsten (36), has been persistently challenged by his family and friends who claim that, although a petty crook, Hanratty was not capable of murder. However, the two-year inquiry into the case conducted by the CCRC, which took over responsibility for examining alleged miscarriages of justice in 1997, has cast some doubt over their assumption. In March last year, DNA tests carried out on samples found at the crime scene were reported to have questioned Hanratty's innocence, but ultimately did not rule out sending the case for review to the Court of Appeal.
His conviction was based largely on the evidence of Mr Gregsten's mistress, Ms Valerie Storie, who was badly injured when the murderer surprised the couple in a cornfield in Dorney Reach, Berkshire. They were forced to drive to Deadman's Hill in nearby Bedford where both were shot. Ms Storie's evidence against Hanratty, who claimed he was 250 miles away at a hotel in Rhyl, north Wales, was based on her memory of the attacker's voice during the couple's six-hour ordeal, and Hanratty's supporters claim that evidence would not now be accepted in court.
Ms Storie later identified Hanratty, who was aged 25 at the time of the murder, as the man who raped, shot and attempted to murder her and killed Mr Gregsten, despite admitting she saw her attacker for only a few seconds. Hanratty's supporters also claim that the circumstances of his arrest were highly irregular. Hanratty was arrested after it was reported that Mr Gregsten's widow had identified him in the street as the man who may have killed her husband.
Since his hanging, however, several witnesses have come forward to support Hanratty's claim that he was innocent. Among them was the landlady of the hotel in Wales who insisted he was there at the time of the murder. And two days after he was hanged, the suicide note left by a Soho club owner, Mr Charles "Dixie" France, appeared to suggest that he had a guilty conscience about Hanratty's hanging.
Hanratty's supporters also point to the figure of another former criminal, Peter Alphon, a friend of Mr France, who withdrew a confession that someone close to the Gregstens offered him £5,000 to frighten the couple.