On this
date, 4 April 1962, James Hanratty was executed by hanging in Bedford Prison, Bedford, Bedfordshire, England for the
A6 murders. Anti-Death Penalty campaigners claim that he was innocent but a DNA
testing forty years later prove them all wrong. If James Hanratty had lived, he
will kill again for sure. Let us also hear from homicide Survivor, Valerie
Storie who was satisfied after 40 years later.
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Valerie Storie
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QUOTE: Maintaining
her belief in capital punishment, Miss Storie said that the fact that Hanratty
was hanged meant she had been able at least to live her life without fear.
"I have always been and always will be a great supporter of capital
punishment," she added.
Of Hanratty, she said: "He committed a
crime, he was guilty and he must hang therefore I have got no fear of him. If
he had not been hanged then his life sentence would have finished and he would
be out. I don't think I would have had a moment's peace - every knock at the
door I would fear he was there again."
AUTHOR: Valerie Storie - The woman who was raped, shot and left paralysed by A6
murderer James Hanratty has said she feels "vindicated" after his
posthumous conviction appeal was thrown out. Wheelchair-bound Valerie Storie
said she never had any doubts about Hanratty's guilt and backed the decision to
hang him. Hanratty shot and killed Michael Gregsten before turning to his
mistress, Miss Storie on the evening of August 22 1961. In February the
following year Hanratty was convicted of capital murder and was one of the last
men to be hanged in Britain. The Court of Appeal ruled that DNA evidence
established Hanratty's guilt "beyond doubt". Lord Woolf, the Lord
Chief Justice, sitting with Lord Justice Mantell and Mr Justice Leveson,
announced their decision in the posthumous appeal to a packed court in London.
Hanratty, 25, went to the gallows on April 4, 1962, for the notorious A6 murder
in Bedfordshire, in which scientist Mr Gregsten, 36, was shot dead. His
22-year-old mistress, Miss Storie, was raped and shot. She survived but was
left paralysed from the waist down.
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