The crime

2

The Tension Between Evidence and Storytelling in the Trial of James Hanratty

I am not a man the court can approve of, but I am not a maniac of any kind. 1

The crime

At about 6.30 am on 23 August 1961, John Kerr, a student arriving to work on a traffi c census on the A6 south of Bedford, saw the bodies of a man and a woman in a lay- by. When he got nearer, he found that the man was dead with two shots to the head; but the woman was still alive, although she had been shot fi ve times, including once in the spine, which paralysed her for life. She identifi ed herself as Valerie Storie and the dead man as Michael Gregsten. Kerr fl agged down a car to ask the driver to call the emergency services. Once the police arrived, and given that Gregsten was dead, it fell to Storie to narrate – briefl y at the scene and much more fully after she was recovering in hospital – what had happened and how she and Gregsten came to be in this lay- by.

Gregsten (36) and Storie (22) both worked at the Road Research Laboratory in Slough (then in Buckinghamshire), some 60 miles from where they were found. They were having an aff air (Gregsten was estranged from his wife) and on the previous evening they had driven a few miles from work for a drink in a pub at Taplow and from there to nearby Dorney Reach where they had parked in a cornfi eld. They were in Gregsten’s car, a grey Morris Minor (possibly having sexual intercourse, as forensic analysis 40 years later would suggest [ Hanratty v Regina, 2002 ]), when at around 9.30 pm, a man approached their car, tapped on the window with a gun and said:

This is a hold up, I am a desperate man. I have been on the run for four months. If you do as I tell you, you will be all right. ( Miller, 2001 : 90)

According to Storie, he was immaculately dressed, wearing a dark suit and had tied a handkerchief over his face. He got into the back of the car, telling them that he had been living rough for a couple of days, and asked questions about them. He demanded that they hand over their wristwatches, but after seeing that they had little value, he eventually returned them to Storie. He also asked them to hand over their wallet and purse. He carried on with small talk, saying that he was hungry, but also said some more signifi cant things, such as that he had never had a chance in life. Storie recalled him saying that he had done ‘CT’ (corrective training); that he had ‘done the lot’ 2 and that next time he would get ‘PD’ (preventive detention). On his instruction, Gregsten drove towards Slough. They stopped for petrol, headed towards Hayes, and again stopped in Harrow for cigarettes. Storie and Gregsten spoke to each other in quiet voices and occasionally the man would tell them ‘Be quiet will you, I am fi nking’ ( Miller, 2001 : 102).

They continued their journey through north- west London, turning for Watford on the A6, later heading towards St Albans and then Bedford. By this time, the gunman was complaining of being tired and said that he needed ‘a kip’ ( Miller, 2001 : 103). Looking for somewhere they would not be disturbed, as they neared Bedford he told Gregsten to pull the car into a lay- by where the assailant tied Storie’s wrists to the door handle. The gunman then asked Gregsten to pass him a duff el bag that was on the fl oor by the front passenger seat. As Gregsten picked up the bag and turned to hand it over to the back seat, the assailant shot him twice in the head at point blank range, killing him instantly. Storie shouted, ‘You shot him, you bastard! Why did you do that?’ The gunman replied, ‘He frightened me. He moved too quick, I got frightened’ ( Miller, 2001 : 106). The time was somewhere between 2 am and 4 am, and while Storie and her assailant argued she attempted to seize his gun. The man eventually forced her into the back seat of the car where he raped her. Storie commented later how the assailant grew anxious about the time and as they continued to talk she told him, ‘Well, look, I must call you something … What shall I call you?’ According to Storie: ‘He sort of said, “Jim”. That’s the only name, obviously not his proper name I shouldn’t think’ ( Miller, 2001 : 117).

At almost daybreak, the assailant ordered Storie to remove Gregsten’s body from the car. Having dragged his body to the edge of the concrete strip, the gunman then ordered her to show him how to work the gears in the car. She urged him to leave but he expressed his concern that she would go for help once he left. Out of the car again, he walked two or three metres back towards it, then turned and shot Storie fi ve times. She lay still, pretending to