Family’s fight to get pardon for Hanratty
JAMES Hanratty, a 25-year-old petty thief with a learning disability, was hanged at Bedford Prison on April 4, 1962.
He had been convicted of the A6 murder of scientist Michael Gregsten, 36, who was shot dead in a car at Deadman’s Hill, Bedfordshire, in August 1961.
The victim’s girlfriend, Valerie Storie, was raped, shot five times and left paralysed. In her trial evidence she said she was certain that the man responsible was James Hanratty. So despite providing an alibi for the day of the shooting, on February 12, 1962, after a 21-day trial the jury returned an unanimous guilty verdict and he was sentenced to death.
A hastily assembled appeal was launched, only to be dismissed less than a
month later and Hanratty was hanged.
The case reinforced a growing campaign to abolish capital punishment backed by many politicians and celebrities including John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Part two of The Guilty Innocent on Sky History explores an ongoing campaign by his family to clear Hanratty’s name.
They discuss the stigma surrounding their distinctive surname, which still exists today. After meeting Hanratty’s son and nephew for the documentary, presenter Christopher Eccleston says: “Hanratty went to the gallows as a murderer in the law’s eyes.
They want his name cleared because they’re all Hanrattys.
“They want a posthumous total pardon and that’s what they’re campaigning for. To go through life being told that a member of your family murdered people is a burden.
“Even more importantly than that, if there is an error in law, the law needs to be corrected for those that go afterwards.”