James Hanratty James Hanratty James Hanratty (4 October 1936 – 4 April 1962), also 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 effectively abolished. He was hanged at Bedford Gaol 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. Gregsten's mistress, Valerie Storie, was raped, shot five times, and left paralysed. According to Storie, the couple were
Murder of Moll McCarthy McCarthy's youngest child, who had recently died in infancy, and that he feared his uncle would disinherit him if he found this out. Gleeson denied any "immoral association" with McCarthy or "hand, act or part" in her murder. He was tried at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin, found guilty on 27 February 1941, and sentenced to death. Appeals to the Fianna Fáil government for clemency were rejected, and he was hanged by Thomas Pierrepoint in Mountjoy Prison and buried in the prison yard. Seán MacBride was junior counsel to James Nolan-Whelan in defending Gleeson, and later claimed his opposition