The Long Silence: The Story of James Hanratty and the A6 Murder by Valerie Storie, the Woman Who Lived to Tell the Tale

Valerie Storie, the surviving victim of the infamous A6 Murder, reveals what happened 60 years ago for the very first time. 22-year-old Valerie Storie and her fiance, 36-year-old Michael Gregsten, were the victims of gunman, James Hanratty, 60 years ago in the notorious ‘A6 Murder’. After a 5-hour ordeal, ending in a lay-by on the A6 in Bedfordshire, Michael was shot dead; and Valerie was raped, shot and left for dead. She survived, but was paralysed and in a wheelchair until her death in 2016. In 1962, Hanratty became one of the last men in the UK to be hanged, so unleashing 40 years of fierce and passionate debate, as many were convinced of his innocence. Valerie, however, was never in any doubt, and easily picked out Hanratty in an identity parade. She always intended to write a book, to which end she had secretly over the years drafted its contents, written hundreds of notes, and made numerous tape recordings. Yet for over 50 years she gave no interviews, despite persistent media pressure to do so. The Long Silence is, in essence, Valerie’s posthumous autobiography, explaining for the first time every explicit detail of those ‘cat and mouse’ five hours, as Michael and Valerie tried on 22 occasions to deter and thwart the apparently indecisive Hanratty. AUTHOR: Paul Stickler joined Hampshire Constabulary in 1978 and spent the majority of his time investigating murders for CID. He was seconded to the FBI Academy at Quantico to study international perspectives of crime investigation. Since his retirement in 2008 he has indulged his passion for history, researching murders in the first half of the twentieth century. 20 b/w illustrations