What is the A6 Murders? and Our Idea?

The A6 Murders (Quoted from the James Hanratty Wikipedia Article)

The Facts

At about 06:45 on the 23rd of August 1961, the body of Michael Gregsten was discovered in a lay by on the side of the A6 near Deadman's Hill, near Clophill. He had been shot at point blank range twice by a .38n revolver. Lying beside him was his semi-conscious mistress Valerie Storie. She has been raped and then shot 5 times, 4 in the shoulder and one in the neck, this caused her to become paralyzed below the shoulders. 

The evening post the murder, the care that Valerie and Michael had been in that night was found abandoned behind Redbridge Tube Station in Essex. The car had been jointly owned by Gregstens Mother and his and Aunt and lent to him for what Valerie said was a supposed 'Car Rally'. Michael and Valerie worked at the same laboratory, he was a scientist and she was an assistant and they had been having an affair which didnt become public knowledge until much later.

The killer was suspected two be one of two people, either Peter Louis Alphon or James Hanratty, during the trial both of them changed their version of events several times, making it difficult for the judge and jury to make a decision. However, they decided that James Hanratty was the criminal and sentenced him to death, even though Valerie failed to pick him out of a line up. James Hanratty was one of the last people to be hung for his crimes in the United Kingdom.

The Appeal

Although James Hanratty was sentenced to death for the acts he committed during the A6 Murders, there was always much speculation that he wasn't the killer. This provoked an appeal by his family in 2002, due to the introduction of DNA evidence. The case was reopened and DNA gathered from James' corpse and his family. The evidence gave the judge no choice but to say that James Hanratty was the killer 'Beyond Doubt'. 

However, his family still believe in his innocence and claim that the DNA evidence could have been contaminated because it has been in a scientific lab for 41 year and the DNA from his corpse could be corrupted. 

Our Idea

Our storyline consists of the reenactment/copycat of the A6 murders in which they are now set in the modern day, however, once they do find DNA of the killer on the victims, they discover that it is actually the DNA of the original A6 murderer James Hanratty who has been dead some 41 years... In 2002 Hanratty, who was the original killer was proved guilty by DNA evidence which was not available at the time of the first trial. This means that for Hanratty to be the killer now the DNA Evidence must have been tampered with. To enforce it one of the victims of the case, is one of the Pathologists who worked on the original Hanratty case, this adds tension to the plot and implies a tick list type ideology to the film as the dead pathologist is one of many in the recent times. This shows that it is obvious that the killer doesnt agree with the result of the original case. 

We have decided to call our production film 'Deadman' as the original murders happened on Deadman's Hill so acts like a play on words and the proved killer in the reenactment is James Hanratty who is now a 'Dead-man'