The Hanratty case always troubled me as I was a 13 year old boy at the time, and it was the cause célèbre. Whilst people convicted of capital murder were automatically sentenced to death, actual executions were few and far between. There was a lot of doubt at the time and it was widely expected that he would be reprieved. Obviously the Home Secretary of the day was privy to more information than the general public. The letter that Hanratty wrote to his parents from the death cell on the eve of his execution, protesting his innocence, only added to the unease. His parents continued to argue for a pardon until their deaths. Subsequent DNA evidence, unknown at the time, placed him firmly at the scene of the crime. Small comfort for anyone, but at least, whatever one's views are about capital punishment, an innocent man was not wrongly hanged.