There was nothing remarkable about thetraintraveling from Glasgow . The 12 elevator car powered by a singlediesel locomotivemade up a mobilepost officeknown as theUp Special . It was carry postal staff who sorted ring armor and packages en route to London as it had done every Nox without incident for 125 years . It was completely everyday – that is , until the night of Aug. 8 , 1963 .
That nighttime , the Up Special was carry a large amount of cash in its second car , where register ring armour was sort out . The amount was larger than usual because it had been a cant vacation weekend in Scotland .
At just past 3 a.m. near the Bridego Railway Bridge in Buckinghamshire , England , agangof thieves pulled off a daring stickup . They stole 120 sacking of bank note worth £ 2.6 million ( about $ 7 million at the time , or more than $ 50 million today ) from the second car – a heist know today as the Great Train Robbery .
Few crimes or criminals enamour our mental imagery like the chronicle of the legendary outlaws of the American West , but the Great Train Robbery was one that did . It was the biggest raid on a train in British history , and it was the largest gearing armed robbery since an 1855 attack on a gearing carrying amber bullion between London and Paris . The story even catapulted one man into folk hero story .
bull , robber , prisonescapes andplastic surgery– it could be a taradiddle lift from a Hollywood movie . So who were the men who pulled off the Great Train Robbery ? retrieve out next .
The Crime
It took fifteen men to pull off the Great Train Robbery of 1963 , along with a few accomplices . The cast of characters of criminals included Bruce Reynolds , Douglas Gordon " Goody,“Ronald " Buster " Edwards , Charlie Wilson , Ronnie Biggs , Roy James , Roger Cordrey , Tom Wisbey , Jim Hussey , Bob Welch , Brian Field , Leonard Field , Jimmy White , William Boal and John Daly .
Their accomplice were known as Mr. One , Mr. Two and Mr. Three ; " Peter , " brought to get thetrain ; and John Wheater , who secured the safe house .
Although no one is sure who first had the idea to rob themailtrain , Bruce Reynolds , a burglar and passe trader in London , is known as the mastermind . After ending a stretch inprisonin 1962 , Reynolds began to put together his crew . He started with his own man , the South Westgang , and chose gang extremity Gordon " Goody , " a London hairstylist and part - time thief , to be his No . 2 .
As the details were work out , it became cleared that the South West crowd would n’t be big enough to pull off such a big - scale robbery . But as both Reynolds and Goody were ripe friend with formerboxer - reverse - club proprietor " Buster " Edwards , leader of the South East crew , it was decided the two gangs would work together .
Through his contacts , Reynolds incur the wagon train ’s details : its schedule , the amount of cash it would be carrying and the car it would be in , and the number of worker onboard . After learning the payload would be greater after a bank vacation – the next being on Aug. 5 , 1963 – Reynolds tapped into an insider , known later on in the media as the " Ulsterman , " to find out which day the train would be carrying cash to London . The date was go under .
Reynolds had his men , information about the train and a date , but he needed to figure out one last detail : how to arrest the wagon train .
It was Roger Cordrey , an fellow of " Buster " Edwards , who come up with that answer . Just as we encounter brake light when we push railcar trains also rely on signals to know when to go on and when to stop – fleeceable agency go , gold have in mind slow down and red means stop . Cordrey proposed he " deposit " the sign . Using black theme and leather glove , he would cover the unripened signals at their chosen bit . And using battery and wire , he would turn on a red signal .
It was clip . The men put down low at Leatherslade Farm , theirsafe house , drinkingbeerand play Monopoly while they waited for the date the train was schedule to pass by .
Early on the first light of Aug. 8 , the men struck . They cut the phone lines at the emergency call box near the caterpillar tread , and as they hold back for the string to appear , a convinced Reynolds lit up a Montecristo No . 2 cigar . The train approached just after 3 a.m. and stopped at the cherry signal Cordrey had set at Sears Crossing . The train ’s gadget driver , Jack Mills , was murder on the head while trying to discern what was happening . His was the worst injury of the heist .
Roy James and his squad uncoupled the engine and first two cars from the train . When " Peter , " the gang ’s show gadget driver , was ineffective to move the string , he was throw away off and the injured Mills was forced to drive the gear one and one half miles ( 2.4 km ) to the indicate unloading smirch : Bridego Bridge . There , they removed 120 sacking arrest two and one half tons of money , brought it back to their safe house and divvied it up .
It took only 15 proceedings for the men to do the operation . Would it take a game of Monopoly to untie them ?
The Great Train Robbery Investigation
Just two days after the robbery , theFlying Squadwas created from the best police detective of Scotland Yard and was charged with finding the criminals behind the Great Train Robbery . Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Butler , experience around Scotland Yard for his professionalism and thoroughness , was assign to be the team ’s tribal chief . Among the team of detectives was Jack Slipper , a tall man with a pencil mustache who would become a household name for his work on the case and hiscat - and - mousechases with Ronnie Biggs .
The Flying Squad ’s first break in the example came eight days after its investigation began . A suspicious vehicle was reported at an old farmhouse about 30 miles ( 48.28 kilometer ) from the scene of the law-breaking . The former farmhouse – Leatherslade Farm – was the same one that the adult male used as their good theatre . Food , sleeping traveling bag and bedding were observe in the house , along with cant line negligee andpost officesacks . Fingerprintswere found on a bottle of cetchup and on the Monopoly biz the men had play with some of the £ 1 , £ 5 and £ 10 notes they had stolen .
Within a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of the find of the fingerprint , Roger Cordrey was collar . In a week , Charlie Wilson was stop in London and constabulary were on to Bruce Reynolds , Jimmy White , Roy James and Buster Edwards . Biggs ' fingermark was find on a bottle of ketchup in the good planetary house and he was check on Sept. 4 , 1963 .
Ronnie Biggs , Charlie Wilson , Tommy Wisbey , Jim Hussey and Bob Welch were all sent to Bedfordprisonto await trial . While in prison , they get word that Goody had been questioned but let go for insufficient evidence . However , several hebdomad later on , he , too , was pick up , charge and send out to Bedford .
Two month after arriving at Bedford , Biggs was planning his escape but would have to expect – the group was transferred to Aylesbury prison house and security was soaked . During their fourth dimension at Aylesbury , they memorize grounds against them was strong and Biggs again began to diagram escape . But he was baffle when one of his friends got insensate feet .
By December of that year , John Wheater , Brian Fields , John Daly and Roy James were arrested – James in a spectacular pursual across neighborhood rooftops before his capture . Bruce Reynolds evaded arrest until 1969 .
Twelve of the 15 robbers were eventually caught and bestow to trial . But how were they sentence , and did any flight ? get out in the next section .
The Great Train Robbery Trial and Aftermath
Because theganghad planned to escape the Aylesburyprison , they were watched closely until their trial began . On Jan. 20 , 1964 , they appeared before Justice Edmund Davies at Buckinghamshire Assizes . Ronnie Biggs , Tommy Wisbey , Charlie Wilson , Roy James , Bob Welch , Gordon Goody , Leonard Field , Brian Field , William Boal , and John Wheater all plead not guilty . Roger Cordrey was the only military man to plead shamefaced and gave back his share of the money – £ 80,000 .
Two weeks into the trial , evidence turn up that showed Biggs had a criminal record . Fearing this could sway the jury , the evaluator stop the visitation and order Biggs to brook visitation at a later date .
The trial expire on for months and included testimony from bank officials and the gearing driver , Jack Mills , who took the stand and enjoin the narrative of the looting and the injury so wicked he was n’t able to proceed working . John Daly , who was entail because hisfingerprintswere found on the Monopoly game , was acquit during the defense proceedings in March 1964 . His attorney petitioned that the fingerprint could have been on the biz prior to it being at the farm .
On March 25 , 1964 , the panel found all of the accused guilty of conspiracy to rob , and Tom Wisbey , Roy James , Charlie Wilson , Bob Welch , Jim Hussey and Gordon Goody were found shamed of robbery with violence .
Sentencing would n’t be set up down until Biggs ' retrial , however , which was scheduled for April 8 , 1964 . His retrial only demand seven day , and the jury swiftly found him guilty . On April 16 , 1964 , time were handed out by Justice Davies , who was heavily - handed due to the violence against Jack Mills . The men received 30 years apiece with few exceptions . John Wheater , who arrange the safe house , incur three class ; Roger Cordrey get 20 years ; William Boal experience 24 and Brian and Leonard Field each have 25 . After appeals , Cordrey and Boal ’s sentence were reduced to 14 twelvemonth each , and Brian and Leonard Field each had their sentence reduced to five days .
Buster Edwards , Bruce Reynolds and Jimmy White were all set up and jailed by 1969 . Edwards fly to Mexico but turned himself in three years after the crime . After five age on the footrace , the mastermind Reynolds was enamour and condemn to 10 years in prison house .
The robbers were station in prison house across the commonwealth , and in August 1964 , Charlie Wilson , incarcerated in Winson Green maximum - security prison , was the first of the gang to escape . He was recaptured in 1968 .
Biggs was station to Wandsworth prison – Britain ’s version of Alcatraz . Only 15 months after arriving at Wandsworth , Biggs escaped in a article of furniture vanguard and became Britain ’s most infamous fugitive . He underwent shaping OR to disguise his face and fled to Australia and finally Brazil , where , in 1970 , he settle in as " Michael Haynes . "
Biggs evaded return to the U.K. for more than three decade amidst attempts to extradite him : Once in 1974 when Slipper depict up at his door , and again in 1981 with a kidnapping attempt by British ex - armed forces .
In 2001 , an ailing Biggs , the man who had almost get away with it , voluntarily returned to the U.K. to do the rest 28 years of his sentence in a Norwich slammer for elderly con . He outlives his rival , Jack Slipper , who pass away in 2005 .
The famous Monopoly biz is on display at the Thames Valley Police Museum .
To get wind more about heist , safe houses and infamous criminals , steal though the links on the next page .
tell the taradiddle of the heavy train looting was a great designation . What I knew going into it was that the great railroad train robbery is the largest train stickup in Britain ’s history , and that one of the robber , Ronnie Biggs , underwent reconstructive surgical process and adopted a new name in an endeavor to disguise himself from the law . What I find out explore this piece was that this gang of 15 had planned everything , down to the caravan , its road , the particular date of their think offence , what their loading would be and how they ’d stop the train , but it was a set of fingerprint found on a bottle of tomato ketchup and a game of Monopoly that would at long last be their downfall .
