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EspañolGREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1963)
(Redirected from Great train robbery (1963))
'The Great Train Robbery' is the name given to a £2.6 million train robbery committed on 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England. [1] The bulk of the stolen money was not recovered. This was probably the largest value, in comparison, robbery in British history, until the Securitas depot robbery of 2006 in Kent.
The Royal Mail Glasgow to London travelling post office (TPO) train was stopped by a red light at Sears Crossing. The signals had been tampered with, unknown to the driver, with a glove placed over the green light and a 6 volt battery temporarily powering the red one. The co-driver David Whitby went to call the signalman as the diesel train had stopped, as normal procedure, only to find that the telephone cables had been cut. Upon returning to the train, he was thrown down the embankment of the railway track.[2]
One problem the robbers encountered was that the diesel train was quite different than the local trains, making it difficult to operate. One of the robbers had spent months befriending railway staff and familiarising himself with the layout and operation. It was then that Ronnie Biggs decided the driver, Jack Mills, would remain with them. The high value train was decoupled from the remaining carriages, and driven a further 1/2 mile to Bridego Bridge where the robbers' Land Rovers lay in wait.
A 15-member gang, led by Bruce Reynolds and including Ronnie Biggs, Charlie Wilson, Jimmy Hussey, Roy James, John Wheater, Brian Field, Jimmy White, Tommy Wisbey, Gordon Goody and Buster Edwards, one of whom was an ex British Army paratroop soldier, boarded the train and began to unload the money sacks into waiting vehicles on the road below the bridge. Although no guns were used in the robbery, the train driver was hit on the head with an iron bar, causing a black eye and facial bruising. The assailant was one of two members of the gang never to be arrested or identified. Frank Williams (at the time a Detective Inspector) claims to have traced the man, but he could not be charged because of lack of evidence. Mills recovered from the attack, but had constant trauma headaches throughout the rest of his life. He died in 1970 from leukemia.
Normally the contents of the train would be around £300,000 - but as there had been a bank holiday in Scotland, the contents were considerably higher. This the gang knew about, and was the reason for choosing this particular time to carry out the robbery.
£2,631,784 was stolen in used £1, £5 and £10 notes, the equivalent of £40 million (US $80 million) adjusted for 2006 inflation.[3]
After receiving an anonymous tip-off, Police went to Letherslade Farm near Oakley, Buckinghamshire five days later. There they found fingerprints of the robbers - including those on a Monopoly board game, used after the robbery with real money.
Thirteen of the gang members were eventually caught. They were tried, sentenced on 16 April 1964 and imprisoned.
Ronnie Biggs escaped from prison 15 months into his sentence, with a considerable amount of the money. He escaped from prison while he was outside training. Ronnie Biggs scaled a 30ft wall with three other prisoners using a ladder which was thrown over the wall from the outside during the prisoners' afternoon exercise session. Ronnie Biggs climbed the ladder and lowered himself into a waiting van. They were driven away from the prison in three cars. He settling in Adelaide, Australia where he worked as a builder and lived a relatively normal life. He was tipped off by persons unknown and moved to Melbourne, later escaping to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after police discovered his Melbourne address. Biggs could not be extradited from Brazil because he had fathered a Brazilian child. As a result he lived openly in Rio for many years, completely untouchable to the British authorities.
Charlie Wilson escaped in August 1964 [4] and took up residence outside Montreal, Canada on Rigaud Mountain. In the upper-middle-class neighbourhood where the large, secluded properties are surrounded by trees, Wilson was just another resident who enjoyed his privacy. Only when Charlie invited his cousin over to meet him was Scotland Yard able to track him down, recapturing him in November 1968.
Despite the attack on Jack Mills, many hold fond memories of the story of the robbery and the escape, and Ronnie Biggs is treated affectionately by some of the British tabloid press. Others regard them with contempt, even though Biggs' role in the robbery was minor, he still received a 30-year prison sentence as did the others.
In May 2001 Ronnie Biggs, aged 71, unable to meet mounting medical costs in Brazil after suffering three strokes, voluntarily returned to England. Biggs was fully aware that he would be arrested and jailed upon arrival. After detention and a short court hearing he was promptly sent back to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence. In August 2007 it was announced that he would be released from prison on compassionate grounds due to his incurable health conditions.
The story of Ronald "Buster" Edwards, who fled to Mexico but later surrendered to authorities, was dramatised in the 1988 film, ''Buster'', which starred Phil Collins in the title role. Edwards became a flower seller outside Waterloo Station on his release from prison. He committed suicide in 1994.
One of the post office carriages involved is now preserved at Nene Valley Railway and being restored to operational condition. The train locomotive was no: D326 (later no: 40126). It became somewhat of a celebrity engine though for all the wrong reasons as, apart from the robbery itself, it was involved in a number of serious operating incidents throughout its operational life.
The robbery was investigated by Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Slipper of the Metropolitan Police (widely known in the press as "Slipper of the Yard"), who became so involved with its aftermath that he continued to hunt down many of the escaped robbers in retirement. He was one of those who believed Biggs should not be released after returning to the UK in 2001 and he often appeared in the media to comment on any news item connected to the robbery before his death on 24 August, 2005 at the age of 81.
As a direct result of this robbery, the British Railways Rule Book was amended. When stopped by a red signal, train drivers were normally required to contact the signaller by telephone (a procedure that requires leaving the driving cab). Drivers of mail trains were not to leave the cab at signals and were also required to keep the doors locked. These rules remained until the last Travelling Post Office ran on British railways on 9 January 2004.
★ The book ''The Robbers' Tale'' by Peta Fordham tells the story. Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London 1965.
★ The robbery was mentioned in the 1965 film adaptation of Ian Fleming's ''Thunderball''.
★ A comedy version of events was staged in the film ''The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery''
★ The 1967 film ''Robbery'' starring Stanley Baker portrayed events similar to the Great Train Robbery.
★ The Sex Pistols recorded two songs (''No One Is Innocent'' and ''Belsen was A Gas'') with Ronald Biggs on vocals
★ The 1978 Book ''The Train Robbers'' by Piers Paul Read recounts a very detailed version of the story based on an exclusive account given by seven of the then-parolled robbers. The book reveals the funding source for the heist as former Waffen SS chief Otto Skorzeny and other Germans who had escaped to South America and abroad after the war. Published by W.H. Allen and Company, 1978. ISBN 0-397-01283-7
★ Paul Hardcastle released a song in 1985 titled "Just For Money" which is about the robbery.
★ In 1988 Buster Edwards experiences were made into the comedy-drama ''Buster'', starring Phil Collins.
★ In 2005, on the Australian soap opera Neighbours, Karl Kennedy compared Paul Robinson to Ronnie Biggs.
★ A popular skit from the comedy revue ''Beyond the Fringe'' starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore deals with the efforts to catch the criminals behind the robbery.
★ British group, Alabama 3, recorded a tribute to Bruce Reynolds about the robbery, 'Have You Seen Bruce Richard Reynolds' on which he appears, on their 2005 album, Outlaw.
★ American rock band, Mountain, recorded the song "The Great Train Robbery" on their Nantucket Sleighride album, circa 1971.
1. The Great Train Robbery, 1963
2. British Transport Police History: The Great Train Robbery
3. Ronald Biggs & the Great Train Robbery
4. Great Train Robber Escapes from Jail.
★ BBC News On This Day archive
★ BBC News review of the case
★ BBC page on Charlie Wilson's escape
★ Crime Library
'The Great Train Robbery' is the name given to a £2.6 million train robbery committed on 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England. [1] The bulk of the stolen money was not recovered. This was probably the largest value, in comparison, robbery in British history, until the Securitas depot robbery of 2006 in Kent.
| Contents |
| Robbery |
| Investigation and capture |
| Aftermath |
| In popular culture |
| References |
| External links |
Robbery
The Royal Mail Glasgow to London travelling post office (TPO) train was stopped by a red light at Sears Crossing. The signals had been tampered with, unknown to the driver, with a glove placed over the green light and a 6 volt battery temporarily powering the red one. The co-driver David Whitby went to call the signalman as the diesel train had stopped, as normal procedure, only to find that the telephone cables had been cut. Upon returning to the train, he was thrown down the embankment of the railway track.[2]
One problem the robbers encountered was that the diesel train was quite different than the local trains, making it difficult to operate. One of the robbers had spent months befriending railway staff and familiarising himself with the layout and operation. It was then that Ronnie Biggs decided the driver, Jack Mills, would remain with them. The high value train was decoupled from the remaining carriages, and driven a further 1/2 mile to Bridego Bridge where the robbers' Land Rovers lay in wait.
A 15-member gang, led by Bruce Reynolds and including Ronnie Biggs, Charlie Wilson, Jimmy Hussey, Roy James, John Wheater, Brian Field, Jimmy White, Tommy Wisbey, Gordon Goody and Buster Edwards, one of whom was an ex British Army paratroop soldier, boarded the train and began to unload the money sacks into waiting vehicles on the road below the bridge. Although no guns were used in the robbery, the train driver was hit on the head with an iron bar, causing a black eye and facial bruising. The assailant was one of two members of the gang never to be arrested or identified. Frank Williams (at the time a Detective Inspector) claims to have traced the man, but he could not be charged because of lack of evidence. Mills recovered from the attack, but had constant trauma headaches throughout the rest of his life. He died in 1970 from leukemia.
Normally the contents of the train would be around £300,000 - but as there had been a bank holiday in Scotland, the contents were considerably higher. This the gang knew about, and was the reason for choosing this particular time to carry out the robbery.
£2,631,784 was stolen in used £1, £5 and £10 notes, the equivalent of £40 million (US $80 million) adjusted for 2006 inflation.[3]
Investigation and capture
After receiving an anonymous tip-off, Police went to Letherslade Farm near Oakley, Buckinghamshire five days later. There they found fingerprints of the robbers - including those on a Monopoly board game, used after the robbery with real money.
Thirteen of the gang members were eventually caught. They were tried, sentenced on 16 April 1964 and imprisoned.
Ronnie Biggs escaped from prison 15 months into his sentence, with a considerable amount of the money. He escaped from prison while he was outside training. Ronnie Biggs scaled a 30ft wall with three other prisoners using a ladder which was thrown over the wall from the outside during the prisoners' afternoon exercise session. Ronnie Biggs climbed the ladder and lowered himself into a waiting van. They were driven away from the prison in three cars. He settling in Adelaide, Australia where he worked as a builder and lived a relatively normal life. He was tipped off by persons unknown and moved to Melbourne, later escaping to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after police discovered his Melbourne address. Biggs could not be extradited from Brazil because he had fathered a Brazilian child. As a result he lived openly in Rio for many years, completely untouchable to the British authorities.
Charlie Wilson escaped in August 1964 [4] and took up residence outside Montreal, Canada on Rigaud Mountain. In the upper-middle-class neighbourhood where the large, secluded properties are surrounded by trees, Wilson was just another resident who enjoyed his privacy. Only when Charlie invited his cousin over to meet him was Scotland Yard able to track him down, recapturing him in November 1968.
Aftermath
Despite the attack on Jack Mills, many hold fond memories of the story of the robbery and the escape, and Ronnie Biggs is treated affectionately by some of the British tabloid press. Others regard them with contempt, even though Biggs' role in the robbery was minor, he still received a 30-year prison sentence as did the others.
In May 2001 Ronnie Biggs, aged 71, unable to meet mounting medical costs in Brazil after suffering three strokes, voluntarily returned to England. Biggs was fully aware that he would be arrested and jailed upon arrival. After detention and a short court hearing he was promptly sent back to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence. In August 2007 it was announced that he would be released from prison on compassionate grounds due to his incurable health conditions.
The story of Ronald "Buster" Edwards, who fled to Mexico but later surrendered to authorities, was dramatised in the 1988 film, ''Buster'', which starred Phil Collins in the title role. Edwards became a flower seller outside Waterloo Station on his release from prison. He committed suicide in 1994.
One of the post office carriages involved is now preserved at Nene Valley Railway and being restored to operational condition. The train locomotive was no: D326 (later no: 40126). It became somewhat of a celebrity engine though for all the wrong reasons as, apart from the robbery itself, it was involved in a number of serious operating incidents throughout its operational life.
The robbery was investigated by Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Slipper of the Metropolitan Police (widely known in the press as "Slipper of the Yard"), who became so involved with its aftermath that he continued to hunt down many of the escaped robbers in retirement. He was one of those who believed Biggs should not be released after returning to the UK in 2001 and he often appeared in the media to comment on any news item connected to the robbery before his death on 24 August, 2005 at the age of 81.
As a direct result of this robbery, the British Railways Rule Book was amended. When stopped by a red signal, train drivers were normally required to contact the signaller by telephone (a procedure that requires leaving the driving cab). Drivers of mail trains were not to leave the cab at signals and were also required to keep the doors locked. These rules remained until the last Travelling Post Office ran on British railways on 9 January 2004.
In popular culture
★ The book ''The Robbers' Tale'' by Peta Fordham tells the story. Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London 1965.
★ The robbery was mentioned in the 1965 film adaptation of Ian Fleming's ''Thunderball''.
★ A comedy version of events was staged in the film ''The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery''
★ The 1967 film ''Robbery'' starring Stanley Baker portrayed events similar to the Great Train Robbery.
★ The Sex Pistols recorded two songs (''No One Is Innocent'' and ''Belsen was A Gas'') with Ronald Biggs on vocals
★ The 1978 Book ''The Train Robbers'' by Piers Paul Read recounts a very detailed version of the story based on an exclusive account given by seven of the then-parolled robbers. The book reveals the funding source for the heist as former Waffen SS chief Otto Skorzeny and other Germans who had escaped to South America and abroad after the war. Published by W.H. Allen and Company, 1978. ISBN 0-397-01283-7
★ Paul Hardcastle released a song in 1985 titled "Just For Money" which is about the robbery.
★ In 1988 Buster Edwards experiences were made into the comedy-drama ''Buster'', starring Phil Collins.
★ In 2005, on the Australian soap opera Neighbours, Karl Kennedy compared Paul Robinson to Ronnie Biggs.
★ A popular skit from the comedy revue ''Beyond the Fringe'' starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore deals with the efforts to catch the criminals behind the robbery.
★ British group, Alabama 3, recorded a tribute to Bruce Reynolds about the robbery, 'Have You Seen Bruce Richard Reynolds' on which he appears, on their 2005 album, Outlaw.
★ American rock band, Mountain, recorded the song "The Great Train Robbery" on their Nantucket Sleighride album, circa 1971.
References
1. The Great Train Robbery, 1963
2. British Transport Police History: The Great Train Robbery
3. Ronald Biggs & the Great Train Robbery
4. Great Train Robber Escapes from Jail.
External links
★ BBC News On This Day archive
★ BBC News review of the case
★ BBC page on Charlie Wilson's escape
★ Crime Library
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