Great train bunglers: The Great Train Robbers were blundering thugs, not criminal masterminds

For half a century they have been seen as criminal masterminds who pulled off the Crime of the Century. But the Great Train ­Robbers can now be unmasked as ­bungling thugs who were lucky not to be caught before they fled the scene. Fifty years after the gang became household names for holding up a postal train and stealing £2.6million, the myths surrounding Britain’s most famous heist – and the men who carried it out – have been completely debunked. And – according to new book The Great Train Robbery, by Nick Russell-Pavier and Stewart Richards – many of the cops who finally brought some of the robbers to justice were just as ­bumbling, nearly letting them off the hook with a series of errors. The robbers’ ringleaders were Gordon Goody, Charlie Wilson and Bruce Reynolds. Ronald “Buster” Edwards – later portrayed by Phil Collins in 1988 movie Buster – was also at the core of the gang. It is suspected they received inside information that the Travelling Post Office train, en route to London, was ripe for attack. It carried 128 mailbags, stuffed with £2,595,997 in cash – worth about £45million today – but was effectively unguarded. They put together a gang of 16 men and planned to stop the train in the early hours of August 8, 1963, by rigging a signal at Sears Crossing, between Leighton Buzzard, Beds, and Cheddington, Bucks. On the night of the robbery, phone lines were cut to stop signal staff calling for help. But a GPO engineer came close to uncovering the crime when he was called to look into a fault – caused by the gang’s handiwork. One man, John Daly, had been told to alter the signal by placing a glove over a green light and using a battery to turn on an amber light. But inexplicably he unscrewed the bulb. The book says: “Daly’s blunder was one of a number of critical errors during the raid that illustrate the gang’s lack of technical knowledge.” The gang planned to use their own driver to move the train half a mile down the track, before loading the mailbags on to waiting trucks. But “expert” driver Ronnie Biggs suddenly realised he didn’t know how to move the locomotive. They had to get the real driver, Jack Mills, to do it for them. Although he was nursing a serious head injury after being attacked, he managed to spot that the crooks hadn’t released the brake properly. The attack on Mills is often seen as the one dark moment during an ­otherwise trouble-free heist. His ­family say he never recovered from his injury before his death in 1970. But the book says: “The Great Train Robbery raid was peppered with acts of violence. It is only remarkable that other victims were not more seriously injured.” The robbers always said they didn’t carry firearms but one of the workers in the mailbag carriage claims to have heard one member shout: “Get the guns.” Several burst in, armed with coshes. One had an axe. Assistant post office inspector Thomas Kett was whacked on the arm with a cosh as he tried to protect himself. A colleague was hit several times by the same attacker. Another worker was struck across the shoulders by a raider wielding an iron bar. Kett was hit on the head by a robber left guarding the crew – who also laid into another victim. After the heist, the gang hid out at Leatherslade Farm near Oakley, Bucks. At 28 miles from the scene of their crime, it was judged to be close enough to reach before police could respond effectively to the robbery, yet far enough away for the robbers’ presence there not to arouse suspicion. They fled when they heard radio reports that the police were focusing on properties within a 30-mile radius of the robbery. But they left a trail of clues behind them. Police found robbers’ ­fingerprints at the farm, including those of Ronnie Biggs on a Monopoly box, a Pyrex plate and a ketchup ­bottle. The biggest find was 35 mailbags containing bank money wrappers and £627 in Scottish banknotes. The book says: “For the gang to have left these mailbags and cash in the farmhouse seems an extraordinarily stupid mistake.” Aerial shot of the great train robbery at Sears Crossing in 1963 Heist: The train had no guard Mirrorpix But the police also committed basic errors. Roadblocks were set up straight after the robbery, but officers didn’t show up for nearly two hours. At first they had no idea how much money had been stolen – initial reports ­suggested less than £1million. When a local police chief called for dog teams to be deployed and smallholdings to be searched, his orders were ignored. But the book says if they had been carried out “the protracted investigation that tied up hundreds of police officers at vast public expense for many years would have been ­concluded within days if not hours.” Eventually, 16 of the gang ­members were brought to trial. Seven – Biggs, Goody, Wilson, Hussey, Thomas ­Wisbey, Robert Welch and Roy James – were given 30-year jail terms. Brothers Brian and Leonard Field received 25-year sentences. William Boal, Roger Cordrey and John ­Wheater got 24, 20 and three years respectively. The last suspect John Daly successfully argued there was no case against him. Buster ­Edwards and Bruce Reynolds went on to serve nine years. James White was sentenced to 18 years after three years on the run. So four gang members were never captured. But the book’s authors unearthed documents from the Post Office ­archive showing two police lists containing the names of those who were arrested or who admitted being involved in the robbery. There are 10 new names on the lists – one, Henry Smith, appears on both – and the book suggests he, with three others, could well be the missing gang members. So was the Great Train Robbery ­really all that great? The book argues: “There was a great deal of money stolen. There were a great many people involved and it took a great deal of police effort to bring the criminals to justice. “For the criminals, great plans were made and great dreams were lost. There were a great number of mistakes made... In that sense, the mail-train robbery could be considered great in many ways.” http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/great-train-robbers-unmasked-blundering-1519952