Great Train Robbers 'planned second Royal Mail rail heist'

Today is the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Great Train Robbery It has gone down as the greatest British heist in history. Now, previously unseen documents suggest that criminals linked to the Great Train Robbery planned a second raid on another Royal Mail rail service only months later. Police investigating the original theft received a series of "reliable" tip-offs that a second raid – to be at least as vast in scale – was being organised by individuals connected to the earlier one. Informants told police that the gang were planning to ambush a mail train travelling from Weymouth, in Dorset, to London Waterloo. The existence of the proposed heist is disclosed in a new book The Great Train Robbery: The Untold Story From The Closed Investigation Files. Andrew Cook, the author, has studied more than 1,000 pages of previously unseen documents from the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Post Office and the Metropolitan Police to build an authoritative account of the raid, in which £2.6 million in cash – the equivalent of around £44 million today – was stolen when a Glasgow to London Euston mail train was forced to stop in remote Buckinghamshire countryside. The documents also implicate several individuals who were never charged, including two on a list of 14 suspects given to police by an informant within days of the raid, in August 1963. Related Articles Swedish cleaner who crashed train cleared 18 Jan 2013 British have invaded nine out of ten countries 04 Nov 2012 Oliver Cromwell – the metrosexual: how the Lord Protector became the skin protector 06 May 2012 The trench talk that is now entrenched in language 25 Nov 2012 The source also gave an incredibly detailed description of the crime and all the other names on the list were later prosecuted. One of the two was Henry Smith, who had a criminal record dating back to 1947, and was only traced after a nine month manhunt. Officers could find no evidence to link him to the hideout used by the gang after the robbery but concluded "there was not the slightest doubt in our minds of police that Smith... was one of the robbers actually at the scene and taking a very active part in the commission of the offence". They believe Smith – who died in 2008 – spent his money from the raid on buying, through associates, "32 houses (including a row of 11), a drinking club and a hotel in the Portsmouth and Gosport districts". The second individual on the list who was never charged – even though police concluded he was "strongly suspected" – is still alive. The files also lend credence to theories that the original gang included a high ranking Post Office official who passed on details via an intermediary. A total of 17 people faced trial for the robbery, but it is thought there were four other men who helped rob the train, as well as several more who assisted in the organisation, who were never prosecuted. The individuals involved in planning the second raid are not known and several of those involved in the first one had already been arrested by the time it was allegedly being planned. However, police believe there was a clear overlap between the two. The files suggest the gang due to carry out the raid on the Weymouth-Waterloo line would be "at least on the scale of the one that carried out" the first one and, according to some reports, the haul targeted would be up to £6 million – more than twice that stolen from the Glasgow train. The raid was expected to happen early in the New Year 1964, when large amounts of money was due to be transported by rail. The first vague tip-offs were received in September 1963. Then, just before Christmas that year, the officer leading the hunt for the Great Train Robbers, Commander George Hatherill, received further information from three sources about the second operation. According to one document, the intelligence "suggests very strongly that an attack ... was being planned by criminals some of whom were connected with the (original) gang". In response to the threat, officers launched a major operation, code-named "Primrose" - apparently because many of the suspects were connected to an address near Belsize Park, with a "Primrose" telephone code. It involved a survey of the 130 mile track to likely areas for an ambush. Some of the intelligence suggested it would take place at Weybridge, in Surrey, but other locations were also considered. A control room was set up, in Hampshire, to operate each night that the service was running, to receive regular signals from the train and ensure it was safe. Checks were also made on vacant or suspicious properties within a 20 mile area each side of the line, in case the gang had already set up a hide-out, in which to lie low after the raid, as they had done after the earlier heist. Police were particularly concerned that the gang could use caravans in the New Forest. However, detectives also considered that the gang might try to flee straight away with their haul, so established check points to stop traffic. Arrangements were also made to allow police to pursue suspects across county borders. Extra security measures were introduced on the train, with security officers travelling on board and window bars, alarms and loud hailers fitted. The operation lasted four months, but officers eventually concluded that although the original intelligence had been accurate, the gang had abandoned their plans in response to the security measures. Mr Cook said: "It was clear that the threat was taken extremely seriously."

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

Great Train Robbery: Ronnie Biggs speaks out on 50th anniversary saying he was 'proud' of the heist Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ronnie-biggs-speaks-out-50th-2100260#ixzz2ac9nXfcR Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook

All pensioners look back with pride on certain aspect of their lives – personal achievements, marriage, children, grandkids… But for Ronnie Biggs one of his proudest moments is being part of a ­ruthless gang that carried out one of the biggest heists in British criminal history – the Great Train Robbery. As the 50th anniversary of the 1963 raid that shocked the nation approaches, the 83-year-old insisted he was delighted to have been involved in the crime. Ailing Biggs, who cannot speak and communicates through a spelling board, said: “If you want to ask me if I have any regrets about being one of the train robbers, my answer is, ‘no’.” I will go further: I am proud to have been one of them. I am equally happy to be described as the ‘teaboy’ or ‘The Brain’. “I was there that August night and that is what counts. “I am one of the few witnesses, living or dead, to what was the crime of the century.” The Glasgow-London Royal mail train, which was attacked in the night by 15 armed robbers The Glasgow-London Royal mail train attacked by Ronnie and his gang Getty Biggs will celebrate his 84th birthday on August 8, the same day as the anniversary of the robbery that netted the gang £2.6million. And while age has clearly not softened his feelings towards the crime – during which driver Jack Mills was coshed and never fully recovered – the former villain admits harbouring some regrets about the night that changed the lives of both the robbers and its victims. He said: “It is regrettable the train driver was injured. And he was not the only victim. The people who paid the heaviest price for the Great Train Robbery are the families. “The families of everyone involved in the Great Train Robbery – and from both sides of the track. “All have paid a price for our collective involvement in the robbery. A very heavy price, in the case of my family. For that, I do have my regrets.” The heist took place after the robbers stopped the London-bound overnight mail train from Glasgow near Cheddington, Bucks, at 3am. Police eventually rounded up most of the gang and Biggs was jailed. Part of the £2.5 million stolen by the Great Train Robbers Part of the £2.6 million loot PA But he escaped in 1965 and spent 36 years on the run abroad before finally being arrested and locked up in 2001 after he returned from Rio de Janeiro where he had been living. Four years ago Biggs was released from prison on compassionate grounds due to ill health. He is being cared for in a North London nursing home. A new book which promises to tell the complete story of the heist has been published to mark the anniversary. Biggs contributed to the book, called The Great Train Robbery – 50th ­Anniversary – 1963-2013, as did his accomplice Bruce Reynolds, who died in February. It was written by Reynolds’ son Nick, and Biggs’ autobiographer Chris Pickard. Artist and musician Nick said they embarked on the project with the aim of “setting the record straight” and putting right any inaccuracies in a tale that has become folklore. The 51-year-old added: “I said to my dad, would you be interested if we were to do a sort of ‘round-up’ 50 years on and so he said yes. Unfortunately he died before we finished it, but he contributed a fair bit, as did Ron. “One of my dad’s biggest regrets was the driver should never have been hit. The plan was to get the driver to drive the train. It was only if he refused that they had Ronnie Biggs’ standby driver. “There was no intention to hit him, it was completely unnec­essary. From that point of view my dad had regrets.” But Nick revealed that like Biggs, his father had no other regrets about taking part in the heist. He added: “My dad said if he was asked would he have done it today knowing everything if he was the same age, yes he would have done. “He was a bit of a crazy adventurer if you like.” Mr Pickard, 56, who became friends with Biggs after they met in Rio, told how nobody believed the robber would live to see the 50th anniversary as he was so sick when he was released. He said: “He was an extremely ill man. At least twice the hospital had called Michael his son and said, ‘You had better come, it’s a matter of hours’. “But once he was released and could be treated in hospital, the doctors managed to stem the infection. “Ron is a great fighter. I think when he thought he wasn’t going to be released he thought, ‘I’ve had enough of this’. But once he knew he was going to be released he had something to fight for. “Slowly and slowly he pulled himself round. But he is still a very, very ill man. He could pop off at any time. “I would never have put money on him seeing the 50th anniversary. We never thought he’d survive a month in prison here, let alone what he has done.” http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ronnie-biggs-speaks-out-50th-2100260

The Great Train Robbery – 8th August 1963

It took fifteen men to pull off the Great Train Robbery of 1963, along with a few accomplices. The cast 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 accomplices were known as Mr. One, Mr. Two and Mr. Three; “Peter,” brought to drive the train; and John Wheater, who secured the safe house. Although no one is certain who first had the idea to rob the mail train, Bruce Reynolds, a burglar and antique dealer in London, is known as the mastermind. After ending a stint in prison in 1962, Reynolds began to assemble his crew. He started with his own men, the South West gang, and chose gang member Gordon “Goody,” a London hairdresser and part-time thief, to be his No. 2. As the details were worked out, it became clear that the South West gang wouldn’t be big enough to pull off such a large-scale robbery. But as both Reynolds and Goody were good friends with former boxer-turned-club owner “Buster” Edwards, leader of the South East gang, it was decided the two gangs would work together. Through his contacts, Reynolds obtained the train’s details: its schedule, the amount of cash it would be carrying and the car it would be in, and the number of workers onboard. After learning the payload would be greater after a bank holiday — the next being on Aug. 5, 1963 — Reynolds tapped into an insider, known later in the media as the “Ulsterman,” to find out which day the train would be carrying cash to London. The date was set. Reynolds had his men, information about the train and a date, but he needed to figure out one last detail: how to stop the train. It was Roger Cordrey, an associate of “Buster” Edwards, who came up with that answer. Just as we encounter stoplights when we drive cars, trains also rely on signals to know when to proceed and when to stop — green means go, amber means slow down and red means stop. Cordrey proposed he “fix” the signals. Using black paper and leather gloves, he would cover the green signals at their chosen spot. And using batteries and wire, he would turn on a red signal. It was time. The men lay low at Leatherslade Farm, their safe house, drinking beer and playing Monopoly while they waited for the date the train was scheduled to pass by. The Great Train Robbery Investigation Just two days after the robbery, the Flying Squad was created from the best detectives of Scotland Yard and was charged with finding the criminals behind the Great Train Robbery. Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Butler, known around Scotland Yard for his professionalism and thoroughness, was assigned to be the squad’s chief. Among the team of detectives was Jack Slipper, a tall man with a pencil moustache who would become a household name for his work on the case and his cat-and-mouse chases with Ronnie Biggs. The Flying Squad’s first break in the case came eight days after its investigation began. A suspicious vehicle was reported at an old farmhouse about 30 miles (48.28 km) from the scene of the crime. The old farmhouse — Leatherslade Farm — was the same one that the men used as their safe house. Food, sleeping bags and bedding were found in the house, along with bank note wrappers and post office sacks. Fingerprints were found on a bottle of ketchup and on the Monopoly game the men had played with some of the £1, £5 and £10 notes they had stolen. Within a day of the discovery of the fingerprints, Roger Cordrey was arrested. In a week, Charlie Wilson was arrested in London and police were on to Bruce Reynolds, Jimmy White, Roy James and Buster Edwards. Biggs’ fingerprint was found on a bottle of ketchup in the safe house and he was arrested on Sept. 4, 1963. Ronnie Biggs, Charlie Wilson, Tommy Wisbey, Jim Hussey and Bob Welch were all sent to Bedford prison to await trial. While in prison, they learned that Goody had been questioned but let go for insufficient evidence. However, several weeks later, he, too, was arrested, charged and sent to Bedford. Two months after arriving at Bedford, Biggs was planning his escape but would have to wait — the group was transferred to Aylesbury prison and security was tight. During their time at Aylesbury, they learned evidence against them was strong and Biggs again began to plot escape. But he was foiled when one of his friends got cold feet. By December of that year, John Wheater, Brian Fields, John Daly and Roy James were arrested — James in a spectacular chase across neighborhood rooftops before his capture. Bruce Reynolds evaded arrest until 1969. Twelve of the 15 robbers were eventually caught and brought to trial. But how were they sentenced, and did any escape? Find out in the next section. The Great Train Robbery Trial and Aftermath Because the gang had planned to escape the Aylesbury prison, 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 man to plead guilty and gave back his share of the money — £80,000. Two weeks into the trial, evidence surfaced that showed Biggs had a criminal record. Fearing this could sway the jury, the judge halted the trial and ordered Biggs to stand trial at a later date. The trial went on for months and included testimony from bank officials and the train driver, Jack Mills, who took the stand and told the story of the robbery and the injury so severe he wasn’t able to continue working. John Daly, who was implicated because his fingerprints were found on the Monopoly game, was acquitted during the defense proceedings in March 1964. His lawyer petitioned that the fingerprints could have been on the game prior to it being at the farm. On March 25, 1964, the jury 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 guilty of robbery with violence. Sentencing wouldn’t be set down until Biggs’ retrial, however, which was scheduled for April 8, 1964. His retrial only took seven days, and the jury swiftly found him guilty. On April 16, 1964, sentences were handed out by Justice Davies, who was heavy-handed due to the violence against Jack Mills. The men received 30 years apiece with few exceptions. John Wheater, who arranged the safe house, received three years; Roger Cordrey received 20 years; William Boal received 24 and Brian and Leonard Field each received 25. After appeals, Cordrey and Boal’s sentences were reduced to 14 years each, and Brian and Leonard Field each had their sentences reduced to five years. Buster Edwards, Bruce Reynolds and Jimmy White were all found and jailed by 1969. Edwards fled to Mexico but turned himself in three years after the crime. After five years on the run, the mastermind Reynolds was captured and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The robbers were placed in prisons across the country, 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 sent to Wandsworth prison — Britain’s version of Alcatraz. Only 15 months after arriving at Wandsworth, Biggs escaped in a furniture van and became Britain’s most notorious fugitive. He underwent plastic surgery to disguise his face and fled to Australia and eventually Brazil, where, in 1970, he settled in as “Michael Haynes.” Biggs evaded return to the U.K. for more than three decades amidst attempts to extradite him: Once in 1974 when Slipper showed up at his door, and again in 1981 with a kidnapping attempt by British ex-military. In 2001, an ailing Biggs, the man who had almost gotten away with it, voluntarily returned to the U.K. to serve the remaining 28 years of his sentence in a Norwich jail for elderly inmates. He outlives his rival, Jack Slipper, who passed away in 2005. The renowned Monopoly game is on display at the Thames Valley Police Museum. 8 August 1963 the travelling post office was Robbed…… This was also Ronnie Biggs Birthday 8 August 2011…………….. Ronnie Biggs was 82 The Great Train Robbery (The Times) http://glasgoweye.com/2010/08/10/the-great-train-robbery-8th-august-1963/