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 robbery by value, in British history, until the Securitas depot robbery of 2006 in Kent.

Robbery
The 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 six-volt battery temporarily powering the red one. The co-driver David Whitby went to call the signalman only to find 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 different from 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 but it was decided instead to use an experienced train driver - later referred to as 'Stan Agate' - to drive the train from the stopping point at the signals to the bridge after uncoupling the unnecessary carriages. However, the train driver was unable to operate the train and it was quickly decided that the original driver, Jack Mills, would move the train down the track. The high-value carriage was decoupled from the others and driven a further half a mile to Bridego Bridge where the robbers' Land Rovers lay in wait. Stan Agate's participation in the robbery was Ronnie Biggs' only task and when it became obvious that they were useless they were banished to the awaiting ex-army truck to help load the mail bags.
A 15-member gang, led by Bruce Reynolds and including Biggs, Charlie Wilson, Jimmy Hussey, Roy James, Jimmy White, Tommy Wisbey, Gordon Goody and Buster Edwards, one of whom was an ex-British Army paratrooper, boarded the train and began to unload the money sacks into waiting vehicles on the road below the bridge. Although no guns were used, 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 who was never 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 but had constant trauma headaches the rest of his life. He died in 1970 from leukaemia.
£2,631,784 was stolen in used £1, £5 and £10 notes, the equivalent of £40 million (US $80 million) adjusted for 2006 inflation.

Investigation and capture
After receiving an anonymous tip-off, police went to Leatherslade 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 but with real money.
The first gang member caught was Roger Cordrey and his friend who helped him to conceal his share of the stolen money, William Boal. They were lying low in a rented furnished flat above a florist shop in Wimborne Road, Moordown, Bournemouth. Bournemouth CID were tipped-off by police widow Ethel Clark, when Boal and Cordey paid rent for a garage, three months' up-front, all in used 10 shilling notes. Their arrests were made in Tweedale Road off Castle Lane West.[4]
Thirteen of the gang members were 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 while he was outside training. Biggs scaled a 30ft wall with three other prisoners using a ladder thrown from the outside during the prisoners' afternoon exercise. Biggs climbed the ladder and lowered himself into a waiting van. They were driven from the prison in three cars. He fled to Paris, where he acquired new identity papers and underwent plastic surgery. In 1970, he quietly moved to 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 because the UK did not benefit from reciprocity of extradition to Brazil, a condition for the Brazilian process of extradition. Additionally, he was about to father a Brazilian child. As a result he lived openly in Rio for many years, untouchable by British authorities.
Charlie Wilson escaped in August 1964[5] 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 lived under the name Ronald Alloway, a name borrowed from a Fulham shopkeeper. He joined an exclusive golf club and participated in his local community activities. It was only when he invited his brother-in-law over from the UK for Christmas that Scotland Yard was able to track him down and recapture him. They waited three months before making their move, in hopes that Wilson would lead them to Reynolds, the last unapprehended suspect. Wilson was arrested in February 1968. Many in Rigaud petitioned to allow his wife and five daughters to stay in the Montreal area.

Aftermath
In May 2001 Biggs, 71, unable to meet mounting medical costs in Brazil after three strokes, voluntarily returned to England. His son, Michael Biggs, said in a press release that contrary to some press reports, Biggs has not returned to the UK simply to receive health care. According to Michael, health care was available in Brazil and he had many friends and supporters who would certainly have contributed to any such expenses. Biggs' stated desire was to "walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter".[6] Biggs was aware that he would be arrested and jailed. After detention and a short court hearing he was sent back to prison to serve the remainder of his sentence.
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 release from prison. He committed suicide in 1994.
One of the post office carriages involved is preserved at Nene Valley Railway at Peterborough Cambridgeshire, and is being restored. The locomotive was no: D326 (later no: 40126). It was involved in a number of serious operating incidents throughout its operational life.[citation needed]
The robbery was investigated by Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Slipper of the Metropolitan Police (known in the press as "Slipper of the Yard"), who became so involved with its aftermath that he continued to hunt many of the escaped robbers in retirement. He 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 result of this robbery, the British Railways rule book was amended. If stopped by a red signal drivers had previously been required to contact the signaller by telephone - requiring them to leave the driving cab. After the change, drivers of mail trains were no longer allowed to leave the cab at any red signals and were to always keep their cab doors locked. These rules remained in force until the retirement of mail trains in the UK