The Great Train Robbery and the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad

Geoff Platt

• Publisher: Pen & Sword True Crime
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781473857469
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Politische Korruption & Fehlverhalten

The amazing true story of one of Great Britain's most notorious heists and the crack team that brought the perpetrators to justice. On August 8, 1963, a group of fifteen men dressed in military uniforms stopped the Royal Mail train running between Glasgow and London at Sears Crossing in Ledburn. The gang uncoupled the engine and first two cars, drove them to a different location, and then disappeared with one hundred and twenty mailbags containing more than £2.5 million in used banknotes. A number of books have already been published about England's infamous Great Train Robbery, but until now, little has been written about the intensive police investigation and the intrepid team that hunted down the criminals responsible. In this riveting true crime chronicle, author, journalist, and former police detective Geoff Platt explores the execution and aftermath of the brazen criminal enterprise that British newspapers dubbed "the Crime of the Century." He introduces readers to members of the elite Flying Squad organized by "the Old Grey Fox, " Det. Chief Superintendent Tommy Butler, and details step by step, the organization and execution of the massive police inquiry, and exposes the mistakes that hindered the robbers and the investigators alike. In addition, Platt compares the methods used more than fifty years ago with contemporary crime fighting and forensic techniques to explore how the same investigation would most likely be run today. A fascinating study of crime and detection, The Great Train Robbery and the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad shines a brilliant new light on a legendary act of audacious criminality.

CHAPTER ONE

The Crime

(The story of the Great Train Robbery has been told many times over the last fifty years. This is simply a brief summary to place the rest of the book in context.)

In 1829, George Stephenson built The Rocket which was entered in, and won, the Rainhill Trials, by running up and down a mile-long length of track for longer than any of its four rivals. This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives used on railways in the UK, the US and much of Europe. It did not take long for the General Post Office (GPO) to recognise the value of railways to the service that they provided to the public, and in November 1830 the GPO agreed with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway for mail to be carried on the railway for the first time. Eight years later the Railways (Conveyance of Mail) Act was passed, which obliged railway companies to carry mail when required to do so by the Postmaster General, and trains carrying mail became known as Travelling Post Offices (TPOs).

These Travelling Post Offices experienced few problems with crime during the first one hundred and thirty years of their existence, but in the early 1960s there were a few thefts from the trains on the London to Brighton Line that prompted the GPO to review their security and design new secure carriages and improve security arrangements. These were about to be implemented when the Great Train Robbery occurred …

On Thursday 8 August 1963 at about 3.03 am the Royal Mail night train from Glasgow to London was stopped at Sears Crossing at Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, by a gang of fifteen men, using a glove to cover the green signal and attaching a six-volt Ever Ready battery to illuminate the red signal.

The gang then mounted the engine, an English Electric Type 4 (later Class 40) diesel-electric locomotive number D326 (later 40 126) – curiously, the train had been involved in an accident that killed ten people a few weeks before the Robbery. They struck the train driver, Jack Mills over the head with a cosh, attacked his assistant, David Whitby, as he went to call the signal box for advice, and took control of the train.

They then detached the engine and the first two of the twelve carriages, containing parcels and High Value Packages (HVP) respectively, replaced Jack Mills with a retired train driver that they had recruited, and attempted to move the shortened train about half a mile to Bridego Railway Bridge (Bridge Number 127) now known as Mentmore Bridge.

The retired driver found that the train was different in design to the ones that he usually drove and that he could not release the brake, so the gang had to put Jack Mills back in control of the train and use threats of further violence in order to get him to move the train.

Moving the train to Bridego Bridge had the advantage of leaving behind seventy-two of the Post Office staff and a few British Rail employees on the train, who could have otherwise later been called upon to act as witnesses against the robbers should they later be arrested and put on trial. It also facilitated unloading the money from the train.

Bridego Bridge had been carefully selected by the gang due to its ideal location in a quiet area, relatively close to London, close to railway signals where the train could be stopped and easily accessible, by way of a short embankment, to main roads that facilitated a quick getaway. Here they forced entry to the HVP carriage and overcame the five staff working there, Thomas Kett, the Assistant Inspector in charge of the Post Office staff on the train, Frank Dewhurst the supervisor, and three other postal workers, Leslie Penn, Joseph Ware and John O’Connor, in order to rob them of 120 mailbags weighing about two and a half tonnes stuffed with £2,631,684.50 in used banknotes, mostly £1 and £5 notes (equal to about £45m in today’s money, due to inflation), of which less than £400,000 has ever been recovered.

Following a security review in 1960, three of the HVP carriages had been equipped with bars over the windows, and bolts and catches on the doors and alarms, but on the day of the robbery these carriages were out of service, possibly due to sabotage, and a reserve carriage (M30204M) which had not been fitted with these security features had been taken into service. It had been proposed at the same time that the carriages should be fitted with radios in order to further improve security, but this was deemed to be too expensive and was not implemented.

Bruce Reynolds, the leader of the gang of robbers and the draughtsman for the job, allowed only thirty minutes to take the money and then instructed that the gang leave the train and jump into their transport to leave the scene and head for their ‘slaughter’ or hideaway. As the robbers decamped from the train, one of them made their first mistake by telling the Post Office staff not to move for thirty minutes, which caused the Police to believe that the robbers were hiding within thirty miles of the scene of the robbery.

The robbers had dressed themselves in military uniforms and disguised the Land Rovers and an Austin Loadstar lorry to look like military vehicles, due to the number of military camps in the area and the fact that this would allow them to move unnoticed and to exercise authority over anybody who hindered their escape. Between 3.45 am when they left the train and 4.30 am when they arrived at their getaway, they drove at high speed, through darkly-lit, winding, country lanes, until their reached the slaughter, just as the reports of the robbery reached the Police and radio messages started to be beamed across the county.

The robbers had cut all the telephone lines in the vicinity of the robbery, but one of the rail-men left on the train at Sear’s Crossing caught a passing goods train to Cheddington, where he raised the alarm at around 4.20 am. The first reports of the robbery were broadcast on the VHF police radio within a few minutes and this is where the gang heard the line ‘A robbery has been committed and you’ll never believe it they’ve stolen the train!’

Leatherslade Farm is situated between Oakley and Brill in Buckinghamshire, approximately twenty-seven miles from Bridego Bridge. It was spotted by Bruce Reynolds and John Daly as they reconnoitred the area, mostly on a motorcycle, in the six months before the robbery and identified as a potential hideout. It had the benefit of being the only major farm in the area which did not appear on any local map. The farmhouse was later described as ‘horrible, a mixture of everything – red brick, rendered, slates, felt, Roman tiles’, but it was secluded and out of the way and with three bedrooms, two living rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom.

The gang tasked Brian Field, a solicitor’s clerk who had previously worked on defending Gordon Goody, with arranging the purchase of the farm through his employer, John Wheater. Brian Field identified one of the firm’s clients, Leonard Dennis Field (no relation) who had been granted power of attorney over his brother’s affairs whilst the brother was serving a sentence of imprisonment and who was therefore in possession of spare cash, to assist him in the task. The two men visited the property and agreed to buy it by paying a 10% deposit in exchange for immediate access to the property in order, they claimed, to make improvements to the property, and then to pay the outstanding amount on completion of the purchase after the robbery, by which time they would have planned to have disappeared.

It was clear to the detectives who investigated the robbery, even after the crime, that the robbers had made a considerable effort to stock the farm for every eventuality. They had realised that twenty plus men may have had to stay there for up to ten, or even fourteen, days if things went badly and it appeared that the Police were close to catching them. All their needs had been carefully assessed and provided for.

Hatherill expressed the view that a woman had clearly been involved in selecting the food, drink and kitchen utensils that the robbers would need during their stay. And somebody had considered their warmth, comfort, sleep, transport and even entertainment needs. All this costs money and it is now recognised that the South West Gang had been retaining a percentage of the proceeds of their previous crimes in order to provide a float for the next job.

Living at the farm for a week would not have been easy. Space was restricted and this can bring about conflict, especially among large, aggressive men who are used to getting their own way. Stress about the Police getting closer and the risk of capture and punishment will also exacerbate the situation. There was plenty of food and drink and the robbers were keen to keep up with Police progress in the enquiry on the radio. There was ample space outside the farmhouse where those that wanted to could play sport or keep fit. Some of the robbers, obviously, kept themselves entertained counting out the money and sorting out the various shares and ‘drinks’ for the gang members.

Reynolds’ plan involved the robbers keeping their heads down at the farm for seven days, as they relaxed after their exertions, counted their money, shared it out between them, and let the heat of the Police investigation blow over. They listened to Police broadcasts and BBC Radio news and it was in this way that they learned that the Police were planning to search every ‘gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse’ within a thirty mile radius of the robbery.

Pressure then grew amongst the gang to leave the farm earlier than had been originally planned. They heard on the radio that military vehicles had been seen in the area at the time of the robbery and realised that they could no longer use the same vehicles when they left the farm. They undertook experiments in painting the vehicles with some bright yellow paint that they had found on the farm, but these were deemed a failure and it was eventually decided to send out a couple of robbers to collect other vehicles in which the gang would eventually withdraw from the farm, while the Austin Loadstar lorry and the Land Rovers were left at the farm. Yellow paint from the farm was later found on the property of two of the robbers and led to their conviction.

Reynolds’s plan required all gang members to wear gloves at all times, but the robbers found it uncomfortable to wear gloves at night or when using the toilet, or to replace the gloves after sleeping or using the toilet, so fingerprints were left in the farmhouse. Reynolds told the gang to clean up the farmhouse before they left, and they complied, but these were not men experienced in housekeeping and they soon bored of it. But it didn’t matter anyway, because they all knew that there was a ‘Dustman’ coming along to burn the place down after they left.

Except that when the gang made enquiries a few days later they found that the ‘Dustman’ had got cold feet and failed to clean up after them, or to burn the place down, despite accepting a ‘drink’ of £28,500. When he was told this, Goody wanted to kill Brian Field who had accepted responsibility for finding somebody to do the job when the original incumbent had been arrested before the robbery.

On Sunday night the gang drove out of the farm and up to London where they went their separate ways and the robbery plan effectively ended. The robbers had been told that there might be as much as £1 million on the train and they had been surprised to find £2.6 million. The robbers should have placed the money in safety deposit boxes and only later distributed it, so that nobody became suspicious at gang members suddenly becoming rich after the crime – but they did not.

Local residents later remembered that the robbers used to go to the Royal Oak pub in Oakley. ‘They used to go in separately. They never spoke to each other and no one knew it was them until afterwards.’

CHAPTER TWO

The Conspiracy

(The essential element of the crime of Conspiracy is the agreement by two or more people to carry out a criminal act. Even if nothing is done in furtherance of the agreement, the offence of Conspiracy is complete)

All the principal participants in the Great Train Robbery were charged with Robbery and Conspiracy to Rob, so it is necessary to understand what conspiracy means and to review the details of the planning that the gang undertook before they committed the robbery.

Conspiracy to commit an indictable offence (a serious crime triable at the Assizes or Crown Court) was originally conceived by trial judges who recognised that there are occasions where a substantive offence may not have been completed but nevertheless an offence of a different kind has been committed because of the actions or agreements in preparation for the substantive offence; these are known as inchoate offences.

All crimes require a guilty mind (mens rea) and a guilty act (actus reus). For conspiracy the actus reus is the agreement. This cannot be a mere mental operation; it must involve spoken or written words or other overt acts. If the defendant repents and withdraws immediately after the agreement has been concluded, he or she is still guilty of the offence.

There must be an agreement to commit the criminal offence, but the motives of the conspirators are irrelevant. For example, it has been accepted by the courts that the fact that one conspirator was an undercover police officer (who only entered the conspiracy to catch drug dealers) did not prevent the offence of conspiracy from being committed.

As a boy, Bruce Reynolds was told by his father that it did not matter what he did in his life, but he must always try to be the best at it. This advice made a strong impression on Reynolds so that when he decided that he was going to make his living as a professional thief, he promptly decided that he wanted to be the best thief. He would frequently discuss his ambition with friends and colleagues and was constantly seeking ways to improve his skills and steal greater prizes.

The popular view, expressed in many books on the Robbery, is that at the end of 1962 Brian Field was sent to court to liaise between Gordon Goody’s solicitor (Wheater) and barrister, in the trial for the Armed Robbery at the BOAC Offices at Heathrow Airport. At the end of the trial, Goody was acquitted and Field is alleged to have introduced him to ‘The Ulsterman’, a mysterious figure who is alleged to have worked for the Post Office and to have proposed the Great Train Robbery and provided much of the information necessary to make it happen. Goody is then believed to have sold the idea of the Robbery to Reynolds and the rest of the gang.

Detective Inspector Frank Williams who managed the Flying Squad team which investigated the Robbery, in his autobiographical book No Fixed Address, tells a very different story. As his boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Butler, Head of the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad and the man who led the team which investigated the Robbery, described him as the ‘Best Informed Officer in the Metropolitan Police’ maybe he did know best.

Williams’ view was that in 1961, two years before the Robbery, Reynolds decided that robbing trains was the way forward and would provide the best profits. He then went around London meeting with all the leaders of the biggest and best criminal gangs seeking a partnership that would allow planning for the ‘Crime of the Century’ to proceed, but none of the other gangs were interested in Reynolds’ idea. There were regular, frequent and easy pickings to be achieved from the common wage robberies and bank robberies, so why should they upset the equilibrium and get the Police and the Courts all fired up about a spectacular crime?

Eventually, Reynolds, the leader of a gang of robbers based in Walworth and Bermondsey, met up with Roger Cordrey, the leader of a gang of robbers based in Sutton and Wimbledon, and they agreed to form a partnership to work towards a major train robbery. As part of the plan, Reynolds’ gang continued their regular work robbing banks and safe-blowing so as to generate income, with a healthy percentage being set aside to fund ‘the big tickle’ or ‘the enterprise’ as it became known. Cordrey took his gang down to Brighton and started to get to grips with the complexities of train robbery, such as the way to stop trains and the way to uncouple carriages, etc.

Police records show a series of six unsolved train robberies on the London to Brighton line during this period and it is very likely that Cordrey’s gang committed all of these. Cordrey experimented with various ways to stop trains, ranging from pulling the communication cord on a train carrying passengers, through a range of other ideas, to the method that he eventually used in the Great Train Robbery, where he covered the green signals with gloves and...