The Great Train Robbery: 60 Years Since Britain’s Most Famous Heist

[EPISODE 20] The Great Train Robbery 60 Years Since Britain's Most Famous Heist

[00:00:00] Adam Cox: The gang pushed Dave to the ground and he, tries to alert Jack that, there's an issue, but it's too late. He's pulled out of the, train, , he tries to put up a fight but one of the men swings the leather baton to his head and he falls down in an instant.

[00:00:14] Adam Cox: Like the lights just being switched off. ​

[00:00:16] Adam Cox: ​ Welcome to the Compendium, an assembly of cunning mines, mask identities, and stolen treasures that would spark a series of TV and film adaptations, songs from Phil Collins and the Sex Pistols and a manhunt that would span almost four decades. Wow. That's a clue, isn't it?

[00:00:58] Adam Cox: It is. Do you know what it is? Um,

[00:01:01] Kyle Risi: no idea. No idea. No way. So there's hidden treasure. Yes. That piqued my interest. Is it another treasure hunt?

[00:01:09] Adam Cox: Well, not quite. This is, all about a heist.

[00:01:13] Adam Cox: This is the great British train robbery. Oh,

[00:01:17] Kyle Risi: see, I always thought the great British, well, the great train robbery was like an American Western thing. I didn't know it was

[00:01:24] Adam Cox: British. I'll go into all the details in just a bit. If you're just tuning in, I'm Adam Cox, the captain for this week. That'll be inviting you all aboard this tale, which turns 60 years old today, 60 years old. It's happy. Great British Train Anniversary.

[00:01:41] Adam Cox: Anniversary

[00:01:42] Kyle Risi: day. Yeah. Well, today's also another anniversary. Not an anniversary, but another milestone for us. Yeah, because this is our 20th episode. It is, yes. And they said we had never last

[00:01:52] Adam Cox: I know. 20 episodes we did. Pretty good. We have,

[00:01:55] Kyle Risi: it's a lot of hard work, but it's a

[00:01:57] Adam Cox: labor of love, isn't it? It is, yes.

[00:01:59] Adam Cox: But I'm enjoying it and it is great that I'm getting to do our 20th episode. Oh, so you stole, you planned this. I did. I did a big milestone that you robbed from me. Would you like to introduce yourself?

[00:02:11] Kyle Risi: Sure, yeah. I'm your co-host for today, Kyle Risi, and you are listening to the Compendium and Assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. We are a weekly variety podcast where I ordinarily.

[00:02:22] Kyle Risi: Tell Adam Cox all about a topic. I think we'll find both fascinating and intriguing. But this week I guess you are in the driving seat.

[00:02:29] Adam Cox: . I am indeed. Let's get going. All right. So in today's episode, we will step back in time to 60 years ago today where we will retell the real life Oceans 11 Guy Richie style saga that gripped a nation and sparked a global manhunt.

[00:02:46] Adam Cox: We will uncover, which notorious of London's criminals at that time led the robbery, the heists execution, and the downfall of those involved. This is the story of the great British train robbery, one of the most infamous heists in human history.

[00:03:02] Kyle Risi: In human history. That's a big

[00:03:03] Adam Cox: claim to make. Well, I dunno, of any heists in animal history, like in the cat world.

[00:03:08] Adam Cox: Yeah, but

[00:03:09] Kyle Risi: it, you're making it sound like it's one of, I don't know, it just sounds a bit. A bit grand for a heist.

[00:03:15] Adam Cox: Well, it is. It's one of, it's the great British train robbery. It's got great in it. Okay, let's get going. Okay, so in the early hours of 8th of August, 1963, a royal male train made up of 12 carriages is on its usual nighttime journey from Glasgow to London.

[00:03:32] Adam Cox: On board the train are 72 post office staff going about their normal work routine and sorting packages and mail throughout the night. The second carriage after the engine was the high value package coach. That's all the gold is. Yep. That's where they would store large sums of money and anything valuable.

[00:03:52] Adam Cox: But on this particular day, it was carrying a larger sum of money than normal. It was carrying approximately 2.6 million pounds, which is the equivalent of 69 million in today's money.

[00:04:04] Kyle Risi: Oh, 1960s money. I need me

[00:04:06] Adam Cox: some of that. Yeah, it's, it's tasty some that it was no coincidence that a gang of 15 men would choose this night to take control of the train and steal virtually all the money on board, all within the space of half an hour. So let's start with our motley crew and learn a little bit about the masterminds of the robbery.

[00:04:25] Adam Cox: Okay. Let's do it. I feel for this bit, I need some kind of like, um, you know, in like a heist movie or a Guy Richie movie, they have some like music as they introduce the characters with a montage of their live history. I've got the perfect sound clip. Go for it.

[00:04:40] Adam Cox: That didn't sound like it. No. Is that

[00:04:44] Kyle Risi: Not what you had in mind? No,

[00:04:45] Adam Cox: but picture what I said as I go through this. Okay. We might have to cut that bit out then. Okay. So meet Bruce Reynolds, he is a seasoned criminal with a history of petty crimes. He's already found himself behind bars in Wandsworth prison. , he goes on to become an antique stealer, but cannot resist the thrill and the opportunities that comes with being a thief.

[00:05:06] Adam Cox: Reynolds rose to prominence as the leader of the London-based Southwest gang. His partner in life is a lady called Franny, and they have a child, called Nick . Mm-hmm. Some of his most notable escapades in his early criminal career include stopping a security van whilst posing as a construction worker.

[00:05:24] Adam Cox: On another occasion, he steals from the safe of a jewelers in Piccadilly, which leads to a chase on the rooftops of London, where he makes a dramatic escape through a opera singer's penthouse. Okay. However, Reynold's most defining role came as one of the masterminds behind the train robbery, leading the very gang that executed the daring heist.

[00:05:44] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. Next we meet Ronald Biggs, who is more commonly known as Ronnie Biggs.

[00:05:50] Adam Cox: He was in the r e f, uh, but that came to an end when he was dishonorably discharged due to desertion. That's a tongue twister.

[00:05:58] Kyle Risi: What does desertion mean? Like he, he just ran away. Like

[00:06:01] Adam Cox: he essentially went awol. Yeah. He didn't, he just ran away from the army. Why? Um, I don't know. This is just the compendium, Kyle, we don't go into, we just scratched the surface of the details.

[00:06:10] Adam Cox: Oh, yeah, yeah. You know the story. Anyway, so he commits a series of crimes, , including, car theft, attempted robbery at bookmakers, and he finds himself in Onesworth Prison where he crosses path with Bruce Reynolds. Mm-hmm.

[00:06:26] Adam Cox: Following his third prison sentence. Figgs aspires to turn over a new leaf, and he starts a family and he pursues a career as a carpenter. Figgs is a need of money for a deposit to put on a house, and it's around this time that he's working on a particular house for a particular man who just so happens to be a retiring train driver, we'll come back to that.

[00:06:48] Adam Cox: Next up is Gordon Goody. He is another member of Reynolds Southwest Gang. goody assumes a pivotal role as Reynolds trusted right hand man, serving as the deputy and the chief organizer of the Great Train robbery. now in a bold move dressed in matching attire, suits, bowler hats and sporting Charlie Chaplin mustaches, which I dunno if that's a disguise that would go down.

[00:07:13] Adam Cox: I mean it doesn't go down well today. I can't imagine it went down that well in 1960s. No, cuz

[00:07:17] Kyle Risi: that was well off the war anyway, right? Yeah. And when was Charlie Chapman around? Charlie Chapman was

[00:07:22] Adam Cox: like forties or twenties. I don't know. It

[00:07:24] Kyle Risi: must have been before hit there, that's for sure. Yeah, that's because I imagine after hit there, that mustache went downhill real quick as a trend.

[00:07:31] Adam Cox: Yeah. You haven't seen anyone since really, have you? Not unless it's a joke. No. And then that's not really a joke, but anyway. They dressed in these disguises, managed to pull off a heist, robbing a wage van at Heathrow Airport in 1962.

[00:07:45] Adam Cox: So Goody and Reynolds and the gang managed to successfully carry off that heist. And the haul that they managed to steal is around about 62,000 pounds, which is about one and a half million now.

[00:07:58] Adam Cox: And so they're really disappointed with this amount of money because that's not enough to retire on. I think once they, split it out, it's about four grand, which is worth a hundred grand mm-hmm. In today's money. Mm-hmm. So they need to find another job

[00:08:10] Adam Cox: um, but what happened to goody was he was picked up by the police, along with another member of the gang. And they managed to hire a team that was probably slightly crooked. Mm-hmm. Uh, one of the solicitors was a guy called Brian Field and he helped them get acquitted. Okay. We'll come back to Brian. Oh.

[00:08:30] Adam Cox: Put a pin in that. We'll put a pin in him. So what isn't common knowledge at this time? Before the great British train robbery was, there's actually two previous attempts by the gang to, steal money. One they had to call off because I think something went wrong and another time they only managed to like steal 700 pounds.

[00:08:48] Adam Cox: Oh really?

[00:08:49] Kyle Risi: Yeah. One that's definitely not enough to

[00:08:50] Adam Cox: retire on. No. So it's hasn't gone too well for them so far. No. But so that, that's why they need this next big job to work out and, they can then retire and go hide and, live their life on a luxury island or whatever.

[00:09:03] Adam Cox: So on June the 10th in 1963, after an extensive search for leads, Reynolds finally receives a breakthrough, Brian Field, the man on their defense team who approaches goody with some vital information concerning a mysterious individual known as the Sterman. Ooh, the Sterman Sterman.

[00:09:23] Adam Cox: Acting as an intermediary between the two parties. Brian sets up a meeting, so at this stage, little is known about the Sterman, except that he hails from North Northern Ireland, and he possesses this distinct accent.

[00:09:35] Adam Cox: So the Altman gets goody excited with an intriguing revelation concerning the traveling post office, so that was a train responsible for transporting vast sums of money from banks across the country to London within one of its carriages. Hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions pounds these bank notes are regularly transported throughout the country. Mm-hmm. So in a stroke of luck, the ulsterman discloses that in two months time following a bank holiday, The train is slated to carry an unusually substantial amount of cash on its journey from Glasgow to London.

[00:10:06] Adam Cox: What's more on this particular day, in two months time, the high value, package vehicle, the high security carriage mm-hmm. Is gonna be out of, commission because it's going through some routine safety. And so it would be replaced by a regular carriage. Ooh. Less secure. Exactly. So that would make it a

[00:10:23] Kyle Risi: lot easier.

[00:10:24] Kyle Risi: How do they know this though? Surely you wouldn't be publicizing Oh yeah. Our big old high security carriage is gonna be out of action, so, well, that's

[00:10:32] Adam Cox: one of how they get that information. Well, this is the sterman, so that's one of the, um, we'll go on to who we think the ultimate is. Oh, the insider. Oh yeah.

[00:10:41] Adam Cox: Well, there we go. Oh, well, to know this kind of knowledge, you'd have to be, you know, quite close to the post office, wouldn't you? Yeah, for sure. So, with the prospect of this life-changing amount of money, good and Reynolds find themselves presented with this long awaited opportunity. In exchange for a cut of the money, the Sterman provides further specifics regarding the train, the timetable, the operational procedures and everything like that.

[00:11:06] Adam Cox: However, to pull this off, it would require an enormous amount of effort, especially as they would need to meticulously plan the robbery and devise a long-term escape strategy or within a window of about two months.

[00:11:20] Adam Cox: Right.

[00:11:21] Kyle Risi: Okay. So it's tight. This needs

[00:11:23] Adam Cox: to be well planned. Well, yeah, you've, you've gotta try and pull off this heist in, in less than two months. Mm. I I find it difficult to plan a holiday in less than two months.

[00:11:32] Adam Cox: Well, that's not true. No, it's not

[00:11:33] Kyle Risi: true. I would find it hard to plan a holiday in two months. I'd be like, I can't deal

[00:11:37] Adam Cox: with this. You do it, Adam. That's usually what happens, isn't it? To be fair. Um, so two weeks later at Houston Train Station, goody Dons a, uh, a Porter's uniform and discreetly maneuvers a trolley of suitcases through the bustling terminal, trying to kind of, well carry out a REI essentially of the train how he thinks they're gonna get on board.

[00:11:58] Adam Cox: He spots a post office worker and he skillfully engages in conversation mm-hmm. Extracting valuable information about the mail sorting and the processes during the journey. Well, so

[00:12:08] Kyle Risi: he is like, Hey mate, um, yeah, how does it all work? And he was just like, let me tell ya, I know he's quite loose lipped. Yeah.

[00:12:15] Kyle Risi: I would've thought he must have been quite the smooth as to be able to kind of get him. Comfortable

[00:12:20] Adam Cox: enough to talk? Possibly. Maybe some people are just really proud to talk about their work, aren't they? Yeah, I

[00:12:25] Kyle Risi: guess so. I guess at the time the royal mails probably quite a big institution, right?

[00:12:29] Kyle Risi: Mm-hmm. So someone going, oh yeah, I wonder how like the mail gets from here to here. How does all the sorting

[00:12:33] Adam Cox: work? Yeah. And he's like, well, let me show you interesting so, this is really useful for goody. And with this information, it helps the plan come together in his head.

[00:12:42] Adam Cox: He works out, he probably needs about eight men. But what he does realize is that taking the money off the train isn't probably gonna be the issue. Uh, it's more of a case of where they're gonna be able to do that.

[00:12:53] Adam Cox: They can't do it in a train station. There's gonna be, you know, too many guards around it. Mm-hmm. It's not discreet enough. So the only way to do it is once the train is. Moving throughout the country. Mm-hmm. But then how do you stop a moving train? Oh, do you

[00:13:06] Kyle Risi: think that this is gonna be, like, do you remember Breaking Bad when they stole all that, um, that petrochemical thing from off the back of the train and they pretended like a, a van had gotten unstuck on the track and it stopped, and then while they were trying to move the van, that's when they offloaded everything.

[00:13:25] Adam Cox: Well, interesting you say that. It's not quite as advanced as that, but We'll, we'll go into the details, but yes, there is, there's a cunning plan Definitely. That you'll, that you'll learn about. Interesting.

[00:13:37] Adam Cox: So Goody and Reynolds, they start to put their crew together. Uh, and they're conscious of keeping the team to a minimum because they don't want work to get out. This is a very top secret mission. And also more men involved means more money that they have to split. Mm-hmm. So other members of their crew include a guy called Charles Wilson.

[00:13:56] Adam Cox: He's been working with Goody and Reynolds since 1960 and he was also involved actually in the airport robbery. So he's quite well trusted. He would go on to help goody with the organizing as well as be the treasurer. So he was responsible for dealing out people's money. So, um, that was quite interesting I thought, because they like this one man's responsibility is cutting the money equally.

[00:14:17] Adam Cox: Well, I guess

[00:14:18] Kyle Risi: like he maybe is a trusted third party. That isn't gonna stiff anyone over. Everyone likes him. He gets on with everyone. Probably. I be, that's the kind of character that he is.

[00:14:28] Adam Cox: That makes sense actually. Yeah, I did wonder about that. But yeah, that's a good, good summary I'd say. Then of course we have Brian Field, the man who introduced the sterman to Goody Reynolds.

[00:14:39] Adam Cox: But he also plays a key part in arranging the gang's escape and he helps purchase the Haydel, which would become Lela Farm, an abandoned old farm, not too far from where the heist would take place.

[00:14:51] Adam Cox: And this is where the gang was Lelo. And yeah, Brian's role was to help do the cleanup essentially. Mm-hmm. Next is Ronald Edwards, an X boxer club owner and small time crook. Well, this really

[00:15:04] Kyle Risi: is like a film by guy Rich, isn't

[00:15:06] Adam Cox: it? I can really butcher it. Yeah. That's why I said cue the music in your head. Mm. Um, so this guy, , Ronald Edwards, the boxer, he already knew goody Reynolds and had been involved in the he fro heist, but managed to escape arrest. He would help assist with the organization on the train heist. Next we have Roy James.

[00:15:26] Adam Cox: He was nicknamed Weasel. His responsibility was the getaway driver, which, you know, appropriately named and then keeping it in the family, um, was a guy called John Daley. He was the brother-in-law of Reynolds and was responsible in stopping the train and also one of the getaway drivers. Oh, so they do stop the train?

[00:15:45] Adam Cox: Well, we'll come onto that. Okay. So, goody Reynolds had a solid team, but they still lack the experience and knowledge of stopping a moving train. So they have to reluctantly open up their plan to a man called Roger Corddry. Now he was the leader of a rival gang called the South Coast Raiders, and he had experience with robbing trains

[00:16:05] Adam Cox: before.

[00:16:06] Adam Cox: Now he was brought on board with his men who were largely the muscle to help move the loot. Cause there's a lot of bags that they have to move in a very short space of time. He's brought on board because he was um, and I use air quotes here, uh, an electronics expert

[00:16:21] Kyle Risi: and from the sixties. Yeah. What kind of electronics expert would you be in the sixties?

[00:16:25] Adam Cox: Well, he had the cunning plan of how to stop the train, which, um, okay. Yeah, we'll come back to that. with this expanded team now in place, they hatch out the rest of the plan and determine a piece of track where they can stop the train. Not too far from London, but the spot isn't the best for unloading goods off a train.

[00:16:43] Adam Cox: And so it dawns on them, they're going to need someone to move the train. Mm-hmm. So they're gonna have to disconnect the engine and the high value package goods vehicle. Then they're gonna drive the high value package vehicle a little bit further down the track. Mm-hmm. Somewhere where they can easily offload it and then make their quick getaway.

[00:16:59] Adam Cox: Right. I see. That's the plan. Whilst they're thinking of options, they consider just using the driver of the train on the night because Sure. He knows how to drive the train, but there is a risk that he refuses to do it. Mm-hmm. And then it could all go wrong.

[00:17:13] Adam Cox: And so they're like, no, we need a backup cue. Ronnie Biggs. Now remember, he was the guy that Reynolds met in prison. Mm-hmm. And he had, you know, quit life of crime, became a carpenter. Right. And then met this guy called Pop, who was a retiring train driver. Right. So he was somehow learned about the plan and then brought Pop in to say, yeah, I know a guy, you can do this.

[00:17:37] Adam Cox: And helped basically elbow his way into this plan, essentially. It's always good to know someone who knows a guy. Yeah. But he, he wasn't responsible for anything other than just bringing in this guy. Mm-hmm. That was it. That's what he did. But he wanted, yeah, and he wanted like an equal share as well, considering he didn't really do much.

[00:17:54] Adam Cox: And does he get that equal share? He does. He does. Yeah.

[00:17:57] Kyle Risi: Well, well, sounds like some, sounds like foreshadowing there.

[00:18:01] Adam Cox: Mm. Yeah. He's, well, we'll come onto that. There's a lot we've gotta come onto still. Well, there is, it's, it's a big story. Okay, let's do it. So the team is now fully formed. They've got everyone in place.

[00:18:14] Adam Cox: All right. So who

[00:18:14] Kyle Risi: we got? So we've got Briggs, we've got the Bigs, we've got the Omnis, man. Ulsterman. We've got this new, we've got the Weasel. He's the driver.

[00:18:24] Adam Cox: Yep. What else we got? Reynolds the main guy. Yep. Of course. Goody his operational right hand man. Uhhuh. Then a few other people, which aren't really, that

[00:18:33] Kyle Risi: there's quite a lot of people that we've gotta split this money through and I guess not everyone is getting an equal share.

[00:18:38] Adam Cox: You're right, there's now 17 key people involved. So what went from a relatively small team has expanded three times pretty much. Yeah. And, um, there are a few other people that they need to divvy that perhaps get a smaller cut. They call them drinks, basically.

[00:18:51] Adam Cox: Oh, okay. Interesting. Why,

[00:18:53] Kyle Risi: why do they call drinks?

[00:18:54] Adam Cox: I don't know. Okay. Um, but they perhaps would just get 10 grand helping do some part of the plan, but not really involved they're like contractors, right? Yeah. Associates. Mm. So it's decided that the gang need a place to hide out, especially, once they've done this massive heist, they know they're gonna get a lot of attention.

[00:19:12] Adam Cox: They need to lay low. So Brian Field comes to the Gang's Aid and he secures the deserted leather Slade farm mm-hmm. As their hideout. Mm-hmm. The team agrees to Lilo and divide the money there. They then equip the place with enough food to last the crew for, perhaps several weeks along with cards and board games to help pass the time for seven weeks.

[00:19:30] Adam Cox: Several weeks. Sorry.

[00:19:33] Kyle Risi: Even still several weeks. Th like three weeks, let's say. That's a long time. Just be hiding out. Mm. With a bunch of

[00:19:40] Adam Cox: boys smelly boys. Hey. Um, well I can't imagine, imagine some of these men might be smelly. It was the sixties. Did you have deodorant back

[00:19:49] Kyle Risi: then? I'm sure you did. I don't know.

[00:19:52] Kyle Risi: Like your parents would've been

[00:19:54] Adam Cox: born in the sixties. Surely not. 24 hour protection or 72 hour protection. What you get now, which definitely doesn't last. 72 hours.

[00:20:00] Kyle Risi: No, especially what we bought recently. I'm sure they've changed the recipe of some kind cuz the, this last couple weeks I've been fresh.

[00:20:08] Adam Cox: I think one, it's warmer, but two, it's no longer from Russia.

[00:20:13] Adam Cox: Remember a lot of degen used to come from Russia. Are you kidding me? No. Really? How do you know that? My dad.

[00:20:20] Kyle Risi: And so, because of obviously what's happening in Ukraine, we are now have a, we have a lack of Russian.

[00:20:27] Kyle Risi: Deodorant, you're talking like, sure. Deodorant, right? 24 hour

[00:20:30] Adam Cox: protection, I guess. So I think it's more like stick and stuff like that that may be as impacted, but I know they had to, um, move their work to other factories, like in Spain or somewhere else. Wow.

[00:20:41] Kyle Risi: The more you know, hey, mm-hmm. That's why I'm thinking I've got the, I've got the Russians to thank for being all fresh.

[00:20:47] Adam Cox: Um, yeah, that's, okay. Back to it. Back to the story at hand.

[00:20:52] Adam Cox: So the plan is in motion and everything is set. The crew faces a daunting task, stopping a moving train, seizing control, relocating it, unloading the money bags, and making a clean getaway all within half an hour. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

[00:21:08] Kyle Risi: It does. If you're, if you are driven by the idea of being alone with a bunch of men for three weeks, then yeah.

[00:21:15] Adam Cox: If you could do anything, I think it's the money. That's what's driving these people. Oh, yeah. And the money. Yeah. Right. If all the stars align, then bigs Reynolds goody, and the rest of the team will orchestrate one of the most monumental heists in history, amassing a nice 150 grand each, which is about 4 million in today's money.

[00:21:35] Adam Cox: Wow. So just a few days before the heist. Goody and Reynolds conduct a final check and encounter an unexpected issue. Their car is not suited for the back roads and country lanes of the UK particularly. If you need to make a clean getaway,

[00:21:50] Kyle Risi: what are they driving? They're driving one of those like three wheeled robin reliant things.

[00:21:54] Adam Cox: I'm guessing something that just maybe doesn't handle well around corners and cars were different back then as well. Sure. So they need a new car then. Yeah. So time is running out. They don't quite know what to do, um, hang on.

[00:22:05] Kyle Risi: So I thought Weasel was responsible for the getaway.

[00:22:09] Kyle Risi: Yeah. So they've hired someone to do the getaway driving and he's not even brought his own vehicle. Yeah. It's like me hiring a carpenter and him coming along going, Hey, yeah, um, you need to supply the wood and Yeah, the tools.

[00:22:24] Adam Cox: That's a good point.

[00:22:25] Kyle Risi: And surely you would want the weasel to bring his own car because then it would be a car that he's used to driving.

[00:22:31] Kyle Risi: Right.

[00:22:32] Adam Cox: I've never stole anything like this before, so you wouldn't know.

[00:22:36] Kyle Risi: I wouldn't know.

[00:22:37] Adam Cox: Anyway, so the time is running out and the team must act pretty quick, but fortunately on one of their final wreckee, they realize that they're close to an army base. Mm-hmm. And that army base has army vehicles. And they're much more suited to the back roads. They certainly are. So, they managed to creep up to the army base and steal a couple of land rovers,

[00:23:02] Adam Cox: and that's what they would use as their getaway vehicles. Perfect. That's

[00:23:05] Kyle Risi: a perfect vehicle. That's what you need. Yeah,

[00:23:06] Adam Cox: exactly. So that was pretty fortunate. So things are working out for them so far, meanwhile, over in Glasgow, the post office train embarks on its fateful voyage towards London.

[00:23:18] Adam Cox: With each passing moment, the weight of anticipation intensifies. The dice has been rolled and there's no turning back. Oh. In the eerie darkness of the British countryside, the time draws closer to 3:00 AM on August the eighth, 1963 amids the stillness. A seemingly innocuous royal male freight train steadily treasures along its nocturnal path.

[00:23:41] Adam Cox: It's very poetic, Adam. I know I, I'm building a picture here. Oblivious to the impending events about to unfold. The weary postal workers aboard are already several hours into their arduous shift. The train driver is 58 year old Jack Mills. He is supported by his co-driver, a man named Dave Whitby.

[00:24:01] Adam Cox: Dave is also tired and he's ready for this long journey to be over. However, he's a professional and he's used to doing this route several times Before peering into the darkness, Dave spots a red light glowing down the track. This instantly confuses Dave and Jack because they know the stretch of track.

[00:24:18] Adam Cox: There's never normally a red light here. Usually they can just, you know, fly through it, no problems. This really confuses them. Plus what's the red light then? Well, the red light's telling them to stop. Oh, I

[00:24:29] Kyle Risi: see. I thought you meant like a train was coming head on, but No, it's just an actual, just

[00:24:34] Adam Cox: a red light.

[00:24:35] Adam Cox: That's right. Yeah. So normally there'd be a green light to say Yep. Continue proceeding through. I see. I see. But they see a red light and they're like, oh, this is weird. Mm-hmm. Um, so no one's alerted to Dave and Jack that there'd be a hold up or anything down the line. Cause normally that's what would happen.

[00:24:49] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. So obviously abiding by the red light, they start to slow the train down. It draws to a halt at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire. Mm-hmm. They wait a little while before, they make any decisions cause they think perhaps the light's just gonna change. But conscious that they need to be at their destination on time.

[00:25:07] Adam Cox: Dave climbs out of the train to see what could be the holdup. Mm. He starts to approach the signal right as Dave draws closer to the red light. Dave spots a faint glow of green coming from the same area. Dave's vision is trying to adjust essentially like what?

[00:25:24] Adam Cox: What am I actually looking at here? Uhhuh. Uhhuh. But quickly he realizes that the faint green glow that he can see is coming from the signal and something has been placed over it. What is it? He finds a thick glove covering the majority of the signal. Just a glove. A

[00:25:42] Kyle Risi: glove. Like

[00:25:43] Adam Cox: a man's glove. That's right.

[00:25:45] Adam Cox: Now remember, what does that mean? Well, remember goody and Reynolds had to recruit Roger Cordy cuz he knew how to stop a train y. Yeah. Well this was his bright idea. Shut up and shut up. Yes. A glove had been placed over the green light and so yeah, he's not quite the genius you think he was? I mean that's like hiring someone from my builder.com to do a DIY job and then you realize, oh, you just wasted 200.

[00:26:10] Adam Cox: Quit. I could have done that. Well, that kind of did happen

[00:26:13] Kyle Risi: to us. We've all, we've all

[00:26:14] Adam Cox: been there. Exactly. Shit. In fact, in one of the follow-up interviews that happens much later, goody actually admits if they'd known it was gonna be as easy as that, they would've never had hired him whatsoever. And does it work Well, it does.

[00:26:29] Adam Cox: They managed to stop the train, didn't he?

[00:26:31] Kyle Risi: So he did know what he was talking about then. He's not just a fool.

[00:26:34] Adam Cox: Um, he's not just a fool. He's perhaps just massaged his skillset, but it

[00:26:40] Kyle Risi: stopped the train. It it did, yeah.

[00:26:42] Kyle Risi: Sometimes the most simplest things

[00:26:44] Adam Cox: right? True. I mean, he did say that he could stop a train and he did do that,

Marker

[00:26:48] Adam Cox: dave quickly realized something is amiss. Is this a trap? He inspects the signal unit where the wires have been exposed and he quickly sees the signals been tampered with. He checks for other signs to see what else is amiss. And he finds some wires that are, well, they've been added to the signal box, so he follows the trail of those wires to an external battery. You can see this battery is being used to turn on the red light. Mm-hmm. So maybe that part is quite clever actually. Roger, maybe you are a good, you're calling me Roger, not you. Roger. Roger Cordery. Oh, it's

[00:27:26] Kyle Risi: just that you look at me dead in the eye.

[00:27:27] Kyle Risi: I'm like,

[00:27:28] Adam Cox: hello. But yeah, Roger, this was a good idea. Powering the red light. knows he needs to report this and fast. So he looks around to see if anyone is about, but he can't make out much in the darkness. He finds the phone box along the line and picks up the handset. Mm-hmm. The line is dead. Oh, he checks the back of the box and finds the wires have been cut.

[00:27:50] Adam Cox: He turns back to the train and starts to run when he's ambushed by several men. Okay, he counts maybe 10 men. They're emerging for the darkness, armed with these leather covered batons, uhhuh. Now it's important to note here, these batons were a conscious choice by the gang because they didn't want to carry firearms for this robbery as they knew.

[00:28:09] Adam Cox: If they did get caught, then they would serve a, much longer sentence for an armed robbery. Sure. You could argue that they perhaps didn't intend to cause serious harm to anyone. If you've got one of these rather than a gun, maybe. Depends on many times you hit someone with it.

[00:28:25] Adam Cox: That's true. I mean, you could do, but I dunno, maybe there's an argument there. The gang pushed Dave to the ground and he, tries to alert Jack that, there's an issue, but it's too late. He's pulled out of the, train, he tries to put up a fight and he perhaps should have cooperated because one of the men swings the leather baton to his head and he falls down in an instant.

[00:28:44] Adam Cox: Like the lights just being switched off. Yeah. He's out. Dave panics, he tries to break three, but being held down, he only manages so far before he loses his balance, he stumbles and rolls down the mound tumbling until everything goes black. So he's out. Yep. The gang board, the train. Pop the crooked driver that, Biggs brought on board.

[00:29:06] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. Yep. Takes a quick look at the controls and quickly realizes, oh God, he doesn't know this train. Yeah. Oh no. He's like, uh, this is a different model to what I drive. I can't do this. This is too modern. I'm, I'm not gonna be able to do this shit. So, the gang quickly turned on bigs as his sole responsibility was just to find a train driver that could safely and quickly move the train down the track to the intended spot.

[00:29:32] Adam Cox: And he couldn't even do that. God, the driver now with a serious head injury is threatened to drive the engine and the carriage holding the money down the track. Mm-hmm.

[00:29:44] Adam Cox: The men start to unload the 600 odd sacks of money. Mm-hmm. 600 whilst, uh, Reynolds keeps a close eye on the clock and he's counting down the minutes to how much time they have left. After so many minutes, he calls it, they have to go and they have to go now, which means they have no choice but to leave a number of bags behind.

[00:30:04] Adam Cox: Wow.

[00:30:04] Kyle Risi: That's just incredible to think that a, that 600 sacks of money. Mm-hmm. So it is 2.6 in 600 bags. Yeah. Are these all. One pound

[00:30:16] Adam Cox: notes. Well, I guess I don't think they had 50 pound notes back then.

[00:30:19] Adam Cox: Did they have 20? But they would be like ones fives, tens, maybe.

[00:30:22] Kyle Risi: Yeah. And they must be small bags,

[00:30:24] Adam Cox: I guess. I guess so. Like little potato

[00:30:26] Kyle Risi: sacks?

[00:30:27] Adam Cox: But yeah, there's about 600 sacks. Reynolds cause time that they need to leave. And as they're collecting rest of the bags, one of the gang made a significant error, which gives the police their first big clue. Now. The post office staff on the train were threatened not to call the police for at least 30 minutes. Okay. As someone would be watching them to make sure they didn't do it. But there's no one watching them at there. There's no one watching

[00:30:51] Kyle Risi: them there. They always say that and there's never anyone

[00:30:54] Adam Cox: watching. No. But what do you think the significance is of that? Of what being told, oh, don't call anyone for 30 minutes. Well,

[00:31:02] Kyle Risi: they're trying to get them to call someone. I don't know. What do you mean? Well, they, they want, they don't want 'em to call anyone, so they just tell them,

[00:31:10] Adam Cox: yeah, don't call anyone.

[00:31:10] Adam Cox: Well, that means if they don't call the police for at least 30 minutes, that gives them a 30 minute headstart mm-hmm. To potentially get to their destination and then hunker down. Okay. So what that does is it gives a police a radius to start their investigation because they're like, well, we only need to look at, maybe look at within this area initially of where these people are gonna be hiding out.

[00:31:33] Adam Cox: Oh, okay.

[00:31:34] Adam Cox: So,, the gang escape, lucky for them. And they're tuning in and they're listening to the police radio airwaves and, they head back to the farm where they would, do the rest of their hiding out.

[00:31:44] Adam Cox: The gang wake up the next day to news bulletins about the incident and , it's everywhere already. But initially there's no threat because the police, dunno of their whereabouts. So they passed the time playing Monopoly and hanging out. Now there are rumors that they played Monopoly with the money that they stole, which I think is hilarious.

[00:32:03] Adam Cox: Amazing. Yes. Um, so this, that's how you make Monopoly bearable. I know. Exactly. Because I mean, if you're not winning, then you lose interest in Monopoly real quick, right? Mm-hmm.

[00:32:14] Adam Cox: How exciting though, as well. Yeah. But apparently though that was a rumor about the monopoly money. Cuz I think one of the robbers, I dunno if it was goody or if it was, big, I think they sort of said, actually that's a, that's just a rumor, which is a shame. But I, I like to think that they did do that.

[00:32:28] Adam Cox: Oh,

[00:32:28] Kyle Risi: so that means that these guys are sort of alive. We'll come on to that

[00:32:34] Adam Cox: o Okay. Sorry, you, you're jumping ahead. You

[00:32:37] Kyle Risi: said it from beyond the grave.

[00:32:39] Adam Cox: Now the money, um, is stacked from the floor to the ceiling uhhuh and is divided equally among the main gang

[00:32:45] Adam Cox: but it doesn't take too long before they learn that the police are looking for the suspects within a 30 mile radius. Mm-hmm. And that spooks the gang as they, didn't expect maybe the police to cotton on quite so soon and they quickly arrange different transport to take them away. They realize that they can't use the same land rovers because these vehicles could be identified by the train staff. So that's why they had to arrange for these vehicles to come get them. Yeah. Yeah. They wiped down the place to remove any fingerprints or as much evidence that they possibly could do.

[00:33:14] Adam Cox: And they do rush to leave the farm a few days before. They're supposed to . This, but hasn't gone to plan. Sure. Now they were supposed to burn it but nobody wanted to torch the farm as the risk of being spotted was probably too big. Because if the police are around and you see a massive fire mm-hmm.

[00:33:32] Adam Cox: They're probably gonna go, Hmm, what's that? Yeah, for sure. So it doesn't get torched. They all flee and they go their separate ways. , but the solicitor Brian Field was supposed to arrange for an acquaintance to return to the farm to burn it down and destroy all the evidence.

[00:33:47] Adam Cox: But that guide he puts his trust in does a runner. I see. And so Brian tries to assure the rest of the gang that it's fine, it's all sorted out, don't worry, they don't buy it. They discover that he's lied and one of the gang Wilson, has to be restrained as he is ready to kill Brian Wilson. Yeah. .

[00:34:06] Adam Cox: Meanwhile, news of the heist captures the collective imagination of the UK Uhhuh. It's all over television. And television is actually only just become common in people's homes. Right? And so it was one of the first news stories that people could follow every day and unfold.

[00:34:20] Adam Cox: Unfold Nice. And stuff like that. Yeah. So people loved it. And the public was kind of divided on whether they, thought the robbers were like Robin Hood or because, you know, they're stealing from the Queen. And that's kind funny, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, or actually people that obviously are big royalists are saying, no, that's really bad.

[00:34:38] Adam Cox: You're stealing from the Queen. So yeah, it was, it was divided.

[00:34:41] Adam Cox: However, the police take a very strong stance and, , they in the post office don't want to be made to look like fools. So they offer a reward of around about 260,000 pound what

[00:34:55] Kyle Risi: that's like today's money or

[00:34:58] Adam Cox: 1960s money. That was 1960s money. That's a huge amount. So what would

[00:35:02] Kyle Risi: that

[00:35:02] Adam Cox: have been worth to today?

[00:35:04] Adam Cox: So 260 was probably worth about 5 million or something like that. Maybe I, that's more than they stole. Well, it was more than people's share of the actual money that they got. Oh, no. So someone's gonna adopt them in, well, this is what they were trying to do.

[00:35:17] Adam Cox: They were trying to get like the associates or people and the underworld to kind of come forward and basically reveal information. So I don't So you would've had to know

[00:35:26] Kyle Risi: what the share was, or was this just like making a, an educated guess

[00:35:30] Adam Cox: I guess hypothetically. I mean they had stories of the postal workers that said that there was between, I dunno, 10, 15 men. So maybe they could make a bit of a guess if they were dividing it. Sure. Um, but if

[00:35:42] Kyle Risi: someone did come forward, would they have gotten the money then or is this just a lie that the police are saying to try attract them out?

[00:35:48] Adam Cox: Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know if anyone did get a reward from it and it could be a collective pot. It might be that they offered anyone that they could give information. Maybe you'd get 10 grand so I dunno exactly. But they did put a big prize money to try and, get those that might wanna like do in their pals and stuff like nice, great dobbing in your pals.

[00:36:07] Adam Cox: Always good. I know.

[00:36:09] Adam Cox: So back to the actual crime, whilst it did come to an abrupt end, the gang thought they did a good job in being pretty discreet, but their comings and goings at a non-working farm didn't go unnoticed by its neighbors. And so the police got several tip-offs, which they kind of ignored, initially, but eventually they did go to investigate the farm.

[00:36:30] Adam Cox: The guy that led the investigation, or one of the main men, was a guy called John Woolley of Buckingham Shear Police.

[00:36:38] Adam Cox: Uh, he takes charge and he heads to the farm and he walks up to the front door of the farm. It's locked. He appears inside. It looks empty. It does look like an abandoned farm. Mm-hmm. He looks around the barns and it, it looks unused. They're old machines with cobwebs. Nothing alarmingly wrong. , but when he notices something that is outta place that strikes him as odd?

[00:37:01] Adam Cox: There's two nearly new identical Land rovers in one of these barns. Now, why would they be there in an abandoned farm? Those are the

[00:37:10] Kyle Risi: Land rovers that they stole from the military

[00:37:12] Adam Cox: base. Right? Exactly. And the ones they felt that they couldn't do another getaway in because Okay, so alarm bells are ringing here.

[00:37:17] Adam Cox: Along with the Land Rovers, they find leftover food evidence of burnt sacks and bills from the train. And some Scottish money buried in pits that they left behind. Oh. Cause no one wants the Scottish money. I know. They're like, it's not legal tender. We can't use this. Um, so there could be no mistakes.

[00:37:36] Adam Cox: The robbers were here whilst the gang did manage to wipe down a lot of their fingerprints because they left in such a rush. There were a few that were left behind. Okay. And so these were picked up and because some of these criminals, fingerprints were already on record because they've done previous crimes.

[00:37:52] Adam Cox: Yeah. They could be quickly identified and linked to the robbery. Ooh, which ones? We'll come onto that. Okay. So I feel like I'm saying that a lot, but we will come onto that. It's fine. I'm just

[00:38:02] Kyle Risi: eager, you know, eager

[00:38:03] Adam Cox: beaver. It's good. You're ego weasel. It's good. You're interested. I like it. So, um, the police exploit their contacts to help flush out people.

[00:38:12] Adam Cox: They think could be involved. And within a week of the robbery taking place, the police know about 80% of the train robbers thanks to this evidence that was left behind, or those that are willing to grasp. Wow. A pretty quick turnaround. Yeah. Knowing the names of the suspects though of one thing, trying to find them, that's gonna be another challenge in itself.

[00:38:31] Adam Cox: Uhhuh, however, it doesn't take too long until the police have their first arrest. Now, maybe it's no surprise that the first person they capture is, is the doofus.

[00:38:40] Kyle Risi: That was like

[00:38:41] Adam Cox: wire are the Yep. You've got it. They couldn't wire the light. Roger Cordy. Oh, they got him

[00:38:48] Adam Cox: now he's doing some shifty business around these lockup garages in Bourmouth. And I think some lady spots him and goes, something's off about you. She calls the police, and they pick him up and they bring him back to the station where they interrogate him. And it's during this interrogation that Cordery starts to feel uncomfortable and he's in pain and he asks if he can go to the toilet to achieve a key out of his butt.

[00:39:12] Adam Cox: Oh, what's the key for? Well, I'm guessing that's where he's, he's hidden the money. So whether it's one of the lockup garages or something else, he's hidden a key up his butt. For a second there,

[00:39:20] Kyle Risi: I thought you were correcting me and saying, no, that's where he's hitting the money up his butt. Well, that's a lot of money to hide up your butt.

[00:39:28] Kyle Risi: Yeah, that's, I don't know. He wanted an equal

[00:39:30] Adam Cox: share as well. He did. Yeah. This is how he tried to plan his escape and it didn't, it didn't

[00:39:35] Kyle Risi: go down well. Okay. Interesting.

[00:39:36] Adam Cox: Following his arrest, a bunch more guys are arrested for having their fingerprints found at the farm. Oh, okay. He didn't dump anyone in then? No, they're quite good about that.

[00:39:44] Adam Cox: I guess also

[00:39:45] Kyle Risi: like if you are caught and then you dump one of your friends in and if you're gonna go to jail, cause they understand the magnitude of this crime. Then it's not a good look if you're going to jail and then you've dubbed your mates in, cuz then you're gonna be like,

[00:39:59] Adam Cox: you're a rat.

[00:40:00] Adam Cox: Yeah. And especially if you wanna go back to crime afterwards.

[00:40:02] Kyle Risi: Ooh. criminal dynamics I could totally be a criminal. I've got two keys.

[00:40:09] Adam Cox: Okay. Well, um, there you go listeners. Um, another example of that is none of the, robbers reveals really who, who, uh, the train driver over the head.

[00:40:21] Adam Cox: Right. So it speculated who it could be and some people have confessed. Why is that? Is that a problem? Well, you could get extra time for being the ones who have hit him on the head. Yeah. Well come on to what happened to the poor driver, but yeah. Okay. So they're able to use the fingerprints found at the farm to detain these people.

[00:40:39] Adam Cox: And because they didn't have an alibi, they could easily arrest them essentially. Mm-hmm. Now, because some of them were also wanted for other crimes, it was kind of like a huge satisfaction for the police to go. We got you now. Right. So following Cordie's arrest, there's a further nine key members that are captured before December, 1963.

[00:40:56] Adam Cox: So within about four or five months, they've got about half of the gang ish. Wow. Okay. now a lot of them were the muscle that were involved. I e you know, the ones that were moving the money. Brian Field was also caught. The solicitor, Charles Wilson, the man responsible for dealing out the money he got captured.

[00:41:12] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. And goody as well. And so by 19 64, 11 men are sentenced, which includes the majority of the gang and some of those that are involved in the planning stages, now, as I mentioned, because of the seriousness of the crime and stealing from the Royal Post service, some of these men were given 30 years in prison, which was more than what some murderers and armed robbers had received up to this point.

[00:41:37] Adam Cox: Well, yeah, you don't

[00:41:38] Kyle Risi: With a queen and expect to get like, oh, a slap on the wrist, you're going down. Do you

[00:41:44] Adam Cox: wanna do that without the word? No, no. I wanna keep that word in. Yeah, but I've gotta edit this.

[00:41:50] Kyle Risi: Well, I'm sure you will cope with one little left word. .

[00:41:54] Adam Cox: Um, so , the justice system wanted to make an example as there was a feeling that they had been humiliated, particularly as some consider these men as heroes as I mentioned earlier.

[00:42:04] Kyle Risi: Yeah, exactly. People were like rooting for them.

[00:42:07] Adam Cox: Yeah. And so they wanted to give them this serious punishment so it deterred people from doing it again.

[00:42:11] Adam Cox: And that shocked even a lot of the British public. Mm-hmm. Um,

[00:42:15] Kyle Risi: so, so what year are we at

[00:42:17] Adam Cox: at this point? 1964. 1964. So the following year is when they got sentenced. Sure. But what it also did is that actually, well, some people believe that it led more criminals to use guns because they thought, well, I'm gonna get a harsh sentence regardless.

[00:42:33] Adam Cox: I might as well , take a gun in, ah, set a precedent. Mm-hmm. I dunno how true that is, but that's what some people think. Well, I mean,

[00:42:39] Kyle Risi: it, it sounds natural, right? Mm-hmm. Like, That's naturally what's gonna happen. If there's, if they're being celebrated and they've been successful with it and it's being credited with them having guns, then yeah.

[00:42:51] Kyle Risi: Yeah. Just get an unregistered gun. Yeah.

[00:42:54] Adam Cox: I dunno where I'd find one of them, but yeah, you can get one

[00:42:57] Kyle Risi: on Silk. Silk

[00:42:58] Adam Cox: Road. Silk Road, no problem. Mm. I'm gonna keep off that though. Easy.

[00:43:02] Kyle Risi: Oh, people are afraid of the Silk Road, but it's easy to get on. It's easy to buy drugs. It's easy to said

[00:43:11] Adam Cox: enough. You revealed too much.

[00:43:14] Adam Cox: Revealed too

[00:43:15] Kyle Risi: much.

[00:43:16] Adam Cox: I'm just kidding. Um, one member of the gang, John Daley, he's acquitted now. He didn't feature heavily in our story today, but you may recall he was the brother-in-law of Reynolds. Mm-hmm. He is responsible in helping out and being one of the getaway drivers. Now his fingerprints were found on a monopoly set at the farm, which was one of the key evidences found. And I think you can go see this monopoly set in some museum somewhere. Really? Wow. Yeah. Uh, however, he said that because he was related through marriage to Bruce Reynolds, his argument was that, well, I've played Monopoly at his house loads of times it can't be me.

[00:43:55] Adam Cox: That's just my fingerprints. It just happened to be on there. And that was enough proof to get him off the hook. Really

[00:44:01] Kyle Risi: interesting.

[00:44:03] Adam Cox: And I would be like, if I was the other robbers that also got pinned because of Monopoly, I'd have gone, ah, I should have used that. Is it too late to use that now?

[00:44:10] Adam Cox: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I like that. By the time this trial ends, there are some members on the run still. , but a couple more get picked up in 1966. Spruce Reynolds is linked to the robbery through a couple of Monopoly tokens and a Heinz ketchup bottle found at the farm. Mm-hmm. But he manages to avoid capture living as a fugitive for five years until 1968.

[00:44:33] Adam Cox: Wow. He initially spent six months hiding out, waiting for a passport. Mm-hmm. And apparently he had two friends that would deliver him, his shopping requests, which were from Herods or other fine establishments that would give, or he's living the high life, he's spending that money. Well, he's hiding out, so he needs to find some kind of luxury.

[00:44:50] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. So he would get crates of champagne delivered to him and he would kind of be imprisoned, but enjoy this new wealth as best he can. Sure. But he was also hiding out with his wife, Franny, at their flat at one point. And Bruce Reynolds narrowly avoids capture cuz Franny is made aware of police just outside their place.

[00:45:07] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. She urgently alerts Bruce to go, uh oh, what are we gonna do? What's, why are they here? But a concerned neighbor had noticed a suspicious ladder propped up against their window. Now, I dunno why that ladder was there, whether it was a quick getaway escape, but uhhuh, they perhaps thought maybe someone had burgled their place.

[00:45:26] Adam Cox: Yeah. So I think frannie's upstairs. Cause it's a first four flat or whatever. Uh, she looks out and the police like, can you come down? And she's like, no, I, you know, my husband's not here right now. Can you come back later?

[00:45:37] Adam Cox: I'm a lady unattended. Yeah. And you can't come here. And they're like, no, we, we need to come in and make sure you're okay. Right. So she goes down and starts to open up the door. Whilst Reynolds is trapped, there's nowhere to hide in this flat. Mm. Uh, he's in the bedroom and he's, his mind's racing to devise a plan.

[00:45:53] Adam Cox: What's he gonna do? He's hide behind the curtain. Well, is that gonna be enough? He's, he's a man on the run. He's wanted by police. Yeah. Hide behind the curtain. And they'll

[00:46:00] Kyle Risi: come in, they'll be like, oh, there's no one in this room.

[00:46:03] Adam Cox: Well, what happens, um, as Frannie's opening the, the door to the police downstairs?

[00:46:08] Adam Cox: Yeah. An idea hits him. Okay. He swiftly gets naked and flings his clothes all around the room. So when the bedroom door opens, Reynolds desperately, quickly shields his, his modesty and he reveals that Frannie's husband is away on business and he urges the police not to, to do anything and to, to keep their affair a secret.

[00:46:26] Adam Cox: Oh, okay. Interesting. And the police are like, oh, they dunno where to look. They're trying to avoid his eyes. They're kind of embarrassed. They're like, yeah, can you just perhaps get out here and, you know, get, get on your way sort of thing. And so the police leave none the wiser. And then the time that they do realize Reynolds has moved on.

[00:46:42] Adam Cox: He's escaped the country and he's on his way to Mexico. Wow.

[00:46:47] Kyle Risi: It's very clever.

[00:46:48] Adam Cox: Yeah. , I liked his quick thinking there.

[00:46:49] Kyle Risi: Yeah. But he has now left his wife, so he is left right behind.

[00:46:52] Adam Cox: Well, he goes first and he gets a new identity called Keith Clement Uhhuh. And then his wife changes her name and along with their son, they fly out to join him a little bit later on. Right. And how

[00:47:03] Kyle Risi: old is the son at this point?

[00:47:04] Adam Cox: Um, I'm guessing like primary school age. Okay,

[00:47:07] Kyle Risi: so he's a young, young kid still? I think

[00:47:09] Adam Cox: so, yeah. Wow. But the money doesn't really last that long.

[00:47:13] Adam Cox: They managed to spend most of it in about three years and I guess they've been used to life of luxury of bottles of champagne to, now they're eeking out a bottle of vodka.

[00:47:22] Kyle Risi: Oh, okay. Well how much was his cut anyway?

[00:47:25] Adam Cox: Do we know? Oh, about, well, the equivalent of 4 million in today's money.

[00:47:30] Adam Cox: And he spent that all. You spent it all in three

[00:47:33] Kyle Risi: years, on champagne and Herods

[00:47:35] Adam Cox: and stop saying that cause I've gotta cut that out.

[00:47:38] Adam Cox: So

[00:47:38] Kyle Risi: you have to

[00:47:39] Adam Cox: cut a lot out anyway. Um, yeah, well they've been living this life of luxury and now it's all been used up. You can't put it in banks can you? No.

[00:47:47] Adam Cox: , so. He's been hiding out in Mexico. Uh, but he decides to return to torque with only about three K left in his bank. Okay. Well

[00:47:57] Kyle Risi: probably 1960 is money.

[00:47:59] Kyle Risi: That's quite a

[00:47:59] Adam Cox: lot of money still, still. I mean, it's a fair amount, but three K is Uhhuh, you know, that's not considering you had 150 K, you're now down to three. Sure. Um, but he is, he's spent his fortune and he's done it pretty fast. He's had a good time. He's back in England and he's picked up by the police pretty quickly.

[00:48:15] Adam Cox: His wife, dad, and stepmother are all arrested and he's offered a deal to plead guilty. , and this is so that they can get him and he would serve 25 years. I see. Um, he didn't really have much choice as otherwise.

[00:48:27] Adam Cox: No. His son would be brought up in foster care. Yeah. And so by pleading guilty, his rest of his relatives would, you know, go free.

[00:48:35] Kyle Risi: God, so they all knew, I'm assuming. Mm-hmm. Wow.

[00:48:40] Adam Cox: They're poor kid as well. Oh, Nick, his son. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, we'll come on to Nick. Oh, no. He goes into a life of crime.

[00:48:47] Adam Cox: No, he's got an interesting story, which we'll, okay. Which once again we'll come onto, , so Reynolds, um, serves 10 years before his release, so he is actually released earlier than what his sentencing was. Sure. For good behavior. And to be fair, this kind of happens to a lot of them. They all are released early, but it was just that punishment thing at the time.

[00:49:06] Adam Cox: It had to be for Yeah, yeah. Quite severe. He then ventured into trafficking and money laundering and that all led to another arrest in 1980 for drug dealing. Mm-hmm. And so it wasn't long before he returned to jail, despite these setbacks, he also penned an autobiography in 1995. Mm-hmm. Um, but in later years he kind of grappled with his misfortune as he couldn't find legal employment and he couldn't find illegal employment, if that makes sense because he would draw too much attention cuz he's quite famous. Yeah. Yeah. That meant he would have to rely on income support. And it wasn't 2013 that he died in his sleep. Oh no. So the vibrant life he once led, dwindled into this kind of bit of a lackluster existence. Aw.

[00:49:52] Adam Cox: Reynolds himself believed he was plagued by a curse and other members and victims of the heist didn't fare too much better. Mm-hmm. Uh, side note and a slightly random fact, his son Nick. Um, so he on to be in a band called Alabama Three, who are best known for one of their songs being the opening credits for

[00:50:13] Adam Cox: the Sopranos. Really? Yeah. So that's his. Interesting, okay. So he didn't turn to crime, he found fame a

[00:50:20] Kyle Risi: different way. Yeah.

[00:50:21] Adam Cox: Okay. So let's talk through about some of the victims of the crime, first off.

[00:50:27] Adam Cox: Sure. The, the, the train driver. Yeah. Mills now he never recovered properly from his injuries. He did go back to work and he suffered headaches for the rest of his life. He died from leukemia seven years later, but not as a result. Right. Well, his family blame his injury having some impact on the overall quality of his life.

[00:50:47] Adam Cox: And so they argue it was, but then there's been medical people that said, no, that didn't happen. Yeah. Because

[00:50:53] Kyle Risi: leukemia is a blood cancer and that normally originates in the bones.

[00:50:59] Adam Cox: Yeah. So that probably, I don't think that caused it, but I think he was a changed man after it, so Sure.

[00:51:05] Adam Cox: And no one, as I mentioned, admitted to injuring mills, um, out this weird loyalty and impact that they had. The co-driver, Dave Whitby, , he also said to never really quite recover in the same way. Mm-hmm. Or wasn't the same again. His sister commented that he was terrified to get back to work after the robbery. And he was just 34 years old when he died of a heart attack.

[00:51:27] Adam Cox: Wow. Which his family suspects may have been a result of the trauma he faced or Sure. And maybe brought on, you know? Yeah. , a commemorative plaque is displayed in Crew station honoring Jack Mills and David Whippy. For their service and most importantly, the bravery in the great train robbery. Wow. As for the rest of the gang. Well, Ronald Buster Edwards, he also escaped Mexico, but he ran out of money within a couple of years, so he spent his money quicker than, Reynolds.

[00:51:58] Adam Cox: He negotiated his return before being rested, and he served nine years in prison. Mm-hmm. A film based on him and his involvement in the Heist was released in 1988 called Buster. Mm-hmm. , now Edwards was played by Phil Collins and one of the soundtrack songs from that movie is Two Hearts.

[00:52:18] Adam Cox: I'm not

[00:52:18] Kyle Risi: sure I love Phil Collins. I'm just not sure of Two

[00:52:22] Adam Cox: Hearts. You'll, you'll know two Hearts. I do. I can't sing it, but yeah, you'll know it.

[00:52:27] Adam Cox: Edwards would go on to run a flower stall outside Waterloo Station in London before he took his own life in 1994. , then there's Charlie Wilson. He was the man responsible for giving up the dos. Mm-hmm. And one of the first men to get sentenced.

[00:52:41] Adam Cox: Originally, he only served four months before he arranged for three men to break him out of prison. He and his wife escaped to Canada and France. However, when his wife called her parents one time, this allowed Scotland Yard to track them down and he was arrested in 1968. So they were surveilling his mum and dad.

[00:52:59] Adam Cox: Yeah. Yeah. They keep him close dads all their time. Wow. Interesting. He served a further 10 years in prison and later in life he moved to Marbella in Spain where he was suspected to be involved with drug smuggling and he was killed by a hitman on his doorstep in 1990. Wow.

[00:53:17] Adam Cox: So didn't, yeah,

[00:53:18] Kyle Risi: them Spanish people, you

[00:53:20] Adam Cox: gotta watch out for them. Met Messian Brian Field, uh, he was given a lesser sentence for his involvement in the crime and was released in 1967. Mm-hmm. He didn't get to keep most of his money, and two thirds of it was found by hikers in a wood.

[00:53:36] Kyle Risi: Did they keep the money or did they report the money to the

[00:53:39] Adam Cox: police? They reported the money to the police. So see, it was one of the few bits of money that was found. Wow. Uh, field also met an early death and was killed with his wife in a car crash in 1979 at the age of 44.

[00:53:53] Adam Cox: Right. Goodie. Served about 12 years before release, and then went on to lead a quiet life in comparison to others. Opening up a bar in Spain. He died from a heart attack. Mm-hmm. In 2016, but at the age of 86, he did. That's sad. He lived a long life. Yeah. 86. Good. Good running. Yeah. A few others repeated time in prison traffic drugs.

[00:54:16] Adam Cox: One became a Formula two racing driver for a period really before attempting to kill his father-in-law. Okay. As you do, as you do, it happens at this point in time, most of the others have either died from an illness or old age. So I think we can kind of say karma perhaps got to some of the robbers, maybe one

[00:54:33] Kyle Risi: way or another.

[00:54:33] Kyle Risi: Well, most of them lived an old age, so I would say no.

[00:54:37] Adam Cox: Well, yeah. But they didn't necessarily had good luck afterwards. Sure. Their, their life wasn't necessarily the best. Mm-hmm. Now person we should say actually, he probably got a good portion of the Good Karma, so maybe it went to him. Okay. This was Ronnie Biggs, um, and he, the star of the show.

[00:54:55] Adam Cox: Yeah. He could have a whole podcast to himself, . Mm-hmm. So he became one of the most famous men involved, despite only playing a small part in the robbery and also messing up. His life after the heist is even more fascinating. In 1964, he was sentenced to prison along with the other men that were captured at the time.

[00:55:13] Adam Cox: He served 15 months when he also managed to make an escape. He scaled the walls of the prison he was held at with a rope ladder before dropping onto a waiting removal fan. Wow. He then fled to Brussel's by boat where he sent his wife a note to join him in Paris. Okay. It's quite romantic.

[00:55:32] Adam Cox: That is where he gets, not if you're on the run. Well, I don't know. It's kind of thrilling, I guess. Yeah. Come join me in Paris Sure. Or get a baguette. Um, but that's where he gets some new identity papers. Okay. He also undergoes plastic surgery to change the shape of his face, really to match, match his new identity.

[00:55:50] Adam Cox: Wow. Uh, this reportedly cost him 40 grand, so about a third of his money that he's got, he's spent on her new face from 1960s.

[00:55:58] Kyle Risi: Money. Yeah. Wow,

[00:56:00] Adam Cox: that's a lot of money. Yeah. Um, and then, and does

[00:56:03] Kyle Risi: he look

[00:56:03] Adam Cox: significantly different? Um, when I've looked at pictures, maybe slightly different. Jaw noses, maybe a bit different.

[00:56:09] Adam Cox: I mean, enough probably maybe that if you glanced, you wouldn't, but if you looked at him close enough, you're like, no, that is the same person. I'd be like,

[00:56:17] Kyle Risi: hang on a minute. I don't look like Mike Tyson. I paid 40 grand for this. I wanted Mike

[00:56:23] Adam Cox: Tyson. This is, and maybe plastic surgery back then just wasn't all that.

[00:56:27] Adam Cox: I dunno. No, probably not. Yeah, you wouldn't look like what's her face? Sharon? Sharon

[00:56:33] Kyle Risi: Osborne. Yeah. And she had a load of plastic surgery.

[00:56:36] Adam Cox: Well, if you look at her when she starts the X factor versus now she's like de-age aged. About 30 years. I hope

[00:56:43] Kyle Risi: she's D aged. So she's done it well. Is that what you're employing?

[00:56:45] Kyle Risi: I mean,

[00:56:45] Adam Cox: she has a good, if I was gonna get plastic surgery, I would want her contacts.

[00:56:50] Kyle Risi: Hang on. I, in relation to Sharon Osborne? Mm-hmm. I just have to say, How, how, how is Ozzy Osborne still alive?

[00:57:00] Adam Cox: Um, I don't know. Maybe he's, he's barely alive. She puts him in pickle that night. I don't know.

[00:57:06] Kyle Risi: That's crazy. Yeah.

[00:57:08] Kyle Risi: Like he's just, he's blatantly got like some kind of Parkinson's or something. Mm. Shaking away or, or drugs really real bad. Nerve damage. Yeah.

[00:57:17] Adam Cox: Yeah. Did you know that he didn't realize? Yes, yes. I

[00:57:21] Kyle Risi: did know. Oh, hang on. Say, say it for the

[00:57:24] Adam Cox: listeners. Yeah. Did you know, so he's famous for biting off the head of a bat, isn't he?

[00:57:30] Adam Cox: Yes. On stage. On stage. But apparently he didn't realize that that was a bat, or at least a live one, wasn't it? He didn't know it was a live

[00:57:36] Kyle Risi: bat. He thought it was a, a plastic bat. Yeah. That someone had bought at like the merch

[00:57:43] Adam Cox: store just chucked on stage or something and chucked it on

[00:57:45] Kyle Risi: stage and he bit it off.

[00:57:46] Kyle Risi: So was it, he didn't bring the bat. So that means that some little tow rag had brought a bat into. The concert and chucked

[00:57:55] Adam Cox: that on stage. Was that an open concert and it just flew down? I don't know. Oh,

[00:57:59] Kyle Risi: do you think, oh, is that what that was then? Could be, yeah. Poor bat. Yeah. That is poor bat.

[00:58:04] Adam Cox: Um, so Biggs, he spent 40 grand on plastic surgery, looks a bit different. Um, but in 1966, Biggs and his family then flee to Sydney, and that costs him a further 55 grand.

[00:58:17] Adam Cox: So with the legal expenses and everything else that he's, you know, new face, he's only got about seven grand remaining from his 140 k share originally. But why does it

[00:58:27] Kyle Risi: cost 55 grand to go all the way to Australia? Private

[00:58:30] Adam Cox: Jets, papers, other people you got pay off to sneak into the border. Right?

[00:58:35] Adam Cox: He probably didn't need half of those things. Well, I don't know. I've never escaped the law. What

[00:58:41] Kyle Risi: these criminals, when you steal money, you need to make sure that you, you put the money to work. Mm-hmm. Right? Earn some massive income, set up a business. Invest the money to stocks and shares otherwise you

[00:58:55] Adam Cox: end up with nothing. Well, the thing is they can't use that money anywhere, so they're just holding onto it and just spending it. But anyway, so what, what does that mean?

[00:59:03] Kyle Risi: They using

[00:59:04] Adam Cox: it is spending it, well, what I mean is they can't put it into a bank.

[00:59:07] Adam Cox: They can't go buy a house and stuff with that money. Yeah. But they could, they could money launder it. Well, some of them do. Um, but these guys don't, well, perhaps they do, but they spent so much money in escaping that they don't have much left. Right. Um, so it kind of doesn't seem like for him and also for Reynolds, is this hardly worth it.

[00:59:24] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. But whilst in Australia, big space is a constant threat of being found out. So he receives anonymous letters telling him Interpol was after him. Uh, and that persuades him to then move to Melbourne. And he then gets an altered passport of a friend to escape on a ship to Panama.

[00:59:42] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. And then later Brazil. And he leaves his wife and his children behind. They always go

[00:59:47] Kyle Risi: to Brazil. But the guys who did the great escape from Elk Raz, they're rumor to have gone to

[00:59:52] Adam Cox: Brazil. Well, there's a good reason for that. Well, particularly for , Biggs. Wow. Um, cuz as it happens, Brazil doesn't have an extradition or it didn't have an extradition treaty with the UK at the time.

[01:00:02] Adam Cox: Wow. Okay. And so that meant Biggs could remain in Brazil for years as a free man. Wow. That's

[01:00:08] Kyle Risi: why they all

[01:00:09] Adam Cox: go to Brazil then. Yeah. Okay. Um, but so he still attracted a lot of interest though from the media attention mm-hmm. Uh, cuz I think people knew he was in Brazil, but they couldn't necessarily do anything about it.

[01:00:21] Adam Cox: Um, I think the Daily Express there was a reporter there that actually found him and broke that news story. Mm-hmm. Um, but at this point, , he had become a father to a Brazilian woman and under Brazilian law that gave him protection of being shipped back to the uk.

[01:00:34] Adam Cox: Right. However, this didn't mean he had a total easy life. He was a known criminal, so he couldn't easily work or visit bars. And he had to be home, I think, or couldn't be away from home after 10:00 PM So I think there were still limitations on what he can do. Mm-hmm. to generate an income, him and his family would host barbecues at the home and Taurus could come meet him and hear stories of the robbery.

[01:00:58] Adam Cox: What, so kinda local celebrity. Yeah. He's capitalizing

[01:01:01] Kyle Risi: on it. Is he selling like little photographs of like what the Star Trek people do when you go to a

[01:01:05] Adam Cox: convention? Maybe, maybe he has had a whole batch printed that he signs and like, oh, this is, well

[01:01:10] Kyle Risi: that's, that's one pound or the

[01:01:12] Adam Cox: equivalent of Brazilian Reyes.

[01:01:14] Adam Cox: Yeah, that's what it's, yeah. Um, and so trying to make some more money, he went on to record the vocals on two songs, shut up, released by the Sex Pistols. Really? One of which was called No One Is Innocent in 1978. Uhhuh. In 1981, Biggs was then kidnapped by a British gang of ex soldiers.

[01:01:34] Adam Cox: For what? Well, There's a rumor that maybe these, they were pissed off about the Land Rovers. Potentially, or they were maybe somehow, uh, paid by police in the UK to go do this or something like weird. I don't know. It's a secret deal. Okay. Um, but luck was on Biggs's side as the boat that they were on board suffered mechanical problems off the coast of Barbados.

[01:01:59] Adam Cox: Okay. And it meant that they all had to be rescued by the Barbados Coast Guard. Oh no. So, uh, the ex soldiers had hoped that they could collect a reward from the police. Uhhuh, but like Brazil, Barbados had no extradition treaty and ,they couldn't basically send him back and after some time in Barbados prison bigs was allowed to go free and go back to Brazil.

[01:02:22] Adam Cox: This, of course garnered more media attention. And Biggs carried out an interview with the press, and the kidnapping and Scotland Yards attempts to bring him back to the UK inspired a film called Prisoner of Rio. And that was released in 1988 and was also co-written by Biggs himself.

[01:02:40] Kyle Risi: Okay, so you had a hand in it.

[01:02:42] Kyle Risi: Yeah. So

[01:02:42] Adam Cox: it was very Writes the theme tune, sing the theme tune, that kind of thing. Yeah. Um, dicks then went on to record the vocals for more songs, including a German rock band. Wow.

[01:02:51] Kyle Risi: So he's really musical, I guess So he's really into his, uh, his music. Yeah.

[01:02:57] Adam Cox: I dunno if he's good at it, but I need to listen to one of his songs.

[01:03:00] Adam Cox: Well, I mean, these are

[01:03:00] Kyle Risi: big bands, right? Yeah. Sex Pistols

[01:03:02] Adam Cox: are huge. Yeah. In 1997, despite the UK and Brazil coming up with a new extradition treaty.

[01:03:08] Adam Cox: The UK filled a request to have Biggs return to the uk. The Brazilian Supreme Court rejected this and gave Biggs the right to live a free man in Brazil for the rest of his life. Wow. Because the crime that he committed was like 20, it was so long ago.

[01:03:23] Kyle Risi: Exactly. It's like, so it's like the equivalent of like statutes of limitation in America where Oh, so much time has gone by, it's no longer a problem

[01:03:31] Adam Cox: anymore.

[01:03:33] Adam Cox: Yeah. It's kinda like, this isn't, why is this even

[01:03:34] Kyle Risi: news? That was 1960s money. It's nothing

[01:03:36] Adam Cox: now it's too late. Yeah. But eventually Bigs decides to give it all up and is willing to come back to the uk. So in 2001, almost 40 years after being on the run Hmm. He gets a private jet, which is paid for by the Sun.

[01:03:51] Adam Cox: That's a tabloid newspaper in the UK for those, I don't know, what year is this? In 2001. Wow. And, and that's in return for an exclusive story back in the uk. But I see as soon as he arrives, he's arrested and he is put back in prison. Wow. So why did he do this? And give up his freedom?

[01:04:06] Kyle Risi: Because he had cancer and he needed. Medical

[01:04:09] Adam Cox: treatment? Well some think that's the real reason. Okay. But what he says is that he had an overwhelming desire to walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter. But he

[01:04:20] Kyle Risi: got arrested. Did he get their chance to do that? I don't know.

[01:04:22] Kyle Risi: Is he still

[01:04:23] Adam Cox: in prison now? Well whilst in prison his health deteriorates, he files for early release several times. But this is denied. He was actually even moved to a prison here in Norwich and by shuts up. Yeah. And by 2009 what?

[01:04:39] Adam Cox: Norwich on mouse hold. I guess it's that one. Unless it was another one. See, I thought,

[01:04:43] Kyle Risi: do you know what, in the back of my mind somewhere when you were saying the name in the very beginning maybe there was something there with the kind of famous prisoners that were in Norwich. Well,

[01:04:51] Adam Cox: yeah. He is one of the most famous prisoners and one of the most famous criminals in UK history.

[01:04:56] Kyle Risi: But he served time potentially in Norwich. Interesting.

[01:04:59] Adam Cox: Anyway, so by 2009, after eight years, he was eventually granted release where he spent a lot of the remaining time in hospitals and care homes In 2013, at the age of 84 Bigs dies at a care home in North London just a few hours before another television adaptation airs on the UK TV about the robbery.

[01:05:21] Adam Cox: Wow. And finally, that leads us onto those that never got caught. There were about, well we think there's five in total. Mm-hmm. There were three that were never officially named but have been rumored to be involved.

[01:05:33] Adam Cox: No one gave their names up at the time and so their names have been revealed. Could be like a pseudonym or perhaps a slightly different cover name. One man is rumored to go by the name Bill Jennings. He kept himself to himself and a lot of the gang perhaps didn't even know his real name. He was thought to be connected, but the police found no evidence.

[01:05:52] Adam Cox: He was there at the farm. It's thought his real name was Harry Smith and he was fortunate enough to spend his wealth on 28 properties. So he did invest? Yes. Uh, a hotel and a bar in Portsmouth before his death. See

[01:06:06] Kyle Risi: people, you got to be

[01:06:07] Adam Cox: smart. Be more like Carrie Smith, if that is indeed his name. Then there was Frank Monroe, a k a, Danny Pembroke.

[01:06:15] Adam Cox: He had his house searched by police, but supposedly was very careful and wore gloves the entire time that he was at the farm. So they couldn't really pin anything on him. Mm-hmm. After his death, his son admitted to his involvement in the case. Oh. Now the third guy who was never officially confirmed is thought to be someone called Billy Ambrose, a clump owner, an east end criminal, who had previously spent time in prison for fraud and robbery.

[01:06:40] Adam Cox: Mm-hmm. Descriptions from witnesses around the time match his appearance. But he died in 2009 and we may never know if he was involved. Wow. Then of course there was pop. Mm-hmm. The unreliable replacement train driver. Um, so his identity has never been revealed, but an author writing a book on the robbery hired a detective agency that manages to track down the driver and his wife.

[01:07:05] Adam Cox: It is said that the driver had gone senile by this point and is cared for by his wife. She admits that she burnt his clothes, that evening that he was wearing and was on the edge, that the gang members would come discover them and murder him, or the police would arrest him. And so the author agreed to keep their identity hidden.

[01:07:24] Adam Cox: And to this day, we don't know who he really is. Wow. And lastly, one of the greatest enigmas that surrounds us is the identity of the sterman. The individual who initially involved the gang in the heist,

[01:07:37] Kyle Risi: So who do they think he was?

[01:07:39] Adam Cox: Well, early on, police speculated that the ulsterman could have been an insider from the post office. Yep. As the circumstances of reduced security and abundance of money on that specific night in August, 1963 seemed beyond just mere chance goody unveiled, a potential candidate named Patrick McKenna, a Belfast born postal worker that was residing in Islington.

[01:08:01] Adam Cox: During a summer plotting session, the Ulman dropped his sunglasses, or maybe just his regular glasses, which goody retrieved and noticed the name was inscribed within the case. Okay. Surprisingly though McKenna's surviving family never expected him. And they said like he didn't have a car, he didn't lead an extravagant lifestyle.

[01:08:21] Adam Cox: So upon his passing, he only left behind three grand. His money? What did you do with the money? Well, people think, well, was it stolen or could he perhaps given it away? Or was he even involved? No one actually knows. Wow.

[01:08:37] Kyle Risi: That's the biggest mystery. That's what this podcast should have

[01:08:39] Adam Cox: been about.

[01:08:41] Adam Cox: Well, I think it's the whole thing, isn't it? , the whole story is fascinating. I'm just teasing you. . But regardless, an air of mystery continues to shroud the case. Consequently, the true identity of the Sterman may forever be unknown. Now, 60 years later, there's still a lot of fascination and interest with the story, particularly because numerous mysteries remain unresolved, leaving the possibility of new evidence emerging on its anniversary.

[01:09:04] Kyle Risi: Great. So I guess that brings us to an end of another episode of the Compendium and Assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. We hope you enjoyed our dabble in today's story. Thank [EPISODE 20] The Great Train Robbery 60 Years Since Britain's Most Famous Heist On today's episode of the Compendium: An Assembly of Fascinating and Intriguing Things, we delve into the past, exactly 60 years ago, to investigate Britain's most infamous theft, "The Great Train Robbery". On this unforgettable ride, we retrace the audacious crime that shook the nation, a heist that remains unparalleled in its audacity and impact. Our tale winds through a labyrinth of plots, subterfuge, and daring escapades, orchestrated by a band of determined criminals. Who were these men, and how did they manage to execute such an audacious plan, right under the nose of British law enforcement?

[01:09:58] Kyle Risi: We'll unearth the meticulous planning that went into this headline-grabbing crime, from the heist's inception to the heart-stopping moment of the robbery itself. We'll explore the challenges faced by the gang, and how they used innovative methods to overcome these hurdles. Equally, we delve into the intense investigation that followed, revealing the dogged determination of those committed to justice.

[01:10:21] Kyle Risi: Join us, as we peel back the layers of this intriguing tale, and gain an insider's perspective on the socio-political climate of Britain during this historic heist, illuminating how the event sent ripples through society that are still felt today. An episode perfect for history buffs, true crime enthusiasts, or anyone fascinated by human ingenuity - albeit channeled in a controversial direction.

[01:10:46] Kyle Risi: We give you the Compendium, but if you want more then check out these great resources:

[01:10:52] Kyle Risi: Book: "The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Crichton: A brilliant, detailed account of the infamous heist.

[01:10:58] Kyle Risi: Book: "Ronnie Biggs - The Inside Story" (2009) by Mike Gray: An intimate look at one of the most notorious figures involved in the heist.

[01:11:08] Kyle Risi: Book: "The Train Robbers" (1978) by Piers Paul Read: Dive deep into the story with this detailed narrative of the infamous heist.

[01:11:17] Kyle Risi: Documentary: "The Great Train Robbery: A Tale Of Two Thieves" - This thrilling documentary sheds new light on the incident through unprecedented access to the robbers, witnesses, and investigators involved.

[01:11:28] Kyle Risi: Film: "Buster" (1988) - A dramatic retelling of the heist focusing on one of its key figures, Buster Edwards.

[01:11:36] Kyle Risi: TV Series: "The Great Train Robbery" (2013, BBC) - A dramatic, two-part mini-series that takes a comprehensive look at both the crime and the ensuing investigation.

[01:11:46] Kyle Risi: Website: The BBC Archives: Their exhaustive digital collection contains original news broadcasts and articles about the robbery.

[01:11:52] Kyle Risi: Podcast: "Casefile True Crime" - Episode 23 "The Great Train Robbery" offers a deep dive into the event and the characters involved.

[01:12:01] Kyle Risi: Museum: The Postal Museum, London - Houses an exhibition dedicated to the Great Train Robbery, displaying some original items from the crime scene.

[01:12:10] Kyle Risi: you very much, Adam. You're welcome. And if you also enjoyed it, then please subscribe and leave us a cheeky five star review and why not schedule episodes to download so you never miss a moment of intrigue with us?

[01:12:23] Kyle Risi: Doing so really helps us, grow our show so we can continue to deliver even more compelling stories to you each week. We'd also love to connect with you, beyond the podcast. You can follow us on Instagram at the Compendium podcast for sneak peeks behind the scenes content and more.

[01:12:40] Kyle Risi: Or if you've got a burning question or a comment or even a suggestion for a future episode, then you can drop us an email at the compendium pod gmail.com. We really do love hearing from you, don't we, Adam? We do indeed. So we release every Tuesday, so join us next week. Unravel another intriguing story from the world of the Fascinating. So until then, stay curious. See ya.

[01:13:04] Adam Cox: See ya.