The Great Train Robbery.

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The Robbers.

It was one of the most infamous robberies in British history, but who really profited from the Great Train Robbery?

And was a simple game of Monopoly the real reason the Robbers were caught?

Holed up in a safe house in Oxfordshire, after the heist, the Great Train Robbery gang had a lot to celebrate, but the celebrations would prove to be short-lived.

Holed up in a safe house in Oxfordshire, after the heist, the Great Train Robbery gang had a lot to celebrate. They had just taken £2.3 million in used £1, £5 and £10 bank notes from a mail train, just outside Cheddington in rural Buckinghamshire. It was 1963, and £2.3 million was equivalent to around £40 million in real terms.


The gang was lying low, and spent the time singing Tony Bennett's classic hit 'The Good Life', and playing Monopoly with real money that they'd stolen earlier. But as they divided up the loot, little did they realise that they were leaving vital evidence on all the notes, the board game, and the playing pieces. It would be these fingerprints, and the dedication of the Flying Squad chief, Tommy Butler, that would ensure that the gang did not pass 'GO', but went straight to jail.

The gang
What was interesting about the 20 or so men and women involved in the robbery, is that the central figures in the raid are almost as distinct as the pieces on a monopoly board - Buster Edwards, Bruce Reynolds, Gordon Goody, Charlie Wilson, Jimmy Hussey, John Wheater, Brian Field and Ronnie Biggs, all seem familiar to anyone who's read the UK press in the last half century.

The gang fitted a stereotype of a Hollywood crime movie, with each member providing a particular skill and not one of them better than the sum of the whole. Firstly, there was Buster Edwards, the small-time thief, fraudster and ex-boxer - a man definitely known for his 'brawn'. Bruce Reynolds was the next member - the 'brains' behind the operation - an antique dealer who liked to live well beyond his means, and drove an expensive Aston Martin car.

The remainder of the gang were a mixture of skills and muscle needed to carry out Reynolds meticulous plan. More muscle came courtesy of Gordon Goody, a man whose huge figure and tattooed arms, gave him a fearsome reputation amongst his fellow thieves. Then Charlie Wilson, a well known 'face' in the London underworld, and local bookie who was known for being straight and uncomplicated. He proved to be the connection with Jimmy Hussey, a big man who had 'convictions for everything'.

The safe house was provided by the respectable face of the gang, John Wheater, a public school educated solicitor who used his proper appearance to lease Leatherslade Farm in Oxfordshire, where the gang went to hide out after the robbery. The connection between John Wheater, his accomplice Brian Field, and the rest of the gang is not known.

And finally Ronnie Biggs. He was the youngest member of the gang at the time of the heist, and as a friend of Bruce Reynolds, he was in the gang largely because of his connections to a retired train driver. As the most inexperienced criminal, Biggs' friendship with Reynolds was the only thing that eased the doubts that the rest of the gang might have had about him.

Forward planning
With all elements in the gang brought together, they set about planning the perfect crime, and waited for the right moment to strike. Using information regarding the movements of cash and valuables on postal trains out of London, Reynolds put together a perfect plan for robbing the night train.

First, the location had to be found. Reynolds was ideally looking for somewhere close enough to London so that the police would not be alerted to changes in the routines of the gang members, both before and after the robbery. They also needed a secluded spot near to main routes in and out of London that was regularly used to heavy goods traffic, so that their own vehicles didn't arouse the suspicion of the locals.

They finally settled on a site near Bridego Bridge, between the villages of Cheddington and Linslade in Buckinghamshire. A position close enough to the RAF base at Haughton to allow for residents that were used to unfamiliar heavy goods vehicles driving to and fro.

The robbery was originally planned for June, but to take advantage of the extra money that a bank holiday would have brought in, they changed the date to August.

But in actual fact, the preparations for the raid had started months before, beginning with the blue railway-maintenance overalls that were bought to provide a visual alibi for the presence of the gang on the railway line. Roy James, the gang's get-away driver, even managed to research the workings of the mail train's engines by posing as a schoolteacher planning a lesson.

By August 8th 1963, they were ready.

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The Robbery
Reynolds' plan hinged around a set of rigged signals that would stop the train at a point on the track, just near where the members of the gang would be waiting. A glove was used to cover the real green 'go' signal at Sears Crossing and the train driver would instead follow the instructions of a pack of lights powered by six volt batteries.

The simplicity of the props used by the gang suggests an over-confidence in their plan, and in the likely risk they were taking. The gang presumed that if they were caught, the sentences given for recent robberies of this kind were only as little as four years, so they wouldn't have worried too much about.


The heist began at 3.03am. In the grey light of morning, the train pulled to a stop at the false signals, and a group of 'railway workers' appeared on the tracks wearing uniform blue overalls. David Whitby was a fireman on the mail train that day, and he got out of the cabin to enquire what was going on. The first of the railway workers he came to was Buster Edwards, who by all accounts frogmarched Whitby down the embankment at the side of the track. Whitby quickly grasped what was happening and offered no further resistance, allegedly commenting: "It's all right mate, I'm on your side".

Jack Mills wasn't so lucky. When the unlucky train driver ventured into the darkness after his fireman, other members of the gang were there to meet him, and after a brief struggle he was hit violently over the head. The injured train driver collapsed bleeding from his head wounds, and never returned to work. He died in 1970 from leukaemia, the lone victim of the Great Train Robbery.

After this dramatic incident, things went from bad to worse for the train robbers. The midsummer's night slid into an increasingly bright morning, which meant that more and more light was shining on the gang's attempt to complete the robbery.

In order to be able to get to the mailbags full of money off the train, they needed to move it further down the track, but Ronnie Biggs' connection to a retired train guard failed to deliver. The old man wasn't used to mail trains, so they couldn't get it to move, and when they need him most, their back-up man was no use at all.

Mills, who was still bleeding at this point, was forced to take over the controls, and move the train in front of four gang members. They quickly broke into the Post Office Sorting Coach, and faced little resistance from the staff inside. Then the money was quickly unloaded by human chain down from the coach and away from the track, with over 120 sacks taken in total. Some money was allegedly offered to Mills, who refused it, and the gang left approximately half a dozen sacks behind, and fled to Leatherslade Farm.

The barn at Leatherslade in Oxfordshire was reached by Land Rover. After laying low for a while and passing the time with tea and Monopoly, the gang became aware that the police were closing in on them, and they scattered. The gang's quick exit proved crucial to the police investigation. Forensic experts found fingerprints on cups, in the bathroom, on a cats bowl, and of course on the Monopoly set. And to make matters worse, Jim Hussey had left a handprint on the train itself.

So after a relatively successful robbery, the gang's luck was running out, and it was clear that they wouldn't evade the police for long.

One of the first to leave the country was Ronald 'Buster' Edwards (pictured), who immediately went on the run after the heist and lived in Mexico for over three years before he gave himself up to the authorities. Other gang members tried to evade the authorities in similar style, but the initial 13 Great Train Robbers were eventually caught and brought to justice.

When they finally appeared in court, only one of the gang ever pleaded guilty. It was Roger Cordrey who admitted his crimes, returned his £80,000 share of loot, and was still given twenty years imprisonment.

The judge who presided over the case, Mr Justice Edmund Davies, focused on the violence against Jack Mills when delivering his judgement. "Let us clear out of the way any romantic notions of daredevilry", Justice Davies said, "this is nothing less than a sordid crime of violence inspired by vast greed... anybody who has seen the nerve shattered engine driver can have no doubt of the terrifying effect on the law-abiding citizen, of a concerted assault by masked and armed robbers in lonely darkness".

The trial was held in the offices of Aylesbury Rural Council, and the case attracted a huge amount of public attention, with the public gallery of the chamber always being full. When asked how they heard about the robbery, one defendant answered "in the papers". This didn't convince the jury, and the gang members received between 20 and 30 years each, totalling 307 years.

Endgame
This is where the run of luck came to an end for most of the gang. Few passed 'Go' or collected £200 - although that is rumoured to be the amount of cash that Ronnie Biggs had when he arrived in Brazil. As a very minor figure in the robbery itself, Ronnie Bigg's gained more than any actual profit from his crime, he gained notoriety as the public face of this infamous affair.

After 15 months in Wandsworth prison, Bigg's escaped and fled the UK. He used plastic surgery to change his appearance and moved first to Spain, then Australia, before settling in Brazil. Biggs stayed in Brazil making money from his fame as the one member of the Great Train Robbers who actually escaped. This was until May 2001, when he returned to England, only to be arrested on arrival, and forced to serve the remaining 25 years of his original sentence in Belmarsh Prison.

The evidence found on the Monopoly set at Leatherslade farm remains one of forensic science's greatest breaks in cracking what could have been the most successful heist ever.