The Great Train Robbery
Page 31
The Flying Squad’s Train Robbery team: (left to right) DS Van Dyke, DS Moore, DS Neville, DI William, DS Slipper and DCI Bradbury. (Author’s collection)
Antique dealers Bruce Reynolds and John Daly with their wives. (Author’s collection)
Charles Wilson, a Clapham bookmaker. He was one of the first to be arrested on 22 August as a result of fingerprint evidence. (Author’s collection)
Ronald ‘Buster’ Edwards. This 1962 photograph was found when police searched his flat shortly after the robbery and was used on the 12 September 1963 Metropolitan Police ‘Wanted’ poster. (Author’s collection)
Gordon Goody – one of the gang’s leadings lights. Despite his guilt it remains highly probable that the evidence against him was fabricated by police. (Author’s collection)
Ronald Biggs. Despite being the best known of the robbers today, in reality he played a relatively minor role in the robbery itself. (Author’s collection)
Roger Cordrey, the railway expert. Despite leaving no prints at Leatherslade Farm, he was arrested when he tried to rent a garage in Bournemouth which turned out to belong to a policeman’s widow. (Author’s collection)
Roy James. An accomplished cat-burglar and a talented motor racing driver, he had beaten future world champion Jackie Stewart four times in the previous year. (Author’s collection)
Robert Welch, a south London club owner who already had a successful track record of train robberies on the London to Brighton line. (Author’s collection)
Bookmaker Thomas Wisbey. Convinced that he had left no prints at the farm, he voluntarily telephoned Scotland Yard and told them of his whereabouts. (Author’s collection)
Brian Field, the wily solicitor’s managing clerk. Originally sentenced to twenty-five years’ imprisonment, he served just over three years as a result of his 1964 appeal. (Author’s collection)
Solicitor John Wheater, seen at the time as being manipulated by his shrewd managing clerk Brian Field; it now seems that he was more centrally involved than was thought in 1963. (Author’s collection)
Lenny Field, no relation to Brian Field, was used as a front man in the purchase of Leatherslade Farm. (Author’s collection)
Jim Hussey; put under observation shortly after the robbery and eventually arrested at the flat he shared with his parents on 7 September 1963. (Author’s collection)
Bill Boal – the forgotten victim of the Great Train Robbery. He had no involvement whatsoever in the robbery but was found guilty and sent to prison, where he died in 1970. (Author’s collection)
John Daly’s arrest at a flat in Eaton Square on 3 December 1963 was, like a number of other robbers’ arrests, only made possible by a tip-off from an associate who was minding his money. (Author’s collection)
When Ronald Edwards left the country for Mexico in 1965 he had plastic surgery and a new identity. This photograph was taken for his new passport. (Author’s collection)
Ronald Biggs, alias Terrance Furminger – the passport Biggs used to travel to Australia in December 1965. (Author’s collection)
The ‘Grey Fox’, Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Butler and Harry Lyons of the Post Office Investigation Branch leaving court in Aylesbury. (Author’s collection)
John Daly is released from custody after his shock ‘not guilty’ verdict on 14 February 1964. (Author’s collection)
When John Daly was finally arrested, Flying Squad officers barely recognised him as he had lost several stone in weight and now sported a beard. (Author’s collection)
John Daly’s appearance before he went into hiding shortly after the robbery. (Author’s collection)
The shoes that convicted Gordon Goody – how and when did the yellow paint get onto the soles? (Metropolitan Police)
The sentences handed down by Judge Edmund Davies totalled 307 years. (Evening Standard)
Danny Pembroke. Taken in for questioning in September 1963, the DPP concluded that there was no tangible evidence to prove his involvement in the robbery. (Metropolitan Police)
Harry Smith. After a nine-month manhunt, he was finally arrested by Flying Squad officers in South London in May 1964 and taken into custody at Aylesbury. The DPP eventually decided not to press charges. (Metropolitan Police)
Billy Still. Police suspected that it was his job to clean and burn down the farm – he was, however, arrested in Euston Square in connection with another offence before the train robbery took place. (Metropolitan Police)
April 1964. Percy Hoskins of the Daily Express highlighting the view that the Post Office insider must be a relatively high-ranking official. (Express newspapers)
A very rare photo of Jimmy White taken while he was in hiding. (Author’s collection)
COPYRIGHT
First published in 2013
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2013
All rights reserved
© Andrew Cook, 2013
The right of Andrew Cook to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9222 3
Original typesetting by The History Press
Ebook compilation by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk