WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.540 You know, usually when we talk about the heist 00:00:01.540 --> 00:00:03.819 of the century, we're picturing, I don't know, 00:00:03.879 --> 00:00:06.559 high tech servers, maybe some mission impossible 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:09.580 lasers, or even a complex crypto wallet hack 00:00:09.580 --> 00:00:12.199 involving millions in invisible currency. Right. 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:16.019 Something digital and clean. Exactly. But today 00:00:16.019 --> 00:00:20.160 we are going all the way back to 1963, a time 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:23.000 when money was, well, it was heavy. It was physical. 00:00:23.079 --> 00:00:25.660 It was real. And it moved around on steam and 00:00:25.660 --> 00:00:28.789 diesel trains in the dead of night. We are, of 00:00:28.789 --> 00:00:31.010 course, doing a deep dive into the great train 00:00:31.010 --> 00:00:33.469 robbery. And I think the first thing we really 00:00:33.469 --> 00:00:35.289 need to get our heads around before we even get 00:00:35.289 --> 00:00:38.070 to the robbers themselves is the world they were 00:00:38.070 --> 00:00:40.409 operating in. That's so true. This was a cash 00:00:40.409 --> 00:00:42.149 economy. I mean, fundamentally, there were no 00:00:42.149 --> 00:00:43.990 credit cards to speak of, no digital transfers. 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:48.750 If a bank in, say, London needed a massive infusion 00:00:48.750 --> 00:00:50.929 of cash. The train had to physically carry it 00:00:50.929 --> 00:00:53.289 there. A train had to physically carry it there. 00:00:53.490 --> 00:00:55.920 Facts and sacks of it. Which brings us to the 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:58.719 train at the heart of this story, the Up Special. 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:01.460 Now, in all the source material, this train sounds 00:01:01.460 --> 00:01:03.240 like it should have been a fortress on wheels. 00:01:03.659 --> 00:01:07.239 But was it really? It's surprising, but no, not 00:01:07.239 --> 00:01:10.120 at all. The Up Special was a Royal Mail train, 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:14.480 a TPO, a traveling post office, running the regular 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:17.010 route from Glasgow down to London. It was an 00:01:17.010 --> 00:01:19.530 institution. A British institution. Absolutely. 00:01:19.870 --> 00:01:22.510 But despite carrying what we now know were millions 00:01:22.510 --> 00:01:25.489 of pounds, the security was, by our modern standards, 00:01:25.689 --> 00:01:28.010 almost non -existent. What do you mean? No armed 00:01:28.010 --> 00:01:31.290 guards? No armed guards, no radios in the carriages 00:01:31.290 --> 00:01:33.890 to call for help. The staff on board were just 00:01:33.890 --> 00:01:36.510 postal workers sorting mail as the train rumbled 00:01:36.510 --> 00:01:38.590 through the night. And that's the core insight 00:01:38.590 --> 00:01:41.049 right off the bat, isn't it? The security, if 00:01:41.049 --> 00:01:43.370 you can even call it that, it relied on obscurity, 00:01:43.370 --> 00:01:45.959 not strength. The whole system was based on the 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:48.040 assumption that nobody would ever dare to touch 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:50.459 a royal mail train. Exactly. It was security 00:01:50.459 --> 00:01:52.519 by gentleman's agreement. And on the night of 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:57.000 August 8th, 1963, a gang of about 15 men decided 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:59.019 that agreement was over. And they didn't just 00:01:59.019 --> 00:02:00.879 break the agreement. They shattered it. They 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:04.200 stole 2 .61 million pound of one. Now, for you 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:07.180 listening, that number might sound almost modest 00:02:07.180 --> 00:02:09.520 in an age of billion dollar tech companies and 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:13.379 whatnot. It's easy to dismiss it. But we have 00:02:13.379 --> 00:02:16.020 to adjust for inflation. You have to. So what 00:02:16.020 --> 00:02:17.900 are we talking about in today's money? Let's 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:22.139 say 2026 terms. In 2026 terms, we are looking 00:02:22.139 --> 00:02:26.680 at roughly 69 million pounds. 69 million pounds. 00:02:26.819 --> 00:02:30.400 In untraceable used banknotes. It is a staggering 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:32.860 amount of liquid cash. It's the kind of money 00:02:32.860 --> 00:02:35.379 that alters not just your life, but your children's 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:38.280 lives. It's generation altering wealth. But. 00:02:38.729 --> 00:02:40.770 And this is really the mission for our deep dive 00:02:40.770 --> 00:02:43.789 today. We want to look past the romanticized, 00:02:43.830 --> 00:02:46.150 you know, the movie version of this story. We 00:02:46.150 --> 00:02:49.349 want to analyze the plan versus the actual chaotic 00:02:49.349 --> 00:02:51.689 execution. Oh, absolutely. Because as we went 00:02:51.689 --> 00:02:53.490 through all the source material, it becomes incredibly 00:02:53.490 --> 00:02:55.830 clear that for all their supposed mastermind 00:02:55.830 --> 00:02:58.710 planning, they made some incredibly basic, almost 00:02:58.710 --> 00:03:01.669 comical errors. They really did. And we also 00:03:01.669 --> 00:03:03.469 need to talk about the forensics, the science 00:03:03.469 --> 00:03:05.669 that ultimately brought a lot of them down, specifically 00:03:05.669 --> 00:03:08.099 a board game. The Monopoly board. It's my favorite 00:03:08.099 --> 00:03:10.159 detail in the whole story. I can't wait to get 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:12.900 to that. But we also have to, and this is important, 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:16.199 look at the human cost. Because while the robbers 00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:19.300 became these strange folk heroes to some people. 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:22.379 They did. There were real victims here. Working 00:03:22.379 --> 00:03:25.259 class men whose lives were effectively destroyed 00:03:25.259 --> 00:03:27.819 by that knife. That's right. This was not a victimless 00:03:27.819 --> 00:03:30.180 crime, no matter what the tabloids at the time 00:03:30.180 --> 00:03:32.740 might have wanted you to believe. So we've got 00:03:32.740 --> 00:03:36.280 the architects of the plan, the mechanics of 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:38.340 the heist itself, the getaway, the investigation, 00:03:38.599 --> 00:03:41.120 and of course, the long, long aftermath. OK, 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:43.120 let's unpack this. Where do we even start? Let's 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:45.479 start with the people. Who actually pulls off 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:47.860 something of this magnitude? Because this wasn't 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:50.319 just a couple of guys in a van with a crazy idea. 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:53.759 This was, for all intents and purposes, a super 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:56.039 gang. That is the perfect term for it. You have 00:03:56.039 --> 00:03:58.219 to understand, the London underworld of the early 00:03:58.219 --> 00:04:00.319 60s, it was quite fragmented. You had different 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:03.340 gangs, different territories. This robbery, it 00:04:03.340 --> 00:04:05.759 was essentially a merger of two of the most effective 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.259 criminal organizations of the day. So who was 00:04:08.259 --> 00:04:10.439 at the top? Well, the core group was known as 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:13.360 the firm. or the Southwest Gang. And the central 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:15.620 figure, the man with the vision, was a guy named 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:17.980 Bruce Reynolds. Reynolds is often called the 00:04:17.980 --> 00:04:20.000 Napoleon of the whole operation, right? He is. 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:23.220 And he really cultivated that image. He fits 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:26.319 the profile perfectly of that 1960s aspiring 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:30.199 criminal aristocrat. He was the mastermind. He 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:32.639 didn't just want the money. He loved the high 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:35.279 life. He sought adventure. He drove an Aston 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:37.680 Martin, didn't he? He did. He wasn't just in 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:39.660 it for the cash. He was in it for the status, 00:04:39.740 --> 00:04:42.860 for the thrill. He had this cinematic vision 00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:45.240 of himself as a sophisticated operator, almost 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:47.160 like he was scripting his own movie before the 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:49.420 movie was even made. But a Napoleon, a general, 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:51.860 he needs his marshals. He can't do it alone. 00:04:52.139 --> 00:04:54.540 And Reynolds had his. He had Gordon Goody. Goody 00:04:54.540 --> 00:04:57.399 was the logistical organizer, the deputy. In 00:04:57.399 --> 00:05:00.160 the underworld, Goody was hugely respected. He 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:02.579 was disciplined, he was sharp, and he was the 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:05.199 one who kept the crew in line. The details guy. 00:05:05.399 --> 00:05:08.810 The details guy. Then you had Buster Edwards, 00:05:09.129 --> 00:05:11.750 who was a former boxer and a nightclub owner. 00:05:11.870 --> 00:05:13.990 He's another key organizer, very charismatic, 00:05:14.250 --> 00:05:16.889 knew everyone. And then finally, in that core 00:05:16.889 --> 00:05:19.490 group, you had Charlie Wilson. Wilson was known 00:05:19.490 --> 00:05:23.430 as the treasurer, but also the silent man. That 00:05:23.430 --> 00:05:26.470 sounds ominous. He was a very dangerous man, 00:05:26.629 --> 00:05:29.670 very disciplined, very quiet. He was the enforcer. 00:05:29.750 --> 00:05:31.449 He was the one you went to if you needed something 00:05:31.449 --> 00:05:34.560 done, you know. quietly, and if necessary, violently. 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:37.519 He handled the money, and nobody argued with 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:40.480 him about it. So you've got this core team, the 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:43.639 Southwest gang, the brains, the logistics, the 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:46.579 muscle, but they had a massive skills gap, didn't 00:05:46.579 --> 00:05:49.420 they? A huge one, a critical one. What was missing? 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:51.560 They were brilliant at robbing things that stood 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:54.180 still, buildings, warehouses, armored trucks 00:05:54.180 --> 00:05:56.420 parked on the street. They were smash -and -grab 00:05:56.420 --> 00:05:58.579 experts, but they didn't know the first thing 00:05:58.579 --> 00:06:01.089 about how to stop a train. Right. I mean, it's 00:06:01.089 --> 00:06:02.829 one thing to crack a safe. It's a completely 00:06:02.829 --> 00:06:05.050 different discipline to hijack a moving locomotive 00:06:05.050 --> 00:06:07.670 in the middle of the night without derailing 00:06:07.670 --> 00:06:10.009 it and killing everyone on board. Precisely. 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:12.240 The physics are different. The technology is 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:14.040 different. So they realized they needed to bring 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:17.019 in specialists. They recruited another group 00:06:17.019 --> 00:06:19.819 known as the South Coast Raiders. And these were 00:06:19.819 --> 00:06:21.980 the heavy lifters? These guys provided the muscle, 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:24.860 yes, but also the specific experience needed 00:06:24.860 --> 00:06:27.699 for this kind of heavy transport robbery. Men 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:30.819 like Tommy Wisby, Bob Welch, and Big Jim Hussey. 00:06:31.370 --> 00:06:33.529 And they also brought in a very specific kind 00:06:33.529 --> 00:06:35.649 of specialist, a man named Roger Corddry. Roger 00:06:35.649 --> 00:06:37.670 Corddry. He was the signals guy, wasn't he? He 00:06:37.670 --> 00:06:40.769 was absolutely essential. He was their tech expert, 00:06:40.930 --> 00:06:43.769 if you like. He was a career criminal, but his 00:06:43.769 --> 00:06:46.730 unique specialty was railways. He understood 00:06:46.730 --> 00:06:48.930 how the signals worked, how the tracks were laid 00:06:48.930 --> 00:06:51.149 out, the difference between a vacuum break and 00:06:51.149 --> 00:06:53.230 an air break, or so they thought. He was the 00:06:53.230 --> 00:06:55.069 one who knew how to manipulate the trackside 00:06:55.069 --> 00:06:57.930 lights. So when you add it all up, the core gang. 00:06:58.509 --> 00:07:01.149 the raiders, the specialists, plus a few other 00:07:01.149 --> 00:07:03.829 associates who helped out. You have a total gang 00:07:03.829 --> 00:07:07.269 size of about 15 or 16 men there on the night 00:07:07.269 --> 00:07:10.370 of the raid. It's a small army. It is. But even 00:07:10.370 --> 00:07:12.430 with all that muscle, all that planning, and 00:07:12.430 --> 00:07:16.290 all that signal expertise, they never, ever would 00:07:16.290 --> 00:07:19.009 have pulled this off without one very specific, 00:07:19.189 --> 00:07:21.629 very crucial piece of the puzzle. The insider. 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:24.730 The insider. The Ulsterman. It sounds like a 00:07:24.730 --> 00:07:26.829 character from a John Le Carre novel. Who was 00:07:26.829 --> 00:07:29.519 he? This is genuinely one of the biggest and 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:31.300 most enduring mysteries of the whole affair. 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:34.879 The Ulster man was the source of the critical 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:38.600 intel. He was their man on the inside. He was 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:41.180 introduced to the gang via a solicitor's clerk 00:07:41.180 --> 00:07:44.040 named Brian Field. Wait, a solicitor's clerk, 00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:45.819 a lawyer's assistant, is working with one of 00:07:45.819 --> 00:07:48.220 London's biggest criminal gangs. Brian Field 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:50.519 was their bridge. He was the connection between 00:07:50.519 --> 00:07:52.620 the so -called criminal world and the straight 00:07:52.620 --> 00:07:55.500 world. He was crooked, but he had a respectable 00:07:55.500 --> 00:07:58.379 front. He managed the property purchase for the 00:07:58.379 --> 00:08:00.519 hideout later on, but his most important contribution 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:02.839 was bringing the Ulsterman to the table. And 00:08:02.839 --> 00:08:06.000 this Ulsterman, he was a postal worker or someone 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.240 higher up. The sources suggest he was likely 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:11.819 a senior security officer or a very experienced 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:14.980 postal worker who had intimate, detailed knowledge 00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:18.220 of the high value package coach, the HVP, as 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:20.600 they called it. So what did he tell them? What 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:23.279 was the intel that made this robbery even possible? 00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:26.240 It was a trifecta of perfect information. First, 00:08:26.420 --> 00:08:29.379 the schedule. Not just that the train ran every 00:08:29.379 --> 00:08:32.480 night, but the precise timings, the slack in 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:34.740 the schedule, where it would be at certain times. 00:08:34.820 --> 00:08:36.860 Okay, that's vital. Second, the amount of cash. 00:08:37.389 --> 00:08:39.149 He knew that because of a bank holiday weekend 00:08:39.149 --> 00:08:41.830 in Scotland, the usual shipment of cash being 00:08:41.830 --> 00:08:44.269 returned to London would be massively inflated 00:08:44.269 --> 00:08:47.649 instead of the usual, say, 300 ,000 pounds, which 00:08:47.649 --> 00:08:49.649 is still a lot of money. Which is still a huge 00:08:49.649 --> 00:08:52.409 score. A huge score. He knew the train that night 00:08:52.409 --> 00:08:54.950 would be carrying millions, potentially 10 times 00:08:54.950 --> 00:08:57.990 the normal amount. And the third thing, the crucial 00:08:57.990 --> 00:09:00.679 piece. This is the golden nugget. This is what 00:09:00.679 --> 00:09:02.860 made the whole thing viable. He knew that the 00:09:02.860 --> 00:09:04.899 reserve carriage was scheduled to be used that 00:09:04.899 --> 00:09:06.980 night for the high -value packages. Why does 00:09:06.980 --> 00:09:09.240 that matter? A train carriage is a train carriage, 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:13.470 isn't it? Not in this case. The regular HVP carriage 00:09:13.470 --> 00:09:15.990 had recently been upgraded. It had new alarms, 00:09:16.090 --> 00:09:18.009 heavy security bars on the windows, reinforced 00:09:18.009 --> 00:09:21.769 doors. It was a tough nut to crack. But the reserve 00:09:21.769 --> 00:09:24.269 carriage. Is the old model. It was old stock. 00:09:24.350 --> 00:09:26.269 It didn't have any of the updated alarms. It 00:09:26.269 --> 00:09:28.909 didn't have the bars. It was, for all intents 00:09:28.909 --> 00:09:31.830 and purposes, a wooden box on wheels filled with 00:09:31.830 --> 00:09:35.970 money. It was a sitting duck. Wow. So the stars 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:38.769 really did align for them. Now, there has been 00:09:38.769 --> 00:09:41.389 a lot of debate over the decades about who this 00:09:41.389 --> 00:09:43.529 Ulsterman actually was. It wasn't solved for 00:09:43.529 --> 00:09:45.429 a long, long time, right? For decades, it was 00:09:45.429 --> 00:09:47.529 a total secret. It was one of the great what 00:09:47.529 --> 00:09:50.350 -ifs. But much later in life, Gordon Goody, who 00:09:50.350 --> 00:09:52.950 we mentioned was Reynolds' deputy, he finally 00:09:52.950 --> 00:09:55.690 broke his silence. He claimed it was a man named 00:09:55.690 --> 00:09:58.470 Patrick McKenna, a postal worker. Patrick McKenna. 00:09:58.730 --> 00:10:00.929 And did McKenna live like a king after the robbery? 00:10:01.090 --> 00:10:03.250 Did he retire to the Bahamas on his share? And 00:10:03.250 --> 00:10:05.289 that's the fascinating, almost tragic part of 00:10:05.289 --> 00:10:07.570 the story. If what Goody said is to be believed, 00:10:07.769 --> 00:10:09.990 McKenna never saw a penny of it. Or if he did, 00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:12.549 he never clotted the wealth. He allegedly died 00:10:12.549 --> 00:10:14.490 completely poor. So what happened to his share? 00:10:14.730 --> 00:10:16.730 Well, the speculation is all over the place. 00:10:17.210 --> 00:10:20.230 One theory is that he felt so guilty, he donated 00:10:20.230 --> 00:10:23.490 his entire share, something like 150 ,000 pounds, 00:10:23.610 --> 00:10:26.399 to the Catholic Church. Another is that he was 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:29.059 a quiet man who was simply robbed himself by 00:10:29.059 --> 00:10:31.039 other criminals who knew what he had. And his 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:33.340 family had no idea. His family was completely 00:10:33.340 --> 00:10:35.500 flabbergasted by the claim when it came out. 00:10:35.539 --> 00:10:37.919 They said it was impossible. So it remains one 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:40.539 of those tantalizing loose ends that might never 00:10:40.539 --> 00:10:43.120 be fully definitively tied up. So they have the 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:45.360 team, they have the insider intel, and they have 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:48.399 the target. Let's move to the night itself, August 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.230 8th, 1963. Take us to the railway tracks. Okay, 00:10:51.289 --> 00:10:53.529 so it's about 3 .00 a .m. We're at a desolate 00:10:53.529 --> 00:10:56.070 spot on the West Coast main line between Leighton 00:10:56.070 --> 00:10:59.129 Buzzard and Cheddington in Buckinghamshire. It 00:10:59.129 --> 00:11:02.970 is pitch black. It's quiet. And Roger Corddry, 00:11:03.070 --> 00:11:05.090 the signal specialist, goes to work at a signal 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:07.169 gantry at a place called Sears Crossing. And 00:11:07.169 --> 00:11:08.789 this is where we see what the sources call the 00:11:08.789 --> 00:11:10.909 low -tech genius of the plan. It really was. 00:11:11.090 --> 00:11:12.710 I want to dig into this because I think a lot 00:11:12.710 --> 00:11:16.169 of us, you know, we'd assume hacking a signal 00:11:16.169 --> 00:11:19.429 involves... cutting complex wires and rerouting 00:11:19.429 --> 00:11:21.889 power like you see in the movies but it wasn't 00:11:21.889 --> 00:11:24.929 that complicated was it not at all and its simplicity 00:11:24.929 --> 00:11:27.529 is precisely why it works so well you have to 00:11:27.529 --> 00:11:29.970 remember the railway signals of the day were 00:11:29.970 --> 00:11:33.490 electric but they were fundamentally simple circuits 00:11:33.490 --> 00:11:36.590 the signal at sears crossing was a standard four 00:11:36.590 --> 00:11:40.490 aspect color light signal green means go double 00:11:40.490 --> 00:11:43.090 amber and amber are warnings and red means stop 00:11:43.090 --> 00:11:46.200 right standard stuff Corddry knew that if he 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:48.360 just cut the power to the whole thing, the system 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:51.100 might default into a fail -safe mode, which could 00:11:51.100 --> 00:11:53.159 actually turn all the signals in the area red, 00:11:53.240 --> 00:11:56.080 or even worse, it could alert the main signal 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.440 box miles away that there was a fault in the 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:00.740 line. So he couldn't just turn it off? No. No. 00:12:00.779 --> 00:12:02.740 He had to make the system think it was working 00:12:02.740 --> 00:12:05.559 normally, but show a different light to the driver 00:12:05.559 --> 00:12:07.899 of their specific train. So how on earth do you 00:12:07.899 --> 00:12:10.059 do that without tripping an alarm? It's brilliantly 00:12:10.059 --> 00:12:13.549 simple. He climbs up the gantry. He takes a glove, 00:12:13.690 --> 00:12:16.210 an old leather glove, and he physically stuffs 00:12:16.210 --> 00:12:18.730 it over the green lens. He just covers it up. 00:12:18.769 --> 00:12:20.990 Just covers it up. That blocks the all clear 00:12:20.990 --> 00:12:23.450 light. But the circuit itself is still live. 00:12:23.549 --> 00:12:25.669 The bulb is still on behind the glove. So the 00:12:25.669 --> 00:12:27.769 main control board down the line doesn't register 00:12:27.769 --> 00:12:31.960 a lamp failure. Then he takes a standard 6 -volt 00:12:31.960 --> 00:12:34.019 battery, the kind you could buy in any hardware 00:12:34.019 --> 00:12:37.139 store, and connects its terminals directly to 00:12:37.139 --> 00:12:39.700 the red bulb, illuminating it. So from the signal 00:12:39.700 --> 00:12:42.080 box's point of view, everything is green, everything 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:44.940 is normal. But the driver of the train, Jack 00:12:44.940 --> 00:12:47.460 Mills, he comes around the corner and sees a 00:12:47.460 --> 00:12:50.580 single red light. It's a stop signal in a place 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:52.679 he doesn't expect one. But he's a professional. 00:12:52.779 --> 00:12:55.500 He's a 57 -year -old veteran driver. He sees 00:12:55.500 --> 00:12:57.580 a red light. He stops the train. And this is 00:12:57.580 --> 00:12:59.700 where the trap springs. The second man in the 00:12:59.700 --> 00:13:01.919 locomotive, David Whitby, he does exactly what 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:04.460 he's supposed to do. He climbs down from the 00:13:04.460 --> 00:13:07.159 cab to use the special line side telephone to 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:09.779 call the signalman and ask why they've been stopped. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:12.299 But the phone's dead. The cables have been cut. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:15.480 He turns back towards the train, probably confused, 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:17.700 maybe a little annoyed. And that's when he's 00:13:17.700 --> 00:13:19.879 overpowered by the gang members who are hiding 00:13:19.879 --> 00:13:22.580 in the thick undergrowth on the embankment. And 00:13:22.580 --> 00:13:24.320 then they storm the engine cab. They come at 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:26.759 the engine from both sides at once. Jack Mills, 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:30.279 the driver, he's in the cab. He sees these masked 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:33.460 figures swarming his engine. He realizes what's 00:13:33.460 --> 00:13:35.840 happening. He struggles with one of the robbers. 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:38.980 And in that scuffle, he is struck from behind 00:13:38.980 --> 00:13:41.840 with a heavy metal barricade. This is such a 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.340 pivotal moment. The gang, especially later on, 00:13:44.440 --> 00:13:46.559 always made a big deal about the fact that no 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:49.269 guns were used. which is technically true, but 00:13:49.269 --> 00:13:51.970 this was an act of brutal, life -altering violence. 00:13:52.269 --> 00:13:55.029 It absolutely was. Mill suffered a severe head 00:13:55.029 --> 00:13:57.690 injury. He was knocked semi -conscious. And this 00:13:57.690 --> 00:14:00.789 act of violence, ironically, it immediately complicates 00:14:00.789 --> 00:14:03.370 their own plan. How so? Because they had a very 00:14:03.370 --> 00:14:05.929 specific plan for moving the train. They didn't 00:14:05.929 --> 00:14:07.570 want to unload all that money right there at 00:14:07.570 --> 00:14:09.870 the signal. The embankment was way too steep 00:14:09.870 --> 00:14:12.450 and uneven. They needed to move the train about 00:14:12.450 --> 00:14:14.629 another half a mile down the track to a place 00:14:14.629 --> 00:14:16.990 called Bridego Bridge, where the road passed 00:14:16.990 --> 00:14:19.279 underneath the railway. Their trucks were waiting 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:21.460 there. Right. Because unloading two and a half 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:24.019 tons of cash down a steep, dark, gravelly slope. 00:14:24.649 --> 00:14:26.490 is a nightmare. You want to be right over the 00:14:26.490 --> 00:14:28.909 road, drop it straight down. Yeah. So they had 00:14:28.909 --> 00:14:31.129 brought their own driver to handle this short 00:14:31.129 --> 00:14:33.789 trip. They did. They had a man who is only referred 00:14:33.789 --> 00:14:36.730 to in the history books as Stan Agate or sometimes 00:14:36.730 --> 00:14:39.250 just Peter. He was an acquaintance of one of 00:14:39.250 --> 00:14:41.929 the gang members, Ronnie Biggs, and was supposedly 00:14:41.929 --> 00:14:44.330 a retired train driver. And this is where the 00:14:44.330 --> 00:14:46.669 so -called precision of the plan starts to fall 00:14:46.669 --> 00:14:49.669 apart in a way that is, honestly, it's just shocking 00:14:49.669 --> 00:14:52.409 for a supposed super gang. It falls apart completely. 00:14:52.750 --> 00:14:55.379 Stan Agate. climbs into the driver's seat of 00:14:55.379 --> 00:14:58.240 this massive, powerful English electric Type 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:02.820 4 diesel locomotive. And he freezes. Wait, he 00:15:02.820 --> 00:15:04.779 was brought along for one job? He was supposed 00:15:04.779 --> 00:15:07.100 to be a train driver. How do you hire a getaway 00:15:07.100 --> 00:15:09.519 driver who can't drive the getaway vehicle? And 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:11.700 this is a real aha moment when you look into 00:15:11.700 --> 00:15:14.700 the technology of the time. Stan was a retired 00:15:14.700 --> 00:15:17.720 shunter. He used to move carriages around a railway 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:20.639 yard at five miles per hour. Those were simple, 00:15:20.740 --> 00:15:24.149 older engines, often steam engines. This English 00:15:24.149 --> 00:15:27.190 electric type four was a beast. It was one of 00:15:27.190 --> 00:15:30.190 the most modern, complex diesel electric engines 00:15:30.190 --> 00:15:32.210 on the line at the time. So it's like hiring 00:15:32.210 --> 00:15:34.789 someone who can drive a golf cart to pilot a 00:15:34.789 --> 00:15:38.190 jumbo jet. That's a perfect analogy. The braking 00:15:38.190 --> 00:15:40.440 systems were different. Vacuum brakes versus 00:15:40.440 --> 00:15:43.279 air brakes, the throttle configuration, the controls 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:46.200 on the dash. It was all alien to him. He looked 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:48.940 at the complex array of levers and dials and 00:15:48.940 --> 00:15:50.779 essentially said, I don't know what to do. I 00:15:50.779 --> 00:15:53.080 can't release the brakes. Can you just imagine 00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:55.860 the sheer panic in that moment? You've just violently 00:15:55.860 --> 00:15:57.720 assaulted the crew. You've stopped the Royal 00:15:57.720 --> 00:16:00.019 Mail train. The clock is ticking on your whole 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:02.360 operation and your designated driver is sitting 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:04.360 there shrugging his shoulders. It was a complete 00:16:04.360 --> 00:16:06.340 disaster for them. It could have been the end 00:16:06.340 --> 00:16:08.120 of the robbery right there. So they had to resort 00:16:08.120 --> 00:16:11.230 to a true. brutal desperate solution they use 00:16:11.230 --> 00:16:14.360 jack mills They went back to the bleeding, dazed, 00:16:14.379 --> 00:16:17.179 semi -conscious Jack Mills. They dragged him 00:16:17.179 --> 00:16:19.340 back into the driver's seat, propped him up, 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:22.679 and they forced him to drive his own train that 00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:25.860 final half mile to Bradego Bridge. That is just 00:16:25.860 --> 00:16:28.779 horrific. It is, and it shows the absolute ruthlessness 00:16:28.779 --> 00:16:31.299 that was hiding underneath that gentleman thief 00:16:31.299 --> 00:16:34.000 image they like to project. If they hadn't been 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:36.299 willing to do that, to be that cruel, the whole 00:16:36.299 --> 00:16:39.179 robbery would have failed. So Mills, under duress, 00:16:39.220 --> 00:16:42.210 gets the train to the bridge. Now the really 00:16:42.210 --> 00:16:45.409 hard physical labor begins. They have to uncouple 00:16:45.409 --> 00:16:47.769 the high -value package carriage from the rest 00:16:47.769 --> 00:16:50.039 of the train. Right. They leave the postal sorters 00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:52.019 and all the ordinary mail behind in the other 00:16:52.019 --> 00:16:54.500 10 carriages. They only want the first two coaches. 00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:56.980 The assault force, another part of the gang, 00:16:57.159 --> 00:17:00.200 storms that HVP carriage. The staff inside, a 00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:03.080 few men, Dewhurst, Kett, and others, they tried 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:05.079 to block the door with mailbags, but they were 00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:07.299 quickly overwhelmed. And again, no police on 00:17:07.299 --> 00:17:10.019 board. No police, no security guards, just postal 00:17:10.019 --> 00:17:12.559 workers. They were subdued and forced to lie 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:14.640 face down in a corner of the carriage while the 00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:17.829 gang got to work. And now... They have to move 00:17:17.829 --> 00:17:19.950 the cash. And we're not talking about a neat 00:17:19.950 --> 00:17:22.690 briefcase full of diamonds here. This is an immense 00:17:22.690 --> 00:17:24.910 amount of physical currency. We're talking about 00:17:24.910 --> 00:17:28.269 120 sacks of banknotes. The total weight was 00:17:28.269 --> 00:17:30.650 estimated at around two and a half tons. Two 00:17:30.650 --> 00:17:33.009 and a half tons. Think about that. That's the 00:17:33.009 --> 00:17:36.450 weight of a large SUV, like a Range Rover. They 00:17:36.450 --> 00:17:39.390 formed a human chain, a line of men, passing 00:17:39.390 --> 00:17:41.990 these heavy, awkward sacks from the door of the 00:17:41.990 --> 00:17:44.650 train down the steep embankment to the waiting 00:17:44.650 --> 00:17:47.380 vehicles below. And they did this in about 15 00:17:47.380 --> 00:17:51.079 to 20 minutes. That is back -breaking, physically 00:17:51.079 --> 00:17:54.220 exhausting work. Adrenaline is a powerful thing. 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:57.279 They loaded the sacks into an old Austin Lodestar 00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:00.160 truck and two Land Rovers they had brought. And 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:01.900 here's a detail I love, a little bit of classic 00:18:01.900 --> 00:18:04.140 criminal tradecraft. The two Land Rovers had 00:18:04.140 --> 00:18:06.119 been painted to look like Army vehicles, and 00:18:06.119 --> 00:18:08.619 they had matching registration plates. Why the 00:18:08.619 --> 00:18:10.940 matching plates? To confuse potential witnesses. 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:14.640 If someone saw a Land Rover with the plate BMG 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:18.619 757A near the bridge, and another witness saw 00:18:18.619 --> 00:18:21.319 one with the same plate 10 miles away a few minutes 00:18:21.319 --> 00:18:23.920 later, the police might think it was the same 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:26.420 vehicle and get their timeline all mixed up. 00:18:26.779 --> 00:18:28.900 It's a clever little bit of misdirection. But 00:18:28.900 --> 00:18:31.079 even with all their effort, they didn't get everything, 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:33.940 did they? No. And this speaks to the discipline 00:18:33.940 --> 00:18:36.440 of the plan, at least. Bruce Reynolds had set 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:39.059 a very strict time limit, 30 minutes from the 00:18:39.059 --> 00:18:41.630 moment the train stopped. That was it. When that 00:18:41.630 --> 00:18:43.549 30 minutes was up, they had to leave no matter 00:18:43.549 --> 00:18:45.710 what. So they just left money on the train? They 00:18:45.710 --> 00:18:49.490 left eight full sacks of cash behind on the floor 00:18:49.490 --> 00:18:51.769 of the carriage. Any idea how much was in those 00:18:51.769 --> 00:18:54.109 bags? It was later counted. Those eight bags 00:18:54.109 --> 00:18:57.509 contained about 131 ,000 towns. But they stuck 00:18:57.509 --> 00:19:00.059 to the discipline. Time was up. They piled into 00:19:00.059 --> 00:19:02.180 their vehicles and drove off into the night with 00:19:02.180 --> 00:19:05.099 over 2 .6 million pounds. Okay, so they have 00:19:05.099 --> 00:19:07.400 the money. They've escaped the crime scene clean, 00:19:07.539 --> 00:19:10.779 or so they think. Now they need to lay low. But 00:19:10.779 --> 00:19:12.740 where on earth do you go with two and a half 00:19:12.740 --> 00:19:16.079 tons of stolen cash and 15 wanted men? You go 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:18.200 to your prearranged hideout. They headed for 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:21.079 a place called Leather Slade Farm. This was a 00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:24.839 rundown, isolated property about 27 miles from 00:19:24.839 --> 00:19:26.859 the crime scene. And they'd had this place lined 00:19:26.859 --> 00:19:29.599 up for a while. Oh, yes. They had purchased it 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:33.000 months prior. Brian Field, the solicitor's clerk, 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:35.460 handled the conveyancing, using an associate 00:19:35.460 --> 00:19:38.579 named Lenny Field as a front man to buy the property 00:19:38.579 --> 00:19:40.759 so it couldn't be traced back to the gang. And 00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:42.920 the timing on the night must have been incredibly 00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:45.440 tight. Extremely tight. They arrived at the farm 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:47.920 around 4 .40 in the morning. And you have to 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:50.779 realize this is almost the exact same time that 00:19:50.779 --> 00:19:53.240 the first garbled reports of the robbery were 00:19:53.240 --> 00:19:55.440 starting to hit the police radios. So they're 00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:58.480 sitting in this dilapidated farmhouse 27 miles 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:00.859 away, probably completely exhausted, but running 00:20:00.859 --> 00:20:03.119 on the highest of high adrenaline. Absolutely. 00:20:03.140 --> 00:20:05.039 And they start counting. Can you imagine that 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:08.160 scene? A dirty room in an old farmhouse piled 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:10.140 high with mailbags. They're just dumping. them 00:20:10.140 --> 00:20:12.859 out on the floor it's a mix of old crisp one 00:20:12.859 --> 00:20:14.720 pound notes and the bigger five pound notes the 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:16.880 old white fibers and the newer blue ones piles 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:19.119 of cash literally reaching the ceiling it must 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:22.559 have felt completely surreal the score of a lifetime 00:20:23.049 --> 00:20:26.730 The split was worked out to be roughly £150 ,000 00:20:26.730 --> 00:20:29.750 per full share. That was astronomical wealth 00:20:29.750 --> 00:20:33.089 in 1963. To put it in perspective for you, a 00:20:33.089 --> 00:20:36.349 nice detached family house in the London suburbs 00:20:36.349 --> 00:20:39.849 cost about £3 ,000 at the time. So each man got 00:20:39.849 --> 00:20:42.670 50 houses worth of money. Pretty much. They also 00:20:42.670 --> 00:20:44.789 set aside smaller payments, which they called 00:20:44.789 --> 00:20:47.630 drinks, for the various associates. The guy who 00:20:47.630 --> 00:20:49.970 arranged the farm, the failed train driver Stan 00:20:49.970 --> 00:20:52.740 Agate, and so on. Here's a few grand for... Basically. 00:20:54.079 --> 00:20:56.460 But while this celebration is happening, while 00:20:56.460 --> 00:20:59.500 they're literally rolling in money, the unraveling 00:20:59.500 --> 00:21:02.059 begins. And the instrument of their downfall 00:21:02.059 --> 00:21:04.579 is the radio. They were listening to the police 00:21:04.579 --> 00:21:07.140 broadcasts. They were. It was standard practice 00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:09.660 for a gang like this to monitor the police frequencies 00:21:09.660 --> 00:21:11.920 to know what they knew. And what they heard on 00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:14.079 that radio absolutely terrified them. What did 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:16.819 they hear? They heard the police deduce and then 00:21:16.819 --> 00:21:19.160 broadcast that they were setting up a 30 -mile 00:21:19.160 --> 00:21:21.869 radius search zone around the crime scene. scene. 00:21:21.910 --> 00:21:24.009 How on earth did the police figure that out so 00:21:24.009 --> 00:21:26.609 fast? That's incredible detective work. It was. 00:21:26.789 --> 00:21:29.509 And it was all down to a single slip up during 00:21:29.509 --> 00:21:32.509 the robbery. One of the robbers had shouted at 00:21:32.509 --> 00:21:35.329 the postal staff on the train, don't move for 00:21:35.329 --> 00:21:37.450 half an hour. And the police picked up on that. 00:21:37.769 --> 00:21:40.710 The lead investigator on the ground, a Buckinghamshire 00:21:40.710 --> 00:21:44.509 CID detective named Malcolm Futrell, he heard 00:21:44.509 --> 00:21:46.869 that detail and realized it wasn't just a random 00:21:46.869 --> 00:21:50.029 number. It was significant. It implied the gang 00:21:50.029 --> 00:21:52.789 believed they needed exactly 30 minutes of driving 00:21:52.789 --> 00:21:55.230 time to get to their safe house before the alarm 00:21:55.230 --> 00:21:57.250 was properly raised and the roads were blocked. 00:21:57.470 --> 00:22:00.170 So a 30 -minute drive at speed in a fast car. 00:22:00.589 --> 00:22:03.509 It draws a nearly perfect circle on the map. 00:22:03.900 --> 00:22:06.599 Right around Leather Slate Farm. Exactly. They 00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:08.880 were inside the cert zone. Panic set in immediately. 00:22:09.339 --> 00:22:11.539 The original plan was to stay at the farm for 00:22:11.539 --> 00:22:13.720 weeks, maybe even a month, to go to ground, let 00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:15.700 the initial heat die down. But now they know 00:22:15.700 --> 00:22:17.759 the police are closing the net. So the plan changes. 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:19.799 They decide to abandon the farm and split up 00:22:19.799 --> 00:22:22.359 early. They decided to leave on Friday, just 00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:24.660 a day and a half later, instead of waiting. But 00:22:24.660 --> 00:22:27.700 they had to clean up first, surely. You can't 00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:29.380 just leave a farmhouse that's been inhabited 00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:31.880 by 15 men full of your DNA and fingerprints. 00:22:32.259 --> 00:22:36.200 And this. This is the fatal error. This is the 00:22:36.200 --> 00:22:38.599 mistake from which everything else unravels. 00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:41.240 The plan was to burn the farmhouse to the ground, 00:22:41.380 --> 00:22:44.660 destroy everything, every cup, every plate, every 00:22:44.660 --> 00:22:46.640 blanket, every fingerprint. But they couldn't 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:49.220 do it themselves, could they? A massive fire 00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:51.460 in the middle of a police search zone would be 00:22:51.460 --> 00:22:55.000 like sending up a flare. Precisely. So they outsourced 00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:57.640 the arson. They did what? They paid an associate, 00:22:57.900 --> 00:23:01.359 a man known to history only as Mark, a staggering 00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:04.019 10 ,000 pounds to come back to the farm a day 00:23:04.019 --> 00:23:05.759 or so after they had all left and torched the 00:23:05.759 --> 00:23:08.339 place. 10 ,000 pounds to light a match. That 00:23:08.339 --> 00:23:10.319 is a fortune in itself. And what did Mark do? 00:23:10.519 --> 00:23:12.579 He took the money and ran. He never went back. 00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:14.779 He never lit the fire. Unbelievable. Why? Was 00:23:14.779 --> 00:23:17.900 it cowardice? Creed? Probably a pretty rational 00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:20.980 mix of both. He likely figured... They're all 00:23:20.980 --> 00:23:23.619 scattered. I have the 10 grand. Why on earth 00:23:23.619 --> 00:23:25.319 would I risk going back to the biggest crime 00:23:25.319 --> 00:23:28.559 scene in the country to commit arson? But that 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.140 decision, that one failure to follow through, 00:23:31.359 --> 00:23:34.319 it doomed the entire gang. So the farm was just 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:38.019 left standing there, as is. Exactly. A local 00:23:38.019 --> 00:23:40.160 herdsman, who knew the farm was supposed to be 00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:42.779 empty, eventually tipped off the police because 00:23:42.779 --> 00:23:45.500 he'd seen lights and activity there. When the 00:23:45.500 --> 00:23:47.500 police finally arrived and cautiously entered 00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:50.599 the farmhouse, it was a forensic goldmine. What 00:23:50.599 --> 00:23:53.420 did they find? Everything. They found leftover 00:23:53.420 --> 00:23:56.940 food, bedding, the empty mailbags, the getaway 00:23:56.940 --> 00:23:59.799 vehicles hidden in a shed, and the smoking gun. 00:23:59.980 --> 00:24:02.119 The Monopoly board. This is my favorite detail 00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:04.759 of the entire case. It's just so perfect. So 00:24:04.759 --> 00:24:06.359 past the time while they were hiding out and 00:24:06.359 --> 00:24:08.319 counting the money, the robbers had been playing 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:10.519 a game of Monopoly. Okay, a bit of downtime. 00:24:10.859 --> 00:24:13.119 But here's the thing. They weren't using the 00:24:13.119 --> 00:24:15.660 little colorful fake paper money that comes with 00:24:15.660 --> 00:24:18.440 the game. They were playing with the real stolen 00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:21.849 cash. bundles of fivers and tenors. That is a 00:24:21.849 --> 00:24:24.650 level of sheer, breathtaking arrogance that is 00:24:24.650 --> 00:24:26.950 hard to wrap your head around. It is. But from 00:24:26.950 --> 00:24:29.049 a forensic standpoint, it was a complete and 00:24:29.049 --> 00:24:31.190 utter disaster for them. Think about a Monopoly 00:24:31.190 --> 00:24:34.569 board. It's hard. It's smooth. It's got a glossy 00:24:34.569 --> 00:24:37.349 cardboard surface. It is the perfect surface 00:24:37.349 --> 00:24:39.869 for retaining latent fingerprints. Much better 00:24:39.869 --> 00:24:43.289 than, say, the rough canvas of a mailbag or a 00:24:43.289 --> 00:24:45.869 wooden table. It's infinitely better. The police 00:24:45.869 --> 00:24:48.470 forensic team went over that board and the chance 00:24:48.470 --> 00:24:50.750 cards and the community chess cards, and they 00:24:50.750 --> 00:24:53.009 found fingerprints all over it. Specifically, 00:24:53.269 --> 00:24:55.349 they found clear prints belonging to Bruce Reynolds, 00:24:55.609 --> 00:24:58.150 Buster Edwards, and several other key members 00:24:58.150 --> 00:25:00.450 of the gang. So the police have the farm, they 00:25:00.450 --> 00:25:02.210 have the physical evidence, and now they have 00:25:02.210 --> 00:25:05.829 the prints. The hunt begins in earnest. Let's 00:25:05.829 --> 00:25:07.970 talk about the investigation. Who were the hunters 00:25:07.970 --> 00:25:10.470 in this story? The investigation was massive, 00:25:10.529 --> 00:25:13.069 as you can imagine. Initially on the ground, 00:25:13.089 --> 00:25:16.069 you had Malcolm Futrell from the Buckinghamshire 00:25:16.069 --> 00:25:19.329 CID. But given the scale of the crime, Scotland 00:25:19.329 --> 00:25:21.730 Yard was called in almost immediately. You had 00:25:21.730 --> 00:25:24.049 commanders like George Hathroll and Ernie Millen 00:25:24.049 --> 00:25:26.930 leading the charge. But the one man who really 00:25:26.930 --> 00:25:29.210 came to define the pursuit was Detective Chief 00:25:29.210 --> 00:25:32.450 Superintendent Tommy Butler. Tommy the Gray Fox 00:25:32.450 --> 00:25:35.000 Butler. He sounds like a character straight out 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:37.180 of a noir novel. He really does, and he lived 00:25:37.180 --> 00:25:39.539 up to the name. Tommy Butler was the head of 00:25:39.539 --> 00:25:42.119 the legendary flying squad, the Sweeney. He was 00:25:42.119 --> 00:25:45.259 about 50 years old, and he was completely, utterly 00:25:45.259 --> 00:25:47.980 obsessed with his job. What was he like? He was 00:25:47.980 --> 00:25:50.039 unmarried. He still lived with his mother. His 00:25:50.039 --> 00:25:52.359 entire life was the job. They called him One 00:25:52.359 --> 00:25:54.640 Day Tommy because of how quickly he usually caught 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:56.759 the thieves he was after. He sounds intense. 00:25:57.500 --> 00:26:00.779 Incredibly so. He was brilliant, but notoriously 00:26:00.779 --> 00:26:03.109 difficult to work with. He don't trust the local 00:26:03.109 --> 00:26:05.789 police. He barely trusted his own team at the 00:26:05.789 --> 00:26:08.990 yard. There's a story that when they found the 00:26:08.990 --> 00:26:11.230 farm, the forensic team was working around the 00:26:11.230 --> 00:26:14.549 clock. When they finally asked for a break, Butler 00:26:14.549 --> 00:26:16.650 threatened to send them all back to walking a 00:26:16.650 --> 00:26:19.710 beat in uniform. He was paranoid, he was secretive, 00:26:19.710 --> 00:26:22.029 and he was absolutely relentless. He never gave 00:26:22.029 --> 00:26:24.750 up. So how did they start putting names to the 00:26:24.750 --> 00:26:27.470 faces, or rather to the fingerprints? Was it 00:26:27.470 --> 00:26:29.750 just a case of matching the prints from the Monopoly 00:26:29.750 --> 00:26:32.430 board to their records? The fingerprints were 00:26:32.430 --> 00:26:35.390 the crucial scientific confirmation, the evidence 00:26:35.390 --> 00:26:37.690 that would stand up in court. But the initial 00:26:37.690 --> 00:26:40.630 leads, the names themselves, they came from old 00:26:40.630 --> 00:26:43.309 -fashioned police work. Informants. Snout in 00:26:43.309 --> 00:26:45.170 the underworld. Exactly. This is how policing 00:26:45.170 --> 00:26:47.569 worked back then. A prisoner who was already 00:26:47.569 --> 00:26:49.650 serving time, hoping to get a bit of his sentence 00:26:49.650 --> 00:26:52.970 reduced for parole, gave a list of 18 names to 00:26:52.970 --> 00:26:55.509 Hathoril and Millen. And was the list any good? 00:26:55.750 --> 00:26:59.130 It was remarkably accurate. It contained most 00:26:59.130 --> 00:27:01.750 of the core members of the gang. The police then 00:27:01.750 --> 00:27:03.990 took that list and made a very controversial 00:27:03.990 --> 00:27:07.049 move. They decided to publish the photos of the 00:27:07.049 --> 00:27:09.549 main suspects in all the national newspapers. 00:27:09.630 --> 00:27:12.150 Now, why was that controversial? You'd think 00:27:12.150 --> 00:27:15.160 that standard procedure. But usually in a big 00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:16.980 case, you want to keep your cards close to your 00:27:16.980 --> 00:27:20.160 chest. Exactly. The conventional wisdom is you 00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:22.039 don't want your suspects to know that you know 00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:24.579 who they are. It gives them time to dig in deeper 00:27:24.579 --> 00:27:27.859 to create better alibis. But the police felt 00:27:27.859 --> 00:27:29.980 the gang had too much money and too much of a 00:27:29.980 --> 00:27:31.819 head start. So this was a way to put pressure 00:27:31.819 --> 00:27:34.009 on them. It was a way to make them radioactive. 00:27:34.430 --> 00:27:37.089 By splashing their faces on the front page of 00:27:37.089 --> 00:27:39.250 the Daily Mirror and every other paper in the 00:27:39.250 --> 00:27:41.450 country, they made it impossible for them to 00:27:41.450 --> 00:27:45.009 live a normal life. Ah, I see. So suddenly, no 00:27:45.009 --> 00:27:47.109 one will rent you a room, no one will sell you 00:27:47.109 --> 00:27:49.869 a car, you can't even go into a pub for a quiet 00:27:49.869 --> 00:27:52.349 pint because your face is the most famous in 00:27:52.349 --> 00:27:55.319 Britain. Precisely. It turned the entire country 00:27:55.319 --> 00:27:58.480 into a surveillance network for the police. It 00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:01.339 forced the robbers to move constantly, to hide 00:28:01.339 --> 00:28:04.279 in odd places, and crucially, to make mistakes 00:28:04.279 --> 00:28:07.380 under pressure. So the heat is on in a massive 00:28:07.380 --> 00:28:10.279 way. Let's look at how the dominoes started to 00:28:10.279 --> 00:28:13.559 fall. Who was the first of the main gang to get 00:28:13.559 --> 00:28:16.079 caught? That was Roger Corddry, the signal expert. 00:28:16.279 --> 00:28:18.579 And again, his capture was a direct result of 00:28:18.579 --> 00:28:20.940 a stupid mistake born of having too much cash 00:28:20.940 --> 00:28:23.640 and nowhere to put it. He was trying to lie low 00:28:23.640 --> 00:28:26.960 and he was renting a garage space from a policeman's 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:29.680 widow. Oh, no, you can't make that up. That is 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:31.799 just terrible luck. And he made it so much worse. 00:28:31.859 --> 00:28:35.079 He paid her three months rent in advance in a 00:28:35.079 --> 00:28:38.359 big bundle of used 10 shilling notes. It's always 00:28:38.359 --> 00:28:40.599 the little things. If he had just gone to a bank 00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:44.019 and gotten some clean money. Oh wait, he couldn't 00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:46.119 do that. He couldn't do that. She thought it 00:28:46.119 --> 00:28:48.000 was incredibly suspicious. She tipped off her 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:50.740 local police. They investigated and Roger Corddry 00:28:50.740 --> 00:28:53.339 was caught. Then you have Brian Field, the solicitor's 00:28:53.339 --> 00:28:55.799 clerk who was the bridge man. He was traced because 00:28:55.799 --> 00:28:58.220 of a camel skin bag he dumped in the woods near 00:28:58.220 --> 00:29:00.900 his home. What was in the bag? His robbery gear, 00:29:01.019 --> 00:29:04.390 but also... incredibly, a receipt for a German 00:29:04.390 --> 00:29:06.650 hotel where he and his wife had recently stayed 00:29:06.650 --> 00:29:08.990 on a little holiday. That is just sloppy. It's 00:29:08.990 --> 00:29:11.289 amateur hour. It really is. And it shows the 00:29:11.289 --> 00:29:13.529 difference between being career criminals and 00:29:13.529 --> 00:29:16.480 master criminals. These guys were very good at 00:29:16.480 --> 00:29:18.799 being thugs. They were good at the violence and 00:29:18.799 --> 00:29:21.319 the planning. But under the intense pressure 00:29:21.319 --> 00:29:24.220 of a national manhunt, they made basic errors. 00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:27.519 Jimmy White was another interesting one. He actually 00:29:27.519 --> 00:29:30.319 managed to stay on the run for three whole years. 00:29:30.700 --> 00:29:33.359 He lived as a Mr. Nobody, just blending into 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:35.980 the background in a seaside town. But eventually, 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:38.259 the net closed on him, too. Let's fast forward 00:29:38.259 --> 00:29:42.619 to the trial, then. Aylesbury, 1964. This was 00:29:42.619 --> 00:29:44.759 a media circus, wasn't it? It was the trial of 00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:46.680 the century. It was huge. They had to build a 00:29:46.680 --> 00:29:49.259 special temporary court building just to accommodate 00:29:49.259 --> 00:29:51.480 the enormous press pack from around the world 00:29:51.480 --> 00:29:54.039 and the sheer number of defendants in the dock. 00:29:54.200 --> 00:29:57.180 It was the O .J. Simpson trial of its day. But 00:29:57.180 --> 00:29:58.839 the most dramatic moment of that whole trial 00:29:58.839 --> 00:30:00.900 wasn't actually conviction. It was a surprise 00:30:00.900 --> 00:30:03.500 acquittal. John Daly. He was Bruce Reynolds' 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:06.000 brother -in -law. And his fingerprints were all 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:08.420 over the Monopoly set. It seemed like an open 00:30:08.420 --> 00:30:11.700 and shut case. It did. But his lawyer, a Queens 00:30:11.700 --> 00:30:15.140 counsel named Walter Rayburn, he pulled off a 00:30:15.140 --> 00:30:18.420 truly brilliant piece of legal defense. He didn't 00:30:18.420 --> 00:30:21.359 dispute that the prints were Daley's. Instead, 00:30:21.660 --> 00:30:24.119 he argued that Daley could have played that specific 00:30:24.119 --> 00:30:27.339 game of Monopoly with Reynolds at his house weeks 00:30:27.339 --> 00:30:29.680 or months before the robbery ever took place. 00:30:29.700 --> 00:30:32.839 So the prints were old. Exactly. Since the Monopoly 00:30:32.839 --> 00:30:35.160 set belonged to the gang and traveled with them, 00:30:35.279 --> 00:30:38.359 his lawyer argued that his client's prints could 00:30:38.359 --> 00:30:40.559 have been on it completely innocently from a 00:30:40.559 --> 00:30:42.779 prior occasion. And the jury bought that. Well, 00:30:42.859 --> 00:30:45.180 the judge did. The judge agreed there was no 00:30:45.180 --> 00:30:48.259 other hard physical evidence placing Daly at 00:30:48.259 --> 00:30:51.000 the crime scene or at the farm. He actually directed 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.380 the jury to acquit him. Tommy Butler must have 00:30:53.380 --> 00:30:55.900 been absolutely furious. Oh, undoubtedly. He 00:30:55.900 --> 00:30:57.940 would have seen it as a lawyer's trick. But for 00:30:57.940 --> 00:30:59.680 the rest of the game, the ones who were convicted, 00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:03.160 the sentences were incredibly severe. The ringleaders 00:31:03.160 --> 00:31:05.779 got 30 years in prison. 30 years. I've read that 00:31:05.779 --> 00:31:07.880 was even longer than many murder sentences at 00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:10.369 the time. It was. And this is a point of real 00:31:10.369 --> 00:31:14.430 serious historical debate. The judge, a man named 00:31:14.430 --> 00:31:17.369 Mr. Justice Edmund Davies, he was furious. He 00:31:17.369 --> 00:31:19.930 called the robbery a crime of sordid violence 00:31:19.930 --> 00:31:22.809 inspired by vast greed. He wanted to make an 00:31:22.809 --> 00:31:25.150 example of them to send a message. But did that 00:31:25.150 --> 00:31:28.349 message backfire? Many people, including many 00:31:28.349 --> 00:31:31.269 criminals at the time, argued that it did. The 00:31:31.269 --> 00:31:34.410 lodge went like this. If you're going to get 00:31:34.410 --> 00:31:36.549 30 years for a robbery where you don't kill anyone, 00:31:36.710 --> 00:31:38.589 you might as well carry a gun next time. If you 00:31:38.589 --> 00:31:40.930 shoot a witness or a police officer, the sentence 00:31:40.930 --> 00:31:43.430 isn't going to be much worse and you significantly 00:31:43.430 --> 00:31:46.609 increase your chances of getting away. It arguably 00:31:46.609 --> 00:31:49.190 hardened the criminal underworld and led directly 00:31:49.190 --> 00:31:51.930 to the rise of the much more violent armed robberies 00:31:51.930 --> 00:31:53.910 of the 70s and 80s. So they're tried. They're 00:31:53.910 --> 00:31:56.349 convicted. They're locked up for 30 years. End 00:31:56.349 --> 00:31:59.680 of story. But for this gang. Prison was apparently 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:01.900 just a suggestion because we have some of the 00:32:01.900 --> 00:32:04.220 most famous escapes in British history. The great 00:32:04.220 --> 00:32:06.880 train robbery escapes are almost as famous as 00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:09.700 the heist itself. It's like a whole second act 00:32:09.700 --> 00:32:12.339 of the drama. First up was Charlie Wilson, The 00:32:12.339 --> 00:32:15.779 Silent Man. In 1964, just a few months into his 00:32:15.779 --> 00:32:18.880 sentence, a three -man team broke into Winston 00:32:18.880 --> 00:32:21.440 Green Prison and broke him out. The whole operation 00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:23.559 took less than three minutes. Three minutes? 00:32:23.619 --> 00:32:25.900 How is that even possible? It was surgical. It 00:32:25.900 --> 00:32:28.000 was a professional job. They knew exactly which 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:30.240 cell he was in. They had keys. They were in and 00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:32.839 out before the alarm was fully raised. He ended 00:32:32.839 --> 00:32:34.980 up living in Canada for several years before 00:32:34.980 --> 00:32:38.839 Tommy Butler relentlessly tracked him down. But 00:32:38.839 --> 00:32:40.700 the most famous escape of all, the one everyone 00:32:40.700 --> 00:32:44.089 knows, is Ronnie Biggs. Ronnie Biggs. He escaped 00:32:44.089 --> 00:32:47.130 from Wandsworth Prison in 1965. How did he do 00:32:47.130 --> 00:32:50.210 it? It was classic, almost cinematic. A furniture 00:32:50.210 --> 00:32:52.210 van pulled up outside the prison wall during 00:32:52.210 --> 00:32:54.809 exercise time. A rope ladder was thrown over. 00:32:55.190 --> 00:32:57.450 Biggs and a few others scrambled over the 30 00:32:57.450 --> 00:33:00.230 -foot wall and dropped into the van. It was incredibly 00:33:00.230 --> 00:33:02.650 daring. Biggs then went on this global journey, 00:33:02.789 --> 00:33:05.549 didn't he? Paris, then Australia. And then finally 00:33:05.549 --> 00:33:08.750 to Brazil. Rio de Janeiro. And this is where 00:33:08.750 --> 00:33:11.029 the story just gets completely bizarre. It really 00:33:11.029 --> 00:33:13.109 does. Because the British police, with help from 00:33:13.109 --> 00:33:15.609 a tabloid journalist, they tracked him down in 00:33:15.609 --> 00:33:18.710 Rio in 1974. They had him. They were ready to 00:33:18.710 --> 00:33:21.509 bring him back. But Ronnie Biggs had one last 00:33:21.509 --> 00:33:24.430 ace up his sleeve. No, was it? While on the run 00:33:24.430 --> 00:33:26.869 in Brazil, he had fathered a child with a Brazilian 00:33:26.869 --> 00:33:29.930 woman named Raymunda. And under Brazilian law 00:33:29.930 --> 00:33:32.009 at that time, the father of a Brazilian national 00:33:32.009 --> 00:33:34.690 could not be extradited. A legal loophole. A 00:33:34.690 --> 00:33:37.990 life -saving, freedom -granting loophole. So 00:33:37.990 --> 00:33:40.789 he was stuck in Brazil, but he was free. He lived 00:33:40.789 --> 00:33:43.690 openly in Rio, and he became a tourist attraction. 00:33:44.049 --> 00:33:46.390 You could literally fly to Rio, buy a t -shirt 00:33:46.390 --> 00:33:48.609 that said, I went to Rio and met Ronnie Biggs, 00:33:48.609 --> 00:33:50.069 and he'd sit and have a beer with you for a fee. 00:33:50.349 --> 00:33:53.440 He monetized his own info. Just incredible. What 00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:55.220 about the mastermind, Bruce Reynolds? Did he 00:33:55.220 --> 00:33:58.740 escape too? No, but he evaded capture for five 00:33:58.740 --> 00:34:02.319 long years. He lived that high life he'd always 00:34:02.319 --> 00:34:05.500 dreamed of in Mexico and in Canada. He had his 00:34:05.500 --> 00:34:08.730 wife and son with him. But life on the run is 00:34:08.730 --> 00:34:10.989 incredibly expensive, and the money just ran 00:34:10.989 --> 00:34:13.670 out. He eventually had to return to the U .K., 00:34:13.670 --> 00:34:16.130 trying to get back into the criminal game, and 00:34:16.130 --> 00:34:18.869 was finally captured in the seaside town of Torquay 00:34:18.869 --> 00:34:23.289 in 1968 by Tommy Butler himself, fittingly. It's 00:34:23.289 --> 00:34:26.269 amazing how that money, that life -changing generation 00:34:26.269 --> 00:34:29.050 -altering amount, it just seemed to evaporate 00:34:29.050 --> 00:34:30.949 for so many of them. Which brings us to the part 00:34:30.949 --> 00:34:32.710 of the story that often gets lost in the glamour. 00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:34.780 The victims. We really need to talk about this 00:34:34.780 --> 00:34:38.059 because that romantic Robin Hood narrative just 00:34:38.059 --> 00:34:40.119 completely falls apart when you look at what 00:34:40.119 --> 00:34:42.360 happened to Jack Mills. We do. It's so important. 00:34:42.519 --> 00:34:44.980 Jack Mills, the driver, he never recovered from 00:34:44.980 --> 00:34:46.980 that blow to the head he received in the cab. 00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:49.280 He suffered from constant debilitating trauma 00:34:49.280 --> 00:34:51.239 headaches for the rest of his life. He tried 00:34:51.239 --> 00:34:52.780 to go back to work, but he couldn't drive anymore. 00:34:53.079 --> 00:34:55.840 He was a proud railway man and he was relegated 00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:58.539 to light duties, cleaning carriages. It was a 00:34:58.539 --> 00:35:01.320 huge blow to his dignity. And he died quite young, 00:35:01.340 --> 00:35:04.449 didn't he? He died of leukemia in 1970, just 00:35:04.449 --> 00:35:07.530 seven years after the robbery. His family always 00:35:07.530 --> 00:35:09.449 maintained, and it's hard to argue with them, 00:35:09.530 --> 00:35:12.010 that the severe head injury and the trauma weakened 00:35:12.010 --> 00:35:14.510 him and contributed directly to his early death. 00:35:14.690 --> 00:35:16.610 And what about the second man in the cab, David 00:35:16.610 --> 00:35:19.269 Whitby? Whitby was only 26 years old at the time. 00:35:19.369 --> 00:35:21.530 He wasn't physically beaten as badly as Mills, 00:35:21.630 --> 00:35:24.070 but he was deeply traumatized. He was roughed 00:35:24.070 --> 00:35:26.550 up. He was threatened. He watched his colleague 00:35:26.550 --> 00:35:29.230 get brutally assaulted. He suffered from severe 00:35:29.230 --> 00:35:31.949 anxiety and depression. He died of a heart attack 00:35:31.949 --> 00:35:36.219 in 1972 at the age of just 34. That is just heartbreaking, 00:35:36.539 --> 00:35:39.320 34 years old. And then there's a third almost 00:35:39.320 --> 00:35:42.380 forgotten victim, a man named Bill Bull. He was 00:35:42.380 --> 00:35:44.820 an associate of Roger Corddry, the signals man. 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:47.500 He was caught with him in that garage. But the 00:35:47.500 --> 00:35:49.699 evidence suggests he wasn't one of the robbers. 00:35:49.820 --> 00:35:52.460 He was just a friend, maybe helping Corddry hide 00:35:52.460 --> 00:35:55.079 some of the money. He was convicted and sentenced 00:35:55.079 --> 00:35:57.119 alongside the others, and he died in prison. 00:35:57.519 --> 00:36:00.199 An innocent man, arguably, who died serving a 00:36:00.199 --> 00:36:02.300 sentence for the crime of the century. When you 00:36:02.300 --> 00:36:04.900 hear those stories, it just sobers you up, doesn't 00:36:04.900 --> 00:36:08.239 it? This wasn't some fun caper or a victimless 00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:11.739 adventure. It destroyed lives. And for what, 00:36:11.880 --> 00:36:14.460 ultimately? Let's look at the money again. 2 00:36:14.460 --> 00:36:18.019 .6 million stolen. Of that, only about 400 ,000 00:36:18.019 --> 00:36:20.199 pounds was ever officially recovered by the police. 00:36:20.460 --> 00:36:22.980 So where did the other 2 .2 million pounds go? 00:36:23.239 --> 00:36:27.250 It was just bled away, vanished. First, laundering 00:36:27.250 --> 00:36:30.250 that much cash costs a fortune. Associates who 00:36:30.250 --> 00:36:32.489 cleaned the money by passing it through businesses 00:36:32.489 --> 00:36:35.409 took huge cuts, sometimes 50 percent or more. 00:36:35.710 --> 00:36:38.030 Then other criminals who knew the robbers were 00:36:38.030 --> 00:36:40.309 in prison stole from their hidden stashes. No 00:36:40.309 --> 00:36:42.969 honor among thieves then? Absolutely none. They 00:36:42.969 --> 00:36:45.289 also spent a fortune on legal fees. It's estimated 00:36:45.289 --> 00:36:47.710 each of the main gang spent about 30 ,000 pounds 00:36:47.710 --> 00:36:50.170 on their defense. And as we said, life on the 00:36:50.170 --> 00:36:52.769 run is incredibly expensive. You have to pay 00:36:52.769 --> 00:36:55.090 for silence, for fake passports, for constant 00:36:55.090 --> 00:36:57.489 traffic. In the end, most of robbers died with 00:36:57.489 --> 00:36:59.849 very little or nothing to show for it. There 00:36:59.849 --> 00:37:01.769 is one weird story about the recovered money, 00:37:01.869 --> 00:37:04.289 though. The money in the phone box. Ah, yes. 00:37:04.510 --> 00:37:08.329 The great GPO telephone box mystery. A sum of 00:37:08.329 --> 00:37:12.550 47 ,245 blends was found stuffed into a phone 00:37:12.550 --> 00:37:15.829 box in South London. The prevailing theory, though 00:37:15.829 --> 00:37:18.030 never proven, is that this was part of a quiet 00:37:18.030 --> 00:37:20.949 deal. Danny Pembroke, one of the gang members, 00:37:21.210 --> 00:37:23.829 likely made a deal with a police officer. possibly 00:37:23.829 --> 00:37:26.489 a detective named Frank Williams, to return a 00:37:26.489 --> 00:37:28.409 chunk of his share in exchange for not being 00:37:28.409 --> 00:37:31.269 charged. And indeed, Danny Pembroke was never 00:37:31.269 --> 00:37:33.309 charged with the robbery. That's the murky side 00:37:33.309 --> 00:37:35.110 of the investigation that never makes it into 00:37:35.110 --> 00:37:37.590 the movies. Right. So as we wrap up here, what 00:37:37.590 --> 00:37:39.929 is the ultimate legacy of this event? What did 00:37:39.929 --> 00:37:42.199 it change? I think it marked a real transition 00:37:42.199 --> 00:37:44.820 in British crime. It was really the end of that 00:37:44.820 --> 00:37:47.559 old era of the gentleman criminal, the distinct 00:37:47.559 --> 00:37:49.800 firms, the unwritten no -guns rule. The sheer 00:37:49.800 --> 00:37:51.599 scale of it and the severity of the sentences, 00:37:51.719 --> 00:37:54.219 it changed the game. It paved the way for the 00:37:54.219 --> 00:37:56.539 harder, more ruthless, and more violent armed 00:37:56.539 --> 00:37:59.480 robbery gangs of the 1970s and 80s. And culturally 00:37:59.480 --> 00:38:01.440 just immortal, isn't it? The movies like Buster, 00:38:01.559 --> 00:38:03.880 the countless books and documentaries, it's become 00:38:03.880 --> 00:38:06.670 embedded in the British national psyche. Absolutely. 00:38:06.789 --> 00:38:09.650 But even after all these years, there are still 00:38:09.650 --> 00:38:13.449 tantalizing mysteries left unsolved. And here's 00:38:13.449 --> 00:38:15.130 where it gets really interesting for all you 00:38:15.130 --> 00:38:17.630 amateur detectives listening. The mystery of 00:38:17.630 --> 00:38:20.789 the third man. The man who actually hit Jack 00:38:20.789 --> 00:38:23.949 Mills with the kosh? For decades, none of the 00:38:23.949 --> 00:38:25.889 gang would say who it was. It was a point of 00:38:25.889 --> 00:38:29.179 honor or shame. On his deathbed, Big Jim Hussey 00:38:29.179 --> 00:38:32.059 finally confessed to it, but many insiders and 00:38:32.059 --> 00:38:34.360 researchers believe he was just taking the blame, 00:38:34.480 --> 00:38:37.420 covering for someone else. That code of silence 00:38:37.420 --> 00:38:40.460 held for more than 50 years. And the other great 00:38:40.460 --> 00:38:44.380 vanishing act, the replacement driver, Stan Agate 00:38:44.380 --> 00:38:46.880 or Peter. The man who couldn't drive the train, 00:38:47.039 --> 00:38:48.920 who was never caught, who was never identified 00:38:48.920 --> 00:38:51.739 by the police, he just vanished completely into 00:38:51.739 --> 00:38:54.599 history. He didn't get a full share, just a small 00:38:54.599 --> 00:38:56.900 payout for his failure, and he disappeared off 00:38:56.900 --> 00:38:58.590 the face of the earth. Yeah, he was probably 00:38:58.590 --> 00:39:00.510 the smartest one of the bunch in the end. I think 00:39:00.510 --> 00:39:03.090 you might be right. So as you go about your day, 00:39:03.250 --> 00:39:05.949 think about that. Think about the huge difference 00:39:05.949 --> 00:39:08.250 between the myth of the great train robbery, 00:39:08.570 --> 00:39:12.230 the glamour, the cleverness, the anti -establishment 00:39:12.230 --> 00:39:16.250 thrill, and the gritty reality of a dirty farmhouse 00:39:16.250 --> 00:39:18.949 covered in fingerprints, a train driver who never 00:39:18.949 --> 00:39:21.889 recovered, and a vast fortune that just slipped 00:39:21.889 --> 00:39:24.239 through their fingers like sand. It's the ultimate 00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:27.519 reminder that even the most perfect plans, the 00:39:27.519 --> 00:39:30.320 crimes of the century, they all rely on human 00:39:30.320 --> 00:39:33.139 beings. And human beings are messy, they're greedy, 00:39:33.300 --> 00:39:35.719 they get scared, and sometimes they're prone 00:39:35.719 --> 00:39:37.400 to playing Monopoly when they should be cleaning 00:39:37.400 --> 00:39:40.079 up their tracks. Exactly. Thanks for diving deep 00:39:40.079 --> 00:39:41.500 with us on this one. We'll see you on the next 00:39:41.500 --> 00:39:42.119 one. See you then.