Great Train Robbery Confidential

In 1981, Detective Inspector Satchwell was the officer in charge of the case against Train Robber Tom Wisbey and twenty others. The case involved massive thefts from mail trains – similar to the Great Train Robbery of 1963 where £2.6 million was taken and only £400,000 ever recovered. Thirty years later their paths crossed again and an unlikely partnership was formed, with the aim of revealing the truth about the Great Train Robbery. This book reassesses the known facts about one of the most infamous crimes in modern history from the uniquely qualified insight of an experienced railway detective, presenting new theories alongside compelling evidence and correcting the widely accepted lies and half-truths surrounding this story.

The Crime of the Century. The biggest train heist in Britain’s history. The Great Train Robbery. In the early hours of Thursday, 8th August 1963, a fifteen-strong gang stole £2.6 million (£45 million of today’s money) from the Glasgow to London mail train at Sears Crossing, Buckinghamshire. The crime was so epic; every single development of the case was followed tirelessly by the press. Countless books have since been published and, even today, films, television dramas and documentaries continue to study the smallest of details of one of the most daring and cleverly concocted criminal plans of all-time. Much of the gang were later captured and paid the price with lengthy jail sentences. But 50 years on, many still question who the real mastermind behind the plot. For years most people accepted that Bruce Reynolds was but is that really the case? One man knows the answer and the true identity of the man behind the robbery all too well. In this engrossing biography, the only living person who personally knows the real mastermind revisits the Great Train Robbery and rewrites history as we know it. Full of explosive, fresh revelations, The Secret Train Robber sees the final piece of the puzzle firmly set in place and the name of one of Britain’s most sophisticated criminal minds ever is finally revealed.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park comes classic historical thriller about Victorian London’s most notorious gold heist. London, 1855, when lavish wealth and appalling poverty exist side by side, one mysterious man navigates both worlds with perfect ease. Edward Pierce preys on the most prominent of the well-to-do as he cunningly orchestrates the crime of his century. Who would suspect that a gentleman of breeding could mastermind the extraordinary robbery aboard the pride of England’s industrial era, the mighty steam locomotive? Based on fact, but studded with all the suspense and style of fiction, here is a classic historical thriller, set a decade before the age of dynamite—yet nonetheless explosive…

The Great Train Robbery of 1963 is one of the most infamous crimes in British history. The bulk of the money stolen (equivalent to over £40 million today) has never been recovered, and there has not been a single year since 1963 when one aspect of the crime or its participants has not been featured in the media. Despite the wealth and extent of this coverage, a host of questions have remained unanswered: Who was behind the robbery? Was it an inside job? And who got away with the crime of the century? Fifty years of selective falsehood and fantasy has obscured the reality of the story behind the robbery. The fact that a considerable number of the original investigation and prosecution files on those involved and alleged to have been involved were closed, in many cases until 2045, has only served to muddy the waters still further. Now, through Freedom of Information requests and the exclusive opening of many of these files, Andrew Cook reveals a new picture of the crime and its investigation that, at last, provides answers to many of these questions.

Definitive account of the famous 1963 Great Train Robbery - and its aftermath. In the early hours of Thursday 8th August 1963 at rural Cheddington in Buckinghamshire, £2.6 million (£50 million today) in unmarked £5, £1 and 10-shilling notes was stolen from the Glasgow to London nightmail train in a daring and brilliantly executed operation lasting just 46 minutes. Quickly dubbed the crime of the century, it has captured the imagination of the public and the world's media for 50 years, taking its place in British folklore and giving birth to the myths of The Great Train Robbery. Ronnie Biggs, Buster Edwards and Bruce Reynolds became household names. But what really happened? This is the story of four talented villains who took the criminal world by storm, of the 'perfect crime'. It is also the story of ruthless policemen, determined to hunt the robbers down and to make sure nobody slipped through the net, not even the innocent. It is the story of an Establishment under siege, and of one mistake which cost the robbers 307 years in prison. Fifty years later, here is the story set out in full for the first time, a true-life crime thriller, and also a vivid slice of British social history.

In the early hours of Thursday, 8 August 1963, sixteen masked men ambushed the Glasgow–Euston mail train at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire. Making off with a record haul of £2.6 million, the robbers received approximately £150,000 each (over £2 million in today's money). While twelve of the robbers were jailed over the next five years, four were never brought to justice – they evaded arrest and thirty-year prison sentences, and lived out the rest of their lives in freedom. In stark contrast to the likes of Ronnie Biggs, Buster Edwards and Bruce Reynolds, they became neither household names nor tabloid celebrities. Who were these men? How did they escape detection for so long? And how, almost sixty years later, are their names still not common knowledge? In No Case to Answer, Andrew Cook gathers and examines decades of evidence and lays it out end to end. It's time for you to draw your own conclusions.

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

In May 1855, the citizens of Victorian Great Britain were shocked to read in their morning edition of The Times that 12,000 pounds worth of gold bars and other valuables had been stolen from a train travelling between London and Paris--without explosives or violence! Who did it and how was a great mystery which was finally solved.