Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Gibson. Joint today as always by none
Speaker 1: other than Josh Clark. Hey, Candice, how are you? I'm
Speaker 1: doing fabulous? How are you doing, Josh? I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 1: I'm doing good. I feel very connected to India right now.
Speaker 1: I've been perusing the Times of India lately. You ever
Speaker 1: read that news agency's website. I stick to the Times
Speaker 1: in New York. Thank you. This is it's pretty good stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like a whole different worldview, you know. But um,
Speaker 1: apparently what I found out is that there's been a
Speaker 1: rash of um daring and kind of ham fisted train
Speaker 1: robberies over there lately. Have you heard anything about this?
Speaker 1: Now you're gonna have to fill me in. Okay, So
Speaker 1: the most recent one was on the pears Nath Express.
Speaker 1: And basically this gang of miscreants that's the Times of
Speaker 1: India's word for them, uh. And they're in there like
Speaker 1: mid twenties, and they come board these passenger compartments of
Speaker 1: these trains brandishing guns and lathis, which are like these
Speaker 1: cane poles, used for beating um in the Indian martial
Speaker 1: art of Lathey. Right, it looks like a sheep kind
Speaker 1: of except without the hook. Imagine just the cane part
Speaker 1: the pole. Yeah, and you would not want to be
Speaker 1: beaten about the head or neck with one of these things. So,
Speaker 1: which is why the people have been handing over their
Speaker 1: cash and jewelry to these thugs um and so far
Speaker 1: on the on the Parasnath Express, they made off with
Speaker 1: about a hundred thousand rupees worth of stuff, which is
Speaker 1: actually like forty dollars in America, which is pretty significant.
Speaker 1: Hall and this isn't the only time that has happened.
Speaker 1: This is the third one since may Um and they're
Speaker 1: similar ms. They think it's the same people, but actually
Speaker 1: one person died from it. But they weren't beat with
Speaker 1: the Lathey. They were actually drugged. Uh And once they
Speaker 1: started to go unconscious, um, they they were relieved of
Speaker 1: their valuables. The problem is that the kid who was
Speaker 1: drugged ended up lying. So if this gang of miscreants
Speaker 1: gets found, they're going to be in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it. It actually sounds pretty reminiscent of
Speaker 1: one of my favorite crime stories of all time. The
Speaker 1: Great Train Robber, that's one of my favorite too. That's
Speaker 1: a that was a good hoist, wasn't it It was?
Speaker 1: It was. That's a pretty memorable cast of characters there,
Speaker 1: and the very famous mustachioed Scotland Yard detective Jack Slipper
Speaker 1: forgive him, I know. Now, the guys in the Great
Speaker 1: Train Robber used a tremendous amount of finesse, especially compared
Speaker 1: to these Indian miscreants, would you agree? I agree? And
Speaker 1: you know, an antique stealer and a hairdresser. Essentially, they
Speaker 1: got their two gangs together, the Southwest Gang in the
Speaker 1: Southeast Gang, and they they ended up making off with
Speaker 1: about oh gosh, it was like two point six million
Speaker 1: pounds sterling. Yeah. Today actually translates into like fifty million dollars, Yeah,
Speaker 1: fifty million US dollars. It's the most significant train heist
Speaker 1: since eighteen fifty five, when a training route from Harris
Speaker 1: to London was was relieved of its gold bullion. Well,
Speaker 1: it took a lot of work, like you said, to
Speaker 1: pull this off, and it was worth it in the end,
Speaker 1: and originally they thought that they could do it was
Speaker 1: just a handful of men and no way. It took
Speaker 1: a whole lot more fifteen total. And there were a
Speaker 1: couple of accomplices to a man whose alias was Peter,
Speaker 1: who was supposed to be the train driver. And then
Speaker 1: there was a Mr One, Mr Two and a Mr three.
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to bore you guys with all
Speaker 1: the names because we would be here all day. Yeah, fifteen.
Speaker 1: But the big mastermind, we think, was a man named
Speaker 1: Bruce Reynolds, who was an antique stealer. I mean, these
Speaker 1: are like the most interesting gang of bandits I've ever
Speaker 1: heard of, Like you said, a hairdresser. One of them
Speaker 1: was a club owner who used to be a boxer.
Speaker 1: So these are these are your top of the line
Speaker 1: interesting bandits basically right pretty much? Yeah. And so the
Speaker 1: idea was that they were going to take this train
Speaker 1: called the Up Special, which was essentially a mail carrier
Speaker 1: for the most part. It was en route to London
Speaker 1: from Glasgow. Yes, it had been a bank holiday weekend
Speaker 1: in Scotland, and they were going to pretty much empty
Speaker 1: the car of all of its contents, which totaled one
Speaker 1: sacks of cash. It's just like a ton and a
Speaker 1: half of money, yeah, it really is. And Their plan
Speaker 1: was pretty ingenious. They decided that they would stop the train,
Speaker 1: unlatched the car and the engine, and then drive it off.
Speaker 1: I like the way that they stopped the train. One
Speaker 1: of the guys um, you know, trains follow traffic signals
Speaker 1: like cars do. Uh, So they went to one of
Speaker 1: the signals that sears crossing I think is what it is, um,
Speaker 1: and they actually used like black cloth or something to
Speaker 1: cover up the green signal. Right, Roger Quadrey decided that
Speaker 1: this would be the best way to work this. It
Speaker 1: works almost like a stoplight, a regular stoplight at at
Speaker 1: a traffic intersection with a red, green and yellow light. So,
Speaker 1: like you said, he covered up the green with black paper,
Speaker 1: and then he waited off in the distance, and when
Speaker 1: the train came exactly at the place where they wanted
Speaker 1: it to stop, he used a battery in a couple
Speaker 1: of whi ours to rig it up and flash the
Speaker 1: red light, which is just beyond cool. So the train stops,
Speaker 1: and uh, these guys board and they're pretty much intent
Speaker 1: on taking the money. So they actually hit the driver
Speaker 1: over the head. Poor Jack Mills, yeah, he I saw
Speaker 1: a picture of him in this in the article. And
Speaker 1: how the Great train robbery worked and his head is
Speaker 1: all bandaged. He looks a little confused. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 1: always kind of comical the way it's just wrapped around
Speaker 1: his head. And even though it's a pretty significant injury. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he couldn't work again after that. Yeah, but his was
Speaker 1: the only injury and the whole robbery. Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1: And the funny thing was Peter uh the the accomplice
Speaker 1: that you mentioned earlier, supposed to drive the train. Apparently
Speaker 1: they found out during the heist that he had no
Speaker 1: idea how to drive the train, so they actually tossed
Speaker 1: him off of the train and they get the the
Speaker 1: original driver, the guy who's supposed to be driving the
Speaker 1: train back into the the the the I guess the
Speaker 1: engine to drive it head injury and all, and what
Speaker 1: he drove about a kilometer and a half, Yeah, one
Speaker 1: and a half miles to Bridego Bridge. That was their
Speaker 1: unloading spot and it was pretty close to this old
Speaker 1: farmhouse called leather Slade Farm. And this is where the
Speaker 1: men have been hiding out essentially right waiting for August eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. And they had been having a pretty
Speaker 1: good time at their safe house. They had you know, uh,
Speaker 1: some food and some drinks and sleeping bags, and they
Speaker 1: passed the time playing Monopoly. And here's where the story
Speaker 1: gets kind of interesting and sort of goes down into
Speaker 1: a urban legend. So so basically they unload the money
Speaker 1: from the train and they go back to what was
Speaker 1: it called leather Slade farm. The British have the coolest
Speaker 1: names for their farms. But so they go back to
Speaker 1: leather Slade and they divvy up the money and actually
Speaker 1: apparently hung around for a while because they were playing
Speaker 1: Monopoly with some of the stolen money, which you know,
Speaker 1: I mean it makes a Monopoly game that much more
Speaker 1: interesting when you're playing for actual cash. And then they
Speaker 1: all go their separate ways, right they do they need
Speaker 1: to take their share, they go their separate ways, and
Speaker 1: within a day Scotland Yard is all over that and
Speaker 1: they even appoint a special team called the Flying Squad
Speaker 1: to investigate. It was headed up by Tommy Butler, who
Speaker 1: had a reputations being the sort of this rough and tumble,
Speaker 1: tough talking guy, and one of his famous investigators that
Speaker 1: we mentioned earlier it was Jack Slipper, and Jack Slipper
Speaker 1: became a household name over time, because although they caught everybody, right,
Speaker 1: eventually all fifteen guys were caught, is that correct? Not
Speaker 1: all at once? But weren't they all eventually caught? Not
Speaker 1: all of them? Oh? No, okay, which one wasn't? I
Speaker 1: can't tell you his exact name. Again, there's so many names,
Speaker 1: but twelve or fifteen. Well, the thing is these guys,
Speaker 1: even though they were hairdressers and antique dealers and club owners,
Speaker 1: they were not content to just sit in prison being caught.
Speaker 1: One of them did actually surrender a share and played guilty.
Speaker 1: I think that was Cordrey, the guy who actually did
Speaker 1: the signal um but arrest of them. Actually, when they
Speaker 1: went to prison, a couple of them plotted to escape,
Speaker 1: and one was actually very successful at it. This was
Speaker 1: Ronnie Big. Yeah, he was not going to just roll.
Speaker 1: Ronnie Biggs had his mind made up that he was
Speaker 1: learned behold going to escape, and he sort of roused
Speaker 1: the forces and was going to get his fellow great
Speaker 1: train robber Rebels to go with him, and they backed out,
Speaker 1: and so they were being held at this one prison,
Speaker 1: and then they were transferred to Aylesburg, which is sort
Speaker 1: of like the Alcatraz of Britain, and from there he
Speaker 1: made his escape and a feuded a van and he
Speaker 1: was on the land. Yeah, he went and got plastic
Speaker 1: surgery to disguised his face, and he went off to
Speaker 1: Australia first and then Brazil. And then Brazil very settled
Speaker 1: because Brazil isn't big on extradition, no, no, so he
Speaker 1: really got away with it for a while. And then
Speaker 1: you know, it's really funny because back in two thousand one, uh,
Speaker 1: he decided, you know what, I'm tired of being on
Speaker 1: the run. Well, Jack Slipper actually had shown up at
Speaker 1: his house in Brazil once and there was also a
Speaker 1: kidnapping attempt by some X S A S guys. Uh,
Speaker 1: And apparently he still remained in Brazil. But I guess
Speaker 1: I imagine after those decades of of you know, having
Speaker 1: to look over your shoulder and worry every time somebody
Speaker 1: knocks at the door, that's got to wear you down,
Speaker 1: especially considering these guys only made about eighty thousand pounds each, right, right.
Speaker 1: And so he ended up turning himself in and he's
Speaker 1: going to serve out the rest of his days in prison.
Speaker 1: And it's actually a pretty nice little place. It's prison
Speaker 1: for the elderly. So um. Plus he's got a new face.
Speaker 1: He's got a new face. He had a new alias,
Speaker 1: Michael Michael Haynes. Now he can be Ronnie Biggs again
Speaker 1: and just and he's still around, right, He's still around.
Speaker 1: And two thousand five, Jack Slipper died unfortunately, so he
Speaker 1: outlived his his his his ness. That's a great word
Speaker 1: for Here's the thing I had heard and I know
Speaker 1: a decent amount about the Great Train Robbery. Here's the
Speaker 1: thing I understand that they were actually caught because of
Speaker 1: that Monopoly game. Is that fact or fiction? Is that right?
Speaker 1: That is mostly fat? Oh? Yeah, yeah. The detectors were
Speaker 1: able to lift fingerprints from the Monopoly game and a
Speaker 1: couple of bottles of cat shots sloppy, sloppy exactly. They
Speaker 1: should have been playing with those leather gloves that Roger
Speaker 1: Querdry used when he rigged the wires, exactly, But they
Speaker 1: weren't that careful, and so I got a couple of
Speaker 1: the guys. It was really strange how it all boiled
Speaker 1: down in the end, because some of them played a
Speaker 1: hand and beating up Jack Mills and others were responsible
Speaker 1: for arranging the safe house and others were responsible for
Speaker 1: actually stopping the train. They all got approximately at average
Speaker 1: outs here about thirty years each, but some of them
Speaker 1: only got a handful of years. Others got even longer.
Speaker 1: So yeah, thanks to good old Monopoly. A note to
Speaker 1: you young miscreants robbing trains in India, do not play
Speaker 1: monopoly while you're you know, divving up your money or
Speaker 1: at the very least we're gloves if you do right.
Speaker 1: Sounds good to me. And if you want to read
Speaker 1: even more about the Great Train Robbery and get all
Speaker 1: the fabulous British names that we glossed over and didn't mention,
Speaker 1: you can read How the Great Train Robbery Worked on
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