WEBVTT - More Train Talk: The Great Train Robbery 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:06.240 Ridiculous Crime is a production of I Heart Radio. Yeah, 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:11.119 you know what's ridiculous? Why are we whispering? I don't know? Okay, cool, Yeah, 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.280 I do know what's ridiculous, Elizabeth. Okay. The other day 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.599 I learned about a new sport. The sport i'd never 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:19.119 heard of. I doubt you've ever heard of it. I 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:21.480 don't know. Maybe you get around. It's called worm charming. 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.840 I've not heard. Well, I've heard not that sport. It's 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.160 it takes place in England, and the goal is for competitors. Okay, 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:33.000 I'll just late this way. They're given a plot of 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:35.400 earth it's three ms by three meters, and they're allowed 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:37.839 to use a couple of different implements to try to 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.560 get worms to emerge from the earth. They're allowed to 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.800 use a garden fork, you know, like those three fingers things, 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.120 piece of wood if they want. They can have a 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.720 source for music or sound, like a boom box or something. 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.600 And uh, the judges they start the time where they go, 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:52.760 youve got thirty minutes, right, and then the goals to 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.120 charm as many worms as they can to crawl up 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:58.120 out of the dirt and present themselves on the surface, right, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.400 there's the only one rule, no dig right now. The 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:05.959 idea is that, you know, you can use various techniques 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.200 to create vibration. That's what all the sound stuff is 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.720 for the wood and everything, and then the vibrations drive 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.960 the worms insane and they have to like stop beating 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:15.400 on that two by four and they crawl out of 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.920 the earth. Now, if you can guess, how many do 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.280 you think as a world record for worms charmed out 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:22.600 of the English soil in thirty minutes time? How many 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.080 do they put in each bin three by three plot? 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:28.760 And it's just thick with them. No, it's just normal earth. 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:30.840 They don't put they don't put any your own. It's 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:38.880 not somewhere oh gosh, I don't know. In thirty minutes, 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:41.120 just coming out of the earth. And the only rule 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:45.960 is no digging, you know. That's that's multiple second because 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.240 they all come up after exactly. So that that record, 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.640 by the way, I set so it's out there if 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.120 you want to break it, all right, I'll get to it. Ridiculous. 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.480 That is really ridiculous. Again, I kind of want to 0:01:57.520 --> 0:01:59.480 know how it came about, and then I kind of don't. 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.680 I do. It's England, that's how it came about well, 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:07.080 speaking of England. Yeah, you know what else is ridiculous 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.840 aside from worm charming? A couple of things, Yeah, one 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:34.799 on fifteen dude stealing a train. Yeah, this is ridiculous 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:39.399 crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, cons. 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:45.840 It's always murder free and on ridiculous. Damn right, we 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.040 have a pretty cool theme song, right, Oh my god, 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:49.639 it's the best. I love it. Trave killed it. Yeah, 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.880 it totally fits the show somehow. Um, what would you 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.960 say is your favorite TV theme song? Speaking of theme 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:59.720 songs with my clumsy segways, favorite TV themes, I mean, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.840 just offhand, I love Rockford Files. It's probably one of 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.880 my ultimate favorites. I love the weird, jangly northern exposure 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.720 just because it makes me happy when I hear it. Um, 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.640 there's other ones. I mean, like, you know, Peter Gunn 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:12.200 theme was a classic, and I ever watched it, but 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.480 I've I've heard the song a bunch, and I think 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:19.760 that's a really cool one. I'd probably say, let's go 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:22.000 with the Rockford Files be my favorite. Yeah, that makes sense. 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.360 I like Walking Empire. I don't know that one. It's 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.400 a jangly. Oh really it's like piano. No, it's an 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:34.200 electric guitar. Oh, board Walk nachronistic. Yet it's a good song. Um, 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.040 it's no lyrics, instrumental. They call it just the way 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.040 you'd like it. Well, there are a lot of robberies 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:46.280 on Boardwalk, Empire. I'm working on all my news right now. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:53.240 There's banking, sharp and clean. Um. Speaking of robberies, I'm 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.200 gonna tell you today about a robbery. Man, I'm into 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.360 it here. Here's the thing. If it weren't not for 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.680 this particular robbery, we likely wouldn't have had one of 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.760 the greatest TV theme songs ever written. I'm gonna tell you. 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.160 We'll get to that later. Buckled up. Let's talk crime. First. 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.040 Hit me with you like crime, right, you never heard 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:19.040 of it? That's when someone breaks the law. Let's talk robbery. Um, 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:23.640 you've told me about train robberies before, right, Yeah, yeah, exactly, 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:27.400 Billy Minor Robin trains in the Old West. Um so, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.760 but when we hear about train robberies, we like we 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.239 think of the Old West. Yeah, like the James Gang 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:37.359 and people on horses with rifles and like, yeehaw, the 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:39.800 train robbery. I want to tell you about today. Happened 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:45.679 in nineteen sixty three, and it happened in the United Kingdom. 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.840 Like this, I am just breaking all sorts of stereotypes 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:57.400 when it comes to train robberies, steel horses, all this. Okay, 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.000 So went down in there. Used to this train service 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.880 called the traveling post Office. So mail would be put 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.880 on a train at one end of the country and 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.720 sent towards London. So hey, wait a minute, a traveling 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:12.440 post off. It makes it sound like it stops and 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:14.359 I can go get some stamps if it comes to 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.360 Brockhampton or whatever, like it really is, Like well, it's 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.040 kind of no, it doesn't stop. Um, that's one of 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.760 the train the call. But it's not. Okay, so check 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.160 this out. So the mail gets put on the train 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:26.920 at one end of the country, like not all the 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.920 way up to John of Roads north but like so 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:35.279 that's the northernmost point, that past Northman Island. Oh, the 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.360 northern moost point on the island. We're including Scotland, right, yeah, okay, UK, 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:44.599 not England, and then the southernmost is Penzance where yes, so, 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:46.760 but they wouldn't take it all the way. That's real, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.200 Poe I didn't know that. Yeah. Um, they would go 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:52.480 up to like Aberdeen is the northernmost point of this 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.480 and they would load up with mail and then they'd 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.200 head to London or South up are all of Australia's 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.039 towns named towns in England. I mean there's a single 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.039 new one. It's like where they got kicked out of. 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:09.599 They know everything. They're like, oh, this is Aberdeen. Um. 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:13.560 So they loaded up right and it's a long distance 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:15.960 that they have to go. The train is full of 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.240 postal workers who are sorting the mail for delivery along 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.800 the route. Yeah, so they and they're picking up mail 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.760 as they go. So as they passed through these collection points, 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.479 they would toss out their bags of mail to be 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.080 delivered to that point. And then they also had like 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.240 big nets where they would grab these mail bags hung 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.760 from hooks, so the train didn't have to stop, would 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.839 just like slow down. Yeah exactly. And so they grabbed 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:42.600 the mail and then they get that and they start 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.279 sorting it where it has to go. Um, and the 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.720 staff and the train just like kept sorting constantly as 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.200 they as they rolled on. In three there were forty 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.960 nine of these trains being used. So this is like 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.200 a predominant amount of their mail services going this way. 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:58.960 I think so, I mean because they think about how 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.400 we get mail if we look good at like the islands, 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.039 the size of the state of California kind of yeah. 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.800 And also the fact that we were fly our mail 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:08.640 across country and they would just take a train because 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.920 they used trains for most of their beautiful infrastructure they have. 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.320 So some of the cars would be attached to passenger trains, 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.520 but most were just dedicated postal trains um and so. 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:22.920 Like I said, they went between Aberdeen and Scotland and 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:26.680 London or pen Zance up, um and so on. These trains. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.400 The second and third cars were always special. So listening 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.200 to like steady music, Yeah, it was full of this. 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:35.560 That's how they got their start. In her name. These 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:40.200 were called hv P cars. That's high value packets. Oh 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:44.480 I had no chet, not not HPV cars carrying human 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:51.680 paplovirus virus h v P. It was not how they 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.160 spread that across the country to give you that high 0:07:55.320 --> 0:08:01.360 value packets, um packet man. So this is where registered 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:05.000 mail and then most importantly a lot of cash those 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.000 were kept. I'm listening. So normally there'd be about three 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.400 thousand pounds sterling in that carriage, and in the sixties 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.760 that's a ton, right, Yeah, well it's like seven million 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:17.640 pounds sterling today, So seven million bucks rolling on down 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:19.680 the tracks and give me a nice flot Yeah, nothing 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:25.280 to sniff at. In three, a postal security officer who 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.240 was like pretty high up, he tells a lawyer or 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.280 what they're calling a solicitor's clerk or as they would say, 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:36.160 solicitors Clark Clark. They do, isn't it. Yeah, and they 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:40.680 invented the language they did, so we're not doing it right. Um. See, 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:42.960 he's like, look, I got a line on a heist. 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.160 Check me out the barrister lawyer. The security officer for 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:49.839 the post office goes and finds a lawyer. Okay, look 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:54.200 at me. Well he's kind of a good lawyer. So 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.000 the lawyer turns around and it's like, hey, I know 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.320 a guy who has a heist. I've got some clients. Yeah, 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.960 he's got two criminal clients. Yeah, Gordon Goody. He goes 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.600 to his own client. Yeah, I gotta lead boys, Gordon 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:14.040 Goody and Buster Edwards. Gordon and Buster. So he's like, Gordon, Buster, 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.240 I got a cat at the Postal Service says he 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.040 knows he knows how to do a good heist. Gordon 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.960 tall blonde fella, this is better than your last idea. 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.960 You guys should started a restaurant together. It's a tax 0:09:26.040 --> 0:09:31.360 right off Gordon Busters. I don't know that. Gordon is 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.920 like super into criming and he got he got, you know, 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.280 into it at a young age. He joined Busters Gang. Okay, 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:44.560 you know it sounds like a forties so Buster he's 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:46.680 the son of a bartender and he used to work 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:51.360 in a sausage factory. Okay, but that means he's like 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.600 deep into post war black market stuff. Yeah, he's a 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.520 meat packer on the dirty. Yeah. Well, I mean, don't 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:03.560 forget uk UK ration were in place until nine. Yeah, 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.120 so during the war, this whole black market economy comes 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:12.160 up and actually chocolate but yeah, anything and so that 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.480 you know, that continues on during ration NG and then 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:16.640 it just like keeps up and it kind of merges 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.600 in nicely with the pre existing criminal black market that 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.520 was was already there. So it kind of explains to 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:24.920 those sixties British rock bands love of American stuff that 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.000 they didn't have anything is the deprivation. They're like oh 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:32.600 my god, I want some exactly. So in summary, Busters, 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.760 a career criminal, now the security officer, he is known 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:41.960 only as the Ulsterman. His identity remained a mystery for 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:46.440 half a century. Ulsterman he knew which trains would be 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:50.079 where and when. And he also knew that the postal 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.560 service has sort of like beefed up security for the 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:56.000 h VPS um after there had been like a couple 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.880 of robbery attempts. So another thing that he knew, he'd 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.640 a lot. Yeah, he knew that some of the train 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.880 cars didn't have that beefed up security. By the way, 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.040 is Ulsterman like a job title. I only know Ulster 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:15.160 is a place. He's from, Ulster. I just wanted to um. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:18.640 And so he knew which cars weren't tricked out and 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:22.319 when they'd be used. So his yeah, his heist idea 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:24.760 goes like this. So, as I said, h v P 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:29.319 cars they normally carry around three grand after bank holidays, 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.319 it's a lot more because it's a long weekend. People 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.040 are spending their money. How much more I can see 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:36.760 in your eyes? I was wondering, he did you see 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:43.960 the numbers? Somewhere between two and three million pounds whoa, Yeah, 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:48.120 ten times as much just because of a holiday weekend. 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:50.960 And then in nineteen sixty three that's the same as 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.440 fifty eight million pounds today, and that's like sixty five 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.600 million bucks dollars American dollars. I'll take it. That's a 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.880 lot hot damn right. So Gordon and Buster they're like, 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.080 you know what, that sounds like a good hen help 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.800 me in, you know, Gordon and Busters can wait, We 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.319 just we got to do this. They had the bona 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.240 FIDE's their criminals. They're part of the Southwest Gang, which 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.800 is a London crime syndicate. But they're like, we need 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:21.920 a much bigger crew for this. This is a big job, 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:23.760 going to take a big Crew's going to take a 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:26.800 big boy to swing this back. Yeah, So they go 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:31.000 to recruit. They call in Bruce Reynolds and Charlie Wilson. 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.320 Bruce sort of becomes the leader of the group. He's 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:37.079 well known, he's a successful criminal, but you know what, 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.920 he didn't know anything about Robin No Train. So he's 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.800 just like Charlie Wilson, the other guy. He's known as 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.840 the Silent Man. He's a dangerous guy, bad man. That's 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.319 what they say about the Silent Ones. So they got 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:51.280 those two in place, they locked them and the next 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.600 batch that they pick up were members of the South 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:58.600 Coast Raiders. That sounds like like a Weekend Warrior motorcycle 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.679 club that girls my sister play. It sounds like they 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.800 ride Harley fat Boys and we're like brand new leather 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:09.360 vests and the balding ones where bandanas folded all tight 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.839 over the tops of their heads. Everyone's sweaty. Everyone's wearing 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:17.440 white Kirkland elevens. You see this. They like stop for 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:19.480 beers and they stand by their bikes. They got their 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.080 fingers hitched in their belt loops. They're waiting for their 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.600 lunch table. They're going to order jalapeno poppers, like hands down. 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.760 One's gonna order chicken fingers. There's another who's like, I'll 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:30.800 take a salad because his cardia. I want to talk 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:38.200 to some that's the South Coast, but it's actually just kidding. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.120 It's an English gang in the sixties. So they had 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.560 actual train robbers in their in their crew. Jim Hussey 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:50.440 not real hussy, Tommy Wisby and Bob Welch. I'm hoping 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:52.840 there won't be a quiz later. No because listen, I 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:54.760 had to. I had to write out a chart when 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.320 I was doing this, and I wish I were joking. Um. 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.520 There's also a guy named Roger Quadry, and he knew 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.480 how to operate the train signals along the track. So 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.600 that's helpful. You gotta get the train to stop. As 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.240 I learned when you told me about Mr Minor that 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:10.960 I thought that they were just jumping on the train 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:12.440 while it was moving, and then they got to figure 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.000 out where they're going to jop Yea. So apparently they 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:19.160 have to stop these trains. Yeah, there you go. Well, 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.200 Jimmy White, he was in charge of uncoupling train carriage 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:28.920 there is that's his specialty. Um. Then there's Ronnie Biggs. 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:33.720 He's a prison pal of Bruce's. UM. Ronnie connected them 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.920 with a guy named Peter who also was called stan Agget. 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.120 I don't know why they gave him that name Stan whatever. 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.480 Maybe it's like it's like he's hard as a rock, 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.560 who knows who cares? Like Bob gran Bob granted. So 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.600 Stan agg he's a train engineer. He drove them suckers whatever. 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.560 He's the prime guy for this, so they pick up 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:01.000 more dudes, lots of rude dudes piling and on top 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:03.080 of that they get to fifteen guys on the core 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:05.800 heist team. There are associates out there who are helping 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:11.560 with other logistical things. We have fifteen guys, so they figured, okay, 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.800 we're going to rob the train on August eight ninety three. 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:20.200 It's the one going from Glasgow to London's Houston station. 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.920 I've been there. So it leaves Glasgow the deer Green place. 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:29.360 That's literally what Glasgow means in Celtic. Learn all kinds 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.800 of stuff today. It's so educational today. So they leave 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:37.040 in the middle of the night and the midnight train 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.720 from Glasgow. Um, the best place to stop the train 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.680 would be at a signal light at Sears Crossing and Zaren. 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:48.600 That's between Layton, Buzzard and Cheddington. And that sounds like 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:53.120 I totally made that up, totally right near Hampton and 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:58.400 that is half a mile from Bridego Bridge, bretty Go Bridge, um, 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:00.800 and that's really on the lane. And that's forty something 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.760 miles north of London, eleven miles south of Bletchley, made 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.040 famous by the World War Two codebreakers at Bletchley Park. 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:09.720 I just saw that on the map, and I was like, well, 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:13.960 actually I love that stuff geography. Um. So the plan 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:18.080 was to uncouple the engine and the HVP cars from 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.800 the rest of the train and then ditch the seventy 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.520 two postal employees and the ten other cars, take the 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.400 engine and the high value cars down the line to 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.440 Brittago Bridge and then they're going to clean them out there, 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.200 separate them out. The new gang. They needed a staging 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.920 area hide out this newly formed supergroup. So they buy 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.200 a place called leather Slade Farm. Again, I am not 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:47.200 making these names. Leather Slade Farm and that's twenty seven 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:50.920 miles from Brittigo Bridge. It's like a nice brick farmhouse, 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.880 got some you know, good land around it. Um. They 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.240 figured that they could like make the cost of the 0:16:56.240 --> 0:17:00.680 farm back. Obviously with all these millions, it didn't cost him. 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.520 It's an operational investment. Yeah, and it was cheap. So 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:05.960 they set up a fake army unit at the farm 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:11.399 to disguise their vehicles. Yeah, they stockpiled supplies. Um. The 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.680 heist was going to be on a Thursday, at the 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.119 very start of the day, and so they planned to 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:21.080 make it a long weekend. They missed the bank, wheat holiday, 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.080 So they're going to do their own um, and they're 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.680 going to stay through Sunday, so that um, they would 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:29.520 be able to kind of like lay low and then disperse. 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:31.119 But if you're going to stay that long, you know, 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.480 they needed snacks, they need stuff like that, so they 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.760 stock up. Before the heist. They went out to the 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.639 signal light at Sears Crossing and they covered up the 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.800 green light with a glove. They shoved the glove right 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:49.840 up in there, just just crammed the glove. Saren they 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:54.320 just shoved. Why do you keep making that gesture? I 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:59.000 just wanted to understand. They just shove the glove. Clear. 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:03.639 We're clear gloves up there. It's pretty it's they're pretty tight. Um. 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.440 So then they get a big old battery, a big 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.479 enough and they plug it into the red lights, so 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:13.760 they control the red light. They control the vertical um. 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.399 They go down the track and then they stretch a 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:20.639 huge white sheet across the rails to signal a stopping point, 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.479 like you know, stop here to get to Britty Go Bridge. 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.120 It's just like you know, their own communication thing. Now 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.760 they just wait. All they gotta do is wait, m 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:32.359 are you on? It kind of looks like you're on 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:34.280 the edge of your seat, right, I'm probably gonna fase in, 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.919 So okay, let's cool you off with some ads. Just 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.320 get you fully back in the seat. When we come 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:42.119 back from this break, I'm going to tell you how 0:18:42.160 --> 0:19:05.200 it went down on that fateful August night. I can't wait, Zaren. 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.840 When we left off are impromptu gang fifteen guys. I 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.080 didn't do it. They had everything prepped. They not just 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.040 rob a train. They were going to steal a train, 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:18.920 a train filled with the equivalent of sixty five million 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:23.919 dollars today. That amount just absolutely mind blowing. I can't, honestly, 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.600 I cannot imagine what sixty million dollars is like, what 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:29.520 it would like, just like any part of it. What 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.320 would you do with that? How much would it weigh? 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.840 I'm gonna tell you. I'm gonna tell you, Saren. I 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:42.119 gotta tell you something close. Take a deep breath and 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:50.720 picture it. Yes, it's three in the morning on August three. 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:56.320 You aren't Saren. Now, I'm you're David Whitby. Dawn it On. 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.800 David Whitby. You're a twenty six year old crew member 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:04.360 the Traveling Post Office locomotive. You're just chugging along down 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:08.280 the West Coast mainline. You love your job, you take 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:14.280 it very seriously. Tonight you're working with your pal Jack Mills. Jack. 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:19.360 He's fifty eight seasoned train conductor. You have learned so 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:21.800 much from him. You've worked together on these long haul 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.080 mail runs. You're both from a town called Crew in Cheshire. 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:28.480 It's a railway town. Your train boys to the core. 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:33.600 You got that train life. Um. As you reach Sears crossing, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:37.919 Jack mutters, right, seems the red signal light is on. 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:39.920 That doesn't really make a lot of sense. It should 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:44.720 be completely smooth sailing in this stretch. He brings the 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:47.160 giant locomotive to a stop. He tells you to get 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:50.280 out and see what's what. So you have to call 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:52.919 the signalman from the phone box at the light and 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:55.639 get to the bottom of this. You crunch along the 0:20:55.680 --> 0:21:00.760 gravel that runs alongside the rails, reach the phone box, 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.880 lift the receiver and you see it. The phone line 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.200 has been cut. What you didn't know is that all 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.119 the phone lines in the immediate vicinity had been cut. 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:14.879 You sign frustration head back toward the engine. This is 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:20.080 also puzzling. Just as you reach the engine, put your 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:22.280 hand on the rail to climb the metal steps into 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:26.280 the cab. You hear a crunch behind you footfall in 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.200 the gravel. Before you can turn around, you're tackled by 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:33.000 a masked figure. So other tufts, dressed in the hoods 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:34.800 and blue jumpsuits. They come out of the woods and 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:38.280 they climb into the engine from both sides. Jack tries 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:40.520 to fight off the outlaws, but one pulls out a 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:43.800 club often referred to as a cash and bangs him 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.440 on the head, so he slumps down to the ground. 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:48.880 In the days other members of the crew, they scurry, 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:51.840 you know, into uncouple the HVP cars from the rest 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:58.359 of the train. Remember train operators stand Aggett. Yeah, it's 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:02.360 his time to shine. He takes hem of this mighty engine. 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:04.760 He sits at the controls. He looks at the various 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:08.880 knobs and levers. He size, Um, guys, you know how 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:10.879 you pick me for your gang? Because I used to 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.840 drive trains for a living. Well, the emphasis should have 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:16.760 been on used to I'm retired and it looks like 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:20.600 they've totally modernized everything since I've been last in the saddle, 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:22.879 So we kind of need someone else to do this. 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:27.879 Kay thinks by so everyone looks around at darn Ronnie Biggs. 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:32.520 He brought them a dud, and so Bruce orders Ronnie 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:34.920 and stand off the train and down the tracks to 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:39.040 help unload the loop. They get demoted, so they still 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:42.280 need a conductor though, right. Um. They look down on 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:45.439 the floor, pitiful Jack Mills, bleeding from the head in 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:48.560 a daze. This guy just tried to defend his mighty steed, 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:54.000 Jackie exactly. They order him up. You, David Whitby, you're 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:56.280 laying mo You're crouched in the corner trying to like 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:59.320 maybe they don't see me anymore. Um. The criminals watches 0:22:59.400 --> 0:23:02.240 Jack Mills valiant and brave. He guides the train down 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:06.159 the track as instructed. So after this shorty version of 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:09.199 the train pulled into another stop at Brittago Bridge, the 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:12.119 robbers forced their way into the hv P cars and 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:14.720 they like rough up the supervisors. They get the staff 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:17.280 under control really quickly because like they're not expecting this. 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:19.919 They're just thinking, yeah, they're at work, like why do 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:23.280 we keep stopping whatever? Um, what else could they do? 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.200 So all of them are forced to life face down 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:27.760 on the floor in the corner of one of the 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:31.440 carriages and then you and Jack handcuffed together and made 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:35.000 to join them together again, Dave Jackie train boys. Um. 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:36.840 So before you sit down, you look out the window 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:39.360 and you see a huge truck and Austin load Star 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:43.560 pulled up alongside the train, two land rovers with identical 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:48.160