1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,960 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:11,719 Speaker 1: a show that unmasks history one day at a time. 4 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:16,040 Speaker 1: I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're looking at the story 5 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:19,880 Speaker 1: of the Great Train Robbery, a complex heist planned by 6 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:22,760 Speaker 1: an inside man and carried out by a gang of 7 00:00:22,840 --> 00:00:33,440 Speaker 1: fifteen small time criminals looking for their big score. The 8 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:39,479 Speaker 1: day was August eighteen sixty three. A masked gang committed 9 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,879 Speaker 1: the most notorious train robbery in British history when they 10 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: stole two point six million pounds from a traveling post office. 11 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,080 Speaker 1: News of the caper quickly spread across the country and 12 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: overseas to the US, where it was characterized as a 13 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: British Western and given the nickname the Great Train Robbery. 14 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:03,160 Speaker 1: One notable difference from American westerns was that no guns 15 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:07,000 Speaker 1: were used in the crime. Today, the robbery is viewed 16 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: as the end of an era in that regard, the 17 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:14,400 Speaker 1: last major unarmed robbery before British criminals began using guns 18 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 1: on mass. Of course, that doesn't mean the train robbers 19 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,960 Speaker 1: were above the use of violence. One of them brutally 20 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: assaulted the train's engineer with an iron crowbar, which may 21 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 1: have contributed to the man's early death. In that sense, 22 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,840 Speaker 1: the public's romantic view of the crime was somewhat at 23 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:37,120 Speaker 1: odds with the reality of what actually happened. The gang's 24 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:40,200 Speaker 1: target was a Royal Mail train, a kind of mobile 25 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 1: post office. It had left Glasgow for London on the 26 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:48,880 Speaker 1: evening of August seven, nine sixty three. The train ran overnight, 27 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:52,240 Speaker 1: delivering and picking up sacks of mail it stops along 28 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: the way. It consisted of an engine car followed by 29 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,160 Speaker 1: twelve carriages, where postal workers sorted and shifted mail as 30 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 1: they sped along the track. The second carriage behind the 31 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:08,720 Speaker 1: engine was called the High Value Package or hv P car. 32 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: As the name suggests, it was the car where the 33 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:16,079 Speaker 1: train's most valuable cargo was stored, and on that particular night, 34 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: the cargo on board was especially valuable because of a 35 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:24,400 Speaker 1: bank holiday weekend in Scotland, where the train had departed from. 36 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 1: The hv P was carrying a record amount of cash. 37 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 1: Most of it was in the form of used bank notes, 38 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 1: which were being dropped from circulation and taken to a 39 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:39,760 Speaker 1: burning facility. Altogether, roughly two point six million pounds were 40 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: on board that night. The equivalent of more than sixty 41 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:48,040 Speaker 1: million pounds or seventy three million dollars today. The train's 42 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: unusually large payload wasn't public knowledge for obvious reasons, but 43 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: the robbers hadn't chosen that night by sheer luck either. Instead, 44 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: they'd been tipped off by a postal work who told 45 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:04,240 Speaker 1: them everything they needed to know about where, when, and 46 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:08,640 Speaker 1: how to hijack the train. This insider source hid his 47 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:11,519 Speaker 1: identity from the gang, so most of the crew simply 48 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:15,679 Speaker 1: called him the Ulsterman, a nod to Ulster, the Irish 49 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:19,880 Speaker 1: province he hailed from. Based on info from the Ulsterman, 50 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: the fifteen man crew set out in the early morning 51 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 1: of August eight and made their way to a section 52 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:30,399 Speaker 1: of track called Sears Crossing near Bordego Bridge in Leadburn 53 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 1: just before three am. They tampered with a signal light 54 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: near that location so that the train would be compelled 55 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,440 Speaker 1: to stop there. First, they covered up the green ghost 56 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: signal light by sticking a leather glove over it. Then 57 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: they rigged a battery pack to the red signal light 58 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 1: so that they could turn it on themselves. When the 59 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: engineer saw the phony red signal, he stopped the train 60 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:57,240 Speaker 1: as directed, but couldn't find any reason why the light 61 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,160 Speaker 1: would be on. He sent someone to call from more 62 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:03,480 Speaker 1: information on the nearest railway telephone, but it was soon 63 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: discovered the lines had been cut. Just then, a dozen 64 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: men wearing ski masks boarded the train and proceeded to 65 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: beat conductor Jack Mills with a crowbar until he agreed 66 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,520 Speaker 1: to cooperate. By that time, they had already detached the 67 00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:21,839 Speaker 1: back ten cars from the train, leaving just the h VP, 68 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:25,320 Speaker 1: the car in front of it, and the engine. They 69 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: then forced Mills to drive the train to a rendezvous 70 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: point about a half a mile up the track, where 71 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 1: the rest of the gang was waiting. Meanwhile, seventy postal 72 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 1: employees continued working and the ten cars left behind, completely 73 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:43,479 Speaker 1: unaware of what was going on outside. Once the train 74 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:46,159 Speaker 1: had reached the meeting point, the gang headed to the 75 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:50,480 Speaker 1: High Value Package car to claim their reward. It's worth 76 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:53,280 Speaker 1: noting that at the time there hadn't been that many 77 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:57,719 Speaker 1: major train robberies in Britain. As a result, security was minimal. 78 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: Even in the h v P. The main deterrence was 79 00:05:01,240 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: a heavy sealed door that could only be unlocked from 80 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,920 Speaker 1: the inside. Still, it was easy enough to hack through 81 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: it with the right set of tools, and that's just 82 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,680 Speaker 1: what the robbers did. Once inside, all that stood between 83 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:18,560 Speaker 1: them and the money were a handful of terrified postal workers. 84 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:23,039 Speaker 1: Outnumbered and unarmed, these guards posed even less of a 85 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:26,880 Speaker 1: challenge than the door and were quickly dispatched. With all 86 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:29,960 Speaker 1: the obstacles out of the way, the thieves helped themselves 87 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:33,240 Speaker 1: to a hundred and twenty male sacks stuffed with one, 88 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:37,000 Speaker 1: five and ten pound notes. They threw the loot down 89 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:39,880 Speaker 1: an embankment, where it was then loaded into three waiting 90 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:44,560 Speaker 1: vehicles to range rovers and an old military truck. From there, 91 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 1: the gang drove twenty seven miles to leather Slade Farm 92 00:05:48,400 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: in Buckinghamshire, reportedly listening to Tony Bennett's The Good Life 93 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: along the way. It's the good life to be free 94 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:08,479 Speaker 1: and explore the unknown. The thieves hit out at leather 95 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,360 Speaker 1: Slade for the next several days in a farmhouse they 96 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:15,040 Speaker 1: had rented in advance. They famously passed the time by 97 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:19,279 Speaker 1: playing the board game Monopoly, substituting real cash in place 98 00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:22,760 Speaker 1: of the game's pretend money. They also listened in on 99 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:26,560 Speaker 1: police radio channels to see if anyone was onto them. 100 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:31,359 Speaker 1: It took a few days, but eventually someone was. On August, 101 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:35,279 Speaker 1: Scotland Yard received a tip from a farm worker in 102 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:39,760 Speaker 1: leather Slade named John Morris. He had noticed some suspicious 103 00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: behavior from his new neighbors, including the fact they had 104 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:46,080 Speaker 1: blacked out all their windows and never seemed to step 105 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:50,039 Speaker 1: foot outside the house. Local police were sent to investigate 106 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:52,760 Speaker 1: the property, but by the time they got there, the 107 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:55,920 Speaker 1: thieves had already divided up their loot and fled the scene. 108 00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:59,480 Speaker 1: They had been a little sloppy in their departure, though. 109 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 1: While they had wiped their fingerprints from many of the 110 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: objects and surfaces they left behind, they had overlooked the 111 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:10,080 Speaker 1: monopoly board, its pieces and a bottle of ketchup. The 112 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:13,400 Speaker 1: presence of empty, half buried mail bags linked the men 113 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: to the crime, and the fingerprints they left all over 114 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:20,200 Speaker 1: the crime scene told police exactly who they were. The 115 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 1: first arrest was made before the week was out, and 116 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:25,680 Speaker 1: was followed by eleven others over the course of the 117 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:29,880 Speaker 1: next few months. In January of nineteen sixty four, the 118 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: twelve gang members who had been captured were tried, convicted, 119 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:37,040 Speaker 1: and ultimately sentenced to a combined total of three hundred 120 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,000 Speaker 1: and seven years in prison, although none of them wound 121 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: up serving more than thirteen years for the crime. The 122 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:48,280 Speaker 1: last three gang members, Bruce Reynolds, Ronald Buster Edwards and 123 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:52,080 Speaker 1: James White, remained at large for several years, but by 124 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight authorities had arrested them all. Over the 125 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,600 Speaker 1: course of the investigation, police managed to recover only about 126 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,600 Speaker 1: ten percent of the stolen money. The arrest of the 127 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:07,080 Speaker 1: loot was never accounted for, but because the UK changed 128 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:10,280 Speaker 1: its currency in nineteen seventy one, most of the cash 129 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: from the train was no longer legal tender anyway. As 130 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:17,880 Speaker 1: for the Ulsterman, the postal worker who had orchestrated the 131 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 1: entire robbery, he was never apprehended. In fact, his identity 132 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 1: remained a mystery all the way until when one of 133 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:31,200 Speaker 1: the surviving thieves, Douglas Gordon Goody, finally broke his silence. 134 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:35,439 Speaker 1: According to him, their informant was a man from Belfast 135 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:39,319 Speaker 1: named Patrick McKenna. At the time of the robbery, McKenna 136 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 1: was forty three years old and worked for the Postal 137 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: service in Islington, North London. He had been introduced to 138 00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:48,920 Speaker 1: Goody through a third party and over the course of 139 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:52,400 Speaker 1: several meetings in early nineteen sixty three, he taught Goody 140 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: and his crew about the inner workings of the mail 141 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:58,280 Speaker 1: train in exchange for a cut of the loop. With 142 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: that revelation, the final mystery of the Great Train Robbery 143 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:06,360 Speaker 1: was finally solved. That is, assuming good He was telling 144 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:10,200 Speaker 1: the truth. After all, he wasn't the most trustworthy guy 145 00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:16,240 Speaker 1: you'd ever meet. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now 146 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:19,960 Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 147 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:25,160 Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's episode, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, 148 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:29,520 Speaker 1: and Instagram at t D I HC Show. You can 149 00:09:29,559 --> 00:09:32,520 Speaker 1: also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or 150 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:35,640 Speaker 1: you can send your feedback straight to me by writing 151 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,400 Speaker 1: to This Day at I heart media dot com. Thanks 152 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:42,600 Speaker 1: as always to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and 153 00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:45,319 Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back here 154 00:09:45,360 --> 00:10:01,080 Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another day in History class.