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The Great Train Robbery -

The Great Train Robbery was the theft of £2.6 million (equivalent today in purchasing power to about £30 million, or US$40.4 million) from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London in the early hours of August 8, 1963.

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Sears Crossing -

Train driver Jack Mills saw a red signal light ahead at a place called Sears Crossing. He stopped the train. But the signal was false. Mills' co-driver discovered that the signaling cables had been cut in order to bring the locomotive to a halt. It was then that a 15-strong masked gang attacked the train.

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Jack Mills -

Mills was struck around the head by one of the robbers, rendering him unconscious. Meanwhile, other gang members uncoupled most of the carriages. Mills, however, had to be revived in order to drive the train further down the track to a pre-arranged rendezvous point. He was so severely injured that he never worked again after the incident. He died in 1970.

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Scene of the crime -

Mills took the train to Bridego railway bridge (pictured), located at Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire. Here, a human chain of looters removed 120 sacks containing two-and-a-half-tons of money in a swift and well-coordinated exchange into waiting vehicles.

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Reward offered -

The audacious heist made headline news. A huge police operation was quickly initiated, with a reward of £10,000 offered for information that would "lead to the apprehension and conviction of the persons responsible for [the] robbery."

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High-value packages -

Pictured is the the empty high-value packages coach on the train. Normally around £300,000 in cash would have been been transported. But a bank holiday in Scotland the previous weekend meant that over £2 million was being taken by rail to London.

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Hideout -

The police soon had a lead after a tip-off by a suspicious member of the pubic led them to remote Letherslade Farm in Oakley, Buckinghamshire, 43 km (27 mi) from the crime scene.

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Police raid -

Leatherslade Farm was being used by the jubilant gang as a hideout and as a safe house to share out the cash. The robbers, however, decided to vacate the building earlier than planned, before the police raided the premises. Incriminating evidence and, crucially, fingerprints, plus dogged police work, eventually led to the offenders being apprehended, one by one. Most of the gang were later convicted for their part in the crime.

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Suspects arrested and charged -

Three of the suspects arrested in connection with what by now had been dubbed the "'Great Train Robbery" are photographed leaving Linslade courthouse in the market town of Leighton Buzzard with blankets over their heads. But who were the ringleaders involved in one of the most notorious crimes ever to take place on British soil?

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Ronnie Biggs arrested -

The one gang member who became internationally synonymous with the Great Train Robbery was Ronnie Biggs, seen here under arrest on September 4, 1963.

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Ronnie Biggs (1929–2013) -

Biggs was a petty criminal who in fact played a minor role in the crime—he was given the job of arranging the movement of the train to the bridge, a task he subsequently bungled. At his trial, Biggs received a jail term of 30 years.

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Biggs escapes -

Biggs served just 15 months of his sentence before escaping from Wandsworth Prison on July 8, 1965. He fled first to Brussels and then onto Paris, where he paid for plastic surgery. He then went to Australia, where he was joined by wife Charmian and his sons. Realizing British police were closing in on his whereabouts, Biggs escaped to Panama before arriving in Brazil in 1970. His family stayed in Australia.

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Living in Brazil -

Biggs met nightclub dancer Raimunda de Castro in Rio de Janeiro. Soon, Raimunda was pregnant. The great train robber again evaded British justice when Scotland Yard detectives arrived in Rio to arrest the fugitive. But Brazilian law at the time did not allow a parent of a Brazilian child to be extradited. The couple's son, Michael, was born in 1974.

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Father and son -

In the aftermath of his brush with British police, Ronnie Biggs left Rio and holed up in a fishing village around 80 km (50 mil) along the coast, choosing to live a simple and quiet life. He's pictured with Michael in 1975.

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Life in Rio -

But the lure of bright lights and a celebrity lifestyle prompted Biggs to  to return to Rio. He entertained film and television personalities at his home and was frequently interviewed for news and documentary programs.

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'The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle' (1980) -

In one infamous episode, Biggs appeared in the mockumentary 'The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle,' starring British punk band the Sex Pistols. Biggs is pictured in a scene with the band's guitarist, Steve Jones.

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Return to England and death -

After years on the run in Brazil, Ronnie Biggs returned to England in 2001 and was immediately re-imprisoned. In 2009, he was released from jail on compassionate grounds. On December 18, 2013, aged 84, Ronnie Biggs died. 

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Bruce Reynolds (1931–2013) -

Despite Biggs' celebrity, the acknowledged mastermind behind the Great Train Robbery, which he planned over a three-month period,  was Bruce Reynolds.

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Mastermind arrested -

Evading capture after the robbery, Reynolds arrived in Mexico in 1964, with his wife Angela and son joining him later. The Reynolds family later spent time in Canada and France before returning to England in 1968, where Bruce Reynolds was eventually arrested and jailed.

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Death -

Bruce Reynolds was released from prison in 1978. He's pictured at Oakley Village Hall in Buckinghamshire, during a summer fete. In an extraordinary coincidence, while there he bumped into former police officer John Woolley, the man who'd discovered that the robbers had been using Leatherslade Farm as a hideout. Reynolds died on February 23, 2013, and is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London.

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Nick Reynolds -

Bruce Reynolds' son, Nick, has connections to the underworld, but not in the way that you think. Nick Reynolds is a member of British band Alabama 3, for whom he played harmonica on 'Woke Up This Morning,' the theme song for the hit TV series 'The Sopranos.'

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Charles Wilson (1932–1990) -

Charlie Wilson was an intimidating presence and ideally suited for a life of crime. During his youth, he ended up in jail for short spells for numerous offenses.

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Wilson arrested -

Wilson was quickly captured after the mail train holdup. Sentenced to 30 years, he was imprisoned in August 1964 at Winson Green jail in Birmingham. Just four months later, however, he escaped.

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Extradited to Britain -

Wilson fled to Canada but spent  Christmas 1964 in Mexico. He also visited France. After successfully evading capture for four years, he was caught on January 24 1968 and extradited to England (pictured), where he served 10 years of his sentence before being released in 1978—the final train robber to emerge from prison.

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Professional hit -

Charlie Wilson moved to Spain but his life of crime followed him. He was a suspect in a gold bullion heist, and was thought to be involved in drug smuggling, with alleged links to South American drugs kingpin Pablo Escobar. On April 23, 1990, Wilson was shot and killed at his home in Marbella, a victim of a professional hit. His funeral (pictured) at Streatham Cemetery in London on May 10 attracted worldwide media attention.

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Ronald "Buster" Edwards (1931–1994) -

"Buster" Edwards was another great train robber who gave the authorities the slip. With his share of the stolen loot, he fled to Mexico with his family. While in Acapulco in December 1964, he met up with his fellow partners in crime, Bruce Reynolds and Charlie Wilson—a bizarre reunion that saw three of the gang catch up with each other while on the run abroad.

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Broke and homesick -

By 1966, with money running out and his family homesick, Buster Edwards negotiated his return to England. Upon arrival on British soil, he was swiftly arrested (pictured) and jailed for 15 years.

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Flower seller -

In later life, the ex-convict ran a flower stall outside Waterloo railway station in London, and became somewhat of a household name.

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'Buster' (1988) -

Edwards achieved wider fame when he was portrayed by singer Phil Collins in the movie 'Buster,' in which he makes a cameo appearance. He's pictured attending the London premiere with Collins and co-star Julie Walters.

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Death -

Buster Edwards died a lonely death, choosing to end his life by hanging himself sometime on November 28, 1994. He was 63 years old.

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Robbers' return -

In this 1979 photograph, some of the great train robbers are pictured together for the first time since 1963. From left to right: Buster Edwards, Tommy Wiseby, Jim White, Bruce Reynolds, Roger Cordrey, Charles Wilson, and Jim Hussey. But there are two other names worth mentioning in this intriguing tale.

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Brian Arthur Field (1934–1979) -

Brian Field was one of the lesser-known masterminds behind the 1963 heist. A solicitor's clerk, he was the crucial link between the key informant known only as "Ulsterman," the shadowy figure who came up with the idea of the robbery in the first place. While an important member of the gang, Field only served three years of a 25-year sentence in prison for conspiracy to rob and perverting the course of justice. He was released on appeal in 1967. On April 27, 1979, Field and his wife Sian were killed in a car crash.

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Douglas "Gordon" Goody (1929–2016) -

Douglas "Gordon" Goody was effectively the deputy leader of the gang. He was arrested on October 6, 1963, and later served nearly 12 years in prison before being released in December 1975.

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"Ulsterman" identity revealed? -

In 2014, Goody (pictured in the '60s), by then 85 years old and living in Spain, gave an interview to the UK's Guardian newspaper in which he supposedly revealed the identity of the mysterious "Ulsterman," who helped to plan the crime and then vanished. Goody claimed it was a man called Patrick McKenna, a Belfast-born postal worker whom he'd met in London.

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Did one get away? -

However, in 2019 in another interview with a British newspaper, The Telegraph, former transport detective Graham Satchwell named an underworld fixer called Sammy Osterman as the "Ulsterman," a claim that exonerates Patrick McKenna. Osterman was never caught.

Sources: (Daily Mirror) (The Guardian) (The Telegraph)

See also: The worst crimes in history

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