In 1963, a gang of criminals attacked a mail train traveling from Glasgow to London and stole 120 bags of money worth 2.6 million pounds.
An ordinary mail train, which for 125 years had followed the usual daily route from Glasgow to London, was stopped deep in the night, August 8, 1963 at 03:15, by a sudden traffic light signal. It later transpired that the green light was covered by a dense black bag and the red light came from a hand lamp operated by a gang member. The first to jump out of the head car was assistant driver David Whitby, who decided to check out what was wrong. The telephone line was not working - the wires had been cut beforehand by the intruders. Several gang members attacked Whitby and tied him up.
the train driver, Jack Mills, was waiting for the deputy to return, surrounded his cabin. The man tried to fight back and push one of the intruders off the train's footplate, but was attacked from behind and hit on the head with a heavy metal object. One of the robbers later noted that initially they did not intend to attack anyone, as the whole scam was conceived entirely "gentlemanly" - the bandits were not even armed, and of all the thieves' attributes had only ski masks, gloves and helmets. Immediately after the attack it turned out that the man hired by the gang specifically to drive the train after disarming the driver, panicked and refused to do the job. Mills had to be resuscitated.
In addition to the driver and his assistant, the train was carrying 72 postal workers, but none of them were concerned about the sudden unplanned stoppage. The perpetrators unhitched the lead and following cars and moved them to another track, stopping at the Bridego Bridge, a mile from where the train had originally stopped. It was the second carriage that the criminals were interested in - it contained sacks of dilapidated bills that were being taken from Glasgow to London. In the capital they were to be utilized, but before that - rewritten. Banknotes with denominations from 1 to 5 pounds were placed in 128 bags. Several letter carriers were in the carriage with the money - they were quickly tied up. The bandits removed 120 bags, leaving eight, and put them in a nearby parked van with a driver before driving off in two Land Rover jeeps with identical license plates.
The van and cars went to the group's headquarters, which was located on a nearby farm rented for this purpose. After reaching the place, they began to count the loot - it turned out that they managed to steal just over 2.6 million pounds (about 50 million pounds in today's equivalent). It is believed that there were only 18 members of the gang, but several identities have not yet been established. The main participants got a bigger score. Those who were assigned minor roles were rewarded accordingly.
The robbers decided to lay low for a couple of weeks until the turmoil surrounding the robbery settled down, but soon the radio broadcast that the police were searching the area within a 50 km radius of the crime scene. It was decided to leave the farm and before doing so destroy all prints. Whoever was assigned this job, they did it very badly: when the detectives got to the already abandoned bandits shelter, they found a board game, and on it - the prints of almost all the robbers. Some of them were already listed in the police card catalog, and therefore it was not difficult to establish the identity. It was more difficult to catch the criminals, but then the search was joined by citizens of the United Kingdom - for information about the bandits offered a substantial sum. By early 1964, most of the dashing gang was arrested.
The "brain" of the operation is considered to be Bruce Reynolds, who has already had a couple of jail sentences and many trials for minor criminal cases. It was he who came up with the idea to rob a mail train. He developed the whole plan while in prison, and, once free, immediately began to implement it. With the help of a postal worker, Patrick McKenna (his name was not known until 2014), he found out which carriage was carrying the bags of bills, as well as on which day the proceeds were greater. Immediately after sharing the loot, Reynolds flew with his family to Mexico, where he lived his share, and in 1968 returned to the UK to participate in a new business, but was arrested and sent to prison for 25 years, of which, however, served only 10.
The most cunning member of the gang is considered to be Ronnie Biggs, who spent 15 months in prison and then managed to escape. In 1965, he changed his appearance, obtained false documents and flew first to Paris, then to Australia, and then, when his extradition was demanded by Interpol, to Brazil. Biggs returned to the UK in 2001, making a show of his homecoming and pre-selling the story to The Sun newspaper, but was captured and sent back to prison to serve out the rest of his 30-year sentence. He was released on health grounds in 2009 and died four years later.
Other members of the gang received various sentences, but none of them served more than 13 years. The train robbery was the biggest news story not only of the year, but perhaps of the decade. The scope and prowess of the scam brought the criminals popular acclaim, which probably would have been even warmer had it not been for the mangled train driver Mills. Much of the stolen money was spent or hidden by the robbers - the police never recovered it.
