How the Great Train Robbery unfolded
The Great Train Robbery of 1963 was the most famous raid of an era in which some criminals became celebrities.
The gang, taking inspiration from the rail robberies of the Wild West, raided a Glasgow to London mail train and escaped with £2.6m in used bank notes - a record haul at that time.
The mastermind was Bruce Reynolds, a known armed burglar.
Using inside information on mail movements, he assembled a gang to intercept the overnight train in a quiet part of Buckinghamshire.
The robbers struck on 8 August 1963 when the train stopped near Cheddington after the gang had changed a signal to red.
Fifteen men wearing ski masks and helmets swarmed onto the train and grabbed 120 bags of money.
Train driver Jack Mills was struck over the head with an iron bar, although it has never been established who was responsible, and he would never work again.
Police launched an immediate manhunt for the robbers, whose crime had captivated the British public, because of its scale.
Five days after the robbery, a tip-off led police to the gang's hideout at Leatherslade Farm, about 20 miles from the crime scene, near Oakley.
The gang had escaped there to share out the proceeds of their robbery, which would amount to more than £40m in 2009.
It is believed the men played Monopoly at the farmhouse using some of the notes stolen from the mail train.
They fled the property before police arrived, but their fingerprints were found all over the house.
The gang contained a number of members who already had criminal records, which provided vital evidence for police.
Nine days after the robbery, Charlie Wilson became the first member of the gang to be arrested and charged.
By January 1964, police had gathered enough evidence for 12 of the 15 to be put on trial in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
By April all 12 men had been convicted, with only one of them, Roger Cordrey, who gave back his £80,000 share of the money, pleading guilty.
Eleven of the men were each sentenced to between 20 and 30 years in prison.
In passing sentence, Mr Justice Edmund Davies focused on the violence used against Mr Mills.
He said: "Let us clear out of the way any romantic notions of daredevilry. This is nothing less than a sordid crime of violence inspired by vast greed."
The 12th convicted man, solicitor John Wheater, was jailed for three years for obtaining the farm as a hideout.
However, it was accepted he had not known about the robbery until after it had happened.
The three Great Train Robbers not put on trial in 1964 had all been jailed within five years.
They included Buster Edwards, later the subject of a film starring Phil Collins, who went on the run to Mexico but gave himself up in 1968, and mastermind Reynolds.
Within two years of the first trial, both Charlie Wilson and Ronnie Biggs had escaped from prison, adding to the notoriety surrounding the robbery.
Wilson was caught in Canada in 1968, but Biggs became the UK's most famous fugitive as he continued to evade recapture until giving himself up by flying back to the UK from Brazil in 2001.
He was immediately arrested and taken to high-security Belmarsh prison to serve out the remainder of his original sentence, before later moving to Norwich prison on compassionate grounds in 2007.
His lawyers say he has suffered two strokes and now cannot speak or eat due to facial paralysis.
His son Michael, whose birth had prevented Biggs's extradition from Brazil, has campaigned for his father's release ever since his return to the UK.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8015143.stmWho were the Great Train Robbers?
Bruce Reynolds, the man who planned the £2.6m Great Train Robbery in 1963, has died aged 81.
The haul the 15 men secured from a mail train, stopped in Buckinghamshire, was a record at that time.
So who were the other gang members and what is know about what happened to them in later life?
Bruce Reynolds, a thief and antiques dealer, planned the robbery that has become one of the most notorious in British criminal history.
Nicknamed "Napoleon", he first fled to Mexico on a false passport then later to Canada with his wife Angela and son Nick.
In 1968, five years after the crime, Reynolds returned to England and was captured in Torquay and jailed for 25 years.
He was released in 1978 and lived alone and broke in a small flat off London's Edgware Road. He was jailed again in the 1980s for three years for dealing amphetamines.
After his second release, Reynolds went on to work briefly as a consultant on a film about the robbery, Buster, and published the Autobiography of a Thief in 1995. His son Nick said his father had died in his sleep in the early hours of 28 February 2013.
Ronnie Biggs
Ronald Arthur "Ronnie" Biggs was jailed in 1964 for his part in the robbery, but his subsequent escape from prison and his life as a fugitive for 36 years gained him notoriety.
After fleeing over the wall of London's Wandsworth prison in April 1965, Biggs had plastic surgery and moved firstly to Australia and then Brazil, evading a number of arrests, extradition and even kidnap. During this time he courted the media with his story.
Eventually in 2001, when he was very ill, he decided to return to Britain to face arrest.
His health continued to deteriorate while serving the remainder of his sentence, and he was finally freed in 2009 on "compassionate grounds" by then Justice Secretary Jack Straw.
Ronald 'Buster' Edwards
Ronald "Buster" Edwards, who is perhaps best known as the subject of the 1988 film Buster, in which he was played by singer Phil Collins, is widely believed to have wielded the cosh used to hit train driver Jack Mills over the head.
Like Reynolds, the former boxer and club owner fled to Mexico after the robbery, but gave himself up in 1966.
After serving nine years in jail, he became a familiar figure selling flowers outside London's Waterloo station. He was found hanged in a garage in 1994 at the age of 62.
Two wreaths in the shape of trains accompanied his funeral cortege.
Charlie Wilson
Charles Frederick Wilson was the "treasurer" who gave each of the robbers their cut of the haul.
He was captured quickly and during his trial earned the nickname "the silent man" because he refused to say anything.
He was jailed for 30 years but escaped after just four months only to be captured again in Canada after four years on the run. He served another decade behind bars.
When he finally emerged from prison in 1978, he moved to Spain where he was shot and killed by a hitman on a bicycle in 1990.
Roy James
Roy James, who was the chief getaway driver and nicknamed "Weasel", left a crucial fingerprint at the gang's farm hideout and was eventually caught after a rooftop chase.
A silversmith and proficient racing driver, he planned to invest his share of the cash in new car technology.
After serving 12 years of a 30-year sentence, he sold silver at a market before moving to Spain.
In 1993 he was jailed again for six years for shooting his wife's father and hitting her with a pistol. He died soon after getting out of prison, aged 62.
Brian Field
A crooked solicitor, Brian Field was used to make the arrangements to buy the farm hideout used immediately after the robbery.
He was sentenced to 25 years in jail, but that term was later reduced to five. He died in a motorway crash in 1979.
Tommy Wisbey
A bookie and self-confessed "heavy", it was Tommy Wisbey's role to frighten the train staff. He was sentenced to 30 years and released in 1976, but he was jailed for another 10 years in 1989 for cocaine dealing.
After his release, he ran a flower stall and went to live in north London. He suffered several strokes as his health deteriorated.
Bobby Welch
Nightclub boss Bobby Welch was sentenced to 30 years and released in 1976. He was later left crippled when an operation on his leg went wrong.
After jail he became a car dealer and gambler in London.
Gordon Goody
A hairdresser who was jailed for 30 years and released in 1975, Gordon Goody moved to Spain to run a bar after release.
James Hussey
A decorator known as "Big Jim", James Hussey was sentenced to 30 years and released in 1975. After working on a market stall, he later opened a restaurant in Soho.
In 1989 he was jailed for seven years for a drug smuggling conspiracy with fellow train robber Wisbey.
Roger Cordrey
Florist Roger Cordrey was arrested in Bournemouth after renting a lock-up from a policeman's widow.
He was jailed for 20 years, reduced to 14 on appeal.
Following his release in 1971, he went back to the flower business and moved to the West Country.
Jimmy White
Jimmy White, a former paratrooper, was known as "quartermaster" for the robbery.
He was caught in Kent after three years on the run and sentenced to 18 years. He was released in 1975 and moved to Sussex.
Bill Boal
Engineer Bill Boal was arrested with Cordrey in possession of £141,000, charged with receiving stolen goods and jailed for 24 years, reduced to 14 on appeal.
Reynolds claimed Boal was not involved in the robbery and was "an innocent man". He died of cancer in jail in 1970.
Leonard Field
A merchant seaman, Leonard Field was sentenced to 25 years, reduced to five. He was released from jail in 1967 and moved to north London.
John Wheater
A solicitor who was convicted of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. He was sentenced to three years and released in 1966. He went to live in Surrey.
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