Great Train Robbery 50 years on: watch the video

Career criminals successfully pulling off an audacious robbery, a massive manhunt, betrayals, arrests, severe sentences, miscarriages of justice, a daring escape, life on the run, cosmetic surgery, secret identities and attempted kidnappings in foreign countries, tragic deaths and even a Sex Pistols record – the Great Train Robbery had the lot, but the story began the early hours of August 8th, 1963 on Bridego Railway Bridge in Buckinghamshire.

The Travelling Post Office train from Glasgow Central to Euston, pulling what was known as a High Value Package carriage containing registered mail and large quantities of money, stopped at a red light at Sears Crossing near Leighton Buzzard, unaware that the signal had been tampered with.

Fifteen robbers then took control of the train, coshing the driver Jack Mills until he agreed to drive the train half a mile to Bridego (or Bridge 27) where they then relieved the Post Office of 118 mailbags containing over £2.5 million.

Richard Dixon was ITN’s main man on the scene and this compilation of his reports on the investigation takes us from the scene of the crime on the 8th August through to the 13th, when the Leatherslade Farm hideout was discovered.

Betrayals, arrests, a daring escape, life on the run and even a Sex Pistols record – the Great Train Robbery had the lot.

Although the original plan had been to set fire to the farm, the man entrusted with the task had taken the money and run, leaving the police with a house full of damning evidence and fingerprints.

Faced with an on-going police investigation for which both pictures and hard facts were difficult to come by, most of Dixon’s pieces consist of him standing in a field telling viewers the little that he actually knew.

The first arrests came on the 16th August, although planner and gang leader, Bruce Reynolds along with Jimmy White and Buster Edwards remained at large for some years. The captured robbers and accomplices were tried at Aylesbury Crown Court and on 26th of March 1964 and thirteen received sentences of between 20 and 30 years.

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One of those jailed, William Boal, died in prison in 1970. Police later admitted that though he was a friend of one of those convicted, Boal had taken no part in the robbery and his conviction was regarded as a miscarriage of justice.

Edwards and White were caught and imprisoned in 1966 while Reynolds was arrested in 1968.

All had spent most of their money on the run by the time they were apprehended. Two men, Charlie Wilson in 1964 and Ronnie Biggs in 1965, appalled at the length of their sentences, escaped from prison.

Wilson was re-captured in 1968, while Biggs, who played a minor role in the actual caper became the most famous of the gang, becoming a celebrity (even recording with the Sex Pistols in 1980!) as he was chased around the world by the constabulary until ill-health forced his return from Rio to a UK prison in 2001.

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