Who were the participants of a large robbery train that was fascinated by the United Kingdom – BBC News in Serbian

The United Kingdom is 1960s was faulted by a bold of a large robbery train and the amount of money stolen.

But when the trial of the accused in April 1964 began. Year, the judge was firmly solved to send the message that such crimes would not be tolerated.

Several Robijas were spoken for 14 years later for the BBC.

Robert Welch was one of 12 people found guilty of 16. April 1964. at the Royal Court Ailsbury for a notorious robbery.

He was in 1978. in the BBC documentary and the emissions on current events, alive man (MAN Alive) He remembered how local officials pushed for a place in the courtroom at the time of the sentence.

« Everyone came to follow the climax play, drama, and the medieval environment in which we were convicted, it was a bit creepy, » Welch told Welch 14 years later.

Welch and the people with whom he sentenced to the great decline since they performed one of the famous and most extended steals that the UK ever experienced: a large robbery of the train.

They were part of a gang that robbed the train of the royal mail on the way from Glasgow to London.

The robbers escaped with £ 2.6 million in used banknotes, which at that time was a record catch, the equivalent of today’s 58 million euros.

At the time of the Velcha trial, the police still searched for three suspected of participating in the crime.

In order to perform this careful orchestrated robbery15 members of the two largest London criminal gangs had to cooperate together – everyone was in charge of a specific role in this field.

« They were considered elite in the world of criminal underground, » said Redzinal Ebis, who reported a crime for BBC as a young journalist, for a podcast witnesses of history (Witness History) 2023.

« You had to possess certain talent and daring, certain abilities to be able to perform a robbery of these proportions and they merged because they needed a multitude of talents, » he told them.

This bold robbery was performed immediately after three hours in the morning of 8. August 1963.

The first step that criminals have taken was to cut a telephone connection to prevent the government alarms.

They then adjusted that the red light remained on the railway signaling.

« They pulled the glove to the green light, connected the red light with a cheap battery, and, of course, meant that the train driver must slow, » Ebis said.

When he saw the red light, Jack Mills, the train driver, stopped the train, and his convent David Vitby jumped out to call from the phone near the rail and discovered what the problem was.

The Vitby found that the connection was cut, to expand him masked people in one-piece overalls.

In the meantime, the masked robber fell into the cabin of the locomotive and tied the engineer.

When Mills tried to resist, another gang member hit him on his head, throwing him into a semiwest.

« The only omission, if he can call himself, was the fact that the train driver tried to resist

« One of the robbers hit him on the head with a stick, there was a lot of blood and just crashed, » Ebis said.

The gang received insider information that in the first two car composition wagons and large value packages.

He was also a weekend of the banking holiday, so the train should have transferred more money than usual.

Despite the planned robbery, within a year, most gang members were detained and tried.

One hundred twenty bags with money

Although there were no police in the composition, there were more than 70 post officials, mostly in the last wagons, where they classified the mail.

Criminals well acquainted with the work of the train and the wagon layout quickly wowed the first two compositions full of money.

The plan was that they were freaked out and drove from the steep embankment to a predetermined meeting point where it would be easier to unload bags with money.

There was an obstacle waiting for them.

« They had their own engineer that was supposed to connect the train, but he could not raise him and had to make a consciousness of the original train of Jack Mils, scoring him and say, ‘Start the train. »

« He managed to move the train and at that route to the place where he waited for most of the gang, leaving the postmaster, completely unconscious that the main part of the composition went without them, » Ebis said.

Mils, who continued to abundantly bleeding, got instructions to stop two front cars on Bridego Bridego.

There, the rest of the gang broke into the wagons, defeated the postal staff who worked in them, and made them hook up face against the floor.

They brought Mils and Vitbi, who were handcuffed for each other.

View the moment of the golden toilet robbery in the UK

The gang decided to unload the prey in 15 minutes and then left no matter how much money is left.

They formed a human chain and quickly unloaded 120 bags in Parked Lend Rover, in which there were two and a half tonnes of money.

After a quarter of an hour, the team declared the end of the action and ordered terrified postal officers to remain calm and not trying to call the police for the next 30 minutes.

The robbers then drove away night.

The boldness of the robbery and the huge amount of money has disintegrated the imagination of the British public.

In the weeks that followed, the country was showered by sensational titles that described in detail the hunting of the police on the perpetrators.

« At first glance, the job was very well planned, » said Malcolm Futle, former Chief of Detective for BBC News 1964.

« But the event itself was actually a pure disaster.

« They were obviously not as smart as they thought, » Fjuterel added, who then led the robbery investigation.

The judge did not perceive part of the robbers in the « romantic » light as it seemed to do many, saying it would be « Positive evil » If they allowed convicts any illusion of indulgence.

Crime and punishment

« I remember how the shock wave went through the courtroom when a judge, man named Lord Judge Edmund Davis, sentenced 307 years in prison within half an hour, » EBIS told the EMIS for the BBC 2023.

At the time, sentences imposed for robbery were one of the strictest in British criminal history, especially bearing in mind that no one was killed and firearms were used.

« I stayed stiff, I couldn’t think of anything else for those 30 years. When will we go out? » Tomi Weiss, one of the robbers for BBC 1978 said.

« I don’t think you don’t really reach the brain, just a few days later when you realize what you’ve got you, » His colleague robber Gordon Gudi.

« We joked there in the ground floor, but deep inside, we got sick, » he recalled for the BBC.

The reason the judge stated for the acuity of prison sentences was an attack on MILSA.

« Anyone who saw that shaken engineer has no doubt about the intimidating consequences of this prepared attack of armed robbers, » Judge Davis said at the trial.

Mills no longer worked and he died of Leukemia in 1970, and his passenger Vitby passed away from the heart attack at 34. a year later.

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Among the robbers himself, he felt that they were disproportionately punished because the action humiliated the British ruling elite.

« All the embarrassment I felt during the whole trial was missing, because I thought Edmund Davis took the position of Judge High Court and support the state, for revenge at the time.

« He equalized himself with me and all what he claimed to be me, » said Roy James, one of them in 1978. For the BBC.

« It was an opinion that Judge Davis reacted especially sharply for two reasons, » Ebis said.

« One violence was made over the engineer, and the other that the ruling elite, government, post office and British railway were found unprepared, » he added.

The glory of criminals further grew after the verdict when two gang members managed to escape dramatically from prison.

Charles Wilson, a treasurer group, escaped from prison only four months after the trial.

He was caught again in Canada after four years spent on the escape and served ten years behind bars.

Roni Bigz He escaped from London prison Vendswort, 15 months after sentencing, with the help of manual ladder made of ropes.

It was subjected to plastic surgery and lived, on shift, in Spain, Australia and Brazil, avoiding arrest for almost 40 years.

He returned to UK 2001 voluntarily, due to health treatment, serving the rest of the prison sentence.

On the run

The law eventually caught up three members of the gang that did not immediately tried.

Bruce Reynolds, who considered the brain of the entire robbery train surgery, spent five years on the escape until they arrested him after his return to England.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, but eventually served only ten.

His son Nik spent an early period of life on the run along with his father in Mexico and Canada.

And I will later turn to the apostate lifestyle, since his band Alabama 3 Do the song « Woke Up This Morning » that served as an introductory spike for a television series Soprano family.

Ronald « Buster » Edwards, who later acted in Pho Collins, a group singer Genesisin the film Bastard From 1988. He escaped to Mexico immediately after the robbery.

Sam surrendered in 1966, and he came out after nine years spent in prison.

James White, the robbery coordinator, caught in Kent and sent to prison after three years spent on the run.

He was released from prison in 1975.

Despite the fact that they received long prison sentences, all men convicted of a large robbery train released earlier.

None has served more than 13 years in prison for this crime.

Many will return behind bars for other transgressions in the years.

The police offered 10 percent of money for information that would lead to finding the prey stolen in the robbery, but huge most money has never been returned.

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