The Great Train Robbery (28 page)

  
3
.  
Ibid
; Dr Ian Holden was the Scotland Yard forensic expert who had testified at the 1962 Regina v Goody trial at the Old Bailey, where Goody was charged in connection with the London Airport robbery at BOAC’s Comet House. After being found not guilty, Goody had left the dock elated and spoken briefly with the prosecution counsel, pointing out that, ‘your expert isn’t much good is he? He never even noticed this.’ Goody then proceeded to show the counsel an artificial link in the piece of chain that Holden had examined in his laboratory and testified about earlier in the trial. This oversight by Holden was a great embarrassment to him personally and indeed to the prosecution case (see Piers Paul Read,
The Train Robbers
, p. 33; DPP 2/3588 (still closed until 2045 at the time of writing)).

  
4
.  DPP 2/3718, 1 of 6, part 2 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10).

  
5
.  HO 287/1496, POST 120/96 (originally closed until 1993; opened 1994).

  
6
.  DPP 2/3718, 1 of 6, part 2 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10). Goody’s defence counsel viewed this deposition as a further example of a fabricated case. Goody had apparently not said, ‘Yes, Mr Butler they are mine’ but given a non-committal answer, not knowing for sure that they were his.

  
7
.  DPP 2/3719, part 2 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10).

  
8
.  Frank Williams,
No Fixed Address
, p. 111.

  
9
.  CRO File No 18605/1929 and Michael Black (real name was Ronald Clarke), CRO File No 12922/49, were former housebreakers. Bruce Reynolds refers to Black as Michael Hackett in
Crossing the Line
, p. 210, and Piers Paul Read refers to him as Godfrey Green in
The Train Robbers
, p. 139.

10
.  DPP 2 3719, 1 of 3 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10).

11
.  
Ibid
.

12
.  POST 120/97 (closed until 1993; opened 1994).

13
.  
Ibid
.

14
.  
Ibid
.

15
.  MEPO 2/10571, MEPO 2/10575 (both MEPO files still closed at time of writing).

16
.  
Ibid
.

17
.  If over £200,000 was being held at Beaford, this would indicate a quantity of money well in access of one person’s share of the robbery proceeds, and the possibility that two gang members who were on full shares might be at the house. According to Piers Paul Read, one of the robbers who evaded arrest and prosecution was among those who were staying at Beaford (Piers Paul Read,
The Train Robbers
, p. 138.

18
.  POST 120/95 (closed until 2001; opened 2002).

19
.  Lincoln & Lincoln were Bob Welch’s solicitors.

20
.  POST 120/448 (opened 2003; some material still closed until 2017).

21
.  This would be the equivalent today of buying drinks with a £50 note.

22
.  MEPO 2/10571 & 2/10575 (both still closed at time of writing); POST 120/131 (closed until 1994; opened 1995).

23
.  POST 120/448 (opened 2003; some material still closed until 2017).

24
.  
Ibid
.

25
.  Frank Williams,
No Fixed Address
, p. 43. MEPO 2/10571 (still closed at time of writing). Much later it was finally decided that Beaford Farm should be raided and DS Steve Moore, a team of Flying Squad officers and Devon police officers undertook the search. This was after the five individuals had left. No money or items of interest were found.

26
.  POST 120/448 (opened 2003; some material still closed until 2017).

27
.  
Ibid
.

28
.  
Ibid
.

29
.  According to Welch he was to go abroad after a farewell meeting with his brother (Piers Paul Read,
The Train Robbers
, p. 138 ff).

30
.  MEPO 2/10571 & MEPO 2/10575 (both files still closed at time of writing).

31
.  DPP 2/3718, 1 of 6, part 2 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10). According to Flying Squad enquiries, the red Cortina Reg No 796 FXC Welch was driving had been hired by Charles Lilley from Fry’s Hire Ltd of 43 Glenhouse Road, Eltham, London SE9.

32
.  POST 120/95 (closed until 2001; opened 2002).

33
.  ASSI 13/643 (opened 1995); DPP 2/3718, 1 of 6, part 2 (of pages 142−150 covering the Flying Horse Hotel incident, pp. 143−150 remain closed until 2045).

34
.  The file contained this newspaper clipping − ‘The Cup Final looks like being a flop for ticket touts. Last night the price for a pair of 63
s
tickets dropped to £20 against £75 for a pair of 50
s
tickets paid for last season’s Spurs v Burnley final.’ (
Daily Express
, 25 May 1963, p. 1). When the case came to court, Judge Edmund Davies ruled that the jury should ignore the entire issue of the Flying Horse Hotel (J 82−245).

35
.  Consideration was given to charging Lilley in connection with the robbery, possibly on a charge of ‘receiving proceeds of the mail train robbery’. However, Lilley’s DPP file records ‘no action taken’. DPP 2/4006 (still closed until 2045); MEPO 2/10571 (still closed at time of writing).

36
.  James Kensit, CRO File 3850/34; born 1915, alias George Downey. Nicknamed ‘Jimmy the Dip’, a known associate of a host of names including Reginald and Ronald Kray, Charles and Edward Richardson and William Howard (a key player in the 1952 Eastcastle Street TPO robbery). Kensit was also the father of actress Patricia (Patsy) Kensit (born 1968) who has starred in
Absolute Beginners
,
Lethal Weapon 2
,
Emmerdale
and
Holby City
and was married to Rock stars Jim Kerr and Liam Gallagher.

37
.  DPP 2/3718, 1 of 6, part 2 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10).

38
.  MEPO 2/10575 (still closed at time of writing).

39
.  DPP 2/3718, 3 of 6 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10).

40
.  
Ibid
.

41
.  POST 120/104 (originally closed until 1996; opened 1997); MEPO 2/10575 (still closed until 2045 at the time of writing).

42
.  
Ibid
.

43
.  MEPO 2/10571 (still closed at time of writing).

44
.  
Ibid
.

45
.  MEPO 2/10571 (still closed at time of writing);
Daily Express
, 25 January 1964, p. 1.

46
.  
The People
, 1 March 1964, p. 1.

47
.  See note 41 above.

48
.  POST 120/97 (closed until 1993; opened 1994).

49
.  Ibid.; when Daly’s case came to court, Wilfred Fordham QC successfully argued that references in DI Frank Williams’s statement to the gun licence in the name of Michael Black found during the search of 65a Eaton Square should not be produced to the jury. He contended that there was no evidence that a gun had been used in the commission of the robbery or that the other documents had been used by Daly illegally.

50
.  
Ibid
.

51
.  
Ibid
.

52
. DPP 2/3719, 1 of 3 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10). The ‘colonel’ was an alias used by Bill Goodwin (Colonel Summers).

53
.  
Ibid
.

54
.  POST 120/97 (closed until 1993; opened 1994).

55
.  MEPO 2/10571 (still closed at time of writing).

56
.  
Ibid
.

57
.  DPP 2/3717, Report 15 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version opened 25/6/10). Those suspected ‘of assisting Roy John James to evade arrest’ were George Frederick Wright, Kenneth Thomas Simmons, Peter Alan Kelliem and Maureen Jean Willers (DPP 2/3858; still closed until 2045 at time of writing).

58
.  See note 54 above.

G
reat mystery still surrounds the events that took place on the evening of Tuesday 10 December 1963 on a busy
s
outh London street, less than half a mile from the Elephant and Castle. The official version is succinctly outlined in a recently opened DPP file:

On 10 December 1963 at about 6.35 pm, as a result of information, Detective Chief Superintendent Butler and Detective Inspector Williams went to a telephone kiosk at Great Dover Street SE1, at the junction of Blackhorse Court. They found two sacks containing bundles of money. It was at first examined by Dr Holden and Detective Superintendent Ray. The former took away the sacks and debris for forensic examination whilst Detective Superintendent Ray removed two top and two bottom notes of each bundle for fingerprint examination. Superintendent Ray took away with him notes to the value of £401. The remainder of the money was counted and examined by Mr Charles of the National Provincial Bank Ltd. He counted £46,844 which added to that taken by Detective Superintendent Ray makes the total amount found in the sacks as £47,245.
1

The officer who received the telephone tip-off was, according to the police report on the find, DCI Sidney Bradbury. Apparently the caller had with him ‘a person who has got £50,000 of train robbery money with him in sacks’. The sacks would be left at the Great Dover Street kiosk. The caller then hung up after telling Bradbury to ‘be there in five minutes’. Bradbury then immediately passed on the message to Williams.
2

However, there is reason to believe that Williams had prior awareness of the drop and had in fact been expecting it. Furthermore, he may well have participated in an earlier aborted attempt to pass over the £50,000 at Nunhead station in Peckham,
s
outh London, a few weeks beforehand that was never disclosed in his reports.
3

The two potato sacks found in the kiosk were taken back to Scotland Yard by Williams and Butler, where they were opened. Inside were bundles of Irish, English and Scottish banknotes apparently in 100 lots of £500. DCS Butler then instructed DCI Bradbury to sleep in his office overnight with the two sacks, prior to their collection and dispatch to Aylesbury Police Station the following morning.
4

The Buckinghamshire CID was equally puzzled by this turn of events. DS Malcolm Fewtrell first heard the news about the £50,000 from a reporter. His immediate reaction was to privately wonder how the Flying Squad knew that there was £50,000 in the two sacks when no one, so far as he knew, had yet counted the money. His bewilderment heightened the next day when the money was delivered to him at Aylesbury Police Station. On examination, the money was found to be still damp and musty, suggesting that it had recently been dug up from its hiding place; many of the notes were, as a consequence, stuck together. Tellers from the National Provincial Bank, who were called in by Fewtrell, took two days to peel the notes apart and count them. Their final tally was £46,844. When this was added to the £401 taken by DS Ray, the total came to £47,245, £2,755 short of £50,000.
5

While Hatherill was given only the briefest information by Butler about the find (and indeed no reason for its presence in the telephone box), his view was that the money was left there by one of the robbers who had been questioned at length but not charged. Hatherill’s theory was that the money was getting too hot for him.
6
However, it seems clear that Hatherill was not privy to the activities of Frank Williams and that in spite of assurances to the contrary given to Williams by Butler, both Hatherill and Millen were clearly out of the loop so far as Williams’s overtures to those still on the run were concerned.
7

From Williams’s reports it is clear that he was dealing with several intermediaries in order to pass on messages to those robbers still at large and used code letters to protect their identities. He was trying to do deals with several of those on the run to turn themselves in with reasonably large sums of money - in exchange for playing down their role in the robbery.
8
There is equally a suggestion that the Great Dover Street episode was part of a deal to hand over money in exchange for the police not pursuing those on whom there was little or no evidence to connect them to the train robbery.
9

Ten days after the Great Dover Street drop, Williams was to hear from Scotland Yard’s C11 Section, that they had received information that another train robbery was possibly being planned, this time on the Weymouth-Waterloo line. Most intriguing was the suggestion that some members of this gang ‘were connected with the gang concerned in the Up Special TPO Robbery (on 8 August)’.
10

It was on the same day that the IB’s R.F. Yates also heard about C11’s information:

Whilst at Scotland Yard on the evening of 20 December 1963 I saw Commander Hatherill. He mentioned that he had received information from three sources indicating that an attack on the TPO running from Weymouth to Waterloo was being planned. The attack, he said, was expected to take place early in the New Year and he asked that I furnish him with brief factual details of: -

(i)    the TPO concerned, with running times;

(ii)   the make-up of the train;

(iii)  the approximate number of HVP bags carried;

(iv)  the number of Post Office personnel on the train.

On Monday 23 December, I handed to Commander Hatherill a copy of the schedules and pointed out that immediately following Christmas large amounts of monies would be remitted by the banks, in HVPs, to their Head Offices in London. Commander Hatherill said that he intended to call a Conference at an early date to which he proposed to invite Chief Constables of the area of the route of the TPO, the Post Office, and Railway Police. He said that at that Conference he would disclose the full facts of his information and attempt to arrange for security and detective measures to be stepped up. So far as I could gather the venue of the suggested attack is not, as yet, known.
11