Great Train Robbery: Articles + Essays: 1: A Question of Alibi's + The Second Gang - Softcover

The Great Train Robbery, took place in Buckinghamshire, England in August 1963, and has gone down in history as a major crime. Many records were broken including the length of prison sentence for those caught and convicted. But the full story of the guilty parties has not been fully told nor is it likely to be, three leading robbers were never brought to justice, yet the police felt sure they knew who they were. This piece doesn’t spill the beans because, simply, only the surviving robbers know the identities of the three and have never ‘grassed’, so are unlikely to now. There have been books, articles, films and documentaries and hardly a year goes past without the story being retold – retold? Rehashed more like. And each little piece could push the story further from the truth. But in whose interest is this – the robbers, the ‘three’ or some other group. This piece looks at the possibility that the three men who got away with the crime had help to erect their shield and not from the other robbers either. So who helped them? And why? This may suggest a solution to the question – the police have said they were sure they knew who the three were. So if the police knew then the Crown Prosecution Service (Director of Public Prosecutions) knew too. With so many suggestions that evidence in the form of fingerprints was actually planted at the robbers hideout, then the simple question posed is this: if evidence was planted against some of the robbers, then why wasn’t evidence planted against all of them. The answer is .... It can be demonstrated that evidence was planted in other forms too – false verbal confessions and there was a pot of paint ... No one will ever know the real answer to the question: ‘If the police fitted up some of the robbers then why didn’t they fit up them all?’ But here is a suggestion which could go to the heart of law and order in this country. * The names of Bruce Reynolds, Buster Edwards, and Ronnie Biggs have become synonymous with the Great Train Robbery. But a major contributor solved the question of stopping the train – and he came from another firm. When the question of stopping the train was raised, Buster thought he might know someone . . . who knew someone. A link was made and two firms joined forces, though the recent claim that Roger Cordrey was suggested to Buster grossly over-simplifies the dynamics of the two firms joining. The second in a series of essays looking at the Great Train Robbery, plots the known history of the second firm of Roger Cordrey, Bobby Welch, Tommy Wisbey and others who joined up with the main firm to rob the train. They were loosely called The South Coast Raiders and had already had some success with train raids on the southern rails. The narrative traces what is known of their raids, looking at contemporary reports, together with what was discussed in later years. Roger Cordrey described himself as a ‘technician’ who wired up the ‘distant’ signal for John Daly to switch to amber in order to slow the train down; Roger himself was at the ‘home’ signal to bring the train to a standstill. And the raid could start. A recent account claims that John Daly didn’t follow Roger’s instructions though there is no definitive evidence to support this. This series of essays on great train robbery sub-stories attempts to draw attention and stimulate discussion of the lesser known but still fascinating sides to the story.