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The Autobiography of a Thief: the Man Behind the Great Train Robbery Pdf FREE THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A THIEF: THE MAN BEHIND THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY PDF Bruce Reynolds | 448 pages | 07 Feb 2011 | Ebury Publishing | 9780753539170 | English | London, United Kingdom Bruce Richard Reynolds | British criminal | Britannica In the early s, Goody was a dashing, well-dressed, seasoned thief who knew how to manipulate authority. At the height of his criminal game, he helped to plan and execute a man heist that resulted in the The Autobiography of a Thief: The Man Behind the Great Train Robbery cash theft in international history. In the film, Gordon Goody, now 84 and living in Spain, reconstructs the crime. When co-engineer David Whitby left the lead car to investigate the delay, he saw that an old leather glove covered the light on the signal gantry. Someone had wired it to a cluster of 6-volt batteries and a hand lamp that could activate a light change. The criminals then detached the first two of the 12 cars on the train, instructing Mills, whose head bled heavily, to drive half a mile further down the track. In the ten cars left behind, 75 postal employees worked, unaware of any problem but a delay. Because of a bank holiday weekend in Scotland, consumer demand had resulted in a record amount of cash flow; this train carried older bills that were headed out of circulation and into the furnace. Besides the unarmed guards, the only security precaution separating the criminals from the money was a sealed door, accessible only from the inside. The thieves hacked through it with iron tools. Overwhelming the postal workers, they threw mail sacks down an embankment where two Range Rovers and an old military truck awaited. Within the hour, a guard from the back of the train scouted the delay and rushed to the closest station with news of foul play. Alarms rang throughout Cheddington. The police spent a day canvassing farms and houses before contacting Scotland Yard. The metropolitan bureau searched for suspects through a criminal index of files that categorized 4. British papers criticized the absence of a national police force, saying that a lack of communication between departments fostered an easier getaway for the lawbreakers. Journalists also balked at the lack of postal security, and suggested that the postal service put armed guards on mail trains. The The Autobiography of a Thief: The Man Behind the Great Train Robbery knew that the crime required the assistance of an insider with a detailed working knowledge of postal and train operations: someone who would have anticipated the lack of security measures, the amount of money, the location of the car carrying the money, and the right place to stop the train. Detective Superintendent G. McArthur said the robbers would have known this. All 15 of the robbers would be arrested, but the insider would remain free. For his role in planning the robbery, the Ulsterman received a cut the thieves split the majority of the money equally and remained anonymous but to three people for decades. Only one of those three is still alive. Scotland Yard reached a breakthrough in their case on August 13,when a herdsman told police to investigate Leatherslade Farm, a property about 20 miles away from the crime. The man had grown suspicious over increased traffic around the farmhouse. When police arrived, they found 20 empty mailbags on the ground near a 3-foot hole and a shovel. The getaway vehicles were covered nearby. Inside the house, food filled kitchen shelves. The robbers had wiped away many fingerprints, but police lifted some from a Monopoly game board and a ketchup bottle. One week later, police apprehended a florist named Roger Cordrey in Bournemouth. By January ofauthorities had enough evidence to try 12 of the criminals. Justice Edmund Davies charged the all-male jury to ignore the notoriety that the robbers had garnered in the press. On March 26, the jury convicted the men on charges ranging from robbery and conspiracy to obstruction of justice. The judge delivered his sentence a few weeks later. Eleven of the 12 received harsh sentences of 20 to 30 years. The prisoners immediately started the appeals process. But by the time the last of these fugitives arrived in jail, two of the robbers had escaped. Police had anticipated one of The Autobiography of a Thief: The Man Behind the Great Train Robbery prison breaks. They had considered Charles F. Ronnie Biggs became the criminal face of the operation after escaping from a London prison in On one July night, he made his getaway by scaling a wall and jumping into a hole cut into the top of a furniture truck. Biggs fled to Paris, then Australia before arriving in Brazil in the early s. He lived there untilwhen he returned to Britain to seek medical treatment for poor health. He died at the age of 84 this past December. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery, inviting the type of publicity that Gordon Goody chose to spend his life avoiding. Asked if he is looking at the mastermind of the Great Train Robbery, Goody stares at the photo, winces, and shifts in his seat. There is a look of disbelief on his face, as if he is trying to understand how he himself got caught in an The Autobiography of a Thief: The Man Behind the Great Train Robbery. Goody shakes his head. Browse featured hotels or search our database for over hotels in the Washington, DC region, Maryland and Virginia. Continue or Give a Gift. Privacy Terms of Use Sign up. SmartNews History. History Archaeology. World History. Science Age of Humans. Future of Space Exploration. Human Behavior. Our Planet. Earth Optimism Summit. Ingenuity Ingenuity Awards. The Innovative Spirit. Travel Virtual Travel. Travel With Us. Featured: Travel to Alaska. At the Smithsonian Visit. New Research. Curators' Corner. Ask Smithsonian. Vote Now! Photo of the Day. Video Ingenuity Awards. Smithsonian Channel. Video Contest. Games Daily Sudoku. Universal Crossword. Daily Word Search. Mah Jong Quest. Subscribe Top Menu Current Issue. Archaeology U. History World History Video Newsletter. The train after the initial police investigation in Cheddington, Buckinghamshire. Detectives at Cheddington Station inspect one of the cars of the traveling post office. Interior of one of the train's ransacked mail cars. Leatherslade Farm served as a hideout for the bandits after the robbery, as evidenced by the empty mailbags and getaway vehicles found by Scotland Yard on the premises. Seven of the Great Train Robbers in Like this article? Comment on this Story. Plan Your Visit. Last Name. First Name. Address 1. Address 2. Enter your email address. Great Train Robbery () - Wikipedia Goodreads helps you keep The Autobiography of a Thief: The Man Behind the Great Train Robbery of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Autobiography Of A Thief. Other editions. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Bruce Reynolds' life of crime began with a small-scale smash-and-grabs and led to a succession of lucrative, high-profile robberies - but it was on the empty early-morning fields of middle England that he found his Eldorado. Get The Autobiography of a Thief: The Man Behind the Great Train Robbery Copy. Hardcoverpages. Published November 9th by Virgin Books first published More Details Other Editions 4. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Autobiography Of A Thiefplease sign up. Be the first to ask a question about Autobiography Of A Thief. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. Sort order. Start your review of Autobiography Of A Thief. May 30, Jens rated it it was amazing. Brilliant, and it's sad how such a talented man threw his life away, knew it, and did it anyway. A wonderfully and brutally honest testimony to how crime doesn't pay. His was a grand life, but also, finally, a wasted life. Nov 03, Dan A rated it it was amazing. For me the best book ever written of this genre. Great story. Apr 17, Sue rated it really liked it. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Readers also enjoyed. About Bruce Reynolds. Bruce Reynolds. Books by Bruce Reynolds. Escape the Present with These 24 Historical Romances. You know the saying: There's no time like the present In that case, we can't Read more Trivia About Autobiography Of No trivia or quizzes yet. Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Bruce Reynolds - Wikipedia The moon shines clearly over Bruce Reynolds and sixteen other men robbing a train of its sacks of money. The Great Train Robbery has entered British folklore as one of the most audacious and extraordinary crimes of the twentieth century. Bruce Reynolds, the leader of the gang, was sentenced to 25 years in prison; even the Commissioner of the Met, Sir Robert Mark, thought that excessive. On its first publication in Bruce Reynolds autobiography was widely acclaimed and it is now regarded as a classic in the true crime genre. Now reissued with a new introduction and final chapter, the story is brought up to date to include the return of Ronnis Biggs to the UK, the deaths of Buster Edwards, Roy James and Taters Chatham and the continuing story of Reynolds life since his release from jail, as well as dozens of previously unseen photographs.
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