Solving The Great Train Robbery 50 years On

Thursday the 8th of August will be the 50th anniversary of The Great Train Robbery. We'll be celebrating the pioneering work done by police staff of the time and highlighting their methods,evidence and stories. To get involved follow us on Twitter (@thamesvp) and Facebook.
Taking place on the Buckinghamshire/Bedfordshire border, and with trials at Aylesbury, the Great Train Robbery brought much attention not only to the Buckinghamshire Constabulary, but also the Metropolitan Police and the Post Office Investigation Department. The investigation that followed was the largest combined investigation then undertaken, involving many officers in the direct investigation and many Buckinghamshire Constabulary officers involved in scene containment, and escorting prisoners at the many remand hearings, committal hearings and eventually the trial.
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[@johnchappell3042]

Good luck to the robbers I wish they had all got away and 30 years i ask you 30 years for nicking money I wish I had found there hideaway I would have taken some of the money but never would I have tipped off the law good luck to any one pulling off sugh a great job

[@kevinmothers904]

BPA 260 was not a Bedford lorry as stated but an Austin K2 Loadstar.

[@johndean4998]

This is an inaccurate and incomplete account: for instance, (1) the police based their search radius on the fact that the robbers had told the train crew not to move for half-an-hour (a vital clue, and when the robbers heard about the search area on the radio news they decided to abandon Leatherslade Farm prematurely and in haste, as a result of which the evidence wasn't destroyed properly. (2) The police didn't discover Leatherslade Farm by chance, a local farmworker John Maris entered the remote farm hoping to find out about the new owners, saw the abandoned vehicles which corresponded with the type of vehicles reported on the radio news as having been spotted at Bridego Bridge, and persisted several times to get through on busy 'phone lines to report his suspicions to the police. The detective constable in the interview was sent to investigate with a colleague, and thereby the hideout was discovered within days of the robbery, disrupting the robbers' getaway plans and leading to the relatively rapid arrest of most of them.

[@timjohnson6802]

Agreed John. Again NO mention of (a) the people who were hit and that none of the robbers as far as I know were charged with that GBH. My research confirms 7 people (Leslie Penn, John O'Conner, Joseph Ware, Frank Dewhurst, Thomas Kett, David Whitby & Jack Mills) were wacked with coshes. 3 of the robbers really got to enjoy their share of the night's work. Mills seems to be the only one people ever bring up as having suffered, not that he was really of any interest to Butler, Williams and Slipper the 3 Senior Officers on the case. Butler was obsessed with catching Reynolds and he would do anything to ensure it happened. Even Buster Edwards would have been placed off the radar if it meant getting Reynolds.
30 years a piece was a gross miscarriage of justice. 4-5 years tops. Bill Boal was only guilty of handling money stolen by Roger Cordrey. He was never at the scene. Gordon Goody was fitted up by having his shoes painted.
If the police were so good at their job, why were none of the robbers caught for robbing Heathrow BOAC on 27/11/1962? the answer is the train robbery was seen as a direct assault on the (complacent) establishment (HMG, Queen herself and Royal Mail), and the establishment couldn't face up to this. Also police bungling. I would have loved to cross-examine that judge who passed sentence on the robbers!!
Butler's rounding of the robbers quickly was down to a gangster in the underworld passing him names, not brilliant police work.

[@callithowiseeit5806]

So what was all that guff about only getting around 300k back when they found a shitload in the cellar as well as the cuts of each of those initially caught?30 years was disgusting, that kind of establishment butthurt gave way to a far more brutal robber, respect to all men who dream big and flip a finger to this corrupt world