Buster Edwards - Great Train Robbery

Great Train Robbery

The Great Train gang intercepted the Glasgow–London mail train in Buckinghamshire in the early hours of 8 August 1963. After tampering with the track-side signal lights, they stopped the train at Sears Crossing and moved the engine and high-value carriage to Bridego Bridge, near Cheddington, and they escaped with £2,600,000 of used banknotes. The driver, Jack Mills, was beaten over the head and suffered from related complications for the rest of his life - opinion is divided as to whether the injury was a factor in his death. The gang's temporary hideout at Leatherslade Farm was quickly found. Most of the gang were captured, tried, and imprisoned, but Edwards evaded arrest with his £150,000 share of the stolen money.

Edwards and another gang member, Bruce Reynolds, took their families to Mexico. The money ran out, and Edwards' family became homesick, so he negotiated his return to England in 1966. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in jail.