The Great Train Robbery (novel) - Plot

Plot

In 1854, Edward Pierce, a charismatic and affluent "cracksman" or master thief, makes plans to steal a shipment of gold worth more than twelve thousand pounds being transported monthly from London to the Crimean War front. He faces enormous obstacles as the bank has taken strict precautions, including locking the gold in two heavy safes, each of which has two locks, thus requiring a total of four keys to open. He recruits Robert Agar, a "screwsman" or specialist in copying keys, as an accomplice.

To ensure the success of his bold plan, Pierce spends more than a year in preparation; his first steps are fairly easy as he uses his wealth and social contacts to procure information on the security measures and locations of the keys: the bank's executives Mr. Henry Fowler and Mr. Edgar Trent each possess a key; the other two are locked in a cabinet at the offices of the South Eastern Railway at the London Bridge train station.

Pierce's first target is the key held by Edgar Trent. The attempt to take Mr. Trent's key is difficult, as Pierce has no clues or prior information on his habits. Through painstaking surveillance, conversations with bank employees and a deliberately bungled pickpocketing attempt, Pierce deduces that Mr. Trent's key is kept at his mansion but is still unable to learn the exact location. After learning that Trent is keen on ratting (a blood sport involving the betting on dogs killing rats), Pierce succeeds in becoming acquainted with the man and while visiting the Trent mansion feigns romantic interest in Elizabeth Trent, Mr. Trent's twenty-nine-year-old daughter, who has had few suitors. Edward begins to court Elizabeth and manages to learn that the key is most likely located in the basement wine cellar. With the assistance of his mistress Miriam and cab driver Barlow, Pierce and Agar successfully break into Mr. Trent's home at night and make a wax copy of the key after a painstaking search.

Henry Fowler contracts syphilis and, being unwilling to seek medical attention out of embarrassment, decides to seek a remedy by sleeping with a virgin (similar to superstitions about HIV) and asks Pierce for assistance. After charging Fowler the exorbitant price of one hundred guineas for a night of pleasure with a twelve-year-old (twelve being the legal age of consent), Pierce and Agar take advantage of the opportunity to make a copy of Fowler's key (which he always carries with him around his neck but takes off and leaves on the bedside table during the assignation).

The most difficult keys to copy are the two keys at the train station which Pierce plans to procure and copy by night; the presence of "crushers" (policemen) forces him to recruit a "snakesman" (a burglar able to slip inside buildings through small and cramped spaces) nicknamed Clean Willy, who is currently incarcerated in the high-security Newgate Prison. He sends a message through Willy's former mistress and assists him in escaping from Newgate while the public is distracted by a public execution outside the prison. After nursing Willy back to health from injuries received during the escape, the criminals succeed in making wax copies of the two keys at the railway station, completing the task with only seconds to spare before detection.

Now possessing all four copies of the necessary keys, Pierce loses no time in bribing Burgess, the poorly-paid guard on the train who rides in the baggage van containing the safes. Agar is then able to perform a dry run of the theft on February 17, 1855, making sure that the copied keys work perfectly.

Everything appears to be moving along smoothly; the actual theft is planned for May 22 when the would-be thieves find themselves seriously compromised: Clean Willy turns informant to the police. Pierce manages to have Willy murdered before he can reveal the most crucial information, although their plans are now in danger of discovery by law enforcement agents who correctly fear that a major robbery is at hand. Through careful manipulation of a "nose" (informant), the criminals manage to divert the police's attention to an alleged robbery in Greenwich, leaving them free and clear to finally strike.

On the eve of the Great Train Robbery, another unexpected development occurs as a new railway policy requires the train doors to be locked from the outside. Unwilling to further delay their plans, Pierce manages to smuggle Agar into the baggage van inside a coffin and then risks his life by climbing across the roof of the train during their journey and unlocking the door from the outside, thus allowing them to drop off the gold at a pre-arranged point. By the next day, much of England is in an uproar upon the discovery of the robbery with every organization involved in the gold shipment blaming each other, with few leads as to the true culprits, who have largely vanished from the public eye.

Although their daring plan appears to have succeeded, Pierce, Agar and Burgess are ultimately apprehended after Agar's mistress, who has been arrested for robbing a drunk, becomes a police informant to escape imprisonment, and Agar confesses after being threatened by the police with transportation to Australia. Pierce and Burgess are arrested at a prize-fighting event in Manchester, and all three are convicted. Pierce is sentenced to a long prison term but manages to successfully escape while being transported from the court and disappears, though reports indicate he, Miriam and Barlow spend much of the rest of their lives living in luxury in various foreign cities such as New York and Paris. The train guard Burgess dies of cholera during his short prison term, while Agar is indeed transported to Australia but manages to prosper, and passes away a wealthy man. Edgar Trent dies from a chest ailment in 1857, while Henry Fowler dies from "unknown causes" (presumably from the syphilis he had contracted) in 1858. The gold from the Great Train Robbery is never recovered.