Page 71 - All About History - Issue 16-14

10 Daring Heists

8 Aug 1963
© Bettmann/Corbis The Grea t Train Robbery

Locomotive
looting shocks the
£2.6
The bridge swinging sixties
After hijacking the train at the
lights at Sears Crossing, the The cable MILLION
robbers moved it down the line In order to stop anyone in the local area from In the early hours of a
to Bridego Bridge (now known phoning the police, the robbers cut several phone balmy summer’s morning,
locally as Train Robbers’ Bridge) lines. One of the train crew broke free of his a travelling post office train
where a large truck was waiting bonds and waved down a goods train on its way
on the side of the road. The to Cheddington. The police eventually got the call (TPO) was winding its way through along the West
robbers removed all but eight of that a group of robbers had hit a supply train. Coast Line en route to Euston Station. The train was
the 26 sacks of cash on the train
in a speedy 15-20 minutes. carrying a large consignment of mail and cash from
banks in Glasgow – such a delivery would usually
carry around £300,000, but due to a Scottish
bank holiday weekend the train was carrying
cash totalling £2.6 million (around £46 million /
$78 million in today’s money). At around 3am the
train stopped at an impromptu red signal in an
area between Leighton Buzzard and Cheddington.
One of the train’s crew members stepped from the
The getaway train to inspect it further, only to discover it had
Hidden by the cover of the darkness,
the entire crew of robbers drove been tampered with. Out of the shadows emerged
steadily through the country roads 15 masked men who descended on the train. The
Transport and quiet streets of Ledburn until, restrained both crew members (koshing one over
The truck the robbers were using (not like the car pictured) was around 45 minutes later, they arrived
parked by the edge of the bride. Once the robbers broke into at a farm in Leatherslade. Bought two the head so badly he never recovered), moved the
the High Value Carriage that contained the cash, they formed a months earlier as a hideout, the farm train 800 metres (half a mile) further down the line
rudimentary chain to fill the truck. They then drove off and used was a good 43km (27mi) from the
a police scanner to monitor any calls regarding their actions. scene of the crime. to a bridge and a waiting van and made off with a
haul that stunned the world.

The Just Judges art theft

10 April 1934 Valued painting
ONE- coveted by
TWELFTH OF
A PRICELESS Napoleon and
MURAL the Nazis

Forming one part of a grand The Da Vinci Machia velli
multi-panelled painting by Hubert
and Jan van Eyck, The Ghent river heist 1510
Altarpiece’s Just Judges panel has
become one of the most famous Renaissance greats try to
stolen paintings in living memory. steal an entire river
The panel was on display with
the full painting in the Saint Bavo NOTHING A failed heist making our list of
Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium on history’s greatest robberies? The
the day of its disappearance. Later dynamic duo of Leonardo da Vinci
that night, someone slipped into and Niccolo Machiavelli may have walked away with
the cathedral, cut the panel from nothing but red cheeks and a pile of dirt, but you have
its brethren and left a note that to applaud anyone who tries to steal an entire river.
read: “Taken from Germany by While in the employ of the nefarious Cesare Borgia,
the Treaty of Versailles.” Many Machiavelli convinced Da Vinci to aid him in Cesare’s
suspected the stockbroker Arsene plan to divert the Arno River away from the city of Pisa,
Goedertier was responsible. Florence’s closest military rival. By doing so, Florence © Alamy/ Holger Ellgaard/ Corbis/Dreamstime
Following a heart attack shortly would have been bolstered by incoming sea trade.
after, copies of the ransom, along However, despite Da Vinci’s brilliant plan to reroute
with another unsent letter were the river with dams and artificial inlets, the operation
found in his effects. proved too costly and Da Vinci tasted failure.
© PRISMA ARCHIVO/Alamy
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