An Austin Goods Platform Truck bearing false index plates BPA 260. This vehicle when found was dark green in colour with the front and cabin crudely over-painted yellow. It was traced as having passed through the auction of ex-War Department vehicles on 24th April 1963, and was purchased by D A Mullard & Company Limited, Government Surplus Contractors of Edgware. They re-sprayed inside and out olive green. This vehicle was purchased from D A Mullard & Company Limited by a man giving the name of F Blake, 272, Kenton Lane, Middlesex (false), for £300. On 30 July 1963 Blake collected the vehicle, saying he had registered it. He had no index plate with him and chalked a registration number on the original blanks. This number could not be remembered. A man similar to Blake and referred to as ‘Jimmy’ by a second man was directed to Mullards by H & A Motors of Edgware. ‘Jimmy’ later returned to H & A Motors and said that he had bought a lorry at Mullards. ‘Jimmy’ has been identified as James E White, CRO 26113/55.
The false number BPA 260 referred to a Ford car. This vehicle was broken up by a scrap dealer in Gloucester two or three years ago. The Road Fund Licence displayed on the lorry relates to a vehicle VJD 35. The licence was stolen from this vehicle at Warner Place, London, E2 between 7.30 pm, 29 July 1963, and 2pm 30 July 1963 and was reported to police at Bethnal Green on 30 July 1963.3
Appendix 3
THE COURT
Judge: Mr Justice Edmund Davies
Counsel:
Mr Arthur James QC, Mr Niall MacDermot QC, Mr Howard Sabin and Mr Desmond Fennell appeared for the prosecution.
Mr William Sime QC and Mr Edward Eyre appeared for the accused William Gerald Boal.
Mr John Mathew and Mr John Speed appeared for the accused Charles Frederick Wilson.
Mr Wilfred Fordham and Mr Cyril Salmon appeared for the accused Ronald Arthur Biggs
Mr Joseph Grieves QC and the Hon. Patrick Pakenham appeared for the accused Thomas William Wisbey.
Mr Frederick Ashe Lincoln QC and Mr Joseph Gamgee appeared for the accused Robert Alfred Welch.
Mr R. Kilner Brown QC and Mr Gavin Freeman appeared for the accused James Hussey.
Mr Walter Raeburn QC, Mr Wilfred Fordham and Mr John Speed appeared for the accused John Thomas Daly.
Mr William Howard and Mr John Speed appeared for the accused Roy John James.
Mr Sebag Shaw QC, Mr Wilfred Fordham and Mr Cyril Salmon appeared for the accused Douglas Gordon Goody.
Mr Lewis Hawser QC, Mr Ivor Richards and Mr George Hazledine appeared for the accused Brian Arthur Field.
Mr Michael Argyle QC and Mr Edwin Jowitt appeared for the accused Leonard Dennis Field.
Mr Graham Swanwick QC and Mr Felix Waley appeared for the accused John Denby Wheater.
Appendix 4
FORENSIC EVIDENCE ON GORDON GOODY’S SHOES
Statement by Dr Ian Holden
I am a Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Science, a Bachelor of Science, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, and a Principal Scientific Officer at the Metropolitan Police Laboratory.
On Thursday 29 August 1963 I received at New Scotland Yard, from Detective Constable Milner, Buckinghamshire Constabulary, Aylesbury, items from Leatherslade Farm. On 19 September 1963 at Buckinghamshire Headquarters, Aylesbury, in company with Detective Constable Milner, I examined the large new Land Rover. I removed a sample of yellow paint found smeared on the pedals of this vehicle. I also took a sample of the Khaki top coat of paint from this Land Rover.
On 28 September 1963 in company with Detective Chief Superintendent CO, C8 and PC Cullen, Buckinghamshire Constabulary, I went to Leatherslade Farm and examined the large open garage and took samples of the yellow paints on the floor of the garage.
I examined the exhibits I had received together with the various samples I had taken myself. The rubber soles of the shoes had raised lines across the soles to form a pattern of squares. This pattern had been worn away from the main tread area of the soles. There was khaki paint on the shoes of Goody which had gone on in the wet condition. It was mainly on the right shoe under the instep and along the outer edge of the rubber sole. There was a small spot of khaki paint on the top of the right shoe and on an area on the inner aspect of the edge of the sole near the toe of the left shoe. The paint appeared to have been sufficiently wet to run down the sides of the soles. Some of the khaki paint under the instep of the right shoe was free from contamination and was found to be identical in colour and chemical composition with the khaki top coat of paint from the large Land Rover taken by Detective Constable Milner and by myself.
There was an area of yellow paint under the instep of the right shoe of Goody and some small circular areas of yellow paint under the toe of the left shoe where they were partially protected by the remain of the raised lines of the sole pattern. This yellow paint on the shoes had gone on in the wet condition and would be consistent with the wearer of the shoes treading on an area splashed with this yellow paint.
This paint under the instep of Goody’s shoes was mixed with fine mineral material. This mixture had the same colour and chemical composition as the paint and fine mineral mixture from the pedals of the Land Rover and the paint and fine mineral material from the large area on the floor of the garage at Leatherslade Farm.
The uncontaminated paint separated from this mixture on the floor of the garage, the paint splashed on the floor at the rear of the garage, the paint from the squashed tin and the yellow paints from the large lorry were identical in colour and chemical composition.4
At the trial, alternative forensic evidence was placed before the court:
The Defence for Goody called before the Court Mr Cecil Hancorn Robbins BSc FRIC, a director of Hehner & Cox Ltd, Fenchurch Street, City of London, who are consulting and analytical chemists.
He was called to negative the evidence given by Dr Holden that the paint on Goody’s shoes was identical with yellow paint contaminated with mineral found on the floor of the garage at Leatherslade Farm and khaki paint found on the Land Rover at Leatherslade Farm. Mr Robbins tried to do this by disputing the interpretations by Dr Holden of spectra of paints which he and Mr Robbins had prepared from samples taken from exhibits. Mr Robbins summarised his findings regarding the khaki point in this way:
(1) In two spectra of paint prepared from samples taken from the Land Rover, one by Dr Holden and one by himself, there were lines of chromium in strong intensity.
(2) a spectrum of rubber without paint prepared from a sample taken from the shoes, there were lines of chromium of less intensity and,
(3) a spectrum of soil without paint prepared from a sample taken from the shoes, there were lines of equal intensity as those in (2),
(4) a spectrum of paint prepared from a sample taken from the shoes, there were lines of less intensity than (2) and (3).
He argued that the chromium lines in (4) were the result of contamination from the surface of the shoe when the sample of point was scraped off and that chromium was not a constituent of that paint. He said, therefore, the paint on the Land Rover and that on the shoes were different paints.
Mr Robbins summarised his findings regarding the yellow paint by saying that having examined the spectra, prepared by Dr Holden, he could not pledge himself to a distinction between the point taken from the lorry and the paint taken from the shoes. They had the same composition.
The Defence then called to the box Mr Douglas Nicholas who is employed at the Fulmer Research Institute at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire. He is an Investigator in charge of the Department of Spectroscopy. His qualifications are by experience and not by academic diploma. Mr Nicholas agreed with the readings of Mr Robbins of the spectra relating to the khaki paint and said that it seemed likely that there were difference in the compositions of the khaki paint taken from the Land Rover and the Khaki paint taken from the shoes. He said he was not an expert on paints and could not say whether it could be accounted for by the fact that the samples may have come from different parts of the same pot of paint. He agreed it wou
ld depend on whether the paint was a homogeneous mixture. He concluded by saying that if they had been the same paint he would have expected the spectra to have been identical.5
Appendix 5
METROPOLITAN POLICE STRUCTURE 1963
The Metropolitan police consisted of four departments each headed by an assistant commissioner:
A Department — Administration
B Department — Traffic
C Department — CID
D Department — Recruitment and Personnel
C Department, the department referred to throughout this book, was in turn subdivided into divisions:
C1 — Murder Squad
C2 — Crime Correspondence
C3 — Fingerprints
C4 — Criminal Records Office
C5 — CID Policy
C6 — Company Fraud Squad
C7 — Laboratory
C8 — Flying Squad
C9 — Provincial Crime Branch
C10 — Stolen Car Squad
C11 — Criminal Intelligence
Appendix 6
ROY JAMES’S MOTOR RACING RECORD
16.3.63
Oulton Park
Spun off
23.3.63
Goodwood
Spun off
15.3.63
Brands Hatch
Spun off
28.4.63
Snetterton
1st Prize
5.5.63
Snetterton
2nd Prize
19.5.63
Brands Hatch
1st Prize
3.6.63
Snetterton
1st Prize
8.6.63
Aintree
1st Prize
22.6.63
Goodwood
1st Prize
23.6.63
Cadwell Park
1st Prize
13.7.63
Oulton Park
1st prize
14.7.63
Snetterton
2nd Prize
27.7.63
Phoenix Park Ireland
3rd Prize
5.8.63
Aintree
Circuit lap record
18.8.63
Cadwell Park
1st Prize
22.863
Goodwood
Practice6
Notes
1. The Times, 21/2/70.
2. Statement of the West Cheshire coroner in ruling that there was no reason to hold an inquest into the death of Jack Mills, who died on 4 February 1970 at Barony Hospital, Nantwich, Cheshire (Ellis, Ellis & Bolton solicitors, Crewe).
3. HO 287/1496 (originally closed until 1995; opened 1996).
4. DPP 2/3718, 2 of 6 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version
25/6/10).
5. DPP 2/3717, Report 17 (originally closed until 2045; redacted version 25/6/10).
6. ASSI 13/658 (opened 1994).
ABBREVIATIONS
AN
BTC/BRB papers at TNA
ASSI
Courts of Assize files at TNA
BL
British Library
BPMA
British Postal Museum & Archive
BRB
British Railways Board
BT
Board of Trade
BTC
British Transport Commission
BTCP
British Transport Commission Police
CAB
Cabinet
CFS
Company Fraud Squad (Section C6 of CID Department C)
CID
Criminal Investigation Department
CPS
Crown Prosecution Service
CRO
Criminal Record Office (Section C4 of CID Department C)
DDG
Deputy Director General
DE
Daily Express
DPP
Director of Public Prosecutions
DPS
Director of Postal Services
FOI
Freedom of Information
FO
Foreign Office
GPO
General Post Office
HMB
Home Mails Branch
HO
Home Office
HVP
High Value Packet
IB
Post Office Investigation Branch (known as POID after 1967)
J
Ministry of Justice
LO
Law Officers
LPR
London Postal Region
NLW
National Library of Wales
MEPO
Metropolitan Police
NLW
National Library of Wales
OMB
Overseas Mails Branch
PACE
Police and Criminal Evidence Act
PHG
Postman Higher Grade
PO
Post Office
POID
Post Office Investigation Department
PMB
Postal Mechanisation Branch
PMB (S)
Postal Mechanisation Branch – Security
PMG
Postmaster General
PSD
Postal Services Department
RDC
Rural District Council
RM
Royal Mail
SRA
Solicitors Regulatory Authority
TNA
The National Archive, Kew
TPO
Travelling Post Office
TUC
Trades Union Congress
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Coates, Tim, The Great British Train Robbery (SP, 2003)
Delano, Anthony, Slip-Up (Coronet, 1986)
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Fordham, Peta, The Robbers’ Tale (Hodder & Stoughton, 1965)
Foreman, Freddie, The Godfather of British Crime (John Blake, 2008)
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Hoskins, Percy, Two Men Were Acquitted (Secker & Warburg, 1984)
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Richards, Ross, The Great Train Robbery (Consul Books, 1964)
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Sandbrook, Domnic, Never Had It So Good; 1956–63 (Little, Brown, 2005)
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PLATES
One of the earlier London–Brighton mail train robberies in August 1962 reported in the Daily Express. (Author’s collection)
February 1963. The boldest train robbery yet failed to go to plan but succeeded in making the front pages. (Express newspapers)
Bridego Bridge, half a mile down the line from where the train was ambushed. It was here the robbers unloaded the HVP coach and passed the mailbags down the embankment by human chain. (Thames Valley Police)
Discovered five days after the robbery, Leathersl
ade Farm was dubbed ‘Robbers’ Roost’ by BBC TV News reporters. The police referred to it as ‘one big clue’. (Thames Valley Police)
On 15 August, four bags containing £100,900 were found in woods near Dorking. Recently opened files at last reveal who the money belonged to and why they dumped it in the middle of the night. (Thames Valley Police)
The police announce the names of the first three suspects. (Evening Standard)
Concealed behind a timber panel in Jimmy White’s Reigate caravan, police discovered £30,440 in stolen banknotes. (Surrey Police)
As the result of a mystery phone call, police found two sacks of stolen money in a Camberwell telephone box. New information suggests a deal had been done between the police and one of the gang. (Author’s collection)
Commander George Hatherill, head of CID at Scotland Yard, had been given a list of those who had taken part in the robbery by an informant. (Author’s collection)
The Daily Mirror dubbed Commander Hatherill’s informant ‘The Squealer’. (Mirror group)
Detective Superintendent Gerald McArthur and Detective Superintendent Malcolm Fewtrell co-ordinated the Buckinghamshire side of the investigation from Aylesbury Police Station. (Author’s collection)