The Great Train Robbery
Buckinghamshire, England, 1963
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
Shortly after 3 am on 8 August 1963, the night mail train from Glasgow to London stopped at a red signal at Sears Crossing, in Buckinghamshire. The gang had covered the signal's green light with a glove and lit the red one with a battery. The driver was struck on the head, and the valuables carriage was taken to Bridego Bridge, where the thieves passed the money sacks to a lorry.
A hundred and twenty sacks were taken, holding about 2.6 million pounds in used banknotes, most of it never recovered. The plan relied on information from someone inside the postal service, whose identity was never confirmed. The gang hid at Leatherslade Farm, some 43 kilometres away; reported by a local herdsman, the farm yielded fingerprints on a Monopoly board, played with real money, and on a ketchup bottle. In 1964, several of the main thieves were sentenced to 30 years in prison, and two of them escaped from jail in the following years.
Sources
In the game
Red Signal
The English countryside, August 1963, Thursday, 3:05 am. The night mail train from the north to London has stopped at a red signal in the middle of the fields, at Mill Crossing.
The game borrows the signal tampered with using a glove, the mail train stopped in the middle of the countryside and the informant who knew what was in the valuables carriage. Characters, investigative details and outcome are fiction.
