Mar 3, 2013

One of Britain’s most notorious heist stories is also one of the greatest crime stories of the 20th-century. The 1963 “Great Train Robbery” introduced the world to mastermind Bruce Reynolds and his gang of thieves, who robbed a Royal Mail night train traveling from Glasgow to London on August 8, 1963. Nearly $7 million was stolen, most of it never recovered.

Most recently, the death of Reynolds made headlines, coming just months before the 50th anniversary of the heist.

: August 8, 1963: Scene at Cheddington station, showing the Glasgow-London Royal mail train, which was attacked in the night by 15 armed robbers, including Ronnie Biggs, the right-hand of the “brain” Bruce Reynolds, who stole 120 bags containing 5 million dollars, mostly in used bank notes, near Bridego Bridge north of London. The “Great Train Robbery” of the Glasgow-London Royal Mail train in Buckinghamshire is one of the biggest hold-up in British history. (AFP/Getty Images)

: 1963: Investigators examine the Royal Mail train involved in the Great Train Robbery. (Evening Standard/Getty Images)

: August 1963: An aerial view of the Glasgow to London travelling post office (TPO) train near Bridego Railway Bridge in Buckinghamshire, England, after the 2.6 million pound ‘Great Train Robbery.’ (Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

: August 8, 1963: The Mail Train which was stopped on a bridge during ‘The Great Train Robbery’ so that it could be unloaded. (Keystone/Getty Images)

: August 13, 1963: Detective Superintendent Gerald McArthur in the grounds of the suspects’ hideout. Two and a half million pounds were stolen from a Royal Mail train and the crime became known as the Great Train Robbery. (Jim Gray/Keystone/Getty Images)

: August 16, 1963: Investigators at the scene of the Great Train Robbery at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire, watching a train on the bridge. (Evening Standard/Getty Images)

: August 16, 1963: Investigators at the scene of the Great Train Robbery at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire, watching a train on the bridge. (Evening Standard/Getty Images)

: August 16, 1963: Scene of the great train robbery with the train waiting on an embankment above a country road. (Evening Standard/Getty Images)

: 1963: Train driver Jack Mills, the hero of the ‘Great Train Robbery’ rests at home after the robbery. (Keystone/Getty Images)

: 1963: Police officers put bags of evidence into a car boot after the Great Train Robbery. (Evening Standard/Getty Images)

: August 27, 1963: Photos issued by Scotland Yard of great train robbers Bruce Reynolds (left) and Roy James in the aftermath of the 2.6 million pound train robbery committed on 8th August 1963. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

: 1963: English criminal Bruce Reynolds (left), a member of the gang which robbed a mail train of over two million pounds at Cheddington, Buckinghamshire, with (from left) his wife, Frances, Barbara Daly and John Daly. (J. Wilds/Keystone/Getty Images)

: Three of the suspects arrested in connection with the ‘Great Train Robbery’, photographed leaving Linslade court with blankets over their heads. (Central Press/Getty Images)

: November 18, 1968: Bruce Reynolds, leader of the gang, which committed the 2.6 million pound ‘Great Train Robbery’ in August 1963, outside Linslade Court, Buckinghamshire. Since the robbery, Reynolds had been on the run abroad, before returning to Britain, where he was tried and sentenced to ten years in jail. (Aubrey Hart/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

: July 18, 1979: The Great Train Robbers, Roger Cordrey, Bruce Reynolds and Buster Edwards, at Waterloo Station, London, ready to go on a book promotion tour. (Central Press/Getty Images)

: The Great Train Robbers, left to right: Buster Edwards, Tom Wisbey, Jim White, Bruce Reynolds, Roger Cordrey, Charlie Wilson and Jim Hussey, with copies of their book ‘The Train Robbers’. (Michael Fresco/Getty Images)

Mastermind behind UK’s Great Train Robbery dies at 81
By Clare Hutchison | Reuters
9:25 a.m. EST, February 28, 2013

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – The mastermind behind Britain’s “Great Train Robbery”, a 1963 heist that turned its perpetrators into celebrities, has died aged 81, local media reported on Thursday.

Bruce Reynolds died in his sleep at his home in London after a period of ill health, reports from news media which included the BBC said, citing comments from Reynolds’s son, Nick.

His death comes just months before the 50th anniversary of the “Great Train Robbery,” that was at the time Britain’s largest robbery.

In August 1963, Reynolds, along with an 11-member gang, tampered with railway track signals and stopped a Royal Mail night train travelling from Glasgow to London carrying letters parcels and large amounts of cash.

Reynolds and his men stormed the train and made off with 2.6 million pounds, equivalent to about 40 million pounds in today’s money.

Train driver Jack Mills was struck over the head during the robbery. He died seven years later and many people believed the injuries he sustained during the heist contributed to his death.

Most of the gang were caught and given prison sentences totalling more than 300 years but Reynolds evaded capture, fleeing Britain with his wife and son. He spent five years as a fugitive in places as far afield as Canada and Mexico.

On his return to Britain, Reynolds was caught by police and sentenced 25 years in prison for the train heist, of which he served just 10.

Reynolds later found fame as an author after penning his memoirs titled “Autobiography of a Thief” and became a consultant on a crime film.

His accomplice Ronnie Biggs achieved similar notoriety after he escaped from the prison where he was serving a 30-year jail sentence for his part in the robbery.

Biggs spent 36 years on the run, leading a playboy lifestyle in South America, before finally surrendering to British police in 2001. Biggs was freed in 2009 on health grounds.

($1 = 0.6608 British pounds)

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