The Great Train Robbery (Part IV)

Fate of the robbers

Following the deaths of Goody on 29 January 2016, and Tommy Wisbey on 30 December 2016, Bob Welch is the only remaining known member of the gang known still alive. In later years, the robbers generally came together only for the funerals of their fellow gang members. Wilson's funeral on 10 May 1990 was attended by Bruce Reynolds, who reported seeing Edwards, Roy James (who got into a verbal argument with the press), Welch (hobbling on crutches) and White (who went unnoticed due to his ability to blend into the background). At Edwards's funeral in 1994, Reynolds saw only Welch. (Hussey, Wisbey and James were all in prison at the time.)

Brian Field

After being sentenced on 16 April 1964, Field served four years of his five-year sentence. He was released in 1967. While he was in prison, his wife Karin divorced him and married a German journalist. Karin wrote an article for the German magazine Stern. She confirmed that she took Roy James to Thame railway station so he could go to London and that she led a convoy of two vans back to her house, where the gang were joined by wives and girlfriends for a big party to celebrate the crime.  When Reynolds returned to the UK in 1968, he tried to contact Field as this was the only way he could get in touch with the "Ulsterman". It seems that Field was ambushed upon his release from prison by a recently released convict, "Scotch Jack" Buggy, who presumably roughed up or even tortured Field with a view to extorting some of the loot from the robbery. Subsequently, Field went to ground and Buggy was killed shortly after. Reynolds gave up trying to find Field.

Field changed his name to Brian Carlton to disappear. Sometime after his release from prison he married Sian, from Wales. In the mid/late 1970s they worked for the Children's Book Center(since sold) in Kensington High Street, London. Field and his wife Sian were responsible for the company's operations in central and southern Europe, to where they shipped English language books and held book fairs at international English schools. Field, aged 44, and Sian, aged 28, died in a car crash on the M4 motorway on 27 April 1979, a year after the last of the robbers had completed their sentences. The accident occurred as they returned from a visit to Sian's parents in Wales. A Mercedes driven by Amber Bessone, the pregnant 28-year-old daughter of well-known hairdresser Raymond Bessone (Mr Teasy Weasy) crossed a damaged section of the guard rail and slammed into Field's oncoming Porsche. The Fields, Amber, her husband and two children were all killed instantly. It was several weeks after the accident that Field's true identity was discovered. It is not clear whether his wife Sian ever knew of his past.

Charlie Wilson

The last of the robbers released, (after serving about one-third of his sentence) Wilson returned to the life of crime and was found shot dead at his villa in Marbella, Spain, on 24 April 1990. His murder was thought to be related to suspected cheating in drug-dealing.  He is buried in Streatham Cemetery.

Buster Edwards. After he was released, he became a flower seller outside Waterloo station.  His story was dramatized in the 1988 film Buster, with Phil Collins in the title role.  Edwards died in a garage in November 1994, allegedly committing suicide by hanging himself.  His family continued to run the flower stall after his death.

Roy James. James went back to motor racing following his release on 15 August 1975. However he crashed several cars and his chances of becoming a driver quickly faded. After the failure of his sporting career, he returned to his trade as a silversmith. He produced the trophy given to Formula One promoters each year thanks to his acquaintance with Bernie Ecclestone.  In 1982, he married a younger woman, but the marriage soon broke down. By 1983, James and Charlie Wilson had become involved in an attempt to import gold without paying excise duty. James was acquitted in January 1984 for his part in the swindle.  In 1993, he shot and wounded his father in-law, pistol-whipped and partially strangled his ex-wife, after they had returned their children for a day's outing. He was sentenced to six years in jail. In 1996, James underwent triple-bypass surgery and was subsequently released from prison in 1997, only to die almost immediately afterwards on 21 August after another heart attack. He was the fifth member of the gang to die, despite being the youngest.

Roger Cordrey.  Cordrey was the first of the robbers released, but his share of the theft had almost entirely been recovered by the police. He went back to being a florist at his sister's business upon his release. He is now dead, and his son Tony has publicly acknowledged his dad confirmed that Bill Boal was innocent of any involvement in the robbery.

Bruce Reynolds.  Bruce Reynolds, the last of the robbers to be caught, was released from prison on 6 June 1978 after serving 10 years. Reynolds, then aged 47, was helped by Gordon Goody to get back on his feet, before Goody departed for Spain.  By October 1978, day-release ended and he had to report to a parole officer. Frank Monroe, one of the three robbers who was never caught, temporarily gave Reynolds a job, but did not want to attract undue attention by employing him for too long. Reynolds later got back together with his wife Angela and son Nicholas. He was arrested in 1983 for drug-related offenses (Reynolds denied having any involvement). He was released again in March 1985 and dedicated himself to helping his wife recover from a mental breakdown. In 2001, he and his son Nicholas traveled with reporters from The Sun newspaper to take Biggs back to Britain.  In 2010, he wrote the afterword for Signal Red, Robert Ryan's novel based on the robbery, and he regularly commented on the robbery. He died in his sleep, aged 81, on 28 February 2013.

John Daly Upon his acquittal and release, and after finding his share of the loot stolen and/or destroyed, Daly gave up his life of crime and went "straight". He and his wife Barbara and their three children moved to Cornwall, where he worked as a street sweeper until the age of 70, known to the locals as Gentleman John or John the Gent. Daly told no one about the robbery as he was told he could face a retrial. He died six weeks after his brother-in-law Reynolds.

Ronnie Biggs

On 6 August 2009, Biggs was granted release from prison on "compassionate grounds", due to a severe case of pneumonia and other ongoing health problems.  In 2011 he updated his autobiography, Odd Man Out: The Last Straw. Having suffered a series of strokes after his release, and unable to speak for the previous three years, Biggs died at the Carlton Court Care home, London on 18 December 2013.

Tommy Wisbey and Big Jim Hussey

Tommy Wisbey was luckier than most of the others, in that his loot had been entrusted to his brothers, and when he emerged, he had a house in South London and a few other investments to keep him going. During his prison stint, his daughter Lorraine had died in a car accident. He took a while to learn how to live harmoniously with his wife Rene (his daughter Marilyn having moved out upon his return). Shortly after his release, Wisbey was imprisoned on remand over a swindle involving travelers' cheques. The judge acknowledged the minor nature of his role.

Jim Hussey was released on 17 November 1975 and married girlfriend Gill (whom he had met just before the robbery). Hussey's share of the loot had been entrusted to a friend of Frank Monroe who squandered it despite Monroe periodically checking on its keeper.

Wisbey and Hussey fell back into crime and were jailed in 1989 for cocaine dealing, with Wisbey sentenced to 10 years and Hussey to seven years. In her book Gangster's Moll, Marilyn Wisbey recounts that on 8 June 1988, after returning home from a visit to an abortion clinic and resting they were raided by the Drugs Squad. The raid uncovered 1 kg of cocaine and Rene and Marilyn Wisbey were arrested along with Jimmy Hussey, who had been spotted accepting a package from Wisbey in a park. Wisbey himself was captured a year later in Wilmslow, Cheshire. He was allegedly staying with another woman, to the shock of his wife and daughter. In return for Hussey and Wisbey pleading guilty, the two women were unconditionally freed.  Upon their release from prison, both men retired from work.

Wisbey later explained: "We were against drugs all our lives, but as the years went on, towards the end of the '70s, it became more and more the 'in' thing. Being involved in the Great Train Robbery, our name was good. They knew we had never grassed anyone, we had done our time without putting anyone else in the frame".  On 26 July 1989, the two men pleaded guilty and admitted at Snaresbrook Crown Court, London that they were a part of a £500,000 cocaine trafficking ring.  Wisbey's grandson has also had trouble with the law in Cyprus.

Bob Welch.  Bob Welch (born March 1929) was released on 14 June 1976. He was the last of those convicted in Aylesbury to be released. Welch moved back in with his wife June and his son. He threatened the man left in charge of his share of the theft to retrieve the remainder. A leg injury sustained in prison forced him to undergo several operations, which left him disabled.

Douglas (Gordon) Goody.  He was released from prison on 23 December 1975, aged 46 and went to live with his ill mother in her small cottage in Putney. Unlike the other robbers, he was exceptionally lucky in that the man he left in charge of his affairs was loyal and successful so he was able to live a relatively well-off life. In his final years of incarceration Goody had taken full benefit of the newly established education college at Wormwood Scrubbs and studied Spanish to GCE standard.

He later moved to Mojacar, southern Spain, where he bought property and a bar and settled down, believing it safer to be out of the United Kingdom.  He was at one point accused of cannabis smuggling but ultimately cleared.  He continued to live in Mojacar until his death on 29 January 2016, following an illness.

The ones who got away

While there has been a lot of mystery surrounding several of the gang who were not imprisoned, in reality the police knew almost the entire gang almost instantly. By 29 August 1963 Commander Hatherill had 14 names, and told police that Brian Field had tried to enlist another gang to rob the train, which turned him down. Hatherill's list was unerringly accurate—all the major gang members who were later jailed were identified, except Ronnie Biggs. With the exception of the minor accomplices Lennie Field, Bill Boal and the train driver, the list was complete, although of course "The Ulsterman" was not identified. In terms of the ones who got away, there were four others identified: Harry Smith, Danny Pembroke, a fair-haired man (25 years old and well-spoken, not named) and a nondescript man (not named but maybe Jimmy Collins).

In 2019, Pembroke's son, also called Danny, confirmed that his father was present during the raid. He escaped detection as he always wore gloves, including at the hideout at the farm, and went outside to the toilet rather than using the one inside the house. The son stated that Pembroke, whose share of the loot was £150,000 (about £3 million in 2019), died in 2015 aged 79.

Both Piers Paul Read and Bruce Reynolds refer to three robbers who got away as Bill Jennings, Alf Thomas and Frank Monroe.

Bill 'Flossy' Jennings a.k.a. Mr One

Piers Paul Read refers to this man as Bill Jennings in The Train Robbers, while Bruce Reynolds adds a nickname, 'Flossy'. Ronnie Biggs refers to him as Mr One, as do other accounts. According to Bruce Reynolds, "Flossy had no previous convictions and stayed well out of contact with the group. A shadowy figure, nobody knew exactly where he lived—or even what his real name was. All we knew that he was one hundred per cent, and was sure to last out the hullabaloo. The last report of him said that he was in a safe house, banged up with two gorgeous girls and enough champagne to sink a battleship."

It is clear that while Reynolds claims to not have known his real name, 'Flossy' was not just a participant in the Great Train Robbery; he was a core part of the gang who participated in the London Airport robbery. This robbery was the audacious raid that Gordon Goody and Charlie Wilson were acquitted of. That raid consisted of Roy James and Mickey Ball as the getaway drivers, with six robbers—Bruce Reynolds, Buster Edwards, Gordon Goody, Charlie Wilson, Flossy (and a sixth man who did not participate in the train robbery). In the end the only one caught after the airport raid was Mickey Ball, who pleaded guilty to being a getaway driver when a witness mistook him for Flossy, and to avoid being blamed for the actual violence he agreed to plead guilty as an accomplice, and was in prison during the Great Train Robbery. He was given £500 from the proceeds of the Train Robbery.

Henry Thomas 'Harry' Smith (born 20 October 1930) is believed to be Flossy, and unlike most other robbers, actually got to spend his share of the loot, buying 28 houses and also a hotel and drinking club in Portsmouth. Smith died in 2008. Smith was the only man not ultimately arrested that was on both the Hatherill list, and Tommy Butler's list.

Danny Pembroke (Frank Monroe)

Danny Pembroke was an ex-army man who was a South London taxi driver and a South Coast Raider. At Leatherslade Farm he was the most careful of the gang, and nothing was ever found to associate him with the robbery, despite the police being satisfied that he was one of the gang, and had searched his house in September 1963. However, afraid that he would be betrayed, he did a deal with Frank Williams and paid back £47,245. Following the robbery, Pembroke left for America for a couple of years, knowing he was set up for life, and then returned to live quietly in Kent. He died aged 79 from a heart attack, at home and in his sleep on 28 February 2015. Pembroke had five children, and his son Danny Jr., admitted to his involvement in a Channel Four documentary in August 2019. According to Bruce Reynolds, Monroe, who was never caught, worked as a film stunt man for a while before starting a paper and scrap metal recycling business.

The Replacement Train Driver a.k.a. Pops/Dad a.k.a. Peter a.k.a. Stan Agate

The replacement train driver was never caught, and never suspected of even existing by police, due to the fact that Jack Mills in the end had to drive the train. He also never profited from the crime, as Ronnie Biggs never paid him his £20,000 "drink". The driver, of course, was not a member of the gang (as defined by receiving an equal share), just an accomplice.

Piers Paul Read called the replacement train driver "Stan Agate", and Stan was apparently the true nickname of the replacement driver. Read, concerned that the robbers may have hurt him, went to see Ronnie Biggs in Brazil to get his details, although was dismayed to find that Biggs did not know his last name and knew and cared very little about him. With the meager details provided, Read used a detective agency to track down the driver at a town 20 miles south of London, and found that he was still alive, although somewhat senile and being cared for by his wife. The wife admitted that she had burnt all the clothes that he had worn that night, and had nervously waited for either the gang to murder him or the police to arrest him. Read promised not to reveal their identities.  Unlike the other three members of the gang who got away, Peta Fordham does make mention of the replacement driver, but notes that he is said now to be dead, perhaps the robbers who provided material for the book did not want the police looking for him, as at the time of publishing (1965) Reynolds, White and Edwards were still on the run.

Ronnie Biggs, in his 1994 autobiography, Odd Man Out, said that Bruce Reynolds offered him a chance to join the gang, if he could find a train driver. Biggs was renewing the front windows of a train driver's house in Redhill, who he calls 'Peter' (and whom he believes to be dead by 1994). Ronnie offers him a £40,000 share of the profits, tells Reynolds and gives his address to John Daly who then proceeds to check him out. It seems that while he was an older man, he still had to apply for two weeks leave of absence from his job.  According to Biggs, 'Peter' was paid his £40,000 'drink', although other accounts claim otherwise. Biggs states that Mary Manson drove 'Peter' and John Daly home, while Reynolds drove Biggs home.