Robert Ryan: Signal Red

'And a new opo.'

'That, too. Where's the money?'

'Safe, well away from here. You'll want it back, I assume.'

Billy shook his head, then regretted it. 'Right now, I can't explain where it came from. It hasn't been missed. It might be more trouble than it's worth. How much was there?'

Tony sipped his own tea. 'I didn't stop to count it. You called to say the cossers were coming with a warrant and that you suspected something incriminating had been planted. I was lucky it was in the second car I searched. The Goggomobil. Under the wheel arch.'

Billy looked around at the workshop, the faded calendars on the wall, the half-empty tins of oil, the mounds of spare or discarded parts. 'You got anything keeping you here?'

' London? No. Just the stock out there.'

'Will the train money cover it?'

'A good part.'

'Shut the place up then. Go and lie low till the scream dies down.'

Tony's eyes narrowed, his voice full of suspicion. 'Why would you do that? Let me walk away – again?'

'Did you do the train, Tony?'

'No,' he was able to answer truthfully.

'I thought not. But they aren't going to care about details. They're building a bloody great steamroller and everyone in its path is going to get flattened.'

'I would've though,' the other man said softly. 'I bloody would have.'

'And where would you be now?'

Tony ran a hand through his hair. 'Is that your crime- doesn't-pay-speech?'

'Perhaps. The closest to one you're going to get, anyway.'

Tony stood and went over to the pegboard where the keys for the cars dangled from hooks. He picked off a set and tossed them to Billy. 'If you were a certain kind of copper, I would recommend the Ace. Best motor in the shop. I straightened the chassis. It'll need bushes on the back axle within six months, is all. Log book is in the desk drawer. Signal Red, very eye-catching.'

Billy stared at the ignition key in his hand, imagining driving down through country lanes, to a pub in Kent perhaps, with Patti at his side. And he wondered how he would explain to Patti – or Hatherill, for that matter – how he came by such a racy machine. 'If I was that kind of copper I'd take it.' He sighed and threw the keys back to Tony.

Tony snatched them from the air. 'And you're not?'

'Apparently,' Billy said, as if he were baffled himself.

'I don't understand.'

'No. I expect you don't. Thanks for the offer of the car anyway. I'd best get back.'

'You said something about a steamroller. What do you think they'll do? To the ones they've caught?'

Tony finished the tea and placed the mug on the bench. 'The Train Robbers? They'll throw the book at them.'

From The Times, 17 April 1964

GREAT PUNISHMENT FOR TRAIN ROBBERS

OBVIOUS MOTIVE OF GREED

SEVEN SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS' IMPRISONMENT

The heaviest series of sentences in modern British criminal history were imposed at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, yesterday on the 12 men guilty of being involved in last August's £2,600,000 mail train robbery. The effective total amounts to 307 years. Seven of the accused were each sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment. Earlier in the trial one of the defendants, John Daly, was found to have 'no case to answer', despite his fingerprints being found on a Monopoly board at the gang's hideout. Daly claimed to have played with his brother-in-law, Bruce Reynolds, still wanted in connection with the crime, some weeks before the robbery.

Passing sentence, the Judge, Mr Justice Edmund-Davies, said it would be positively evil if leniency were exercised. A great crime called for great punishment, not for mere retribution but to show others that crime did not pay – that the game was not worth even the most alluring candle.

FIRST AND LAST

As well as the seven who received sentences of 30 years, two more men were sent to prison for 25 years, one for 24, another to 20 and the twelfth man received 3 years.

Passing judgement on the twelve men, the Judge said that the crime, in its enormity, was the first of its kind in this country. 'I propose to do all within my power to ensure it will also be the last of its kind.

'Your outrageous conduct constitutes an intolerable menace to the well-being of society. Let us clear out of the way any romantic notion. This is nothing less than a sordid crime of violence, which was inspired by vast greed.

'The motive of greed is obvious. As to violence, anybody who has seen that nerve-shattered engine driver can have no doubt of the terrifying effect on law-abiding citizens of a concerted assault by armed robbers.'

All with the exception of Wheater (see table below) were found Guilty of conspiring together with other persons not in custody to stop the mail train with intent to rob the mail. All with the exception of Wheater, Cordrey and the two Fields (who are not related) were found Guilty of being armed with offensive weapons, robbing Frank Dewhurst, Post Office official on the train, of 120 mail bags.

Cordrey pleaded Guilty to three charges of receiving £78,983, £56,047 and £5,901.

Wheater and the two Fields were found Guilty of conspiring together to conceal the identity of the person who agreed to purchase Leatherslade Farm by making false statements to police officers, and thereby obstructing the course of justice.

In a separate trial, which ended on Wednesday, Ronald Arthur Biggs was found Guilty of conspiring to stop the train to rob it,

and also of taking part in the armed robbery. Like the majority of the defendants, he had pleaded Not Guilty.

Police still wish to interview Bruce Reynolds, Ronald Edwards and James White in connection with the robbery.

THE MEN AND THE SENTENCES

The men sentenced to 30 years were:

Ronald Arthur Biggs, aged 34, carpenter, of Alpine Road, Redhill, Surrey;

Douglas Gordon Goody, aged 34, hairdresser, of Commondale, Putney, S.W.;

Charles Frederick Wilson, aged 31, market trader, of Crescent Lane, Clapham, S.W.;

Thomas William Wisbey, aged 33, bookmaker, of Ayton House, Camberwell, S.E.;

Robert Welch, aged 34, club proprietor, of Benyon Rd, Islington, N.; James Hussey, aged 34, painter, of Eridge House, Dog Kennel Hill, East Dulwich, S.E.;

Roy John James, aged 28, racing motorist and silversmith, of Nell Gwynn House, Sloane Avenue, S.W.

The other sentences were:

William Boal, aged 50, engineer, of Burnthwaite Road, Fulham, S.W. – 24 years

Roger John Cordrey, aged 42, florist, of Hurst Road, East Molesey, Surrey – 20 years

Brian Arthur Field, aged 29, solicitor's managing clerk, of Kabri, Bridge Road, Whitchurch Hill, Oxfordshire – 25 years

Leonard Denis Field, aged 31, merchant seaman, of Green Lanes, Haringay, N. – 25 years

John Denby Wheater, aged 41, solicitor, of Otways Lane, Ashtead, Surrey – three years

Surrey, May 1992

Our feet crunched on the gravel as we opened the gate and I started my second journey up the drive to the house. Above us the moon was sagging in the sky, as if tired of the effort of staying aloft. I knew how it felt.

'How is he?' Bill Naughton asked, huffing slightly, his cheeks glowing from the cold night air.

' Roy? Up and down.'

'Personally, I don't think he was ever the same once he came out. I think that thirty-year jolt disturbed the balance of his mind,' Naughton said. 'Roy's, I mean. Even though none of them served the full whack, it must've been a psychological blow.'

'Devastating.' I remembered the outrage at the sentences – including my own numb sense of shock, especially as I could so nearly have been in that dock – and the instinctive, widespread feeling that they were disproportionate to the crime, the coshed driver notwithstanding. The Judge had intended to show the public that the country wouldn't tolerate such