A notorious Scots crimelord was the secret mastermind of the Great Train Robbery.
That’s the view of a top crime expert who was the last person to interview convicted train robber Ronnie Biggs.
Brian Anderson says he is convinced Glasgow gangster Arthur Thompson snr was the brains behind the 1963 heist, which saw £2.6million stolen from a train from Glasgow to London.
Brian photographed and interviewed Biggs shortly before his death but the robber was too ill to speak.
But asked if Thompson was the mastermind, Biggs winked and told Brian: “I’m not a grass”.
Anderson, who reveals the story in his new book Faces 2, said: “I’m more convinced than ever that Arthur Thompson was behind the Great Train Robbery. He was the brains, the mastermind.
“The train left Glasgow Central Station. I think he tipped the wink to the London mob.”
Thompson, who ruled Scotland’s crime world from his Ponderosa home in Glasgow’s east end, was friends with one of the train robbers, Buster Edwards, who attended the funeral of Thompson’s murdered son, Arthur Jr.
Thompson snr arranged “hits” for London gangsters including the Krays and they would do the same for the Glasgow Godfather on his home turf.
Brian’s suspicions were further raised when he photographed Biggs.
He arranged for the pair to meet in London and conducted the last interview and photo shoot.
By then, Biggs was severely ill. He had been released from prison despite serving just a fraction of his 30-year sentence and after suffering a series of strokes.
Unable to speak, Biggs used an ouija board to answer Brian when he quizzed him on the involvement of Arthur Thompson in the Great Train Robbery.
The response and knowing wink convinced Brian more than ever that Thompson was involved in the multi-million pound heist.
Brian said: “He couldn’t speak so he was using an ouija board.
“He pointed out the words that said, ‘I might have suffered a stroke and I might be in my 80s but I’m not a grass.’ He then winked at me.
“Ronnie was clearly telling me Arthur had a hand in the Great Train Robbery. That was a Scottish robbery because it was Scottish money that had left the banks.
“It was a holiday weekend and the Scottish money was being sent down to banks in London.
“I don’t think the robbery could have gone ahead without the approval of Arthur Thompson, who was running the city at that time.
“That was how things worked in those days.
“I don’t think something of that level could be organised without tapping into or getting the approval of Arthur Thompson who was running Glasgow at that time.”
Anderson reveals the claim in his new book, based on his life photographing and interviewing the UK’s most feared crime figures.
Brian, 53, has spent over 30 years meeting high-ranking gangsters, including notorious Scots crime lord Thompson snr, as well as armed robbers, hitmen and Irish paramilitaries exiled to the mainland.
Brian’s photographs are part of a planned trilogy of books, Faces 1, 2 and 3, charting the lives of the gangsters and a window into an underworld normally hidden from view.
He undertook the project believing the images provide an important element of social history.
Among the photographs are the last photographs of Biggs, after introducing him to Scots armed robber Ian “Blink” MacDonald.
Thompson started out in the 50s as a money lender in Glasgow but moved into drugs in the 80s.
He ruled the city’s crime scene and was rumoured to have raked in £100,000 a week from protection rackets and survived several assassination attempts, before he died from a heart attack in 1993, aged 61.
The Great Train Robbery involved the theft of £2.61million, the equivalent of £70million today, taken from a Royal Mail train that had departed on August 8, 1963, from Glasgow Central Station bound for London Euston.
After tampering with the signals to bring the train to a halt, a gang of 15, led by Thompson’s pal Bruce Reynolds, held up the train at a railway bridge in Buckinghamshire in the early hours. With planning based on inside information, the robbers escaped and the bulk of the money was never recovered.
Though the gang did not use any firearms, Jack Mills, the train driver, was beaten over the head with a metal bar and suffered serious head injuries.
After the robbery, the gang hid at a nearby farm.
The police found the hideout within five days, and incriminating evidence, including a Monopoly board with fingerprints, but by then the gang had fled. Two informants helped to identify almost all of those involved.
In the end, two informants helped to identify almost all of those involved. Biggs was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the crime. He escaped from Wandsworth prison 15 months into his term and fled to Paris for plastic surgery then on to Sydney.
In 1969, with the police closing in on him, Biggs fled to Brazil, which didn’t have an extradition treaty with the UK. In 2001, he returned to the UK where he was arrested and imprisoned. After a series of strokes he was released in 2009. He died on December 18, 2013, aged 84, and with him took the secret of a number of accomplices who were never apprehended to his grave.
Brian Anderson’s Faces and Faces 2 are available from www.glasgoweyes.com
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