04/05/2005
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
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Oh dear, the teenies working for some of the junior websites, have become all excited over an interview with Bernie which appeared in the British paper, The Independent on 25th April.
A journalist, a Brian Viner, asked Bernie if it was true that he had planned the criminal heist that has become known as 'The Great Train Robbery'. If someone asked you to confess to a crime which could get you thirty years banged up inside, would you confess? It was a daft question.
The background should be explained. In 1963 a mail train running from Glasgow to London was held up by someone changing the signal. On the train were many sacks of old banknotes, they were on their way to being burned. These notes were used and not numbered in sequence, which is the dream of every criminal. The total involved was £2,631,784 and, in today's money, that is fifty million pounds. It remains the biggest heist in history because it was in actual money; if you steal gold you have to fence it and all fences want their cut.
Most of the crooks involved in the train robbery were low level thugs. The gang leader, Bruce Reynolds, posed as a dealer in antiques. Reynolds was often to be seen with all the right passes at Goodwood. Reynolds knew people in motor racing on a social level. When people asked him what he did for a living, he replied he dealt in antiques, he did not say, 'I'm a thief posing as a dealer in antiques.' He was well turned out, drove an Aston Martin, and appeared to be what he claimed.
The other motor racing character was Roy James, nicknamed 'The Weasel'. James was a silversmith and a gifted one, he could make metal sing. It would have been 1962 when Roy James first came to my attention, I was in karting and he was splashed over the cover of one of the two British karting magazines. He was the hot thing in karting. Over the winter of 1962/3 he arrived at Motor Racing Developments with a brief case containing a lot of what Ron Tauranac describes as 'coin of the realm.'
Roy James was quick in his Brabham BT6, and he won races. I have seen it claimed that, up to late August he was the most successful driver in British racing, second being Jackie Stewart. It depends how you measure the wins. Roy James was in Formula Junior, but only in the UK, the really quick Brits were traipsing round Europe lifting money from the locals through the devious method of winning all the races and filling all the places.
Roy James was in his first season of racing cars, he did win races and he did make an impression. Come the Tourist Trophy Meeting at Goodwood in August, 1963, Roy James practised for the Formula Junior race on the Saturday and PC Plod arrived. Plod gave so much warning of his arrival that James was able to scarper.
His main, paying, profession was getaway driver. The police drove Ford Zephyrs so he stole Jaguars, the police are always a step behind, as is the FIA when it comes to cheating in motor racing. Roy favoured the Jaguar Mk II 3.4 litre, he thought it better balanced than the 3.8 and, as a thief, he had the choice. He was one of the two drivers at a payroll heist at Heathrow Airport in November 1962, the other driver was Micky Ball who left a careless fingerprint and was shut away, but kept his mouth closed.
Roy James bought his Brabham BT6 with his share of the Heathrow job, and some of the money from the heist was used to finance the train robbery. There was a farm to lease (the lawyer who did that was gaoled) and all but one of the vehicles were bought, not stolen. There was no getaway driver on the robbery, the money was handed down from the train in sacks by human chain and loaded on trucks and Land Rovers, the sheer physical size of the haul was huge.
The money was taken to a farmhouse where it was divvied up. The thieves spent their time playing Monopoly and, after they left, other thieves were employed to clean up the place, to wipe it for prints. They missed the Monopoly set, they missed the 'Get Out of Gaol Free' card and the main robbers went down for 30 years and served 12.
The crime caught the imagination of the press which dubbed it 'The Great Train Robbery'. In 1903 there was a movie of that name which is often cited at the first narrative film ever made.
Several movies have been based on the 1963 crime, and a recurring theme has been a mysterious mastermind behind the robbery, a man who has never been caught. One book on the heist is The Robber's Tale by Peta Fordham. She was the wife of one of the defence barristers and later became Crime Correspondent for The Sunday Times. Fordham says that there was a person on the London crime scene who planned jobs and sold the plans to criminals for a percentage of the take. This person, called 'the Ulsterman' by Fordham, was never actually involved in any crime, he merely sold his ideas.
The mysterious mastermind would have been in for about a third of the haul but what Fordham missed, and what has been missed by everyone else was that when the money was divided there was no stash of dough for 'Mr Big.' The money was divided, each of the robbers took away around £85,000 and Roy James called in on the wife of Micky Ball, the man who had not squealed over the Heathrow job and James left her with £12,500 in cash.
I believe that the first published accusation of a motor racing connection to 'The Great Train Robbery' is in Ted Simon's book, The Chequered Year (publ. Cassell, 1971). It's a great book which tells the inside story of the establishment of March Engineering and follows the team through its first season.
Ted Simon quoted one of the March mechanics, John Woodington. and you can find it on page 125. Woodington says, "That film (Grand Prix) and the Great Train Robbery must have put more money into motor racing than anything else...there are still teams being run on the proceeds...They caught one of the drivers he'd doing thirty years. The other one disappeared, but he was killed two years ago, so it doesn't matter too much."
There was no getaway driver, even in 1970 the story was confused. In the confused version another racing driver has been credited with driving one of the Jaguars on the Heathrow job and this person was indeed killed in a racing accident in 1968. Fine, except it's an invention, Micky Ball never raced and wasn't killed.
As the 'Transport Captain' on the heist, most vehicles were bought, Roy James received a 30 year sentence and served just under 12 years. He kept alive his ambition to make it as a racing driver, he was good, no doubt about it. When he was released Roy James tested a car, crashed it, broke a leg and called it a day.
In 1970, when Woodington was interviewed, Bernie had just returned to motor racing, as Jochen Rindt's manager. He had raced himself in the early 1950s and then had become adviser to a friend of his, Stuart Lewis Evans, who would drive for Ferrari (briefly), Aston Martin and, most memorably, for Vanwall.
When Connaught went bust in 1957 the effects of the team were auctioned and Bernie bought one of the F1 cars and sent it Down Under for Lewis Evans to drive over the Winter of 1957/8. Bernie even attempted to qualify the Connaught himself at the 1958 Monaco GP, though he couldn't do that today. At the end of the season, Lewis Evans crashed in the Moroccan GP and received burns from which he died. Bernie was devastated, he had been close to Stuart and the Lewis Evans family.
It would be ten years before Bernie again played an active role in motor racing, and then as Rindt's manager. In fact, Bernie's reappearance on the scene coincided with the arrival of overt sponsorship in European racing. Apart from driving in F1 for Lotus, Rindt had an F2 team and the Jochen Rindt Racing Car Show. Considering that Jochen didn't win his first Grand Prix until October 1969, and was dead within 12 months, it sounds like he had a pretty good manager.
There was a motor racing connection to the Great Train Robber, but there was also an antiques connection, and a lawyer connection. The train robbery was in 1963, the film, Grand Prix was shot in 1966, John Woodington was interviewed in 1970, Ted Simon's book was published in 1971 and Bernie appeared as a team owner in 1972.
The dates do not hang together, yet a silly interview has been repeated by websites and print magazines. Do me a favour, guys, do yourselves a favour, try doing your homework.
To check out previous features from Mike, click here