First Great Train Robbery

With all the characteristics of an exciting crime thriller, the extraordinary true story of the crime which inspired Michael Crichton's novel and subsequent film, The Great Train Robbery

Taking readers from the initial idea of the robbery, through its careful planning, to the raid and its subsequent investigation, this book explains how a truly fascinating real-life mystery was eventually solved. In May of 1855, the citizens of Victorian Great Britain were shocked to read in their morning edition of the Times that £12,000 (approximately $19,500) worth of gold bars and other valuables had been stolen from a train traveling between London and Paris. This carefully planned theft of what would be more than £1.5 million (approximately $2.4 million) in today's money was executed without violence and without explosives—its perpetrators relied on skill, teamwork, and intelligence. How could it have happened? The investigation that followed was long, exhaustive, and costly, but there were no suspects, no clues, no arrests, and no recovery of the gold. The robbers, whoever they were, had managed to pull off the crime of the century. This book exposes a scandalous cover-up by the South Eastern Railway Company and explains how an act of treachery on the part of two of the robbers ultimately led to a trial that gripped the public and the press in an unprecedented way.

David C. Hanrahan is a history professor who has worked as a historical consultant for the BBC and written for BBC History Magazine. He is the author of Colonel Blood: The Man Who Stole the Crown Jewels.