The Great Train Robbery was the robbery of £2.61 million from a Royal Mail train travelling from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line in the early hours of 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England.
The Norrmalmstorg robbery was a bank robbery and hostage crisis that occurred at the Norrmalmstorg Square in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 1973 and was the first crime in Sweden to be covered by live television. It is best known as the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome.
Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach. It is a federal crime in the United States.
Charles Arthur Salvador better known by his professional name of Charles Bronson, is a British criminal, with a violent and notorious life as a prisoner. He has spent periods detained in the Rampton, Broadmoor, and Ashworth high-security psychiatric hospitals.
William Francis Sutton Jr. was an American bank robber. During his forty-year robbery career he stole an estimated $2 million, and he eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times. For his talent at executing robberies in disguises, he gained two nicknames, "Willie the Actor" and "Slick Willie". Sutton is also known as the namesake of the so-called Sutton's law, although he denied originating it.
The Spaghetti House siege took place between 28 September and 3 October 1975. An attempted robbery of the Spaghetti House restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, went wrong and the police were quickly on the scene. The three robbers took the staff down into a storeroom and barricaded themselves in. They released all the hostages unharmed after six days. Two of the gunmen gave themselves up; the ringleader, Franklin Davies, shot himself in the stomach. All three were later imprisoned, as were two of their accomplices.
John McVicar was a British journalist and convicted one-time armed robber who escaped from prison.
Francis Davidson Fraser, better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was an English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences.
Bruce Richard Reynolds was an English criminal who masterminded the 1963 Great Train Robbery. At the time it was Britain's largest robbery, netting £2,631,684, equivalent to £69 Million today. Reynolds spent five years on the run before being sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment in 1969. He was released in 1978. He also wrote three books and performed with the band Alabama 3, for whom his son, Nick, plays.
Bernard Paul "Barney" Coy was an American bank robber and federal prisoner best known as the planner of a failed escape attempt from Alcatraz, on May 2, 1946, which turned into a bloody two-day armed confrontation leaving Coy, two fellow would-be escapees and two prison guards dead.
On 6 October 1972, at a one-teacher school in the rural town of Faraday in Victoria, Australia, two plasterers, Edwin John Eastwood and Robert Clyde Boland, kidnapped six female pupils and their teacher for a $1,000,000 ransom. The Victorian government claimed it would pay the ransom. The victims escaped and the criminals were captured, tried and convicted. Eastwood escaped and later kidnapped a teacher and nine pupils. He was again captured, convicted and sentenced. While in prison, Eastwood strangled convicted rapist Glen Davies in what was ruled self-defence. He was eventually released, having served his sentence.
John Lazia, also known as Brother John, was an American organized crime figure in Kansas City, Missouri, during Prohibition.
Derek Creighton "Bertie" Smalls was considered by many as Britain's first supergrass. Although there have been informers throughout history – the Kray twins were partly convicted two years before Smalls on evidence given by Leslie Payne – the Smalls case was significant for three reasons: the first informer to give the police volume names of his associates and provide the evidence that would send dozens of them to prison to serve long sentences; the first criminal informer to strike a written deal with the Director of Public Prosecutions; the only criminal informer to serve no time for his crime in return for providing Queen's evidence.
James Alfred Moody was an English gangster and hitman whose career spanned more than four decades and included run-ins with Jack Spot, Billy Hill, "Mad" Frankie Fraser, the Krays, the Richardsons and the Provisional IRA. Described by police detectives as "extremely professional" and "extremely intimidating", Moody's speciality was robbing armoured trucks and he used a chainsaw to saw through the side of security vehicles.
Benjamin "Benny" Snyder or Schneider was an American criminal, union organizer and thug for hire during the turn of the century. A veteran gunman for New York labor racketeer Joseph "Joe the Greaser" Rosenzweig, his murder of Rosenzweig's rival Philip "Pinchy" Paul ended the first of the so-called "Labor Slugger Wars", which would continue on and off for well over a decade.
Linda Calvey is an English author. Before becoming an author she was principally known for committing armed robberies and serving a life sentence for the murder of her lover Ronnie Cook. She was known as the "Black Widow" because all of her lovers ended up either dead or in prison. Her novels are The Black Widow (2019), The Locksmith (2021) and The Game (2022).
Noel "Razor" Smith is a British writer and former criminal. He has spent the greater part of his adult life in prison, serving a life sentence for armed robbery. In prison he taught himself to read and write, gained an Honours Diploma from the London School of Journalism and an A-level in law. He has been awarded a number of Koestler awards for his writing and has contributed articles to the Independent, the Guardian, Punch, the Big Issue, the New Statesman and the New Law Journal. His autobiography, A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun, was published by Penguin in 2004. He went on to write A Rusty Gun: Facing Up To a Life of Crime in 2010 after serving at the unique rehabilitation prison HMP Grendon and moving to HMP Blantyre House, prior to being released on 12 May 2010.
Rédoine Faïd is a French gangster and serial jailbreaker, considered France's most wanted criminal in 2013.
Carlo Mastrototaro was an Italian-American gangster who served as a capo with the Genovese crime family, which was affiliated with the Patriarca crime family. Mastototaro reigned as local crime boss of Worcester, Massachusetts for half-a-century.
