Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who established a mansion here and gained possession of the garden and orchard of Ely Place, the London seat of the Bishops of Ely. It remained in the Hatton family and was built up as a stylish residential development in the reign of King Charles II. For some decades it often went, outside of the main street, by an alternative name St Alban's Holborn, after the local church built in 1861.
Anthony Edward Martin is a farmer from Norfolk, England, who shot a burglar dead in his home in August 1999. There was much sympathy for Martin and enthusiastic support for the right to defend one's own home. However, prosecutors cast doubt on his evidence and pointed out that he did not have a valid firearms certificate. Martin was convicted of murder, later reduced to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility and served three years in prison, having been denied parole.
The Brink's-Mat robbery was one of the largest robberies in British history, with £26 million worth of gold bullion, diamonds, and cash stolen. It occurred at the Heathrow International Trading Estate, London, on 26 November 1983, from a warehouse operated by Brink's-Mat, a former joint venture between US security company Brink's and London-based company MAT Transport. The bullion was the property of Johnson Matthey Bankers Ltd. Micky McAvoy and Brian Robinson were convicted of armed robbery. Most of the gold has never been recovered. Lloyd's of London paid out for the losses, and several shooting deaths have been linked to the case.
The Crime Museum is a collection of criminal memorabilia kept at New Scotland Yard, headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service in London, England. Known as the Black Museum until the early 21st century, the museum came into existence at Scotland Yard sometime in 1874, arising out of the collection of prisoners' property gathered as a result of the Forfeiture Act 1870 and intended as an aid to the police in their study of crime and criminals. Initially unofficial, it had become an official if private museum by 1875, with a police inspector and a police constable assigned to official duty there. Not open to the public, it was used as a teaching collection for police recruits and was only ever accessible by those involved in legal matters, royals and other VIPs.
The Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery took place on 12 July 1987 in Cheval Place, Knightsbridge, England, part of the City of Westminster in London. This robbery, the Banco Central burglary at Fortaleza, and the $900 million stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq in 2003 are said to be the largest bank robberies in history.
The 2006 Securitas depot robbery in Tonbridge, England, was the UK's largest cash heist. It began with a kidnapping on the evening of 21 February 2006 and ended in the early hours of 22 February, when seven criminals stole almost £53 million. The gang left behind another £154 million because they did not have the means to transport it.
Tamara Ecclestone Rutland is a British model, socialite, television personality, and the daughter of Bernie Ecclestone, the former chief executive of the Formula One Group, and model Slavica Radić.
The Baker Street robbery was the burglary of safety deposit boxes at the Baker Street branch of Lloyds Bank in London, on the night of 11 September 1971. A gang tunnelled 40 feet (12 m) from a rented shop two doors away to come up through the floor of the vault. The value of the property stolen is unknown, but is likely to have been between £1.25 million and £3 million; only £231,000 was recovered by the police.
The Johnson Gang is the collective name for a group of Romanichal criminals from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, who specialised in stealing fine art and antiques from English country houses over a period of 20 years. The goods they stole are estimated to be worth between £30 million and £80 million. The gang were sentenced to a total of 49 years in prison in August 2008.
The Graff Diamonds robbery took place on 6 August 2009 when two men posing as customers entered the premises of Graff Diamonds in New Bond Street, London and stole jewellery worth nearly £40 million. It was believed to be the largest ever gems heist in Britain at the time, and the second largest British robbery after the £53 million raid on a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in 2006. The robbers' haul totalled 43 items of jewellery, consisting of rings, bracelets, necklaces and wristwatches. One necklace alone has been reported as being worth more than £3.5m. Britain's previous largest jewellery robbery also took place at Graff's, in 2003.
The Bling Ring was a group of seven teenagers and young adults based in and around Calabasas, California, convicted of multiple thefts.
Blane David Nordahl is an American cat burglar, who was given the nickname "Burglar to the Stars" after his exploits at the homes of individuals such as Ivana Trump, Steven Spielberg, Curt Gowdy and Bruce Springsteen. A highly skilled burglar, at five feet-four inches and 150 pounds, Nordahl targeted the homes of wealthy individuals across the East Coast and showed an exclusive interest in stealing hallmarked antique Sterling silver. Despite his skill, he was arrested at least eight times and spent many years in prison. The exact sum of his thefts is uncertain, but a November 2000 U.S. News & World Report article attributed to him 150 burglaries across 10 states, to a value of $3 million. A 2004 profile the The New Yorker quoted an estimate that he had stolen over $10 million worth of silver in fifteen states.
The Pearcy murders took place on November 11 or 12, 2009 in Pearcy, Arkansas, a small town in the center of the state right outside of Hot Springs. A total of four related people and the girlfriend of one victim were shot to death during two burglaries; four bodies were found in a mobile home belonging to victims Edward Gentry, Jr. and his wife Pam. The mobile home had been burned to destroy evidence. The fifth victim, Edward Gentry Sr., was found in another structure on the property. Jeremy Pickney, Marvin Stringer and Samuel Conway, all in their early twenties, were quickly identified as suspects due to their possessing stolen goods from the Gentry trailer. Stringer was killed during a shootout in a police raid when authorities attempted to arrest him at the Red Roof Inn on East Grand Ave.
Events from 2016 in England
The Bonded Vault heist was the August 1975 robbery of the Bonded Vault Company, a commercial safe-deposit business occupying a vault inside Hudson Fur Storage in Providence, Rhode Island. It served as the unofficial "bank" used by the Patriarca crime family and associates. The stolen valuables were worth about $30 million. According to The Providence Journal, it was among the biggest heists in US history and resulted in the longest and costliest criminal trial in Rhode Island history.
The Hatton Garden Job, also known as One Last Heist, is a 2017 British crime film. The film is a dramatization of real-life events in April 2015, when the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company, based underground in the Hatton Garden area of central London, was burgled by four elderly men, all experienced thieves. The film was directed by Ronnie Thompson and stars Larry Lamb, Matthew Goode, and Joely Richardson.
Hatton Garden: the Heist is a British action film of 2016, based on the true story of the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary in Hatton Garden, London, in April 2015, carried out by a group of elderly career criminals.
George Henry "Taters" Chatham was a British thief and burglar. Born to a middle-class family, he aspired to become a professional footballer but despite a trial at Queen's Park Rangers, nothing came of it. Chatham turned to crime and was first convicted of theft in 1931. By the end of that decade he was burgling the houses of wealthy Londoners, carefully selecting his targets from society magazines. His calm-headedness led to his nickname from the Cockney rhyming slang for cold.
Brian Henry Reader was a British gangster and villain, who has been described as "one of the busiest crooks in the British underworld", and a "ringleader" of the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary in 2015.
