This day in History: At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery on this day in 2006, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
At least 36 arrests were made during an extensive police investigation.
Other Securitas depots had been previously targeted in the mid-1990s, when ram-raiders in Liverpool and Manchester had stolen more than £2 million. The Northern Bank robbery in Belfast was previously the biggest cash theft in UK history, when £26.5 million was stolen in 2004. This record was broken by the Tonbridge heist. The largest cash heist in global history took place in March 2003, when approximately US$1 billion was stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq, shortly after the United States began the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
This Day In History: The Mona Lisa was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee, on this day 1911. This event caused weeping and gnashing of teeth in France. Thousands visited the Louvre to stare at the blank wall where the Mona Lisa hung. Many left notes, flowers and other gifts.
The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, was an Italian nationalist who stole the painting to return the work of art to Da Vinci's homeland of Italy. After 2 years, Peruggia was arrested trying to sell the painting to a Florence art dealer.
On the 50th anniversary of the theft of the Mona Lisa, August 21 1961, Francisco Goya's 1812 Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, was stolen from the National Gallery in London, by a thief named Kempton Bunton who had hidden inside the museum before it closed, then waited for the alarm system to be turned off. The portrait had recently been repurchased from American collector Charles Wrightsman for £140,000 ($392,000). Goya's masterpiece was finally recovered on May 21, 1965, at a luggage locker in the New Street railway station in Birmingham.
While the painting was sold to Charles Wrightsman, the British Government decided to buy the painting, for the same sum, to prevent the painting leaving Britain. This enraged Kempton Bunton who was already angry at the British government for their television licence fee. Apparently you have to buy a license in the UK if you want to watch live TV. This license/tax goes to fund the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).
The police initially assumed that an expert art thief was responsible, however Bunton was an overweight disabled retired bus driver who earned £8 a week pension in 1961. A letter was received by the Reuters news agency requesting a donation of £140,000 to charity to pay for TV licences for poorer people, and demanding an amnesty for the thief, after which the painting would be returned. The request was declined.
In 1965, four years after the theft, Bunton contacted a newspaper, and through a left-luggage office at Birmingham New Street railway station, returned the painting voluntarily. Six weeks later, he also surrendered to the police, who initially discounted him as a suspect, considering it unlikely that a 61-year-old retiree, weighing 240 lb could have carried out the theft.
During his trial, the jury convicted Bunton only of the theft of the frame, which had not been returned. Bunton's defence team, led by Jeremy Hutchinson QC, successfully claimed that Bunton never wanted to keep the painting, which meant he could not be convicted of stealing it. Bunton was sentenced to three months in prison.
The theft entered popular culture, with the 1962 James Bond film, Dr. No, showing the painting displayed in Dr. No's lair.
This day in history: The Great Train Robbery happened on this day in 1963. The Great Train Robbery was the robbery of £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train heading 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.
After tampering with the lineside signals to bring the train to a halt, a gang of 15, led by Bruce Reynolds, attacked the train.
With careful planning based on inside information from an individual known as "The Ulsterman", named (erroneously) as Patrick McKenna in 2014, the robbers escaped with over £2.6 million (equivalent to £58 million today). The bulk of the stolen money was never recovered. The gang did not use any firearms; Jack Mills, the train driver, was beaten over the head with a metal bar. Mills suffered serious head injuries. After his partial recovery, he returned to work doing light duties. He retired in 1967 and died in 1970 due to an unrelated illness. He never overcame the trauma of the robbery.
The plan to intercept and rob the overnight Glasgow to London mail train was based on information from an unnamed senior security officer within Royal Mail who had detailed knowledge of the amounts of money carried; he was introduced to two of the criminals who would carry out the raid—Gordon Goody and Buster Edwards—by a London solicitor's clerk, Brian Field.
The raid was devised over a period of months by a core team: Goody and Edwards along with Bruce Reynolds, and Charlie Wilson, with Reynolds assuming the role of "mastermind". This gang, although very successful in the criminal underworld, had virtually no experience in stopping and robbing trains, so it was agreed to enlist the help of another London gang called The South Coast Raiders. This group included Tommy Wisbey, Bob Welch, and Jim Hussey, who were already 'accomplished train robbers'. This group also included Roger Cordrey, a man who was a specialist in this field and knew how to rig the track-side signals to stop the train.
Other associates (including Ronnie Biggs, a man Reynolds had previously met in jail) were added as the organization evolved. The final gang who took part in the raid comprised a total of 16 men.
After the robbery, the gang hid at Leatherslade Farm. The police found this hideout, and incriminating evidence led to the eventual arrest and conviction of most of the gang. The ringleaders were sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Today in History: On this day in 1984 a few teenagers accosted Bernhard Goetz on a New York City subway. Moments later, Bernhard Goetz pulled out his Smith & Wesson revolver and shot the four young men, in an incident that came to be known worldwide as the "1984 New York City Subway Shooting."
"During the early 1980s, New York City experienced unprecedented rates of crime. Murders during the decade averaged almost 2,000 a year and, in the city's increasingly dangerous subway system, thirty-eight crimes a day, on average, were reported. Citizens did not feel safe. It is not surprising, therefore, when the city's newspapers ran stories on the December 22 shooting on the IRT express, the shooter was widely praised for his actions: 'Finally,' many a New Yorker said, 'someone has had the courage to stand up to these thugs...'" ~Professor Douglas O. Linder
Goetz (the subway vigilante) became a household name, and is even referenced in Billy Joel's 1989 single "We Didn't Start the Fire", in Lou Reed's song "Hold On" from his 1989 album New York, and on "Stop the Train" from the 1989 Beastie Boys album Paul's Boutique. The 1993 film Falling Down was partly inspired by the shooting.
New York City also has the Guardian Angels vigilante group to pick up the slack where the police fail, started by Curtis Sliwa in the 1970's. There is also the Dark Guardian, aka Christopher Pollack. New York City resident Christopher Pollack "is a mild-mannered martial arts instructor, yet by night he dons an Avengers-like costume, one that comes equipped with a bulletproof vest, and fights crime under the moniker of 'The Dark Guardian.' During his superhero career, The Dark Guardian has apprehended muggers, broken up fights and at one point waged a war against local weed dealers." Source
This Day In History: The Mona Lisa was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee, on this day 1911. This event caused weeping and gnashing of teeth in France. Thousands visited the Louvre to stare at the blank wall where the Mona Lisa hung. Many left notes, flowers and other gifts.
Pablo Picasso was actually brought in for questioning about the theft of the painting.
The thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, was an Italian nationalist who stole the painting to return the work of art to Da Vinci's homeland of Italy. After 2 years, Peruggia was arrested trying to sell the painting to a Florence art dealer.
All of this has to make you wonder: What is all the fuss about the Mona Lisa?
One explanation is: "The subject’s softly sculptural face shows Leonardo’s skillful handling of sfumato, an artistic technique that uses subtle gradations of light and shadow to model form, and shows his understanding of the skull beneath the skin. The delicately painted veil, the finely wrought tresses, and the careful rendering of folded fabric reveal Leonardo’s studied observations and inexhaustible patience. And, although the sitter’s steady gaze and restrained smile were not regarded as mysterious until the 19th century, viewers today can appreciate her equivocal expression. Leonardo painted a complex figure that is very much like a complicated human."~Alicja Zelazko
Did you know that the Mona Lisa painting is also rather small, only 30 inches by 21 inches and weighs 18 pounds. This painting has also inspired a few deaths. "In 1852, an artist named Luc Maspero supposedly threw himself from the fourth floor of a Parisian hotel, leaving a suicide note that read: 'For years I have grappled desperately with her smile. I prefer to die.' In 1910, one enamored fan came before her solely to shoot himself as he looked upon her."~Kristy Puchko
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa has the highest ever insurance value for a painting. The Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million on December 14, 1962. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be around US$850 million in 2019. Some have suggested that she might even be worth 2.5 billion dollars.
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