The Great Train Robbery

One day in May 1855, a beautiful woman arrives at the Chubb’s office. She introduces herself as Lady Charlotte Simms and expresses interest in buying a safe because of a string of robberies near her country home. Mr. Chubb shows her the catalog, but Lady Charlotte says she cannot pick out a safe from a catalog. So, he takes her into the workshop, where she sees two large safes. She asks if they are being repaired because of a defect. He reassures her that the only problem is that the pins that anchor the safes to the floor of the railway car need to be replaced. She demands to buy one of the safes, but Mr. Chubb says that he cannot provide her with a safe for at least a month. She storms out without making a purchase.

From this reconnaissance, Pierce and Agar learn that the locks on the safes are not being changed. They plan the heist for May 22, 1855.

Clean Willy writes to Pierce, asking to see him. They meet at the Crystal Palace in Southeast London. Clean Willy asks Pierce for more money, so Pierce begrudgingly gives him £10. As Pierce leaves the Crystal Palace, he adjusts his top hat, which is a signal to Barlow, who is waiting in a cab outside.

Pierce hails a different cab and takes it to Regent Street. There, he walks along, slowly checking the reflections in the shop windows, and suddenly encounters Elizabeth Trent. When she asks him where he has been, he asks if she did not receive his letter from Paris. When she says she did not, he claims to have interpreted her lack of a reply as evidence that she is angry with him. He asserts that he has only just returned from Paris, but she tells Pierce that her father saw him a few weeks ago and thinks Piece is a “cad.” Pierce tells her that he is now engaged to a Parisian woman. Elizabeth leaves in anger.

Pierce takes a cab to Windmill Street and goes into a brothel. He meets Agar, who tells Pierce that Pierce is being tailed by two policemen. They assume that Clean Willy has informed on them. Pierce wants to divert the police by pretending to plan a different heist altogether.

The narrative provides a brief history of the police in England and focuses specifically on the Scotland Yard, the police in London. The narrative then introduces Mr. Edward Harranby, whose job it is to “[work] with undercover agents and informers” (167). Harranby is talking to his assistant, Jonathan Sharp, and discussing what he has learned about Pierce from Clean Willy. They aren’t sure what heist Pierce is planning.

Clean Willy has a drink at the Hound’s Tooth Pub and then goes to the Golden Arms in the Holy Land. He eventually leaves the Golden Arms and walks toward a lodging house, finding the area to be eerily quiet. While Clean Willy is standing in the doorway, Barlow garrots him, takes Pierce’s £10 out of his pocket, and leaves his dead body there. A few minutes later, children come and steal the corpse’s clothes and shoes.

Pierce tells Agar that the other train line operating out of London Bridge station is the London & Greenwich line, so he plans to pretend that he is preparing a heist in Greenwich. The team will feed the information to Chokee Bill, an Irish pawnbroker who is known to be a police informer. Pierce goes to see Chokee Bill in Battersea, taking multiple cabs so it looks like he is trying to lose the police tail. He tells Chokee Bill that he needs to buy five guns for next Thursday. While they negotiate, Pierce contrives to “almost” let slip the name of Greenwich. Then, Pierce goes to a play in Leicester Square and several pubs, where he truly loses his police tail in the crowds.

On May 18, Mr. Harranby is upset about the news that Clean Willy has been murdered and that the police tail lost “Mr. Simms” (Pierce). Mr. Harranby questions Chokee Bill about what Pierce said. Chokee Bill reports that Pierce wanted to buy five guns next Thursday morning and that he said something about Greenwich. They dismiss Bill. Harranby deduces that Pierce is planning to steal the payroll of a firm that is building the Atlantic telegraph cable in Greenwich. They decide to go to Greenwich to investigate.

Miriam tells Pierce that four policemen, including Harranby, have left for Greenwich, and Agar says that people at the pub have been asking him what heist is being planned in Greenwich. The news is out about the fake heist. Miriam feels confident that nothing can go wrong now, but Pierce is not so certain.

The narrative discusses the fact that Victorian society historically took white-collar crime less seriously than other forms of crime. The narrative then describes the story of “Sir John Alderston and his crate of wine” (189). Alderston was supposed to turn over a case of Madeira as payment for losing a bet, which he shipped by train to the winner, John Banks. When the case was discovered to be empty, it was assumed that the wine had been stolen. In response, the railway company made changes to its security procedures. In 1914, Alderston’s biographer revealed that Alderston had loaded an empty crate onto the train.