Train Robbery Charges

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30212, 17 August 1963, Page 13

Train Robbery Charges

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

LINSLADE (England), August 16.

Three men and two women are due to appear in the Linslade Court today on charges connected with last week’s mail train robbery. They were charged at police headquarters in Aylesbury late last night.

Roger John Cowdrey, of East Molesey, Surrey, and William Boal, of Fulham, London, were charged last night with being concerned with other persons, at present unknown, in robbing Frank Dewhurst (a senior Post Office official on the ambushed train) of £2,600.000 belonging to the PostmasterGeneral. Mrs Rene Boal. also of Fulham, was charged with receiving 65 £5 notes and five £1 notes, totalling £330. knowing them to have been stolen.

Mary Florence Pilgrim, aged 49, of East Molesey and Alfred Pilgrim, aged 52. of the same address, were charged with receiving 172 £5 notes knowing them to have been stolen. Mrs Pilgrim and Mrs Boal are sisters.

The five were cheered by crowds of spectators when they arrived at the police station.

Today's special hearing Is expected to take place about noon in the small, typical, country Courthouse which was built in 1822 and resembles a chapel from the outside.

At Bournemouth, police discovered three vehicles containing about £lOO,OOO in notes, all of which was taken to the police train robbery headquarters in Aylesbury Scotland Yard late last night clamped down with a "blackout” on police discoveries and activities

Police said early today that no more arrests were imminent.

Recovery of £102.000 of the stolen money has been reported by police.

Efforts to trace the gang before the bulk of the loot can be hidden or smuggled out of the country are being intensified.

Two men were driven from the south coast resort of Bournemouth to Aylesbury last night after their arrest at the resort the previous evening.

They fought in the street with two detectives who had been informed by a housewife.

The tip came from an elderly widow who became suspicious after the men offered her three months’ rent in advance for a garage. Later, police took away the woman, Mrs Ethel Clark, in a furniture van.

“I don’t want to say anything at all. It’s all very frightening,” she told reporters. Both the Bournemouth men are aged about 45.

After their detention police found £lOO,OOO in two cars and fishing gear in a third.

Insurance experts face a tangle over who gets what out of the train robbery rewards amounting to £260,000. the “Daily Sketch" says. A city assessor said he foresaw complications. All claims would have to be considered. but no decision could be made until the affair was concluded. An insurance expert said the terms of the reward advertisement—referring to the “first person” giving information leading to the arrest of the criminals or the recovery of the money—might cause headaches in the present complex case.