Cue Universal Propaganda How do you do? This is Tivebrook. You've probably heard the expression, off the rails. It usually signifies that somebody has let the side down by descending to a little blackmailing, or perhaps a touch of arson. In fact, going off the rails is usually taken as a sign of being not quite straight. I'm using the term, however, in quite a different sense. Today I'm going to tell you something about criminals who, when they're off the rails, are on the rails. Perhaps that sounds a little ambiguous. Let me put it in a simpler way. This program is about the kind of crime and the kind of criminal who is most at home on the railway. Let's start off this Secret of Scotland Yard program with a few facts about robbery on the railway. In 1938, crimes against the railway were stolen goods costing about £180,000. Today, similar crimes are costing over £2.5 million a year. As an inspector of the railway police, I've got a fact I'm particularly proud about. It goes to prove that robbery on the railways is a growing business. Our job is to stop it growing. Almost half the claims were to the first of tobacco, wine, spirits, textiles, boots and shoes, articles which have the greatest black market value. Investigating them is taking up much of the working time of more than one thousand railway officials. Hello, what are you doing in that crate? Hey, just moving in. Who's that to do with you? On a railway, Polly. Ah, is that so? What sort of a badger you are? He ain't doing my thing. Well, I think you better come along. Oh, never doubt. Pilferage has ceased to be a proper description of railway thieving. Wholesale looting is the only term appropriate. The railway police estimate that about 60 percent of the looting carried out by organized gangs, usually not more than six in number. Scotland Yard has met Cunning with Cunning. But those who specialize in robbery on the railway are always up to new tricks. Now listen to this story. It occurred not so long ago. A wooded train was puffing slowly up an incline on its run from Nottingham to Chesterfield. Standing by a plate laying hut at the crest of the hill, you might have seen a small gang of workmen. Apparently they were waiting for the train to pass before resuming work on the line. All right, chaps. It's the fifth band after the engine. Remember, the fifth band. Charlie, you're going to have to go through the tunnel. Once inside the band, which contained hundreds of pounds worth of cigarettes, the gang got to work. As soon as the train left the tunnel, they pushed open the door and threw down the embankment over a million cigarettes packed neatly in cartons. And here comes the organization waiting on the road by the side of the embankment for a couple of lorries. All right, boys. Get busy. Go on, go on. Load them up. Right away. Keep it up, Eddie. Let's go. What if they have stopped again and están the people inpero, and side by side? It's not just Goodyear, it's the Crippler Road siding. Hello there. Anybody about? Who's that? Ah, evening, Woodcham. Evening, mate. Sorry to be so late, chum. I'm afraid you'll have to open up these gates. What's the idea? It's half past twelve. I know that, mate. But there's a load of one of these vans in the siding, which is one of extra special. We're going to get it down to the box by six o'clock tomorrow morning. Somebody's going to lose a few thousand pounds. Hmm. I'll have to see your papers. Ah, don't you worry. Everything's in order. Here, take a look at this. Hmm, it seems all right. You've got permission? Well, that's what it says. Oh, I thought I'd open up. Well, don't be long about it. Come on, then. We'll be coming out in about an hour. All hands. Hello, watchman. All right, all right. I'm coming. Come on now. Open up these gates. Ah, hold on a moment. I've got some friends to see you. Yeah, what do you mean friends? The old gentleman. Then see me again in a minute. Oh, you're not going to be long. Well, I'll be there in a minute. Well, I'll be there in a minute. Well, I'll be there in a minute. Well, I'll be there in a minute. Well, I'll be there in a minute. Well, I'll be there in a minute. Hello, young man. Then see me again in a minute. Look out, wait! Rope it! Yes, it was the Ruggers. The police, to you and me. And as the inspector says, the boot was on the other foot. The watchman felt suspicious about the whole thing, and he contacted the Railway police. He was right. They were stolen goods, and the papers were forged. Seven men were picked up in the fight which followed, but the leader got away. Of course, not all. Railway robbers are as ambitious and organized as the two you've just heard about. The simplest, and not one of the most effective, methods of looting has been for railway employees to stick false loavers on parcels and packages in transit. One reporter re-addressed parcels to his own home. A re-loavering conspiracy at Waterloo station was broken out through the vigilance of an MP. Whoa, that's... whoa! Oh, good morning. I'm going to get a couple of parcels for you. Oh, shall I sign for them? That's right, miss, sign here. My daughter's weapon. She's having such a lot of presents. Yes, so I noticed. Bring them in here, will you? Thanks a lot. Good morning. I'm going to get a couple of parcels for you. Oh, that's funny. I can understand they're getting a man-book, but what you're doing with two dozen electric light lamps don't seem to be the sort of wedding presents she'd get. I wonder if there's something fishy going on. And from London, we went one step further to have spoken to the railway police about it. We found that this was just one of the ways in which a very astute gang had been robbing the railways. To not be the only method they knew, it was found that packages in transit had been redirected under other names to small stations where they were later collected by members of the gang, one in a chauffeur's uniform. The final destination of the Stirling Bridge was a flooded sew-hole where the thieves operated in a quicksand showroom and office. The flat floors raded and the windmills caught. I've been heading the ground. Who sent you? Charlie. Ah, I thought so, right. Come on in. Well, what do you want to say? Cigarettes, radio sets, or was it better? I don't think we've got enough. I have a search warrant here. No. This is not a game. This is a raid. Cigarettes, radio sets, chests of tea, and other goods worth hundreds of pounds were recovered, but the police knew that for a long period beforehand, the gang got away with much more than that. These modern highwaymen are certainly people of resource, but if you think you've heard the limit of their ingenuity, just wait and see. Before turning to the organization of the railway piece, let's take a few more examples of crime on the railway. In a railway yard in Scotland one time, whole truckloads of coal were systematically rerouted to the yard of a small merchant who was in the swim. Four porters at working took advantage of a consignment to set up a nylon emporium and sew the stockings through station taxi drivers. Railway police burned two holes in a wooden fence by a railway arch in Southwark and watched loot worth 2,500 pounds being carried into a thieves' den. Nine men and a woman were convicted. One man had a puppy in a crate which began barking, and the police overheard him say, Shut up! You'll have to get used to being here. Now listen to the story of just an ordinary member of the railway police. He was on duty at a goods yard at Burton-on-Trent one dark evening. His name was Railway Police Constable Robert Cameron. Hi there! Who do you want? I'd like to take a look at that lorry if you don't mind. What lorry have you got? I'm a member of the railway police. Yes, I don't care if you're a member of the Marines. I'm a knight. He gained unconsciousness while he was dragged into a warehouse and tied up. When the thieves had gone, leaving the whiskey behind, he struggled free and crawled to a shunter's cabin. Today, Railway Police Constable Robert Cameron wears their British Empire medal. Perhaps the most amusing conclusion to any incident of pure pilferage was an occasion when a portrait crew danced into a mirror one Sunday and saw a man in a quiet corner of another platform undo his braces and turn slowly round and round. A chase down a lane followed until the man's trousers fell to the ground and he halted sheepishly in his underpants with ring upon ring of crisp tobacco, stolen from a crate in the station, wound round his middle. Police officers at Houston saw two men in porter's uniforms examining goods loaded on barrels ready for dispatch and knew that neither was employed in handling parcel traffic. While they watched, one of the men removed loopholes from three barrels, which the second man then transferred to a smaller barrel. This was viewed out to a point near the station crook room. The man walked away, but returned a few minutes later with two other men who began loading the barrels into a waiting motor car. The men were arrested. The barrels were worth 300 pounds. Before the British railways were nationalized, each company maintained its own police force, led in many cases by ex-members of Scotland Yards. Today, the railway police is a complete force of its own, charged with the particular responsibility of policing and protecting thousands of buildings and many thousands of miles owned by British railways. The men who discharge this duty undergo a special training. They learn most of the tricks we've told you about today in this program and they cooperate with the regular police force and Scotland Yard to put a stop to every form of crime on the railways. Perhaps the most unpopular of all railway criminals are those who play for the high sticks and endeavor to rob his majesty's mails. Of course, there were some classic mailbag robberies of the past, but today's stories read like fiction. A 10,000 pound mailbag theft last year from a Glasgow Euston train remains unsolved. The empty bags were found on an embankment 70 yards away. The disappearance of nearly 40,000 pounds in five pound and one pound notes in transit between a Citibank and Scotland is still being investigated. A litter bag containing 6,000 pounds vanished during a 60 minute road and rail journey between Liverpool and Wigan. And when a padded which contained 2,000 pounds from Manchester Bank was opened, the contents had miraculously changed to wooden blocks. To be strictly accurate, the theft of mailbags comes under the general post office and is not really the railway's responsibility, but it's their worry all the same. Here's the story of one of the most classic of mailbag robberies of all time. The scene is one of the sorting vans on a world famous night mail train. Leaving Euston Station in London every evening just before midnight, the train arrives in Scotland the following morning. While most of Britain is asleep, this train speeds through the heart of the country. The nerve centre of the train is the sorting van, where almost 100 men are at work all night sorting Scottish mail picked up at London and dividing it up into the various regional areas so that when it reaches Scotland, it will be ready for distribution in the big Scottish cities by the second delivery that morning. Most of the men who work on this train have been in the service of the GPO for a number of years, and literally from time to time there is a new face among them. Take tonight for instance, the young fellow over there at the rack in the corner. He's only been on the job for a few weeks, and he's just qualified to work on his own without the guidance of an older sorter. One by one he sorts the postal packets into the pigeon holes in front of him. He's not in his work but still demanding all his attention. But tonight this young sorter is not really thinking about his job, he's thinking about something else. Remember Nath? I will be in the hall. Five minutes to two, I have not got. And then? Yes, five minutes to go and then? One for three, one for three boys. Together with half of the sorters in the corridor, our young friend moves into the next car, where a primitive canteen is set up and cups of tea are being poured out. It makes some excuse and moves along further down the car. Perhaps he's going to wash his hands or perhaps... It has taken three months of plotting and planning to obtain that key, the key to the van which contains the register mail. He worked quickly, three bags and no more he took out, but those bags had been chosen carefully. The contents were known to be negotiable banknotes, a rich prize. Now comes the cleverest part of the trick. Three other bags, in appearance precisely the same as the original register mail bags, had been concealed by our friend in a suitcase which he had brought aboard the train. The exchange was made and the mail van locked up once again. The train came into Glasgow Station, it looked as if nothing would go wrong. Good evening. Good evening. You are Robert Stonson, aren't you? Yes, I am. I wonder if I can trouble you to come along to the office for a few minutes. What do you ask me for? Just a few words. Bring that case along with you. Yes, sir. Come on in. Now Mr. Stonson, would you mind opening up that case for me? How do you know? Well, this is the one question I cannot answer. You see, if I told you, you would not believe me. And how did he know? It was really very simple, but as you have learned from these programs, it's the simple things that make the crooks game a mugs game. Obviously the railway realises that GPO sorters on the trains, if they should have crooked disposition, have a number of opportunities for putting some original ideas into practice. For that reason, every new sorter while he is training is screamed very thoroughly by the railway police or the GPO. Our friend Stonson and his companions took all the obvious precautions. Trouble was, one of the precautions was just a little too obvious. Mr. Stonson had given his address during his training period as a lodging house in London. To as a routine matter, the police checked up on his character with his landlady. His landlady dear Sol had given him an excellent character and had mentioned very as a matter of fact that Stonson had frequent visits from his widowed mother. The widowed mother was a bit of camouflage for Mr. Stonson to compact his companions. Unfortunately in his original application for the job, Mr. Stonson had described himself as an orphan. Starting from that very small fact, the railway pace had spun a long line of thread which led eventually to the stationmaster's office in Glasgow and the arrest of Stonson. Just another crook who thought that the way to easy money was along the railway lines. I'd like to add a historic note. Of course there has been crime on the railways ever since there were railways, which is well over a hundred years. Who was the first railway criminal? Well, no one could say for certain, but I can tell you about one of the very first men to realize the possibility of crime on the railways. And what happened to him? It was long, long ago when a trip by train was still a great event. Passengers travelled in open cars, which today we would consider little better than trucks. The guard wore a pop hat, and the engine driver all won too. The most unpleasant part of the journey was when the train came to a tunnel. There were no lights in the carriages, there were still no windows, so they soon filled up with smoke and grime. You could imagine the coughing and confusion. Well, it was this very confusion that gave our friend, a pioneer in his class, the great idea. You see, his profession was that of a pickpocket, and it occurred to him that never was there a great opportunity to practice his craft than aboard one of these new-fangled railroad trains when it entered a long tunnel. He went about it very carefully. He studied the trains and the passengers from all angles, and for some time pursued a most successful career. Everybody was far too concerned with their comfort to notice his activities, and when his steps were departed, it was far too late to do anything about it. Then at last, the rolling company decided that they had to take some action regarding the numerous complaints they were getting. To every person with an antidote, and to every crime, there's an answer. Well, just as usual, our friend the pickpocket boarded a train one day, little knowing that he was being followed by a detective employed by the company. Our friend the train, they came to the tunnel, and our friend prepared to go about his business. He turned his attention to the man sitting next to him, a big, well-dressed but simple-looking gentleman who he picked out as a likely-looking victim. This hand was busy obstructing a solid-looking watch from his pocket, and suddenly there was a terrific roar of steam coming from the engine, and then a sudden flash of light, and what do you do? The engine driver had known from the end of the tunnel, then, on pre-lunch plan, he reversed and came out again. And as for the simple-looking gentleman, there, you're right, he was the detective. Ah, dear, the way of a pine rail is always a hard one, and our friend's case proves the person no exception to the rule. As I told you, not all railway crime is quite so ambitious. In a few percent of railway cases, the word, pilferage, is applicable. There have been too many examples of criminal fiber women, some of whom have sacrificed 30 to 40 years' service and pension rights for puffs of soap, a packet of chocolate, or a pair of stockings. An engine driver took cold and an engine to swap for eggs. A man with a shaggy arm rifled through prison and regularly threw stolen goods into his own garden as the train passed his limeside home. There are coats, typewriters, vacuum cleaners, and a piano accordion that are among the goods pilfered in 1948. Out of 8,500 last-year prosecutions by the railway police last year, 2,287 were at low-wage ships. Thus, three outsiders were convicted to every young railwayman. Statistically, this means that only one in over 300 railway workers is found guilty of theft. I believe that, don't you? And just because this program has told you about one of the crimes that are on the railways, I hasten to add that a trip by a railway in Britain is one of the safest ways of traveling. But while you're about it, keep an eye on your bags. After all, if everybody were just a little more careful, most of the crooks in this world would be looking for new ways of earning their living, and it would just help to avoid that temptation to go off the rails. The Cur monopoly class, the
