This Day in Crime History: FEBRUARY 22, 2006 : GANG COMMITS LARGEST ROBBERY IN BRITISH HISTORY

In the early morning hours of February 22, 2006, a gang of at least six men, some of them armed, steal £53 million from the Securitas bank depot in Kent, Great Britain. It was the largest such theft in British history.

The plot was well planned. On the evening before, two men, dressed as police officers, pulled the depot manager, Colin Dixon, over as he was driving in nearby Stockbury. They convinced him to get out of his car, and forced him into their vehicle. At about the same time, two more men visited Dixon’s home and picked up Dixon’s wife and eight-year-old son; eventually all three Dixons were taken to a farm in West Kent, where the gang threatened their lives if Colin refused to cooperate with the robbery.

The Dixons were then forced to go with the gang to the Securitas depot, where Colin helped them evade the building’s security system. The gang proceeded to tie up 14 depot staff members, load the £53 million into a truck and, at about 2:15 a.m. on February 22, drive away. No one was injured in the robbery. Eventually, one depot worker was able to contact police, who launched a massive search for the culprits. As the stolen money was all in used bills, it was difficult to trace. Securitas and its insurers posted a £2 million reward for information leading to the arrests of the robbers and return of the money.

The next day, three people, one man and two women, were arrested in connection with the case; one had attempted to deposit £6,000 into a local bank that was bound in Securitas depot tape. However, all three were later released without being charged. Police continue to investigate the case, and more than 30 people have been arrested, though there have been no convictions. Police are also said to have recovered nearly £20 million of the stolen money.

Article Details:

February 22, 2006 : Gang commits largest robbery in British history

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  February 22, 2006 : Gang commits largest robbery in British history

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gang-commits-largest-robbery-in-british-history

• Access Date

  February 22, 2016

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: FEBRUARY 19, 1851 : ANGRY SAN FRANCISCO VIGILANTES TAKE THE LAW INTO THEIR OWN HANDS

On this day in 1851, an angry mob in San Francisco’s business district”tries” two Australian suspects in the robbery and assault of C. J. Jansen. When the makeshift jury deadlocked, the suspects were returned to law enforcement officials. Jansen was working at his store at the corner of Montgomery and Washington when two men beat him unconscious and stole $2,000. Another merchant, William Coleman, then decided to play prosecutor and assembled judges and jury members froma crowd that had assembled at Portsmouth Square. Fortunately for the Australian suspects, the men who defended them got three jury members to agree that Jansen hadn’t been able to see the men who had robbed him clearly. Although some members of the mob wanted to hang the alleged thieves in spite of the verdict, the crowd dispersed.Later, however,local authorities convicted the men at a real trial in court.

Vigilantes were fairly common during the Gold Rush boom in San Francisco. One committee spent most of its time rooting out Australian ne’er-do-wells. They hanged four and tossed another 30 out of town. In 1856, a 6,000-member vigilante group was assembled after a couple of high-profile shooting incidents. This lynch mob hanged the suspects and then directed their attention to politics.

Such vigilante movements were generally popular all over the West in the middle and late 19th century. The San Francisco vigilantes were so well regarded that they took over the Democratic Party in the late 1850s and some became respected politicians.

Article Details:

February 19, 1851 : Angry San Francisco vigilantes take the law into their own hands

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  February 19, 1851 : Angry San Francisco vigilantes take the law into their own hands

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/angry-san-francisco-vigilantes-take-the-law-into-their-own-hands

• Access Date

  February 19, 2016

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: FEBRUARY 17, 1906 : THE FIRST “TRIAL OF THE CENTURY”

Union leaders Bill Hayward, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone are taken into custody by Idaho authorities and the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They are put on a special train in Denver, Colorado, following a secret, direct route to Idaho because the officials had no legal right to arrest the three union executives in Colorado. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), of which Hayward was president, tried in vain to stop the unofficial arrests.

Idaho had resorted to this gambit in an attempt to bring the union leaders to justice for the assassination of former governor Frank Steunenberg. On December 30, 1905, a powerful bomb affixed to Steunenberg’s front gate exploded and killed him as he was returning to his home in Caldwell, Idaho. The former governor was a target for union miners after his role in breaking a strike in Coeur d’Alene years earlier.

In order to solve the crime, Idaho called in the Pinkerton Agency and the country’s most famous private detective, James McParland. He was the man responsible for bringing down the Molly McGuires, a secret Irish societyfrom Pennsylvania’s mining district. All men visiting Caldwell were detained and questioned after the bombing, and police began to focus on a man named Tom Hogan.

Through a combination of trickery and intimidation, McParland got Hogan to admit that his name was really Harry Orchard and that he had been hired by the Western Federation of Miners. Orchard implicated Bill Hayward, Charles Moyer, the president of the Western Federation of Miners, and others in the plot to kill Steunenberg. However, these men were in Colorado, where local authorities were friendly to the unions and would not extradite them based on the confession of a murderer.

Government officials in Idaho, including the current governor and chief justice, sanctioned a plan to kidnap Hayward, Moyer, and Pettibone so that they could be put on trial in Caldwell. Despite the blatant illegality of their operation, the union leaders lost their appeals in federal court and were forced to stay in Idaho to be charged with conspiracy to commit murder. However, the union had one more ace up its sleeve.

Clarence Darrow, who was on his way to becoming the country’s foremost defender of liberal causes, was brought in to defend the case. It was the first “Trial of the Century,” drawing national media attention and celebrity attendees. When none of Orchard’s accomplices would corroborate his story, the case came down to Orchard’s testimony alone. At Hayward’s trial, Darrow made an impassioned 11-hour closing argument that mercilessly attacked Orchard, and the jury acquitted.

Hayward, who was almost certainly guilty, later fled the country to Russia. He was buried at the Kremlin in 1928.

Article Details:

February 17, 1906 : The first “Trial of the Century”

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  February 17, 1906 : The first “Trial of the Century”

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-trial-of-the-century

• Access Date

  February 17, 2016

• Publisher

  A+E Networks