Charlie Wilson (criminal)

Charles Frederick "Charlie" Wilson (30 June 1932 – 23 April 1990),[1][2] was an English career criminal. A member of the Great Train Robbery gang, of which he was treasurer, he was killed by a hitman on a bicycle in 1990 whilst living in Marbella, Spain.[1]

Early life

Wilson was born on 30 June 1932 to Bill and Mabel Wilson in Battersea, London. Possessing a heavy build, a handsome appearance and piercing blue eyes, Wilson was, from an early age, an intimidating presence. His friends from childhood included Jimmy Hussey, Tommy Wisbey, Bruce Reynolds and Gordon Goody. Later on, he met Ronald "Buster" Edwards and the young driving enthusiasts Mickey Ball and Roy James, who had taken up car theft.[1]

From 1948 to 1950 he was called up for National Service, and in 1955 he married Patricia (Pat) Osbourne, with whom he had three children.[1]

Career

Wilson turned to crime early in life and spurned his father's legitimate but low-income wage. While he did have legitimate work in his in-laws' grocer's shop, he also was a thief and his criminal proceeds went into buying shares in various gambling enterprises. He went to jail for short spells for numerous offences.[1]

In 1960, Wilson began to work with Bruce Reynolds and planned to get into the criminal big league.[1] In 1962, a gang lead by Reynolds stole £62,000 in a security van robbery at London Heathrow Airport. They then attempted to rob a Royal Mail train at Swindon, which netted only £700.[3] But Reynolds, now looking for his career-criminal defining moment,[4] started planning his next train robbery over a period of three months.[3]

Reynolds organised a gang of 17 men to undertake the 1963 Great Train Robbery.[4] Wilson was the gang's treasurer who gave each of the robbers their cut of the haul: £150,000 each. He was captured quickly, and during the trial at Aylesbury Crown Court in April 1964 he got the nickname "the silent man" as he refused to say anything at all. Sentenced to 30 years, he was held at HMP Winson Green, where after just four months on 12 August 1964, he arranged for a three-man gang to break-in and break him out.[2][5]

Wilson and his family settled in Rigaud, Quebec, Canada, situated 70 kilometres (43 mi) west from Montreal and 130 kilometres (81 mi) east from Ottawa.[6] For Christmas 1964, the family travelled to Acapulco to join Reynolds and Edwards, who had not yet been caught. Reynolds and his family later moved to Montreal, but a proposed theft of Canadian dollars with Wilson was stopped due to Royal Canadian Mounted Police observation. Reynolds then moved to Vancouver, before returning that summer to the South of France.[3]

Having successfully evaded capture for four years, Wilson was caught on 24 January 1968,[2] after his wife telephoned her parents in England, thus enabling Scotland Yard to track them down.[6] Returned to England, Wilson served 10 more years in the train robbers secure unit at HMP Durham. He was the final train robber to emerge from prison in 1978.[7]

Death

A later suspect in a £100 million gold fraud, Wilson moved to Marbella, Spain, where he was suspected to be involved in drug smuggling.[6] Engaged to launder some of the proceeds from the Brink's-MAT robbery, he lost the investors £3 million. On 23 April 1990,[2] a young South London man knocked on the front door of his hacienda north of Marbella, and shot Wilson and his pet German shepherd dog at point-blank range, before riding off down the hill on a yellow bicycle. Over the next three years, four more shootings were connected to the Brink's-MAT raid.[8] In 2007, supergrass Michael Michael claimed to know who the killer was, but police made no arrest.[9]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Wensley Clarkson (2 February 2006). Killing Charlie: The Bloody, Bullet-Riddled Hunt for the Most Powerful Great Train Robber of All. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1845960351.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Great train robber escapes from Prison". History Channel. 12 August 1964. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Obituary: Bruce Reynolds". The Guardian. 28 February 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "In conversation with... Bruce Reynolds". Idler magazine. 14 March 1996. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  5. ↑ "1964: Great Train Robber escapes from jail". BBC News. 12 August 1964. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Jack Harvey. "The Great Train Robbery Part II – Did it end like a Children's Tea Party?". algarvedailynews.com. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  7. ↑ "What became of the Great Train Robbers". London Evening Standard. 8 August 2003. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  8. ↑ Wensley Clarkson (5 May 2012). "The curse of Brink's Mat: An ex-cop with an axe in his head – and a Great Train Robber shot dead in Marbella". Daily Mail. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  9. ↑ "Rat shopped wife, mother, brother and lover". The Sun. 3 August 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2013.