27 January: Buster Edwards

Born on this date in 1931 was Ronald "Buster" Edwards, Great Train Robber. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. He was born in Lambeth, South London.
2. His first crimes took place during his first job. He worked in a sausage factory and stole meat to sell on the black market.
3. The Great Train Robbery wasn't the first major crime he took part in. In 1962, £62,000 was stolen from the headquarters of British Overseas Airways Corporation at Heathrow Airport. While several members of that gang were arrested, Edwards evaded capture.
4. The famous crime took place a year later. Edwards and the gang tampered with signal lights, stopping the train in Buckinghamshire. They made off with £2,600,000 of used banknotes (£50 million in today's money). In the course of the robbery the train driver was hit on the head, which turned out to be a life changing and possibly life limiting injury. In later years, Edwards claimed he was the one who hit the driver. Again, Edwards managed to evade capture, unlike most of the gang, who were arrested and sent to prison.
5. Edwards took his £150,000 share of the money and fled with his family to Mexico. However, after three years of extravagant spending the money dwindled, and his wife and daughter were homesick - so he returned to Britain and gave himself up.
6. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, and served nine.
7. After release, he was well known as a flower seller outside Waterloo Station in London. He admitted to an interviewer that he found selling flowers really boring compared to a life of crime. "Obviously you are a thief because you like money, but the second thing is the excitement of it," he said.
8. There was at least one exciting moment when a man ran by his stall and made off with two bunches of flowers. Edwards didn't want to leave his stall, so he didn't chase the man, but made a note of where he'd gone and called the police. The thief might have got away with it, but for one thing. He was an actor, by the name of Dexter Fletcher, who was in a film called The Rachel Papers, which Edwards had recently been to see - so he could tell police the thief was "That lad out of The Rachel Papers". Fletcher claimed he wanted to give his girlfriend flowers but had lost his cash card. He was given a conditional discharge for twelve months and ordered to pay £30 costs. Fletcher later apologised to Edwards and paid for the flowers.
9. A biopic film about him, Buster, was made in 1988 with Phil Collins in the title role. Buster himself has a cameo role in the film. He is in the scene where Buster and his wife arrive in Mexico. Buster is one of the couple walking out of the airport in front of them. The other half of the couple is Phil Collins' wife, Jill.
10. He died at the age of 63, an apparent suicide. His brother found him hanging from a girder in a lock up garage. The inquest recorded an open verdict. On the one hand, Edwards was thought to have been too drunk on the night he died to have intended to kill himself, but on the other, he was being investigated for fraud at the time and he could have attempted suicide to avoid going back to prison. Two wreaths in the shape of trains accompanied his funeral cortège.