Bruce Reynolds participant in Great Train Robbery
Bruce Richard Reynolds (7 September 1931 – 28 February 2013) was an English criminal who masterminded the 1963 Great Train Robbery. At the time it was Britain's largest robbery, netting £2,631,684, equivalent to £58 million today. Reynolds spent five years on the run before being sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in 1969. He was released in 1978. He also wrote three books and performed with the band Alabama 3, for whom his son, Nick, plays.Criminal career
After undertaking some petty crime and spending time in HMP Wormwood Scrubs and Borstal for theft (from which he escaped and was eventually caught and sent to Reading Prison), he spent six weeks of the required two years doing National Service in the British Army, before absconding to return to petty crime. Sentenced to three years imprisonment in 1952 for breaking and entering, he was sent to the juvenile wing of Wandsworth Prison in London. He then embarked on jewellery thefts from large country houses.In 1957 Reynolds was arrested, together with Terry Hogan, for assault and robbery of £500 from a bookmaker returning from White City Greyhounds. The police stated their belief that the intent of the cosh attack was grievous bodily harm and not robbery. Hogan was sentenced to 2½ years and Reynolds to 3½ years imprisonment.  After spending time in HMP Wandsworth and HMP Durham, on release in 1960 he then became an antiques dealer and thief.He joined a gang with a future close friend Harry Booth and his future brother-in-law John Daly. Later on, he worked with Jimmy White and met Buster Edwards at Charlie Richardson's club. Richardson in turn introduced him to Gordon Goody. Reynolds gained the nickname Napoleon. Then in  1962 his gang 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. But Reynolds, now looking for his career-criminal defining moment, started planning his next train robbery over a period of three months.Reynolds organised a gang of 15 men to undertake the 1963 Great Train Robbery (which he later referred to as his "Sistine Chapel ceiling"). After the robbery, Reynolds spent six months in a mews house in South Kensington waiting for a false passport. He then travelled via Elstree Airfield to Ostend, and was driven to Brussels Airport, before flying to Mexico City via Toronto. Assuming the name Keith Clement Miller, he was joined by his wife Frances, who changed her name to Angela, and their son Nick.
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