Terry Hogan was born in 1931 and grew up an abused child in poverty in Fulham. He was deaf in one ear as the result of a beating he got as a child. As a young adult he chose the path of crime to escape poverty, and earned a reputation for reliability and being able to perfect the details and timing of a robbery. While in his early twenties, he worked for notorious gang leader Billy Hill. His other associates included cat burglar and jewellery thief, George "Taters" Chatham, and fellow thief Peter Scott. They were considered "the most 'up-market' group of London's underworld at the time." Hogan was a member of the infamous "Bowler Hat Gang", who dressed-up as city gents to execute the robbery of an armoured payroll truck at London's Heathrow Airport in 1962, and a short time later, was believed to be involved in the Great Train Robbery (1963).