Page 176 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

full of empty mailbags, overalls and masks.” Fewtrell told the media: “The
whole place is one big clue.”

Field had arranged with "Mark" to carry out a comprehensive clean-up and
set fire to the farm after the robbers had left, even though the robbers had
already spent much time wiping the place down to be free of prints.

According to Buster Edwards, he 'nicked' £10,000 in ten-shilling notes to help
pay "Mark's" drink. However, on Monday, when Charlie Wilson rang Brian Field
to check whether the farm had been cleaned, he did not believe Field's
assurances. He called a meeting with Edwards, Reynolds, Daly and James
and they agreed that they needed to be sure. They called Field to a meeting
on Tuesday, where he was forced to admit that he had failed to "torch" the
farm. In the IVS 2012 documentary film The Great Train Robbery, Nick
Reynolds (son of Bruce Reynolds) said "...the guy who was paid to basically
go back to the farm and burn it down did a runner." Wilson would have killed
Field there and then but was restrained by the others. By the time they were
ready to go back to the farm, however, they learned that police had found
the hide-out.

Discovery at Leatherslade Farm

Following a tip-off from a herdsman who used a field adjacent to
Leatherslade Farm, a police sergeant and constable called there on 13
August 1963, five days after the robbery. The farm was deserted but they
found the truck used by the robbers, which had been hastily painted yellow,
as well as the Land Rovers. They also found a large quantity of food, bedding,
sleeping bags, post-office sacks, registered mail packages, banknote
wrappers and a Monopoly board game.

It was determined that although the farm had been cleaned for fingerprints,
some finger and palm prints (presumably of the robbers) had been
overlooked, including those on a ketchup bottle and on the Monopoly set
(which had been used after the robbery for a game, but with real money).
The Police Investigation

Despite the big breakthrough of the discovery of Leatherslade Farm, the
investigation was not going well. Due to insufficient local resources, Scotland
Yard were brought in. The investigation continued under Detective Chief
Superintendent Tommy Butler, who replaced Ernie Millen as head of the Flying
Squad shortly after Millen was promoted to Deputy Commander under
George Hatherill. On Monday 12 August 1963, Butler was appointed to head
the police investigation of the London connection and quickly formed a six-
man Train Robbery Squad. With Leatherslade Farm finally found on 13 August
1963, the day after Tommy Butler was appointed to head the London Page176
investigation, the Train Robbery Squad descended on the farm.