September 7, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode we chat about the fifth Malabar House novel, City of Destruction, on its paperback release, and discuss a true life crime - The Baker Street Robbery - allegedly based on the Sherlock Holmes short story 'The Red-Headed League'
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Murder Junction everyone. This week we do not
have a special guest. Instead, we have two very special
people going on about some very special topics. And that,
of course is my good colleague Abber, who is back
from his what shall we call it? Junk it? What
do we call it? Little so journals of.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Holiday is what normal people call it. And I'm disappointed.
Haven't got any guests this week? Have we run out
of friends? Have we alienated pretty much every crime fiction
writer in the world? Is that? Is that what you've
done here?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Oh? Contre Oh, contre me. We have never been more popular.
I am inundated by requests to come on. However, I
thought that this week what we would do is into
the true crime element of this podcast, which we occasionally do.
We're going to discuss a rather intriguing and relevant true
(00:57):
crime case.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Tell me all about it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Before we do that, a couple of announcements.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
You got me on tender suits, You've got me excited,
you took me to the top of the mountain, and
like the Duke of York, you just marched us stand again.
Not not like the Duke of York with the pizza express.
The Duke of York from the poem. Do your announcements?
What do you have to say before I do that?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
What I would say is that we're both thriller writers.
And all I really did there was tee everyone up
and leave them on a cliffhanger, and we will come back.
We'll come back very shortly to that. Okay. So my
announcement is that later this week, or actually as the
podcast is aired, it will be last week, the fifth
in my Malabar how Serious, City of Destruction is released
(01:40):
in paperback. May I bang on about it for a
couple of minutes in an attempt to convince.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I think you really should. Let me just give you
a random clause there, because it's a fantastic book. Now
tell us all about it.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I was the weakest round of applause I've ever heard,
But then you do not have.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
My God, Just take it. Just take the applause and
talk to the audience.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So City of Destruction opens in nineteen fifty one in
the city of Bombay, India. My protagonist, Pursus Wadia, India's
first female and only female police inspector, is policing a
political rally in Bombay. When a young man attempts to
assassinate the new Indian Defense Minister, and she manages to
(02:22):
get in the way by shooting him dead. But before
he dies, he says something enigmatic to her and hands
her something that will serve as a catalyst for her
to go off and try and find the rest of
this man's conspirators. And as she does so, she travels
to India's ancient capital, Delhi, which was, as you very
(02:44):
well know, the capital of British India following on from Calcutta.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And so we get what happened there was that British
was so scared of Bengali's and cal Cutten's they thought,
we have to move the capitol because these guys are
too clever, too scary for us to stay here, and
that's why they moved to Delhi.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well, the alternate was that they heard that a certain
mister Muokerjee was going to make town and so the
entire they backed up, and the entire British contingent left
to get has put as many miles between you and
them as they possibly could. So anyway, so the book
basically follows her attempts to find the conspiracy behind this
(03:25):
attempted assassination. We get to look at the history of
Delhi and her colleague Archie Blackfinch, the forensic scientist, the
British forensic scientist, who is in Bombay and who is her?
Will they won't they? Co protagonist ends up in a
bit of strife. So the book I really enjoyed reading it.
(03:46):
It won an award.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Recently, But you really enjoyed reading it? Who wrote it?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Blood? Let me say that again the truth.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Is coming out, ladies and gentlemen who wrote this book,
that you enjoyed reading that? One of the award us.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So I really enjoyed writing this book won on an
award recently, the Fingerprint Award for Best Historical Crime Novel
of the Year. And I would be delighted if you
were to pick it up and make my publishers very happy.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We'll get your fingerprints on the Fingerprint Award winning book
which Va Sam wrote. Definitely wrote nobody believe anything to
the contrary?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
All right, and you, my friend, what have you been
up to?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I was on holiday, right, So that was great fun
in Wales in the Mumbles, just outside of Swansea on
the Gower Peninsula. And I'm going to tell everybody not
to go because it was amazing. I don't want it spoiled.
It's like Devon and Cornwall, but quieter. It was so nice,
it was wonderful. The infrastructures better, the roads are better,
(04:47):
the food's brilliant, the water was warm. I loved it
and family had a great time. So yes, the Gower
Peninsula I would definitely recommend to all of you, but
don't go all at once. What else I handed in
the first draft of my new contemporary thriller Again set
like yours in Mumbai, but in present day Mumbai, and
(05:11):
that I'm very excited for. I've never had so much
fun writing a book before, so yes, stay tuned for that.
I'm still waiting to hear back from my editors, but
my agent really likes it, and I'm hoping that will
be out next June or July if I can get
it done.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Well. You've shown me some excerpt and I have to
say it does look fantastic and so Terry.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You're in it for a lot. There's a line about
you in it there as well well, or a character
called Vassin Khan for a line.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Is he handsome?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And yes, absolutely absolutely handsome, deluded, lots of all the
things that you are in this characters.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well so, Terry Pratchett famously once said that writing is
the most fun that anyone can have by themselves. He
didn't get out much.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
But well, well, with the clothes on, all.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Right, So I promised, I promised a true crime mystery.
So shall we crack on with that?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Go on, then tell me what is your true crime? Then?
What have you done this week?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Can you give us some eerie music as we travel
back into time to September nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Eerie music, Alexa, play some eerie music.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
All right, there's quite enough of that, Quite enough of that, okay.
So this is called the Baker Street robbery case, and
it's the burglary of a branch of Lloyd's Bank, the
Baker Street branch, and a bunch of safety deposit boxes
were stolen. But that's not what makes this very very intriguing.
So the burglary was planned by a chap called Anthony Gavin,
(06:50):
who was one of these career career career rongins, always
up to mischief, and he reckoned that he was inspired
by a shirt Lock Holmes short story called The Red
Headed League. And of course this is very relevant to us.
Would you like to explain to the listeners why?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Well, I think we are allowed to talk about this,
aren't we? Are we nice to talk about this?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I think yes, it's been publicly announced.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Okay, well we'll talk about this. But if anybody asks you, you
didn't hear it from us. Okay, Both Verssima and I
have been asked to write as part of the State
of Sherlock Holmes. I think we've been asked to write
short stories Sherlock Holmes short stories for an anthology that
will be coming out probably next year of Sherlock Holmes
(07:37):
stories written by the best authors in the business and
men me.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah. And the most important point there is this is
an officially endorsed by the author Loyal Estate. But anyway,
let me tell you about the Red Headed League, just
to paint the picture around this. So this is a
short story that apparently inspired the Baker Street robbery. And
there were fifty six homes short stories written by Cunandal.
(08:03):
So this is one of the one of the ones
that are stuck out in history because of its association
with this particular crime. So it begins with this chap.
A London pawn broco comes to Holmes and Watson, and
he tells them that he's been employed by an agency
called the Red Headed League, which is offering huge amounts
(08:24):
of money to do menial work, but only for red
headed male applicants. And so he takes up this offer,
and he's asked to copy out the Encyclopedia Britannica and
he's paid a small fortune for this work, which keeps
him suitably occupied. And as we go through the mystery,
Holmes discovers that the reason that he's being paid to
(08:44):
do this is to keep this man out of the
way because a gang of criminals are intending to tunnel
into a bank and steal a whole bunch of gold coins.
And that is essentially what happens in the baby.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait he what's this going
to do with red headed people? Why why do they
need to keep red headed people out the way?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Because this Wilson is red headed? So this all right?
So it's not just.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
They make up the story that they're employing red headed people.
It's just him they're employing.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yes, okay, out of the way. So that's what Harry.
You'd never get that story past the diversity police these days.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Obviously, No no, you wouldn't. You wouldn't. I've tried, they said,
Arthur commin door has already written carry on if you
are a natural redhead. But you know, I am, I am,
It's true. The stress has turned your hair black. Of
being a writer, it has. It's a hard life. Come on,
tell us more.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Okay, So so what happens in this in this actual case,
is that this Anthony Gavin Fellow, you know, the wrong
and he gets together a gang and the gang decide
that they're going to rob this bank. And what they
do is they decide that the best way to do
this is to tunnel in from a shop two doors
(10:07):
down which they decide to rent, and they open as
a sort of leather leather goods good shop. And the
tunnel itself. They spend months digging this thing, and they
go in and they you know, they use basic equipment
and they have to tunnel forty feet underneath the shop
that lies in between the Lloyd's Bank and their shop,
(10:28):
which is called La Sack or the bag, right, I'm guessing,
and this will be of interest to you. Would you
like to guess what sort of shop was there in
between the Lloyd's Bank and sack. I will guess.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I will guess Baker Street next to a bank. It's
either going to be a pub. But you said it's
a shop, so I don't think it's a pub. I'm
gonna say it's gonna be fast food McDonald's McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And this, this is why so many, so many people
believe that you actually have a brain, because you're not
too far, you're not too fast. Wrong, it is a
fast food shop. It's a place. It was a place
called the Chicken Inn.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Oh, I should have gone KFC.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Well, you are a KFC officionado as we all.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, I'm not allowed anymore, right unless we're on tour.
That's the only time I get to eat KFC is
when you and I are traveling. Anyway, carry on.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We're both in Bloody Scotland later this month, so we
shall get a regular KFC. Anyway, they tunnel under this,
They have to tunnel forty feet to get to the bank,
and when they get there, they you know, they've got
all sorts of equipment with them, and then they're trying
to get into this vault. They previously measured out the vault.
Some chap went in there with an umbrella and his
(11:47):
arms and somehow measured the dimensions of everything. I'm really
sure how an umbrella helps you to measure anything, but
that's that's what the reason, because.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
You know how long the umbrella is, right, and then
you measure it in you know, units of the umbrella.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, still silly, right, I mean you're standing in the
vault with an umbrella holding it out doing weird things,
and surely you'd think there'd be some ceazons. No, no, no,
I could put it off.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
When we do this our robbery, I'll be in charge
of the umbrella, right, I'll do the measurements.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Puir enough. Well, they try to use all sorts of
stuff to get into this vault through the vault floor,
and they try to use a jack. Doesn't work. They
try to use a thermal lance. That doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And therefore what's the thermal lance. It's like a hot sticky.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah, it produces a very high flame melt which can
melt steel, and the rest of that doesn't work. So
they decide to go old school, and they decide to
use jellignite to just blast away through and then they
time the explosion to coincide with street noises of traffic outside,
and they're helped by the fact that a lot of
roadworks are going on, so you know, you can blame
(12:50):
the roadworks gang for this as well. And so they
get in and they start emptying these the safety deposit boxes.
And what is crazy about all this is that they're
speaking to each other on walkie talkies. And there's a
chap called Robert Rowland who's this amateur radio enthusiast who
somehow tunes into their frequency and he's listening to them
(13:12):
carrying out in real time this burglary. And so he
decides to try and report it to the police, and
the local police say get lost. You know, they don't
believe him, and they're for him. Scotland Yard take a
bit more interest, and so they come down to the bank.
They come down to Lloyd's Bank and they meet with
the officials and they say, look, we've heard this this
stuff on the radio. This chap recorded it and played
(13:34):
it for us, so.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know, so heed this.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, he recorded it on a small cassette. And so
they wander along to the bank and the bank people
take them inside and they say, nothing's going on here,
nothing's wrong. And you know, meanwhile the bank robbers are
sort of hiding there, praying that nobody actually comes in
and finds them, and they do nothing. These guys they
(13:59):
actually walk away from it because the Scotland yard chaps
say that the bankers assured us that this vault is
is fool proof, cannot be broken into, so they they
bugger off the point people into the vault.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Why didn't the bank people into the vault?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Later, when everyone starts covering their arts and pointing fingers,
they say that they were assured by the provider that
this thing, that this is such a burglary is impossible,
could not happen. So a real shambles on all fronts
as far as law enforcement is concerned. So anyway, they
managed to get away with with a lot of a
(14:36):
lot of money. Most of them remained uncought. The total
value of the stuff they stole out of these safety
deposit lockers was anywhere between one to three million one
to three million pounds. That's the sort of bank robbery
I'd like to do. I mean anything less than a million.
You wouldn't really want to get out of bed for right.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
No, exactly what you wouldn't you just buy a lot
of ticket, right?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
How you do that one anyway, So the banker gang
can turn up on Monday the thirteenth and they open
the vault, and of course now they see that it's
all been burgled and loads of these tools and all
sorts of other crap is lying around all over the place.
They end up with eight hundred pieces of evidence logged
and they because of this evidence, they suggest that they're
(15:20):
looking for four men and a woman, and the woman
they reckon was acting as the controller, and you know,
so they go on. They've got one hundred and twenty
detectives working on this case, and they soon identify various individuals,
including Anthony Gavin, a chap called Wolf, chap called Steven's,
and any one called Tucker, and they decide to start
(15:43):
making some of these arrests. Some of them are buggered
off to France by then somewhere in Italy, and there
were no extradition agreements back then, so it's quite hard
for them to get a hold of these people. But
in the end they managed to recover something like two
hundred and thirty one thousand pounds.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Of the one to three million.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
One to three million, so it was not very successful,
no well, especially if they could have stopped at source, right, Well, yeah,
but you know hindsight, Yeah, captain hindsight there you go.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, no, it's not hindsight. They just needed to go
into the vault when the police turned up and have
a look, and they were dissolved.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
It.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It's not hindsight. It's just blame common sense, mister Khan.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Fair enough. When there was a chap, but there were
there were a couple of Asian chappies who were taken
to call.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
That's right, blame the Asians.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
So apparently the police surveillance team reckon. They saw one
of these guys handing over some loot to Abdullah Hashian
Gangjee and his nephew, a Kabar Mohammed Ali Gangjee.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I reckon, they just ran the chicken shop. It might
have been, but anyway, all right, then the gangster's got hungry.
They thought, let's let's have some food. Let's just hand
over some of our all gotten gains and get you
know KFC next door.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Well, the two Ganges were actually found not guilty, but
Stevens Tucker and Anthony Gavin were each given sentences of
twelve years. Wolf received eight years because he was so
old sixty four that the judge said, I'm not going
to put your way for too long because we don't
know the chances I die at the end. And of
course the people whose boxes had been broken into they
(17:32):
sued Lloyd.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Oh this is interesting. Who's whose boxes were broken into?
Do you know anything about that?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
What was wow?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Because it wasn't just money that it would be jewelry
and stuff like that that would have been nicked.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Absolutely. I mean, it's not that much I can find
about who actually did the because I guess they'd wanted
to remain anonymous, but some they were they were sued.
So yeah, all around, not good, not good.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I like that story. I like that story a lot
because one is the it's a bank robbery, right, we
don't have bank robberies anymore. People just press numbers on
computers and stell trillions. It's not got the glamour of
an old fashioned And you know, we've got a tunnel.
We've got a tunnel, we've got radios, We've got people
who should have been stopped in their tracks. But I
(18:21):
love this story a lot. And you've got chicken cottage, Yeah,
very true. Chicken cottage.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
A lot of the information pertaining to the burglary was
hidden under in the national archives for a very long
time and wouldn't wasn't allowed to be released, And the
reason for that, it was surmised, was because there was
some incriminating evidence against the peer of realm who'd been
up to no good in one of this which one?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And was that true or? I mean, when the when
the files were opened, what did they find?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, we don't. I don't know for sure, but it
is true that the government issued a d notice about
the formal notice that the media not publish story on
specific subject around this burglary for reasons of national security.
So there you go. No smoke with that fire, my friend.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Well, I think that's a fascinating story, and I'm glad
that you have brought that to our attention. Next week,
I shall do some research and maybe find a story
if I can be bothered. I mean, I will do
it because I need to. I need to because you know,
I can understand why you've come across this story, because
you've been working out, you've been doing your homework, you've
been doing your research to write your own Sherlock Holmes story,
(19:32):
and you found this and I need to do my
research because I haven't got a clue what I'm going
to write about you? Have you got? I bet you've
written yours already, haven't you? Have you written your.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Written the outline? A possible? There you go.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
You see you've already done such a swat.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
If anyone give me your.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Cast off ideas, I'll turn them into I'll spin them
into gold. How about that? Like Rapunzel rumpel Stiltskin. It
remember rumpel stilt skin?
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, but I thought it was Rapunzel, not Rumpel skilled
spilt skin, spilt.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Skin, steady, steady. That was a wonderful story. I'm glad
you told us it, and I'm sure our audience appreciated it. Yeah,
our audienced the you know, the two women in yourville
and the gentleman in Birmingham, and you really enjoyed it.
And leave my mom out. My mom was asking about
(20:19):
you the other day, she said, where is he? I
haven't seen that vacine. She she's got more of your
books on her shelves than she has of mine.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
You, my friend, are going to lead us out.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I was just I was just doing that. Did you
see that?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Do you hear that? Lady?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I was literally doing the exit when he stopped me
to tell me to do the exit. That, ladies and gentlemen,
the problem with our relate. You know, when you're driving,
when you're when you and your dad sits over your
shoulder or your mom sits on your shoulder and tell
you to turn left or turn right, look out for
the gud. That's what this is, right, I know what
I'm doing, but he won't let me do it? Okay,
(20:51):
and on that rather over over egged explanation that brings
us to the end of another episode. If you've liked
the show, please do leaver review on your and listen
what's the words? I forgot? What the words are? You
guys know you guys know this right right? Please do
leave a review on your favorite podcast app. So for same.
(21:15):
If we were to commit the perfect crime, what would
it be? What sort of crime would we commit? Shall
I tell you we would? We would do exactly that, right,
we would, but you know, too long from the Lloyd's Bank.
We wo'd hire the shop, we build our tunnel into
the chicken shop, and we would rob the chicken shop
of all the KFC we could find.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I'm all right every night, forever, free KFC.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Every night, and on that culinary bombshell, Ladies and gentlemen,
we have been your friends. The Red Hot Jelly Writers
on Murder Junction
Welcome to Murder Junction everyone. This week we do not
have a special guest. Instead, we have two very special
people going on about some very special topics. And that,
of course is my good colleague Abber, who is back
from his what shall we call it? Junk it? What
do we call it? Little so journals of.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Holiday is what normal people call it. And I'm disappointed.
Haven't got any guests this week? Have we run out
of friends? Have we alienated pretty much every crime fiction
writer in the world? Is that? Is that what you've
done here?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Oh? Contre Oh, contre me. We have never been more popular.
I am inundated by requests to come on. However, I
thought that this week what we would do is into
the true crime element of this podcast, which we occasionally do.
We're going to discuss a rather intriguing and relevant true
(00:57):
crime case.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Tell me all about it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Before we do that, a couple of announcements.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
You got me on tender suits, You've got me excited,
you took me to the top of the mountain, and
like the Duke of York, you just marched us stand again.
Not not like the Duke of York with the pizza express.
The Duke of York from the poem. Do your announcements?
What do you have to say before I do that?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
What I would say is that we're both thriller writers.
And all I really did there was tee everyone up
and leave them on a cliffhanger, and we will come back.
We'll come back very shortly to that. Okay. So my
announcement is that later this week, or actually as the
podcast is aired, it will be last week, the fifth
in my Malabar how Serious, City of Destruction is released
(01:40):
in paperback. May I bang on about it for a
couple of minutes in an attempt to convince.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I think you really should. Let me just give you
a random clause there, because it's a fantastic book. Now
tell us all about it.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I was the weakest round of applause I've ever heard,
But then you do not have.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
My God, Just take it. Just take the applause and
talk to the audience.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So City of Destruction opens in nineteen fifty one in
the city of Bombay, India. My protagonist, Pursus Wadia, India's
first female and only female police inspector, is policing a
political rally in Bombay. When a young man attempts to
assassinate the new Indian Defense Minister, and she manages to
(02:22):
get in the way by shooting him dead. But before
he dies, he says something enigmatic to her and hands
her something that will serve as a catalyst for her
to go off and try and find the rest of
this man's conspirators. And as she does so, she travels
to India's ancient capital, Delhi, which was, as you very
(02:44):
well know, the capital of British India following on from Calcutta.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And so we get what happened there was that British
was so scared of Bengali's and cal Cutten's they thought,
we have to move the capitol because these guys are
too clever, too scary for us to stay here, and
that's why they moved to Delhi.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Well, the alternate was that they heard that a certain
mister Muokerjee was going to make town and so the
entire they backed up, and the entire British contingent left
to get has put as many miles between you and
them as they possibly could. So anyway, so the book
basically follows her attempts to find the conspiracy behind this
(03:25):
attempted assassination. We get to look at the history of
Delhi and her colleague Archie Blackfinch, the forensic scientist, the
British forensic scientist, who is in Bombay and who is her?
Will they won't they? Co protagonist ends up in a
bit of strife. So the book I really enjoyed reading it.
(03:46):
It won an award.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Recently, But you really enjoyed reading it? Who wrote it?
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Blood? Let me say that again the truth.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Is coming out, ladies and gentlemen who wrote this book,
that you enjoyed reading that? One of the award us.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
So I really enjoyed writing this book won on an
award recently, the Fingerprint Award for Best Historical Crime Novel
of the Year. And I would be delighted if you
were to pick it up and make my publishers very happy.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We'll get your fingerprints on the Fingerprint Award winning book
which Va Sam wrote. Definitely wrote nobody believe anything to
the contrary?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
All right, and you, my friend, what have you been
up to?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I was on holiday, right, So that was great fun
in Wales in the Mumbles, just outside of Swansea on
the Gower Peninsula. And I'm going to tell everybody not
to go because it was amazing. I don't want it spoiled.
It's like Devon and Cornwall, but quieter. It was so nice,
it was wonderful. The infrastructures better, the roads are better,
(04:47):
the food's brilliant, the water was warm. I loved it
and family had a great time. So yes, the Gower
Peninsula I would definitely recommend to all of you, but
don't go all at once. What else I handed in
the first draft of my new contemporary thriller Again set
like yours in Mumbai, but in present day Mumbai, and
(05:11):
that I'm very excited for. I've never had so much
fun writing a book before, so yes, stay tuned for that.
I'm still waiting to hear back from my editors, but
my agent really likes it, and I'm hoping that will
be out next June or July if I can get
it done.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Well. You've shown me some excerpt and I have to
say it does look fantastic and so Terry.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You're in it for a lot. There's a line about
you in it there as well well, or a character
called Vassin Khan for a line.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Is he handsome?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And yes, absolutely absolutely handsome, deluded, lots of all the
things that you are in this characters.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Well so, Terry Pratchett famously once said that writing is
the most fun that anyone can have by themselves. He
didn't get out much.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
But well, well, with the clothes on, all.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Right, So I promised, I promised a true crime mystery.
So shall we crack on with that?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Go on, then tell me what is your true crime? Then?
What have you done this week?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Can you give us some eerie music as we travel
back into time to September nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Eerie music, Alexa, play some eerie music.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
All right, there's quite enough of that, Quite enough of that, okay.
So this is called the Baker Street robbery case, and
it's the burglary of a branch of Lloyd's Bank, the
Baker Street branch, and a bunch of safety deposit boxes
were stolen. But that's not what makes this very very intriguing.
So the burglary was planned by a chap called Anthony Gavin,
(06:50):
who was one of these career career career rongins, always
up to mischief, and he reckoned that he was inspired
by a shirt Lock Holmes short story called The Red
Headed League. And of course this is very relevant to us.
Would you like to explain to the listeners why?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Well, I think we are allowed to talk about this,
aren't we? Are we nice to talk about this?
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I think yes, it's been publicly announced.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Okay, well we'll talk about this. But if anybody asks you, you
didn't hear it from us. Okay, Both Verssima and I
have been asked to write as part of the State
of Sherlock Holmes. I think we've been asked to write
short stories Sherlock Holmes short stories for an anthology that
will be coming out probably next year of Sherlock Holmes
(07:37):
stories written by the best authors in the business and
men me.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah. And the most important point there is this is
an officially endorsed by the author Loyal Estate. But anyway,
let me tell you about the Red Headed League, just
to paint the picture around this. So this is a
short story that apparently inspired the Baker Street robbery. And
there were fifty six homes short stories written by Cunandal.
(08:03):
So this is one of the one of the ones
that are stuck out in history because of its association
with this particular crime. So it begins with this chap.
A London pawn broco comes to Holmes and Watson, and
he tells them that he's been employed by an agency
called the Red Headed League, which is offering huge amounts
(08:24):
of money to do menial work, but only for red
headed male applicants. And so he takes up this offer,
and he's asked to copy out the Encyclopedia Britannica and
he's paid a small fortune for this work, which keeps
him suitably occupied. And as we go through the mystery,
Holmes discovers that the reason that he's being paid to
(08:44):
do this is to keep this man out of the
way because a gang of criminals are intending to tunnel
into a bank and steal a whole bunch of gold coins.
And that is essentially what happens in the baby.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait he what's this going
to do with red headed people? Why why do they
need to keep red headed people out the way?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Because this Wilson is red headed? So this all right?
So it's not just.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
They make up the story that they're employing red headed people.
It's just him they're employing.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yes, okay, out of the way. So that's what Harry.
You'd never get that story past the diversity police these days.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Obviously, No no, you wouldn't. You wouldn't. I've tried, they said,
Arthur commin door has already written carry on if you
are a natural redhead. But you know, I am, I am,
It's true. The stress has turned your hair black. Of
being a writer, it has. It's a hard life. Come on,
tell us more.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Okay, So so what happens in this in this actual case,
is that this Anthony Gavin Fellow, you know, the wrong
and he gets together a gang and the gang decide
that they're going to rob this bank. And what they
do is they decide that the best way to do
this is to tunnel in from a shop two doors
(10:07):
down which they decide to rent, and they open as
a sort of leather leather goods good shop. And the
tunnel itself. They spend months digging this thing, and they
go in and they you know, they use basic equipment
and they have to tunnel forty feet underneath the shop
that lies in between the Lloyd's Bank and their shop,
(10:28):
which is called La Sack or the bag, right, I'm guessing,
and this will be of interest to you. Would you
like to guess what sort of shop was there in
between the Lloyd's Bank and sack. I will guess.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
I will guess Baker Street next to a bank. It's
either going to be a pub. But you said it's
a shop, so I don't think it's a pub. I'm
gonna say it's gonna be fast food McDonald's McDonald's.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And this, this is why so many, so many people
believe that you actually have a brain, because you're not
too far, you're not too fast. Wrong, it is a
fast food shop. It's a place. It was a place
called the Chicken Inn.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Oh, I should have gone KFC.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Well, you are a KFC officionado as we all.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, I'm not allowed anymore, right unless we're on tour.
That's the only time I get to eat KFC is
when you and I are traveling. Anyway, carry on.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We're both in Bloody Scotland later this month, so we
shall get a regular KFC. Anyway, they tunnel under this,
They have to tunnel forty feet to get to the bank,
and when they get there, they you know, they've got
all sorts of equipment with them, and then they're trying
to get into this vault. They previously measured out the vault.
Some chap went in there with an umbrella and his
(11:47):
arms and somehow measured the dimensions of everything. I'm really
sure how an umbrella helps you to measure anything, but
that's that's what the reason, because.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
You know how long the umbrella is, right, and then
you measure it in you know, units of the umbrella.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, still silly, right, I mean you're standing in the
vault with an umbrella holding it out doing weird things,
and surely you'd think there'd be some ceazons. No, no, no,
I could put it off.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
When we do this our robbery, I'll be in charge
of the umbrella, right, I'll do the measurements.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Puir enough. Well, they try to use all sorts of
stuff to get into this vault through the vault floor,
and they try to use a jack. Doesn't work. They
try to use a thermal lance. That doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And therefore what's the thermal lance. It's like a hot sticky.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah, it produces a very high flame melt which can
melt steel, and the rest of that doesn't work. So
they decide to go old school, and they decide to
use jellignite to just blast away through and then they
time the explosion to coincide with street noises of traffic outside,
and they're helped by the fact that a lot of
roadworks are going on, so you know, you can blame
(12:50):
the roadworks gang for this as well. And so they
get in and they start emptying these the safety deposit boxes.
And what is crazy about all this is that they're
speaking to each other on walkie talkies. And there's a
chap called Robert Rowland who's this amateur radio enthusiast who
somehow tunes into their frequency and he's listening to them
(13:12):
carrying out in real time this burglary. And so he
decides to try and report it to the police, and
the local police say get lost. You know, they don't
believe him, and they're for him. Scotland Yard take a
bit more interest, and so they come down to the bank.
They come down to Lloyd's Bank and they meet with
the officials and they say, look, we've heard this this
stuff on the radio. This chap recorded it and played
(13:34):
it for us, so.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know, so heed this.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, he recorded it on a small cassette. And so
they wander along to the bank and the bank people
take them inside and they say, nothing's going on here,
nothing's wrong. And you know, meanwhile the bank robbers are
sort of hiding there, praying that nobody actually comes in
and finds them, and they do nothing. These guys they
(13:59):
actually walk away from it because the Scotland yard chaps
say that the bankers assured us that this vault is
is fool proof, cannot be broken into, so they they
bugger off the point people into the vault.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Why didn't the bank people into the vault?
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Later, when everyone starts covering their arts and pointing fingers,
they say that they were assured by the provider that
this thing, that this is such a burglary is impossible,
could not happen. So a real shambles on all fronts
as far as law enforcement is concerned. So anyway, they
managed to get away with with a lot of a
(14:36):
lot of money. Most of them remained uncought. The total
value of the stuff they stole out of these safety
deposit lockers was anywhere between one to three million one
to three million pounds. That's the sort of bank robbery
I'd like to do. I mean anything less than a million.
You wouldn't really want to get out of bed for right.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
No, exactly what you wouldn't you just buy a lot
of ticket, right?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
How you do that one anyway, So the banker gang
can turn up on Monday the thirteenth and they open
the vault, and of course now they see that it's
all been burgled and loads of these tools and all
sorts of other crap is lying around all over the place.
They end up with eight hundred pieces of evidence logged
and they because of this evidence, they suggest that they're
(15:20):
looking for four men and a woman, and the woman
they reckon was acting as the controller, and you know,
so they go on. They've got one hundred and twenty
detectives working on this case, and they soon identify various individuals,
including Anthony Gavin, a chap called Wolf, chap called Steven's,
and any one called Tucker, and they decide to start
(15:43):
making some of these arrests. Some of them are buggered
off to France by then somewhere in Italy, and there
were no extradition agreements back then, so it's quite hard
for them to get a hold of these people. But
in the end they managed to recover something like two
hundred and thirty one thousand pounds.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Of the one to three million.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
One to three million, so it was not very successful,
no well, especially if they could have stopped at source, right, Well, yeah,
but you know hindsight, Yeah, captain hindsight there you go.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, no, it's not hindsight. They just needed to go
into the vault when the police turned up and have
a look, and they were dissolved.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
It.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
It's not hindsight. It's just blame common sense, mister Khan.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Fair enough. When there was a chap, but there were
there were a couple of Asian chappies who were taken
to call.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
That's right, blame the Asians.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
So apparently the police surveillance team reckon. They saw one
of these guys handing over some loot to Abdullah Hashian
Gangjee and his nephew, a Kabar Mohammed Ali Gangjee.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I reckon, they just ran the chicken shop. It might
have been, but anyway, all right, then the gangster's got hungry.
They thought, let's let's have some food. Let's just hand
over some of our all gotten gains and get you
know KFC next door.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Well, the two Ganges were actually found not guilty, but
Stevens Tucker and Anthony Gavin were each given sentences of
twelve years. Wolf received eight years because he was so
old sixty four that the judge said, I'm not going
to put your way for too long because we don't
know the chances I die at the end. And of
course the people whose boxes had been broken into they
(17:32):
sued Lloyd.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Oh this is interesting. Who's whose boxes were broken into?
Do you know anything about that?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
What was wow?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Because it wasn't just money that it would be jewelry
and stuff like that that would have been nicked.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Absolutely. I mean, it's not that much I can find
about who actually did the because I guess they'd wanted
to remain anonymous, but some they were they were sued.
So yeah, all around, not good, not good.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
I like that story. I like that story a lot
because one is the it's a bank robbery, right, we
don't have bank robberies anymore. People just press numbers on
computers and stell trillions. It's not got the glamour of
an old fashioned And you know, we've got a tunnel.
We've got a tunnel, we've got radios, We've got people
who should have been stopped in their tracks. But I
(18:21):
love this story a lot. And you've got chicken cottage, Yeah,
very true. Chicken cottage.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
A lot of the information pertaining to the burglary was
hidden under in the national archives for a very long
time and wouldn't wasn't allowed to be released, And the
reason for that, it was surmised, was because there was
some incriminating evidence against the peer of realm who'd been
up to no good in one of this which one?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And was that true or? I mean, when the when
the files were opened, what did they find?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Well, we don't. I don't know for sure, but it
is true that the government issued a d notice about
the formal notice that the media not publish story on
specific subject around this burglary for reasons of national security.
So there you go. No smoke with that fire, my friend.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Well, I think that's a fascinating story, and I'm glad
that you have brought that to our attention. Next week,
I shall do some research and maybe find a story
if I can be bothered. I mean, I will do
it because I need to. I need to because you know,
I can understand why you've come across this story, because
you've been working out, you've been doing your homework, you've
been doing your research to write your own Sherlock Holmes story,
(19:32):
and you found this and I need to do my
research because I haven't got a clue what I'm going
to write about you? Have you got? I bet you've
written yours already, haven't you? Have you written your.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Written the outline? A possible? There you go.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
You see you've already done such a swat.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
If anyone give me your.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Cast off ideas, I'll turn them into I'll spin them
into gold. How about that? Like Rapunzel rumpel Stiltskin. It
remember rumpel stilt skin?
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, but I thought it was Rapunzel, not Rumpel skilled
spilt skin, spilt.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Skin, steady, steady. That was a wonderful story. I'm glad
you told us it, and I'm sure our audience appreciated it. Yeah,
our audienced the you know, the two women in yourville
and the gentleman in Birmingham, and you really enjoyed it.
And leave my mom out. My mom was asking about
(20:19):
you the other day, she said, where is he? I
haven't seen that vacine. She she's got more of your
books on her shelves than she has of mine.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
You, my friend, are going to lead us out.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I was just I was just doing that. Did you
see that?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Do you hear that? Lady?
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I was literally doing the exit when he stopped me
to tell me to do the exit. That, ladies and gentlemen,
the problem with our relate. You know, when you're driving,
when you're when you and your dad sits over your
shoulder or your mom sits on your shoulder and tell
you to turn left or turn right, look out for
the gud. That's what this is, right, I know what
I'm doing, but he won't let me do it? Okay,
(20:51):
and on that rather over over egged explanation that brings
us to the end of another episode. If you've liked
the show, please do leaver review on your and listen
what's the words? I forgot? What the words are? You
guys know you guys know this right right? Please do
leave a review on your favorite podcast app. So for same.
(21:15):
If we were to commit the perfect crime, what would
it be? What sort of crime would we commit? Shall
I tell you we would? We would do exactly that, right,
we would, but you know, too long from the Lloyd's Bank.
We wo'd hire the shop, we build our tunnel into
the chicken shop, and we would rob the chicken shop
of all the KFC we could find.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I'm all right every night, forever, free KFC.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Every night, and on that culinary bombshell, Ladies and gentlemen,
we have been your friends. The Red Hot Jelly Writers
on Murder Junction
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