by Dan Bilefsky
In July 2018, Jones was sentenced to an additional three years for his role in the Chatila burglary. During his sentencing, he gave a letter to the judge, Joanna Korner, lamenting his life of crime. “I would urge any young lad who is thinking of being a thief, it doesn’t work, it leaves a trail of destruction on both sides—the victims of crime and your family,” the letter said. “Your conscience will eat you away. I feel sorrow and regret for all the trouble I have put my family through.”
Graham Trembath, Jones’s lawyer, told the court that Jones had been profoundly shaken by Perkins’s death, and had observed the prison guards trying to resuscitate him. “He realizes that this is a futile way of life—the impact of Terry Perkins’s death at such a relatively young age caused him to reflect and to realize that,” he said. He added that Jones’s 16-year-old son had cut him off, viewing him as “utterly selfish, thinking only of himself and no one else—including his mother.”
The judge appeared sympathetic. “I am satisfied,” she said, “that finally, though you were clearly a professional criminal, you do not intend to return to a life of crime after you leave prison.”
Until recently, the families of the Bad Grandpas were living affluent lives in homes that were likely the product of past thefts, a reasonable conclusion given that none of the men have permanently held down well-paying day jobs. Danny Jones’s former partner Valerie Hart resided in the couple’s sprawling Swiss-style house in Enfield.
Brian Reader’s son Paul lived for a time in his father’s country manor in Dartford, Kent.
Collins’s elderly wife Millie spends her days in their handsome home in Islington, visiting Collins at Belmarsh whenever she can, according to friends. The Perkins clan still live in their modest homes in Enfield, their presence confirmed by the vigor with which they slammed their front doors when approached on a recent day. “What do you want?” sneered Terri Robinson, his daughter. When asked about the Hatton Garden case, she said, “Read the papers!” Her mood was perhaps sour as she and her brother-in-law Bren Walters, had pleaded guilty to concealing, converting, or transferring criminal property. After a judge held them liable for some of the millions of pounds in jewels stolen at Hatton Garden, Robinson told the court she had available funds of £139.54—about $190. Walters declared that he had £1—about $1.35.9 The families’ days of leisure, however, could be numbered. In addition to the seizure of bank accounts and real estate investments, prosecutors said that other more sentimental objects could also be confiscated, including diamond earrings, gold bands, and wedding rings.
“They deserve no pity,” insisted Evans.10
THE POLICE, MEANWHILE, have struggled to identify thousands of identical-looking chains and gems that have been recovered from the burglary. Among the many millions of pounds’ worth of loot that have still not been found, at least some has probably been melted down, laundered, or stashed away.
As for Hatton Garden Safe Deposit, it was forced into liquidation, and the safe deposit’s new owner David Pearl, a property mogul, said he was considering relocating the vault—including the now iconic drilled-through wall and the ransacked safe deposit boxes—to the Museum of London so visitors could see firsthand what the safe deposit looked like when the hapless security guards arrived at the scene on the morning of April 7, 2015. Pearl predicted it could become among the capital’s most popular tourist attractions.11
“People don’t seem to look at it as a robbery,” he told the Telegraph. “They don’t look at it in the same way as other crimes, where their reaction is ‘Hang ’em, whip ’em!’ Here they say ‘Ok, they were just some old men chancing their luck.’ It’s strange, but there you go. I can’t explain it, but I’m no psychiatrist.”
The Hatton Garden neighborhood has enjoyed something of a renaissance since the headline-grabbing caper put it on the map. On Bond Street, Hatton Garden’s more upmarket jewelry rival, shopkeepers complain that the Garden gets all the attention. Locals refer to “the last job” as “the world’s best advertising campaign” and estimate that revenues have jumped by nearly a quarter. “Thanks to the heist,” said Jacob Meghnagi, a resident jeweler, “the whole world knows Hatton Garden.”
Illustrations Insert
The Firm plotted the crime at the Castle pub in Islington, north London, a gastropub that had a “Go to Jail” sign on the gents’ bathroom door.
Brian Reader, known as “The Master,” a veteran thief who has been involved in some of the most brazen heists of the twentieth century. Hatton Garden was his last job.
Top row, left to right: Kenny Collins, Danny Jones, and Terry Perkins. Bottom row, left to right: Carl Wood, William Lincoln, and Hugh Doyle.
To access the safe deposit, the thieves entered 88–90 Hatton Garden from the fire escape in the back of the building, largely hidden from view, off a quiet alleyway.
Known as the “Godfather of British Crime,” Freddie Foreman, a former enforcer for the Kray twins, says he was approached to go on the heist.
Over an Easter holiday weekend in April 2015, the men infiltrated the safe deposit, relied on by local jewelers for being impenetrable.
During the heist, the thieves managed to drill a figure-eight-shaped hole through twenty inches of reinforced concrete.
As the Firm began the heist, they brought in tools hidden in wheeled trash cans.
Basil (left), a lanky figure, and Jones (right).
Collins, on Friday morning, surveys the street before getting into the van to pick up his fleeing accomplices.
Jones takes a break, leaning on a trash can, on Sunday, as the gang finishes the job.
Basil walks toward the van with a black bag obscuring his face.
Perkins and Collins met Reader at the Castle pub after the heist to boast about what they had pulled off.
A police forensics officer enters Hatton Garden following the burglary.
Paul Johnson, the soft-spoken Flying Squad officer who led the Hatton Garden investigation, proved a master of patience and perseverance.
Johnson addresses a scrum of journalists following the burglary.
Gravestone of Sidney James Hart, the father of Danny Jones’s common-law wife. Jones hid some of the loot under the gravestone.
In the months after his arrest, Jones led Scotland Yard to the Victorian cemetery where he had buried some of the jewels.
Forensics officers dig up the stolen gems at Edmonton Cemetery, concealed in a plastic bag.
Jewels found at Edmonton Cemetery.
Jewels found at Edmonton Cemetery.
Jewels found at Edmonton Cemetery.
The heist captured the imagination of London’s feverish tabloid press (featured here is the Sun), which grew obsessed with a crime perpetrated by a group of aging men.
Court artist sketch of Michael Seed, arrested in March, whom prosecutors say is “Basil the Ghost,” the mystery man who vanished after the crime.
Acknowledgments
IN THE SPRING OF 2015, I HAD BARELY ARRIVED IN London as a new correspondent for the New York Times. I woke up one morning to find a page from the Sun spread out over my desk, with the headline “Diamond Wheezers” announcing that the thieves behind the audacious Hatton Garden heist were, in fact, a group of grumpy and aging men. An editor had stuck a yellow Post-it Note on the article: “One for you?”
It was. Hatton Garden was about a ten-minute bike ride from my house. The Castle pub where the men plotted the biggest burglary in English history over warm beer was my local pub. Within days of my story on the caper being published, it was optioned by Hollywood. I had stumbled on the true crime tale of a lifetime—and a dream subject for a book. I am grateful to my editor Kyle Crichton for helping to plant the seed.
The cat-and-mouse game at the center of this book has been hugely enriched by the willingness of the leading Scotland Yard officers and prosectors on the case—Paul Johnson, Craig Turner, Jamie Day, Philip Evans, and Ed Hall—to share their detailed recollections. For law enforcement officials trained to b
e invisible, braving my never-ending barrage of questions over many months was not always comfortable, and I am very grateful for their generosity.
Roy Ramm, a former chief of the Flying Squad, was instrumental in sharing his first-hand knowledge of the workings of the Flying Squad, and his investigations of some of London’s most memorable heists. Tony Connell, a twenty-year veteran of Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service, shared his memories of meeting Perkins as a young lawyer. Tony Lundy, a former Scotland Yard detective, provided invaluable insights about old-school criminals like Reader and the gang, whom he had spent years hunting.
Here, too, I am indebted to Freddie Foreman, the self-described “Godfather of British Crime,” who opened his door when I came knocking and regaled me with tales of English criminal outlaws over glasses of wine. Kevin Lane, a former inmate of Belmarsh prison, also patiently explained some of the ins and outs of the London criminal ecosystem and the challenges of prison life for men in their seventies.
Also essential to this book were Paul Lashmar, one of Britain’s most storied crime reporters, who shared his recollections of Hatton Garden and the old-school criminals who lingered there, and Dick Hobbs, Britain’s leading sociologist of crime, who grew up himself on the mean streets of east London and helped me to bring them to life. Daniel Sandford, the BBC’s debonair and knowledgeable Home Affairs correspondent, was endlessly generous and collegial when I arrived at a foreboding criminal court in southeast London to cover the case.
Working for the New York Times is a blessing for any reporter and aspiring book writer and here I must thank my beloved friend and colleague Danny Hakim, who has been a tireless cheerleader, and gave me wise counsel whenever my reporting hit a wall. My colleague and dear friend Catherine Porter has provided much-needed commiseration. I would also like to raise a glass to Jim Yardley, the Europe editor of the Times, for being a kind and generous mentor when I most needed it.
So many countless friends and loved ones put up with my book obsessing, and I’d like to thank Navtej Dhillon, Kurt van der Basch, and Amita Joshi for their love, support, and feedback on drafts.
A big hats off to my literary agent Todd Shushter for his expert shepherding; to Michael Moore, my film agent, for seeing the story’s potential; and to Elias Altman, for his deft editing of my book proposal.
I would also like to thank Helen Thomaides at Norton for her tireless work on the book and Jasmin Lavoie for pitching in with fact-checking.
Finally, I am especially grateful to John Glusman, the editor in chief of Norton, whom I was lucky enough to have edit this book, and who did so with flair, a keen eye, and enviable humor and equanimity.
Dan Bilefsky
July 24, 2018
Notes
Chapter 1
The Inspiration of a Botched Crime
1.Hatton Garden trial, Woolwich Crown Court, London, December 14, 2017.
2.Chatila trial, Southwark Crown Court, London, February 28, 2017.
Chapter 2
The Making of a Master Thief
1.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, transcripts relating to audio recordings of Citroën Saxo EN51EUD.
2.Interview with Tony Lundy, August 1, 2016.
3.Tom Pettifor and Nick Sommerlad, “Incredible Story of How Hatton Garden Mastermind Brian Reader Became Britain’s Most Prolific Thief,” Daily Mirror, September 2, 2016.
4.Interview with Dick Hobbs, London, January 30, 2017.
5.Brian Reader testimony during Brink’s-Mat gold-laundering trial, 1987.
6.Duncan Campbell, “One Last Job: The Inside Story of the Hatton Garden Heist,” Guardian, January 23, 2016.
7.Interview with Paul Lashmar, London, June 16, 2016.
8.Interview with Dick Hobbs, London, January 30, 2017.
9.Dick Hobbs, obituary of “Charlie Richardson: Shrewd and Ruthless Leading Figure of London’s 1960s Criminal Scene,” Independent, September 21, 2012.
10.Interview with Dick Hobbs, London, January 30, 2017.
11.Interview with Paul Lashmar, London, June 16, 2016.
12.Brian Reader testimony during Brink’s-Mat gold-laundering trial, 1987.
13.Interview with Tony Lundy, London, August 1, 2016.
14.Brian Reader testimony during Brink’s-Mat gold-laundering trial, 1987.
15.Interview with Roy Ramm, London, March 8, 2016.
16.Wensley Clarkson, Public Enemy Number 1 (London: John Blake, 2006), 115–126.
17.Duncan Campbell, “One Last Job: The Inside Story of the Hatton Garden Heist,” Guardian, January 23, 2016.
Chapter 3
The Making of the Firm
1.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, transcripts relating to audio recordings of Citroën Saxo EN51EUD, 380.
2.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, transcripts relating to audio recordings of Citroën Saxo EN51EUD, 430.
3.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, transcripts relating to audio recordings of Citroën Saxo EN51EUD, 433.
4.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, statement of Kelvin Stockwell, April 20, 2015.
5.Sentencing Council for England and Wales; Sentencing Myths website, https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/about-sentencing/sentencing-myths/.
6.Interview with Freddie Foreman, London, March 29, 2017.
7.Interview with Philip Evans, prosecutor of Hatton Garden case, London, May 3, 2017.
8.Interview with Freddie Foreman, London, March 29, 2017.
9.Metropolitan Police Service, Operantion Spire, transcripts relating to audio recordings of Mercedes E200 CP13BGY, 481.
10.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, transcripts relating to audio recordings of Citroën Saxo EN51EUD, 402.
11.Interview with Tony Connell, London, May 2, 2017.
12.Interview with Valerie Hart, London, January 17, 2017.
13.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, crime scene images.
14.Interview with Kevin Lane, London, January 16, 2017.
15.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, transcripts relating to audio recordings of Citroën Saxo EN51EUD, 397.
16.“Hotel Room Sting That Nailed Two Corrupt Detectives in Torture Plot,” Guardian, June 7, 2002.
17.Hatton Garden trial, Woolwich Crown Court, London, January 2016.
18.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, transcripts relating to audio recordings of Citroën Saxo EN51EUD, 395.
19.Interview with Freddie Foreman, London, March 29, 2017.
20.Bruce Weber, “Bruce Reynolds, Audacious Mastermind of Great Train Robbery, Is Dead at 81,” New York Times, February 28, 2013.
21.Interview with Freddie Foreman, London, March 29, 2017.
22.“Bruce Reynolds, Mastermind Behind Great Train Robbery Dies at 81,” Independent, February 28, 2013.
23.Steven Morris, “Great Train Robber Back at the Scene for Charity,” Guardian, August 9, 2003.
24.Nick Russell-Pavier and Stewart Richards, The Great Train Robbery (London: Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 2012), 9–10.
25.Nick Russell-Pavier and Stewart Richards, The Great Train Robbery (London: Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 2012), 27.
26.“Great Train Robbery Memorabilia Sold at Auction,” BBC, February 19, 2015.
27.Nick Russell-Pavier and Stewart Richards, The Great Train Robbery (London: Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 2012), 297.
Chapter 4
The Target
1.Nicolas Harris, Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton (London: Richard Bentley, 1847).
2.Paul Lashmar, “Jewellery and Junk,” Independent, August 11, 1998.
3.Rachel Lichtenstein, Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden (London: Penguin Books, 2013), 227.
4.Rachel Lichtenstein, Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden (London: Penguin Books, 2013), 62.
5.Rachel Lichtenstein, Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden (London: Penguin Books, 2013), 61.
6.Rachel Lichtenstein, Di
amond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden (London: Penguin Books, 2013), xvi.
7.“History of the London Diamond Bourse,” London Diamond Bourse.
8.Interview with George Katz, London, November 1, 2016.
9.Interview with Jacob Meghnagi, London, November 1, 2016.
10.Tom Pettifor and Nick Sommerlad, One Last Job (London: Mirror Books, 2016), 199.
11.Interview with George Katz, London, November 1, 2016.
12.Geoffrey Howse, Murder and Mayhem in North London (Barnsley, UK: Pen and Sword Books, 2010), 182.
13.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, witness statement of Manish Bavishi, May 21, 2015, 350.
14.Metropolitan Police Service, Operation Spire, witness statement of Kelvin Stockwell, April 20, 2015, 27–29.
15.Interview with Roy Ramm, London, March 8, 2016.
16.Rachel Lichtenstein, Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden (London: Penguin Books, 2013), 112–13.
17.Paul Lashmar, “Jewellery and Junk,” Independent, August 11, 1998.
18.Paul Lashmar and Richard Hobbs, “The Garden of British Crime: How London’s Jewellery District Became a Nursery for Villains,” Conversation, March 9, 2016.
19.Will Bennett, “£7m Diamond Raiders Beat Combination Locks,” Independent, July 16, 1993.
20.Oliver Burkeman, “If He Could Get Away with It Here, No Lock in the World Is Safe,” Guardian, July 17, 2003.
