Joe Duggan (Reporter)GREAT train robber Gordon Goody has died of a heart attack in Spain.
The 87-year-old passed away in Mojacar, Almeria, where he ran a bar called Kon Tiki.
He was the mastermind who led the infamous gang behind the £2.6 million (€47 million in today’s money) theft from a London to Glasgow mail train in 1963.
It was the biggest raid on a British train in history, with the bulk of the money never recovered.
A train guard, Jack Mills, was coshed over the head during the robbery.
Goody served 12 years of a 30-year sentence before moving to Spain in 1975.
In a 2014 interview, Goody said: “My old man wanted me to be a plumber’s mate. I wanted to be a criminal. You never have to work hard to be a criminal.
“You do something, see something, you’ve no money, you take it. I was always a thief, never a gangster.”
Goody was born in Ireland but grew up in Putney in west London where he turned to crime.
He was the first of the gang onto the mail train where he forced the injured Mills to drive towards the gang’s rendezvous point at Bridgego bridge.
Goody was later arrested in a hotel along with his girlfriend, a former Miss Great Britain, following the robbery.
While in prison, he learned Spanish before moving to Spain.
