AS the manhunt continued to track down “dangerous” John Anslow, who was sprung from a prison van days after being charged with murder, Birmingham Mail Crime Correspondent Mark Cowan looks back at some other daring prison breaks. Here we open the files on Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson.
THE rattle of the key in his cell door in the early hours of the morning signalled to Charlie Wilson that his audacious escape plans were afoot.
The 32-year-old thief had been languishing in Birmingham’s Winson Green jail after his conviction for his part in the Great Train Robbery in 1963.
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The train coach that was broken into by the Great Train Robbers at Cheddington Station, Buckinghamshire
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Great Train Robbery gataway plank and a ladder found propped against a wall next to Winson Green prison
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The house in Montreal where escaped train robber Charles Wilson was living when he was recaptured
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Great Train Robber Charles Wilson arriving at Heathrow Airport, London, from Canada, in January 1968
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Great Train Robber Charles Wilson led from Aylesbury Crown Court in September 1963, handcuffed to a prison officer
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Ladders at the wall leading to hospital grounds where Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson escaped from Winson Green Prison
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The coaches of the train involved in the 2.5 million Great Train Robbery under police guard at Cheddington Station
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Detective at the wall where Great Train Robber Charles Wilson escaped
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Inside the train where the £2.5million Great Train Robbery took place
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Charles Wilson, one of the accused men, on his way to the Great Mail Train Robbery court hearing at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
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Great Train Robbery Charles Wilson leaves the aircraft with his head covered with a black coat surrounded by Flying Squad men and police
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Great Train Robber Charles Wilson with a coat over his head getting into a police car at Heathrow Airport after arriving from Canada
In August 1964, just four months after being sentenced to 30 years behind bars, he was about to become known for the Great Prison Break.
As the heavy prison door swung open, Wilson was greeted by three masked men.
Wilson was tossed a bundle of clothes and hurriedly dressed in a black roll-neck sweater, dark trousers, plimsolls and balaclava.
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The men led Wilson down the silent corridor and past one of the guards, Mr W. Nichols, lying unconscious on the floor having been coshed, bound and gagged, before going downstairs.
The intruders, who had opened the locks of the various doors on the inward journey with duplicate keys, systematically closed all the doors behind them.
To investigators at was as if Wilson had simply vanished into thin air.
It took a matter of minutes from leaving his cell for Wilson to be tasting free air.
Wilson was a key player behind the heist in 1963 when more than £2.5 million - worth an estimated £40 million in 2010 - was stolen from a Royal Mail train and was said to have known where the cash was hidden.