Mike Waldren

The Tottenham Outrage of 1909 when two Latvian robbers, Jewish refugees, intercepted a payroll has been comparatively hidden from the wider world (unlike the notorious Siege of Sydney Street which took place two years later). It involved 100 police officers and up to a thousand local citizens in running to ground two desperate police killers. The book follows every inch of the six-and-a-half miles and two-and-a-half hours chase. It also pays minute attention to the individuals and places involved as well as the aftermath. Not since the days of highwaymen and footpads had armed robbery been seen in London. Geoffrey Barton explains the political backdrop to the arrival in the UK of armed revolutionaries driven by their own frenzied missions, causing people to go in fear. Laws were passed to deal with aliens and terrorism but as the author explains the ordinary police were ill-equipped to deal with the problem.

In August 1966, two weeks after England won the World Cup, and four miles from Wembley Stadium, Harry Roberts and his associates gunned down three unarmed police detectives in front of dozens of primary school children. The nation was outraged and struggled to understand what had happened. Roberts had served in the special forces during the conflict in Malaya and claimed he was assigned to kill selected targets. He returned to the UK keen to continue such work in civilian life, but he was rejected by the two gangs that dominated the London Criminal Underworld in the 1960s, the Krays and the Richardsons. Prophetically, they considered him to be too violent. Following the Shepherd's Bush Massacre, Roberts' accomplices, John Witney and John Duddy, were quickly arrested, but Roberts went to ground, using the survival and camouflage skills that he had learned in the British Army. Harry Roberts and Foxtrot One-One covers every detail of the investigation and manhunt that followed, from arrest, trial and imprisonment to Roberts' eventual (and controversial) release. One of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century. The case that led to the police firearms training arrangements seen today. Looks at the tragic impact on the victims' families. By a former senior Metropolitan Police armed officer.