Status Updates From El gran robo del tren

Ch. 29 Part 3 begins with a series of setbacks and it’s a wonder they robbed the train. They got the dates confused. Then the czar up and dies and the whole need for the gold was thrown into doubt. British soldiers were still there but it appears to be winding down. Then the safes go into overhaul and they are in shock! Whoever heard of overhauling a safe? Pierce decides to put a woman on the case.

Ch. 28 Two things of note. The guard is given the code but it’s not the actual robbery. Agar tests the keys to make sure they work. Another interesting thing is the presence of a leopard. The public has been gripped about stories of man-eating leopards in India a caged leopard is being taken to a lady in the countryside. Coincidence? I think not.

Ch. 27 When it comes to Victorian crime, four months of planning is a lot. This job has taken eight months so far. Pierce has gone to all the eel-skinners to get a lot of bags filled with lead shot. Criminals threw them at people while committing a crime. I wonder what he’s going to do. My thought is to replace the gold so that the light weight of the safe doesn’t tip off the guards.

Ch. 26 Pierce finds a vulnerable guard who has a sick kid, and he and his wife have minimum income. I hope he doesn't end up in prison. All he has to do is not see when told the code word.

Ch. 25 Pierce is finally ready to obtain the last two keys. It reminds me of a spy or thriller movie in which every player knows their role and have to act with precision time to pull off a crime. Willie does his part and watch Agar do his. It doesn’t come off as easily as they had hoped but quick thinking saved the day for Agar. I think Part 2 is over now that it appears that they have the four keys.

Willie is shocked that he was broken out of prison for such a simple job. He thiniks there has to be more to it than that. He’s right. However, loose lips sink ships and Pierce is very careful to compartmentalize information on a need-to-know basis.

Ch. 24 jack = detective, crusher = police officer, lay = plan

Willie is small and not very smart. Pierce has Agar practicing getting into the cabinet to get the key he needs. The gaff was to make impressions of the key to the cabinet. Willie is going to get through the window hole to open everything up so that Agar can sneak up while the jack is in the WC.

Ch. 23 A jolly gaff is a disturbance put up for show. Pierce set up an elaborate scheme to accomplish two things: get wax impressions of the keys in the cabinets of the London Railway Station and punch a hole in the window. In those days, average citizens would chase down common thieves, especially children who were easy to nab. All the key players were in on it and the mission was accomplished.

Who is this guy?? What acting school did he go to??

It was not a good deal for him because he was responsible for any of her thievery. Pierce approaches him at a bar and asks if he can steal a leopard. He can’t mean a bona fide leopard! I can’t tell if it is Victorian slang for something else. Who knows?

Ch. 23 This chapter gives the history of a horse thief. His mom was a prostitute and he started his life of crime as a little boy and worked up to stealing horses. His best trick was a boy was making a corpse look like he was getting a ride as he was taking it to a medical school for a price. The original weekendd at Bernies. He was a master at disguising the horses. He also married a female con artist.

The reader knows why. This chapter also explains why folks who live in London worry about crime. I bet that is still true today!

Ch. 21 A police officer sees a cabbie beating up a passenger who is a well-dress lady (probably, Miss Miriam). He goes after the cabbie and, not only does the officer get beat up, his clothes are stolen. He wakes up naked. Nobody can figure out why because a police officer’s clothes are worthless on the resale market since anyone who gets selling them will get arrested for theft.

The thief said in court that the skipper should have know something ws up, but he didn’t. They can’t trust Clean Willie for any of these jobs because he was not playing with a full deck and they are afraid who would tell anyone and everyone about the plot. They have to compartmentalize the information shared with him.

From whaat they know the night watchman is extremely reliable so they must resort to spying on him. They get a crate and nail the skipper inside so that he can spy on the watchman. They have it retrieved, paint it a different color, and rinse, cycle, repeat. The watchman is very predictable and the only thing to report is that he leaves once a night at the same time. They never find the skipper to testify in court..

Ch. 20 The London railway station becomes a coopered ken (slang for a bad place for a stick-up). A new company took over security and it’s run by a philanthropist who wants to hire more people than he needs to help the poor. The thieves wonder if he is onto them and he is totally shocked after the robbery. He turned out to be clueless. They end up finding a skipper (someone who sleeps in outhouses).

Ch. 19 was awful. The age of consent for girls was 12!!!! However, our society cannot talk. Look at how many kids are neglected, mutilated, violated, and abused. Are we any less guilty of sacrificing kids to Molech than the Victorians? I hope Fowler burns in Hell. Legal does not mean moral!