Status Updates From The Great Train Robbery

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!

Then they find the right key. It’s a good thing because the dust makes Agar cough because of his lungs. He quickly makes two sets of wax impressions, meaning a total of four imprints. The next trick is getting out of there without getting caught. That’s where releasing rats in the back yard created a commotion with the dogs.

Ch. 18 Pierce’s team has five people. Miss Miriam rides in a carriage and stops at the Trent’s house, asking for directions to distract the porter. One of the wives is the crow (on the lookout). The men sneak downstairs to look for the key. It took awhile. They deduce correctly that it is up on a high shelf so that his wife will not find it. They find a key covered in dust which is not it.

Fowler is is running around on his wife. Now he’s fouled himself with an STD. He’s going to try the quack “cure” of ensnaring a “fresh.” Since Pierce is single, Fowler turns to him for help in procuring one. Pierce, of course, is eager to help. However, there is this trick in those days of providing a stale “fresh” and the lech is fooled by the work of a seamstress. Gross. Fowler wonders how much he’ll have to pay.

Pt. 2 Ch. 17 Telling a Victorian crime story without allusion to the seedy aspects of London would be wrong, especially in a book marketed to an adult. I appreciate that Crichton alludes to these incidents without going into all the gory details. I’m so glad when authors do not imagine dark scenes for us. Some readers prefer keeping their eyes closed! LOL At the end of Fowler’s dinner party, he made a crude remark.

He tenderly squeezes her hand and says it’s the happiest day of his life. She’s so very happy, bless her heart.

She bores her friends to death talking about Mr. Edward Pierce. She begs her father for new dress, sometimes wearing two different dresses in a day. He is very tender and acts attentive, but later testifies he could only remember one conversaation with her. She talked about her father’s anxiety on days when Crimean War gold shipments were sent. He went to the basement for a drink, all by himself, to calm his nerves.