Remember A DayKarma for Great Train Robbery gang member, British ‘niet’ to Russian vodka and Burt Reynolds’ big payday: headlines from 40 years ago
- A journey back through time to look at significant news and events reported by the South China Morning Post from this week in history
A member of Britain’s notorious Great Train Robbery gang being struck by a reversal of fortunes, the British government saying “niet” to Russian vodka and Burt Reynolds taking home the biggest pay cheque in Hollywood history made the headlines 40 years ago this week.
April 13, 1980
● Two gunmen shot and killed a Libyan journalist outside a London mosque in what diplomatic sources said might be the work of one of a number of Libyan death squads sent to Europe and the United States to silence opponents of Libyan leader Gaddafi. The sources said the squad was sent to eliminate dissidents amid the large Libyan exile groups in Britain, Italy and Malta, and among Libyan students in the US.
April 14, 1980
● Buster Edwards, one of the 1963 Great Train Robbery gang members, discovered that crime did not pay when his London flat was burgled. Thieves stole jewellery and personal items valued at about £3,000 (some HK$33,000 at the time). Edwards was insured by the same company that covered the Glasgow-London postal train he helped rob of £2.5 million (about HK$27.5 million then). Edwards had served 12 years in prison for the crime.
