CHAPTER 36

The Rugby Player Hero

1963

The snatch and coshing of two wage messengers was made by bandits using pick-axe handles …

eter Short, a quantity surveyor from Great Crosby, found himself in the centre of a violent heist in November 1963. He liked to play rugby and his fitness was very handy in doing what he did that day.

Six bandits arrived at premises in Great Howard Street and their sights were set on two Midland Bank messengers who had just walked out of the bank building as the villains arrived. The messengers, Stanley Smith and Norman Carter, were carrying cash in two suitcases. The snatch and coshing of the messengers was made by bandits using pick axe handles. The robbers took £3,500, but they made one mistake: they attacked their prey in front of Peter Short.

Short had been driving to his office when he ‘saw people rolling around the pavement’ and he wasted no time in following the men in their blue van, swinging his car into Lightbody Street to give chase. The villains threw building materials and buckets behind, to try to stop their pursuer, but he kept on.

A van somehow moved in between Short and the robbers, and still the missiles kept coming. He later reported that nails, wood and sand had been hurled at him. Finally, all this had some effect, as Short said: ‘It was like driving through a dust storm but I still managed to keep the vans in sight. Then, after about half a mile around the back streets of Scotland Road a bucket thrown from one of the vans got caught up with my front axle.’

Many would have been deterred by this setback, but not Peter Short. He restarted and still had them in sight, finally seeing them run into a block of tenements. By this time, police were moving in and the place was surrounded. The robbers, it was later found, had used two vans and had left their booty – one attaché case contained £3,000; another bag was found near the first van, simply lying on the concrete.