Terence Hogan
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Terry "Lucky Tel" Hogan (1931 – 15 January 1995), also known as "Harry Booth," was a professional criminal and prominent figure in the London underworld in the 1950s and 1960s. [1] He took part in the Eastcastle Street mailbag robbery in which £287,000 (worth 7.8 million pounds in 2014) was stolen from a Post Office van on its way across the West End from Paddington station.[1]
Early Life
Terry Hogan was born in 1931 and grew up in Fulham. Terry Hogan was recruited as a boy to serve as a bookmakers runner and later to steal. Hogan's childhood was abusive; a punch as a child left him deaf in one ear. In his teens, he was recruited by notorious gang leader Billy Hill. During his early career, Hogan became obsessed with timing. Everything was timed and re-timed including crime.[citation needed] While he was sixteen, one of his 'bosses' carved the letter 'V' for 'victory' on the faces of his enemies before the open wounds were stitched up by a tailor. George "Taters" Chatham taught him how to cat burgle.
Career
In 1962 Hogan was involved in the robbery of an armoured payroll truck at Heathrow Airport, in which £62,000 (approximately £2 million today) was stolen. It was a deeply planned and sophisticated robbery, involving a film company make up artist, wigs, suits and bowler hats.
Great Train Robbery
On the day of the Great Train Robbery in 1963, Hogan was in Cannes with a family of French–Iranian millionaires.[citation needed] Hogan believed the plan was flawed because there were too many parties involved, which increased the potential for a leak of information. He repeated over and over to the robbers to keep their gloves on and perhaps to torch the farm to remove evidence - this was ignored.[citation needed] His 5-year-old daughter recalled dragging black bags into the garage, unaware of their contents and thinking it was a game. Terry Hogan shielded the money for two nights. He also helped Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds to stay on the run, often looking after Bruce's young son and wife. He was a generous man, he gave a lot of money away, and like many criminals of his time died in poverty. Many of the great train robbers, died through murder, suicide, or in prison, or came out of prison to find the proceeds of their robbery spent and gone.
Eastcastle St. Robbery
Before the Eastcastle St. robbery, he timed the distances and mail delivery vans over many days and when questioned by police while he was watching the street, he said that he was a film producer locating good areas for a gangster film. Terry Hogan had been responsible for getting into the cab of the mail van during the Eastcastle street robbery. Hogan had been associated with Peter Scott ('the human fly') - who was reputed to be the thief of Sophia Lauren's hotel suite jewellery. Although both Hogan and Scott were involved in the Eastcastle robbery, no one was ever captured for the robbery.[citation needed]
Later Life and Death
Married and with a family, Terry Hogan decided to quit crime completely in the 1960s. He went into the textile business and lived in West London. After reforming his path, Hogan sponsored many people in AA. After his son Keith was born, Hogan spent large amounts of money on the education of his children.[citation needed] During Terry's life, his family saw him struggle with the guilt he felt for crime.[citation needed] Terry Hogan was profoundly affected by the deaths of several of his friends and fellow robbers: the shooting of Charlie Wilson in 1990, the suicide of Buster Edwards in 1994, and the death of Rick Withers.
Hogan committed suicide on 15 January 1995 by jumping from a window into the street below. The last phone call he made was to say he wished he could have taken a different road in life, and that he regretted everything, including the crime and his intermittent alcoholism, except his wife and children.[citation needed] He paid for his crimes with his life, and his psychiatrist said to his daughter after he died, "there was nothing his family could have done to save him, it was all in his childhood".
Notoriety
The Eastcastle St. robbery was regarded so seriously that then prime minister Winston Churchill received daily updates on the investigation and Parliament demanded an explanation from the Postmaster General, Herbrand Sackville, as to how it had been allowed to happen. It was one of the first masterminded robberies in Britain.[2]The Eastcastle St. Robbery was mentioned in the Alexander Mackendrick film, 'The Ladykillers'.
The BBC One Show had a section devoted to Terence Hogan filmed at the Star Tavern Belgravia London with Terence Hogan's daughter. Many years ago this pub had many well known 'faces' of London as their clients"
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References
- ^ a b The Guardian; 26 January 1995; Final curtain for robber who got away
- ^ Hogan, Karen (15 May 2011). "'Crime paid for my privileged childhood': A woman's shocking discovery about her father". Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
- ^ The Who's Who Of British Crime by Jim Morris 2015
- ^ The Autobigraphy of A Theif by Bruce Reynolds 1996
- ^ Crossing The Line by Bruce Reynolds 2003
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