The Great Train Robbery

Michael Crichton’s The Great Train Robbery is a historical novel based on an 1855 train heist involving the theft of a quantity of gold traveling from England to France as payment for soldiers in the Crimean War. In his introduction, Crichton affirms that his subject is this historical robbery of the same name, also called “The Crime of the Century” by contemporary Victorians. Crichton describes the Victorian landscape of the historical crime as one that saw unprecedented urbanization and industrialization: the population of England doubled between 1800 and 1850, and the Liverpool & Manchester Railway’s opening in 1830 completely transformed the way people traveled, as well as the urban topography. Crichton is especially interested in mid-century Victorian England’s circumstances of increased wealth, greater personal liberties, and improved living conditions—circumstance whose consequence was a subculture of crime represented by his chief protagonists, who intercepted £12,000 of gold between London and Paris.

Crichton’s fictionalized version of events includes characters based on the historical figures involved: Edward Pierce (based on William Pierce) is the ringleader of the criminals, Robert Agar (based on Edward Agar), the coquettish Miss Miriam, the cabby Barlow, and the snakesman, Clean Willy. In the middle of 1854, a gentleman with a mysterious background and dapper appearance sees a man fighting with the train’s guard die when he is thrown off the train to his death. The opening chapters reveal that the spectator is Edward Pierce. Soon after, Pierce's accomplices are introduced. Robert Agar is Pierce’s slightly younger second-in-command. The bombastic and lascivious bank manager Henry Fowler is a perfectly surmountable obstacle. Pierce’s background is mysterious, but Agar’s life has been spent as a matchstick dipper and illicit screwsman (a specialist in copying keys and breaking safes).

Crichton describes the impressive scale and sophisticated network of London trains. Agar and Pierce discuss enlisting the help of Clean Willy, an experienced criminal who could break into the railway station office and to unlock the cabinets which Agar would later access to copy the keys therein. It turns out, however, that Willy is in prison.



Of the four keys needed by Pierce, two are in the train supervisor’s office, one is around the neck of Henry Fowler, and another is in the possession of Mr. Trent, president of the bank. Pierce and Agar watch Mr. Trent from a rooftop, observing his daily routines. Pierce expresses interest in Trent’s sport of “ratting” dogs (betting on dogs’ killing of rats) as well as in Trent’s daughter, Elizabeth. The keys thus located, Pierce has his attractive female accomplice Miss Miriam abet the crime’s activities. On one occasion, she visits the safe manufacturer, Mr. Chubb, posing as a wealthy woman interested in purchasing a safe, to learn about their locking features.

Fowler contracts syphilis and asks Pierce to find a virgin to cure him one his disease, as he is too proud to seek medical attention. This request affords Pierce an opportunity to procure a twelve-year-old girl, innocent enough to entice an unwitting Fowler to remove the key from his neck in order for Agar to make a copy.

Pierce resolves to break Clean Willy out of prison, as his small frame and notorious skill make him the perfect candidate for the job. Pierce uses the occasion of a public execution to sequester Willy. Willy indeed helps Agar sneak into the railway station to make wax copies; however, when Willy asks for more money for his role and Pierce refuses, Willy goes to the police. Realizing that Willy has “turned nose,” Pierce preempts the discovery of his actual planned robbery by convincing Scotland yard that the robbery to which Willy tipped him off is, in fact, a different one.  Pierce has Barlow, his loyal cabby, strangle Willy in a boardinghouse for his duplicity.



There is one last issue to thwart the team—now Pierce, Agar, Miss Miriam, Barlow, and Burgess (the guard of the train’s baggage van whom Pierce paid off): the barrage vans are now locked to the outside. Not to be derailed at this point in his scheme, Pierce insists that Agar act the part of a corpse to smuggle himself into the train’s baggage van inside a coffin. While the train is moving, Pierce drops a rope down to Agar. In retrieving the gold, Pierce walks atop the moving train, which damages his clothing. Pierce fears that when Fowler sees him back inside the train’s cabin (the gold having been deposited at a prearranged location on the train’s route), his game will be up; however, preoccupied with his own condition, Fowler remains unsuspicious. As Pierce disembarks at the train station, he is joined by the alleged sister of the deceased (Agar). Barlow picks her up several hours later.

After the heist, French and British authorities accuse one another. The guard Burgess was apprehended, but before he could be tried, he and his family disappear without a trace.

About a year later, on Guy Fawkes Day in 1856, Alice Nelson is arrested attempting to pick the pocket of a drunk man. She turns out to be the mistress of Robert Agar, who has recently been arrested for forging money. Deprived of Agar’s income, Nelson turned to picking pockets. Under duress, she reveals to the officer the little she knows about Agar’s involvement in the train robbery.



Scotland Yard’s Mr. Harranby interrogates Agar, who leads him to Pierce. Pierce offers a reticent testimony and escapes while leaving the courtroom. It is reported that Pierce, Miss Miriam, and Barlow lived in Paris, and later New York. The money from the robbery was never recovered.

Crichton assembled this novel from contemporary news reports and directed a film adaptation (whose screenplay he also wrote) in 1978. His rigorous display of Victorian society’s ethos makes The Great Train Robbery a classic piece of historical fiction.