Synopsis: Aspiring investigative reporter Marilyn witnesses one of the greatest money heists in history…but will she be able to collect enough evidence for anyone to believe what she saw? For fans of I Survived and Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales but with a true crime twist, read about the Great Train Robbery of 1963 in this I Witnessed graphic novel.

Marilyn is in for an unforgettable trip when she sneaks aboard a Royal Mail train from Glasgow to London on the night of August 7, 1963. While Marilyn’s focused on her writing portfolio and convincing Dad not to ship her to boarding school, the night takes a turn when she witnesses more than a dozen masked men board the train. What Marilyn didn’t know when she snuck aboard was that this Mail Train was transporting over £2 million in cash. The robbers detain the crewmen, seize control of the train, and then abscond into the night with their bounty…but thanks to Marilyn, they won’t make it out scot-free.

Inspired the true events, Marilyn’s story offers a fictional kid POV rooted in historical facts about the heist and the subsequent trial. Case fact sidebars offer additional nonfiction elements to the story.

Review: The “I Witnessed” is a line of middle grade books that place a fictional child into a real historical story as a means of teaching young readers about those events. I was surprised to see an entry for The Great Train Robbery and had to read it out of curiosity.

In August 1963, after several months of planning, a Royal Train was successfully robbed to the tune of £2.61 million. There were 17 robbers and accomplices. On their tails was the 6 man Train Robbery Squad which were a part of the famed Flying Squad. Several of the robbers were caught and put on trial. A couple of the robbers even escaped prison! It’s a wild story to be honest and is worth digging into.

Here’s the thing, this isn’t really written as crime fiction (true or fictionalized), the intended audience isn’t a crime fiction audience, but it’s subject matter is. So as a crime comic it’s a bit of a curio item. Readers of this blog, who are a fan of this story or a fan of crime fiction and crime comics, maybe consider checking this one out from the library instead of grabbing your own copy. But their crime fic kids, true crime fans, and anyone who isn’t familiar with the story should definitely check it out.

Because

As a couple of panels from The comic tell us, The Great Train Robbery of 1963 has been the subject of numerous movies, TV shows, documentaries, and books. This comic could be a gateway to lots of great stuff.

Honestly, there is a wealth of material out there either explicitly about The Great Train Robbery or that has been influenced by it. I suggested to a friend that he should do a deep dive on that body of work for Crimereads but that’s a big lift so I don’t know if he ever will. For now, here’s a couple I want to point you to.

Robbery (1967) is an excellent Brit Grit criminal procedural flick from director Peter Yates (Bullit, Breaking Away, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Hot Rock). Honestly just a magnificent piece of crime fiction.

It’s not hard to imagine that The Great Train Robbery is in the DNA of The Italian Job (1969)

I don’t know if The Great Train Robbery is anywhere in the DNA of The Sicilian Clan (1969) but I won’t even pass up an opportunity to talk about the Great French crime flick with three French crime flick acting heavyweights.

The Gold Robbers (1969) seems to be largely a forgotten show these days and it shouldn’t be. It’s got a stacked cast of British characters actors and an interesting structure that is a new edition to the heist genre. Parts of it are dated, parts of it drag, and there’s a couple of spots that just don’t work at all but it’s quite good overall and worth rediscovery.

For a more recent series take we have The Great Train Robbery (2013)

And finally, speaking of curio items, we have the 1988 film Buster, a kind of biopic love story about one of the robbers, starring Phil Collins in the titular role.