The mystery of who hit the engine driver over the head during the Great Train Robbery of 1963 has finally been solved.
James Hussey, one of the 17-strong gang’s musclemen, admitted on his deathbed on Monday that it was him who struck driver Jack Mills, then 57, according to a report in The Sun.
Mr Mills died seven years after the attack and it’s believed that the head injury he sustained contributed to his death.
Police guard the robbed Royal Mail train after the gang attacked it
Until now it was thought that one of the three robbers who escaped prosecution or Ronald “Buster” Edwards hit Mr Mills.
A source told The Sun that Hussey decided to reveal his secret once he realised he didn’t have long left to live.
He said: “He bottled it up. He was one of seven robbers sentenced to 30 years and always feared another prosecution.
“But in recent weeks his health deteriorated and he moved into the hospice.
“When he knew he didn’t have long left, he decided to finally tell the truth.
“He didn’t want to take this secret to the grave.”
Seventy-Nine-Year-Old Hussey, known as “Big Jim”, died in St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham.
However, Mr Mills' son, John, now 71, told The Sun that his father had revealed to him who'd hit him - and that it wasn't Hussey.
The Great Train Robbery saw the gang make off with a staggering £2.6million - which in 2012 would be worth around £40million.
The gang targeted a Royal Mail train from Glasgow that carried letters, packages and huge quantities of cash.
They forced it to stop in Buckinghamshire in the early hours of the morning of Thursday 8 August by tampering with a signal and making it show red.
The crooks then stormed the train by force and unloaded the money in just 25 minutes onto a truck at a nearby station, having moved the train further down the line.