Browse content similar to 20/02/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Britain - whatever happened to Lord Lucan? The instructions were to | :00:05. | :00:08. | |
make arrangements for John Bingham, also known as Lord Lucan, to see | :00:08. | :00:15. | |
his children. And to do that, I had to to book his two eldest children | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
on flights to Africa. We reveal startling new evidence on | :00:19. | :00:26. | |
where he fled after the infamous murder in November 1974. I made a | :00:26. | :00:28. | |
few enquiries around and it was quite obvious that people were | :00:28. | :00:38. | |
:00:38. | :00:44. | ||
aware that Lucan wasn't dead. on the Trail of the infamous | :00:44. | :00:47. | |
Hawkhirst Gang, the smuggling Mafia that once ruled the Weald. On one | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
occasion, there were supposed to be 500 horses carrying 11 tonnes of | :00:50. | :00:58. | |
tea on one run. That is a fantastically big business. | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
Natalie Graham with untold stories closer to home, from all around | :01:00. | :01:10. | |
:01:10. | :01:20. | ||
Hello. Tonight, we are on the Kent- Sussex border. I will be back here | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
later but first, in a special report, we reveal fresh evidence | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
which could solve one of the UK's biggest murder mysteries. Glen | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
Campbell investigates the notorious Lord Lucan case and interviews two | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
new witnesses who claimed the disgraced peer was smuggled out of | :01:34. | :01:44. | |
:01:44. | :02:08. | ||
Cold cases don't get any colder than this one, and they don't get | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
any more mysterious, either. But when it comes to the passing of | :02:11. | :02:21. | |
:02:21. | :02:30. | ||
time, the truth has a habit of Now, this is a brave claim to make, | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
but I think I can now tell you what really happened to Lord Lucan when | :02:34. | :02:44. | |
:02:44. | :02:55. | ||
he fled this house on the night of I've put Camilla and George to bed. | :02:55. | :03:05. | |
:03:05. | :03:20. | ||
Thanks, Sandra. Would you like a John Bingham, also known as Lord | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
Lucan, was a desperate man. Separated from his wife, on that | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
fateful night, he slipped into the family house here in Belgravia, | :03:27. | :03:35. | |
intent on murdering her. But his plan went terribly wrong. He | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
bludgeoned to death the family's nanny, 29-year-old Sandra Rivett, | :03:37. | :03:45. | |
instead. Realising his mistake, he then launched a ferocious attack on | :03:45. | :03:53. | |
Lady Lucan, as the couple's three children slept upstairs. But | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
somehow, she managed to escape and pledge down the street to this pub, | :03:56. | :04:06. | |
:04:06. | :04:08. | ||
And that is when Lord Lucan, aristocrat, professional gambler | :04:08. | :04:18. | |
:04:18. | :04:19. | ||
and member of London's social elite, fled to friends in Uckfield, Sussex. | :04:19. | :04:24. | |
And it was Uckfield in Sussex where the trail went cold. Lucan was | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
never seen again. Officers from Scotland Yard scoured the | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
countryside and coast for weeks. Lucan's borrowed Ford was | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
discovered abandoned, with a length of lead piping still in the boot, | :04:35. | :04:42. | |
here in Newhaven. The first theory was that the disgraced Lord | :04:42. | :04:48. | |
committed suicide, throwing himself into the English Channel. But | :04:48. | :04:58. | |
:04:58. | :05:00. | ||
despite an exhaustive search, nobody was ever washed up. -- no | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
body ever washed up. The second theory was that John Aspinall, | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
casino owner and founder of Howletts zoo in Kent, together with | :05:07. | :05:08. | |
Sir James Goldsmith, multimillionaire businessman, | :05:08. | :05:14. | |
somehow smuggled Lord Lucan out of the country to evade justice. John | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
Aspinall, for one, made no secret of his loyalty towards his old | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
gambling friend, Lord Lucan. Here he is in a rare interview with the | :05:21. | :05:29. | |
BBC just two years after Lucan had vanished. What I probably would | :05:29. | :05:39. | |
:05:39. | :05:41. | ||
have done, if he had appeared here, is anything that he wished. | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
actually say, "if he had begged asylum from me, he would have got | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
it". Even though, at that time, there were certainly grounds for | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
thinking that he had murdered the nanny. At any rate, the police were | :05:51. | :05:53. | |
looking for him. He would have got asylum regardless of the | :05:53. | :06:03. | |
:06:03. | :06:04. | ||
So, could John Aspinall be behind Lord Lucan's vanishing act? John | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
Aspinall and Sir James Goldsmith are now both dead. Neither uttered | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
a word in public about the role they played in Lucan's | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
disappearance. But behind closed doors, both Aspinall and Goldsmith | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
knew far more than they were letting on. And this woman was | :06:20. | :06:26. | |
party to some of those secret conversations. She has asked that | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
we change her name and conceal her identity, as she recounts the | :06:29. | :06:37. | |
inside story as to what really Can you take me back to the casino | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
business in the 1970s and 1980s? How did you come to work for John | :06:42. | :06:48. | |
Aspinall? I was in my 20s - about 24 or 25 - and I knew nothing of | :06:48. | :06:54. | |
him. I literally had come into the casino world by chance, at the Ritz | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
Casino, and somebody said, "this man has opened a new casino - go | :06:58. | :07:05. | |
for it". His secretary said, "Mr Aspinall would like to see you," | :07:05. | :07:14. | |
and at that point, I got got a little scared. But he was charming. | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
A bit flirty with a twinkle in the eye and smile and, you know, a very | :07:18. | :07:24. | |
charismatic person. Immediately put me at my ease. It was 1978 when | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
Jill began working in John Aspinall's new casino, designed | :07:26. | :07:34. | |
specifically for London's gambling aristocracy. The club had been set | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
up to find his real passion - an extensive collection of wild | :07:37. | :07:44. | |
animals, based at his private zoo, Howlett's in Canterbury, Kent. Lord | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
Lucan had been missing for four years by the time Jill entered | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
Aspinall's secret world. What sort of world was it? What were the | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
clients like, what was your job? was the secretary - admin secretary, | :07:56. | :08:05. | |
dealing with all the day-to-day memberships. And did he grow to | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
trust you? I think he did get comfortable to trust me, and I was | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
not really an enquiring sort of person. I just took things as they | :08:14. | :08:23. | |
came. I was quite a loyal employee, I think. That's loyalty was soon | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
reciprocated, and John Aspinall started inviting Jill into private | :08:26. | :08:34. | |
meetings. Meetings where Lord Lucan was the main topic of conversation. | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
Take us back, then, to these meetings that seem to be at the | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
very heart of this story. Aspinall always had his desk with his | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
favourite chair and if he was having tea, he would always come | :08:45. | :08:51. | |
and sit on one of the sofas. Sir James Goldsmith, for some reason, | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
whenever I was there, never sat down. He always seemed to be | :08:54. | :09:00. | |
standing up with his cup of tea. I think they had been together | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
talking for a while before they invited me. Instructions were to | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
make arrangements for John Bingham - also known as Lord Lucan - to see | :09:09. | :09:14. | |
his children. And to do that, I had to book his two eldest children on | :09:14. | :09:22. | |
flights to Africa. I don't know the exact dates. It was between 1979 | :09:22. | :09:26. | |
and 1981 and it was two occasions that I booked the flights. It may | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
be that they went more often but I didn't make those arrangements. We | :09:31. | :09:40. | |
had to put that passports for the two older children. --duplicate. I | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
did ask why Camilla, the younger one, wasn't going and it was said | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
that she was on her mother's passport and they couldn't... | :09:46. | :09:53. | |
Anyway, she was too young to travel on her own. So it was just the | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
oldest two. They would go to Kenyan, to the treetop resort. They would | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
have a little holiday there. As far as they were concerned, they were | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
going on a safari type holiday, and they would also then fly internally | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
to Gabon. At some point - and I believe it was in Gabon - their | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
father would observe them and see them, which is what he wanted to do, | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
to see how they were growing up and look at them from a distance. It | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
was quite clear that he wouldn't meet them or speak to them, or make | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
himself known to them. Because that would make it difficult for them, | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
going back to their mother, if they had said, "I've seen daddy," or | :10:25. | :10:34. | |
something. So that was it. Just trying to nail down on this bit of | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
information - Sir John Aspinall made it very clear to you that in | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
1979, 1980, Lord Lucan was alive and living in Africa. When he said, | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
"Lord Lucan wants to see his children, wants to send them out | :10:44. | :10:51. | |
there," I believe that was the case. Did you realise that this was a | :10:51. | :10:56. | |
huge manhunt? Lord Lucan was still, in 1979, the most wanted man in | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
Britain. And here you are, arranging for his children to go | :11:00. | :11:07. | |
and see him, furtively, over in Africa. I just had no idea of the | :11:07. | :11:13. | |
enormity of it, as you say. It was just me doing the job. Amongst many | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
other things that I did in that casino world, which are quite alien | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
to me, and it seemed, in a way, quite a nice thing to do, to | :11:20. | :11:27. | |
facilitate a father seeing his children. If I now put it in | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
context of he was a murderer, or there was a murder committed, and | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
Sandra Rivett's family have obviously suffered enormously, it | :11:32. | :11:42. | |
:11:42. | :11:51. | ||
But how do we know that what Jill is saying is true? Well, we've done | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
some research and I can tell you that she did work for John Aspinall | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
at this casino, here in Knightsbridge. And I can introduce | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
you to this man. His name is Bob Polkinghorne and he is the former | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
detective inspector in charge of the Lucan case file during the | :12:06. | :12:12. | |
1980s. Now retired and living in Kent, we tracked Bob down, hoping | :12:13. | :12:22. | |
:12:23. | :12:23. | ||
he could shed more light on what really happened to Lord Lucan. This | :12:23. | :12:25. | |
is the first time he's publicly divulged what his investigation | :12:25. | :12:30. | |
unearthed. The chief superintendent contacted me and asked me to have a | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
look at the Lucan case, to see if there were any fresh developments. | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
Exactly what evidence came in while you were on the case? I made a few | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
enquiries around and it was quite obvious that people were aware that | :12:42. | :12:52. | |
:12:52. | :12:53. | ||
Lucan wasn't dead. And the word was that he was in Africa. Lady Lucan, | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
I am quite convinced, didn't think he was dead. In fact, she said to | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
me, "he was a gambler. Gamblers don't commit suicide. They always | :13:02. | :13:07. | |
win the next hand". Shortly afterwards, Bob received further | :13:07. | :13:14. | |
confirmation that Lucan was indeed alive and well. This time, a | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
sighting from a reliable source. An eyewitness who had followed one of | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
Lucan's close acquaintances as he holidayed in Africa. He was | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
surprised to see this acquaintance standing on a bridge. After two or | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
three minutes, he was joined by another man, whom he is adamant was | :13:30. | :13:38. | |
Lord Lucan. What did you do with this new evidence? Surely you | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
needed to investigate it. Normally we put these in and it comes back | :13:42. | :13:52. | |
:13:52. | :13:53. | ||
and you get approval. But for some reason, I was then later told, a | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
few days later, "just continue the enquiry. You haven't got approval | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
to continue". Why do you think that happened? I have no idea. There was | :14:00. | :14:08. | |
no information given. Did you take that sighting of Lord Lucan | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
seriously? That one I thought was genuine. So, what do you think | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
happened to Lord Lucan? definitely think he was spirited | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
out of the country. I think his gambling fraternity friends | :14:16. | :14:24. | |
spirited him out of the country. what new evidence have we managed | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
to gather? Well, first of all, we have the testimony of Jill. John | :14:28. | :14:30. | |
Aspinall's former personal assistant states quite clearly in | :14:30. | :14:32. | |
an interview that she was instructed to send Lord Lucan's | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
children out to Africa twice between 1979 and 1981, so that the | :14:35. | :14:43. | |
disgraced peer could see them. On top of that, we have interviewed | :14:44. | :14:46. | |
the former detective in charge of the Lucan investigation, Bob | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
Polkinghorne, who states quite clearly that he had a very credible | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
eyewitness account where Lord Lucan was seen in Africa in 1981, and | :14:52. | :14:54. | |
when he asked for funds to investigate further, senior | :14:54. | :15:04. | |
:15:04. | :15:06. | ||
management at Scotland Yard refused. Did John Aspinall tells you where | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
he had put up Lord Lucan? Where he was hiding him? No, it was never | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
said as such. I presume that Mr Aspinall, possibly Mr Goldsmith, | :15:14. | :15:23. | |
helped Lucan to get to Africa. As a hideout, I guess. There is a small | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
bit of evidence, in a way, that leads you to believe that he is not | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
alive any more and that involves John Aspinall's final months before | :15:29. | :15:39. | |
:15:39. | :15:46. | ||
he died. Could you tell me that story? I was told that nothing else | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
would be said, but that at some point, Mr Aspinall would make | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
another press release, in which he would state again that John Bingham | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
was dead, and that he had murdered Sandra Rivett. And that would be an | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
indication that he, indeed, was dead at that time. And what sort of | :16:01. | :16:08. | |
coded message was that? How did it take its form? He simply said to me, | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
"with regard to some of the things you did, in terms of helping me, | :16:12. | :16:18. | |
one of the things is the Lord Lucan case. I don't know what you know or | :16:18. | :16:23. | |
don't know," to which I said, "I know very little". He said, "at | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
some point, I will make another press announcement. You know how | :16:27. | :16:35. | |
much I hate the press. I will say that it is my belief Lord Lucan is | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
dead and I will also say other things about his guilt, and that | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
will be a signal to you to know that he is indeed dead. And so if | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
you want to speak about it after that point, it is entirely up to | :16:46. | :16:55. | |
This, Jill believes, is what Aspinallmeant when he said he would | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
give her a signal that Lord Lucan had died in Africa. It's John | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
Aspinall's final interview which he gave to The Sunday Telegraph in the | :17:01. | :17:07. | |
year 2000. Months later, Aspinall died of cancer. And it's taken Jill | :17:07. | :17:10. | |
a further 12 long years to finally break the wall of silence that | :17:10. | :17:19. | |
surrounded the Lucan mystery. quite ill a couple of years ago and | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
had a lot of time on my hands and was reflecting life and such and | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
one of the big influences on my life was John Aspinall, although | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
perhaps I didn't understand it as much at the time. But in hindsight, | :17:30. | :17:35. | |
do you wish that you hadn't sat on this information for so long? | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have sat on it for so long, | :17:38. | :17:44. | |
definitely. It's only just starting to piece itself together and since | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
actually opening up and talking to yourself, I have learnt a lot more | :17:47. | :17:57. | |
:17:57. | :17:57. | ||
about the case and the situation. Yes, there is some regrets. | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
have you asked us to conceal your ID? We haven't paid you any money | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
for this interview. You could have gone to one of the national | :18:05. | :18:10. | |
newspapers and made thousands. don't want to make anything from it. | :18:10. | :18:16. | |
I simply want to pass on a message, that is all. Has it sunk in now | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
that you assisted in a conspiracy when a man who was wanted by | :18:20. | :18:26. | |
Scotland Yard for murder was alive in '79 and 1980? I mean, does that | :18:26. | :18:35. | |
worry you now? No, because I have got a clear conscience. It doesn't | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
worry me. I mean, I wasn't assisting in Lord Lucan escaping or | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
anything. As I say, I came into the picture sending children out to see | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
this guy who I didn't know. I mean, it wasn't really all over the press | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
in 1979 and 81 that they were desperately searching for the | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
runaway Lord Lucan, so my conscience is clear and as I say | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
all I want to do is pass on the information that I have to whoever | :18:55. | :19:05. | |
:19:05. | :19:32. | ||
Glenn Campbell with that special investigation. Now, we go back in | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
time for a journey into a place with a violent and bloody history. | :19:36. | :19:46. | |
Viewers of a nervous disposition should make a cup of tea. Now. | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
I'm about to head into an area where - rumour has it - to look at | :19:50. | :20:00. | |
:20:00. | :20:00. | ||
someone the wrong way could get you killed. I've filled in all the | :20:01. | :20:03. | |
relevant health and safety forms, and I've got a backup team on | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
standby to get me out if I do get into difficulty. But the main thing | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
I'm relying on today is this: If trouble starts, I'm not going to | :20:11. | :20:13. | |
hang about. I'm also taking the precaution of arriving in broad | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
daylight. But that's no guarantee of safety when you're heading into | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
a place like this. That's right - Hawkhurst! Home to a greedy gang of | :20:21. | :20:28. | |
brutal and murderous thugs. But, actually, for gang warfare and gun | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
crime in this part of the world, anyway, I'm about 270 years too | :20:31. | :20:40. | |
late. It may be a genteel part of the world now, but back in the | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
early 18th century, this town was home to the notorious Hawkhurst | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
Gang - local men who became fearsome smugglers and rode around | :20:46. | :20:53. | |
Kent and Sussex as if they owned the place. You might have heard | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
about them, you might have read about them, but now, you can follow | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
in their hoofsteps thanks to a new trail that was the brainchild of a | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
local gang of today - the Hawkhurst Partnership. The Queen's Inn is a | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
good place to join the Smuggler's Trail. It's one of dozens of | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
watering holes the Hawkhurst Gang used as a hang-out and a place to | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
hide their booty, and where I'm meeting the Hawkhurst Partnership's | :21:13. | :21:23. | |
:21:23. | :21:24. | ||
not-at-all fearsome Yolanda Laybourne. Were you surprised about | :21:24. | :21:30. | |
how many pubs on this trail? and no. I didn't think smugglers | :21:30. | :21:36. | |
plotted and planned in the library or council chambers, but I was | :21:36. | :21:40. | |
surprised to find a number of pubs and hostelries that are associated | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
with smuggling. It is really a pub crawl, isn't it? It is a glorified | :21:45. | :21:51. | |
pub crawl, yes. Never one to shirk a difficult challenge, I've decided | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
to follow the trail and find out more about our smuggling past. So, | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
after the Queen's Inn, my next stop is nearly a mile down the road, at | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
the Oak and Ivy. Legend has it that both pubs were once connected by an | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
underground smuggler's tunnel. A lot of the smuggling was associated | :22:07. | :22:10. | |
with a particularly potent substance from foreign shores. It | :22:10. | :22:18. | |
was a drug that many addicts craved on a daily basis. In the 1730s, | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
when there was high unemployment and poverty in the countryside, tea | :22:21. | :22:29. | |
was expensive stuff thanks to taxation. Just round the corner | :22:29. | :22:32. | |
from Hawkhurst - in a house the gang would have passed on many a | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
smuggling run - I've come to meet author Kent Barker. He says that | :22:36. | :22:38. | |
smuggling tea helped make the Hawkhurst Gang popular with the | :22:38. | :22:48. | |
:22:48. | :22:48. | ||
locals, at least to begin with. People liked it. They liked cheap | :22:49. | :22:54. | |
tea and brandy. There were very heavy taxes which were unpopular, | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
mainly to finance foreign wars. So the smugglers were popular in the | :22:58. | :23:05. | |
local community, up until about 1735, at 40, something like that. | :23:05. | :23:10. | |
The government clamped down and put up huge rewards - �500, if you | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
turned end a smuggler. The penalty for smuggling was execution, so the | :23:14. | :23:17. | |
smugglers used whatever force was necessary to keep people quiet. To | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
get some idea of how brutal the Hawkhurst Gang could be, I'm | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
heading to the coast to meet smuggling expert Richard Platt. He | :23:26. | :23:29. | |
says the gang murdered informers in all kinds of nasty ways - throwing | :23:29. | :23:31. | |
them down wells, burying them alive, or, as this picture shows, | :23:32. | :23:41. | |
:23:42. | :23:43. | ||
literally beating them to death. They were a violent lot, and this | :23:43. | :23:48. | |
tends to get overlooked in the whole mythology of smuggling - it | :23:48. | :23:55. | |
tends to meet, they were jolly fine fellows. But we forget of their | :23:55. | :24:00. | |
violent and murderous reputation. The Hawkhurst Gang were a brazen | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
bunch, too. Just down the hill from the old Customs House in Rye is the | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
Mermaid Inn, where the gang would sit and drink and store all kinds | :24:07. | :24:09. | |
of smuggled goods, according to present-day proprietor Judith | :24:09. | :24:19. | |
:24:19. | :24:21. | ||
Blincow. Behind where I sit now, you could hide two people all goods. | :24:21. | :24:26. | |
The fire is lit now, and the air would not have been very good, so | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
it would probably have been good at this time of year. In the early | :24:30. | :24:33. | |
days of the gang, there were only eight customs men for the whole of | :24:34. | :24:36. | |
Kent and Sussex, so they were heavily outnumbered by the | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
Hawkhurst Gang, who were said to be able to raise a crew of 500 men in | :24:40. | :24:49. | |
just two hours. It took maybe 15 men to crew a boat, but to move | :24:49. | :24:55. | |
that contraband of the beach could take maybe 100 or 150 people. | :24:55. | :25:04. | |
Hawkhurst was on a direct route contraband was heading for London - | :25:04. | :25:09. | |
that is where the market was. The smuggling gangs were inland gangs, | :25:10. | :25:13. | |
because they controlled the routes to London from the coast. The gang | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
relied on local farmworkers to help shift the contraband, and they | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
relied on all kinds of buildings to store them in on the way to London | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
- houses, barns, even churches. The Bo Peep in St Leonards was another | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
popular spot for the Hawkhurst Gang. It was here - on Christmas night, | :25:28. | :25:35. | |
1740 - that they landed 11 tonnes of tea. They hid it all in a barn | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
near Hurst Green and went to an inn, where one of the smugglers just | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
happened to look out of the window as revenue officers rode by, | :25:41. | :25:51. | |
heading for the barn. He could then take a more on himself, so he | :25:51. | :25:57. | |
rounded up another 30 or 40 people, road back to Hurst Green. By this | :25:57. | :26:04. | |
time, the militia had got the goods. They had a cart laden with all this | :26:04. | :26:08. | |
stuff. The smugglers overtook them, shots were exchanged, and the | :26:08. | :26:15. | |
Revenue was killed. He died. The smugglers were not heard a tall, | :26:15. | :26:20. | |
and they got their goods and took them away and succeeded in selling | :26:20. | :26:25. | |
a successful run for them. For more than a decade, the Hawkhurst Gang | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
ruled the region with terror. Goudhurst was yet another village | :26:28. | :26:30. | |
where they spread fear and intimidation, growing more violent | :26:30. | :26:33. | |
and more arrogant as their empire grew. By April 1747, the gang was | :26:33. | :26:39. | |
behaving as if no one could touch them. But the people of Goudhurst | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
decided they'd had enough, so they got together a local army, and here | :26:42. | :26:49. | |
in the churchyard, they took on the Hawkhurst Gang. So this is my last | :26:49. | :26:52. | |
stop on the trail, and author Chris Mcooey has agreed to meet me here | :26:52. | :27:01. | |
at the site where the gun battle took place. The Hawkhurst gang said | :27:01. | :27:07. | |
they would attack the village on the 20th, they said they would come | :27:07. | :27:17. | |
:27:17. | :27:18. | ||
from the East there, they said the time. Now that his arrogance. If | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
the smugglers didn't come a long on the day and time from the direction | :27:22. | :27:29. | |
they said they would! And they all drank. The shoot-out didn't go well | :27:29. | :27:33. | |
for the Hawkhurst Gang. It left two of the smugglers dead and it even | :27:33. | :27:37. | |
left bullets in the original church door. Two years later, the gang was | :27:37. | :27:39. | |
no more. The ringleaders were hanged and their reign of terror | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
was over. But today, if you know where to go and what to look for, | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
you can still see plenty of signs that they were here. And it's hoped | :27:47. | :27:50. | |
the trail will draw people from all over the country, eager to find out | :27:50. | :28:00. | |
:28:00. | :28:05. | ||
more about our rich smuggling Now, if you want any more | :28:05. | :28:08. | |
information on tonight's show, you can visit our local Kent or Sussex | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
websites, and even watch the whole show again by clicking on our | :28:11. | :28:17. | |
show again by clicking on our iPlayer. | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
iPlayer. Coming up next week: Targeting the | :28:21. | :28:29. | |
old and vulnerable. When the victim starts to say at not got any money, | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
that is when they start to get more aggressive. | :28:32. | :28:39. | |
A radical treatment for drug addicts. I am just so scared. | :28:39. | :28:43. | |
And we return to the big cat sanctuary - how are the tiger cubs | :28:43. | :28:50. | |
getting on? As they are chasing and stalking, one is the predator and | :28:50. | :28:54. |