A modern day Robin Hood who claimed to have been “sent by God to take back some of the wealth that the outrageously rich had taken from the rest of us”. This Belfast born cat burglar was a meticulous planner whose roll call of marks numbered Sophia Loren, Zsa Zsa Gabor, John Aspinall and Maria Callas. He quoted Confucius, Oscar Wilde and Proust and targeted “rich prats” as it gave him a “sexual thrill”. The 1965 film He Who Rides a Tiger starring Tom Bell and Judi Dench was based on Scott and concluded that: “If I rob Ivana Trump, it is just a meeting of two different kinds of degeneracy on a dark rooftop”. Raffles would have been proud.
Two stories to keep beside you
Paul Reichmann (1930 – 2013)
This Vienna born Canadian businessman built and lost a fortune on Canary Wharf and was renowned for his frugality and as a “man of honour”. Strictly Jewish, Reichmann also developed New York’s Financial Center and donated up to $50 million a year to yeshivas, synagogues and hospitals around the world. His view on life was […]
Ronald Edwards (1931 – 1994), better known as Buster Edwards
Variously a boxer, nightclub owner, florist and criminal. Edwards became famous as one of the 1963 Great Train Robbery gang. He fled to Mexico but returned to Britain in 1966 when his £150,000 share ran out. After a 9-year stint in jail, he set up a flower stall in Waterloo where he was himself robbed […]
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