Charles Frederick "Charlie" Wilson (30 June 1932 - 1990), was an English career criminal. Part of and the treasurer of the Great Train Robbery gang, he was killed by a hitman on a bicycle in 1990 whilst living in Marbella, Spain.
Wilson was born on 30 June 1932 to Bill and Mabel Wilson in Battersea, London. Possessing a heavy build and handsome appearance, Wilson was, from an early age, an intimidating presence with his piercing blue eyes. His friends from childhood were Jimmy Hussey, Tommy Wisbey, Bruce Reynolds and Gordon Goody. Later on, he met Ronald "Buster" Edwards and the young driving enthusiasts Mickey Ball and Roy James, who had taken up car theft.
From 1948 to 1950 he was called up for National Service, and in 1955 he married Patricia (Pat) Osbourne, with whom he had three children. He turned to crime early in life and spurned his father's legitimate but low-income wage. While he did have legitimate work in his in-laws' grocer's shop, he also was a thief and his criminal proceeds went into buying shares in various gambling enterprises. He went to jail for short spells for numerous offences. In 1960, he began to work with Bruce Reynolds and planned to get into the criminal big league.[1]
In 1962, Wilson joined a gang lead by Reynolds which stole £62,000 in a security van robbery at London Heathrow Airport. They then attempted to rob a Royal Mail train at Swindon, which netted only £700.[2] But Reynolds, now looking for his career-criminal defining moment,[3] started planning his next train robbery over a period of three months.[2]
Reynolds organised a gang of 17 men to undertake the 1963 Great Train Robbery.[3] Wilson was the gang's "treasurer" who gave each of the robbers their cut of the haul: £150,000 each. He was captured quickly, and during the trial at Aylesbury Crown Court in 1964 he got the nickname "the silent man" as he refused to say anything at all. Jailed for 30 years, escaped after just four months from HMP Winson Green. Wilson and his family settled in Montreal, Canada.[2]
For Christmas 1964, the family travelled to Acapulco to join Reynolds and Edwards, who had not yet been caught. Reynolds and his family later moved to Montreal, but a proposed theft of Canadian dollars with Wilson was stopped due to Royal Canadian Mounted Police observation. Reynolds then moved to Vancouver, before returning that summer to the South of France.[2]
Wilson was captured again in Canada after four years on the run, and served 10 more years in the train robbers secure unit at HMP Durham. He was the final train robber to emerge from prison in 1978.[4]
A later suspect in a £100 million gold fraud, Wilson moved to Marbella, Spain, where he was involved in drugs trafficking. Engaged to launder some of the proceeds from the Brink's-MAT robbery, he lost the investors £3million. In April 1990, a young South London man knocked on the front door of his hacienda north of Marbella, and shot Wilson and his pet Husky dog at point-blank range, before riding off down the hill on a yellow bicycle. Over the next three years, four more shootings were connected to the Brink’s-Mat raid.[5]