This is the story of 58-year-old John Goddard being mugged for bonds.
Welcome to Heist Files of the 90s, a limited-series podcast covering some of the most daring, criminal heists of the decade.
May 2, 1990. London, England. The financial district known as "The City."
At 9:30 AM, 58-year-old John Goddard, a messenger for Sheppards, a money broker, was walking along a quiet side street. He was carrying a briefcase containing 301 bearer bonds and certificates of deposit.
Bearer bonds differ from standard bank registrations in that they are effectively treated as cash; whoever physically holds the paper owns the value.
This is Heist Files of the 90s.
This episode: The City Bonds Robbery.
As Goddard walked, a mugger approached him, pulling a knife. The attacker held the knife to Goddard’s throat and demanded the briefcase. Goddard surrendered it. The mugger fled on foot to a waiting motorcycle nearby.
The entire interaction lasted seconds. The value of the bonds in the briefcase was £292 million. It was, at the time, the second-largest robbery in global history, surpassed only by the Reichsbank robbery in Germany following World War II.
The City of London Police and the FBI collaborated on the investigation. The nature of bearer bonds made them difficult to fence immediately. The authorities alerted global financial institutions to watch for the specific serial numbers of the stolen bonds.
The investigation eventually pointed toward organized crime elements in London. Over the subsequent years, police recovered all but two of the 301 stolen certificates. One man, Patrick Thomas, was arrested in connection with the theft, but he was killed in a shooting before he could stand trial. No one was ever convicted for the actual robbery of John Goddard.
Join us next time on Heist Files of the 90s.