The Tottenham Outrage and Walthamstow Tram Chase

The Tottenham Outrage of 1909 when two Latvian robbers, Jewish refugees, intercepted a payroll has been comparatively hidden from the wider world (unlike the notorious Siege of Sydney Street which took place two years later). It involved 100 police officers and up to a thousand local citizens in running to ground two desperate police killers. The book follows every inch of the six-and-a-half miles and two-and-a-half hours chase. It also pays minute attention to the individuals and places involved as well as the aftermath. Not since the days of highwaymen and footpads had armed robbery been seen in London. Geoffrey Barton explains the political backdrop to the arrival in the UK of armed revolutionaries driven by their own frenzied missions, causing people to go in fear. Laws were passed to deal with aliens and terrorism but as the author explains the ordinary police were ill-equipped to deal with the problem.