Editing Great Train Robbery (1963) (section)

===Telephone box controversy===
The £47,245 recovered from a telephone box included 57 notes whose serial numbers had been recorded by the bank in Scotland. This money was part of a deal struck with Frank Williams by Danny Pembroke. Piers Paul Read, in ''The Train Robbers'', claimed that the police were feeling the pressure because although they had caught many of the robbers, they had failed to recover much of the money. While no evidence had been found against Pembroke, who was believed to have been one of the South Coast Raiders, some of the identifiable bank notes had been traced back to him through friends who had been charged with receiving. Given that the police had insufficient evidence against Pembroke, either at Leatherslade Farm or definitive connection with either of the two gangs, Butler was prepared to let him go. Williams convinced Butler to pull Pembroke in for questioning and in return for releasing him and not charging his friends with more serious crimes, £50,000 was to be returned.

On 3 December 1963, which happened to be the same day that Roy James was taken into custody, the police received an anonymous tip directing them to the money in the phone box. The money was driven up to Aylesbury and taken into custody by Detective Superintendent Fewtrell, who wondered how his London colleagues could know how much money there was. He had to bring in bank clerks to count the damp and musty money to determine the final sum.<ref>Piers Paul Read ''The Train Robbers'' (1978), pp.142–143</ref>

Williams made no admission to the recovery of the money being the result of a deal with Pembroke. Despite claiming that his negotiations were responsible for the return of this money, Williams in his book ''No Fixed Address'' (1973) claimed not to know the identity of the person who had returned the money, although he did mention several robbers to whom he had offered deals through intermediaries. He noted that it seemed to him that Butler was sceptical of his efforts and that at the press conference Hatherill and Millen did not reveal the circumstances behind the find and that he was never asked to talk with them about it. Despite Pembroke being the man identified as the assailant of the train driver, Jack Mills, by Bruce Reynolds (albeit indirectly), Williams only makes mention of the assailant once in his book. In this section (often quoted by other sources), he confirms that, with Tommy Butler, he questioned the man they knew to be the assailant but that they had no evidence to convict him. Strangely, however, he makes no further mention of him.

The deal done with Pembroke caused outrage in the police hierarchy.<ref>Frank Williams ''No Fixed Address'' (1973). On p. 11 he talks about the assailant of the train driver and on pp. 68–84 he talks about where the money had gone.</ref> It is hinted in several books that the deals done by Williams were responsible for his being overlooked for promotion and that Williams was unhappy that his efforts were not recognised by Butler, but were instead hidden from superiors.

For his part, George Hatherill, in his book ''A Detective's Tale'', stated that the motive behind the return of the money was not known for certain. He said that the money was returned by "one about whom extensive inquiries had been made and who in fact was interrogated at length. But in spite of our strong suspicions, nothing could be proved against him and so no charge could be brought. My belief is that he thought we knew more about him than we did, and thinking things were getting hot, he decided to get rid of the money to avoid being found in possession with it".<ref>George Hatherill ''A Detective's Tale'' (1971), pp.214–215</ref> Hatherill does not mention Williams at all in his book. He retired on the last day of the trial at Aylesbury.