S5 Ep16: The Siege of Sidney Street

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In late 1910 and early 1911, a band of impulsive Latvian radicals fleeing persecution in Russia unleashed a wave of violence in London that left three policemen dead and part of a quiet city block in ruins. The siege that followed would not only transform British law enforcement but also mark a turning point in media history, as cameras captured the chaos in real time.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be
0:06.8	wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain
0:13.0	that'll soak you to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching
0:18.7	their peak in the afternoon.
0:23.0	Not in the mood for miserable weather.
0:25.8	Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.
0:28.7	Sun Express, non-stop sunshine.
0:38.4	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking.
0:44.6	They change laws, change society, or even earn the label Crime of the Century.
0:50.8	But the stories that made headlines and decades past aren't necessarily remembered today.
0:56.4	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show,
1:02.0	I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
1:25.7	This is Crimes of the Russian Empire, decided to rob a rubber factory.
1:29.4	They weren't stealing rubber, of course, but rather wages.
1:36.0	One of the men, Paul Hefeld, had briefly worked at the Schneerman's rubber factory in Tottenham and knew the Saturday bank run well.
1:38.6	So he knew that a chauffeur car would arrive January 23rd with a canvas bag full of money, totaling what sounds
1:46.0	like a fairly modest haul of 80 pounds, but in today's money, that's about 12,000 pounds, or
1:52.1	nearly $16,000. Heffeld recruited the help of Jacob Lepetus, a man a bit older than he was,
1:59.0	who was a bit of a political activist. They cornered
2:02.2	the chauffeured car, out from which stepped a young office worker. The robbers brandished semi-automatic
2:08.5	guns that even the London police didn't have access to at the time and got away with the canvas
2:13.9	bag full of money. Funny thing about that bag, though, it was super heavy.
	...

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