A Copper's Tale

Det Chief Supt Tommy Butler was my uncle, and as his nephew I can state that although the portrayal of the investigation of the Great Train robbery may or may not have been accurate, though if I were to nit pick, some of the minor details were not factual either, e.g he is shown as using a Jaguar as his car during the investigation, in fact he visited my parents home many times during the period of this investigation and he always turned up driving a black police Wolsey. Also he was depicted as living in a nice middle class type of house, when in fact, right up until he died he lived with his mother (my grandmother) in a shabby council house in Barnes. The way his character was depicted, as a cold, lonely man obsessed with the job was not strictly true, he often visited family and friends and could be good company, while it is true he was the type of high ranking detective that was thorough and took pride in his work, and if that meant treading on toes or being a hard boss so be it, but he was always fair and was respected by fellow coppers and villains alike.