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Spaghetti House siege
The Spaghetti House siege took place between 28 September and 3 October 1975. An attempted robbery of the Spaghetti House restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, went wrong and the police were quickly on the scene. The three robbers took the staff down into a storeroom and barricaded themselves in. They released all the hostages unharmed after six days. Two of the gunmen gave themselves up; the ringleader, Franklin Davies, shot himself in the stomach. All three were later imprisoned, as were two of their accomplices.
The three robbers had been involved in black liberation organisations and maintained consistently that they were acting for political reasons. The police did not believe them, and stated that this was a criminal act, not a political one.
The police used fibre optic camera technology for live surveillance, and monitored the actions and conversations of the gunmen from the audio and visual output. The feed was watched by a forensic psychiatrist who advised police on the state of the men's minds and how to best manage the ongoing negotiations.
Post-Second World War Britain had a shortage of labour, which led to official policies to attract workers from the British Empire and Commonwealth countries. These people were placed in low-pay, low-skill employment, which forced them to live in poor housing. Economic circumstances and what were seen by many in the black communities as racist policies applied by the British government led to a rise in militancy, particularly among the West Indian community; their feelings were exacerbated by police harassment and discrimination in the education sector. Ambalavaner Sivanandan, the director of the Institute of Race Relations in the mid-1970s, identifies that while the first generation had become partly assimilated into British society, the second generation were increasingly rebellious.
The ringleader of the attempted robbery of a branch of the Spaghetti House restaurant was Franklin Davies, a 28-year-old Nigerian student who had previously served time in prison for armed robbery; he was accompanied by two men, Wesley Dick (later known as Shujaa Moshesh), a 24-year-old West Indian, and Anthony "Bonsu" Munroe, a 22-year-old Guyanese. All three had been involved in black liberation organisations. Davies had tried to enlist in the guerrilla armies of Zimbabwe African National Union and FRELIMO in Africa; Munroe had links to the Black Power movement; Dick was an attendee at meetings of the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Front (BLF), the Fasimba, and the Black Unity and Freedom Party; he regularly visited the offices of the Institute of Race Relations to volunteer and access their library. Sivanandan and the historian Rob Waters identify that the three men were attempting to obtain money to "finance black supplementary schools and support African liberation struggles".
In the mid-1970s the branch managers of the London-based Spaghetti House restaurant chain met every Saturday night at the company's Knightsbridge location, after closing their branches at the end of the evening's business. The managers deposited their week's takings at the Knightsbridge restaurant, before it was deposited in a night safe at a nearby bank.
At approximately 1:30 am on Sunday 28 September 1975 Davies, Moshesh and Munroe entered the Knightsbridge branch of the Spaghetti House. One carried a sawn-off shotgun, the others each carried a handgun. The three demanded the week's takings from the chain—between £11,000 and £13,000. In the dim lights of the closed restaurant, the staff were able to swiftly hide the two briefcases of money under the tables. The robbers forced the staff down into the basement; the company's general manager took the opportunity to escape out of a rear fire escape while they were being moved. He alerted the Metropolitan Police, who arrived on the scene within minutes. The getaway driver, Samuel Addison, saw the plan had gone wrong, and drove off in a previously stolen Ford. When the police entered the ground floor of the restaurant, Davies and his colleagues forced the staff into a rear storeroom measuring 14 by 10 feet (4.3 by 3.0 m), locked the door, barricaded it with beer kegs and shouted to the police that they would shoot if they approached the door; the police surrounded the building and the siege began.
In the initial conversations the hostage-takers provided the police with the names of the hostages they held and Davies's identity and criminal record was established. By 7:00 am the police had sealed off the area and put a cordon in place; 400 police officers were involved—including dog-handlers—and D11, the Metropolitan Police's marksmen, was deployed.
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Spaghetti House siege
The Spaghetti House siege took place between 28 September and 3 October 1975. An attempted robbery of the Spaghetti House restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, went wrong and the police were quickly on the scene. The three robbers took the staff down into a storeroom and barricaded themselves in. They released all the hostages unharmed after six days. Two of the gunmen gave themselves up; the ringleader, Franklin Davies, shot himself in the stomach. All three were later imprisoned, as were two of their accomplices.
The three robbers had been involved in black liberation organisations and maintained consistently that they were acting for political reasons. The police did not believe them, and stated that this was a criminal act, not a political one.
The police used fibre optic camera technology for live surveillance, and monitored the actions and conversations of the gunmen from the audio and visual output. The feed was watched by a forensic psychiatrist who advised police on the state of the men's minds and how to best manage the ongoing negotiations.
Post-Second World War Britain had a shortage of labour, which led to official policies to attract workers from the British Empire and Commonwealth countries. These people were placed in low-pay, low-skill employment, which forced them to live in poor housing. Economic circumstances and what were seen by many in the black communities as racist policies applied by the British government led to a rise in militancy, particularly among the West Indian community; their feelings were exacerbated by police harassment and discrimination in the education sector. Ambalavaner Sivanandan, the director of the Institute of Race Relations in the mid-1970s, identifies that while the first generation had become partly assimilated into British society, the second generation were increasingly rebellious.
The ringleader of the attempted robbery of a branch of the Spaghetti House restaurant was Franklin Davies, a 28-year-old Nigerian student who had previously served time in prison for armed robbery; he was accompanied by two men, Wesley Dick (later known as Shujaa Moshesh), a 24-year-old West Indian, and Anthony "Bonsu" Munroe, a 22-year-old Guyanese. All three had been involved in black liberation organisations. Davies had tried to enlist in the guerrilla armies of Zimbabwe African National Union and FRELIMO in Africa; Munroe had links to the Black Power movement; Dick was an attendee at meetings of the Black Panthers, the Black Liberation Front (BLF), the Fasimba, and the Black Unity and Freedom Party; he regularly visited the offices of the Institute of Race Relations to volunteer and access their library. Sivanandan and the historian Rob Waters identify that the three men were attempting to obtain money to "finance black supplementary schools and support African liberation struggles".
In the mid-1970s the branch managers of the London-based Spaghetti House restaurant chain met every Saturday night at the company's Knightsbridge location, after closing their branches at the end of the evening's business. The managers deposited their week's takings at the Knightsbridge restaurant, before it was deposited in a night safe at a nearby bank.
At approximately 1:30 am on Sunday 28 September 1975 Davies, Moshesh and Munroe entered the Knightsbridge branch of the Spaghetti House. One carried a sawn-off shotgun, the others each carried a handgun. The three demanded the week's takings from the chain—between £11,000 and £13,000. In the dim lights of the closed restaurant, the staff were able to swiftly hide the two briefcases of money under the tables. The robbers forced the staff down into the basement; the company's general manager took the opportunity to escape out of a rear fire escape while they were being moved. He alerted the Metropolitan Police, who arrived on the scene within minutes. The getaway driver, Samuel Addison, saw the plan had gone wrong, and drove off in a previously stolen Ford. When the police entered the ground floor of the restaurant, Davies and his colleagues forced the staff into a rear storeroom measuring 14 by 10 feet (4.3 by 3.0 m), locked the door, barricaded it with beer kegs and shouted to the police that they would shoot if they approached the door; the police surrounded the building and the siege began.
In the initial conversations the hostage-takers provided the police with the names of the hostages they held and Davies's identity and criminal record was established. By 7:00 am the police had sealed off the area and put a cordon in place; 400 police officers were involved—including dog-handlers—and D11, the Metropolitan Police's marksmen, was deployed.