IT manager solves Italian Job mystery

ONE of the most enduring mysteries in cinematic history has been solved.

For 40 years, film fans have pondered what happened to Michael Caine’s gang at the end of The Italian Job.

The movie ended with the back of the bus laden with gold bullion perched over a chasm in the Alps, and Caine’s character Charlie Croker says: “Hang on a minute, lads — I’ve got a great idea.”

However, the riddle of how they could have extricated the gold — and themselves — from the cliffhanger scenario has never been solved — until now.

John Godwin, 39, an IT manager from Godalming, Surrey, beat 2,000 other entrants in a competition organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to work out how it could have been done, in a time limit of 30 minutes.

His strategy is designed to redistribute weight, involving knocking out windows, draining the fuel tank, and loading extra ballast (rocks) onto the front of the bus.

With various windows broken, a member of the team could be lowered from one of them to let the air out of the front tyres, to make the coach more stable. Croker could then have used an access panel to get to the fuel tank, near the rear of the vehicle, and remove its drainage plug.

One man could then safely leave the coach, and pass ballast in to weigh the vehicle down at the front. The gold could then be moved to the front and taken off.

Mr Godwin adds: “What happens then? Separate problem, I suppose, but waiting for a passing motorist and either hijacking (feels quite bad) or buying their vehicle with stolen gold (still feels bad, but less damage and no blood) would see the men on their way to Switzer-land... ”

The runner-up solution came from Aidan Farrell, who called upon Croker’s O-level chemistry knowledge to leak the fuel line onto the road, then melt the asphalt by setting the fuel alight. The molten asphalt could then “glue” the bus to the road and stabilise it enough for a man to retrieve the gold.

Mr Godwin, who wins a three-day holiday in the Italian city of Turin — the scene of the crime — said yesterday: “I’m not sure that idea could be carried out in the 30 minutes available. I do think my entry is very practical.”

The judges — Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the RSC, and William Edgar, interim chief executive of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers — were extremely impressed with both of the top two entries, the RSC said.

Dr Pike said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to our competition, and are delighted to have found such a deserving winner. Mr Godwin’s entry is just the kind of practical thinking Croker would have used, but he ably demonstrates the science behind the idea as well.

“Such was the response from the ‘armchair scientists’ around the world that it took longer to study the submissions than we initially thought, so thank you for your patience.”

Entrants were required to show how Croker and the gang could retrieve the gold and save them-selves, basing their ideas on scientific principles and proving them mathematic-ally. Solutions could not involve flying apparatus.