The Spaghetti House siege took place between 28 September and 3 October 1975. An attempted robbery of the restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, went wrong. The 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.
About Spaghetti House siege in brief
The Spaghetti House siege took place between 28 September and 3 October 1975. An attempted robbery of the restaurant in Knightsbridge, London, went wrong. 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 robbers had been involved in black liberation organisations and, from the earliest stages of the siege and throughout their subsequent prison sentences, they claimed that they were acting for political reasons. 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. In the mid-1970s the branch managers of the London-based Sp spaghetti House restaurant chain would close their branches every Saturday night and meet at the company’s Knightsbridge branch. The outlet would be closed, but managers would deposit the week’s takings there, before it was paid into a night safe at a nearby bank. Ambalavaner Sivanandan, the director of the Institute of Race Relations, identifies that while the first generation had become partly assimilated into British society, the second generation were increasingly rebellious.
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, 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. Davies informed police that he was a captain in the BLF, but a subsequent message said that the men were members of Black Panther splinter group the Black Panther Army. He did not release two prisoners he wanted released from prison, although he did release two black prisoners from prison. By 7:00am police had sealed off the area and put a cordon in place; 400 police officers were involved, including dog-and-handlers. The siege began when the police approached the door; the conversations began the door and the hostage-takers provided the police with the names of the hostages they held and Davies’s criminal record. The police used fibre optic camera technology for live surveillance, and monitored the actions and conversations. 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. The robbers forced the staff into a rear storeroom measuring 14 by 10 feet, locked the door, barricaded with beer kegs and shouted that they would shoot if they would be shot.
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This page is based on the article Spaghetti House siege published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 20, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
