Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The UFC Fighter in in Prison Now - The Lightning Lee Murray story

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Murray, known as "Lightning" Lee, was a British mixed martial artist whose promising career was overshadowed by his role in orchestrating the largest cash heist in British history. In 2006, Murray and his accomplices executed a meticulously planned robbery at the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, stealing approximately £53 million. The operation involved kidnapping the depot manager and his family to gain access to the facility. Despite the heist's initial success, the gang's failure to cover their tracks led to their capture.#truecrime #truestory #lightninglee #ufc

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Marvel's first family is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. That is fantastic. And critics say it's one of the best superhero movies of all time. Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four First Steps. Now streaming on Disney Plus, rated PG-13. What time is it, Ben? It's Clubroom time! So this famous UFC fighter became a millionaire and now he's in prison.

So they call him Lightning. He's around 27 years old during this time living in England and he's an M.M.A. And he's really good. Eight wins, two losses and he's very entertaining to watch. Sometimes he walks out to the ring in an orange jumpsuit and a Hannibal Lecter mask. Now during this time, everyone in the business sees him as the next big thing. Also, he's kind of a turd. Like he parties a lot, he hangs out with criminals, he acts like he's a gangster,

he's always fighting people in the streets, sometimes he gets mad and attacks pedestrians in public, he's been arrested a bunch of times, dude is a mess. And one night in 2005, his gangster ways screw his whole life up. Because he's leaving a nightclub, and he and a friend somehow get into it with a couple of other guys, and they get into a street fight, and they're there and they're fighting, and things get out of control really quickly. And suddenly, boom, one of the guys pulls out a knife and he stabs lightning in the chest. And then he stabs him again and again.

And so, lightning is rushed to the hospital, where he apparently dies in the ER a couple of times. However, they are fortunately able to revive him and he ultimately survives. But his injuries are so bad that he doesn't recover in a way that he can get back in the ring. And so his MMA career is essentially over for good. And now, without the UFC, he's got no income coming in. I guess he was making good money and now he's broke. So what's he gonna do? Well, he decides he's gonna...

Rob a bank. And so in 2006, Lightning gets together with seven of his criminal friends and they come up with this whole elaborate plan to rob the bank of England through a cash storage facility in Kent. A cash storage facility, as you can tell by the name, is a facility where the bank stores a lot of cash. And so, boom, they put this plan into motion. And Lightning and one of his goons, they get a makeup artist to put latex and prosthetics on them so that they look unrecognizable. Then they dress up like police officers. After that, they get into

their car and they track down the manager of the cash storage facility who is in his car and they start following him. Then they use a fake police light and they pull him over. And so these two fake cops get out and they approach this manager's car. And they tell him that there's a problem with his plates and that he needs to come with them. Then they put him in the back of their car and they drive away. I mean, they just straight up kidnapped this guy. At the same time, this other group of goons who are working with Lightning, they go to this manager's house and they trick his wife and kid into getting into their car and they kidnap them as well. Then the two groups meet up at a remote location and they got the manager and his wife and kid there and they point a pew-poo right at the

manager's head and they tell him to help them get into the cash storage facility or they're gonna unalive his family. And so the manager's like, all, and so they all drive to the cash storage facility in a couple of different cars and they take a big delivery truck with them. Once they get there, the manager asks a security guard working to let him and one of the goons in. And, And the security guard has no idea the manager's being held at gunpoint. And so the guard opens the door. Once the door is open, boom! All seven goons rush in and they're all armed and they're yelling at the facility employees

to get down while they tie them all up with zip ties. Once the employees are out of the way, the goons get into the vault and they start loading up all the cash into the delivery truck they brought. Once the truck is all loaded up, lightning and the other goons, they flee and they speed away. And in total, they stole 53 million pounds during this heist, which during this time is more than 92 million U.S. dollars, making this the biggest bank heist in UK history. And so Lightning and his buddies, they're now all rich. And they were all wearing masks the whole time so no one can identify them. So it seems like they're just never going to get caught.

The fuck they won't. The next day, police discover a tip. basically just sitting on one of their desks. Apparently they had gotten a tip about this robbery long before the robbery had even taken place. And the tip says, you know, semi-famous UFC fighter Lightning Lee Murray is planning to commit a crime in the area disguised as a police officer. And also that he's going to have this very specific makeup artist help him with his prosthetics and makeup disguise.

So then, boom, police go and they arrest that makeup artist and they end up searching through her garbage bin for evidence. And inside that bin they find bags of makeup and latex which contain lots of DNA. DNA belonging to Lightning and his goons. Not only that, weeks before the robbery, before any of this happened, I guess Lightning was out driving his yellow Ferrari around, and the dude is absolutely wasted and he's swerving all over the place and suddenly, scurr, he runs his car off the road.

And I guess police show up and they can see see that Lightning's drunk off his ass, but they let him go. However, they do impound his Ferrari. Well, that incident happened so recently that police actually still have his Ferrari. It's sitting in their evidence lot. And so they go and search it and underneath the seat, they find a cell phone. On that cell phone is a recording of a conversation between Lightning and another goon and they're planning the robbery of the cash storage facility. And so the police got him. I mean, this isn't the only evidence they find. They actually find a ton of evidence, but this is all the evidence they need. However, by the time they've gathered all this evidence, Lightning and another goon have fled the country, and they fled all the way down to Morocco, where they're both just chilling.

Now, the problem is police in England can't really do anything about these robbery suspects fleeing to Morocco, because England and Morocco don't have an extradition treaty during this time. Meanwhile, Lightning and his goon, they're down there living large with their new stolen money. Lightning has bought himself a little mansion, they bought a couple of villas, they bought a bunch of new jewelry, they apparently spent a lot of money on drugs, and they bought plastic surgery for the women they're hanging out with. Lightning even got a mural on his wall dedicated to his time in the UFC. I mean, look at that. It looks tacky as fuck. The real crime in this video is this terrible mural. Anyway, five months go by, and,

Lightning still hasn't been caught, and he's still living good in Morocco. But, back in England, the police, they're not going to let this slide. And they eventually get the Moroccan police to go after Lightning and his goon friend who is also living there. And so, bam, they go and they arrest him. Here's an image of him and one of his goons getting arrested. And Lightning ultimately gets 25 years in Moroccan prison, and most of his goons involved in the robbery, they get prison time as well, but they didn't catch him.

them all, nor did they recover all of the stolen money, so in fact some of that stolen money is apparently still out there. You should go look for it.