Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, 35 years a fugitive, dies aged 84
Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, who evaded long arm of British justice for 35 years, has died
Ronnie Biggs, known for his role in Britain's 1963 Great Train Robbery, died yesterday, his daughter-in-law said. He was 84.
Veronica Biggs did not provide details of his death. He had been released from prison four years ago on compassionate grounds because of ill health.
Biggs was infamous for taking part in the 1963 robbery and then escaping from Wandsworth prison. He made his way to Brazil, where he lived for many years beyond the reach of British justice.
He was free for 35 years before voluntarily returning to England in poor health in 2001. He was arrested and imprisoned on arrival.
Biggs was part of a gang of at least 12 that robbed the Glasgow-to-London Royal Mail train in the early hours of August 8, 1963, switching the signals and tricking the driver into stopping in the darkness. The robbery netted 125 sacks of banknotes worth £2.6 million - US$7.3 million at the time, or more than US$50 million today - and became known as "the heist of the century".
Most of the gang was caught and sentenced to long terms in jail. Biggs got 30 years, but 15 months into his sentence escaped from London's Wandsworth prison. It was the start of a life on the run that would make him a folk hero to some - the rascal one step ahead of the law.
Biggs fled to France, then to Australia and Panama before arriving in Rio de Janeiro in 1970. By that time, life on the run and plastic surgery to change his appearance had eaten up most of his loot from the train robbery.