Wrapped in a football scarf and blanket in his north London care home, train robber Ronnie Biggs is pictured just days before he died. The sad image shows the decline of the notorious figure, who died in the early hours of Wednesday.
Biggs had suffered with ill-health for years, which led to his return to Britain in May 2001 after decades on the run in Brazil after playing his part in the infamous Great Train Robbery of 1963. He had suffered three strokes while abroad, leaving him in need of medical care which he could not afford. He contacted Scotland Yard to arrange handing himself in, and struck a deal with The Sun newspaper, which flew him back to England, where he was arrested on arrival.
After serving eight years on his jail sentence, he was released in 2009 by Jack Straw, then the Justice Secretary, on 'compassionate grounds'. He was seen again in public this year giving a defiant gesture to the cameras at a funeral for his friend and fellow train robber Bruce Reynolds, who was said to be the mastermind of the heist.
Despite his later fame, the notorious fugitive had little or no prowess as a villain, having made so many mistakes the police found it very easy to find and arrest him. After stealing pencils at 15 and a series of botched robberies after that, by the time he was asked to take part in the crime of the century he already had nine convictions in 13 years.
However in 1963 his life would change forever, and he would become world famous for his part in the most celebrated robbery in the history of British crime. His subsequent escape and high-profile life in Rio de Janeiro brought him the notoriety he would revel in even up until to his death. But at the age of 71, and in failing health after three strokes, Biggs announced he was ending his 35-year exile. He was penniless and needed vital medical treatment in Britain which he could not afford in Brazil.
Ignoring protests from his family, including son Michael who begged him to reconsider, he sent an email to Scotland Yard informing them that he wanted to give himself up and needed a passport. Explaining his reasons for turning himself in, Biggs said: 'I am a sick man. My last wish is to walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter. 'I hope I live long enough to do that.' The wish was never fulfilled.
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| BIGGS WITH HIS SON |
He was immediately arrested on his arrival in this country and found himself back in a dock later that day, a dribbling husk of the cocky cockney villain he had been last time he faced a judge. The formalities of returning an escapee to justice were swiftly dealt with, and he was transferred to the high-security Belmarsh Prison to continue serving the sentence he had put on hold three-and-a-half decades earlier.
Lambeth-born Ronald Arthur Biggs had been, essentially, a small-time crook who suddenly and unexpectedly found himself in the big league. He was born on August 8, 1929, and his first court appearance came as a 15-year-old in January 1945 - for stealing pencils from Littlewoods. He would later join the gang which held up the Royal Mail night train from Glasgow to London on his 34th birthday, August 8, 1963 - the Great Train Robbery.
Biggs's role was to find a driver for the train. In fact, the driver he found had problems with the controls and the train's legitimate driver, 57-year-old Jack Mills, was coshed with iron bars and forced to move the train. He died seven years later. The gang seized a cargo of used banknotes worth around £2.6 million, a huge sum at the time. The hold-up, at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire, was planned in minute detail and, initially at least, was a spectactular success. But the police later caught up with the robbers, and eleven members of the gang received jail sentences ranging from 14 to 30 years. Sentenced to 30 years' behind bars on April 15, 1964, Biggs was to serve just 15 months in prison.
On July 8, 1965, he made a daring escape from Wandsworth prison. While other prisoners created a diversion in the exercise yard, Biggs scaled a wall with a rope ladder and dropped onto a furniture van parked alongside. After a brief stopover in Paris for £40,000 worth of plastic surgery to change his appearance, he travelled to Australia, entering the country on a false passport using an assumed name. He would then head to Australia, and was sighted in Hong Kong, South Africa and Japan before being tracked down in Brazil, where the authorities found it impossible to bring him in. Calling himself Michael Haynes, Biggs carved out a new career as a jobbing carpenter in Rio de Janeiro. He would also supplement his income by selling T-shirts and posing for photos with tourists, and later put out his autobiography, Odd Man Out.
He suffered his first stroke in 1998, though he recovered to throw a 70th birthday party. However, the second and third strokes followed, permanently ending his days of beaches and parties, and starting the chain of events that led to his return to Britain.
He would be taken from prison to a hospital in London barely a month after his 2001 return. At times he was fed through a drip, and needed several urgent operations.
By 2009 his health had deteriorated further, and he was released from custody to live out his remaining years.
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