British train robber Ronnie Biggs to be released

LONDON- He was only a minor player in The Great Train Robbery, the biggest and most famous heist in modern British history.

In august 1963, a gang of criminals led by Bruce Reynolds held up a postal train that was on its way from Glasgow to Watford. The gang made off with 2.6 million pounds. Yet, because of his colourful life story, Ronnie Biggs is the most well-known of the train robbers. This weekend will see him turning eighty years of age and for a while it looked as though he would end his life in prison. However, on Thursday Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw unexpectedly granted Biggs amnesty. The weakened robber is suffering from pneumonia and is being fed intravenously. His physicians state that there is little hope of recovery. It would appear that Biggs is deteriorating rapidly as only last month Straw refused to release him. The ageing criminal was reported to have ‘no remorse whatsoever’. Biggs has taunted British authorities for thirty-six years. Thirteen of the fifteen train robbers were arrested and tried soon after the hold-up. After more than a year Biggs managed to escape from prison by means of a ladder. He subsequently travelled to many places as he described in his autobiography. He first fled to Paris where he assumed a new identity and underwent plastic surgery. Later he lived in Australia for a while. He simply had his wife and children join him there. When things got too tricky he settled down in Brazil. The media soon found him as he didn’t exactly kept his love of the good life a secret. He would pose on Rio’s beaches, flanked by beautiful women. He was even kidnapped in 1981 as it was thought the British authorities might pay a high ransom for Biggs. Due to the lack of an extradition treaty this never came about. In 2001, Ronnie Biggs caused a sensation by suddenly returning to the United Kingdom to serve out his term in prison. His ill-gotten fortune had long since gone.