Awhful!! Ronnie Biggs dies after long illness just hours before new drama about the Great Train Robbery airs on the BBC. Read the full storie here
Biggs, who spent decades on the run in Brazil, passed away in the early hours of this morning at his home in North London, according to his son Michael.
In a remarkable coincidence, tonight the BBC is showing the first part of a drama series which marks the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Great Train Robbery.
The first film, A Robber's Tale, focuses on the story of mastermind Bruce Reynolds as he masterminds the raid on the Royal Mail train, while the second instalment, A Copper's Tale, tells the story from the perspective of DCS Tommy Butler, the officer leading the investigation.
Taunting: Ronnie Biggs, who has died at the age of 84, pictured while on the run in Brazil
Defiant: Biggs flashed the V-sign at photographers at the funeral of Bruce Reynolds in March
Biggs became a household name as a result of his part in the gang which stole £2.6million (the equivalent of £40million today) from a train that they forced to stop at a bridge in Cheddington, Buckinghamshire.He shot to legendary status a couple of years later, however, when he escaped from prison and went on the run.
He spent 30 years evading British justice, getting plastic surgery in France before heading to Australia and later Brazil where he had a son with a local woman meaning he could not be extradited.
The last time he was seen in public was in March this year when his character shone through as he flicked Vs at photographers despite appearing to be extremely unwell.
He returned to the UK from exile in Rio de Janeiro in 2001 against the wishes of his family, saying he wanted to go to a pub in Margate 'as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter' - a wish he never got to fulfil.
Reconstruction: A scene from a BBC drama on the Great Train Robbery which premieres tonight
Gang: The programme's depiction of the thugs who orchestrated the carefully planned robbery
Portrayal: Jack Gordon playing Biggs in the BBC television drama which will begin tonight
Biggs's involvement in the Great Train Robbery has long been debated with some suggesting he was only involved because he could recruit a train driver to move the train once it had been stopped at a false set of signals.
Others suggest that he was the one who hit train driver Jack Mills around the head causing injuries that he never fully recovered from.
Speaking to Nicky Campbell on Radio 1 in 2000 - before his return to the UK - Biggs said his share of the money had been £147,000, but he had quickly spent the loot.
'I squandered it totally - within three years it was all gone,' he said. Since then he had been 'living on my name only,' he added.
Mugshot: Biggs was jailed for his role in the Great Train Robbery, but escaped after just 15 months
Arrest: Biggs pictured after being apprehended by police in the wake of robbery
His ghostwriter said today that Biggs would be known as 'one of the great characters' - but an expert on the robbery dismissed him as an 'idiot'.
Christopher Pickard, who collaborated on the thief's memoirs, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: 'People will remember him as one of the great characters of the last 50 years.
'You have people who would still say hanging is too good for him and others who like him.'
However, Anthony Delano, who has written a book on the Great Train Robbery, said that Biggs was an 'idiot', adding: 'He was a small-time South London crook who nobody wanted on the team because he was a weak link.'
Return: Biggs being transported to court after he came back to Britain in 2001
Decades earlier: Three of the robbers covered in blankets leave a court hearing in 1963
Biggs always portrayed himself as a lovable personality who spurned violence, insisting he was a 'crook' rather than a 'criminal'.But today many people spoke out against that description, saying that his crimes mean he does not deserve to be celebrated.
'Ronnie Biggs was a violent criminal who evaded facing justice for decades,' tweeted Tory MEP candidate Daniel Hamilton. 'I find today's gushing eulogies slightly offensive.'
Lobbyist Alex Deane added: 'Biggs wasn't a cuddly heart of gold cockney character to be feted. His gang beat a man with an iron bar, ruining his life.'
And writer Sali Hughes said: 'RIP member of gang who beat an innocent train driver minding his own business with an iron bar. You were a real "character".'
Old age: Biggs shown launching his memoirs in 2011, when he was afflicted with illness
Frail: This picture released by Biggs's lawyers in 2009 shows how ill he was during his last few years
Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers' union Aslef, said: 'While naturally we feel sorry for Mr Biggs's family at this time, we have always regarded Biggs as a nonentity, and a criminal, who took part in a violent robbery which resulted in the death of a train driver. 'Jack Mills, who was 57 at the time of the robbery, never properly recovered from the injuries he suffered after being savagely coshed by the gang of which Biggs was a member that night.'
And the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association tweeted: 'In case today's media confuses you: attacking railway staff with an iron bar to the extent they're barely able to work again really isn't OK.'
Despite Biggs's elevated reputation as a ‘Great Train Robber’, his one job in the robbery on August 8, 1963 – to provide the team with a train driver – was an utter failure.
The robbers needed to move the mail train around half a mile from the signal box where it was stopped to Bridego Bridge, where a truck was waiting to load the loot.
Target: The train after it had been ransacked by Biggs and his fellow thieves in Buckinghamshire
Scene: The train parked on an embankment in Buckinghamshire in the aftermath of the robbery
Investigation: Police walk along the railway lines while looking into the circumstances of the crime
HOW THE 'CRIME OF THE CENTURY' UNFOLDED LEADING TO THE THEFT OF £2.6MILLION IN BANKNOTES
The country was left stunned after a train was hijacked and robbed 35 miles from its London destination in August 1963.
A 17-strong gang launched the raid on the overnight service from Glasgow at the Bridego Railway Bridge in Ledburn, Buckinghamshire in the early hours of August 8 in what has been dubbed the 'crime of the century'.
Led by the charismatic Bruce Reynolds, the group of criminals pulled off the notorious heist, making off with £2.6million - the equivalent of £40million today.
The train was stopped at a set of fixed signals which the gang had switched, leading driver Jack Mills to go and investigate.
He was knocked out by an iron bar wielded by an unknown member of the gang, forcing him to give up work, and he died seven years later.
Following an outcry over Charmian Biggs cashing in on her husband's crime by selling her story to the Press, the Daily Mail sponsored a fund to help Mills's family, raising more than £34,000 by the time of his death.
The bulk of the huge haul has never been recovered.
The gang shared out the proceeds at isolated Leatherslade Farm - Biggs taking around £148,000 - but thereafter things started to go badly wrong, with nearly all the gang members being rounded up by the police.
In fact, the Leatherslade Farm hide-out was a huge mistake on the part of the gang. The police were telling reporters that they were looking for an isolated farm which had just changed hands and which was 25 miles from the scene of the crime. Leatherslade met every one of these requirements.
When the gang became aware that the police were hot on their scent, they quit the farm hurriedly, leaving behind scores of tell-tale fingerprints.
Most of the ringleaders were quickly rounded up, and 11 of the robbers got jail sentences ranging from 14 to 30 years.
A 17-strong gang launched the raid on the overnight service from Glasgow at the Bridego Railway Bridge in Ledburn, Buckinghamshire in the early hours of August 8 in what has been dubbed the 'crime of the century'.
Led by the charismatic Bruce Reynolds, the group of criminals pulled off the notorious heist, making off with £2.6million - the equivalent of £40million today.
The train was stopped at a set of fixed signals which the gang had switched, leading driver Jack Mills to go and investigate.
He was knocked out by an iron bar wielded by an unknown member of the gang, forcing him to give up work, and he died seven years later.
Following an outcry over Charmian Biggs cashing in on her husband's crime by selling her story to the Press, the Daily Mail sponsored a fund to help Mills's family, raising more than £34,000 by the time of his death.
The bulk of the huge haul has never been recovered.
The gang shared out the proceeds at isolated Leatherslade Farm - Biggs taking around £148,000 - but thereafter things started to go badly wrong, with nearly all the gang members being rounded up by the police.
In fact, the Leatherslade Farm hide-out was a huge mistake on the part of the gang. The police were telling reporters that they were looking for an isolated farm which had just changed hands and which was 25 miles from the scene of the crime. Leatherslade met every one of these requirements.
When the gang became aware that the police were hot on their scent, they quit the farm hurriedly, leaving behind scores of tell-tale fingerprints.
Most of the ringleaders were quickly rounded up, and 11 of the robbers got jail sentences ranging from 14 to 30 years.
When it became clear the driver was useless, he and Biggs were banished to the waiting truck to help load the mail bags.
No guns were used, but driver Jack Mills was coshed and left unconscious by an unidentified assailant, suffered constant headaches for the rest of his life and died in 1970 from leukaemia.
Two of the robbers, Charlie Wilson and Biggs, escaped from Wandsworth Prison within two years of being jailed - Biggs scaled a wall with a rope ladder.
Biggs then spent 36 years on the run, living mainly in Brazil where he would taunt the British police and boast about his notoriety to unsuspecting tourists.
However, in 2001 he returned home to face arrest, when he had grown tired of his life in exile and required medical treatment which he could not afford to pay for, after he had suffered three strokes.
He was eventually freed from jail in 2009 on 'compassionate grounds' by then Justice Secretary Jack Straw.
Three years before the robbery, Biggs married his wife Charmian, with whom he had three sons.
They joined him in Australia after his escape from prison, and began a new life together using fake new identities.
When police discovered who he really was, they raided the family home - but Biggs had fled a day earlier, leaving his wife and children behind.
The fugitive ended up in Brazil while Charmian and the boys continued living in Australia, where in 1970 son Nicholas died in a car accident at the age of 10.
While living in Rio, Biggs began an affair with Raimunda de Castro, a nightclub dancer 18 years his junior, and the couple had a son, Michael, in 1974.
The birth of the boy meant that Biggs could no longer be extradited, as the parents of Brazilian citizens cannot be deported from the country.
Michael - who later became a well-known musician in his homeland - tried to dissuade his father from returning to Britain, and been one of his most outspoken supporters.
By contrast, his other two surviving sons, Farley and Chris, are said to have little contact with him, as they are angry at him for abandoning them and betraying their mother.
The gang hid at Leatherslade Farm (pictured) following the train robbery but they quit the site hurriedly after they became aware police were hot on their scent
A spade in a hole dug at Leatherslade Farm by the train robbers to burn the mailbags
Victim: Train driver Jack Mills was unable to work after being attacked during the robbery
Biggs divorced Charmian even though she had flown to Rio to try and save their marriage, and in 2002 he married Raimunda in a prison chapel.
In July, just days before the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery, Biggs insisted he was 'proud' of the crime that made him a household name.
'If you want to ask me if I have any regrets about being one of the train robbers, my answer is no,' he said via an alphabet board.
The small-time crook who became one of the world's most wanted men but crafted a 'cheeky chappy' persona to court public favour
Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs's place in the annals of crime owed more to his status as a notorious fugitive than his prowess as a villain.His conviction for his part in the most celebrated robbery in the history of British crime and his subsequent escape and high-profile life in Rio de Janeiro brought him worldwide notoriety in which he seemed to revel.
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.
Youth: Biggs pictured in an early police mugshot, before he left Britain for a life in exile
Biggs and 11 other robbers were jailed for a combined total of more than 300 years for the robbery. Pictured is Biggs's police record sheet
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.He struck a deal with The Sun newspaper which flew him back to Britain in May 2001 on an executive jet stocked with curry, Marmite and beer.
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.'
'One report said that since my time on the run I've had 2,500 girlfriends. I mean you got to realise, I've been on the run for more than 30 years, I have got to have had more than that.'
But 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.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.
In 1950, Biggs cut an absurd figure in the robbery of a bookie in Lambeth Road. His contribution was to ask the bookie's wife for her handbag.
'When she did not have one, Biggs picked up a vase as though to hit her,' reads the court report of the case.
Nine convictions and 13 years later he was given the chance to play a bit part in a robbery on an altogether grander scale and, by accepting it, set himself on the path to a lifetime of infamy.
Courting notoriety: Biggs pictured in Brazil in 1992, when he was one of the world's most wanted criminals
Ronnie Biggs, pictured in Brazil in 1992, spent 36 years on the run, during which time he would taunt the British police and boast about his notoriety
Biggs, pictured in Brazil in 1992, raised money during lean times in Rio by selling T-shirts of himself and entertaining Japanese tourists, posing in pictures with them for £25 a time
He joined the gang which held up the Royal Mail night train from Glasgow to London on his 34th birthday, August 8, 1963, and stole £2.6million worth of banknotes.
Biggs's role was to find a driver for the train, but the man he found was unable to control it properly.
'There's a difference between criminals and crooks. Crooks steal. Criminals blow some guy's brains out. I'm a crook.'
The hold-up, at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire, was planned in minute detail and, initially at least, was a spectacular success.The gang shared out the proceeds at isolated Leatherslade Farm - Biggs taking around £148,000 - but thereafter things started to go badly wrong, with nearly all the gang members being rounded up by the police.
When the gang became aware that the police were hot on their scent, they quit the farm hurriedly, leaving tell-tale fingerprints.
It was then but a matter of time before most of the ringleaders were rounded up. Eleven of the robbers got jail sentences ranging from 14 to 30 years.
Biggs, pictured with his wife Charmian in 1974, was sentenced to 30 years' behind bars on April 15, 1964, but was to serve just 15 months in prison
The wreckage of the car in which Biggs's son Nicholas, aged 10, was killed in a two car crash near Melbourne
Biggs holds his son Michael, aged six weeks, while the baby's mother, Raimunda Nascimento de Castro, fixes the infant's clothing
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.
Biggs, pictured with his son Michael in 1981, the same year the Great Train Robber was kidnapped in Rio by a gang of adventurers
The family moved first to Perth and then to Melbourne, where Biggs took a job as a foreman carpenter at a local airport in the name of Cooke.
In 1968 came a breakthrough for his pursuers. Biggs had formed a business partnership with another fugitive from British justice. His partner was arrested and the trail began to hot up.
But a year later, a security slip allowed the elusive Biggs to slip the net yet again. A Melbourne newspaper published a story that the manhunt was being renewed in the city and the report was taken up by TV.
A day before police swooped on his home, Biggs had packed a suitcase and disappeared - without even taking the family.
Once again the trail went cold. Throughout 1970 and 1971, there were reports of sightings in Hong Kong, South Africa and Japan, but there were no firm leads as to Biggs's precise whereabouts.
In fact, he was building a new life for himself in Brazil. In the sunshine city of Rio de Janeiro the fugitive, now calling himself Michael Haynes, carved out a new career as a jobbing carpenter.
But his peace was shattered on February 1, 1974, when he was tracked down in Rio by the Daily Express reporter Colin MacKenzie - and shortly afterwards by Detective Inspector Jack Slipper of Scotland Yard.
But the Yard's efforts to get Biggs back to Britain were foiled by Brazilian law.
Reunion: Biggs with Bruce Reynolds, said to be the mastermind of the robbery, at his 70th birthday party
In the dock: Biggs pictured in court in 2001 after finally agreeing to return to Britain
Family: Biggs with his half-Brazilian son Michael at the nursing home in Barnet where he ended up living
Biggs had got his Brazilian lover Raimunda de Castro pregnant, and, as the father of a Brazilian child, had won himself immunity from extradition.Michael, his son, was later to find fame in Brazil as a pop star.
In March, 1981, Biggs was kidnapped in Rio by a gang of adventurers and smuggled to Barbados by boat. Their aim was to bring him back to Britain.
But the Barbados High Court decided the rules governing extradition to Britain had not been properly put before the island's Parliament, and Biggs pulled off another Houdini-like escape, being allowed to return to Rio.
'It has been rumoured that I was the brains of the robbery, but that was totally incorrect. I've been described as the tea boy, which is also incorrect.'
In 1978, Biggs made a record, No One is Innocent, with the Sex Pistols. During lean times in Rio, he also raised money by selling T-shirts of himself and entertaining Japanese tourists, posing in pictures with them for £25 a time.He suffered his first stroke in 1998 and two more quickly followed, ending his days of beaches and parties, and starting the chain of events that led to his return to Britain and a life as prisoner 002731.
Barely a month back in his home country, a fourth stroke followed and Biggs was moved from prison to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich.
He was returned to the top-security Belmarsh Prison in south-east London after a week where he was fed through a drip as his health continued to decline.
In August, a few days after his 72nd birthday, he was rushed back to hospital for an emergency blood transfusion.
He was rushed to hospital again three months later after vomiting and passing blood.
On July 10, 2002 Biggs finally married his son Michael's Brazilian mother Raimunda in a ceremony at Belmarsh jail. He was too ill to say his vows and held up a card which read 'I do'.
The Monopoly set played by the Great Train Robbers while lying low at Leatherslade Farm
The robbers were rumoured to have used real cash stolen from the job to play the board game with
But the gang's leader Bruce Reynolds did visit his old partner in crime in Belmarsh, and found that he could only communicate using a pointer and alphabet.He said: 'By that time Ronnie had had three major strokes and he found it difficult to communicate. This guy was a very jovial character with a great sense of humour and a very strong guy physically and my heart was saddened by the condition he was in.'
'I am no longer a criminal. I gave up that practice years ago.'
Appeals to have Biggs released met with deaf ears. In October 2003 an appeal against his sentence was thrown out by a High Court judge as 'hopeless' and 'misconceived'.Biggs was moved from Belmarsh to Norwich Prison in July 2007 to live on a unit for elderly inmates.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw refused him parole in 2009 and accused him of being 'wholly unrepentant' about his crimes.
But Biggs was old and severely ill, lying in a bed in Norwich Hospital with pneumonia, fractures of the hip, pelvis and spine.
After his four strokes he was unable to eat, speak or walk.
He was finally granted compassionate release from his prison sentence on August 6 2009, just two days before his 80th birthday.
Audacious thieves who shocked the nation: Where all of the Great Train Robbers ended up
Charles Frederick (Charlie) Wilson (right): The treasurer whose role was to give the robbers their cut of the haul. He earned the nickname 'the silent man' after he was captured because he refused to say anything during his trial. Jailed for 30 years but escaped after four months. Was captured in Canada four years later and severed another ten years in jail. Moved to Spain in 1978 where he was shot and killed by a hitman on a bicycle in 1990.
Roy James (right): The chief getaway driver left a fingerprint at the gang's farm hideout and was caught following a rooftop chase. He moved to Spain after serving 12 years of a 30 year sentence. He was jailed again for six years in 1993 for shooting his wife's father and hitting her with a pistol, and died soon after being released, at the age of 62.
Jimmy Hussey (left): 'Big Jim' died last year after apparently making a deathbed confession claiming he was the gang member who coshed the train driver. He was sentenced to 30 years for the robbery. After he was released in 1975 he eventually opened a restaurant in Soho after working on a market stall. He was convicted for assault in 1981. He was then jailed for seven years, eight years later, for a drug smuggling conspiracy, along with Wisbey. He died in November 2012, aged 79, from cancer.
Jimmy White (right): The 'quartermaster' for the robbery. The former Paratrooper was caught in Kent after being on the run for three years and was sentenced to 18 years, He moved to Sussex after being released in 1975. He has now died.
Douglas Gordon Goody (below): Was released in 1975 after being sentenced to 30 years in jail. After being released the hairdresser moved to Spain to run a bar.
Douglas Gordon Goody was sentenced to 30 years in jail and was released in 1975
Bobby Welch: Was also jailed for 30 years and released in 1976. The nightclub boss was left crippled after an operation on his leg went wrong. After being released from jail he became a gambler and a car dealer in London.
Brian Field: The solicitor was used to make the arrangement to buy the farm hideout used after the robbery. Jailed for 25 years, which was later reduced to five. He later died in a motorway crash in 1979.
John Wheater: A solicitor who was sentenced to three years for conspiring to pervert the course of justice. He was released in 1966 and went to live in Surrey. Believed to be dead.
Bill Boal: An engineer who was arrested with Roger Cordrey in possession of £141,000. Reynolds said he had never heard of Boal. He claimed Boal was not involved in the robbery and was 'an innocent man'. Boal was charged with receiving stolen goods and jailed for 24 years, which was reduced to 14 on appeal. He died of cancer in jail in 1970.
Leonard Field: A former merchant seaman, Field was sentenced to 25 years, which was later reduced to five. He was released from jail in 1967 and went to live in north London. Believed to be dead.
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