Ronnie Biggs

[The Bunk]

Ronnie Biggs, one of Britain's most notorious criminals known for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, died this morning at the age of 84, his spokeswoman said.
Biggs gained notoriety 50 years ago as one of an 11-member gang that tampered with railway signals and stopped a Royal Mail night train, making off with £2.6m, equivalent to about €47m today.
Biggs was caught after the robbery and received a 30-year jail sentence but escaped from prison and spent 36 years on the run, leading a playboy lifestyle in South America.
He finally surrendered to British police in 2001 but was freed in 2009 on health grounds.

He was being cared for at the Carlton Court Care Home in East Barnet, North London.
He had become increasingly frail in recent years after suffering several strokes.
He was last seen in public at the funeral of Great Train Robbery accomplice Bruce Reynolds in March.

[SteveB]

Quote from BBC, (more articulate than I would be)
[ Danny Shaw, Home affairs correspondent, BBC News
Loveable old rogue or violent criminal? Ronnie Biggs divided opinion like few other offenders.
Some admired his audacity - the robbery, the prison escape and the 36 years on the run, cocking a snook at authority as he lived the high life in Brazil.
Others detested his cavalier attitude to the rules by which most law-abiding people live their lives - and they remember that the robbery was not a "victimless" crime. Jack Mills, the train driver, beaten with an iron bar, never fully recovered and died of leukaemia seven years later.
The case of Ronnie Biggs is a reminder of our sometimes conflicting attitude to crime and criminals. ]



Their sentences were harsh and smacked of government interfering in the judicial process. But the people hurt did not stop at Jack Mills. The gang had a long history of violent crime. And considering they spent the fortune (esp at that time) from the train robbery quickly they would have continued with that violence.

But as John Donne said,"... any man's death diminishes me..."

[The Bunk]

He recorded a song with the Sex Pistols in the late seventies. It wasn't too bad either!

He had a big friendship with Malcolm McLaren, the great rock n roll swindle.

[thewren]

By coincidence, 2 part drama on the BBC tonight 8pm, “A Robber’s Tale”, looks interesting.

[justfrank44]

Quote from BBC, (more articulate than I would be)
[ Danny Shaw, Home affairs correspondent, BBC News
Loveable old rogue or violent criminal? Ronnie Biggs divided opinion like few other offenders.
Some admired his audacity - the robbery, the prison escape and the 36 years on the run, cocking a snook at authority as he lived the high life in Brazil.
Others detested his cavalier attitude to the rules by which most law-abiding people live their lives - and they remember that the robbery was not a "victimless" crime. Jack Mills, the train driver, beaten with an iron bar, never fully recovered and died of leukaemia seven years later.
The case of Ronnie Biggs is a reminder of our sometimes conflicting attitude to crime and criminals. ]



Their sentences were harsh and smacked of government interfering in the judicial process. But the people hurt did not stop at Jack Mills. The gang had a long history of violent crime. And considering they spent the fortune (esp at that time) from the train robbery quickly they would have continued with that violence.

But as John Donne said,"... any man's death diminishes me..."

Did they actually get to spend it all? On the news this morning it was said that what they stole was equivant to forty million in todays money. They only expected to get a fraction of that and had no idea of how to get rid of it all, they were hidding it everywhere.

[SteveB]

Did they actually get to spend it all? On the news this morning it was said that what they stole was equivant to forty million in todays money. They only expected to get a fraction of that and had no idea of how to get rid of it all, they were hidding it everywhere.

Thanks, justfrank44.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...aunder-it.html

Yes they were swindled out of a lot of it by a solicitor. Solicitors bigger crooks than train robbers. But they still spent a considerable about of it.

They had a lot of money and they let it slip through there hands one way or another. If they had not been caught, they would have continued with violent crime. They didn't seem to be the kind of people to do just one job and retire.

[ryder]

By coincidence, 2 part drama on the BBC tonight 8pm, “A Robber’s Tale”, looks interesting.

Thanx for the tip off .I'll watch that one .

[funlover12]

buster was great though

[SteveB]

buster was great though

Yes I liked it too.
But that was sanitised.

Biggs was only a small time crook who came involved by accident.
His job was to recruit a retired train driver to drive the train, a job he messed up because his retired driver couldn't drive a then modern train. As a result Jack Mills, the driver, was hit with an iron bar and forced to move the train. Mills never recovered from the beating and died seven years later from leukaemia.