Ronnie Biggs 1929 - 2013
You're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but it's hard to find anything nice to say about serial chancer Ronald Arthur Biggs who has died aged 84. Born in South London, Biggs rose to notoriety in 1963 following the British Great Train Robbery in which a gang of thieves sensationally robbed a Royal Mail express of £2.6 million (said to be worth around £46 million today).
The Tory establishment of 1963 was very unpopular, thereby helping prompt much of the UK general public into viewing the robbers as latter day heroes who had daringly executed the crime of the century—with most people overlooking the fact that train driver Jack Mills was viciously coshed by Biggs and Co and left with serious injuries that quite possibly shortened his life (Mills was born in 1905 and died in 1970).
▲ Scene of the Great Train Robbery, Thursday 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, Buckinghamshire.
Led by Bruce Reynolds, the 15-strong gang made numerous planning and enactment errors, not least in failing to ensure that their farmhouse hideout was forensically cleansed. Fingerprints were soon lifted, tongues began wagging, and the gang was quickly rounded up, arrested, and convicted.
Biggs subsequently escaped Wandsworth Prison, thereby beginning a cat and mouse chase around the world with (notably) Detective Jack Slipper of the Yard and head of the Flying Squad hot on his heels.
Biggs (or Biggsy as The Sun newspaper fondly called him) underwent plastic surgery in Paris, then found his way to Brazil, via Australia, sired a child by a Brazillian lover (he already had three with his British wife, Charmian), quickly spent his share of the loot and ended up practically on Skid Row.
Much later, following numerous abortive extradition attempts, he became sick and begged to come home so that the National Health Service could look after him in his declining years.
He duly returned, was arrested, and was sent back to clink to complete the rest of his 30 year sentence (or as much as fate was going to allow him). But after a spell at Bellmarsh Prison, he was {eventually) released on compassionate grounds and retired to a rest home where he died.
Here's what happened to the other train robbers:
Bruce Reynolds - died in his sleep in February 2013
Buster Edwards - hanged himself in a garage in 1994
Roy James - died in 1997 of natural causes
Douglas Goody - currently living in Spain
Tommy Wisbey - believed dead, no details
Charlie Wilson - murdered in Spain in 1990
Brian Field - died in a car crash on the M40 motorway in 1979
Lenny Field - current whereabouts/fate unknown. Believed dead
Roy Cordrey - died, details unknown
John Wheatly - believed dead
Jimmy White - believed dead
James Hussey - died in 2012, natural causes
John Daly - no details available
Bob Welch - no details available
If you're looking for a story rich with drama, intrigue and human tragedy, and if Shakespeare doesn't quite do it for you, then the turbulent tale of the Great Train Robbers might suffice. None of these thugs came out of it very well, and many fell back into crime.
Ronnie Biggs found himself in a personal prison called Brazil; a cell from which he was unable to escape until the years caught up with him.
He lived the latter half of his life as a man pursued by a twisted celebrity reputation that hung around his neck as damning as any albatross.
But you might want to spare a passing thought for Biggs' sons (one of whom died in a car crash in Australia aged just ten) who were forced to live in the dubious shadow of their father. And spare a thought too for the aforementioned Jack Mills, train driver, who was knocked senseless by an iron bar and left for dead.
Probably the best anyone could say for Biggs is that he was a sad, pathetic, inadequate individual who wasted his life, and helped waste the lives of others. But then, there are plenty more of us who might justifiably warrant much the same accusation.
Goodnight Biggsy, and good riddance.
— Dexxion
Triumph Bonneville:
World's Coolest
Motorcycle T-shirt
Copyright Sump Publishing 2013