Ronald Biggs is an
infamous British criminal whose most notorious
crime is known as
"The Great Train Robbery". He was part of a gang who robbed a
mail train, (violently beating the
train driver, Jack Mills, in the process), and netted the equivalent of £30 million in todays money. He was jailed for 30 years in 1964 but escaped from
Wandsworth prison less than two years into his sentence.
What follows next raised Biggs' notoriety, as he evaded capture in several countries, (including Australia and France, where he had plastic surgery to alter his appearance). He eventually settled in Brazil.
In 1974, a Scotland Yard detective, Jack Slipper, travelled to Rio de Janeiro and arrested Biggs with the intent of extradition, but Biggs successfully fought against this because he had a young son by his Brazilian girlfriend. Slipper was famously photographed sat next to an unnoccupied seat on the flight home to London.
1978 saw Biggs' infamy spread to a whole new generation of Brits as he recorded a song with The Sex Pistols, "No One is Innocent".
In more recent times, Biggs has survived several attempts to reunite him with British justice, including a several more extradition requests by the British government and even being kidnapped and held in Barbados by a gang of enterprising bounty hunters. He has suffered several strokes over the last couple of years and is currently making arrangements to return to Britain at the age of 71 to face the music.
Rest assured that Scotland Yard will be waiting to greet Biggs upon his return. Jack Mills, the train driver, won't: He died in 1970, having never made a full recovery from the injuries he sustained during the robbery.