On 7 May 2001 Ronnie Biggs arrived in Britain for the first time in thirty-five years. His return was the end of one of Britain’s most famous crime stories, ‘The Great Train Robber’.
In 1963 Biggs was in a gang that stole £2.6 million from a train travelling between London and Glasgow. The gang was caught quickly, and Biggs was sentenced to thirty years in prison. Many people thought that the sentence was too harsh.
Biggs also thought it was too harsh, so he decided to escape.
Biggs was sent to Wandsworth Prison, a maximum security prison. It had one very high wall to keep the prisoners in, and some guards to watch them. One afternoon
In July 1965, Biggs was in the prison yard. He had been in prison for just fifteen months. A tall van stopped outside
the prison, and a ladder was placed against the wall.
Then a rope ladder was thrown over the wall into
the prison yard. Biggs climbed up the rope ladder jumped down into the van and escaped!
From that time on Biggs lived on the run . After hiding in France, Spain and Australia, he finally settled in Brazil in 1970. He was a celebrity criminal.
He appeared in rock videos and films, and he sold souvenirs to tourists who came to see him. But he missed his home in
Britain and, at the age of seventy – one, decided to go home.
He was met at the airport by family, friends - and police.
He spent several years in prison but he was very ill and was released early. He got out of prison in August,
2009 – one day before his eightieth birthday.