Ronald Biggs

Ronald Arthur "Ronnie" Biggs (born August 8, 1929 in Lambeth , London ; † December 18, 2013 in East Barnet , London) was a member of the British band of robbers who committed the spectacular mail train robbery at Ledburn in 1963 and earned 2.63 million pounds ( according to today's value about 55 million pounds sterling or 61 million euros). After an initial imprisonment, he managed to escape via France to Australia in 1965 and later to Brazil. After decades of avoiding re-arrest, he returned to England on health grounds in 2001 and served the remainder of his 30-year prison sentence in Belmarsh Prison. In 2009, Biggs was pardoned and released from prison due to his poor health.

Life

Biggs, later just called Ronnie Biggs, was born on August 8, 1929 in Lambeth. He worked and lived as a carpenter with his wife Charmian Rothen and their two sons in Redhill , Surrey , until his 34th birthday . He was a member of the so-called Fulham Boys , who committed various small crimes in the London area. The group was hired by the actual mail robbers around Bruce Reynolds and Ronald Edwards. According to recent research, Biggs had nothing to do with planning the raid .

The big raid

On August 8, 1963, on his 34th birthday, Biggs attacked along with Bruce Reynolds , Ronald "Buster" Edwards , Charlie Wilson "The Silent", Roy James "The Weasel", Brian Field, Thomas Wisbey, Robert Welch, Gordon Goody , James Hussey, Rodger Cordrey, James White, William Boal, Leonard Field and John Wheater at 3:10 p.m. the royal mail train that was en route from Glasgow to London. The train was stopped at the Bridego Bridge in Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire by a rigged railway signal. One of the robbers knocked down the train driver Jack Mills, who suffered from the consequences years later.

The booty consisted of 120 money bags with 2,631,684 pounds (around 55 million pounds sterling or 61 million euros based on today's value ).

Biggs claimed that the three gang members who were not caught, along with the money, also looted fifty uncut diamonds . Biggs said he had received a share of 148,000 pounds (around 3 million pounds sterling or 3.3 million euros based on today's value ).

Wandsworth Prison

The perpetrators wore masks and gloves during the attack, so the police initially looked in vain for clues. Scotland Yard was able to secure fingerprints in the gang's hideout, discovered a few days later . The remote Leatherslade Farm ( 51 ° 48 ′ 23 "  N , 1 ° 3 ′ 11"  W coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 23 "  N , 1 ° 3 ′ 11"  W ) was 25 miles (approximately 40 kilometers) from the crime scene . A team of police, led by Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Slipper , called Slipper from the Yard , captured 13 robbers.

In 1964, Biggs was sentenced to 30 years in prison . On July 8, 1965, he and three other prisoners escaped from Wandsworth Prison by climbing a rope ladder over the outer wall and jumping into a prepared moving van.

Biggs fled to Paris with his family , bought forged papers and had his face changed. They fled on to Australia on Hibiscus Road in the city of Blackburn near Melbourne . Biggs fled from there in 1974 without a family to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil .

Jack Slipper fails with the arrest

In the same year, investigator Jack Slipper from New Scotland Yard traveled to Brazil to arrest Biggs. Biggs hoped to make £ 35,000 from an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail . Slipper is said to have visited him in the Hotel Trocadero and greeted him with the words "Hello Ronnie, it was a long time!" The Brazilian government refused to extradite Biggs because the UK government did not agree to reciprocity ; H. in the opposite case to extradite someone from England to Brazil. Furthermore, the local stripper Raimunda de Castro was expecting a child from Biggs, and so he was not allowed to be expelled from Brazil. The son was baptized in the name of Michael. On the way back, Slipper was photographed asleep on the plane by a Daily Mail photographer - including the empty seat next to him.

In 1993, Slipper visited Biggs in Rio, who is said to have told him that he was completely broke.

Exile in Rio de Janeiro

Biggs (left) celebrates his 70th birthday in 1999, along with (from left to right) his son Michael, Nick Reynolds, and Nick's father Bruce Reynolds

Because of his criminal status, Biggs was banned from working in Brazil. He made his living advertising alarm systems and selling "Ronald Biggs" coffee mugs and T-shirts with his likeness. For 60 dollars tourists he offered a breakfast with a real criminal and his Rottweiler blitzkrieg on. In the 1998 edition of Lonely Planet - Brazil on a Shoestring , pages 174 f. a meeting with Ronny Biggs mentioned as a highlight of a visit to Rio de Janeiro (The Ronny Biggs Experience) . To contact Biggs, his home phone number was even printed in the travel guide. At these meetings, the visitors learned "first hand" all the details of the mail robbery, the subsequent escape and his life afterwards.

Biggs recorded with the British punk band The Sex Pistols in 1978, shortly after Johnny Rotten left the band, the album The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and the song No One Is Innocent (German: Nobody is innocent ). He also played himself as "The Exile" in the "Pistols documentary" of the same name, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle , directed by Julien Temples . The film was released in 1980. According to his own statement, however, Ronny Biggs never received the agreed fee for working with the Sex Pistols.

In 1981 Biggs was kidnapped by a group of adventurers who turned him over in Barbados for a reward from the British police. The crime was noticed and he returned to Brazil. There his son Michael played - with whom Biggs lived in a house in the Santa Teresa district - in the children's band Turma do Balão Mágico .

About ten years later, thirteen years after Ronnie's music activities with the Sex Pistols, Biggs recorded the single Carnival In Rio (Punk Was) for their album Learning English Lesson One with the German punk and rock band Die Toten Hosen and celebrated his 62nd with her . Birthday.

It wasn't until 1999 that Biggs and Reynolds signed a contract with SCi Entertainment . With their support, SCi Entertainment wanted to develop the computer game The Great Train Robbery . The player should either take on the role of the police or the role of Biggs. But this game was never released.

Return to England

On May 7th, 2001, at the age of 71, after 35 years of flight and 30 years in Brazil, Biggs returned to England with Bruce Reynolds for health reasons. In Rio he had previously signed a declaration under the supervision of the Brazilian police that he was returning to England voluntarily. Ronald left his son Michael and granddaughter Ingrid in Brazil.

The British tabloid The Sun gave him the return flight in a private jet and various expenses in return for the exclusive rights. Biggs had to respond in writing to the journalists' questions due to two strokes .

He was arrested by sixty Scotland Yard officers at the Royal Air Force Station Northolt near London. Biggs reacted in shock to the immediate detention and collapsed sobbing in his cell in the maximum security prison in Belmarsh . At his new address, HM Prison, Western Way, Thamesmead, London SE 28 OEB, he was to serve the remaining 28 years of his sentence. There Biggs and Raimunda de Castro married in 2002 under strict security precautions in the prison chapel in the presence of Michael, Ingrid and some photographers.

Two years later, Biggs suffered multiple strokes and a heart attack and was transferred from Belmarsh Prison to Queen Elizabeth Hospital . On August 10, 2005, Biggs was diagnosed with MRSA . His death was imminent, according to his lawyers, who were trying to find a reason for his release. He also had difficulty eating and speaking.

On July 4, 2007, at the age of 77, Biggs was transferred "out of compassion" from the maximum security prison in Belmarsh to a normal prison in Norwich.

In February 2009, the agencies announced that Biggs should be pardoned before his 80th birthday in August 2009 because of his serious illness. Although a pardon was initially refused in July 2009 and this report seemed to be false, Biggs was finally pardoned and released from prison by Attorney General Jack Straw two days before his 80th birthday on August 6, 2009 due to his poor health. In the end, Biggs was "so bad that he couldn't walk, speak, or eat normally."

Biggs died at the age of 84 years on December 18, 2013, East Barnet, after his death, he was in the Golders Green Crematorium in London cremated , his ashes handed over to the family.

Movies

• In 1965 the story of the legendary mail robbery with Horst Tappert in the leading role was filmed for German television with the title The Gentlemen Ask To Cashier and was a so-called " street sweeper ". Since the names of the people involved were changed for legal reasons, the character that Biggs was supposed to portray carried the role name "Arthur Finnegan". The role was played by Kurt Conradi .
• In 1988, director Lech Majewski filmed the Great Mail Train Robbery under the name Prisoner of Rio . The film music was composed by Hans Zimmer , the screenplay was written by Ronald Biggs himself. The film was released in Germany under the name Gefangen in Rio . Paul Freeman played Ronald Biggs.
• In 1988 Phil Collins played the lead role in the feature film " Buster ", which was also based on the legendary mail robbery. Biggs is portrayed by Ralph Brown .

Works

• 1978: Single No One Is Innocent with the Sex Pistols
• 1979: Two songs on the Sex Pistols LP "The Great Rock´n´Roll Swindle:" No One is Innocent "and" Belsen was a Gas "as" Once Belsen was really excellent "
• 1988: Screenplay for the film Prisoner Of Rio by Lech Majewski
• 1991: Guest musicians on the album Learning English Lesson One by Die Toten Hosen

Web links

• Ronnie Biggs in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• "Fansite" with a description of the mail robbery (German)
• The man who hunted the mail robbers

Individual evidence

1. ↑ England: Legendary mail robber Biggs is free. In: DiePresse.com , August 7, 2009.
2. ↑ ^{a b} These figures were determined with the template: Inflation and the template: Exchange rate and refer at most to the previous calendar year.
3. ↑ Mail robbers convicted in England. In: Deutsche Welle , April 16, 1964, queried on July 7, 2010.
4. ↑ No danger to the public. In: ORF , February 18, 2009.
5. ↑ Legendary mail robber Ronnie Biggs is supposed to die in jail. In: picture , July 2, 2009.
6. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , “The last of its kind” , December 18, 2013