'Great Train Robber' Ronnie Biggs defiant even in death (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8PTv0wAACuEcrmvTd-7Ym54WfLmlB0roYNgBRzSg29SRl__dVsFOmWA6ZijZ2zmLpAHYU8CzzscS5mcEtYUz6MYXczs0lMxRAc5WsC7ZjBzS8ClaufqYEDyQE_R6PRTA_pVeA84_Rta8/s1600/2014-01-03T145928Z_1663870194_GM1EA131RSD01_RTRMADP_3_BRITAIN.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8PTv0wAACuEcrmvTd-7Ym54WfLmlB0roYNgBRzSg29SRl__dVsFOmWA6ZijZ2zmLpAHYU8CzzscS5mcEtYUz6MYXczs0lMxRAc5WsC7ZjBzS8ClaufqYEDyQE_R6PRTA_pVeA84_Rta8/s320/2014-01-03T145928Z_1663870194_GM1EA131RSD01_RTRMADP_3_BRITAIN.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1388812966117_6627" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">By Alexander Winning</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1388812966117_6633" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Biggs, a small-time criminal who became a celebrity during a life on the run after the notorious 1963 robbery, died last month at the age of 84 in a London nursing home.LONDON (Reuters) - "Great Train Robber" Ronnie Biggs arrived for his funeral on Friday in a hearse bearing a large flower display in the shape of an obscene two-finger "V-sign", a fitting emblem of his lifelong defiance of the British authorities.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1388812966117_6638" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">He had served just 15 months of a 30-year jail term when he escaped in 1965, fleeing to Australia, then Brazil, from where he flaunted his freedom, partying in exotic locations and giving interviews to the British press.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But after 36 years on the run, Biggs returned to Britain in 2001, broke and in poor health, going back to jail until illness prompted his release in 2009.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In his final year, Biggs appeared in public twice, frail and wheelchair-bound, but unrepentant for his role in the heist in which the gang stole 2.6 million pounds ($4.2 million) from a Royal Mail train, equivalent to about 40 million today.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="8" data-uuid="d60c52f5-55fc-3c95-bc9b-97da1f7a5d48" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/file-photograph-shows-great-train-robber-ronnie-biggs-photo-084254366.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="File photograph shows Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 194px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="File photograph shows Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="194" src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Va0E6IJSFmb5ygivd538lw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE5NDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2013-12-18T084254Z_1108076345_LM1E9CI0O4101_RTRMADP_3_PEOPLE-RONNIEBIGGS.JPG" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">File photograph shows Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs gesturing as he arrives for the funeral of Bru …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">At the funeral of the robbery's mastermind Bruce Reynolds in March last year, Biggs found the strength to stick two fingers up at the cameras.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">On Friday, a cortege of Hell's Angels bikers and a brass band playing "When The Saints Go Marching In" led Biggs' coffin into a north London crematorium, followed by his family and various underworld figures, and watched by a scrum of media and some passers-by.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Biggs was not a major criminal but he had a eye for publicity. This is a circus, and everyone has fallen for it," said local resident David Rose, watching as the coffin draped in the British and Brazilian flags passed by in heavy rain.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">HERO OR VILLAIN?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Great Train Robbery became one of the defining events of 1960s Britain, coinciding with the Profumo affair - a sex-and-spies scandal that rocked the British establishment - and the rise of the Beatles and other working-class heroes. It spawned several films.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp portrait onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="9" data-uuid="00736d6c-04f8-3613-adbe-c7bba7307f1a" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/file-july-8-1963-file-photo-shows-ronnie-photo-145854866.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="FILE - A July 8, 1963 file photo shows Ronnie Biggs.&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 436px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="FILE - A July 8, 1963 file photo shows Ronnie Biggs.&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="436" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/OtYlPTMLBO9XnZ_HpDDD1w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQzNjtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/c10e72927ec9422a460f6a706700e1e1.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">FILE - A July 8, 1963 file photo shows Ronnie Biggs. Ronnie Biggs, known for his role in the 1963 Gr …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Biggs, the most famous member of the gang, was a latter-day Robin Hood to some but an unrepentant villain to those who pointed to the violence used on the train driver.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Jack Mills was hit over the head with a iron bar during the robbery and died seven years later, with some people blaming the injuries for his death.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">A 67-year-old local resident who came to see what the media fuss was about, but declined to give her name, said: "I am ashamed I have come to watch a common criminal being buried."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Biggs, who was born in south London, always said he had never regretted his role in the robbery as it had given him a "little place in history".</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">His life, chronicled in a 2011 autobiography entitled "Odd Man Out: The Last Straw", made ideal fodder for a film script.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">After escaping from London's Wandsworth Prison in 1965 by scaling a wall with a rope ladder, he used his share of the loot for plastic surgery and passage to Australia.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">He later fled to Brazil, via Panama and Venezuela, pursued by his great adversary, London police detective Jack Slipper ("Slipper of the Yard"). The fact that he had a son with a Brazilian woman eventually spared him extradition.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Tanned and sporting his white hair in a ponytail, he regularly gave interviews to British newspapers. In 1978 he even recorded a song, "No One is Innocent", with the British punk band the Sex Pistols.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1388812966117_6651" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In 1981 he was abducted from Rio by former British commandos who took him to the Caribbean on a yacht, hoping to sell him to the highest bidder.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1388812966117_6643" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by)</div></div>

'Great Train Robber' Ronnie Biggs defiant even in death (BLOG)

By Alexander Winning Biggs, a small-time criminal who became a celebrity during a life on the run after the notorious 1963 robbery, died las...

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