This is an accepted version of this page Ronald Arthur Biggs (8 August 1929 – 18 December 2013) was an English criminal who helped plan and carry out the Great Train Robbery of 1963.

[7] Therefore, the driver of the intercepted train, Jack Mills, was coshed with an iron bar and forced to move the engine and mail carriages forward to a nearby bridge over a roadway, which had been chosen as the unloading point.

[9] With their timetable brought forward due to the police investigation closing in, Biggs returned home on the following Friday, with his stash in two canvas bags.

[1] After an accomplice failed to carry out his instructions to burn down Leatherslade Farm to destroy any evidence there,[1] Biggs's fingerprints were found on a tomato sauce bottle by Metropolitan Police investigators.

[1] Biggs served 15 months before escaping from Wandsworth Prison on 8 July 1965, scaling the wall with a rope ladder and dropping onto a waiting removal van.

[10] He fled to Brussels by boat before sending a note to his wife to join him in Paris where he had acquired new identity papers and was undergoing plastic surgery.

[4] In 1966, Biggs fled to Sydney, where he lived for several months before moving to the seaside suburb of Glenelg in Adelaide, South Australia.

[1][4] In 1967, just after their third child was born, Biggs received an anonymous letter from Britain telling him that Interpol suspected that he was in Australia and that he should move.

In May 1967, the family moved to Melbourne, where he rented a house in the suburb of Blackburn North while his wife Charmian and their three sons lived in Doncaster East.

Biggs had a number of jobs in Melbourne before undertaking set construction work at the GTV Channel 9 Television City studios.

In October 1969, a newspaper report by a Reuters correspondent revealed that Biggs was living in Melbourne and claimed that police were closing in on him.

The story led the evening news bulletin at Channel 9 and Biggs fled his home, staying with family friends in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Five months later, he fled on a passenger liner from the Port of Melbourne, using the altered passport of a friend; his wife and sons remained in Australia.

[4] Allowed by authorities to remain in Australia, she reverted to her maiden name of Brent and sold her story for £40,000 (equivalent to £363,600 as of 2025) to an Australian media group to enable her to purchase the rented house that the family had lived in at the time of Biggs's flight to Brazil.

Scotland Yard detective Jack Slipper arrived soon afterwards, but Biggs could not be extradited because his girlfriend, nightclub dancer Raimunda de Castro, was pregnant.

[13] During 1974, in Rio, Biggs, an avid jazz fan, collaborated with Bruce Henri (an American double bass player), Jaime Shields, and Aureo de Souza to record Mailbag Blues, a musical narrative of his life that he intended to use as a movie soundtrack.

[14] In April 1977, Biggs attended an informal drinks party on board the Royal Navy frigate HMS Danae (F47), which was in Rio for a courtesy visit, but he was not arrested.

Biggs recorded vocals on two songs for The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, Julien Temple's film about the Sex Pistols.

The sleeve showed a British actor dressed as Nazi leader Martin Bormann playing bass with the group.

[18][19] In February 2006, Channel 4 aired a documentary featuring dramatisations of the attempted kidnapping and interviews with John Miller, the ex-British Army soldier who carried it out.

[22] In 1991, Biggs sang vocals for the songs "Police on My Back" and "Carnival in Rio" by German punk band Die Toten Hosen.

In 1993, Biggs sang on three tracks for the album Bajo Otra Bandera by Argentinian punk band Pilsen.

[24][25] In 1993, Slipper travelled once more to Rio on a private mission to try to persuade Biggs to come home voluntarily, which failed.

The extradition request was rejected by the Brazilian Supreme Court, giving Biggs the right to live in Brazil for the rest of his life.

[32][33] On 14 November 2001, Biggs petitioned Governor Hynd of HMP Belmarsh for early release on compassionate grounds based on his poor health.

[37] In December, Biggs issued a further appeal, from Norwich Prison, asking to be released to die with his family: "I am an old man, and often wonder if I truly deserve the extent of my punishment.

However, the Home Office stated only that "an application for the early release on compassionate grounds of a prisoner at HMP Norwich" had been received by the public protection casework section in the National Offender Management Service.

[47] Following his release from prison, Biggs's health improved, leading to suggestions that he might soon be moved from hospital to a nursing home.

In August 2010, it was claimed by the Sunday Mirror that Biggs would be attending a gala dinner where he would be collecting a lifetime achievement award for his services to crime.

[54][55] His death coincidentally occurred hours before the first broadcast of a two-part BBC television series, The Great Train Robbery, in which Biggs was portrayed by actor Jack Gordon.