Ronnie Briggs has died

British criminal Ronnie Biggs, best known for his role in the 1963 Great Train Robbery, has died aged 84, the Press Association has reported.

Biggs was part of the gang which escaped with £2.6m from the Glasgow to London mail train on 8 August 1963.

He was given a 30-year sentence but escaped from Wandsworth prison in 1965.

In 2001, he returned to the UK seeking medical help but was sent to prison. He was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after contracting pneumonia.

Biggs, who died early on Wednesday, was being cared for at the Carlton Court Care Home in East Barnet, north London.

He could not speak and had difficulty walking after a series of strokes.

He was last seen in public at the funeral of his fellow Great Train Robber, Bruce Reynolds, in March.

Rope ladder
Biggs, Reynolds, Ronald 'Buster' Edwards and the other gang members wore helmets and ski masks to carry out their crime.

They made off with 120 bags of money totalling £2.6m - the equivalent of £40m in today's money.

Train driver Jack Mills was struck over the head during the robbery and never worked again. He died in 1970.

Biggs, who lived in Spain, Australia and Brazil while he was on the run, had been in prison for 15 months when he used a rope ladder to climb over the prison walls.

He had initially fled to Paris, with his wife Charmian and two sons, Farley and Chris.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25426914

I always preferred his brother Johnny.

His cousin, Basher Briggs ,was a bit of a bully as well.

OneFinFreedman wrote:I always preferred his brother Johnny.

Didn't he grow up to become Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street?

I hate him.

If he hadn't written that bloody Snowman cartoon, we'd wouldn't have to put up with Aled Bloody Jones screeching about "walking in the air" on every shop stereo at this time of year....

He was a useless bloody Police Captain as well.

https://youtu.be/XIi0mijchng

Poor spelling apart, there's a bigger issue here.

Mandela film out soon - Mandela dies last week.

Drama documentary on BBC1 tonight about The Great Train Robbery - Ronnie B pops his clogs.

When's "Justin Bieber: My life in music" on....?

Breadman wrote:

When's "Justin Bieber: My life in music" on....?

He is the most irritating twat this century!

I hope we are thinking alike here!   

Him and OM's.

A likeable rogue? No! More like the scum of the earth. He won't be missed by me or no doubt, the family of his victims that he was partly responsible for in killing.

Ronnie Biggs even had the nerve to return to the UK, to seek medical assistance, once his illegal criminal money had ran out, even though he had paid fook all in taxes, for donkey's years. This just about sums the weazel up.  

Culcheth_White wrote:A likeable rogue? No! More like the scum of the earth. He won't be missed by me or no doubt, the family of his victims that he was partly responsible for in killing.

Ronnie Biggs even had the nerve to return to the UK, to seek medical assistance, when his illegal criminal money had ran out, even though he had paid fook all in taxes, for donkey's years. This just about sums the weazel up.  

  

Good riddance to the twat, no respect for him whatsoever. Don't give a flying that he was only going to have a minor part and it went tits up. Innocent people got hurt and lives destroyed.

He was a bastard. Good riddance.