Train robber Biggs plans UK return

Ailing Biggs wants to taste an English pint of beer again

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fugitive convict Ronnie Biggs has sent an e-mail to police saying he wants to return to Britain after more than 35 years on the run.

The convicted robber, who escaped from jail 15 months into a 30-year prison sentence in 1965, is reported to be suffering from ill health -- and a desire to drink a pint in a British pub.

Biggs, 71, had been part of a gang which stole a then record British haul of £2.6 million from an early morning mail train in August 1963, in an operation dubbed the Great Train Robbery.

He underwent plastic surgery and settled in Brazil where he has been beyond extradition after fathering a child by a local 19-year-old stripper

Now police say he has asked in a one-page e-mail to be allowed back into the UK, sending his signature and fingerprint as proof of identity.

He asked flying squad boss detective chief superintendent John Coles, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan's Serious and Organised Crime group, to be allowed back in the next few days.

A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed an e-mail had been received. It read: "I would like to give myself up to you. What I need is passport documentation to travel back to Britain.

"I'm prepared to be arrested at the gate when I arrive at Heathrow airport to submit myself to the due process of the law."

Biggs: 'I want a curry and a pint'

The British tabloid newspaper, the Sun, said in an interview with Biggs on Thursday that he is yearning for a curry and a pint of English beer.

Technically, Biggs still has 28 years to serve of his sentence, but hopes his ill health will mean he will be detained in a jail hospital while the authorities decide what to do with him.

He suffered his last stroke in 1998 which has left him partially paralysed and unable to speak. He also has debts.

The newspaper interview quoted him as saying: "I always said I would go back and now is the time."

He said the hardest thing about returning would be leaving behind his son Michael and granddaughter Ingrid.

"I know that when I leave it might be the last time I see her," he added. "But I've had a great life. I don't regret anything."

Biggs was part of a 15-man gang which held up a Glasgow to London night train.

He escaped from Wandsworth prison by scaling a 25-foot ( eight metre) high wall on a rope ladder and jumping into an open top furniture van with a mattress inside.

In 1994 Biggs published an autobiography "Odd Man Out" and in 1978 made a recording "No Man is Innocent" for the Sex Pistols punk group.

Former hit man 'Mad Frankie' Fraser, who is alleged to have carried out 40 killings around London, said he lists not having taken part in the Great Train Robbery as one of his top three regrets in a life spent mostly behind bars.

The 78-year-old has spent 42 years in jail but understands Biggs' desire to return "home."

"He is going to die, so at least he wants to die with some care and comfort," he told "We should let him home. Obviously, he has made up his mind and wants to come back. It is appropriate that he wants to come home and taste British beer again."

Fraser, who knew Biggs "many years ago," said he is a "very nice man" and had shown a "strong character" in staying on the run for so long.

What is behind mobster mania?
October 1, 2000
No extradition for Britain's 'great train robber'
Nov. 13, 1997

'Mad Frankie' Fraser
Great Train Robber Biggs may elude arrest

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.