Ronnie Biggs: 'The last gentleman crook'

Great train robber Ronnie Biggs

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's most celebrated fugitive -- "the last of the gentlemen crooks," as he liked to describe himself -- was born Ronald Arthur Biggs in Lambeth, south London, on August 8, 1929.

The youngest of five children (four girls and a boy), his criminal career began at the age of 15 when he was arrested for stealing pencils from a local shop.

He joined the Royal Air Force in 1947, but was dishonourably discharged two years later after being convicted of breaking into a chemist's shop while AWOL.

The latter offence resulted in his first spell in prison - four months in Lewes Prison for Young Offenders. He was released in June 1949, but was back in jail within a month for car theft.

This second prison term - also at Lewes -- was to change Biggs' life. He met, and became friends with Bruce Reynolds, the man who later masterminded The Great Train Robbery.

Between 1949 and 1963 Biggs was regularly involved in criminal activity - he served several jail sentences - although he also made money legally working as a painter and decorator.

In 1960 he married Charmian Powell with whom he had three children - Nicholas, Christopher and Farley. The couple were subsequently estranged.

On August 8, 1963 - Biggs' birthday - he was one of a gang of 16 who held up the Glasgow-to-London mail train, escaping with a record haul of £2,631,784 ($3,782,046).

He was arrested a month later after his fingerprint was found on some stolen notes and in January 1964 he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

After serving only 15 months, however, he made a daring escape from Wandsworth Prison in south London, thus beginning 35 years on the run.

His first stop was Paris, where he spent much of his £147,000 cut of the train robbery money on plastic surgery and acquiring papers to Australia.

He remained in Melbourne until 1970, working as a builder, before he slipped out of the country using a false passport on a ship bound for Panama.

There followed brief spells in Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela before he eventually settled in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 1974 he was arrested and faced being sent back to the UK. His Brazilian girlfriend Raimunda de Castro, however, was by that point pregnant with his child, and under Brazilian law that meant he could not be deported.

Several further attempts were made to bring him back to England, including a highly publicised kidnapping in 1981, when he was seized by adventurers hoping to claim a reward for his capture.

He was taken to Barbados in a sack marked "Live Snake," but subsequently released due to a loophole in Barbadian law.

In the meantime he became something of a celebrity in Rio. He would entertain visitors at his house, where for a set fee he would provide a barbecue and tales of his criminal past.

He featured on The Sex Pistols album The Great Rock and Roll Swindle -- singing No One is Innocent.

Biggs suffered a minor stroke in March 1998, since when his health has gradually been declining.

His estranged wife Charmian, who still lives in Melbourne, told The Sun newspaper: "The man I remember was a strong, fit big man who could take on the world.

"Now he looks like a walking corpse, just skin and bone. I feel so sorry and sad for him."

After a total of 13,068 days on the run it seems the past has finally caught up with Britain's most notorious and colourful fugitive.

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Ronnie Biggs

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