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Funeral of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs

The funeral of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs will take place in London on Friday.

The funeral of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, who died last month aged 84, will take place in London on Friday.

Biggs gained notoriety for spending 36 years on the run after escaping prison.

The robber had been cared for at Carlton Court Care Home in East Barnet, north London, after suffering several strokes in recent years. He was last seen in public last March at the funeral of fellow train robber Bruce Reynolds.

Biggs was released from prison in 2009 on compassionate grounds due to ill health, despite being re-arrested in 2001 after evading the authorities since his first escape from Wandsworth Prison in 1965.

At the time of his escape, Biggs had served just 15 months of the 30-year sentence he was handed for his part in the robbery of a Royal Mail freight train between London and Glasgow on August 8, 1963.

Speaking last year, he said he was proud to have been part of the gang behind the robbery, in which 15 men escaped with a record haul of Stg2.6 million ($A4.8 million) - the equivalent of about Stg46 million today.

For many, the glamour of the crime was overshadowed by the brutal attack on the train's driver, however. Jack Mills, who was coshed, reportedly by Biggs, never fully recovered from the ordeal and died a few years later.

Biggs's funeral will be held at Golders Green Crematorium, north London.


2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP



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