Ronnie Biggs, a small-time British criminal who became a celebrity during a life on the run after his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, died on Wednesday at the age of 84.
Biggs gained notoriety 50 years ago as one of a 12-member gang that ambushed a Royal Mail night train and made off with 2.6 million pounds ($4.2 million), equivalent to about 40 million pounds today. He was caught and jailed the next year.
He became the most famous of the gang after escaping from London's Wandsworth Prison in 1965, where he was serving a 30-year prison sentence, by scaling a wall with a rope ladder and spending 36 years on the run.
He used his share of the loot for plastic surgery and passage to Australia. He later fled to Brazil via Panama and Venezuela.
Living in Brazil, Biggs flaunted his freedom, was photographed partying in a policeman's helmet and in exotic locations, and in 1978 recorded a song "No One is Innocent" with the British punk band the Sex Pistols.
Tanned and sporting his white hair in a ponytail, he regularly gave interviews to British newspapers, staying in the public spotlight while in exile and revelling in his notoriety.
The Great Train Robbery became one of the most celebrated events in popular memory of the 1960s, coinciding with the Profumo affair - a sex-and-spies scandal which rocked the British establishment - and the rise of the Beatles and other working-class heroes. It spawned several films.
Biggs became a folk legend to some Britons but remained an unrepentant villain to others.
Over the years he survived a kidnap by former commandos who wanted to sell him to the highest bidder.
He was pursued across the globe by his great adversary, London police detective Jack Slipper ("Slipper of the Yard" but dodged extradition from Brazil as he had a son with a Brazilian woman.
After years of surviving by hosting barbecues for tourists and on royalties from his books, an ailing and broke Biggs finally surrendered to British police in 2001 and returned to prison but was freed in 2009 on health grounds.
His son Michael, who had been caring for him in recent years, left a message on his phone on Wednesday saying he would not be taking many calls for "obvious reasons".
REUTERS