LONDON — For decades, Ronnie Biggs has been synonymous in Britain not only with the "Great Train Robbery" he helped commit but with the guile that enabled him to escape from prison after his conviction in 1964.
As a fugitive abroad, mostly in Australia and Brazil, he developed a cult-like status for his open defiance of British authorities, living a never less than colorful life in which he recorded with the Sex Pistols, charged tourists to spend time in his company and made a TV commercial for hair replacement.
When he returned to Britain in 2001, it was of his own will, knowing he would be arrested but in need of medical care and proclaiming his desire to once again walk into a pub and order a pint.
His wish never came true. Biggs was arrested and jailed on his return. His health continued to decline. Now, sick with pneumonia and weakened by strokes, he is unable to walk or feed himself.
Facing a prisoner unlikely to recover, much less pose a threat to society, British officials finally yielded Friday to Biggs' long campaign for early release, citing "compassionate grounds" and withdrawing the guards at his hospital bedside.
It won't make much difference to his lifestyle. Biggs will mark his 80th birthday today in his hospital bed. But his son Michael said that the formal issuing of walking papers would make a "spiritual" difference to his father.
"It smells of freedom," Michael Biggs told reporters, waving in front of his nose the faxed order that made his father a free man, at least on paper. "Where's the nearest pub?"
He said his father, strong enough to point at letters on a board to communicate, declared himself "over the moon" and shook hands with his guards before they left.
Today will be the 46th anniversary of the robbery that took place on Biggs' 34th birthday. A gang of thieves pounced on the Royal Mail train heading to London from Glasgow, Scotland, and beat the train driver with an iron bar before making off with 2.6 million pounds, or well in excess of $65 million today. The driver never recovered fully from his injuries.
Biggs was caught, put on trial and sentenced to 30 years behind bars. But after only 15 months in a London prison, he escaped by scaling a wall and fleeing in a furniture van.
