Allow me to tell you about one of the most notorious heists in history: The Great Train Robbery. More specifically, the infamous Ronnie Biggs. Was he a daring criminal mastermind, a modern-day Robin Hood with his middle finger up to the authorities? Or simply a common thief with an inflated ego, a man who brought shame and misery to those around him?
Ronald Arthur Biggs was born 8th of August 1929 in Stockwell, London. At 18 he enlisted in the Royal Air Force but was dishonourably discharged just 2 years later for breaking into a chemist shop, but this wasn’t enough to turn Biggs off from a life of crime. He continued to steal and ended up in and out of prison, meeting lifelong friend Bruce Reynolds during one stretch.
After finishing his third prison sentence, Biggs decided he was going to go straight and trained as a carpenter. It was while he was trying to stay 0ut of trouble that he met Charmian (ironically, on a train); she was 17 years old, and he was 28. They eloped in February 1960, much to the disapproval of Charmian’s father.
Their first son, Nicholas was born 23rd July 1960, followed by their second son, Christopher, on 24th March 1963.
THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY
THE GANG (or, at least, the ones we know about):
Bruce Reynolds
Ronald ‘Buster’ Edwards
Charles Wilson
Roy James
Brian Field
Gordon Goody
James Hussey
Roger Cordrey
James White
Tommy Wisbey
Bobby Welch
John Wheater
Leonard Field
Bill Boal – who Reynolds always said was innocent.
A plan had been devised to stop and rob a Royal Mail train and, despite Biggs’ later becoming the ‘face’ of the robbery, it was Bruce Reynolds who was considered the mastermind. Biggs only joined the gang at a later date and his only real task was to supervise the guy they had pulled into the heist to drive the train. The legal start of the conspiracy of the robbery was 1st May 1963. On 29th of July, the gang purchased the rundown Leatherslade Farm for £5,500.
On 7th of August 1963, at 18.50 the travelling post office ‘Up Special’ train left Glasgow Central Station, on its way to London Euston Station.
The gang of criminals covered a green light at Sears Crossing, Ledburn and used a battery to power up the red light. The driver of the train, Jack Mills, saw the signal and dutifully stopped the train on 8th August at 03.00. His second crew member, David Whitby, climbed out of the train cab and tried to ring the signalman to alert him to the stop as it was unexpected, but the lines to the emergency phone had been cut. When David tried to return to the train, the gang overpowered him. Whilst this was going on, other members of the gang had stormed the cab, overpowering Jack before hitting him over the back of the head with a cosh, leaving him semi-conscious.
The gang’s hired train driver was an acquaintance of Biggs a retired train driver of many years. He has been referred to as ‘Stan Agate’ and ‘Peter,’ but we can’t be sure as he was never caught. He was called up into the cab but was unable to drive the more modern style of train. ‘Stan’ and Biggs now had no use on the train and were sent to the truck that was waiting for the spoils from the robbery. Jack Mills was forced to wake up and drive the train to Bridego Bridge which was around half a mile away. Once the train was stopped at the bridge waiting gang members attacked the high-value packages carriage. Two of the train staff, Frank Dewhurst, and Thomas Kett, tried in vain to stop them but were overpowered and hit with coshes. Frank, Thomas, and the remaining train staff were then forced to lie face down on the floor of the carriage. Jack Mills and David Whitby were handcuffed together and brought from the cab to the carriage and made to lie down with the other victims.
Out of the 128 sacks that were in the carriage, the gang stole 120, putting them into the truck that Biggs had been sat in, before making a getaway. It was Biggs 34th birthday.
They arrived at Leatherslade Farm, 27 miles away. There they split the proceeds and received around £150,000 each – the equivalent of around 2.5 million in 2023. The gang wiped down any potential fingerprints in the farm and had planned to burn it down but the person they paid to do it never completed the task.
The police were alerted, and it was broadcast on the VHF police radio at 04.20 with the line ‘a robbery has been committed and you’ll never believe it – they’ve stolen the train!’
Charmian would later say that when she found out she ‘was horrified that Ron had endangered our future happiness and the happiness of our two little children by participating in it. But once it happened, I tried to do the right thing by him.’
After that it didn’t take long for the plan to fall apart. On 13th August the police discovered Leatherslade Farm. Roger Cordrey and Bill Boal were the first to be caught and arrested. After that it was like dominoes falling. Biggs was arrested on 4th September and was charged on the 5th of September. He was sent to HMP Bedford.
The trial opened 20th January 1964. On 15th April, Biggs was found guilty by the jury in 92 minutes. Ronald Arthur Biggs was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to rob and 30 years for armed robbery. The judge called Biggs a ‘specious and facile liar.’
In July 1965, just 15 months into his sentence, Biggs escaped from Wandsworth Prison. A distraction was caused to keep prison officers occupied, while a ladder was dropped over the 30ft prison wall. Biggs and a few others escaped into the waiting van.
Biggs paid a large amount of money to be smuggled to Paris and have plastic surgery in a futile attempt to hide himself from authorities.
In 1966 Biggs moved to Adelaide, Australia. Charmian, Nicholas, and Christopher joined him, and they very quickly had a third son, Farley. Biggs discovered that Interpol were on to him, so he moved to Melbourne before finally escaping to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1970. Before moving to Rio, he promised Charmian and his sons that they would soon be reunited.
Because there was no extradition treaty between Britain and Brazil, Biggs could stay there. Whilst in Rio, despite his promises of love and adoration to Charmian, he got together with Raimunda de Castro. He went on to have a son, Michael, with her which gave him legal immunity and he spent years openly living in Rio. Nicholas, who was still living in Australia with his mother, was killed by a car crash at the age of 10 in 1971. Biggs didn’t attend the funeral.
In 1974 he insisted that Charmian divorce him so he could marry Raimunda. She obliged, despite still loving him, and they officially divorced in 1976. Charmian went on to sell her story to The Australian media for a reported £40,000.
Whilst in Rio he lived off his notoriety and loved the attention that it brought. The money he had stolen from the train hadn’t lasted very long and he made a living from his infamy. Biggs sold t-shirts on the Copacabana beach saying ‘Rio – a great place to escape to’ and ‘I know someone who went to Brazil and met Ronnie Biggs… honest.’ He even charged people to meet him and would sign photographs with ‘Crime doesn’t pay – not much.’ He called it ‘The Ronnie Biggs Experience.’ He opened a nightclub and recorded a song with The Sex Pistols called No One is Innocent. Biggs was a known womaniser and was quoted as saying: ‘One report said that during my time on the run I’ve had 2,500 girlfriends. I’ve been on the run for over 30 years, I have got to have had more than that’.
Biggs celebrated his 70th birthday by inviting around 100 criminals, including his fellow Great Train Robbery gang member, Bruce Reynolds.
By May 2001, at the age of 71, Biggs had suffered 3 strokes and decided to return to England; he was struggling to pay his medical bills in Rio and, reportedly, wanted to take advantage of the NHS. He said he wanted to ‘walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter.’ On landing he was greeted, not by ‘adoring fans’ but by the police. He was arrested and sent to prison to finally finish his sentence. On the 2nd July 2009, the then Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, denied Biggs parole as he considered him to be ‘wholly unrepentant’. Despite this, he was released 2 days before his 80th birthday on compassionate grounds. Biggs lived the rest of his life in a care home, being fed through a tube and unable to speak.
Ronald Biggs died at the age of 84 on 18th December 2013. His son Michael said it was his father’s wish to have his ashes spread at the scene of the robbery.
The train driver, Jack Mills, suffered greatly after the incident and had near constant trauma headaches until his death from leukaemia in 1970.
David Whitby was left terribly traumatised after the ordeal and never recovered. He died from a heart attack in 1972 at just 34 years old.
Charmian died in 2014 at 75. She never remarried.
On Biggs official website, it states: ‘So what is it that fascinates so many people about Ronald Arthur Biggs and makes him a household name in so many countries around the world? Is it the man or the myth that makes Ron, Ronnie, Biggsy, a latter-‐day Robin Hood, and the man who is best remembered from a gang of sixteen who held up a mail train in August 1963?’.
Biggs is very much portrayed as a lovable rogue, the ‘ordinary man’ (according to his website). There is much lamenting over the fact he never committed a violent crime – but should that matter? Is there ever truly a victimless crime? Jack Wills and David Whitby were left with trauma for the rest of their lives. Charmian suffered, not only from heartbreak, but from abuse by those who believed she had known everything, even to the point of being told it was ‘karma’ when her eldest son died.
Ronnie Biggs will always be remembered as a key figure in one of Britain’s most infamous crimes. A man who’s life was filled with drama and controversy, a man who will continue to divide opinion long after death. Whether or not you think he was a hero or a loser, there is no denying the impact that his story has had on popular culture. As always, thanks for reading, take care of yourselves and I will see you next time!
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