LONDON — Ronnie Biggs, the last prisoner from Britain’s “great train robbery” and once a high-living fugitive in Rio de Janeiro, gained his freedom Friday but remained in his hospital bed.
Weakened by pneumonia, unable to speak and enfeebled by a series of strokes, Biggs tapped out on a spelling board that he was “very happy” that he had been given a release from custody.
“It was very emotional when the guards left,” said his son, Michael.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who had previously ruled out release for a man who was “unrepentant,” seemed to feel that it no longer mattered.
The status change came a day before Biggs’ 80th birthday. Biggs was part of a gang that robbed a Glasgow-to-London mail train in August 1963, in what was called the “heist of the century.”
