Story highlights
- Family, friends of Ronnie Biggs tell his publisher he died early Wednesday
- Biggs became notorious for his role in a 1963 heist known as the "Great Train Robbery"
- After escaping from prison, he went on the run, living as a celebrity fugitive in Brazil
- He returned to Britain in 2001, broke and ailing, and spent several more years in prison
"Great Train Robber" Ronnie Biggs -- one of the most notorious British criminals of the 20th century -- has died, his publisher told CNN on Wednesday. He was 84.
Biggs, who despite his crimes became the subject of books, films and TV shows and even recorded a single with the Sex Pistols, had been released from prison in 2009 on health grounds.
Cliff Moulder, of publisher MPress, told CNN that close family and friends informed him that Biggs passed away early Wednesday. Moulder published Biggs' most recent books, "Odd Man Out: The Last Straw," and "The Great Train Robbery -- 50th Anniversary Special."
Biggs earned his nickname from that train robbery, an infamous 1963 heist dubbed the "crime of the century." It was an act that transformed him from a petty London thief into one of the most wanted men in Britain.
Biggs and 14 other professional criminals made off with the equivalent of 2.5 million pounds in used bank notes -- an amount that would equal tens of millions today.
1 of 11
2 of 11
3 of 11
4 of 11
5 of 11
6 of 11
7 of 11
8 of 11
9 of 11
10 of 11
11 of 11
1 of 150
2 of 150
3 of 150
4 of 150
5 of 150
6 of 150
7 of 150
8 of 150
9 of 150
10 of 150
11 of 150
12 of 150
13 of 150
14 of 150
15 of 150
16 of 150
17 of 150
18 of 150
19 of 150
20 of 150
21 of 150
22 of 150
23 of 150
24 of 150
25 of 150
26 of 150
27 of 150
28 of 150
29 of 150
30 of 150
31 of 150
32 of 150
33 of 150
34 of 150
35 of 150
36 of 150
37 of 150
38 of 150
39 of 150
40 of 150
41 of 150
42 of 150
43 of 150
44 of 150
45 of 150
46 of 150
47 of 150
48 of 150
49 of 150
50 of 150
51 of 150
52 of 150
53 of 150
54 of 150
55 of 150
56 of 150
57 of 150
58 of 150
59 of 150
60 of 150
61 of 150
62 of 150
63 of 150
64 of 150
65 of 150
66 of 150
67 of 150
68 of 150
69 of 150
70 of 150
71 of 150
72 of 150
73 of 150
74 of 150
75 of 150
76 of 150
77 of 150
78 of 150
79 of 150
80 of 150
81 of 150
82 of 150
83 of 150
84 of 150
85 of 150
86 of 150
87 of 150
88 of 150
89 of 150
90 of 150
91 of 150
92 of 150
93 of 150
94 of 150
95 of 150
96 of 150
97 of 150
98 of 150
99 of 150
100 of 150
101 of 150
102 of 150
103 of 150
104 of 150
105 of 150
106 of 150
107 of 150
108 of 150
109 of 150
110 of 150
111 of 150
112 of 150
113 of 150
114 of 150
115 of 150
116 of 150
117 of 150
118 of 150
119 of 150
120 of 150
121 of 150
122 of 150
123 of 150
124 of 150
125 of 150
126 of 150
127 of 150
128 of 150
129 of 150
130 of 150
131 of 150
132 of 150
133 of 150
134 of 150
135 of 150
136 of 150
137 of 150
138 of 150
139 of 150
140 of 150
141 of 150
142 of 150
143 of 150
144 of 150
145 of 150
146 of 150
147 of 150
148 of 150
149 of 150
150 of 150
The thieves held up a mail train from Glasgow to London early in the morning. In the course of the robbery, the train driver was badly beaten with an iron bar.
Most of the gang, including Biggs, were soon picked up in a massive manhunt after police discovered fingerprints at a farmhouse hideout where the robbers had holed up to split their spoils.
Biggs was sentenced to 30 years but escaped over a London prison wall after serving just 15 months -- and spent most of the rest of his life as a celebrity fugitive.
After undergoing extensive plastic surgery in Paris, Biggs made his way to Australia, living there with his wife and two children. Tracked down by police, he fled again in 1969, this time to Brazil.
Five years later, Biggs was traced once more, this time by a newspaper reporter. Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Jack Slipper, who had led police efforts to bring the train robbers to justice, flew out to Rio de Janeiro to arrest Biggs, allegedly greeting him in a beachside hotel, "Long time no see, Ronnie."
Efforts to bring Biggs home were frustrated because by then, he had fathered a young Brazilian son -- Michael Biggs -- and authorities rejected British requests for his extradition.
Return by private jet
Biggs continued to live openly in Rio, trading on his notoriety by entertaining tourists, selling T-shirts and even recording the single "No One is Innocent" with the Sex Pistols in 1978.
In 1981, he was kidnapped by a gang of British ex-soldiers and smuggled to Barbados. But legal efforts to have him brought back to the UK once again stalled and he was allowed to return to Brazil.
By the late 1990s, Biggs was running out of cash and in poor health after a series of strokes. In 2001, he flew back to the United Kingdom on a private jet trip arranged by the Sun newspaper. He was promptly locked up in a high-security prison but then moved to a facility for elderly prisoners.
After that, Biggs and his family campaigned for his parole on compassionate grounds. This was finally granted in 2009, after he had been in ill health for some time.
He had been refused parole shortly before that because he "had shown no remorse for his crimes nor respect for the punishments given to him," said Jack Straw, who was then justice secretary.
Michael Biggs said then that his father had expressed regret for the robbery, but did not regret "living the life he had."
Britain's Telegraph newspaper, in its obituary, makes the point that while Biggs won notoriety for the heist and his subsequent life on the run, "people tended to forget that he had seriously wounded the train-driver, Jack Mills, who died six years later having never recovered his health."
Biggs' death coincides with the release in the United Kingdom of a two-part BBC series about the 1963 train robbery that made him famous.
A Twitter account that publicizes Biggs' books, @RonnieBiggsNews, said Wednesday: "Sadly we lost Ron during the night. As always, his timing was perfect to the end. Keep him and his family in your thoughts."