Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs has died.

[paul1977]

Rip mate...!!!

[KIRK AND CO]

He was a minor player in the raid, and looked down on by the real criminals in the gang, as he had only been brought in as he could drive a train (which had to be moved a short distance from the hijacking site to Bridego Bridge where the money could be unloaded). Another gang member was recruited after boasting he could change train signals - only to reveal his 'skill' was clambering onto the overhead gantry and holding a coloured filter in front of the signal...

 

A fascinating tale all the same. When I lived in Melbourne I always wanted to visit the Doncaster house where Biggs lived incognito with his family for quite a while. I believe his son (or was it stepson) was killed at a fairly young age in a carcrash at an intersection on what is now the Eastlink.

He knew someone who could drive a train, he did not drive the train.

[simmo]

Criminals need locking up, not glorifying at whatever level he was as a criminal.

FFS get out from up your ar2e

[Peccavi]

I have far more concern for the life of the train driver who had the quality of his life shattered and died early.

 

I have absolutely no interest in this man's death, minor or major player. He led a life of deceit, and was arrogant and boastful when he lived in South America.

The ailing old man then returns home to sympathy and understanding.

 

Biggs was a gutless coward.

[carlhall]

I have far more concern for the life of the train driver who had the quality of his life shattered and died early.

 

I have absolutely no interest in this man's death, minor or major player. He led a life of deceit, and was arrogant and boastful when he lived in South America.

The ailing old man then returns home to sympathy and understanding.

 

Biggs was a gutless coward.

 

Thank you, I was getting confused i thought everyone was talking about some type of hero. Not a two bit petty criminal who happened to take a very small part in a train robbery and was partially responsible for the poor quality of life and early death of the train driver. I wonder if these people who feel he is some kind of working class hero would feel the same if it had been their relative who died following the train robbery. The only reason no one was charged with murder was because it took more than a year and a day for the train driver to die from his injuries....

[Rupert]

Thank you, I was getting confused i thought everyone was talking about some type of hero. Not a two bit petty criminal who happened to take a very small part in a train robbery and was partially responsible for the poor quality of life and early death of the train driver. I wonder if these people who feel he is some kind of working class hero would feel the same if it had been their relative who died following the train robbery. The only reason no one was charged with murder was because it took more than a year and a day for the train driver to die from his injuries....

 

Further, I think it is a bit of an insult to the working classes to assume that there is this hero worship of thieves and other criminals. My background is working class, my father a manual worker and he had some troubled times in the early 80's, but never did he resort to crime and he taught his children right from wrong.

[Xenon4017]

I wonder if these people who feel he is some kind of working class hero would feel the same if it had been their relative who died following the train robbery. The only reason no one was charged with murder was because it took more than a year and a day for the train driver to die from his injuries....

 

I'm not sure it was conclusively proved that the injury led to his death. Either way, he received the injury because he stood up to a gang of armed and violent villains with little hope of assistance from outside. If you're looking for a hero in the tale, you could start there.

[Guest Guest66881]

FFS get out from up your ar2e

 

Personal attacks seem to be your 'thing', don't see you shooting anyone else against your beliefs?

He was a small time crook with no backbone for anything.

[Guest Guest66881]

I guess crime does pay?

http://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/20389591/ronnie-biggs-former-wife-charmian-tells-of-life-with-and-without-him/

[flag of convenience]

Personal attacks seem to be your 'thing', don't see you shooting anyone else against your beliefs?

He was a small time crook with no backbone for anything.

 

I'd say he had backbone. He reinvented himself in Brazil which can't have been easy. He didn't personally hurt anyone from my recollection of events that I have read. He was a bit of an Anti Hero. A term sadly found in use today.

[flag of convenience]

I guess crime does pay?

http://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/20389591/ronnie-biggs-former-wife-charmian-tells-of-life-with-and-without-him/

 

They still had to work in OZ. He as a carpenter and she in a biscuit factory. Hardly rich on criminal proceedings. Tabloid press of course will pay for a story. Perhaps they were criminal paying out the money.

Still when you witness what the chinless wonders in the corporate world get away with in recent times, practically bringing a entire national economy down the old crooks don't sound too bad.

[Guest Guest66881]

Backbone in this case no matter how small his part for me means him having done the crime now do the time.

Anyone banging on about how he's some sort of 'hero' is ridiculous, so all bank robbers and petty crims are now held in 'hero' status, this just harps back to the 60's and the glorification of a crime that rocked the world back then.

[Parley]

Does anyone know what address he lived at in Blackburn North in Melbourne ?

[Rupert]

They still had to work in OZ. He as a carpenter and she in a biscuit factory. Hardly rich on criminal proceedings. Tabloid press of course will pay for a story. Perhaps they were criminal paying out the money.

Still when you witness what the chinless wonders in the corporate world get away with in recent times, practically bringing a entire national economy down the old crooks don't sound too bad.

 

Should nobody be held responsible for any crime again because of "greedy bankers" and "chinless wonders in the corporate world". Such a tedious and frankly ludicrous argument. What crimes exactly you think corporate bods have committed? And was it all of them? Perhaps you could lodge a police report if you believe a crime has been committed.

[flag of convenience]

Backbone in this case no matter how small his part for me means him having done the crime now do the time.

Anyone banging on about how he's some sort of 'hero' is ridiculous, so all bank robbers and petty crims are now held in 'hero' status, this just harps back to the 60's and the glorification of a crime that rocked the world back then.

 

Petty suggests a rather lot. The status was put on him by others not himself who made do the best he could.

[Parley]

He did serve a fair stretch in prison. On his return he was sent back inside for about 8 years and then released on compassionate grounds due to his ill health.

[flag of convenience]

Should nobody be held responsible for any crime again because of "greedy bankers" and "chinless wonders in the corporate world". Such a tedious and frankly ludicrous argument. What crimes exactly you think corporate bods have committed? And was it all of them? Perhaps you could lodge a police report if you believe a crime has been committed.

 

Actually a few are behind bars in USA. All too few sadly. Are you serious what crimes have been committed? While you find blame on the bankers tedious and stick up for them, I equally find the excessive commentary on Biggsy quite frankly just as ludicrous. I'd say he paid many times over for the crime committed.

[flag of convenience]

He did serve a fair stretch in prison. On his return he was sent back inside for about 8 years and then released on compassionate grounds due to his ill health.

 

He lived in hard times for a considerable period in Brazil and served time in UK prison as a sick and rather broken man. He paid more than enough for past misdeeds. I do find the vengeance of the whip him to an inch of his life brigade on here rather distasteful.

[flag of convenience]

Further, I think it is a bit of an insult to the working classes to assume that there is this hero worship of thieves and other criminals. My background is working class, my father a manual worker and he had some troubled times in the early 80's, but never did he resort to crime and he taught his children right from wrong.

 

An example of working class ability to reinvent and survive. Far from an insult and as such an Anti Hero of sorts.

[akiralx]

Should nobody be held responsible for any crime again because of "greedy bankers" and "chinless wonders in the corporate world". Such a tedious and frankly ludicrous argument. What crimes exactly you think corporate bods have committed?

 

Well, in the case of JP Morgan: Bank Secrecy Act violations; money laundering for drug cartels; violations of sanction orders against Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor; executing fictitious trades where the customer ... was on both sides of the deal; misrepresentations of CDOs and mortgage-backed securities; violations of the Service members Civil Relief Act; fraudulent sale of unregistered securities; auto-finance deceptions; violations of state and federal ERISA laws; filing of unverified affidavits for credit card debt collections; "artificial market making" at Japanese affiliates; shifting trading losses on a currency trade to a customer account; fraudulent sales of derivatives to the city of Milan, Italy; and obstruction of justice (including refusing the release of documents in the Bernie Madoff case). All fully documented. The authorities just prefer to levy billions in fines, for some reason.

 

An outside observer might be forgiven for thinking the company isn't so much a bank as a criminal enterprise with a bank attached to it...

[simmo]

Backbone in this case no matter how small his part for me means him having done the crime now do the time.

Anyone banging on about how he's some sort of 'hero' is ridiculous, so all bank robbers and petty crims are now held in 'hero' status, this just harps back to the 60's and the glorification of a crime that rocked the world back then.

 

I don't think you know much about the case or the man.

The judgmental holier than thou attitude of some people on here makes me nauseous!:arghh:

[mr luvpants]

I have far more concern for the life of the train driver who had the quality of his life shattered and died early.

 

I have absolutely no interest in this man's death, minor or major player. He led a life of deceit, and was arrogant and boastful when he lived in South America.

The ailing old man then returns home to sympathy and understanding.

 

Biggs was a gutless coward.

 

 

 

Superbly said. I could not put it better myself. How many on here can name the man that was battered?????

[Parley]

Was it Jack Mills ?

 

And it wasn't Ronnie who bashed him.

[Peach]

He is still an Australian folk hero and biggs is a british folk hero.

 

I'll concede that, in the same way as the Jack and the Yorkshire ripper or Myra Hindley :jimlad:

[simmo]

Superbly said. I could not put it better myself. How many on here can name the man that was battered?????

 

Biggs didn't "batter" anyone. He was a small player that made a mistake and paid dearly, he was sentenced to 30 years!! he served 9 years and lost his liberty , he wasn't exceptionally intelligent and was led on by the media who created the myth. It seems that many where sucked in by it all.