Post Updated 29th of April …. based on his imminent release.

He robbed a mail train carrying 2.6 million pounds back in 1963, he broke out of prison in 1965 by scaling the wall with a rope ladder, and he has been famous ever since. I’d read the story and i’d seen the movie so the opportunity to meet the man in person, drink a few beers, and get a few souvenirs signed back in January 2000 was too good to pass up.

A group of us went to Rio De Janeiro for about 6 back in December 1999 to see in the Millennium, that’s a whole other story but rest assured partying on Copacabana beach at the turn of the century was a pretty memorable experience, too much to write in the post.

The guys that went had a pretty loose schedule in South America. Arrive on the 26th of December and leave sometime in February, with only 1 “must do” while we were there, and that was meet up with Ronnie Biggs.

Some preliminary work got us in touch with his son Michael who said it shouldn’t be a problem, we got the address and had penciled in a date that we had to confirm closer to the time.

Unfortunately Ronnie was pretty sick, having just a few months before had his second stroke, he was still keen to host a few Australians at his house for a few afternoon beers while he told us a few stories.

The beers flowed and the stories were told, Ronnie’s sense of humour was much sharper than his appearance at times, his son Michael was a true champion and gave us the heads up on other places in and around South America that he new we’d like, looking back it was brilliant advice that he gave us.

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