Ronnie Biggs on the day the Express paid him a fortune…and referred to as cops

Great prepare robber Ronnie Biggs was stress-free in his trunks and pondering of the £35,000 payment a newspaper interview had simply netted him, when he heard the knock on the door he had been dreading for almost a decade.

Biggs immediately recognised the tall man who entered room 909 of the Trocadero Hotel on Copacabana beachfront as “Old Bill” from London and swore.

On his thirty fourth birthday, within the early hours of August 8, 1963, Biggs was a part of a 16-strong gang which boarded and robbed an in a single day prepare in Buckinghamshire which was carrying sacks full of money from Glasgow to London.

The brazen heist netted greater than £2.6million (£50million as we speak).

Twelve of the lads, together with Ronnie, had been caught following a significant manhunt.

In 1964 Biggs was jailed for 30 years, however in July 1965, after simply 15 months inside Wandsworth Prison, he escaped.

He travelled to Paris the place he had a facelift in a bid to disguise himself – and was joined by spouse Charmian.

They moved to Australia and had their third son Farley in April 1967.

In 1970 Biggs selected to maneuver alone to Brazil below the identify of Michael Haynes.

He loved his time on the run with a string of girlfriends, however after three years he heard that dreaded knock on the door.

Biggs mentioned: “I was sitting on the floor still wearing swimming trunks and, regardless of what has been written or reported in the past, I simply said, ‘Oh, f***!’

“To give him his full title, it was Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Slipper, head of Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad, who had stalked into the room.

“‘Long time, no see’, he said. ‘I think you know who I am? I certainly know who you are and I’m arresting you. Where are your clothes?’”

The late criminal’s description of his arrest whereas on the run in Brazil options in a brand new posthumous autobiography to be printed on the sixtieth anniversary of the Great Train Robbery on Tuesday.

It guarantees extraordinary new particulars about his time on the run.

The ‘‘autobiography” has been written by his pal Christopher Pickard, 10 years after his death on December 18, 2013.

Mr Pickard helped Biggs write his first autobiography Ronnie Biggs: Odd Man Out, The Last Straw, in 2011, but said: “Ron asked me to complete his story once he had left us stage left.”

Before Mr Slipper’s sudden knock on the door, Biggs had been posing in his trunks with Brazilian girlfriend Raimunda Nascimento de Castro for Daily Express photographer Bill Lovelace.

The similar morning she had additionally informed Biggs she could be pregnant with what can be his fourth baby. It was the third day Biggs had spent with Mr Lovelace and reporter Colin Mackenzie, whom the paper had flown out for the news of the last decade after monitoring him down.

On January 30, 1974, Biggs and Mr Mackenzie had mentioned how a lot the robber can be paid for the unique.

Biggs mentioned: “I asked Mackenzie how much I was being offered for my story.

“‘How much do you want?’ he asked.

“‘£50,000’, I suggested.

“‘My office has only authorised me to go as high as £35,000’, Mackenzie said, looking me straight in the eye. I reached out to shake hands with the representative of the Daily Express.” The payment would have been greater than £300,000 in as we speak’s cash.

Biggs mentioned that as a part of the settlement he would return with the Express reporter to the UK to finish his sentence.

However, behind the scenes Daily Express editor Brian Hitchen had tipped off Scotland Yard and knew Slipper can be making his unannounced go to to deliver Biggs again. Biggs informed how as soon as Slipper arrived, he was resigned to the actual fact he was on his approach residence.

However, it was not as easy to return Biggs as Slipper had hoped as there was no British extradition treaty with Brazil and the nation itself was involved about his conduct of creating an arrest in its jurisdiction. Biggs revealed: “I was still unaware of the Daily Express’s double cross, believing that Mackenzie and Lovelace had been followed to Brazil.

“Mackenzie swore later that he had no idea that his superiors at the Daily Express had contacted the Yard.

“However, according to Slipper in his biography, Slipper of the Yard, the Express had tipped off the Yard from the word go, but did not tell Mackenzie at first.

“But Slipper did meet with Mackenzie in London prior to the trip along with Hitchen and the Express legal adviser.

“Mackenzie subsequently told Slipper that he planned to tip me off about the Yard, but he expected Slipper to turn up on the Sunday and not the Friday.”

Slipper in the end flew again with out Biggs with an notorious picture of him subsequent to an empty seat which was used within the Daily Express.

As Raimunda was pregnant with Biggs’s fourth baby Michael, who was born later in 1974, Brazil wouldn’t extradite him as a result of she was Brazilian.

Biggs remained there one other 27 years till he lastly got here again to the UK aged 71 in May 2001, and was instantly arrested and despatched to Belmarsh Prison.

While in jail in July 2002, he married Raimunda.

He was launched two days earlier than his eightieth birthday on the grounds of sick well being, and died 4 years later.

Mr Pickard signed off the autobiography: “The funeral made front page news in the UK, Brazil and around the world.

“Like it or not Ronald Arthur Biggs was and remains a global punk and pop icon… love him or hate him, you could not ignore Ronnie Biggs.”

• The Great Train Robber: My Autobiography by Chris Pickard (John Blake Publishing Ltd, £9.99) is accessible to order from Express Bookshop from Tuesday. To order a duplicate for £9.99 go to expressbookshop.com or name Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on on-line orders over £25