It's a Brit/OZ thing. He made the news by bucking the trend. Pommie convicts used to be sent here in chains to try and escape back to the UK. He escaped from the UK and fled here. Then, just to be the colonial PIAs the Poms always thought we were, we let him escape again to Brazil.
Coppers spent their entire careers devoted to getting Ronnie. And failed. Just to salt the wound, when he got sick and old, after 40+ years 'on the run', he voluntarily returned to Blighty and they had to look the arseholes then for arresting the pathetic old buggar when he got off the plane. Last I'd heard he was pardoned on his deathbed years ago. Obviously the report was exaggerated, as usual. Must have been in the Telegraph.
He was a basically low level crook who lived an extraordinary life in the spotlight. He reads like a Bourne novel.
One of the "Great Train Robbers", although a small player in the gang. He even had plastic surgery to change his appearance, made 2 escapes, to Melbourne and then Brazil where things really got interesting, Brazilian girlfriend, the love child which allowed him to remain there, the public and much reported (through 'exclusives' sold to the mags) divorce from the wife who let him go so he could stay out of jail, (how romantic) it's all there, a page turner.
Although there was a fatality during, or soon after the robbery, Ronnie didn't do that and the real crime the cops wanted him for was making them look silly. One of the last pictures of him was this very frail old skeletal Ronnie, flicking the bird at the camera from his wheelchair. A fascinating story that's been unfolding for most of our adult lives out here, someone who's kept us vaguely amused for decades. Book closed.
Although as a postscript, there was one (hopefully) last interview with his ex wife aired last night. They were shameless media junkies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Biggs
