Ronnie Biggs has passed away...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25426914

 

The bloke dodged the a legal system for many many years and lived his life as a "pop star crook".

It's a shame he's passed away, but from what I have recently seen via the media, he didn't have much of a life for the last few years after suffering from a few strokes.

 

Its unfortunate and sad for the loved ones when somebody passes away but this man lived a celebrity life style as a result of a violent crime. He didn't deserver to be regarded as some kind of folk hero and I imagine now he has passed away he will attain some kind of legend status with some. On the way to work this morning the hour in the car listening to radio five was dominated by this news and I am uncomfortable with him getting this kind of status.

 

He hasn't "passed away". He's finally kicked the slop out bucket.

And not before time. Nasty piece of work.

 

Not interested. A violent criminal, let Phil Collins pay 'tribute' or Cook and Jones. Like John Lydon (who refused to join in) said of the train driver - that could have been my Dad, or your Dad. It doesn't have the historical significance of the Krays passing, so just let him go. Good riddance.

 

It' bonkers how infamous Ronnie Biggs became. His role in the Great Train Robbery: finding someone to drive the train. Could the person he found drive the train? No.

And that was it really. A 30 year gaol sentence, an escape, an international search, asylum in Brazil, punk rock songs about him, probably the most notorious criminal we've ever produced and all he did was fail to find someone who could drive a train.

He nicked a car when he was young, was sent down for a bit, but when released trained as a carpenter and settled down with a family. Asked a bloke who he was in prison with for a loan, was told if you can find a train driver you'll get a cut of a job we're doing and in failing to do that became a criminal mastermind.

 

I was just about to say something similar. Biggs was no angel, but at best he was an incompetent petty thief. When the train driver was clobbered Biggs wasn't even still at the scene, as he'd been sent away with his non-train driving friend, after he'd b*ggered up his one role in the robbery. He's only famous because of the escape and lording it up.

Furthermore, the train driver got a few bruises and that is about it as far as the physical injury goes. The main affects sound like what we'd now call PTSD. I'm not making light of what he went through, because nobody deserves to go through what he did and PTSD can be awful (my poor mum is having to give statements again in the Hillsborough enquiry, as she was one of the St John Ambulance people on duty that day, so I am seeing the affects it can have), but he wasn't left brain damaged as some would suggest. He was pensioned off and had a new house bought for him after a newspaper raised the money. He died a few years later, but of leukaemia, so the attack had nothing to do with it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of Ronnie Biggs and I detest the celebrity criminal culture, where football hooligans and drug dealers make millions out of exagerrating their life in autobiographies, but as I read elsewhere this morning, blaming him for the unplanned attack on the train driver is like blaming Dennis Irwin for Cantona's drop kick on the Palace oik. Interesting that Biggs only decided to man up and face the music when his money ran out and he couldn't afford the medical care in Brazil, yet i would imagine that his biggest fans are the type of people who complain about immigrants coming here to milk the system!

 

I was just going by comments I have read that his doctors made. His life was f*cked up, I'm not doubting that, as I said, but it was the psychological after affects, rather than physical, that cause the problems.

Look, the train driver was the victim of a violent and traumatic crime and I have every sympathy, Biggs was a criminal and I have no sympathy, all I am saying is lets dislike Biggs for what he did and not what some wrongly think he did.

 

OK Gordon...I accept that...it was the choice of words ''a few bruises'' that seemed to trivialise his injuries.

 

You`ve just pressed the QI alarm button there.

 

pmsl.

Something pithy and very intelligent from Stephen Fry, and oh dear, Alan Davies has -278 points again.