Train Robber Released to Die

$50 Million Stolen in Heist of The Century

It was in August, 1963, that Ronnie Biggs and a gang of thieves held up and robbed a Glasgow to London mail train of 2.6 million pounds - the equivalent of more than $50 million today. The bedridden 80-year-old robber was released from prison yesterday, sent home to die. He is being fed through a tube.Over the years Biggs had several strokes and a broken hip.

Dubbed the "heist of the century," the gang was hunted down and arrested. Biggs was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but climbed over a wall and escaped two years later. He fled to Brazil. In 2001, he returned to Britain and surrendered to police. This time, he was locked up in Belmarsh, a high security prison in london.

Last month, after serving ten years of his sentence, he came up for parole. Britain's Justice Secretary Jack Straw overruled the Parole Board's recommendation that Biggs be released stating that he had shown no remorse for his crime.

Yesterday Straw said he had released Biggs on compassionate grounds, after he fell seriously ill during the week.