Biggs plans special carnival

Press, 13 April 1985, Page 11

Biggs plans special carnival

By

MICHAEL IMESON

of

" the Pre ss Association Rio de Janeiro The great train robber, Ronnie Biggs, is planning lus own Brazilian carnival on Joly 9 - to mark *he twentieth anniversary of his spectacular escape from London’s Wandsworth prison. At his night club disco in Rio de Janeiro the man whose notoriety just will not die issued this invitation: “It will be one hell of a party. I would love to see all my friends from the old days. Everyone is welcome.” Biggs is aiming for a twoday party with 200 guests and two former wives — Charmain who joined him in Australia after his escape from prison, and Raimunda, the Brazilian who is the mother of his son Michael, aged 10. Both marriages ended in divorce. Michael is the reason why Biggs can live what most people would regard as the “good life” in the sunshine. Copacabana beach is a stone’s throw from his Crepuscolo de Cubatao night club, and he has a flat in a smart suburb complete with marble floors and a bathroom jacuzzi — “when it works.”

Rr^n: the fa *her of a ?Sfe hUdhec^otbe a s&sflia.sjfi •J* M« Sm Xs th? ra2i1 ’ a where m Dagenham.” grevgghAsr°Wsl’Withsilvergrey hair and a healthv tropical suntan, revels in near the slogan, “I kn nw owenttoB ™ honest* Ronnie Biggs - for ßi U S ? aS be€n “ Braz « thlrl 4 r yea l’ after neei ng there from Australia where ?he !£t pe V eusg caDght “ b y me skid of my teeth” nf He serv ed just 15 months of a 30-year sentence for his mail tram robbery in 1963, and escaped over the prison wall into a waiting furniture van. Now he says, he is P a £t °f the Rio scene. But the memory of the kidna P attempt in 1981 when he was delivered to the authorities in Barbados — but later released and returned to Brazil — is still obviously haunting. Biggs’ Brazilian chauffeur, Paulo, is also his unofficial bodyguard as well as the

man wno looks after Michael.

Paulo is a big man and Biggs thinks he is a bargain at £lOO ($257) a month. The fugitive from British justice does not choose to dwell on what he misses from England. “The beer here is good, but I do sometimes think of English roast beef,” he says.

He wondered what Buster Edwards — another member of the great train robbery gang who now sells flowers outside London’s Waterloo station — would say, if he said he missed the smell of honeysuckle. In fact, Mr Edwards is magnanimous towards Biggs. “Perhaps he does miss the honeysuckle. But there must be plenty of tropical flowers out there,” he said.

Mr Edwards is not going to make the Rio trip for the big July celebration. “I think I’ll give that a miss,” he said.

Meanwhile, Biggs has truly caught the spirit of his life’s situation. As I got into a cab outside the night club in the early hours of the morning he warned: “Take care on the streets and wind the window up. Rio is full of thieves!”