Crime: Biggs Bagged

"It's a crying shame "

Nearly two decades after he and some chums relieved the Glasgow-to-London mail train of $7.3 million in 1963, Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs, 51, left his Rio de Janeiro beach-front apartment for a local barbecue-and-beer hall. Before he had time to finish his first drink, two men wrestled him out the front door and into the back of a waiting Volkswagen bus. It took less than a minute.

In the back of the van, Biggs was drugged, thrown into a canvas sack and driven to Rio's Santos Dumont Airport, where he was dumped into the luggage compartment of a rented Learjet. He was then flown 1,529 miles to the northeastern Brazilian city of Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon, and hustled aboard the How Can I II, a luxury yacht chartered in Antigua two weeks earlier. His abductors ordered the two-man charter crew to set a course back toward the Caribbean.

The four-day voyage ended unexpectedly when the yacht developed engine trouble southeast of Barbados. Escorted into Bridgetown harbor by the Barbados coast guard, the still-groggy Biggs and his mysterious abductors were transferred to a Bridgetown prison for questioning, leaving Barbados officials to puzzle over their bizarre story. The unscheduled stop meant big problems for Biggs: once out of extradition-proof Brazil, the self-confessed thief faced for the first time since he escaped from London's Wandsworth Prison in 1965 the prospect of being haled back to Britain and up to 30 years in jail.

The kidnapers were identified as agents of a new British firm called Single Point Security Ltd., then released on the grounds that no immigration laws were violated. They were hired by John Miller, a British ne'er-do-well and hanger-on at the fringes of London's upper crust. Miller claimed he had been paid nearly $70,000 by an unknown benefactor for advance rights to the story and film rights of Biggs' capture. Explained Miller: "I have no personal vindictiveness against Biggs. I guess he robbed his train for the same reason we're doing this — for money."

Though Biggs has been one of Britain's most wanted men for 16 years, most Britons are scandalized that he may be forced to come home so ignominiously. Said Buster Edwards, 50, a Biggs accomplice who served nine years for the famous heist before being paroled: "It's a crying shame. The people who snatched Ronnie are nothing short of animals. I'm sick about it all." Who says there is no honor among thieves? ∎