(18 Dec 2013) Friends and neighbours of Britain's best-known fugitive Ronnie Biggs spoke to the Associated Press on Wednesday following his death in Brazil at the age of 84.
Biggs was part of a gang of at least 12 men that robbed a Glasgow-to-London Royal Mail train in the early hours of August 8, 1963, switching its signals and tricking the driver into stopping in the darkness.
The robbery netted 125 sacks of banknotes worth 2.6 (m) million pounds - 7.3 (m) million US dollars at the time, or more than 50 (m) million US dollars today - and became known as "the heist of the century."
Biggs was soon caught and jailed - but his escape from a London prison and decades on the run turned him into a media sensation and something of a notorious British folk hero.
He lived for many years beyond the reach of British justice in Rio de Janeiro, where he would regale tourists and the media alike with stories about the robbery.
Maria do Ceu Narciso Esteves, who owns a store in the Santa Teresa neighbourhood which Biggs frequented for decades, said her husband used to chat to Biggs.
She said he asked, "What have you done with all that money that you stole?" and that Biggs answered, "No...I didn't steal much. It was something, but not much".
Ricardo Esteves, her son, called Biggs a "big friend, sincere, honest, honest, pretty honest".
"When he said he would pay he always kept his promise," he added.
Biggs spent more than 30 years in Brazil, making a living from his notoriety.
He appeared to enjoy thumbing his nose at the British authorities and even sold T-shirts and other memorabilia about his role in the robbery.
He also foiled repeated attempts to force him out of Brazil by deportation, extradition and even kidnapping.
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