24/3/81: Ronnie Biggs rescued after kidnap

On Tuesday 24 March 1981 Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was rescued by Barbados police following his kidnapping. The 52-year-old, on the run from UK police, was found on a yacht which had broken down seven miles from the coast of Barbados.

Biggs was taken from a bar in Rio de Janeiro on 18 March where he was due to meet some new friends. The men turned up and bundled Biggs into a waiting car. From there it is believed they took him by plane to the coast where they boarded a yacht bound for Barbados. The kidnap was thought to be an attempt to get Mr Biggs extradited to serve the rest of his sentence in the UK.

Biggs had been on the run since 1965 when he escaped form Wandsworth Prison in the UK, where he was serving a thirty year sentence after The Great Train Robbery of 1963.

source and pic.: art-sheep.com