Biggs of Great Train Robbery hospitalized

NORWICH, England, July 28 (UPI) -- Ronnie Biggs, who spent 30 years on the run after being convicted in Britain's Great Train Robbery, has been hospitalized with pneumonia, his son says.

While the 79-year-old Biggs has been transferred from the hospital wing at Norwich Prison to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital several times recently, his son says his condition is even worse this time, The Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

"It's the worst he's ever been," Michael Biggs said. "The doctors have just told me to rush there."

Biggs escaped from Wandsworth Prison in London 15 months after he was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the 1963 robbery of the London-to-Glasgow mail train. After living abroad for many years, mostly in Australia and Brazil, he returned to England in 2001 and was immediately arrested and imprisoned.

Home Secretary Jack Straw denied him parole earlier this month.

Relatives say Biggs is unable to walk or talk after three strokes and now cannot communicate even with an alphabet board.