This Article is From Feb 28, 2013

Great Train Robber dies at 81

Great Train Robber dies at 81

File picture of Bruce Reynolds

London: Bruce Reynolds, the mastermind of a British heist known as the "Great Train Robbery," has died aged 81.

Son Nick Reynolds said his father died on Thursday after a brief illness.

Reynolds was part of a gang that stole 2.6 million pounds from a Glasgow-to-London mail train in 1963 - worth more than 40 million pounds ($60 million) today, and then Britain's biggest robbery.

Reynolds evaded capture for five years but was arrested in 1968, and sentenced to 25 years in jail. He was released a decade later and produced occasional journalism and well-regarded memoirs.

Most of the other gang members also were soon rounded up.

One, Ronnie Biggs, escaped from prison in 1965, and spent decades as a fugitive in Brazil before returning to Britain in 2001.

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