From The Observer
The lost world of Scotland Yard detectives with cropped moustaches and Fleet Street writers with extravagant expenses still flourished in 1974, when Colin MacKenzie of the Express brought in the best and by my reckoning last scoop in the paper’s history.
He had found Ronnie Biggs. The great train robber, who had escaped from Wandsworth prison in 1965, was living under an assumed name in Brazil. Then as now, newspapers had to respect the law – not obsessively comply with its every detail, you understand, but occasionally acknowledge its existence. The Express cut a deal with the Yard. They would interview Biggs, and then Superintendent Jack Slipper could burst in and arrest him.
Unfortunately, the Brazilian authorities did not take well to gringo coppers giving orders in Rio de Janeiro as if it were a British colony. Because Biggs had got a local girl pregnant, they decided that as the father of a future Brazilian citizen, he could not be extradited.
Go read the whole thing
Nick Cohen
