A bit of my background. In 1964 I graduated from Oriel College, Oxford, and landed a trial on The Daily Express (the top selling middle market paper of the day). Having been turned down by fifteen provincial papers this was my last attempt at securing work as a journalist. Cut to ten years later and I had the scoop of the decade. I found Ronnie Biggs in Brazil – published in ‘The Daily Express‘ newspaper – and told his story in a best selling book: Ronnie Biggs THE MOST WANTED MAN which was translated into ten languages.
Ronnie Biggs, the Great Train Robber who escaped from Wandsworth prison in July 1965, came into my life courtesy of my neighbour Constantine Benckendorff. He had been back packing round South America in 1973 when he chanced upon a man calling himself Michael Haynes. This was the identity Biggs “borrowed” from a friend when he eluded the Australian police four years earlier. By now he was running out of money and ideas. It was stressful not having legal papers. So he asked Conti to find a journalist willing to do his story. It is bingo for me. Until it nearly went wrong – thanks to Daily ExpressEditor Iain McColl and Scotland Yard.
Following my retirement I evolved into a documentary film maker, utilising tapes from my Biggs enterprise to make RONNIE BIGGS THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBER (Channel 5)
Colin Mackenzie on BBC’s The One show.
This below video is me at 40.44 on a BBC documentary talking about Biggs https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b036tln3
Listen to me on Dan Snow’s History Hit: “The Great Train Robbery”.
