Editing Great Train Robbery (1963) (section)

==Prison escapes==
On 12 August 1964, Wilson escaped from [[Birmingham (HM Prison)|Winson Green Prison]] in Birmingham in under three minutes, the escape being considered unprecedented in that a three-man team had broken into the prison to extricate him. His escape team was never caught and the leader, nicknamed "Frenchy", had disappeared from the London criminal scene by the late 1960s. Two weeks after his escape Wilson was in Paris for plastic surgery. By November 1965, Wilson was in [[Mexico City]] visiting old friends Bruce Reynolds and Buster Edwards.<ref>"Killing Charlie" by Wensley Clarkson, with Part 2: Inside and Outside providing details of Wilson's escape from prison.</ref> Wilson's escape was yet another dramatic twist in the train robbery saga.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/12/newsid_2996000/2996402.stm |title=Great Train Robber Escapes from Jail |publisher=BBC |quote=A massive manhunt is underway across Britain after one of the so-called Great Train Robbers escaped from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham. Charlie Wilson, 32, was apparently freed by a gang of three men who broke into the jail in the early hours of the morning |access-date=12 August 2007 |date=12 August 1964 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309105148/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/12/newsid_2996000/2996402.stm |archive-date=9 March 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Eleven months after Wilson's escape, in July 1965, Biggs escaped from [[Wandsworth Prison]], 15 months into his sentence. A furniture van was parked alongside the prison walls and a ladder was dropped over the 30-foot-high wall into the prison during outside exercise time, allowing four prisoners to escape, including Biggs. The escape was planned by recently released prisoner Paul Seaborne, with the assistance of two other ex-convicts, Ronnie Leslie and Ronnie Black, with support from Biggs's wife, Charmian. The plot saw two other prisoners interfere with the warders, and allow Biggs and friend Eric Flower to escape. Seaborne was later caught by Butler and sentenced to four-and-a-half years; Ronnie Leslie received three years for being the getaway driver. The two other prisoners who took advantage of the Biggs escape were captured after three months. Biggs and Flower paid a significant sum of money to be smuggled to Paris for plastic surgery. Biggs said he had to escape because of the length of the sentence and what he alleged to be the severity of the prison conditions.<ref>"Odd Man Out" (1994) by Ronald Biggs. Chapter 5 describes the Biggs escape from Wandsworth Prison to Paris</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2020}}{{primary source inline|date=August 2020}}{{unreliable source?|date=August 2020}}