MacKenzie already had his doubts about the Express’s ability to keep the news of Biggs’ whereabouts secret. When Benckendorff told MacKenzie about Biggs’ proposition, he couldn’t believe his luck.”There were only two other stories at the time that compared,” recalls MacKenzie, now the senior racing correspondent on the Daily Mail. “Getting an interview with Howard Hughes or Martin Boorman, and the Express had just got its fingers badly burned on Boorman.”Unfortunately, MacKenzie did not realise at the time just how badly. Unfortunately, the only journalist Benckendorff knew was MacKenzie, a former diary writer on the William Hickey column and Express foreign correspondent.

Not to be outdone, ITN sent in its roving foreign correspondent, Michael Brunson.It could all have been so different. When Biggs first confided in Count Benckendorff his plan had been for the count to approach any paper but the Express, which Biggs saw had done a “hatchet job” on his fellow Great Train Robber, Charlie Wilson, and wasn’t to be trusted. To add to the confusion, the BBC ordered its Washington correspondent, John Humphrys, to the scene and a young reporter, Martin Bell. David English, then editor of the Daily Mail, retaliated by sending his veteran New York correspondent Dermot Purgavie and photographer Mike Brennan, followed by Anthea Disney. Without telling MacKenzie, Brian Hitchen had dispatched the Express’s assistant editor Brian Vine to Rio to help write the memorable splash, “Train Robber Biggs Captured In Rio.. Our Men Are There”, followed by several reinforcements. If I don’t get extradited I will fight expulsion.”It hadn’t just turned sour, it was a mess.

By now Biggs was being pursued not just by MacKenzie but by the whole of Fleet Street and the Australian press too. And organ’s the right word.”By now Biggs was in the custody of the Brazilian federal police, not Scotland Yard as the Express had planned, and his girlfriend, Raimundo, was insisting he couldn’t leave because she was about to bear his child As Biggs said at the time: “I wanted to give myself up That is why I contacted Mr MacKenzie, but it turned sour Now Brazil has taken over. When Colin MacKenzie and Express photographer Bill Lovelace caught up with Biggs in February of that year, after pursuing him from Rio to Brasilia, and challenged him to honour the deal he had struck with the Express, Biggs’ legendary response was: “You’re two nice guys but you work for a grubby organ. In 1970 he caught a liner to Brazil and has been there ever since.”I UNDERSTAND people are saying they do not want me back now because I would be a burden on the taxpayer,” said Biggs from his home in Rio on Friday “It’s laughable If I am deported I would try not to return to England. I would rather go to another country.”It’s starting to sound like 1974 again.