London ? Ronnie Biggs, the last prisoner from Britain’s “great train robbery” and once a high-living fugitive in Rio de Janeiro, gained his freedom on Friday but remained near death in his hospital bed.

Weakened by pneumonia, unable to speak and enfeebled by a series of strokes, Biggs laboriously tapped out on a spelling board that he was “very happy” that he had been given a compassionate release from custody.

“It was very emotional when the guards left,” his son Michael said.

The change of status came a day before Biggs’ 80th birthday and the 46th anniversary of the robbery, labeled “the heist of the century.”

British officials saw Biggs as an unrepentant thief who lived it up on his share of the gang’s haul from 125 mail sacks holding 2,631,684 pounds, equivalent to at least $68 million today.

But to others he was, if not a lovable rogue, then at least someone who posed no threat to society and was unlikely to scale a 25-foot wall as he did to escape from prison in 1965.

“It would be ridiculous, even for this government, to leave an old man to die in prison. He is hardly a threat to anyone,” said Nick Bowles, 27, from south London.

“I’m sure that in five years his life will be a huge Hollywood hit,” said Julian Rache, 37, from France. “As a robber he had a beautiful story, but what a sad way to go.”

Unionized train drivers, mindful that railwayman Jack Mills never fully recovered from being bashed on the head with an iron bar, thought Biggs should die in custody.