The miraculous life of Ronnie Biggs.

Participator of the Great Train Robbery who voluntarily gave himself to British authorities in 2001 has become a national hero. The legend of his life and his “work” – avoiding to be caught – is alive even today. 

He robbed a train full of money, became a national hero, spend the best years of his life in Brazil as a free man, and received a lifetime achievement award for his services to crime! This is, in short, the miraculous life of Ronald “Ronnie” Biggs, one of the most famous thieves of all times, and participator of the Great Train Robbery that took place in England, on 8 August 1963. And that’s not all, in 2001, Biggs turned himself in to British authorities.

On his 34th birthday, along with 14 of his "colleagues", Biggs intercepted a train at Bridego Railway Bridge in Buckinghamshire. With well planned action, experienced thieves stole £ 2.6 million, which was amazingly large sum of money at the time (equivalent of around £40 million or US$67 million today).

So, what is necessary for a quality, successful and lucrative train robbery like the one Biggs and his team pulled out?  First, you need an informant, an insider so to speak, who will alarm the gang when the train is full of money. Bruce Reynolds, the man who devised the whole robbery, met with a certain Ulsterman (men whose identity was never uncovered), who gave him an information worth of gold – schedule of trains that are carrying mail and bags full of money on the line Glasgow - London. The robbers were probably expecting to find around £ 300,000 in the wagons, which was the amount of money that was averagely transferred by train. However, Biggs’ lucky star venerated him on his birthday with a much larger sum – it turned out that banks in Glasgow didn’t work for several days because of holidays, and the wagons were filled during that time with almost £ 3 million.

Around three o’clock in the morning, at a place known as 'Sears Crossing', the robbers covered the green signal light and then reconnected the wires in order to switch it to red signal light. When the train came and stopped because of the signal light, the robbers very quickly took control over it from the regular train operating staff.  The only person who got hurt in this robbery was a train driver Jack Mills, who refused to move the train some 800 meters further. After that, he accepted. In 30 minutes, the money was taken out of the train and then brotherly divided. Each robber got around £ 150.000. They managed to spend most of that money, and only around £ 400,000 was eventually recovered by the police. 

During the following months, robbers were arrested one by one – almost the entire crew. Discrete roguish hero, Ronnie Biggs, was among them.

British Justice severely punishment the robbers – they were sentenced around 30 years each. The criminal biography of each robber would probably be interesting for the story (along with three robbers that have never been arrested). But Ronnie Biggs, the man who played just supporting role in the original plan of this great robbery and was responsible to do something only if the train driver refuses to start the train, has managed to escape. 

In July of 1965, along with a group of convicts, Ronnie Biggs escaped form HM Prison Wandsworth. He escaped through the window, with the help of homemade rope ladder.  Thanks to the loot from previous robbery, he was able to pay a trip to Paris and underwent plastic surgery.

When he got his hands on false documents and a new face, Ronnie bought a plane ticket and went to Australia. With this trip, he started a journey on which many of us would envy him. His wife and two sons joined him in Melbourne. Enjoying the Australian air, Biggs expanded his family with one more child.


The police had already given up on him, but the always-curious journalists didn’t. Thus, Reuters reported that Ronnie is in Melbourne. Being aware of that, he left his wife and children, traveled by ship to Panama and then to Brazil. Scotland Yard was at his heels, but wise Ronnie took advantage of good old legal loophole - Brazil had no extradition treaty with England. 

Sweet freedom, spiced with socializing with beautiful Brazilian women, was for the first time interrupted briefly in 1974. Scotland Yard detective Jack Slipper who, like in some movie, devoted his career to hunting down Biggs, arrested him in Rio de Janeiro. Ronnie got away thanks to his womanizing skills – he was already a father to a boy that emerged from his extramarital relationship with one Brazilian dancer. Also, during his fugitive years he filed for divorce from his wife.  And Brazilians were not ready to extradite a father of Brazilian child to the British authorities. As far as the town carnivals was concerned, he was a free man.

He was in some sort of house detention, but that didn’t prevented him to organize parties where his fans were coming to listen to his anecdotes about the famous robbery. Joyful and enterprising people of Rio figured out that they could make some money on their illustrious guest, so they started making T-shirts and mugs with Ronnie’s image. 

In 1977, Ronnie almost fell into the hands of the law while sipping a drink on the British ship in the harbor of Rio.

Quiet days in Rio were once again interrupted in 1981, when Biggs was kidnapped and taken to Barbados (even in chains the old thief couldn’t avoid exotic locations). Former British soldiers who kidnapped him hoped that they would take the money from the prize that was offered by British police for Biggs’ head. But… Neither Barbados had an extradition treaty with England. They were forced to return him to Brazil, to the mother of his child, Raimunda de Castro, whom he married in 2002.

Decades went on and on, and Biggs enjoyed his life on the beaches of Atlantic. But then, at the age of 72, he decided to return to his country. On 7 May 2001, British tabloid "Sun" paid £ 20,000 for Biggs’ transport in a private plane to London, where he was supposed to pay his debt in front of justice. Of course, with that money they also obtained exclusive rights to the story.

Ooops, I almost forgot. Why did good old Ronnie surrendered himself? There is only one explanation – he squandered all the money from the robbery and he was unable to pay for his health insurance, so he figured it out that the English prison could be a solid option of a nursing home for an old thief like him.

Biggs himself, who was adorned by media for many years, said that the reason behind his decision was nostalgia.

“My last wish is to walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter.”

He spent the next eight years in prison. During that time, he persistently asked for a reduction in sentence on the basis of poor health. He was supposed to serve 28 years – that was his original sentence. But, eventually, he was locked up just 8 years. Two days before his 80th birthday, the state took pity on Ronnie, who was already a severe heart patient, and freed him. 

In 2011, tabloid newspaper "Mirror" gave him lifetime achievement award for his services to crime... They thought he had only seven days left to live. The last news about Ronnie Biggs was the release of his new and updated autobiography, "Odd Man Out: The Last Straw". The old thief is still alive...

The conclusion? When I grow up I’m gonna be Ronnie Biggs. Just an irrelevant player in a great train robbery. And then, I am heading strait to Brazil.

Biggs as a singer, author and pop icon

It is difficult to enumerate all of those who have honored Biggs. This train robber was most famous during eighties, when he was practically a pop icon. He attracted the attention of the greatest punk band of all times, "Sex Pistols". In 1980, for the film “The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle”, Biggs recorded vocals for the song "No One is Innocent" in collaboration with guitarist and drummer of already disbanded "Pistols"

A bunch of books is written regarding the character and life of this charming thief. Biggs himself wrote his biography, and his son Michael (from the relationship with the Brazilian dancer) wrote a confession of his father. Also, writer Mike Gray wrote Ronnie’s version of the Great Train Robbery. British television filmed two documentaries about Biggs, in 2003 and in 2006. It0s needless to say that most of the participants in the robbery attempted to capitalize on their fame through confessions and books.

Biggs has also collaborated with the German punk band Die Toten Hosen with whom he sang the song "Carnival in Rio".

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Doctor Esperanto - Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof

Already in the first edition of his book with instructions for learning his new language, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof renounced himself forever of all personal rights, saying that international language is a property of society.

It was a gloomy autumn day in 1888 when an unknown man knocked on a door of a humble apartment in Warsaw where certain ophthalmologist lived. The ophthalmologist immediately opened the door. He thought that he had just another patient in front of him. But then, the unknown man said to him:

-    Cu vi estas doktoro Esperanto? (Are you doctor Esperanto?)

The ophthalmologist was speechless for a few moments. He just looked at his visitor. Then excitement sparkled from his face and he approached his visitor and squeezed his hand.

-     Jes, mi estas. Bonvolu!  (Yes, I am. Please!)

Those were the first two men who exchanged a few sentences with each other on a new international language – Doctor Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof and Antoni Grabowski.

The creator of the language of hope

In the Polish city of Bialystok, on December 15, 1859, it was a joyous day in the home of Mark Zamenhof. Surrounded by friends, the happy father celebrated the birth of his firstborn.  On that day, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, saw the world for the first time.

The little boy grew up surrounded with parental love and care. From his father, an experienced educator and teacher, he inherited affection for languages that he easily learned, and from his mother he inherited sensibility and philanthropy. And his four brothers and three sisters, which were born later, were always unselfishly protected and loved by their oldest brother.

He had a gift for languages

The joy and beauty of his early school days were blurred. While attending elementary school in Bialystok, Zamenhof had to socialize and play only with Jewish children, no matter if he wanted that or not. The Polish and Russian children had their own groups, and didn’t socialize and play with anyone besides their own.

Children’s lack of understanding of other languages was a serious obstacle in their bonding. 

When he went to high school in 1869, Zamenhof already knew Polish, Russian and German language. He continued his education in Warsaw, in the classical gymnasium, where, with all his youthful vigor, he started learning Greek and Latin. Many years later, when he was creating Esperanto, Zamenhof used his knowledge of eight languages.

Even then, at a school desk, an idea kept developing in Zamenhof’s head - one language for all people, for all nations.  With much patience and will, he studied language textbooks and lexicons, and his working desk was full of books and dictionaries. Using the roots of Roman, Germanic and Slavic languages, Zamenhof was creating a new international language.

After finishing high school in 1879, Ludwig left his father’s home and went to Moscow. Before leaving, he promised his father that, at least temporarily, while studying at the university, he will put aside his work on the new language. He reluctantly parted from his notes, poems and translations.

In Moscow, Zamenhof conscientiously studied medicine. While working with his scalpel in the dissection hall, he thought about the internal mechanism of the human body. “The human beings are equal, they are creatures belonging to the same mankind. They all have a heart, a brain, generating organs, an ideal and needs, only the language and the nationality differentiate them."


After two years spent in Moscow, young Zamenhof returned to Warsaw. It is not difficult to imagine the despair of young medic when he heard that his father burned all of his workbooks and notes. But, already in August of 1881, Zamenhof had a completely new textbook and even richer dictionary of words. Locked in his room, he read aloud pages full of text he written with his new language.

The first book

After he successfully graduated medicine in Warsaw, in 1885 Zamenhof went to Vienna to acquire specialization. He returned to Warsaw as an ophthalmologist and, in 1887, he married Klara Silbernik who was for many years his faithful companion and collaborator.

Thrilled with the work of his son in law, Zamenhof’s father in law paid the printing of his first book - a new language textbook.  On June 2, 1887, it was printed in Russian language, but soon followed editions in Polish, French, German and English language. The book contained poetry and prose, 16 rules of grammar and 900 roots of vocabulary. 

Already in the first edition of his book, he renounced himself and his descendants of all personal rights, stating that "an international language, like every national one, is the property of society”. In the end, he signed himself with "Doktoro Esperanto" which, literally translated, means: Doctor Hopeful.

Zamenhof sent out all over the world a large number of copies of his book – to writers, educators and others. And that’s how the history of Esperanto began.

After a long and painful anticipation, responses from all around the world began to arrive. Questions, advices, opinions ...some were even written in Esperanto. And Grabowski was already translating the works of Goethe and Pushkin. In one Russian magazine, Tolstoy wrote: “I found the volapük very complicated and, on the contrary, very simple Esperanto. It is so easy that having received, six years ago, a grammar, a dictionary and articles of this idiom, I could arrive, at the end of two early hours, if not to write it, at least with usually reading the language. … the sacrifices which any man of our European world will make, by devoting some time to his study are so small, and the results which can result from this so immense, that one cannot refuse to carry out this test.”

Zamenhof personally responded to all letters and in that way he linked Esperantists from many different countries. The movement spread rapidly, despite the resistance of several well-known linguistic experts. And after nearly 400 failed attempts to create a common, international language, Esperanto is the only one that managed it. 

Guest at the first World Congress of Esperanto

In 1905, in company of his wife, Zamenhof visited France and the first World Congress of Esperanto. The Mayor of Paris paid him tribute and the French Minister of Public Instruction awarded him with National Order of the Legion of Honor. At the top of the Eiffel Tower, the creator of Esperanto had lunch with the most famous scientists of France.

A city of Boulogne-sur-Mer offered hospitality to all followers of previously unknown Warsaw doctor. And at every step of this little city a new language was heard. 800 Esperantist from 30 different countries eagerly expected the official opening of the congress. Noticeably excited, doctor Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof went on the podium and, in Esperanto language, began his speech with these words:

“I greet you, dear comrades, brothers and sisters from the great world human family who gather together from near and far lands from the world to shake your hands one another in the name of the great idea which links us together. Let us be fully aware of all the importance of this day, because today within the generous walls of Boulogne-sur-Mer have met not French with English, nor Russians with Polish, but people with people”.

In the following years, he visited congresses in Geneva, Cambridge, Dresden, Barcelona, Washington, Antwerp, Paris and Cracow. 11th Congress was organized in 1915, in San Francisco. Only Americans attended it because European Esperantists fought on the battlefields of World War I.

Doctor Zamenhof followed the horrors of war in Warsaw. This good man who loved people so much and wanted peace between nations, now listened about destruction and killings every day. Worn with years of work and overwhelmed with tragic events the humanity faced, his health started to deteriorate. On April 14, 1917, his heart stopped beating.

This great man, who had friends and followers in all parts of the world, was buried modestly. Only Warsaw’s Esperantists, including the loyal Antoni Grabowski, attended the funeral. Because of war, nobody else couldn’t attend.

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Lusty Ram of the Third Reich - Joseph Goebbels

Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), among the most important tasks that he performed for the Fuhrer, was constantly chasing after women. He wrote everything about it in his diary.

Sex scandals, which are surrounding Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, are probably the thing that will be most remembered in the mandate of this politician. This is also the evidence that there was always more interest in the sexual details of some politician’s life than what he did for his country when he was holding his position. This tradition is dating back to ancient Rome and it is still present today.

In many biographies of the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, it is written that he was obsessed with sex, even more then he was with planetary conquest. He even had his own team that was in charge of bringing him every day at least on beauty. However, sexual affinities and love affairs of German Nazi chiefs were never quite clear. Hitler preferred to conquer territories instead of women, and that was even confirmed by Mussolini, who, in several occasions, tried to introduce many beauties to Fuhrer. But Fuhrer was not that interested in them so Mussolini eventually gave up on such treats for him. Fuhrer's sexual power was brought into question several times and sometimes Mussolini even suspected that Hitler had affinities for perversions.

Like him, all the other Nazi heads were more described as monsters with ordinary family life then seducers with many love affairs.

However, the book “Joseph Goebbels: Biography” that was published recently uncovered unknown details regarding love life of Hitler’s closest associate. "Evil genius" who developed propaganda to perfection and dark manipulator who organized the burning of books, brutal deaths during Kristallnacht attack, and finally, deportation of millions of Jews to concentration camps and death, was described as lusty person. He even had a nickname The Ram, and, in his diary, he wrote: “Eros awoke. Sentimental period. Bombastic letters, poems. Besides which, love for mature women”.

When he was seven years old, Goebbels had an attack of osteomyelitis which resulted in having his right leg a few centimeters shorter that his left leg. This handicap isolated him from his peers. As he himself admitted, he became a bit eccentric and weird after that. 

At the same time, he was very attached to his mother, whom he described with the following words: “To her I owe everything I accomplished in life.” His mother was a role model through whom Goebbels chose friends, and even the future boss - Adolph Hitler. His attachment to his mother had influence even on his earliest love affinities.  

In accordance with the psychological profile of a person very attached to his mother, Goebbels’ earliest love life was associated with older women. The first love of Hitler's propaganda chief was a stepmother of his school friend. Her name was Theresa and Goebbels described her as a handsome woman, always wearing a freshly washed skirt. His affinity towards older women was continued with falling in love with Mrs. Lennartz, wife of the owner of the factory where his father worked. And when he became completely infatuated with the girlfriend of his older brother Hans, his father became furious.

However, those were all fantasies of platonic genre. He had his first true relationship with Lena who, after a year of a relationship, allowed him to kiss her breasts. Hitler's hellish assistant described the event in his diary: ”The first kiss on Garden Street! At night in the Kaiser Park - I kissed her breast. She experienced for the first time what it was like to be a loving woman.”

Goebbels’ love life continued during his student days in Bonn, where he became deeply in love with Anka Stalherm who was studying economy. She wasn’t physically attracted to Goebbels but he won her with his intellect and persistence – a very strong card he had when it comes to winning a heart of a woman. The young student didn’t spare ink, and he sent regularly to Anka long letters, as well as epics and dramas he wrote. He neither spared his fingers when he played organs in the cathedral for his sympathy. How deeply in love the future Hitler's propaganda chief was, shows and his trip to Munich, just to be with his love. In the center of Bavaria financial difficulties caught on him, and he was forced to pawn his suit and watch at some “cocky Jew”. He was soon faced with end of their relationship because wealthy industrialist's daughter did not like the fact that Joseph was beginning to turn to the left and writing plays about the struggle of workers. He often said about himself: "I am a German communist," and in his diary he wrote: “Anka walked out on me. And my entire relationship to women has suffered ever since.” However, he didn’t forgot her and he sent her letters even ten years after they stop seeing each other. He stopped when Anka’s husband began to threaten him. Joseph’s great love outlived him. She died of cancer in 1955.

Soon came new loves but also and growing anti-Semitism. When his teacher Else Janke revealed to him that her mother is Jewish, Goebbels lost interest in her. He wrote in his diary: “She told me her roots. Since then her charms were destroyed for me.” At the same time, his left-wing beliefs were starting to lose battle against dreams of dictatorship: "Ninety percent of people are worthless and only 10 percent are worthy. That is why those 10 percent should rule over the rest. "

When he met Hitler in 1925, he was completely mesmerized. He described the future dictator as "a man who has everything it takes to be a king." Later, Hitler awarded him with high political position.  His fascination with women continued.  From many young female members of national socialist party, he picked the most beautiful ones and took them to nightclubs and movie theaters. He also despised Hollywood movies, which he described as "Jewish kitsch."

Then, a blonde named Magda walked into Goebbels life. When she joined the national socialist party she was captivated with Hitler, but Hitler matched her with Joseph. Goebbels wrote in his diary: "Hitler loved Magda, but he left her to me. With tears in his eyes, he told me to be happy and to remain a good friend. "

Although he was infatuated with his wife, Goebbels couldn’t resist chasing other women. When he fell in love with Czech actress  Lida Baarova, because of which he wanted to divorce from his wife,  Magda asked of Hitler to help, and he resolved their  marital crisis.

Joseph and Magda had six children whose names all began with the H, because of Hitler of course. The couple Goebbels killed their children and committed suicide just after Hitler and Eva Braun did it. Later, Red Army found their bodies, burned them and thrown the ashes in to the river Elbe.

Horrified with the stories that he was gay

In spite of so many girls around him, rumors were circulating from time to time that the wicked Nazi propaganda chief was gay, and that was the reason he didn’t had a permanent partner. These rumors have horrified him. “It’s all so dirty. It must be expunged, radically and ruthlessly!” – he wrote about homosexuality when he discovered that several Nazi chiefs preferred men.

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The saddest billionaire- John Paul Getty III

He was known for his enormous wealth and inheritance, but also and for being kidnapped in Italy when he was a boy. Because of a heroin overdose when he was 25, he remained paralyzed for the rest of his life.

Most people do not understand the expression “The rich also cry”, and they are asking themselves why would the rich cry and be sad. However, in the case of billionaire John Paul Getty III (1956-2011), this expression is not far from reality. This successor of great oil empire, who died at the age of 54, had plenty of unfortunate episodes in his life. That is why now, after his death, which occurred due to failure of vital organs, he is called “the saddest billionaire”.

John Paul Getty III was also known as “Golden Hippie”. For those who knew Getty’s lifestyle this nickname is completely logical.  He spent much of his childhood in Rome, where he socialized with artists, and leftist bohemians. The Italian capital was also the place where his teenage idyll was brutally interrupted. There, when he was 16, John Paul Getty was kidnapped. His kidnappers demanded $ 17 million from his family, but Getty’s grandfather, John Paul Getty I (1892-1976), refused to pay them.

“I have 14 other grandchildren, and if I pay one penny now I’ll have 14 kidnapped grandchildren.” - said John Paul Getty I, at that time one of the richest people in the world and founder of California's famous museum that bears his name.

At the same time, his father, John Paul Getty II (1932-2003), was unable to pay that sum of money, because, at that time, he was rehabilitating from drug addiction in one rehabilitation center in London.

In the beginning, his family thought that his kidnapping was just a joke and they didn’t do anything. Four months later, a package arrived at the offices of a Rome newspaper. It contained a lock of red hair and a moldy human ear. A message that came along claimed that these belong to Getty, and threatened: "This is Paul's ear. If we don't get some money within 10 days, then the other ear will arrive. In other words, he will arrive in little bits."

The ransom was paid only after his grandfather, John Paul Getty I, managed to reduce the ransom to the figure of $ 2.8 million in cash with "bargaining". He borrowed that money to his son, Getty II, but he warned him that it was just a “loan” and that he expects his money back with 4% interest.

Soon after that, a truck driver spotted John Paul Getty III along the road, some 160 kilometers south of Naples. He spent five months in captivity. When he wanted to thank his grandfather for saving him, Getty I refused to talk to him.

John Paul Getty III was born in 1956, as the first child of John Paul Getty Jr. and actress Abigail Harris, who were already divorced when he was kidnapped. When he was 18, he married Gisela Martine Schmidt who was a photographer and an artist. In 1975, he got a son with Gisela, Balthazar Getty. He also adopted Gisela’s daughter, Anna from her first marriage, and gave her his surname. He and Gisela divorced in 1993.

Almost a decade before that, more precisely, in 1981, Getty suffered a stroke caused by heroine overdose. From then and on he needed constant care because he was strapped to a wheelchair. As a consequence of the stroke, Getty was quadriplegic and nearly blind.

Life of the Getty family was a movie-like tragic story. Getty dynasty made their first millions dealing with oil, but after that, they expanded their business to almost all branches. What is bizarre in the case of this family is the fact that a large number of its members died of a drug overdose.

Their empire was established by unusual oil tycoon John Paul Getty I, in the first half of the 20th century.  Getty I had five wives and five sons (one of his sons died at the age of 12).

Getty family was always in the spotlight. Until recently, they had  one of the strangest and richest couples in America – curly and physically neglected Peter Getty, who never did anything and is spending his time knitting, watching pornography and playing video games, and his wife Jacqui Getty, which is adorned by Hollywood stars. It is said that behind all those billions, Peter is nothing more than an abuser. His wife didn’t had the strength to leave him until he started to cheat in her with other women. Those who know Peter say that when he is travelling somewhere, he never caries a bag because he buys everything he needs when he arrives where he is going.

In 2006 when she was filing for divorce, Jacqui described her husband as a person who became heavily addicted to cocaine and soon after, started to, mentally and physically, abuse her.

“Peter had a very bad, violent temper during the last year or two of our marriage; he made at least one threat to kill me, he hit me so hard that he broke my forearm (not at a joint), he has choked me and physically pushed me.” – Jacqui described her husband in the divorce documents. “He told me 'I could kill you and get away with it”. She also said that Peter, because of his enormous wealth, has no sense for good and evil and that he often said to her: “I can do anything. Because I'm Getty”.

Anyway, Jacqui Getty is a famous stylist who worked on many movies. Among the first who noticed her talent was Demi Moor, who met Jacqui at one shop in the late eighties. It was Jacqui who picked a dress for Moor in the famous scene of the movie “Indecent proposal”, when Demi approaches Robert Redford.

Howard Hughes – playboy, pilot and a hermit

One of the most bizarre billionaires was Howard Hughes. Hughes was successful in everything he did, whether it was designing aircrafts, piloting, film production...he even managed to seduce Hollywood beauties like Katharine Hepburn.

In 1935, he constructed an airplane with whom he set an airspeed record of 567,46 km/h. Two years later, he set a transcontinental airspeed record for flying from one end of America to another. In 1938, he flew around the world in just 91 hours and 14 minutes.

However, due to an obsessive dedication to work, addiction to drugs and agonizing among many lovers, he suffered his first nervous breakdown. Soon after, he demanded that everyone who comes in contact with him, wears white gloves. After second nervous breakdown, he spent his days in a hotel, in a closed room, where he sat completely naked in a white leather armchair.

He spent the last years of his life wandering around the world. He resided in luxurious hotels but, before his arrival, his employees were obliged to sterilize the rooms where he stayed. When he arrived to Las Vegas in 1967, he didn’t have a reservation for a luxury suite at the Hotel “Desert Inn", so he bought the entire hotel. He also bought television station KLAS-TV, which had to show movies until late into the night so he wouldn’t be bored.

He travelled in a car with welded windows, in which he had installed a special air cleaner that cost more than the vehicle itself and occupied more space then the engine.

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No mercy for Billy the Kid

In 2010, governor of New Mexico refused to give a posthumous pardon for Billy the Kid, the famous Old West outlaw. That decision heated up once again the legends of notorious robber.

The request for posthumous pardon of Old West legend, Billy the Kid, remained lying in the dust of New Mexico  administration, just like his body, in 1881, when  Sheriff Pat Garrett shot him. Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, decided not to pardon Billy the Kid for the murder of Sheriff William Brady, in 1878. 

Billy the Kid (born in New York as William Henry McCarty) gained a reputation as the most famous American robber, during his brief but turbulent life. Legends say that he killed 21 people – one victim for each year of his life. However, other sources say that he killed 27 people. Yet, historical facts are telling us a different story. According to them, Billy the Kid killed "only" nine people.

He was short, lithe, with blue eyes, a smooth complexion, and prominent front teeth. Behind his smile a fierce, wild and cunning nature was hidden, which, in combination with his excellent shooting abilities, made him the most dangerous outlaw. He wore a sombrero decorated with a green band.

The request for pardon was initiated by an attorney from Albuquerque, Randi McGinn, who argued that the former governor of New Mexico, Lew Wallace, promised to pardon the Kid in exchange for his testimony in a murder case. Richardson was asked to pardon this outlaw from 19th century, in order to fulfill that promise.

This request caused a sort of a “silent war” between Billy’s supporters and descendants of Sheriff Pat Garrett. Garrett’s three grandchildren sent a letter to Governor Richardson in which they asked of him not to pardon Billy the Kid because such act would place an unforgivable shame on Garrett.

"I don't believe a thief, a liar, a terroriser of the ordinary people and a multiple cop killer should ever be granted a pardon, period. The Kid was a notorious outlaw and murderer. He was on a rampage for a while. I believe Lew Wallace did what he planned all long, get Billy to testify and then hang him. By granting the Kid a pardon are you excusing the murders he committed?" – said Garrett's grandson J.P. Garrett.

It is interesting that Governor Richardson's mandate expired on 31 December 2010, and he made his decision not to pardon Billy one day before that. Richardson said that he decided against a pardon "because of a lack of conclusiveness and the historical ambiguity as to why Governor Wallace reneged on his promise."

Randi McGinn said that she was disappointed with that decision, but she also expressed her satisfaction to the fact that Billy the Kid still causes great interest. She invited people to come to New Mexico, take a look at the letter that Billy wrote to Governor Wallace and conclude on their own whether he was "Robin Hood of the Wild West or cold-blooded killer".

Sheriff Pat Garrett killed Billy after the famous shootout in which two sheriff deputies were killed during Billy’s escape from Lincoln County jail. A year after he killed Billy, Garrett published a sensational biography called “The Authentic Life of BILLY THE KID”. Although Garrett’s intention with this book was only to justify himself to the public for killing Billy, this book became very popular and made Billy the most famous figure of the Wild West. The mentioned biography became a source of many legends and doubt, which, even after 130 years since Billy died, continued to exist.

Billy the Kid lived long and happily in Texas

Billy the Kid found his place in many songs and films. That only contributed to creation of an image of him as Wild West hero. One of the most famous films about Garrett and the Kid is the one from 1973 (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), directed by Sam Peckinpah. Bob Dylan composed music for that particular film.

Anyway, some historians claim that Billy the Kid wasn’t killed in the shootout with Garrett. They say that he settled in Texas. He allegedly lived there under the name Brushy Bill Roberts, and he died in 1950 from a heart attack.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger - Conan the Destroyer of California

After two terms as the Governor of California, Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger probably finished his political career. While he will be remembered in California for the debts that he left, the rest of the world will probably link Schwarzenegger’s political career with his proposal to ban the use of words "Mom", "Daddy", "husband" and "wife" in California public schools, because these words "offend feelings of children from gay marriages".

He became the Governor of California in 2003, and thus, he became the second actor, after Ronald Reagan, who got hold of high political positions. That he will run for Governor, on the Republican side, he revealed in a Comedy show. To be even able to participate in general elections he first needed to obtain permission from his wife, because his wife, Maria Shriver, is niece of Edward Kennedy, one of the members of the Kennedy clan, who belong to the Democrats.

With a little help of media and 25 million dollars that he invested in his two election campaigns, but mostly thanks to his acting career, Schwarzenegger won a landslide victory in both elections, in 2003 and 2006. His victories were not endangered even with charges that he used drugs, speculation that his father Gustav committed war crimes in World War II, or insinuation that he had sexually harassed 13 women.

Back in the early nineties, George H.W. Bush cast an eye on him and appointed him as the president of a smaller committee, calling him "Conan the Republican". 

Because of the skepticism about the strength of the U.S. economy, he called the Democrats "economic girlie men”. During Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, he said that he will make him "do squats" to "do something about those skinny legs”, and later that he will make him "do some biceps curls to beef up those scrawny little arms ".

“If he could only do something about putting some meat on his ideas”, Schwarzenegger said.

None of that what he said didn’t bothered him to recently publicly recommend himself to Obama - Schwarz said that he would like to get a job in the Obama administration, something regarding ecology. True, Americans admit that he achieved maximum on that field during the seven years he served as the Governor of California. Everything else was a complete fiasco.

During his term, the budget deficit has tripled, reaching 28 billion dollars. Unemployment rate is 13%. This is followed with speculations about a possible economic fiasco of California. At one point, California had no money for payment of regular monthly infrastructural obligations.

Schwarzenegger explained that the state wouldn’t have borrowed that much money if he knew that the global economic crisis will occur. He also said that his political opponents sabotaged his efforts to bring the house in order and improve the state of California's economy. It remains unknown what happened to his ambitious pre-election plan to make each of 36 and a half million residents of California eligible for health insurance, rather than one in five as it was.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger had no idea what it was like to govern. Sacramento isn't Hollywood. I also believe that he gave too big promises because probably he did not realize that he will not be able to fulfill them, which somewhat resembles Obama’s failure in fulfilling great promises. Residents of California expected too much. We did not giggle the way the rest of the world did at the Governator assuming office”, said Dr Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior fellow at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California.

It turned out that Schwarzenegger was far from behaving as a terminator when it comes to economic problems, which is why California citizens completely lost confidence in him.

Schwarzenegger’s new political engagement doesn’t seem too likely: he often worked and operated in contrary to California's Congress, and Republicans went against him when he invited them to cooperate with Obama in order to jointly find a solution for economic recovery and deficit control. The Republicans were not happy and with his proposition of budget deficit of California which he agreed with Washington's administration. The support of his family is also unlikely: although she never prevented her husband to be involved in politics, Maria Shriver was never thrilled with his new job.

But, Schwarzenegger doesn’t have to worry about his future, even if he gives up from the announced intention to write biographical books. In his 30’s he was already a millionaire, and that was before he achieved great success with his movies. He earned his first millions with postal sale of bodybuilding equipment and real estate investments. With Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone and Demi Moore he invested money in the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood. And despite all costs that he had as a politician, Schwarzenegger’s wealth is now estimated at 800 to 900 million dollars. This amount includes income from bodybuilding, real estate, earnings in the financial market and, of course, earnings from his films.

Nevertheless, the films were the ones that had influence on the magazine TIME and their decision to place him among the 100 people who shaped the world in 2004 and 2007.

The crucial year in Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood career was 1982, when he appeared in "Conan the Barbarian". Until the appearance of "Conan", Schwarzenegger made eight films. He won his first role (lead role) in 1970, in the comedy "Hercules in New York". He even today speaks English with a strong German accent, but at a time of making “Hercules”, he was saying it so badly that the producers were worried about whether the public will understand him at all. The fear was unjustified - the movie itself was terrible, but because of the accent, Arnold is even today called Ahnold.

"Conan the Barbarian", and two years later "Conan the Destroyer", were his first major commercial successes, in which his physical appearance was fully exploited. Neither before nor after these films, no one was counting on a some great acting performance from him. He became mega-star with action movies "Terminator" (1984, 1991, 2003), "Predator" (1987), "Red Sonja", "Commando", "Red Heat", "Total Recall", "Eraser ", "Collateral Damage" and many others.

Besides action movies, among total of 38 movies that he made, he made and a few comedies, like, for example, “Kindergarten Cop".

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