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Lord Lucan Murdered the Nanny - and has been Missing Ever Since _ Murder Casebook · History Dark

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Speaker 1: Lord Lucan was a criminal psychopath whose actions produced one
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Speaker 1: of the great scandals of the 20th century.
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Speaker 2: Lucky Lucan was unlucky in love, unlucky in marriage, and
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Speaker 2: ultimately we should simply regard him for what he was,
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Speaker 2: which is a murderer.
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Speaker 3: This is a case with a forgotten victim, a children's nanny,
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Speaker 3: Sandra Rivett, brutally battered to death.
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Speaker 4: Sandra Rivett was very, very unlucky. She was just in
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Speaker 4: the wrong place at the wrong time, and it.
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Speaker 5: Cost her her life.
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Speaker 6: On the 7th of November, 1974, an hysterical and blood-stained
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Speaker 6: woman ran into the bar of the Plumbers Arms public
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Speaker 6: house here at Belgravia in London, claiming her husband had
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Speaker 6: killed the nanny. But this was no ordinary murder. The
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Speaker 6: woman was Lady Veronica Bingham, Her husband, Lord Richard John Bingham,
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Speaker 6: the 7th Earl of Lucan. Over 38 years later, are
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Speaker 6: we any closer to knowing the truth behind this mysterious
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Speaker 6: case or the whereabouts of one of the most famous
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Speaker 6: murder suspects in history, Lord Lucan? I'm Fred Dynage and
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Speaker 6: I'm investigating the murders that shocked Britain throughout the 20th century.
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Speaker 6: I want to know what motivates someone to kill and
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Speaker 6: find out how they think they can get.
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Speaker 5: Away with it.
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Speaker 6: Murder knows no class. Everyone from the highest aristocrats to
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Speaker 6: the poor and homeless commit brutal atrocities. Lord Richard John
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Speaker 6: Bingham was born into a family of great nobility. The
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Speaker 6: Earl of Lucan title had been handed down for over
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Speaker 6: 300 years and through nine generations. However, this lord became
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Speaker 6: one of the most controversial members of the 20th century aristocracy.
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Speaker 6: When it comes to crime, the reality of what actually
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Speaker 6: happened can often be replaced by myth. One man who's
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Speaker 6: been trying to discover the real story behind the Earl
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Speaker 6: of Lucan is the writer and author James Ruddock. Richard
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Speaker 6: Bingham's early childhood, tell us.
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Speaker 5: A bit about that. I think it was an extremely
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Speaker 5: unconventional childhood.
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Speaker 1: He was born in 1934, went to prep school and
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Speaker 1: was raised by a nanny.
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Speaker 5: I think the parents were quite remote.
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Speaker 1: But of course the war intervened and he was sent
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Speaker 1: to America and I think it was a period of
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Speaker 1: tremendous instability and I think that there was perhaps a
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Speaker 1: disconnection there for all of the children in regard to
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Speaker 1: their parents and then at what must have been quite
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Speaker 1: a critical.
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Speaker 5: Age for him to be sent.
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Speaker 1: Halfway across the world, to begin again with another family.
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Speaker 6: In 1940, at the age of six, Lord Bingham was
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Speaker 6: evacuated from London with his younger brother Hugh and their
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Speaker 6: two sisters, Frances and Sarah. The children spent the war
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Speaker 6: in luxury, staying with an heiress who owned homes in
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Speaker 6: both New York and Florida.
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Speaker 1: He was taken in by the widow of a millionaire banker,
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Speaker 1: and had the high life. And I think it was
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Speaker 1: a suggestion that that contrasted very strongly with his life
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Speaker 1: in England, in wartime England, with the rationing and so forth,
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Speaker 1: and instilled in him this love of the high life
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Speaker 1: that stayed with him for the rest of his life.
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Speaker 6: Upon his return from America in 1945, the 11-year-old Lord
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Speaker 6: Bingham struggled with the adjustment and suffered problems emotionally.
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Speaker 5: I think he was probably always quite a strange person.
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Speaker 5: young man, actually.
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Speaker 1: We know that his mother decided he needed to see
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Speaker 1: a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist diagnosed him as having an attachment
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Speaker 1: disorder and suggested that he was given a dog to
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Speaker 1: look after. I think that what the mother probably saw
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Speaker 1: was very early stage psychopathy.
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Speaker 6: Bingham's preordained education began at a prep school in Oxford.
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Speaker 5: He then followed in the.
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Speaker 6: Footsteps of his predecessors and attended the prestigious Eton College.
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Speaker 6: It was here that the young lord developed his rebellious ways.
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Speaker 6: Lord Bingham was every inch the playboy aristocrat, preferring the
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Speaker 6: gaming tables and fast cars to hard work. He was
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Speaker 6: very much a man's man with strong chauvinistic views. Leading
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Speaker 6: criminologist Professor David Wilson has studied the effects social class
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Speaker 6: can have on the way we behave.
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Speaker 2: Even at Eton in the final year he was threatened
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Speaker 2: with expulsion because he was gambling so much late at
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Speaker 2: night with other Etonians. He would also skive off lessons.
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Speaker 2: He would disappear going off to putting bets on horses.
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Speaker 2: So already we're building up a picture from the school
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Speaker 2: days of Richard Bingham loving gambling, not particularly interested in
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Speaker 2: hard work. And indeed a letter survives from this period
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Speaker 2: that Bingham writes to his uncle saying that people who
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Speaker 2: say that money can't buy you happiness are either stupid
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Speaker 2: or speaking as a result of sour grapes. So we've
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Speaker 2: got almost a caricature developing here of this upper-class aristocrat
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Speaker 2: who's got very reactionary views, especially in relation to women,
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Speaker 2: who spends all of his life gambling, driving fast cars.
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Speaker 6: In 1953, Lord Bingham's national service papers arrived. His social
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Speaker 6: standing benefited him, and the 19-year-old headed straight for the
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Speaker 6: elite Coldstream Guards.
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Speaker 1: He wasn't a serious soldier. I mean, he came from
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Speaker 1: a fairly distinguished line of soldiers. The great-great-great-grandfather had fought
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Speaker 1: at Balaclava and had actually ordered the charge of the
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Speaker 1: Light Brigade. And several of his male ancestors had been
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Speaker 1: awarded medals for bravery in various wars, including the First
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Speaker 1: World War. But he showed no inclination as a soldier.
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Speaker 1: I don't think, to be honest, he ever had the
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Speaker 1: discipline for soldiering.
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Speaker 2: When Bingham is in... Germany, he finds opportunities to go
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Speaker 2: to the Swiss Alps. He skis, he bobsleighs, he has
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Speaker 2: a wonderful time. But he's best known, because of these
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Speaker 2: army days, for gambling. He still plays poker, he's known
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Speaker 2: as the best bridge player in the regiment. So, again,
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Speaker 2: we're getting this picture of somebody who's privileged and somebody
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Speaker 2: who's not going to particularly settle down.
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Speaker 6: It was during his national service that Bingham met William
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Speaker 6: Shand Kidd. Shand Kidd would become a good friend and
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Speaker 6: one who would feature throughout his life.
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Speaker 1: The friendship with Shand Kidd was based on Shand Kidd
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Speaker 1: being able to underwrite some of his more spectacular losses
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Speaker 1: because even as a young man, you know, he was
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Speaker 1: gambling huge amounts of money and so he would try
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Speaker 1: to collect rich friends who could bail him out and
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Speaker 1: that's what Shand Kidd did time after time.
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Speaker 6: When Lord Bingham returned, he secured employment with a merchant bank, Brandt.
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Speaker 6: But he continued with his gambling, and he soon discovered
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Speaker 6: he could often earn more than his annual salary with
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Speaker 6: the roll of the dice. It seemed he'd got the
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Speaker 6: perfect bachelor lifestyle.
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Speaker 1: A regular job bored him. And I think he probably
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Speaker 1: thought to himself, why should I? And he lacked the
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Speaker 1: self-discipline for that. There wasn't the money-making opportunities, or at
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Speaker 1: least the money had to be earned legitimately and had
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Speaker 1: to be earned through hard work.
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Speaker 5: And he was prepared to do that.
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Speaker 2: He's enjoying all the benefits of bachelordom. He's got a
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Speaker 2: full social diary. Women are interested in him. He's driving
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Speaker 2: a soft top Aston Martin. Life couldn't really get any
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Speaker 2: better for him.
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Speaker 6: Lord Bingham earned himself the nickname Lucky Lucan thanks to
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Speaker 6: one remarkable gambling event. In a game that lasted over
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Speaker 6: two days, the lucky lord won.
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Speaker 4: £ 20, 000.
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Speaker 6: Now, that's the equivalent of £ 200, 000.
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Speaker 5: In today's money.
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Speaker 6: He soon quit his job at Brandt, telling a friend,
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Speaker 6: why should I toil in the city when I can
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Speaker 6: win ten times my annual salary in one game? A
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Speaker 6: lady whose husband ran one of the London casinos and
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Speaker 6: was part of the social scene at that time is
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Speaker 6: Brenda Fenton. Give me an idea of life in the
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Speaker 6: 60s and 70s.
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Speaker 7: It was just like James Bond. Have you seen Casino Royale?
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Speaker 7: It was like that. People were very dressy and wore jewellery.
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Speaker 7: There were a lot of industries on the side, like
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Speaker 7: the jewellers would come in with their wares and... and
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Speaker 7: if somebody made a lot of money, they would buy
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Speaker 7: the girlfriend a bit of jewellery or something, or they'd
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Speaker 7: make sure that she went to see them the next day,
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Speaker 7: and that's the days of the big jewellers in Monte Carlo.
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Speaker 2: It's a different world.
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Speaker 7: It was a very different world. Well, I suppose that
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Speaker 7: world is still there, but it's not so elegant. I mean,
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Speaker 7: in Monte Carlo Casino, you can pay a fiver and
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Speaker 7: you can go in in a T-shirt and jeans, whereas...
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Speaker 7: Everyone had to be in evening dress to go into
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Speaker 7: the casinos in those days.
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Speaker 6: In 1962, John Aspinall.
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Speaker 6: Opened the Claremont Club in Berkeley Square. The club quickly
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Speaker 6: became a second home to Lord Bingham, along with the
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Speaker 6: social elite and like-minded wealthy gamblers. They soon became known
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Speaker 6: as the Lucan Set. Was Lord Lucan... I mean, was
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Speaker 6: he a well-known figure?
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Speaker 7: He was very tall, dark and handsome, with a moustache
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Speaker 7: and a military bearing, and he was noticeable. Wherever he went,
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Speaker 7: if people knew who he was, they would sort of,
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Speaker 7: you know, notice him, because he would walk in and...
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Speaker 7: A presence. He was quite a presence.
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Speaker 6: In 1957, Veronica Duncan, a pretty blonde 18-year-old, moved to
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Speaker 6: London to pursue a career in modelling. She'd been an
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Speaker 6: anxious and competitive child and was determined to make a
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Speaker 6: decent life for herself.
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Speaker 2: She was born and brought up originally in Bournemouth, but
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Speaker 2: spent a lot of her time in South Africa for
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Speaker 2: her childhood. Now, it's also clear that Veronica Duncan had
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Speaker 2: quite a nervous personality, was quite competitive and so forth.
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Speaker 2: But I think what we've got to see in Veronica Duncan,
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Speaker 2: somebody who was trying to settle down.
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Speaker 6: Veronica moved in with her sister, Christina. The attractive and
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Speaker 6: vibrant pair soon caught the eyes of the wealthy set.
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Speaker 6: In January 1963, Christina met and married Bingham's good friend,
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Speaker 6: William Shan Kidd, sealing her place among the rich. Only
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Speaker 6: ten months later, it was the turn of her sister, Veronica.
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Speaker 6: On the 28th of November, 1963, Lord Bingham married Veronica
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Speaker 6: Duncan at Holy Trinity Church in London. It was a
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Speaker 6: whirlwind romance, but would it tame the wild bachelor and
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Speaker 6: his reckless ways? I'm Fred Dynage, and I'm investigating the
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Speaker 6: case of aristocrat Lord Richard Bingham and the shroud of mystery...
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Speaker 6: and murder that has enveloped the Lucan dynasty. Lord Richard
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Speaker 6: Bingham had been the classic bachelor, enjoying dangerous sports and gambling. However,
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Speaker 6: in 1963, at the age of 28, he met and
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Speaker 6: married Veronica Duncan.
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Speaker 1: I think he married her because he wanted an heir,
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Speaker 1: and I think he thought that he'd got a woman
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Speaker 1: who would be compliant with his will. People say that
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Speaker 1: she was very quiet around him, slightly in awe of him,
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Speaker 1: and I think he liked that, and I think he
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Speaker 1: expected her to sort of know her place, and that
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Speaker 1: he would carry on leading his playboy lifestyle, and she
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Speaker 1: would stay at home and raise the children.
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Speaker 6: On the 21st of January 1964, Lord Bingham's father died
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Speaker 6: at the family home in Belgravia at the age of 65.
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Speaker 2: With the death of the 6th Earl of Lucan, He
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Speaker 2: inherits a great deal of money. And, of course, he
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Speaker 2: inherits all the class privilege that the title Earl is
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Speaker 2: going to bring. The interesting thing, of course, there are
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Speaker 2: still some pressures on Lucan at this particular point because
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Speaker 2: he's got to produce an heir. So, quite clearly... that
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Speaker 2: he needs to get Veronica pregnant as quickly as possible.
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Speaker 2: But the photographs from the time when they're together, Fred,
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Speaker 2: they're almost scowling out of the photographs. They genuinely do
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Speaker 2: not seem happy in each other's company. They look attractive,
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Speaker 2: they look glamorous, but, my gosh, do they sometimes look
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Speaker 2: as if they hate each other.
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Speaker 6: The couple had three children over the next six years, Francis,
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Speaker 6: George and Camilla. Surprisingly, Lucan had allowed Veronica to become
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Speaker 6: a part of his gambling career, and it was from
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Speaker 6: then on that cracks in their relationship began to show.
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Speaker 6: Former crime journalist Bob Strange later on became embroiled in
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Speaker 6: the Lucan story.
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Speaker 4: As time went on, Veronica began to assert her own
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Speaker 4: independence a little more and began to not be completely
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Speaker 4: content to be sitting at home while he was out
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Speaker 4: gambling and began to get worried about the state of
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Speaker 4: the family finances and the finances that would care for
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Speaker 4: her children and his children in the years to come.
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Speaker 6: And, of course, she would watch him gambling sometimes at
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Speaker 6: the Claremont Club.
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Speaker 4: Yes, they had their seat, which was called the widow's bench,
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Speaker 4: if I remember rightly, and she and other wives would...
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Speaker 4: sit there and chit-chat while their husbands were busy gambling,
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Speaker 4: sometimes through into the early hours of the morning. Lady
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Speaker 4: Lucan has said since that she didn't mind that, that
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Speaker 4: was quite a pleasant way for her to spend her evenings,
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Speaker 4: but all of Lucan's friends at the time recall it
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Speaker 4: being more and more of a source of friction. She
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Speaker 4: was not of the same class as Lord Lucan, didn't
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Speaker 4: have quite the same aristocratic background as Lord Lucan, and
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Speaker 4: We're talking now about a time when that really did matter.
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Speaker 4: The whole marriage was characterized by Lord Lucan thinking, I
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Speaker 4: am an aristocrat, I have this deep, deep family background.
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Speaker 4: Veronica probably is not quite up to my standing in
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Speaker 4: life and she should be grateful that she's married to
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Speaker 4: me and I should be able to do whatever I want.
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Speaker 6: Lord and Lady Lucan seemed to the outside world to
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Speaker 6: be a rich and handsome couple. But behind closed doors,
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Speaker 6: it was a different story.
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Speaker 1: Veronica was a much more complicated person than he'd realized.
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Speaker 1: Veronica had had her own psychiatric problems. When she was
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Speaker 1: a child, she'd been bullied at school. She was a
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Speaker 1: highly strung child. As a teenager, she was diagnosed as bipolar.
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Speaker 1: So she had problems, and she recognized that the lifestyle
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Speaker 1: that he was addicted to as a gambler was going
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Speaker 1: to produce ruin. But once you've got three children, you've
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Speaker 1: got responsibilities towards them. She found it increasingly intolerable that
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Speaker 1: he would go off of an evening and blow ten
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Speaker 1: grand and have to go round his friends with a
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Speaker 1: begging bowl to make up for it and then go
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Speaker 1: out a week later and do exactly the same.
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Speaker 5: An impossible way of life for her.
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Speaker 2: She was being prescribed medication for anxiety and for depression and,
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Speaker 2: of course, she is diagnosed during this period as being
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Speaker 2: a manic depressive. Now, that also will put pressure on
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Speaker 2: the marriage. Indeed, there's often occasions documented where Lord Lucan
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Speaker 2: would encourage his wife to go in the car for
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Speaker 2: a drive in the country, and he would try and
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Speaker 2: have her committed.
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Speaker 6: In January 1973, the marriage came to an end. Lord
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Speaker 6: Lucan moved out of the family home into a five-bedroomed
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Speaker 6: apartment just around the corner. The split soon turned sour,
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Speaker 6: and Lucan began to develop feelings of hatred towards his
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Speaker 6: estranged wife. It was a separation that would have deadly consequences.
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Speaker 6: The custody battle began on 11th June 1973 for the
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Speaker 6: Lucan children, Francis, George and Camilla.
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Speaker 1: Veronica came into her own once they separated, and you
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Speaker 1: see a very different person from this meek young lady
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Speaker 1: who had not had much to say. and who had
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Speaker 1: basically followed orders. And you suddenly see this very spirited
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Speaker 1: person who's prepared.
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Speaker 5: To fight for her rights and the rights of her children.
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Speaker 4: There was one incident which happened which really ended any
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Speaker 4: possibility of a relationship between them and made Lucan most
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Speaker 4: bitter of all, and I think was the one trigger
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Speaker 4: that led him to take drastic action. Lady Lucan suddenly
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Speaker 4: sprung on him and on the hearings some stories of
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Speaker 4: sexual misdemeanours that Lord Lucan had perpetrated during the course
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Speaker 4: of their marriage. And he felt this was the ultimate betrayal.
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Speaker 4: He had some sexual tastes which were, at the time,
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Speaker 4: slightly unusual. He encouraged her to exercise in a rubber
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Speaker 4: exercise suit that he bought her before bedtime each night,
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Speaker 4: and he kept a little cane in the wardrobe of
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Speaker 4: their bedroom. And Lady Lucan had very carefully documented these
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Speaker 4: instances of slight unusual behaviour, and that was the one
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Speaker 4: thing that he never could forgive her for, that what
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Speaker 4: he regarded as a deep personal betrayal.
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Speaker 2: He absolutely did think he was going to win the
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Speaker 2: custody battle, even though there was a presumption at that
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Speaker 2: time within the courts that custody should go to the
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Speaker 2: mother and not to the father. But Lucan spared no expense.
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Speaker 2: He hired the best barrister in the country. The custody
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Speaker 2: hearing itself lasted for a number of days. But even
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Speaker 2: at the end of that, and it was going to cost, because, remember,
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Speaker 2: he was also paying for Veronica's court fees as well,
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Speaker 2: at the end, Lucan's barrister throws in the towel, custody
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Speaker 2: goes to Veronica, and... Lucan is left with a bill
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Speaker 2: of at least £ 40, 000, which is a substantial amount of
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Speaker 2: money in the 1970s.
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Speaker 6: The children were officially handed to Lady Lucan, but it
19:41
Speaker 6: was the court's stipulation that she must employ a suitable
19:45
Speaker 6: nanny to help her. In September 1974, Lady Lucan employed
19:51
Speaker 6: a new nanny for her children. Sandra Rivett was a
19:56
Speaker 6: vivacious redhead, a hairdresser from a working-class background with no
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Speaker 6: nanny qualifications to speak of.
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Speaker 1: Sandra was just a really pleasant, sweet girl who'd come
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Speaker 1: from an ordinary working family, and she'd done various jobs.
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Speaker 5: She'd been a hairdresser and so forth.
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Speaker 1: But she loved children, and she decided that she wanted
20:21
Speaker 1: to be a nanny. From looking after children nearby in Belgravia,
20:25
Speaker 1: she got to know Lady Lucan.
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Speaker 6: Unfortunately, Sandra Rivett's job as the Lucan nanny lasted only
20:32
Speaker 6: two months. Everything changed on the evening of the 7th
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Speaker 6: of November, 1974, at around nine o'clock. It was customary
20:41
Speaker 6: for Lady Lucan to make a cup of tea at
20:44
Speaker 6: that time of the night, but on this occasion, the nanny,
20:48
Speaker 6: Sandra Rivett, had offered to do it. She went downstairs
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Speaker 6: to the basement kitchen, carrying the tray of crockery.
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Speaker 2: It's about quarter to nine at night. Sandra Rivett goes
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Speaker 2: down the few flights of stairs to go to where
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Speaker 2: she can make a cup of tea. She tries to
21:07
Speaker 2: switch on the light into the kitchen but can't do
21:10
Speaker 2: so because someone has removed the bulb that would light
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Speaker 2: up the kitchen. As she tries to switch on the light,
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Speaker 2: Sandra is attacked, viciously attacked, about the head. by an assailant,
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Speaker 2: and there are a number of blows to her head
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Speaker 2: which eventually are going to kill her.
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Speaker 5: Lady Lucan went in search of her.
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Speaker 6: As she walked down the steps to the basement, she
21:36
Speaker 6: was struck down by a mysterious figure in the dark.
21:44
Speaker 6: I'm Fred Dynage, and I'm following the horrific events of
21:48
Speaker 6: the 7th of November, 1974. and the mystery surrounding the
21:53
Speaker 6: murder of Sandra Rivett. Was Lord Lucan to blame for
21:58
Speaker 6: this atrocity? Lord and Lady Lucan had had a tempestuous
22:05
Speaker 6: relationship and divorced in July 1974. Their three children were
22:11
Speaker 6: placed in the custody of their mother, much to the
22:14
Speaker 6: frustration and anger of their father. Just four months later,
22:19
Speaker 6: the Lucan household had become the scene of a brutal murder.
22:24
Speaker 6: The children's nanny, Sandra Rivett, had been killed and placed
22:28
Speaker 6: in a US mailbag. Meanwhile, Lady Lucan, mystified by the
22:34
Speaker 6: nanny's disappearance and unaware of the macabre scene, headed towards
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Speaker 6: the basement.
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Speaker 1: And what she said to me when I interviewed her
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Speaker 1: was that she called Sandra, Sandra twice. And then this
22:49
Speaker 1: figure came at her in the dark, and she was
22:52
Speaker 1: bashed at the front, here, the front of the head,
22:56
Speaker 1: with an upside-down V, two severe blows. Now, these were
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Speaker 1: the kind of blows that were so severe they'd killed Sandra.
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Speaker 1: but they didn't kill Veronica.
23:06
Speaker 6: The murder weapon, a piece of lead piping, was ineffective
23:10
Speaker 6: and bent from the blows to Sandra. The assailant dropped
23:14
Speaker 6: it and put his hand around Lady Lucan's neck and
23:17
Speaker 6: began to strangle her. From Lady Lucan's account of events,
23:21
Speaker 6: crime writer Linda Stratman believes she knows what happened next.
23:26
Speaker 3: Someone tried to throttle her, they tried to gouge her
23:28
Speaker 3: eye out, they pushed gloved fingers down her throat to
23:32
Speaker 3: stop her from screaming, and she just fought for her
23:34
Speaker 3: life She grabbed hold of the man's testicles and squeezed
23:38
Speaker 3: them and this shocked him and they just fell into
23:40
Speaker 3: a heap on the floor. And then she realised who
23:43
Speaker 3: it was.
23:43
Speaker 2: It was her husband.
23:45
Speaker 6: With Sandra Rivett dead and Lady Lucan injured, the alleged attacker, Lucan,
23:51
Speaker 6: had to think fast. How was he going to get
23:54
Speaker 6: out of this dilemma?
23:56
Speaker 3: She played for time. I think this was very courageous.
24:00
Speaker 3: He clearly hadn't decided what he was going to do next.
24:03
Speaker 3: She asked where Sandra was. He admitted that he'd killed her. Now,
24:07
Speaker 3: Sandra shouldn't have been there that evening. It was intended
24:09
Speaker 3: to be her night off, and Lord Lucan knew that
24:11
Speaker 3: it was her night off. But she changed her day
24:15
Speaker 3: that week, and so she was there.
24:17
Speaker 6: So the assumption then is he was waiting for his
24:20
Speaker 6: wife to come down to make the tea.
24:23
Speaker 2: Yes.
24:23
Speaker 6: He was going to kill her.
24:25
Speaker 5: It was very dark.
24:27
Speaker 6: The other woman, Sandra Rivett, came down, and he accidentally,
24:30
Speaker 6: if you like, made her his victim.
24:33
Speaker 3: Yes, because she was, first of all, as I've just said,
24:36
Speaker 3: it was dark and also she was the same height
24:39
Speaker 3: and not very far different in build. And, of course,
24:42
Speaker 3: he simply wasn't expecting her to be there. Normally, it
24:45
Speaker 3: would have been his wife coming down the stairs to
24:47
Speaker 3: make the tea. So, of course, he, in the dark,
24:50
Speaker 3: saw what he expected to see and attacked the woman.
24:53
Speaker 6: According to Lady Lucan, her husband then helped her upstairs
24:58
Speaker 6: and asked her if she'd be willing to take an
25:00
Speaker 6: overdose of her sleeping tablets.
25:03
Speaker 3: She lay down on the bed. The eldest daughter saw
25:06
Speaker 3: them there at the time. That's another important witness to
25:09
Speaker 3: the fact that Lord Lucan was there that night, but
25:11
Speaker 3: they sent her back to her bedroom. She wanted to
25:14
Speaker 3: bathe the wounds on her head. He went into the bathroom.
25:18
Speaker 3: While the taps were running, she crept as quickly and
25:21
Speaker 3: quietly as she could out of the house, rushed out
25:24
Speaker 3: into the nearest public house, and then that was when
25:26
Speaker 3: she gave the alarm.
25:28
Speaker 6: The locals at the Plumbers Arms had been enjoying a
25:31
Speaker 6: night out when suddenly a lady burst in with blood
25:35
Speaker 6: running down her head, yelling, murder. Sergeant Don Baker of
25:40
Speaker 6: the Metropolitan Police was the first on the scene.
25:44
Speaker 8: At that time, I was a serving police officer. I
25:47
Speaker 8: was a uniformed sergeant at Gerald Road Police Station, which
25:50
Speaker 8: covers Belgravia. With a PC, I went to the Plumbers Arms.
25:54
Speaker 8: On entry, I saw... a lady, who I now know
25:57
Speaker 8: to be Lady Lucan, lying on a bench just inside
26:01
Speaker 8: the front door. She was ranting and raving and I
26:07
Speaker 8: calmed her down and spoke to her and I said,
26:10
Speaker 8: how did you obtain these injuries? There were several scalp
26:14
Speaker 8: wounds and blood was running down her forehead. And she said,
26:19
Speaker 8: my husband did it. And as she left the premises,
26:24
Speaker 8: and in a very casual way, he said, oh, and
26:26
Speaker 8: he's killed the maid. A bit of a shock at
26:30
Speaker 8: the time.
26:31
Speaker 6: The police followed the blood trail back to Lady Lucan's
26:35
Speaker 6: home and discovered a house of horror. The murder scene
26:40
Speaker 6: displayed blood on every wall, and in the kitchen doorway,
26:44
Speaker 6: police discovered a mailbag, sticking out of it a pale
26:49
Speaker 6: white arm.
26:50
Speaker 8: There was a lot of areas that were covered in blood,
26:54
Speaker 8: but we didn't see anybody at all in the rooms.
26:58
Speaker 8: I said to the PC that with the amount of
27:01
Speaker 8: blood we've seen and the story we've heard, we should
27:05
Speaker 8: be able to find a body in this place. At
27:07
Speaker 8: the time, I put my foot on a bag. It
27:11
Speaker 8: was a US mail sack. And as I did so,
27:15
Speaker 8: a girl I now know to be Sandra Rivett, her
27:20
Speaker 8: arm came out with a wristwatch on. I realised that
27:24
Speaker 8: She was dead from the temperature of her arm. There
27:28
Speaker 8: was no movement. There was no chance of her being alive.
27:30
Speaker 8: I did not open the bag any further.
27:33
Speaker 6: The blows to Sandra Rivett and Lady Lucan had covered
27:37
Speaker 6: the Belgravia residents in blood. The blood patterns revealed the
27:41
Speaker 6: horrific sequence of the attacks.
27:44
Speaker 5: Did the blood types match?
27:46
Speaker 3: Yes, of course there was no DNA in those days,
27:49
Speaker 3: but in fact Lady Lucan was blood type A and
27:52
Speaker 3: Sandra was blood type B. The first attack site that
27:56
Speaker 3: they came to, the one at the top of the
27:58
Speaker 3: stairs where Lady Lucan said she had been attacked, that
28:00
Speaker 3: was all type A blood. In the basement, the vast
28:04
Speaker 3: majority of the blood there was type B.
28:08
Speaker 6: The blood types found in the Belgravia house supported Lady
28:12
Speaker 6: Lucan's version of events and therefore pointed the finger at
28:16
Speaker 6: her husband.
28:17
Speaker 2: Lord Lucan.
28:19
Speaker 6: An arrest warrant was immediately issued for Lord Lucan and
28:23
Speaker 6: surveillance ordered on all airports and harbors. But unbeknown to
28:27
Speaker 6: the police, Lucan was driving down the A27 to Uckfield
28:31
Speaker 6: in Sussex and the home of fellow gambler Ian Maxwell Scott.
28:38
Speaker 1: Immediately on leaving the house, Lucan was obviously in a
28:40
Speaker 1: state of shock. He ran around the corner to a
28:43
Speaker 1: phone box. He phoned up the mother of a friend
28:47
Speaker 1: of Francis's daughter, with the idea of asking her to
28:52
Speaker 1: go round to the house because he didn't want the
28:54
Speaker 1: children to come downstairs and find the body in the basement.
28:57
Speaker 1: But he wasn't able to raise this lady on the phone,
28:59
Speaker 1: so he then phoned his mother. And she said that
29:03
Speaker 1: he was incoherent with shock and that he mumbled a
29:07
Speaker 1: garbled story about an attack at the house and could
29:10
Speaker 1: she come round as soon as possible to look after
29:13
Speaker 1: the children.
29:13
Speaker 5: He then got in his car.
29:15
Speaker 1: And drove down to Uggfield in Sussex.
29:19
Speaker 4: Lord Lucan had borrowed a friend's car. His own car
29:21
Speaker 4: worked perfectly well and he could have used it, but
29:24
Speaker 4: he wanted to transport a dead body in the boot,
29:26
Speaker 4: and he very wisely decided that he was going to
29:29
Speaker 4: do that with a car that didn't belong to him,
29:32
Speaker 4: so that if there was any suspicion, there wouldn't be
29:34
Speaker 4: any forensic traces that the police could find.
29:36
Speaker 6: Ian Maxwell Scott wasn't homesick. that night, and his wife
29:41
Speaker 6: Susan let in the distraught Lord Lucan. Strangely, his version
29:46
Speaker 6: of events echoed a familiar story watched by most of
29:50
Speaker 6: the country.
29:51
Speaker 4: It was actually the plot of a very famous television
29:55
Speaker 4: series at the time, The Fugitive, that had been long-running...
29:59
Speaker 4: And the plot of the fugitive was that a man
30:02
Speaker 4: comes home to his house and finds his wife being
30:04
Speaker 4: attacked by a killer, and that the killer escapes, and
30:09
Speaker 4: the husband then gets accused of being the killer.
30:13
Speaker 6: Lord Lucan told Susan Maxwell Scott he'd been driving past
30:17
Speaker 6: the house when he saw Lady Lucan and a man
30:20
Speaker 6: fighting in the basement. He'd rushed in to help, and
30:23
Speaker 6: the man quickly fled. His wife then accused him of
30:27
Speaker 6: hiring someone to kill her while pointing to a sack
30:31
Speaker 6: in the corner. Lord Lucan's version of events were quickly
30:35
Speaker 6: dismissed by the police.
30:37
Speaker 4: I don't think that any of the senior officers involved
30:41
Speaker 4: believed for one moment. that that could have been the case.
30:46
Speaker 4: And they did tests of the sight lines from outside
30:50
Speaker 4: on the pavement into the house and, in effect, Lucan
30:53
Speaker 4: would have to be laying flat on the floor of
30:55
Speaker 4: the pavement to have noticed such a thing happening.
30:58
Speaker 6: Lord Lucan stayed with Susan Maxwell Scott in Uckfield for
31:02
Speaker 6: over two hours, putting his personal and financial affairs into order.
31:08
Speaker 2: She tried to encourage him to stay for the night,
31:12
Speaker 2: which he refuses to do but he instead writes two
31:17
Speaker 2: letters to Bill Shankid, his brother-in-law, one saying that, you know,
31:24
Speaker 2: he's completely innocent, but Veronica will blame him, and another
31:28
Speaker 2: letter outlining to Bill Shankid the kinds of family possessions
31:33
Speaker 2: that could be sold at Christie's to pay off some
31:36
Speaker 2: of his debts.
31:37
Speaker 6: Lord Lucan also called his mother, who'd collected the children.
31:42
Speaker 6: She was now accompanied by a policeman, and when she
31:46
Speaker 6: asked if he'd like to speak to him, Lucan simply replied, no,
31:50
Speaker 6: not now, I'll ring them in the morning, and hung up.
31:54
Speaker 6: So the police waited.
31:57
Speaker 1: The police said that they thought that he would walk
31:58
Speaker 1: into the police station at Gerald Road in Belgravia with
32:01
Speaker 1: a prepared statement and a solicitor that morning, and that
32:05
Speaker 1: he would have his story straight, and the last thing
32:08
Speaker 1: that they expected was for him to disappear.
32:11
Speaker 6: On the 8th of November, 1974, just five hours after
32:16
Speaker 6: the murder of Sandra Rivett, Lucan left the Maxwell Scott
32:20
Speaker 6: house and disappeared into the night. It would be the
32:25
Speaker 6: last time the seventh Earl of Lucan would ever be seen, officially.
32:35
Speaker 6: I'm Fred Dynage, and I'm reexamining the events that led
32:39
Speaker 6: to the mysterious disappearance of Lord Lucan and the brutal
32:43
Speaker 6: murder of his children's nanny, Sandra Rivett. On the 7th
32:49
Speaker 6: of November, 1974, Sandra Rivett's body was found concealed in
32:54
Speaker 6: a mailbag in the basement of the Lucan household. Lady
32:59
Speaker 6: Lucan had named her husband as the killer. but he
33:02
Speaker 6: was nowhere to be found. Three days later, the police
33:06
Speaker 6: discovered the blue Ford Corsair that Lord Lucan had borrowed
33:10
Speaker 6: from a friend a couple of weeks before the incident.
33:13
Speaker 6: It had been abandoned at Newhaven in East Sussex.
33:17
Speaker 3: When the borrowed car was found, there was considerable trace
33:21
Speaker 3: evidence linking it to the crime scene. There was type
33:24
Speaker 3: A and type B blood found. There was some Fibres
33:28
Speaker 3: of clothing found in the car that were also found
33:31
Speaker 3: in the house. And in addition to that, there was
33:34
Speaker 3: a leaf torn from a notebook which matched up with
33:39
Speaker 3: a note that Lord Lucan later on wrote to the
33:42
Speaker 3: friend who had lent him the car.
33:43
Speaker 1: And in the boot of the car, there was a
33:45
Speaker 1: piece of lead piping that was more or less identical
33:48
Speaker 1: to the lead piping that had been found at Lower
33:50
Speaker 1: Belgrave Street that had been used to kill Sandra and
33:53
Speaker 1: attack Lady Lucan. But of Lucan, there was no sign.
33:57
Speaker 6: Lucan had vanished into thin air, and the million-dollar question
34:01
Speaker 6: still remains today.
34:03
Speaker 5: Where did he go?
34:05
Speaker 6: Since the 1970s, hundreds of conspiracy theories have been put forward.
34:11
Speaker 6: Did he commit suicide? Was this actually the work of
34:14
Speaker 6: a hired hitman? Or was he killed and eaten by
34:18
Speaker 6: John Aspinall's tigers? why are we so obsessed with an
34:23
Speaker 6: alternative version of events? Tell me about conspiracy theories and
34:28
Speaker 6: why people feel they need them.
34:31
Speaker 2: People invest a great deal of time, can sometimes become
34:34
Speaker 2: obsessional about conspiracy theories, and they seem to put themselves
34:40
Speaker 2: into the theory. And so what's interesting to me is
34:44
Speaker 2: what this reveals about the person who believes these conspiracy theories.
34:48
Speaker 2: Sometimes they can have hopes and aspirations, which they're projecting
34:52
Speaker 2: onto the event around which they build a conspiracy theory. Take,
34:57
Speaker 2: for example, the issue of Princess Diana dying in the
35:03
Speaker 2: car accident in the tunnel. You know, you and I
35:07
Speaker 2: know that was caused because the chauffeur was drunk. The
35:15
Speaker 2: But that's not what people think. Let's have a look
35:18
Speaker 2: and see what some of the public thought about the
35:20
Speaker 2: death of Diana.
35:22
Speaker 4: I think there's something strange about Diana's death.
35:25
Speaker 9: I think there's much more to it than meets the eye.
35:28
Speaker 10: It's got to be the British government. 99% sure of that.
35:32
Speaker 10: Would they want a baby from an Egyptian family being born?
35:37
Speaker 10: You know, it's an elf-eyed son getting her pregnant and
35:40
Speaker 10: effectively they know in full well that's going to be
35:42
Speaker 10: brought into the... aristocracy, in effect, part of the, you know,
35:45
Speaker 10: the Broadbridge family.
35:47
Speaker 9: Don't know, probably just hounded to death by the paparazzi.
35:53
Speaker 9: It's so difficult to tell. So what does that tell you, then?
35:58
Speaker 2: For me, it's sometimes about people believing that government is
36:03
Speaker 2: a far more shadowy and sinister presence than we would believe.
36:10
Speaker 2: Some people believe that government can be quite malevolent, and
36:14
Speaker 2: therefore they project onto a particular story like Diana the
36:20
Speaker 2: hand of secret security services wanting Diana dead for particular reasons.
36:27
Speaker 2: Watch this.
36:29
Speaker 11: Yeah, I think the government are covering... up the possibilities
36:32
Speaker 11: of UFOs. I mean, this whole universe, we can't be
36:36
Speaker 11: the only intelligent life-form planet, or so-called intelligent life-form planet
36:40
Speaker 11: in the whole universe. It just doesn't add up.
36:42
Speaker 9: I think the government definitely are covering up UFO activity.
36:45
Speaker 5: There's definitely something out there.
36:47
Speaker 2: I think as long as the conspiracy theory doesn't get
36:51
Speaker 2: taken to extremes, they're relatively harmless. But here's the problem
36:56
Speaker 2: in relation to our story about Lord Lucan. That conspiracy
37:01
Speaker 2: theory about what happened on the night of the murder
37:04
Speaker 2: and then subsequently what happened to Lucan himself, that conspiracy
37:08
Speaker 2: theory masks the reality of somebody dying, and the person
37:13
Speaker 2: who died is never remembered in this story, and that's
37:17
Speaker 2: the nanny, Sandra Rivett. But even in relation to Lucan,
37:21
Speaker 2: let's have a listen to what some of the people
37:24
Speaker 2: that we interviewed thought about him. I think Lord Lucan.
37:29
Speaker 3: killed the nanny, faked his own death, and he's still
37:32
Speaker 3: around walking about. Yes, I think Lord Lucan probably did
37:35
Speaker 3: kill the nanny, and that's why he disappeared afterwards. And
37:39
Speaker 3: with plastic surgery, I think it's very possible that he's
37:42
Speaker 3: still alive somewhere.
37:43
Speaker 9: It's a strange thought that, you know, there may be
37:48
Speaker 9: hundreds of people in the world, you know, evading justice
37:51
Speaker 9: and being somebody who they're not really.
37:55
Speaker 2: And so they want to think of him sunning himself
37:58
Speaker 2: on the island of Goa or living in South Africa
38:01
Speaker 2: or in Brazil, having had plastic surgery to change his face.
38:04
Speaker 2: It's a way of cocking a snook at government, at
38:08
Speaker 2: law and order, at the police force who are trying
38:11
Speaker 2: to bring him to justice. So ultimately, perhaps with conspiracy theories,
38:16
Speaker 2: we're given a little window into our culture, into what
38:20
Speaker 2: it wants, what it believes, what it hopes for.
38:23
Speaker 6: The police followed reports and sightings of the missing Lord
38:27
Speaker 6: Lucan all over the world, but to no avail. Finally,
38:31
Speaker 6: an inquest was held to discover the cause and circumstances
38:35
Speaker 6: of Sandra Rivett's death. Although with no suspect, there could
38:39
Speaker 6: be no trial. The inquest into Sandra Rivett's murder began
38:44
Speaker 6: on Monday, the 16th of June, 1975, at Westminster Coroner's Court,
38:50
Speaker 6: seven months after she was killed. We've always had a
38:53
Speaker 6: fascination with the upper classes and the Lucan case was
38:57
Speaker 6: no exception, particularly as the presumed guilty party was still
39:02
Speaker 6: on the run. What about the inquest? What was the
39:05
Speaker 6: atmosphere like there?
39:08
Speaker 8: There was two sides of it. There was the in-court
39:11
Speaker 8: atmosphere and there was the out-of-court atmosphere. The in-court atmosphere
39:16
Speaker 8: was a split between fact and fiction and the gentry.
39:21
Speaker 8: It wasn't so much an inquest on Santa Rivet that
39:24
Speaker 8: came over as a trial of Lord Lucan. But the
39:28
Speaker 8: coroner got a verdict from the judge.
39:30
Speaker 2: In the end.
39:30
Speaker 8: Outside, there were many, many reporters and media there. The
39:37
Speaker 8: atmosphere was jovial, and when the jury went out, they
39:42
Speaker 8: even ran a sweepstake on how long Noah would be out.
39:44
Speaker 6: And Sandra Rivett's family, unsurprisingly, very bitter and very upset.
39:50
Speaker 1: It's a devastating thing for Sandra Rivett's family. I think
39:53
Speaker 1: their grief and pain was compounded by the fact that
39:57
Speaker 1: the attention of the media was all on Lucan and
40:01
Speaker 1: so forth. I think they felt that Sandra, who was
40:04
Speaker 1: completely innocent in every regard, had been forgotten. I think
40:10
Speaker 1: that was extremely difficult for them.
40:12
Speaker 6: The inquest lasted for four days. The missing Lord's family,
40:17
Speaker 6: his friends, the Lucan set and the press were desperate
40:21
Speaker 6: to finally hear what had actually happened. The coroner described
40:25
Speaker 6: the motive for these attacks as a matter of conjecture.
40:29
Speaker 4: The inquest was a real oddity in English law. It
40:33
Speaker 4: was the last time that a coroner's jury were allowed
40:37
Speaker 4: to bring in a verdict naming a murderer. They named
40:40
Speaker 4: Lord Lucan as the killer of Sandra Rivett. And that
40:44
Speaker 4: must have been of some comfort to Sandra Rivett's family
40:47
Speaker 4: that actually they had a conclusion of sorts. But of course,
40:52
Speaker 4: the main participant in the entire event, Lord Lucan himself,
40:55
Speaker 4: was not there. Nobody knew where he was. It was
40:58
Speaker 4: pretty obvious by that time that he had made a
41:00
Speaker 4: completely clean getaway.
41:02
Speaker 6: Lord Lucan was named as the murderer in the inquest
41:05
Speaker 6: of Sandra Rivett. However, he has never been formally convicted.
41:11
Speaker 6: In October 1999, Lord Lucan was declared officially dead by
41:18
Speaker 6: Britain's High Court. His estate, valued at just £ 15, 000, was.
41:24
Speaker 5: Released to his executors.
41:27
Speaker 6: But his son, Lord George Bingham, is unable to take
41:30
Speaker 6: his father's seat in the House of Lords or inherit
41:34
Speaker 6: the title of the 8th Earl of Lucan until there
41:37
Speaker 6: is actual proof that Lord Lucan is dead.
41:41
Speaker 5: I've got two theories.
41:43
Speaker 4: He had a friend who had an estate in Mexico,
41:47
Speaker 4: and Lord Lucan could almost certainly have set out life there.
41:53
Speaker 4: My other favourite, favourite place, and the place that I
41:56
Speaker 4: know Roy Renson, the policeman involved, always thought was a possibility,
42:00
Speaker 4: is Botswana along the Limpopo River, called the Thule Block,
42:05
Speaker 4: where every estate is colonially owned, and Lord Lucan could
42:11
Speaker 4: have dropped into that sort of community, and if people
42:15
Speaker 4: didn't ask too many questions, that would have been a
42:18
Speaker 4: good home for him.
42:19
Speaker 1: I don't think we'll ever know what happened to Lucan,
42:23
Speaker 1: My own view is that he arrived in New Haven.
42:26
Speaker 1: It was a ferry due to leave at 7 that morning.
42:30
Speaker 1: And it's a very short walk, I've done it myself,
42:32
Speaker 1: from Norman Street where.
42:34
Speaker 5: He parked the car to the harbour.
42:37
Speaker 1: There were two fishermen who were getting ready to set
42:40
Speaker 1: sail that morning at about 6 o'clock. They saw someone
42:43
Speaker 1: who they later identified as Lucan. Now, I'm of the
42:46
Speaker 1: view that he stowed on board one of the ferries
42:48
Speaker 1: that was leaving New Haven, and I think about halfway across...
42:53
Speaker 1: He jumped off and probably got caught up in the screws.
42:58
Speaker 1: And that was the end of him.
43:00
Speaker 6: What could have happened to Lord Lucan, do you think?
43:03
Speaker 6: Do you think he did commit suicide?
43:06
Speaker 7: I think he made a big mistake by killing the
43:09
Speaker 7: wrong woman. But I don't think he committed suicide. I
43:14
Speaker 7: think they were too arrogant. They would think that it
43:17
Speaker 7: would have been fun to.
43:19
Speaker 4: Escape I dearly would like to know the answer to
43:23
Speaker 4: an awful lot of questions that Lord Lucan left behind him.
43:27
Speaker 4: And one day, I hope he comes back, to be
43:30
Speaker 4: prosecuted or not, but just to fill in a few
43:34
Speaker 4: of the blanks in this very fascinating story.
43:37
Speaker 6: Lord Lucan left behind a scene of blood and mayhem
43:42
Speaker 6: and disappeared without a trace. There have been many reported
43:46
Speaker 6: sightings of him around the world over the past 35
43:49
Speaker 6: years that have remained just that. Did he murder the nanny?
43:55
Speaker 6: Did he escape? Did he commit suicide? The true story
44:01
Speaker 6: of what really happened may never, ever be known.
44:07
Speaker 11: MUSIC PLAYS
44:16
Speaker 9: So