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The Hunt for Lord Lucan
Dr Martin Brookes
November 2004
The disappearance of Lord Lucan on the night of 7 November 1974 ignited one of the most compelling mysteries in modern criminal history. This was a peculiarly British affair, in which the dying traditions of aristocracy and honour captured the imagination of an entire nation. The mystery and the glamour of the Lucan world have kept the story alive for these 30 years past, and probably will do for decades to come.
Suspected of murder, Lord Lucan was on the run. That night he drove to the Sussex house of his friends Ian and Susan Maxwell-Scott. According to official statements, Susan Maxwell-Scott was the last person to see Lucan. When she woke the next morning he had vanished. Days later, Lucan's car, a Ford Corsair he had borrowed from a friend, was found abandoned in the Channel port of Newhaven. But a massive police search failed to uncover the man himself. So what happened to Lucan? Did he commit suicide? Or did he use his network of influential friends to help him establish a new identity abroad? It's a puzzle that remains unsolved to this day.
It all began as a straightforward murder investigation. On that November night police were called to 46 Lower Belgrave Street, in one of London's more fashionable neighbourhoods. There, in the basement, they discovered the battered and lifeless body of Sandra Rivett, nanny to Lucan's three children. Veronica Duncan, Lucan's estranged wife, had also been attacked, but she had managed to escape from the house and raise the alarm. Later, in her statement to the police, she identified the attacker as none other than her own husband.
Lucan lineage
Scandal was nothing new to the Lucan family. Lord Lucan's great great grandfather, the Third Earl of Lucan, was the man widely blamed for one of the biggest blunders in British military history – the calamitous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 at Balaclava during the Crimean War. The Seventh Earl of Lucan's bungled attempt to murder his wife, if that's what it was, seemed entirely in keeping with this reputation.
Lucan was born Richard John Bingham on 18 December 1934. His development took a path well-trodden by the English upper class – nannies and maids, parents rarely seen, Eton education, national service as an officer in the Coldstream Guards, and a stint at a merchant bank. Outside work, his interests included bobsleigh and powerboat racing, but his one true passion was gambling. Lucan's social scene centred on exclusive Mayfair casinos, where he rubbed shoulders with fellow earls, dukes, and business tycoons like Tiny Rowland and James Goldsmith. The Hamilton Club, off Park Lane, and John Aspinall's Clermont Club, in Berkeley Square, were two of his favourite haunts. When a two-day winning spree in the card game chemin de fer earned him £26,000 (about £380,000 in today's money) Lucan quit his job, convinced that he could make a living as a professional gambler.
Lucan met his wife, Veronica Duncan, at a golfing tournament in March 1963. Married the following November, the couple moved to Lower Belgrave Street, where they had three children – Frances, George and Camilla. But Veronica's post-natal depression put a strain on the marriage, and Lucan's gambling addiction and heavy drinking only made matters worse. By 1973 they were separated, and an expensive courtroom battle saw Veronica Duncan take custody of the children. Lucan, facing financial ruin, was devastated and, perhaps, bent on revenge.
So what really happened on the night of 7 November 1974? The inquest concluded that Lucan had broken into the house and murdered Sandra Rivett, thinking she was his wife. Realising his mistake, he then set upon his wife.
On the run
Lucan, however, read things differently. In the hours immediately after the murder, he proclaimed his innocence in frantic letters to his brother-in-law, Bill Shand Kydd, and in phone calls to his mother. He was passing the house, he said, when he was alerted to a burglary gone wrong. Whatever the truth, he knew the evidence was against him. Fearing the shame of being branded a murderer and having the family name dragged through the courts, he decided to do the decent thing and disappear.
The fact that Lucan's body has never been recovered has fuelled perennial speculation over his fate. Many of his close friends insist that he probably drowned in the English Channel, either by jumping off a ferry or by scuttling a speedboat.
But Roy Ranson, the Scotland Yard detective who headed the initial hunt for Lucan, always doubted this theory. Why, for example, was Lucan's body never washed up on the beach? Given the prevailing tides, he insisted, a body should have been recovered. Ranson argued that the Ford Corsair was a decoy used to distract the police while Lucan was smuggled out of Britain in a plane piloted by his friend, the Formula One racing driver Graham Hill, who was killed in a plane crash in 1975. According to Ranson, Lucan went first to Portugal, and then to South Africa. In the 30 years since the murder there have been multiple alleged sightings of Lucan in several southern African countries.
Just recently, the Daily Mail ran a story in which former Tory MP and old Etonian Piers Dixon claimed that Lucan possibly fled to Mexico or Africa, under the protection of business financier James Goldsmith.
Lucan's high society
John Aspinall: Notoriously successful gambler who founded many casinos, including the Clermont Club. Reckless, eccentric and elitist, he was also an animal lover who established his own zoos. Controversially, five of his keepers have been killed by tigers and elephants. Aspinall asked to be fed to his animals after his death, but his wish was denied. Died in 2000.
Charles Benson: Horse racing tipster, gambler and friend of the rich and famous, including horse owners Robert Sangster and the Aga Khan. Died in 2002.
Clermont Club: Ultra-exclusive, yet understated casino in London's Mayfair. During the 1960s this converted Georgian townhouse become Lucan's second home, where all-night gambling, fuelled by vodka and lamb cutlets, was the norm. Lucan had arranged to meet friends at the Clermont on the night of the murder.
James Goldsmith: 'A man of my means should not remain a schoolboy' observed Goldsmith on dropping out of Eton. So instead he made billions through shrewd and sometimes audacious business deals, most notably in the takeover of Bovril in 1971. He owned five homes and a Boeing 757. In the 1990s he founded the Euro-sceptic Referendum Party. Died in 1997.
Tiny Rowland: Multi-millionaire businessman who made his fortune in the gold mines of Africa and later became chief executive of the Lonrho conglomerate. An attempted takeover of Harrods led to a famously acrimonious dispute with its owner, Mohammed Al-Fayed. Died in 1998.
Bill Shand Kydd: Lord Lucan's brother-in-law, married to Veronica Duncan's (Lucan's wife) sister. An amateur jockey and wallpaper magnate, he was also the half-brother of Peter Shand Kydd, the step-father of Diana, Princess of Wales. Shand Kydd broke his back in a horse riding accident in 1995. A tetraplegic, he is now a fund-raiser for spinal research.
Taki Theodoracopulos: Cash-heavy playboy and The Spectator columnist famed for his political incorrectness. Once arrested after walking through British customs with 23 grammes of cocaine in a bag dangling from his back pocket.
Find out more
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The Countess of Lucan – Setting the record straight
http://www.ladylucan.co.uk/index1.htm
Official website of the Countess of Lucan with information about her former husband and photographs of times spent with Lord Lucan and her children.
Last Person To See Lord Lucan Alive Dies
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/13457425?source=Evening Standard
Susan Maxwell-Scott died in September 2004. She was the last person to see Lucan alive and spent several hours with him at her home before he fled.
Lord Lucan.com
http://www.lordlucan.com
Message board and information on the murder of the Lucan family's nanny in 1974.
The Lucan Review
http://www.lord-lucan.co.uk
This site has everything for the Lucan enthusiast including a basement plan of the house where the murder took place, a comprehensive bibliography, photos, articles and much more.
Police Relaunch Inquiry Into Lord Lucan Case
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
Scotland Yard have recently announced they are to re-open the murder inquiry using new DNA techniques.
Thou Shalt Not Kill
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/lord_lucan/1.html
The Crime Library offers in-depth coverage of Lucan's life and the murder of Sandra Rivett in 1974. There is information about the inquest, a photo library and a section on the sightings of Lucan over the years since his disappearance.
