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Whatever Happened To Lord Lucan?

Floyd1 said:
Do we know if Lucan had had any recent building work done on any of his properties? Plenty of places would have still had lead pipe in them especially back then. It's just not the sort of thing you would come across in everyday life unless you had access to a building site or some such.
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The piece I used had a 10mm thick wall and was probably at least 50mm in diameter, god knows where it came from or what its original purpose was.
 
One Justice said:
... As Sandra was found in a sack, she was going to be taken somewhere and disposed of. ...
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In a way, the sack is the one thing that strikes me as pointing to more than one assailant. I'm very familiar with the US Postal Service mail sacks used in the 1970s, and it would be difficult for a single person to stuff a woman's body into one of these sacks.

On a related note ... I've always found it odd no one seems to have wondered why a US mail sack was used or where the killer(s) may have obtained it.
 
EnolaGaia said:
In a way, the sack is the one thing that strikes me as pointing to more than one assailant. I'm very familiar with the US Postal Service mail sacks used in the 1970s, and it would be difficult for a single person to stuff a woman's body into one of these sacks.

On a related note ... I've always found it odd no one seems to have wondered why a US mail sack was used or where the killer(s) may have obtained it.
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I've got a couple of US mail sacks upstairs...

Ordered some books from the States and the books arrived properly packaged but they were inside a US mail sack with a tag with my name and address on it.
 
'At 9pm, a parking attendant at the Clermont Club remembers seeing Lord Lucan in his Mercedes pull up outside the club and enquire who was present. After being given an answer, he drove off.'

But elsewhere it says that the Mercedes had a flat battery and Lucan had borrowed a friend's car. Which means that the parking attendant is probably mixing up his days.
 
catseye said:
'At 9pm, a parking attendant at the Clermont Club remembers seeing Lord Lucan in his Mercedes pull up outside the club and enquire who was present. After being given an answer, he drove off.'

But elsewhere it says that the Mercedes had a flat battery and Lucan had borrowed a friend's car. Which means that the parking attendant is probably mixing up his days.
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The more we pick this apart, I think between us all. We can come to a more convincing theory. If Lucan made time, did he drive to the Claremont club, in his Mercedes. To give himself an alibi, as I said before. You would not kill you wife yourself and he didn't. If the car was close, cold night. It would have cooled down quickly, if he didn't drive far. Flat battery, in his haste, he left the lights on. But another point, if he was already driving his car, why would he borrow the Corsair. To escape after he killed Sandra and attempting to kill Veronica ?

As for the mail sack, it would not be that hard, for an X service man. As another poster said, he was fit. Mail sacks were everywhere, in the 60's / 70's.

SomethingI did miss in my main theory. Lucan said he saw someone attacking someone in the basement. So, How on earth did Sandra, get into the mail sack. So he saying that, between him seeing someone being attacked and him entering the house. Sandra was put into the sack, that just doesn't make sense. He would have made, a hell of a commotion. That would have made the alleged perpetrator flee. But no, someone then attacks Veronica. That I think, clear up that point. Lucan didn't see an intruder, in the basement, attacking someone. Unless of course, Veronica was setting him up.
 
One Justice said:
The more we pick this apart, I think between us all. We can come to a more convincing theory. If Lucan made time, did he drive to the Claremont club, in his Mercedes. To give himself an alibi, as I said before. You would not kill you wife yourself and he didn't. If the car was close, cold night. It would have cooled down quickly, if he didn't drive far. Flat battery, in his haste, he left the lights on. But another point, if he was already driving his car, why would he borrow the Corsair. To escape after he killed Sandra and attempting to kill Veronica ?

As for the mail sack, it would not be that hard, for an X service man. As another poster said, he was fit. Mail sacks were everywhere, in the 60's / 70's.

SomethingI did miss in my main theory. Lucan said he saw someone attacking someone in the basement. So, How on earth did Sandra, get into the mail sack. So he saying that, between him seeing someone being attacked and him entering the house. Sandra was put into the sack, that just doesn't make sense. He would have made, a hell of a commotion. That would have made the alleged perpetrator flee. But no, someone then attacks Veronica. That I think, clear up that point. Lucan didn't see an intruder, in the basement, attacking someone. Unless of course, Veronica was setting him up.
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I think, in my head, I'm pretty certain he did it. My main reasoning is that, if he didn't, then why not remove himself to a place of perceived safety and then contact the police with any evidence he had for not having done it? Ie, listing out exactly what he saw in the house that night, because it should tie in to evidence the police could find/ascertain, leading to belief that he was innocent. Or even hand himself in and stand trial - Lucan could have afforded the absolute best barristers, he'd have friends testifying on his behalf, and, if he really and truly hadn't done it, then the evidence should be insufficient to condemn him. I'm sure a man with all his advantages would have been able to get off.

But he didn't. He vanished. And without giving any 'it wasn't me and here's why I couldn't have done it' evidence to contradict belief he was guilty, only some half-cocked stories which could be disproved with evidence.
 
Lucan- A new series about the son of Sandra Rivett starting next week on BBC2 Wednesday 6th Nov 2100-2200.


Hampshire builder Neil Berriman discovers he is the son of the nanny murdered by Lucan and starts to investigate. He finds evidence that suggests the aristocrat escaped to Africa. Is a mystery that has bewildered police and investigators for fifty years about to be solved?


On November 7, 1974, the dead body of a children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was discovered in a mail sack in the basement of a Belgravia townhouse. The chief suspect was the father of the children, an Eton educated gambler called Richard John Bingham, the seventh earl of Lucan, who had disappeared. While most of Lord Lucan’s friends and family insisted that he had taken his own life, no body has ever been found. The manhunt for Lucan has lasted decades. Sightings of him have been reported as far afield as New Zealand, France, India and South Africa, but all have proved false leads. Until now perhaps.


Thirty years after the murder, Hampshire builder, Neil Berriman, opens a thick brown envelope left to him by his adoptive mother upon her death. What it reveals will transform him into the most committed and determined of all Lucan hunters, and for a very personal reason: Neil’s birth mother, the papers reveal, was the murdered Lucan family nanny, Sandra Rivett.


This series puts Sandra Rivett at the heart of the story. Along with his long term collaborator, investigative journalist, Glen Campbell, her son Neil revisits key moments and emotions of what has been a 17 year journey. The starting point is the night of the murder in Belgravia, but the two men soon uncover clues that point to Lucan having fled to a secret life in Africa.
 
Floyd said:
Lucan- A new series about the son of Sandra Rivett starting next week on BBC2 Wednesday 6th Nov 2100-2200.


Hampshire builder Neil Berriman discovers he is the son of the nanny murdered by Lucan and starts to investigate. He finds evidence that suggests the aristocrat escaped to Africa. Is a mystery that has bewildered police and investigators for fifty years about to be solved?


On November 7, 1974, the dead body of a children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was discovered in a mail sack in the basement of a Belgravia townhouse. The chief suspect was the father of the children, an Eton educated gambler called Richard John Bingham, the seventh earl of Lucan, who had disappeared. While most of Lord Lucan’s friends and family insisted that he had taken his own life, no body has ever been found. The manhunt for Lucan has lasted decades. Sightings of him have been reported as far afield as New Zealand, France, India and South Africa, but all have proved false leads. Until now perhaps.


Thirty years after the murder, Hampshire builder, Neil Berriman, opens a thick brown envelope left to him by his adoptive mother upon her death. What it reveals will transform him into the most committed and determined of all Lucan hunters, and for a very personal reason: Neil’s birth mother, the papers reveal, was the murdered Lucan family nanny, Sandra Rivett.


This series puts Sandra Rivett at the heart of the story. Along with his long term collaborator, investigative journalist, Glen Campbell, her son Neil revisits key moments and emotions of what has been a 17 year journey. The starting point is the night of the murder in Belgravia, but the two men soon uncover clues that point to Lucan having fled to a secret life in Africa.
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Don't believe a word of it!
 
Lord Lucan said:
Don't believe a word of it!
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There was a two part series a few years ago with the same title, so I'd have thought they'd have used a different title this time.

Although that one was on ITV not BBC so maybe that's why. ?
 
He will be long dead by now, but gone with him is the evidence of the British aristocracy protecting their own come hell or high water, most of those who helped him will be pushing up daisies now, we concentrate on him and not the system that allowed him to escape justice
 
catseye said:
I think, in my head, I'm pretty certain he did it. My main reasoning is that, if he didn't, then why not remove himself to a place of perceived safety and then contact the police with any evidence he had for not having done it? Ie, listing out exactly what he saw in the house that night, because it should tie in to evidence the police could find/ascertain, leading to belief that he was innocent. Or even hand himself in and stand trial - Lucan could have afforded the absolute best barristers, he'd have friends testifying on his behalf, and, if he really and truly hadn't done it, then the evidence should be insufficient to condemn him. I'm sure a man with all his advantages would have been able to get off.

But he didn't. He vanished. And without giving any 'it wasn't me and here's why I couldn't have done it' evidence to contradict belief he was guilty, only some half-cocked stories which could be disproved with evidence.
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He was a 'barely' functioning alcoholic. Especially if he had been a witness to the murder as some versions allege he may simply have cracked up.

Yes, I think he probably did it. But probably shouldn't have been good enough for the coroner's verdict, no doubt why the procedure was changed after.

I'm not going to be drawn on the question of establishment cover up - protection - it will descend into politics in no time.
 
There are lots of videos on YouTube about Lucan. This is a recent one which shows how the pub where Lady Lucan ran for help, the Plumber's Arms, cashes in on the murder.

 
Lord Lucan said:
Don't believe a word of it!
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I hate these manufactured 'so and so has JUST DISCOVERED'... dramatic headlines. So and so has usually known for years and it's not a 'sudden discovery', it's a TV company putting money behind another investigation. We had the same sort of thing when Time Team came to dig at Castle Howard and 'suddenly discovered' a map of the old village which everyone had known about for years.
 
It seems the way of things nowadays, you could catch someone in the process of murdering someone and the brains trust of the internet will try to convince you of the perpetrators innocence of course he did it, and he was helped to evade justice probably salted away to some remote ranch in the Velt or Kenya, lesser people in the British class system would have been found and served their time, the murder was one thing but what went on after exposed the whole rotten core of the British Aristocracy (rant over)
 
Robbrent said:
It seems the way of things nowadays, you could catch someone in the process of murdering someone and the brains trust of the internet will try to convince you of the perpetrators innocence of course he did it, and he was helped to evade justice probably salted away to some remote ranch in the Velt or Kenya, lesser people in the British class system would have been found and served their time, the murder was one thing but what went on after exposed the whole rotten core of the British Aristocracy (rant over)
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Oh I don't know.
Biggs got away with it thanks to a lot of help and we even knew where he was.

And robbing a Royal Mail train was probably considered as bad, if not worse, than murder.
 
Floyd said:
Oh I don't know.
Biggs got away with it thanks to a lot of help and we even knew where he was.

And robbing a Royal Mail train was probably considered as bad, if not worse, than murder.
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Biggs settled in Brazil where after some wrangling between the British and Brazilian governments he was allowed to stay as the father of a Brazilian child. It's all a long and interesting story.
 
escargot said:
Biggs settled in Brazil where after some wrangling between the British and Brazilian governments he was allowed to stay as the father of a Brazilian child. It's all a long and interesting story.
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But then he came back, didnt he?
 
Biggs came back for medical care and to end his days.
 
I saw a documentary in the late 1980s about Lucan supposedly going to South Africa.

If he is alive he will be almost 90.
 
Druk said:
Biggs came back for medical care and to end his days.
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Yup, he was ill and broke and knew he was dying. He arrived back in the UK in 2001 and was taken straight to prison, where he stayed until his compassionate release in 2009. In 2013 he died aged 84 in a nursing home.
 
escargot said:
Yup, he was ill and broke and knew he was dying. He arrived back in the UK in 2001 and was taken straight to prison, where he stayed until his compassionate release in 2009. In 2013 he died aged 84 in a nursing home.
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If he still had cash and health no way jose would he have returned.
 
Don't forget the record Biggs did, "No One is Innocent" AKA "Cosh the Driver" where he sang about Martin Borman and the Moors Murderers
 
Robbrent said:
He will be long dead by now, but gone with him is the evidence of the British aristocracy protecting their own come hell or high water, most of those who helped him will be pushing up daisies now, we concentrate on him and not the system that allowed him to escape justice
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He was pretty minor, as Lords go, but yes, he had one or two well-connected mates who might well have helped him abscond to foreign parts.

My opinion on this case varies somewhat as the years go by. I think it's equally plausible that he was helped to a new life in Africa, fell/jumped off the Newhaven ferry, or lived out his days in India taking the name of a minor folk singer.

Actually, I am slightly leaning towards the 3rd option, but tomorrow, maybe I'll read something new and change my mind!
 
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