At one point in his life, Richard John Bingham had everything – a beautiful wife and children and looks – his suave and dashing look was enough to be considered for the role of James Bond. Bingham enjoyed the privilege and connection that go with a peerage title – he was the 7th Earl of Lucan. In 1960, aged 26, he won the equivalent of £540,000 playing chemin de fer. No wonder they nicknamed him ‘Lucky’.
And then it was all gone. He and his wife grew apart and separated. He lost a bitter custody battle for his three children and managed to squander almost the entire Lucan fortune – millions of pounds – at the casinos. He was in debt and spent his days trapped in the Clermont Club.
One day he claimed a man broke into his Belgravia home and murdered the au pair. That’s all anybody knows of him. Lord Lucan vanished on November 8th 1974.
His friends, mostly fellow gamblers, closed rank about him. Lucky was a gentleman; he’d fled the country because he knew he’d never get a fair trial. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He would have been physically incapable of murdering anybody. They talked about how kind and gentle he was. Lord Lucan was an innocent man, they said.
The murder of the innocent au pair was vigorously investigated by New Scotland Yard’s Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Ranson. Thirty thousand British policemen carried pictures of Lucan inside their notepads. Police moved in on dozens of hiding places – potential ‘lying doggo’ dens – only to find he’d never, ever been there. X-ray search equipment was used to look for his body on Sussex Downs. Officers were sent to the French ports of St Malo and Cherbourg to investigate sightings.
There were only two possibilities: he was living abroad under an assumed name, or he was dead, his body hidden. Everybody had a theory about his fate.
The hitman theory – It is possible that Lucan hired a hitman to kill his estranged wife, who botched it. The Earl, a potential witness, was disposed of by a person, or persons, unknown to keep the story quiet.
The tiger theory – His close friend, wealthy casino owner, John Aspinall, operated two private zoos: Howletts and Port Lympne. The story goes that Lucan travelled there and, following a discussion on what would be best for the family, a pistol was offered. Lucan took it, went into a room on his own and shot himself dead. He asked for his body to be fed to tigers.
The fresh start theory – somehow, he managed to escape Britain and built a new life elsewhere. A taxi-driver said that, soon after the murder, he’d taken Lucan to a private airport. He was allegedly sighted in Paraguay, Goa and New Zealand. In 1978, Barbados police were asked by Scotland Yard to investigate reports that a British resident was sending money to Lord Lucan in South America. In Cape Town, South Africa, police examined fingerprints left on a beer glass by a man who might have been him. His wrist-watch allegedly turned up at a pawn-broker nearby.
The whole world was on the lookout. Sightings were reported as far away as Mozambique and Zimbabwe, Greece and Switzerland. In 2022, amateur investigators using facial recognition technology claimed to have found him living in a Buddhist commune in Brisbane, Australia. A former assistant to Lucan’s close friend John Aspinall claimed she had been asked to book his two eldest children on flights to Africa so their father could see them.
And yet, none of the leads resulted in locating him. Maybe he was a magician. Or a time traveller.
Lord Lucan was formally named responsible for the au pair’s murder by a coroner’s inquest in 1975, legally declared dead in 1999 and 2016. But is he?
Civil unrest is nothing new in Paris. To an outsider, it seems that Revolution is in French genes.
inner-Sydney suburb last night. Telegraph 30.12.85, Bruce McDougall, Louise Nicholson
night held a street party to celebrate a reprieve by the State Government in their fight over road closures. Retiring Local Government Minister, Mr Stewart, yesterday announced the two month truce after almost two hours of talks with Transport Minister, Mr Unsworth. Telegraph 31.12.85, Bruce McDougall, Les Kennedy
as no coward ; you are the coward, sir,’ that he accused him of shooting Bowen.
rst trial in connection with what are known as the Adelaide insurance frauds was concluded at Adelaide on the 29th ult., Mr. Justice Boucaut being the presiding judge.
4. Mr. J. J. Macgregor Greer, a young gentleman who only landed in. the colony a few days ago, shot his wife and Mons. A. L. Soudry, one of the members of
the back of the circle. This shot missed its mark, and Greer then rushed along
Melbourne International. About 2500 people daily accost him with the entreaty — ‘ Which man Mr. Soudry ? And when that ‘hero’ replies, ‘C’est moi,” 2499 out of the 2500 walk away disappointed.
bbits on the road ahead. We were near the hospital, it was dark and they were caught in the headlights. Some darted across the road, others just stood and stared. My grandfather swore he managed to swerve and miss them all.
wn to make way for a large warehouse. Many people were attracted by the falling tree, and it was sorrowful to see the place littered with the branches and cut-up trunk of the once noble relic. Opposite are some still more aged trees, who look as though they would soon join the ‘majority.’ The chief reason that this tree is being noticed is that it stood for so long in the yard of the Australian Club, a rather ugly building, which is just as well abolished as an ornament, but which has many an interesting tale told of it.