On this Day: 7th November 1974 – Lord
Lucan disappears after murder of his children’s nanny
Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of
Lucan (born 18 December 1934), popularly known as Lord Lucan, was a British peer, the elder son of George
Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan and Kaitlin Elizabeth Anne Dawson. Lucan
developed a taste for gambling
and, skilled at backgammon
and bridge,
became an early member of the Clermont
gaming club. Although his losses often outweighed his winnings, he left his job
at a London-based merchant bank and became a professional gambler.
Once considered for the role of James Bond,
Lucan was a charismatic man with expensive tastes; he raced power boats
and drove an Aston Martin.
On the evening of 7 November 1974, his children's nanny, Sandra Rivett,
was bludgeoned to death in the basement of the Lucan family home. His estranged
wife Lady Lucan was also attacked; she later identified Lucan as her assailant.
As the police began their murder investigation he telephoned his mother, asking
her to collect the children, and then drove a borrowed Ford Corsair to a friend's
house in Uckfield,
Sussex. Hours later, he left the property and was never seen again. The Corsair
was later found abandoned in Newhaven,
its interior stained with blood and its boot containing a piece of
bandaged lead pipe similar to one found at the crime scene. A warrant for his
arrest was issued a few days later and in his absence, the inquest into
Rivett's death named him as her murderer, the last occasion in Britain a
coroner's court was allowed to do so.
Lucan's fate remains a
fascinating mystery for the British public. Hundreds of reports of his presence
in various countries around the world have been made following Rivett's murder,
although none have been substantiated. Despite a police investigation and huge
press interest, Lucan has not been found and is presumed dead.
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Research courtesy of Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_lucan
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