Lucan Lives

You can read this title in two ways: one way, and another

Lucan’s alive! No, but he isn’t, honestly. He was once, but no more. This post is about Lucan lives, lives similar to Lucan’s in important ways. Welcome to the absconding killer.

I got back into the Lucan story last year after the BBC screened a three-part series about an incredible quest to find the real Lucan in Australia. The son of Lucan’s victim, Sandra Rivett, was leading the charge. A more intense mix of emotions it is difficult to imagine, and the series did not disappoint in any way except one. They didn’t find Lord Lucan. I have since heard a few more podcasts and read a few more articles. Substack’s resident expert on this case, and one of the experts routinely consulted on these series is Laura Thompson.

Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan with wife Veronica Duncan

There is only one thing worse for an investigation than a missing culprit and it’s a missing body. A missing person who is the victim makes it difficult to even prove that a crime occurred. In this case, some sort of crime most definitely occurred, but which one? It would have been a lot easier if Lord Lucan had not vanished that night in 1974. It would have been easier for us, of course, but it would also have been easier for Lucan himself and his children, and the children of his victim.

With a case like this I won’t even attempt to summarise it. It happened 50 years ago and there are so many ways to discover stuff now that it would be insulting to suggest you’re not slightly aware of it. Laura Thompson has a useful thread that runs through all the various permutations of what might have happened, but the upshot of it all is that Sandra Rivett, the nanny of the Lucans, was killed. Veronica was attacked, quite badly, but not fatally. Who did all of this and how and why can no longer be solved without a confession. Veronica eventually died in 2017.

You can start your journey through Laura’s five solutions to the case here.

What interests me here is the impact this kind of departure has on a murder investigation, and consequently on the survivors. This case was unusual because it meant Veronica, who hated her estranged husband, got to narrate the events of that evening as the only point of view available. The children were in the house at the time of the attacks but saw nothing. The only other witness, Sandra Rivett, died at the scene.

Veronica was herself a complex individual. The Lucans were reaching the end of a bitter and expensive custody battle, and Lord Lucan had come off very much the worst. His money had run out and he was facing bankruptcy, having called in every favour and then some. So when he vanished, Veronica got to spin yarns for fifty years with no fear of contradiction. Unless she accidentally contradicted herself, which she did.

What an absconding suspect does to an investigation can be fatally undermining. There is nobody to give counter arguments to Veronica’s stories. There is no paper trail to follow up: the bankruptcy proceedings stalled, the custody battle became moot, Lucan’s gambling and womanising stopped so there was no longer anyone to talk to for up to date information. Had his body been found, that would have made things considerably easier and less fascinating. It would have spoiled all our fun.

Almost nobody has succeeded in such a disappearing act without dying. Many people think Lucan did die in the days following the attack, but no body was ever found. Thus this becomes a doubly interesting case: we can’t find the suspect, and worse than that, we don’t even know where his remains are. I’m more used to missing victims. I don’t remember anyone claiming to have bumped off Lucan (although there was the Swiss rumour…) which leaves suicide, old age or misadventure as the other options. Could he really have been eaten by John Aspinall’s tiger? He died in 2000 so we will never know.

There are no recent photos of Lucan, but thanks to modern technology we can now take a good guess at what he might have looked like. Such efforts have led nowhere. The BBC had some amazing leads but ultimately they led nowhere. I can understand someone disappearing in 1974, especially one as well-connected as Lucan. Private plane, no need for a passport, rich friends… it is easy to imagine how he escaped. Was he on the cross-channel ferry? I tend to think he was. But did he fall or jump off?

The problem with staying hidden for 50 years is that the world moved on. Were Lucan alive today he would find life hard without a smartphone or an email account. He would be leaving traces 24 hours a day. He might have a false name and papers, helped out by his friends, but he can’t hide his DNA or fingerprints. Someone, somewhere would have recognised him. I am absolutely sure that he would have been found had he lived.

When Lucan’s death certificate was finally issued at a hearing in 2016, his son became the 8th Earl of Lucan. Neil Berriman, Sandra Rivett’s son, said something profound: “There is no getting away from the fact that, whatever happened that night, Lord Lucan is guilty of something in my eyes."

We can surely all agree on that. If Lucan did not kill Sandra Rivett, why did he not calmly wait for the police? A man with his background and connections would have been believed at face value. Yes, he was guilty of something.

Perhaps Lucan could not have foreseen the shadow his actions would cast over his children. He claimed to love them, and his losing the custody battle is usually cited as one reason he might have taken his own life. But if he really did love them, why did he subject them to a lifetime of legal upheaval and uncertainty? In the fallout from the murder, they even became estranged from their mother, so in effect neither Lucan nor Veronica ‘won’ custody. The kids went to live with the Shand Kydd family. These were Veronica’s in-laws and if the name sounds familiar, Frances Shand Kydd was the mother of Princess Diana.

The Lord Lucan story for all its innate tragedy has become somewhat comical. I hesitated before using the word ‘fun’ earlier and almost took it out. Lucan’s disappearance is such a British institution now that a little humour here and there is socially acceptable. Although I try to take crime as seriously as possible, everyone is allowed a little fun with Lucan. It’s a shame, but of course, the only reason that it became funny is because Lucan disappeared. I can’t think of another crime that is viewed in this light-hearted way. We’re all allowed one. And anyway, it’s Lucan’s fault because he disappeared by choice.

You can watch a 2 minute summary of the recent BBC series here on Points of View, featuring yours truly!