The mysterious disappearance of Lord Lucan after the violent murder of the family's nanny, Sandra Rivett, in 1974, has left friends, family members and the police baffled for decades.
Yesterday, a High Court judge ruled the peer is now presumed to be dead – but despite the official verdict, conspiracy theories abound.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Lady Lucan, who claims she was the intended victim, remains convinced the aristocrat killed himself after murdering Rivett at their home in Belgravia, having, she says, mistaken the nanny for his wife in the dark.
In the days after the attack, Lucan's blood-stained car was found in Newhaven, East Sussex. His wife believes he abandoned it there before jumping to his death.
He ran away and started a new life in Africa
The aristocrat was reportedly spotted in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in the years after the murder. Jill Findlay, 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.
But Lady Lucan has rubbished the claims. "He was not the sort of Englishman to cope abroad," she told the Daily Telegraph in 2012. "He likes England; he couldn't speak foreign languages and preferred English food."
Or in Australia… or Paraguay…
The first reported sighting of Lucan was in Melbourne, in January 1975. He was later "seen" at an ex-Nazi colony in Paraguay, a hippy commune in India and in the New Zealand outback, alongside a pet possum and a goat named Camilla, says the Daily Mirror.
He was fed to tigers in Kent
Philippe Marcq, a wealthy stockbroker who knew Lucan well through their mutual love of gambling, claims the aristocrat travelled to a private zoo in Kent owned by Aspinall after the murder.
Following a frank discussion on what would be best for the family, "a pistol was offered to Lucan who took it, went into a room on his own and shot himself dead", reports the Daily Mail.
"Marcq says he was told that Lucan's body was then fed to one of John Aspinall's tigers – a grotesque but entirely effective means of disposing of the corpse."
-
August 26 editorial cartoonsCartoons Tuesday’s political cartoons include a simple guide to gerrymandering, a MAGA-approved Cracker Barrel logo, and an FBI raid at John Bolton's house
-
Four royal holiday hotspotsThe Week Recommends Follow in the footsteps of royalty and experience the charm of some of their most popular getaways
-
The rise of the lost luggage auctionIn the Spotlight Lost luggage hauls are attracting millions of views online
-
Home Office worker accused of spiking mistress’s drink with abortion drugSpeed Read Darren Burke had failed to convince his girlfriend to terminate pregnancy
-
In hock to Moscow: exploring Germany’s woeful energy policySpeed Read Don’t expect Berlin to wean itself off Russian gas any time soon
-
Were Covid restrictions dropped too soon?Speed Read ‘Living with Covid’ is already proving problematic – just look at the travel chaos this week
-
Inclusive Britain: a new strategy for tackling racism in the UKSpeed Read Government has revealed action plan setting out 74 steps that ministers will take
-
Sandy Hook families vs. Remington: a small victory over the gunmakersSpeed Read Last week the families settled a lawsuit for $73m against the manufacturer
-
Farmers vs. walkers: the battle over ‘Britain’s green and pleasant land’Speed Read Updated Countryside Code tells farmers: ‘be nice, say hello, share the space’
-
Motherhood: why are we putting it off?Speed Read Stats show around 50% of women in England and Wales now don’t have children by 30
-
Anti-Semitism in America: a case of double standards?Speed Read Officials were strikingly reluctant to link Texas synagogue attack to anti-Semitism
