United Kingdom: Diana’s death still questioned

last updated 8 January 2015

It didn’t take much to rekindle the nation’s Diana fever, said Martin Robinson in the Daily Mail. It’s been 16 years since the erstwhile Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in a Paris tunnel while being chased by paparazzi, but we just can’t let her go. In the latest conspiracy theory, floated last week, a special forces officer is said to have bragged about having been in on a military plot to murder Diana. The officer, whose name was not released, was described by colleagues as “erratic” and “a loose cannon,” and experts said the allegations were “utter nonsense.” Still, Scotland Yard was forced to admit that, while it wasn’t reopening an inquiry into the crash, it was evaluating the testimony. That admission was enough to bring praise from those who have alleged foul play all along: Mohamed Al Fayed, father of Diana’s boyfriend Dodi Fayed, who died with her, and the family of Henri Paul, the driver of the car, who also died in the accident.

August is “Diana memorial season,” so it’s no surprise that another conspiracy theory is making the rounds, said David Aaronovitch in The Times. None of the reporters covering the story this week really believes that the death was anything other than an accident, and very few of the readers do either. “What this talk represents is a desire to somehow keep a version of Diana on the go.” In another culture, we might encase her finger in silver and parade it around the square every year. In this one, we invent bogus “revelations” about her death to justify mourning her anew.

For many women my age, Diana’s memory is still fresh, said Cristina Odone in The Daily Telegraph. We loved her, still love her, because “we feel we let her down.” Unlike her daughter-in-law Kate Middleton, who is “so normal and grounded that she makes the rest of us feel like dysfunctional freaks,” Diana was deeply flawed—“insecure, needy, jealous, self-critical, self-harming”—yet also glamorous and tenderhearted. Her vulnerability cried out for protection, and having no doting mother or close sister to lean on, she turned to us. Yet in the end, “no one could protect her from a disastrous marriage, unsuitable suitors, celebrity, the paparazzi, or herself.” No wonder we continue to mourn.

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Yet that doesn’t explain why the conspiracy theories persist, said Sam Leith in the Evening Standard. Immediately after Diana’s death, a stunned public sought to blame someone, and since the royal family quite obviously detested her, whispers arose that they had done her in. But there’s simply zero evidence to support the idea. There isn’t even a plausible method of assassination asserted: Even a seasoned assassin would be crazy to try to cause a crash in public in full view of the pursuing international press, “while trusting to luck that the target wouldn’t put her seat belt on.” A two-year French inquiry, a three-year British investigation, and a thorough inquest all reached the same conclusion: Diana died because she wasn’t wearing her seat belt and her driver was drunk and speeding. Was it murder? “The short answer is: no. The long answer is: nooooooooooo.”