The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (40 page)

As it became apparent that Lucan had managed to amass gambling debts, it was suspected that he had planned his wife’s death so that he could claim the insurance money and alleviate his
money problems. He may well have mistaken Sandra Rivett for his wife, as he was unaware of the change to the usual night-time routine. If he was sitting in wait in the darkness of the basement, he
would not have been expecting the nanny to be there at all that night, and could have murdered her in error. He had already been bad-mouthed in the tabloids for leaving his wife with three
children, while he apparently continued to enjoy his own hobbies – notably gambling. He had been pictured in virtually every tabloid at some time or another over the last 20 years and was
aware that they would not hold back in naming him as a suspect in the murder case. He would have not been able to face the humiliation of having to go to trial, accused of murder, and would not
wish his family name to be dragged through the news and tabloid press, with all the shame that this would cause to his family.

Richard John Bingham had up until this point enjoyed his privileged life. He was born on 18 December 1934, to George Bingham, the Sixth Earl of Lucan, and Countess Kait Lucan. He preferred to be
called John. He had two older sisters and a younger brother soon followed him. During the Second World War, John and his brother and sisters were all moved to the United States, as it was
considered to be much safer for them there. They lived in New York and Florida in beautiful luxurious houses and were attended by many servants and nannies. When the war was over and England was
again deemed safe, the family returned and John began his schooling in the elite public school, Eton.

In 1953 he joined the armed forces and was commissioned in the Coldstream Guards. While serving in the Army he became well known for his love of gambling and would spend much of his “R and
R” in casinos; he earned himself the nickname of Lucky. His love of gambling continued and after leaving the forces he joined a merchant bank; but he found that he could make much more money
as a professional gambler, so he resigned from his post.

It wasn’t until he was almost 30 that he met his bride-to-be, Veronica Duncan. At a golf tournament she was introduced to him by Bill Shand Kydd, as Veronica was his wife’s sister.
The couple hit it off and they were soon married. Within a couple of months of their marriage John’s father died, making them the new Seventh Earl and Countess of Lucan. They were by now
living in Lower Belgrave Street and the couple were soon a trio as on 24 October 1964 their first child was born, Lady Frances. By September 1967 Veronica gave birth to a son, George, and in June
1970 he was followed by Camilla.

The strain of having three young children was difficult to bear and Veronica found herself suffering from post-natal depression. With the encouragement of her husband, she sought help and was
prescribed drugs to help alleviate her symptoms. By the early 1970s the relationship was in trouble. John seemed obsessed with the notion that Veronica was unfit to look after the children and she
was becoming increasingly concerned with the amount of money he appeared to be losing on a regular basis in the casinos.

It was decided that the couple should part and in January 1973 they separated. Veronica stayed in the family home with the children and John took a flat in Elizabeth Street in Chelsea, but by
May he had hired private detectives to snatch his children from his wife. They were successful and Lucan kept the children with him until a custody hearing in June. Much of the hearing was based on
Veronica’s mental state, which she argued was not an issue until after giving birth to her children and was diagnosed as post-natal depression. She believed that the medication she was
prescribed did not necessarily help her symptoms and at times she considered them to be inappropriate for her condition. She felt that her husband had discussed her health with the doctors and had
exaggerated her mental state. The Judge found in favour of Veronica and ordered that the children be handed back to their mother. Lucan must have been incensed as a peer of the realm had rarely
lost a custody battle, and it had cost him in the order of
£
40,000; with his already mounting gambling debts, it was money he could ill afford.

The strain of not having his children and his financial problems were weighing heavily on him. He thought that if his wife was out of the picture his life would be much happier. He could be back
with his children and he would be able to sell the house, which was worth around a quarter of a million pounds. It was suspected that his mental state had declined with his financial pressures and
family stress and he concocted a plan to rid himself of his wife. He thought that he could blame her sudden disappearance on her depression and could claim that she had just wandered off and may
have lost her memory. He was well aware that he could easily overpower her, as he was over a foot taller than her and he had been trained in combat when he was in the Army. The plan might have been
a success if he hadn’t made two crucial errors. Firstly, he killed the wrong woman; and secondly, he failed to kill the right one.

In June 1975, at Westminster Coroner’s Court, an inquest was opened into the death of Sandra Rivett. Coroner Dr Gavin Thurston and the coroner’s jury listened to testimonies and the
evidence relating to the nanny’s death and the attack on Lady Lucan. At this time English law was very restrictive over a wife giving evidence against her husband, unless he is charged with
an assault against his wife. After much debating, it was agreed that Lady Lucan should give the jury her account of what had happened, as this was an inquest and not a trial.

Lady Lucan’s evidence was only to give an account of the attack on herself. She described how on the evening in question she was waiting for the nanny to return upstairs, as she had been
longer than usual. Her curiosity got the better of her and at a little after 9 p.m. she went downstairs to the ground floor and stood at the top of the basement stairs. Realizing the light would
not work, she simply called out to Sandra, but got no reply. She thought that she heard noises coming from the cloakroom so she turned to go and find out what was causing them. As she did so,
somebody rushed out of the room and started attacking her, hitting her on the front of the head, very hard, many times. She recalled being told to shut up and recognized the voice to be that of her
estranged husband, Lord Lucan.

She described a struggle, with her attacker forcing three fingers from his gloved hand down her throat, also the attempt to strangle her and gouge her eyes out. Finally she recounted her attempt
to free herself from her attacker when she grabbed him by the testicles very hard, he soon gave in and lay on the floor exhausted. Then she persuaded her husband to assist her and he took her
upstairs to tend to her wounds. She said that her daughter saw them and that she asked Frances to return to her own bed. While her husband was getting towels, she managed to summon her strength to
get out of the room and then out of the house to raise the alarm. She also confirmed that she hadn’t seen any strangers in the house and that she had never seen the sack which Sandra
Rivett’s body was found in.

A casualty officer testified to Lady Lucan’s injuries, confirming that on his examination of her he found her injuries to be consistent with those sustained in the described attack.
Namely, he noted seven lacerations on her scalp, injuries to the palate and on the back of her throat and bruising to her eye.

Frances Bingham, the Lucans’ 10-year-old daughter, had given a statement to the police and this was read out in court. It described that she was in her mother’s bedroom with her
mother and that they were waiting for the nanny to return upstairs with tea. She described how, after waiting for a little while, her mother went downstairs to see why Sandra was taking so long.
Frances said that she heard her mother scream, but was unconcerned as she assumed that she had been scratched by the family cat. She says that the next time she saw her mother was when Veronica
entered the room with Lord Lucan. Frances noted that her mother had blood on her face and that her father was wearing an overcoat. She was then sent to her own room to go to bed. After a time she
heard her father calling for her mother and then she heard what she assumed was her father leaving.

Pathologist Dr Keith Simpson performed the post-mortem on Sandra Rivett and confirmed that she died as a result of choking on her own blood, and said that with her wounds she probably died a few
minutes after being attacked. He also testified that the injuries to the two women were similar in nature, and would probably have been inflicted by the same instrument, by the same attacker.

Also called to give evidence were friends of Lord Lucan. These included Bill Shand Kydd, who described his friendship with Lucan and discussed the letters he received from him shortly after the
7th; Michael Stoop, who was questioned in detail about the car which he loaned to Lucan and the subsequent letter he received from him; and Susan Maxwell-Scott, who described the visit that Lord
Lucan had paid to her on the evening of Sandra Rivett’s death. Dowager Countess Lucan testified that she received two telephone calls from her son that evening; the first time she was asked
to collect his children from their home, and the second time to check that the children were alright and to ask that she did not speak to the police.

Over 30 witnesses gave testimonies at the inquest, including those from police officers who gave detailed forensic reports based on information gathered at the murder scene. It was noted that
there was a large amount of blood in various areas in the house, and it was pointed out that Sandra Rivett was blood type B and that Lady Lucan was blood type A. In the basement was the most
concentrated source of the blood type B, which was where the body of Sandra Rivett was discovered in the mail sack in the breakfast room. There were numerous blood splashes with a large area of
blood-staining near the piano. The blood type A was more prevalent in the hallway at the top of the basement staircase, which was on the ground floor; also in this area there were many hairs
matching Lady Lucan’s. The hallway was considered an obvious site of attack, with a pattern of radiating blood splashes showing that a victim had been battered.

The lead pipe had a mixture of both blood types on it; so did the blood samples found in the Ford Corsair. The letters which Lucan had sent to Bill Shand Kydd were examined and the envelopes
were found to have type AB bloodstains on them. Forensic experts confirmed that type AB blood can be a result of mixing together quantities of type B and type A.

A man’s bloody shoeprint was discovered in the basement of the house. The police were unable to identify who had left the print, but they were able to confirm that the blood was that of
the murder victim.

A trail of matching fibres were found throughout the murder scene. These were of grey-blue woollen material and they were present in the basement, in Lady Lucan’s bathroom in the sink, on
her towel, on the lead pipe which was used in the attack and in the Ford Corsair. This provided critical evidence that linked the murder scene with the car and the attacker.

Lucan’s explanation to the Maxwell-Scotts of seeing a man attacking his wife in the basement was found to be very flimsy. There was no blood found in the basement which matched his
wife’s; plus, the view into the basement was very limited from outside, showing mainly the bottom few steps. Also, as the light bulb had been removed on the evening of the murder, the view
into the basement would be practically nil.

After four days of statements and evidence, the jury was sent to come to a verdict. After little over half an hour they returned to the room with their verdict. Their verdict was that Sandra
Rivett’s cause of death was murder by Lord Lucan. As this was a coroner’s court, the verdict was to determine the cause of death, unlike that in a criminal court which would be to prove
innocence or guilt. This was the last time that such a verdict could be made by a coroner’s court; the following month, as a direct result of this hearing, the Criminal Law Act of 1977
abolished the coroner’s court’s ability to name the suspected murderer.

The theories on this case can be debated for ever.

Some Lucan sympathists believe he did see his wife being attacked and rushed to her aid, promoting him as a hero figure turned fugitive, as he feared that he would not be believed. After all, he
was very wary of the press and was aware that they were extremely powerful and had a massive audience at their disposal, keen to read what they reported as the truth. Also, Lucan had been to court
earlier, fully expecting that he would gain custody of his children, only to be refused. He had lost all hope of having an impartial judge to hear his version of the events regarding the death of
his children’s nanny and the beating of his wife. He also felt that his wife would do her best to keep him from taking the children from her and did not expect her to assist at his trial. His
best defence would have come from his many friends, who simply could not believe that Lucan would do such a thing. Especially out of character was the way in which the murder and attack took place.
They would never imagine that he could use such a crude weapon; it was simply not the John that they knew and loved.

Another theory was that Lucan was the killer, as the coroner’s inquest had concluded. The facts regarding hard evidence are too strong, especially as Lucan claimed that he saw his wife
being attacked in the basement, when there was no trace of her blood found there, and her attack took place on the ground floor. Also the blood found in the car, and on the envelopes for the
letters he had sent to Bill Shand Kydd, all point to Lucan. Add to that his recent unhappy court case, and his debts: he had become a desperate man, and desperate men take some pretty unexpected,
drastic actions.

Could Lord Lucan have hired a killer? He might well have wanted his estranged wife to disappear and in his letter to Bill Shand Kydd he mentioned that his wife had accused him of hiring a third
party to take her life. Also in the letter he referred to his children and says that he would not want them to see him in court accused with attempted murder. This points to the fact that he felt
that he would have been blamed for the act, and as previously mentioned he didn’t hold out much hope of receiving a fair trial, due to his public persona. If he had hired somebody to do his
dirty work, then surely a hired hit-man would use a better weapon than a piece of lead piping? This is one of the messiest and ineffective ways to extinguish a life; the death would not be
instantaneous and would probably take several minutes at best, and the victim might well have time to call for help and raise the alarm. This form of execution would no doubt bring attention to the
murderer when leaving the murder scene, as it is virtually impossible to beat somebody to death around the head without transferring some blood to the murderer’s clothing.