John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (1934 - ?) was the older son of George Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan, an Anglo-Irish peer. John’s mother went into full time care when he was a toddler and he was raised by a maid. After WW2, this good-looking but cold aristocrat served with the Coldstream Guards in Germany and later worked as a merchant banker.
But in his 20s he became a member of the very classy Clermont Club, spent a fortune on racing power boats and drove a very flashy car. In 1963 he married Veronica Duncan, a woman he did not like but felt obligated to marry because of their advancing ages (nearly 30). They quickly had three children.
Veronica had been beaten by her husband throughout their marriage with a cane and lash; then he had sex with her bleeding body straight afterwards! He was gambling full time and inevitably lost everything. John moved out of the Belgravia family home and a bitter custody battle ensued. He began to spy on his wife, intending to regain custody of their children, but he had spent all his money on gambling. Until his father died, this unemployed, very angry aristocrat would have no money to support himself or the children. As it happened, George Lord Lucan 6th died in Jan 1964.
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Lord John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan
But in his 20s he became a member of the very classy Clermont Club, spent a fortune on racing power boats and drove a very flashy car. In 1963 he married Veronica Duncan, a woman he did not like but felt obligated to marry because of their advancing ages (nearly 30). They quickly had three children.
Veronica had been beaten by her husband throughout their marriage with a cane and lash; then he had sex with her bleeding body straight afterwards! He was gambling full time and inevitably lost everything. John moved out of the Belgravia family home and a bitter custody battle ensued. He began to spy on his wife, intending to regain custody of their children, but he had spent all his money on gambling. Until his father died, this unemployed, very angry aristocrat would have no money to support himself or the children. As it happened, George Lord Lucan 6th died in Jan 1964.
1934 - ?
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Lady Veronica Lucan
died 2017
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The children's nanny, Sandra Rivett
Months later he was seen in Cherbourg and St Malo, France. Fingerprints from a beer glass in Cape Town were located next. Then a Scotland Yard detective claimed that Lord Lucan had lived as a hippy in Goa India until his death in 1996. Or he was in the rural town of Marton in New Zealand. Others saw him backpacking on Mount Etna, waiting on tables in San Francisco, being treated in a private hospital in Johannesburg in 1995, in Greece or in Botswana. Later Lucan was seen working on a sheep station in the Australian outback.
Throughout her later life Veronica called herself Dowager to make her widowhood clear. Eventually Lord Lucan’s death certificate was issued by the High Court to his son, allowing George Bingham to become the 8th Earl Lucan. At her own death in 2017, Lady Lucan had been estranged from her own children for 40 years. Nor had she ever met her 5 grandchildren.
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The medical records of one of the UK's most eminent Harley St plastic surgeons, Dr John Watson, remained hidden since the nanny's murder and Lord Lucan's disappearance. The records, which showed that Dr Watson did facial surgery on the Earl of Lucan after a speedboat accident, were found by daughter Carolyn Watson Allen (in Queensland) and shared with the BBC in 2013.
Because of the canings, Lucan had his wife certified on the grounds of mental illness; SHE lost custody of her children.
On 7th Nov 1974, Lucan went to the five-storey family home at 46 Lower Belgrave St London. In the dark basement kitchen, he met the children's nanny Sandra Rivett who’d gone downstairs to make tea for Lady Lucan. In the dark basement Lucan bludgeoned the nanny to death with lead piping, apparently mistaking the nanny for his wife.
Lady Lucan went downstairs for the cup of tea. There she met Lord Lucan, who attacked her on top of the basement stairs, hitting her over the head with the piping. After grabbing his testicles, Veronica managed to escape. And covered in blood, she ran for help at the local pub.
In the meantime Lord Lucan drove for an hour to the home of Susan Maxwell-Scott, a Sussex friend. The friend didn’t call the police because she didn’t know about the murder. Yet Lucan said he had spotted a man attacking his wife while passing the family home, and “intervened to save his wife”.
On the 8th Nov, Lucan was seen driving from the Maxwell-Scott home. On the 10th, the car was found dumped in the port town of Newhaven, lead piping in the boot.
As Scotland Yard and Fleet St struggled to find Lucan, they met patronising attitudes from the upper-crust regulars of John Aspinall’s Mayfair Clermont Club casino. The Detective Chief Superintendent believed that gambler Michael Stoop’s car (a Ford Corsair) had been left in Newhaven as a decoy and Lucan had quietly slipped out to South Africa.
On 7th Nov 1974, Lucan went to the five-storey family home at 46 Lower Belgrave St London. In the dark basement kitchen, he met the children's nanny Sandra Rivett who’d gone downstairs to make tea for Lady Lucan. In the dark basement Lucan bludgeoned the nanny to death with lead piping, apparently mistaking the nanny for his wife.
Lady Lucan went downstairs for the cup of tea. There she met Lord Lucan, who attacked her on top of the basement stairs, hitting her over the head with the piping. After grabbing his testicles, Veronica managed to escape. And covered in blood, she ran for help at the local pub.
In the meantime Lord Lucan drove for an hour to the home of Susan Maxwell-Scott, a Sussex friend. The friend didn’t call the police because she didn’t know about the murder. Yet Lucan said he had spotted a man attacking his wife while passing the family home, and “intervened to save his wife”.
On the 8th Nov, Lucan was seen driving from the Maxwell-Scott home. On the 10th, the car was found dumped in the port town of Newhaven, lead piping in the boot.
As Scotland Yard and Fleet St struggled to find Lucan, they met patronising attitudes from the upper-crust regulars of John Aspinall’s Mayfair Clermont Club casino. The Detective Chief Superintendent believed that gambler Michael Stoop’s car (a Ford Corsair) had been left in Newhaven as a decoy and Lucan had quietly slipped out to South Africa.
died 2017
died 1974
The Clermont Set did everything to protect their colleague. His friends warned him that, given the murder, Lady Lucan would get custody of the children and the family-trust money. But if he were to disappear, probate could not legally be granted on his estate for 7 years. In 7 years, his children would be just old enough to control the trust money. So, they agreed, Lord Lucan needed to vanish. But how? Not by fleeing abroad.
When artist Dominic Elwes told what he knew about the murder to the press, he found himself blackballed by other Clermont Club members. In 1975 Elwes suicided at 44, probably hounded to death by some of Lucan’s more vicious gambling mates.
When confronted by sightings in exotic locations abroad, Lady Lucan always dismissed them as nonsense. Her husband was not the sort of Englishman to cope abroad; he liked England; he couldn’t speak foreign languages; and he preferred English food. She believed that Lord Lucan was indeed an expert powerboat racer, so he could bravely throw himself under a cross-Channel ferry. The ferry’s propellers would have chopped him up.
Lucan’s friend James Wilson agreed. When Lord Lucan realised he had killed the nanny by mistake, remorse and honour demanded suicide. He must have parked his car at Newhaven where he had a boat, weighed himself down and jumped over the side.
Since 1974 Lord Lucan sightings have popped up across the world, none more important than Australia. On Christmas Eve 1974, just months after the disappearance, Australian police arrested a man in Melbourne thinking they’d caught Lord Lucan. British police and newspaper reporters quickly arrived in Melbourne. So close!! In fact, they had caught 48 year old John Stonehouse, the former British government minister with a posh British accent. Two years earlier Stonehouse had faked his own death on a Florida beach.
The Clermont Set did everything to protect their colleague. His friends warned him that, given the murder, Lady Lucan would get custody of the children and the family-trust money. But if he were to disappear, probate could not legally be granted on his estate for 7 years. In 7 years, his children would be just old enough to control the trust money. So, they agreed, Lord Lucan needed to vanish. But how? Not by fleeing abroad.
When artist Dominic Elwes told what he knew about the murder to the press, he found himself blackballed by other Clermont Club members. In 1975 Elwes suicided at 44, probably hounded to death by some of Lucan’s more vicious gambling mates.
When confronted by sightings in exotic locations abroad, Lady Lucan always dismissed them as nonsense. Her husband was not the sort of Englishman to cope abroad; he liked England; he couldn’t speak foreign languages; and he preferred English food. She believed that Lord Lucan was indeed an expert powerboat racer, so he could bravely throw himself under a cross-Channel ferry. The ferry’s propellers would have chopped him up.
Lucan’s friend James Wilson agreed. When Lord Lucan realised he had killed the nanny by mistake, remorse and honour demanded suicide. He must have parked his car at Newhaven where he had a boat, weighed himself down and jumped over the side.
Since 1974 Lord Lucan sightings have popped up across the world, none more important than Australia. On Christmas Eve 1974, just months after the disappearance, Australian police arrested a man in Melbourne thinking they’d caught Lord Lucan. British police and newspaper reporters quickly arrived in Melbourne. So close!! In fact, they had caught 48 year old John Stonehouse, the former British government minister with a posh British accent. Two years earlier Stonehouse had faked his own death on a Florida beach.
Months later he was seen in Cherbourg and St Malo, France. Fingerprints from a beer glass in Cape Town were located next. Then a Scotland Yard detective claimed that Lord Lucan had lived as a hippy in Goa India until his death in 1996. Or he was in the rural town of Marton in New Zealand. Others saw him backpacking on Mount Etna, waiting on tables in San Francisco, being treated in a private hospital in Johannesburg in 1995, in Greece or in Botswana. Later Lucan was seen working on a sheep station in the Australian outback.
Throughout her later life Veronica called herself Dowager to make her widowhood clear. Eventually Lord Lucan’s death certificate was issued by the High Court to his son, allowing George Bingham to become the 8th Earl Lucan. At her own death in 2017, Lady Lucan had been estranged from her own children for 40 years. Nor had she ever met her 5 grandchildren.
**
The medical records of one of the UK's most eminent Harley St plastic surgeons, Dr John Watson, remained hidden since the nanny's murder and Lord Lucan's disappearance. The records, which showed that Dr Watson did facial surgery on the Earl of Lucan after a speedboat accident, were found by daughter Carolyn Watson Allen (in Queensland) and shared with the BBC in 2013.