User:Parrot of Doom/Lord Lucan

Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (born 1934), popularly known as Lord Lucan, was a British peer who disappeared following the murder of his childrens' nanny, Sandra Rivett, on 7 November 1974. He was born in Marylebone, the elder son of George Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan and Kaitlin Elizabeth Anne Dawson. He and his siblings were evacuated to the United States in 1940, where they lived for five years with multi-millionairess Marcia Brady Tucker. Lucan later attended Eton, where he developed a taste for gambling, and from 1953–1955 performed his National Service with the Coldstream Guards in West Germany. After leaving the army Lucan joined a London-based merchant bank, William Brandt's. He was an early member of the Clermont gaming club and a frequent gambler, skilled at backgammon and bridge, and although his losses often outweighed his winnings he became a professional gambler. Lucan had expensive tastes; he raced power boats and drove an Aston Martin.

In 1963 he married Veronica Duncan, who bore him three children; Frances, George and Camilla. The union lasted for eight years before breaking down completely in December 1972, following which Lucan moved into a property not far from the family home at 46 Lower Belgrave Street in London. Their children were declared wards of court and taken to live with their father, prompting a bitter custody battle that was eventually won by his wife. Lucan began to spy on her and record their telephone conversations, apparently obsessed with regaining custody. This obsession, combined with his gambling losses, began to have a dramatic effect on his general demeanour and personal finances.

On the evening of 7 November 1974, the childrens' nanny, Sandra Rivett, was bludgeoned to death in the basement of their home. Veronica Lucan was also attacked and later identified her assailant as Lord Lucan. As the police began their murder investigation, Lucan called his mother to collect the children and then drove a borrowed Ford Corsair to Uckfield. After explaining his version of events to a friend who lived there, he left the property and was never seen again. His car was later found abandoned in Newhaven, its interior stained with blood and its boot containing a piece of lead pipe similar to one found at the crime scene. A warrant for his arrest was issued a few days later and in his absence, the inquiry into Rivett's death found him guilty of her murder, the last occasion in Britain a coroner's court was allowed to do so.

Lucan's fate remains a mystery. Despite a police investigation and huge press interest, he was never found and is presumed dead. Reports of his living in various countries around the world have been made over the decades following Rivett's murder, although none have been proven.

Early life and education
Richard John Bingham was born on 18 December 1934 at 19 Bentink Street, Marylebone, the second child and elder son of George Bingham, 6th Earl of Lucan, and Kaitlin Elizabeth Anne Dawson. A blood clot found in her lung forced his mother to remain in a nursing home, so John was cared for by the family's nurserymaid, Lucy Sellers. Aged three years, he and his elder sister, Jane, attended a pre-prep school in Tite Street. In 1939, with a war approaching, the two were evacuated to Wales. The following year, joined by their younger siblings, Sally and Hugh, the Lucan children travelled to Toronto, moving shortly thereafter to Mount Kisco, New York. There they stayed for five years with multi-millionairess Marcia Brady Tucker. John was enrolled at The Harvey School and spent summer holidays away from his siblings at a summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains.

While in the US, John and his siblings lived in grandeur and wanted for nothing, but on their return in February 1945 they faced the reality of wartime Britain. Rationing was in effect, their former home on Cheyne Walk had been bombed and the house at 22 Eaton Square had had its windows blown out. Despite the family's rich ancestry, the sixth Earl and his wife were agnostics and socialists and preferred a more austere existence to that offered by Tucker, an extremely wealthy Christian. However, John remained an agnostic into his adulthood, although his children attended Sunday school, preferring to give them a traditional childhood.

At Eton, John developed a taste for gambling. He supplemented his pocket money with income from bookmaking, placing his earnings into a "secret" bank account. He regularly left the school grounds to attend horse races. Although according to his mother his academic record was "far from creditable", he became Captain of Roe's House, before leaving in 1953 to undertake his National Service. He became a second lieutenant in his father's regiment, the Coldstream Guards, stationed mainly in Krefeld, West Germany. While there, he also became a keen poker player.

Career
With help from an uncle, on leaving the army in 1955 Lucan joined a London-based merchant bank, William Brandt's Sons and Co. Ltd, on an annual salary of £500. In 1960 he met Stephen Raphael, a wealthy stockbroker and skilled backgammon player (Raphael's wife, Eve, later became godmother to Lucan's first child, Frances). They holidayed together in the Bahamas, playing golf, water-skiing, backgammon and poker. Lucan became a regular gambler and was an early member of John Aspinall's Clermont gaming club, located in Berkeley Square, London. Although he often won at games like bridge and backgammon, he also accumulated huge losses; on one occasion he lost £8,000 (around two thirds his annual income), to be repaid in monthly instalments. In another disastrous night he lost £10,000 at a casino, prompting his stockbroker uncle, John Bevan, to help him repay the debt (Lucan repaid his uncle two years later).

Much to Raphael's disapproval, Lucan left Brandt's shortly after winning £26,000 playing chermin de fer. When a colleague was promoted before him, he protested and then quit his job, telling all "why should I work in a bank, when I can earn a year's money in one single night at the tables?" Although described by his friends as a shy and taciturn man, with his tall stature, "luxuriant guardsman's moustache" and masculine pursuits, his exploits made him popular. He travelled to the US where he played golf, raced powerboats and drove his Aston Martin around the West Coast of the United States. He also visited his elder sister, Jane, and his former guardian, Marcia Tucker. On his return to the UK he left his parents' home in St John's Wood and moved to a flat in Park Crescent, near Regents Park.

Marriage
For a while, Lucan courted Lady Zinnia Denison, although the relationship was platonic. He met his future wife early in 1963. Veronica Duncan was born in 1937 to Major Charles Moorhouse Duncan and his wife Thelma. Her father died in a car accident when she was two years old, following which she and her mother moved to South Africa. Her mother remarried but the family moved back to England when Veronica's stepfather, James Margrie, became manager of a hotel in Guildford. She and her sister Christina were schooled at St Swithun's School, Winchester. There she displayed a talent for art and so went on to study at an art college in Bournemouth. She and Christina later shared a flat in London, where Veronica worked as a model and later a secretary. Christina's marriage to the wealthy William Shand-Kydd introduced her to London society's elite, and it was at a golf-club function in the country that she and Lucan first met.

News of their engagement appeared in the Times and Telegraph on 14 October 1963. The two were married at Holy Trinity Brompton Church on 20 November, in a high society event attended by dignitaries such as Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone. They honeymooned in Europe, travelling first class on the Orient Express. Lucan's embattled finances were given a welcome boost by his father, who provided him with a marriage settlement designed to finance a larger family home and any future additions to the Lucan family tree. He repaid some of his creditors, leased a new family home at 46 Lower Belgrave Street in London and had it redecorated it to suit Veronica's tastes.

Two months after the wedding, on 21 January 1964, the sixth Earl of Lucan died of a stroke. In addition to a reputed quarter of a million pounds inheritance (although some consider this figure to be grossly inflated), he also acquired his father's titles; Earl of Lucan; Baron Lucan of Castlebar; Baron Lucan of Melcombe Lucan and Baronet of Nova Scotia. His wife became the Countess of Lucan. Their first child, Frances, was born on 24 October 1964. Early the next year they employed a nanny, Lillian Jenkins, to look after their new baby. Lucan continued to gamble, unsuccessfully trying to educate Veronica on the subject. He also tried to interest her in traditional pursuits like hunting, shooting and fishing. He bought her golf lessons, but she soon tired of the sport and gave it up. His daily routine consisted of breakfast at 9:00 am, coffee, dealing with letters, reading the newspapers and playing the piano. He sometimes jogged in the park and, when he had him, took his Doberman Pinscher for walks. Lunch at the Clermont would be followed by afternoon games of backgammon. Returning home to change into evening attire, the earl would spend the remainder of the day at the Clermont, gambling into the early hours, watched sometimes by Veronica.

In 1956, while still working at Brandt's, Lucan had written of his desire to have "£2m in the bank", claiming that "motor-cars, yachts, expensive holidays and security for the future would give myself and a lot of other people a lot of pleasure", Following his departure, he became a professional gambler. He was undoubtedly a skilled player, at one time rated amongst the world's top ten backgammon players. He won the St James's Club tournament and was Champion of the West Coast of America. He gained the moniker "Lucky" Lucan, but in reality he was anything but, his losses easily outweighing his winnings. He had interests in thoroughbred horses, although in 1968 he paid more in race entry fees than he received in winnings. His profligacy extended to hiring a private plane to take his friends to the races, asking a car dealer friend to source an Aston Martin drophead coupe, drinking expensive Russian vodka and racing power boats with Bruce Colin Campbell. In September 1966 he flew to Paris to screen test for a part in Woman Times Seven, which starred Shirley MacLaine. He was ultimately unsuccessful, and when film producer Cubby Broccoli later asked to screen test him for the part of James Bond, he declined the offer.

Lucan's steady gambling losses were kept secret from his wife, who retained the use of accounts at Savile Row tailors and various Knightsbridge shops, including Harrods, from where the family sourced some of its groceries. The pressure of maintaining his finances, his gambling addiction and a right-wing upper-class view on life eventually took its toll on their marriage though. The couple had two more children, George (b. 1967) and Camilla (b. 1970), but Veronica struggled with post-natal depression, and the two frequently argued over money. He became increasingly interested in her mental well-being and in 1971 took her for treatment to a psychiatric clinic in Hampstead, although she refused to be admitted. Instead, she agreed to home visits from a psychiatrist and a course of anti-depressants. In July 1972 the family holidayed in Monte Carlo but Veronica quickly returned to England, leaving Lucan with their two oldest children. Two weeks after a strained family Christmas in 1972, Lucan moved into a small property in Eaton Mews.

Separation
Some months later he moved again, to a larger rented flat in nearby Elizabeth Street. An early attempt by his wife at reconciliation was in vain, as Lucan planned to make the split permanent, although he wanted to retain custody of his children. He therefore set about observing his family's movements; his car was regularly seen parked in Lower Belgrave Street. He later employed a company of private investigators, Devlin & Co., to perform the same task. Rumours began to circulate, about Lady Lucan's mental state; Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Ranson, who led the 1974 investigation into Sandra Rivett's death, supposes that these stories came from Lucan, who sought to discredit his wife by smearing her reputation. Lucan also canvassed doctors, who explained that his wife had not "gone mad", but was suffering from depression and anxiety.

The Lucans' long-term nanny, Lillian Jenkins, was sacked by Veronica in December 1972. She was replaced several months later by 26-year-old Stefanja Sawicka. Lady Lucan told her that Lucan had hit her with a cane and had, on one occasion, pushed her down the stairs. She told Sawicka that she feared for her safety and to not be surprised "if he kills me one day." Late in March 1973, while with two of the children near Grosvenor Place, Sawicka was confronted by Lucan and two private detectives, who told her that the children had been made wards of court, and that she must release them into his custody. Frances was collected from school later on.

Veronica immediately applied to the court to have their children returned to her, but concerned about the case's complexity, the judge set a date for the hearing three months ahead, on 11 June 1973. To defend herself against Lucan's claims about her mental state, Veronica booked herself a four-day stay at the Priory Clinic in Roehampton. The doctor's report made there proved instrumental in the two-week-long hearing, which Lucan conceded. While the doctor conceded that Veronica still required some psychiatric support, the children were returned to her. Lucan was allowed access every other weekend.

Thus began a bitter dispute between the two, involving many of their friends and Veronica's own sister. Lucan again began watching his wife's movements. He recorded some of their phone calls with a small Sony tape recorder and played excerpts to any friends prepared to listen. He also told his friends—and his bank manager—that Lady Lucan had been "spending money like water". He continued to pay her £40 a week, although he may have cancelled their regular food order with Harrods. He delayed payment to the milkman and also to the agency responsible for Lady Lucan's nanny. With no income of her own, the Countess sold some jewellery and took a part-time job in a local hospital. As the court ruling required that she employ a live-in nanny to care for the children, Veronica employed a string of nannies. One of these, Christabel Martin, later reported strange telephone calls, some with heavy breathing and others from a man asking for non-existent people.

One nanny supplied to Veronica was Elizabeth Murphy, an alcoholic whose illness Lucan soon recognised. He befriended her, buying her drinks and plying her for information on Lady Lucan. He instructed his detective agency to investigate Murphy, looking for evidence that she was failing in her duty of care to his children. This they found, although he dispensed with the agency's services when they presented him with bills amounting to several hundred pounds. Lucan presented his evidence to his solicitor, and, ignorant of the charges against her, Murphy was sacked. Her replacement, Sandra Rivett, started work on 26 August 1974.

Gambling
Losing the court case proved devastating for Lucan. It had cost him an estimated £20,000 and by late 1974 his financial position was dire. As he began to drink more heavily, his behaviour began to worry some of his friends. He borrowed £4,000 from his mother and asked his American godmother, Marcia Tucker, for a loan of £100,000. Having no luck there, he wrote to her son, explaining how he wished to "buy" his children from Veronica; the money was not forthcoming. He turned to his friends and acquaintances instead, asking anyone plausible to loan him money. James Goldsmith guaranteed a £5,000 overdraft for him, which for years remained unpaid. Lucan also applied to the discrete Edgware Trust for a loan of £5,000, although he received only £3,000. Much to the consternation of their managers, his four bank accounts were hugely overdrawn; Coutts, £2,841; Lloyds, £4,379; National Westminster, £1,290; Midland, £5,667. Even though by then he played for much lower stakes than had previously been the case, Lucan's gambling remained completely out of control. Ranson (1994) estimates that between September and October 1974 alone, the earl ran up debts of around £50,000.

From late October 1974 though, his demeanour appeared to change for the better. His best man, John Wilbraham, remarked that Lucan's apparent obsession over regaining his children had diminished. Lucan had dinner with his mother, casting aside talk of his family problems and turning instead to politics. On Wednesday 6 November he met his uncle John, apparently in good spirits. Late that day he dated his girlfriend, 21-year-old Charlotte Andrina Colquhoun. She later said "he seemed very happy, just his usual self, and there was nothing to suggest that he was worried or depressed". Britain's gambling laws required that casinos open after 2:00 pm and close by 4:00 am, and Lucan often gambled into the early hours of the morning. He took tablets to deal with an insomnia problem and therefore usually awoke around lunchtime. On 7 November though, he called his solicitor early that morning, and at 10:30 am took a call from Colquhoun. They arranged to eat at the Clermont Club at about 3:00 pm, but Lucan did not appear. Colquhoun drove past the Clermont and Ladbroke clubs, and past Elizabeth Street, but could not find his car anywhere. Lucan also failed to arrive for his 1:00 pm lunch appointment with artist Dominic Elwes and banker Daniel Meinertzhagen, at the Clermont.

At 4:00 pm Lucan called into a chemist shop on Lower Belgrave Street, close to Veronica's home, and asked the pharmacist there to identify a small capsule. It turned out to be Limbitrol 5, a drug for the treatment of nervous disorders. Lucan had apparently made several similar visits since he separated from his wife, although he did not tell the pharmacist where he got the drugs. At 4:45 pm he called a friend, literary agent Michael Hicks-Beech. The two met at Lucan's flat between 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm, where the earl asked for his help on an article on gambling he had been asked to write for an Oxford University magazine. Lucan drove him home for about 8:00 pm, not in his Mercedes car, but in "an old, dark and scruffy Ford", possibly the Ford Corsair he borrowed from Michael Stoop several weeks earlier. He made a call to the Clarmont at 8:30 pm to check on a dinner reservation. Lucan did indeed have a date at the Clermont, with Greville Howard and friends. Howard had called him at 5:15 pm, asking if he wished to come to the theatre, but Lucan had declined and made the alternative suggestion to meet at the Clermont at 11:00 pm. Lucan failed to arrive, and did not answer his telephone when called.

Murder
Sandra Eleanor Rivett was born on 16 September 1945, the third child of Albert and Eunice Hensby. The family emigrated to Australia when she was two years old, but returned in 1955. Sandra was a popular child, described at school as "intelligent, although she does not excel academically". She worked for six months as an apprentice hairdresser before taking a job as a secretary at a company in Croydon. Following a failed romance she became a voluntary patient at a mental hospital near Redhill, where she was treated for depression. She later became engaged to a builder named John, who she met while in hospital. She took a job as a children's nanny for a doctor in Croydon, and on 13 March 1964 gave birth to a boy named Stephen. Sandra and John's relationship was failing, however, and she returned home to live with her parents. Sandra considered giving the baby up for adoption, but her parents took on the responsibility and adopted him in May 1965. She later worked at an old people's home before moving to Portsmouth to stay with her elder sister. While there she met Roger Rivett, a Royal Navy able seaman. Ten months later the two married in Croydon, on 10 June 1967. Roger's work meant that he spent many months away from home, and the marriage began to falter. In an attempt to save their marriage, Roger took a job as a loader for British Road Services, while Sandra worked part-time at Reedham Orphanage in Purley. By July 1973 though, the marriage was once again failing, and Roger returned to the sea, taking a job on an Esso tanker. He returned to their flat in Kenley a few months later, by which time Sandra was working at a cigarette company in Croydon, but the marriage finally fell apart in May 1974 when, suspicious of Sandra's movements while he was away, Roger went to live with his parents. Sandra was by then listed on the books of a Belgravia agency and had been caring for an elderly couple in that district. A few weeks later she began to work for the Lucans.

Sandra normally went out with her boyfriend, John Hankins, on Thursday nights, but had decided to change her night off and see him the previous day. The two last spoke on the telephone at about 8:00 pm on 7 November 1974. After putting the two younger children to bed, at about 8:55 pm Sandra asked her employer if she would like a cup of tea. She went downstairs to the basement kitchen. The light did not work, and on entering the room she was immediately attacked from behind, bludgeoned to death with a piece of bandaged lead pipe. Working in the dark, her killer then placed her body into a canvas mailsack and walked back upstairs to wash his hands. Meanwhile, wondering what was delaying her nanny, Lady Lucan descended from the first floor to see what was happening. As she stood at the top of the basement stairs and called out to Rivett, she too was attacked. When she screamed for her life, her attacker told her to "shut up". Lady Lucan later claimed at that moment to have recognised her husband's voice. The two apparently continued to fight; she bit his fingers, and when he threw her face down to the carpet, managed to turn around and squeeze his testicles, causing him to release his grip on her throat and give up the fight. When she asked where Rivett was, Lucan was at first evasive, but eventually admitted to killing her. Terrified, Lady Lucan told him she could help him escape if only he would remain at the house for a few days, to allow her injuries to heal. Lucan sent his daughter up to bed and went into the bedroom one floor below. When Veronica entered the room to lie on the bed, he told her to put towels down first so the bedding would not be stained. Lucan then asked her if she had any barbituates, before going to the bathroom to get a wet towel, supposedly to clean Veronica's face. Lady Lucan realised her husband would be unable to hear her from the bathroom, and made her escape from the house, running to the nearby Plumbers Arms public house.

Lucan may have called at the Chester Square home of Madelaine Florman (mother of one of Frances's schoolfriends) sometime between 10:00 pm and 10:30 pm. Alone in the house, she ignored the door, but shortly afterwards she received an incoherent phone call and put the receiver down. Blood stains, which after forensic examination were found to be a mixture of blood groups A and B, were later discovered on her doorstep. Lucan certainly called his mother between 10:30 pm and 11:00 pm and asked her to collect the children from Lower Belgrave Street. According to the Dowager Countess, he spoke of a "terrible catastrophe" at his wife's home, telling her that he had been driving past the house when he saw Veronica fighting with a man, in the basement. He had ran into the house to find his wife screaming. The location from which he made this, and possibly the call to Florman, remains unknown. While the police forced their way into Lady Lucan's home and discovered Sandra Rivett's body, before his wife was taken by ambulance to St George's Hospital, Lucan drove the Ford Corsair 42 miles to Uckfield, in Sussex, to visit his friends, the Maxwell-Scotts. Susan Maxwell-Scott became the last person to report seeing him alive.

Investigation
By the time Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Ranson arrived at the house early on Friday 8 November, the divisional surgeon had pronounced Sandra Rivett dead and forensic officers and photographers had been called to the property. Other than the front door, which the first two officers on the scene had kicked in, there was no sign of a forced entry. A blood-stained towel was found in Veronica's first-floor bedroom. The area around the top of the staircase granting access to the basement was heavily blood-stained, as were the basement interior staircase's walls. What looked like a blood-stained cosh lay on the floor. Downstairs, Rivett's arm protruded from the canvas sack, which lay in a slowly expanding pool of blood. The light fitting at the bottom of the stairs was missing its bulb; one was noted nearby, on a chair. Blood was also found on various leaves in the adjoining rear garden.

Officers had also searched 5 Eaton Row, into which Lucan had moved after leaving his wife early in 1973, and after interviewing Lucan's mother (who had arrived to take the children to her home in St John's Wood), 72a Elizabeth Street, his last address. Nothing untoward was found, although with a suit and shirt lying on the bed alongside a book on Greek shipping millionaires, and his wallet, car keys, money, driving licence, handkerchief and spectacles on a bedside table, Lucan's bedroom looked to Ranson as though "it was waiting for its owner to return from the bathroom". His passport was in a drawer. His blue Mercedes car was parked outside, its engine cold and its battery flat. Ranson then visited Veronica Lucan at St George's Hospital. Although heavily sedated, she was able to describe what had happened to her. A police officer was placed at the hospital to protect her, should her assailant return. Ranson returned to Lower Belgrave Street and supervised the removal of Rivett's body to the mortuary. As part of the investigation, a search was undertaken of all local basement areas and gardens, skips and open spaces.

Ranson then went to the mortuary to identify Rivett's body. After removing her corpse from the canvas sack and beginning the post mortem examination, pathologist Keith Simpson told him he was certain she had been killed before her body was placed in the sack, and that in his opinion the lead pipe found at the scene could be the murder weapon. Rivett's estranged husband, Roger, had an alibi for the night concerned, and was eliminated from the police's enquiries. Other male friends and boyfriends were questioned and discounted as suspects. Her parents confirmed that Sandra had a good working relationship with Lady Lucan, and was extremely fond of her children. Meanwhile, Lucan had yet to make an appearance, and so his description was circulated to police forces across the country. Newspapers and television stations were told that Lucan was wanted by the police for questioning. By Friday afternoon, the early editions carried photographs of the Lucans across their front pages, which were emblazoned with headlines like "Body in sack ...Countess runs out screaming", and "BELGRAVIA MURDER — EARL SOUGHT".

Lucan had called his mother again at 12:30 am on Friday morning, telling her he would be in touch later that day. She had been accompanied to her flat by a police constable, but her son chose not to speak with him, telling her he would call the police in the morning. Several hours later, Ranson was called by Ian Maxwell-Scott, who told him that Lucan had arrived at his home in Uckfield a few hours after the murder. There the earl had written two letters to his brother-in-law, Bill Shand-Kydd, and posted them to his London address. Maxwell-Scott called Shand-Kydd at his country house near Leighton Buzzard and told him about the letters, prompting the latter to immediately drive to London to collect them. After reading them, noting that they were bloodstained, he took them to Gerald Road Police Station.

When questioned on why she did not immediately inform the police of Lucan's presence at their home, Susan Maxwell-Scott claimed to have not seen any newspapers or television news, or listened to any radio broadcasts that might have warned her of the importance of his visit. Meanwhile, Lucan's children were taken by their aunt, Lady Sarah Gibbs, to her home in Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, where they would remain for several weeks. On the day Veronica Lucan was discharged from hospital a High Court hearing confirmed that the children could return to live with their mother. Repeated press intrusions later forced the family to move to a friend's home in Plymouth.

On Sunday, the Ford Corsair Lucan had been seen driving, and whose details had the previous day been circulated across the country, was found about 16 miles from Uckfield, in Norman Road in Newhaven. In its boot was a piece of lead pipe covered in surgical tape, and a full bottle of vodka. The car was taken away for forensic examination. Later statements from two witnesses suggest that the car was parked there sometime between 5:00 am and 8:00 am on the morning of Friday 8 November. The next day, its owner, Michael Stoop, informed the police that he had received a letter from Lucan, delivered to his club, the St James's. Stoop had thrown the envelope away and it was therefore not possible to check its postmark to see where it had been sent from.

Ranson considered that, given the fact the letter was written in the past tense, Lucan might have considered suicide. A thorough search of Newhaven Downs was judged impossible, although the next year a partial search using infra-red photography was undertaken, to no avail. A warrant for his arrest, to answer charges of murdering Sandra Rivett, and attempting to murder his wife, was issued on Tuesday 12 November 1974. Descriptions of his appearance, already issued to police forces across the UK, were then issued to Interpol.

Forensics
The forensic examination of the lead pipes found at the murder scene and in the Corsair's boot revealed traces of blood on the pipe from 46 Lower Belgrave Street. This proved to be a mixture of Lady Lucan's (blood group A) and Sandra Rivett's (B) blood. Hair belonging to Veronica Lucan was also found on that pipe, but none belonging to Sandra Rivett. The pipe found inside the car had neither blood nor hair on it. Home Office scientists were unable to prove conclusively that both pipes were cut from the same, longer, piece of piping, although they thought it likely. The tape wrapped around both was similar, but those too could not be conclusively linked. The letters written to Bill Shand-Kydd were stained with blood considered to be from both women. The letter to Michael Stoop had no blood on it, but it was later proven that the paper had been torn from a writing pad found in the Corsair's boot.

An examination of the blood stains found inside 46 Lower Belgrave Street demonstrated that Rivett had been attacked in the basement, while Lady Lucan had been attacked at the top of the basement stairs. The bloodstains found inside the Ford Corsair were of the AB blood group; the report concluded that this might have been a mixture of blood from both women. Hair similar to Lady Lucan's was also found inside the car.

Inquest
The inquest into Sandra Rivett's death opened on 13 November 1974 and was led by the Coroner for Inner West London, Dr Gavin Thurston. Two witnesses were called to the courtroom, which was packed with reporters; Roger Rivett, who confirmed that he had identified his wife's body, and the pathologist, Keith Simpson, who confirmed that Rivett had died from being hit on the head with a blunt instrument. At Ranson's request, the hearing was then adjourned. Further adjournments were made on 11 December and 10 March 1975, before a full inquest was scheduled for 16 June.

The hearing began with the swearing-in of the jury and introductions from various legal representatives, including a lawyer hired for Lucan himself, by his mother. Thurston gave the jury a brief introduction to the case and explained their duties. Thurston had selected 33 witnesses, to be called over the following few days. These included Veronica Lucan, who wore a hat to hide the scars from her attack. Thurston questioned her on her relationship with Lucan, her marriage, her financial affairs, her employment of Rivett and the night of the attack. The Dowager Countess's QC attempted to ask Lady Lucan about the nature of their relationship, if she hated her husband, but Thurston ruled his line of questioning inadmissible. Woman Detective Constable Sally Blower, who had taken a statement from Frances Lucan on 20 November 1974, read the young girl's words to the court. Frances had heard a scream, and a few minutes later had watched as her mother (blood on her face) and father had entered the room. Her mother had then sent her to bed. She later heard her father calling for her mother, asking where she was, and watched as he left the bathroom and walked downstairs. She also described how Sandra Rivett did not normally work on Thursday nights.

The landlord of the Plumbers Arms described how Lady Lucan had entered his bar covered "head to toe in blood" before falling into "a state of shock". He claimed that she shouted "Help me, help me, I've just escaped from being murdered" and "My children, my children, he's murdered my nanny", although no name was mentioned. Pathologist Keith Simpson outlined his post mortem examination, concluding that death was caused by "blunt head injuries" and "inhalation of blood". He confirmed that the the lead pipe found at the scene was most likely responsible for Rivett's injuries, although some, to the left eye and mouth, he thought more likely to have been caused by punches from a clenched fist. The last person to confirm seeing Lucan alive, Susan Maxwell-Scott, told the court that the earl looked "dishevelled", and his hair "a little ruffled". His trousers had a damp patch on the right hip. Lucan had told her that he was walking, or passing by the house when he saw Veronica being attacked by a man. He let himself in but slipped in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs. He told Maxwell-Scott that the attacker ran off, and that Veronica was "very hysterical" and accused him of having hired a hitman to kill her.

Once the hearing had ended, Thurston made a summary of the evidence presented and told the jury their options. At 11:45 am, their foreman announced "Murder by Lord Lucan". He was the last person to be committed by a coroner to a Crown Court for unlawful killing; the coroner's power to do so was removed by the Criminal Law Act 1977. Rivett's body was held for several weeks before being released by the coroner. She was cremated at Croydon crematorium on 18 December 1974. Lady Lucan did not attend, a police spokesman citing her desire not to upset the family.

Lucan's defence
Lucan's friends and family were critical of the inquest, which they felt offered a one-sided view of events. His mother told reporters that the inquest did not serve "any useful purpose at all". Veronica's sister, Christina, said she felt "great sadness and sorrow" at the verdict. Susan Maxwell-Scott continued to press the earl's claims of innocence and claimed to feel "awfully sorry" for the countess. However, as the earl remained absent, his description of "a traumatic night of unbelievable coincidence" came only from the letters he authored and the people he spoke with soon after Rivett's murder. While his fingerprints were not found at the scene, his assertions make no provision for the lead pipe discovered in the boot of the Ford Corsair, or the lack of a viable suspect for the man he claimed to have seen fighting his wife. No sign of a forced entry was found, and his claim to have seen a fight from the street seems unlikely as the basement of the property is obscured from view; officers attempting to demonstrate the efficacy of Lucan's story could only see clearly into the basement by stooping low to the pavement. The basement light was not working, so Lucan would not have been able to see much in the room; the lightbulb (which was later tested and found to be in working order) was found removed from its holder and left lying on a chair. Furthermore, Lady Lucan claimed not to have entered the basement that night, contradicting the earl's version of events; his wife's account is supported by the forensic examination made of the blood splashes and stains around the property. Some traces of Lady Lucan's blood were found in the basement, the basement garden and on the canvas sack used to store Rivett's body, although this may be as a result of contamination at the scene. Lucan claimed that the man then left the house, but this could not have been through the basement as its front door was locked; the back basement door led to a walled garden through which no trace of an escape was found. No signs that the man left by the front door were discovered, and no witnesses reported seeing any such individual near 46 Lower Belgrave Street.

In contrast to his defenders, the national press were almost unanimous in their condemnation of Lucan. Their leader-writers ignored the threat of libel and identified him as Rivett's killer.

Ultimate fate and reported sightings
The last confirmed sighting of Lucan was at about 1:15 am on 8 November 1974, as he exited the driveway of the Maxwell-Scott property in his friend's Ford Corsair. Since then, his whereabouts and ultimate fate remain a mystery. Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Ranson initially claimed that Lucan had "done the honourable thing" and "fallen on his own sword", a view publicly repeated by many of Lucan's friends. However, in his 1994 book Looking for Lucan, Ranson explained that he later considered it more likely that suicide was far from Lucan's thoughts, that a rumoured drowning at sea was implausible, and that the earl had left the country and settled in southern Africa. 30 years after the murder, the detective leading a new investigation into Lucan's disappearance told the Telegraph that "the evidence points towards the fact that Lord Lucan left the country and lived abroad for a number of years." Lucan's brother, Hugh Bingham, told the Daily Mirror much the same thing in 2012, but Veronica Lucan believes that her husband killed himself "like the nobleman he was". Lucan's family was granted probate in 1999, although his heir, George Bingham, was earlier that year refused permission to take his father's title and seat in the House of Lords.

Thousands of sightings of the earl have been claimed since he disappeared. John Stonehouse, who attempted to fake his own death, was in 1974 misidentified as Lucan. The police travelled to France in June 1975 to follow another lead, to no avail. Later that year, a sighting in Columbia turned out to be an innocent American businessman. John Miller, a bounty hunter who kidnapped the fugitive Ronnie Biggs, claimed in 1982 to have captured the earl, but was later exposed by the News of the World as a hoaxer. Ranson details sightings in Portugal, Mozambique and South Africa.

A former Scotland Yard detective claimed in 2003 to have tracked the earl to Goa, India, but his story was quickly discredited when it was revealed that the man he traced was actually Barry Halpin, a folk singer from St Helens. Four years later, reporters in New Zealand interviewed a homeless British ex patriot after neighbours claimed he was the missing earl.