Is this the end of the Lucan affair?

Press, 30 October 1981, Page 13

Is this the end of the Lucan affair?

By

JOSEPH MARSHALL,

Features International

Is “Johnny Lucan” still alive? Has the gambling-mad Richard John Bingham, Seventh Earl of Lucan, who disappeared one rainy night in 1974, overturned the odds and escaped justice for good? That is the question that lawyers are asking, as High Court moves go ahead to have Lord Lucan pronounced legally dead.

After November 7 — the seventh anniversary of his disappearance — the man named by an inquest jury as the killer of his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, can be assumed to be dead, and his title can pass to his 14-year-old son.

But first, his wife must approve the moves that would make her a widow. And a spokesman for the Lucan family says: “She is not totally convinced that her husband is dead. There are still many questions to be answered.” Scotland Yard, which has been hunting Lord Lucan since November, 1974, feels the same. A spokesman says: “Even if, and when, Lord Lucan is pronounced legally dead, should he later turn up, the original charge of being wanted in connection with a murder still stands, and he could be arrested.”

That charge apart, Lord Lucan could return to Britain today with a clear conscience. All his considerable debts have now been paid by the sale of his personal assets and with money from a family trust. After his disappearance,

the man known to his friends and fellow gamblers as “Lucky” Lucan was declared bankrupt and the hunt was on by the bankruptcy trustee, Mr Dennis Gilson, for the Earl’s assets.

Biggest debts were to the London gambling clubs, Ladbrokes and Clermont, who were owed .nearly $45,000. There followed auctions of more than 100 of Lucan’s personal possessions, ranging from cufflinks to his coronet and robes.

A final sum of $120,000 was obtained from a Lucan family trust to make a full repayment to creditors of 100 pence in the pound. “Because nobody has been able to prove that Lord Lucan is dead, I have been able to get the money from the trust,” Mr Gilson says. "If it could have been proved that he was dead, the money would have gone to his eldest son.”

Mr Gilson still believes that Lord Lucan is alive. He says that his investigation into the Earl’s background has convinced him that he was not the sort of man to kill himself.

"With the many influential friends he had, Lord Lucan would not have found it difficult to disappear,” he says. “Under skilful plastic surgery, he could completely change his appearance and he might be walking around unrecognised in London today.”

This view is supported by the detective who spent five years hunting Lord Lucan,

Chief Inspector David Giering, who says: "I am convinced that if he were dead, his body would have come to light by now.

“I believe he is in South America. He may have had plastic surgery like Ronald Biggs. This man was a gambler on a losing streak. Such a man always believes the winning card will come up next.”

Other possible destinations for the missing peer have included the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia, and recently the hunt was joined by the magazine, “Micro Computer,” which claimed it could predict the wanted man’s likely whereabouts using a simple computer programme. “The programme considers the Earl’s skills and known characteristics, from his tastes in drinks and cigarettes to little-known facts concerning his finances,” says the magazine. The computer picked Mozambique as the most likely hideaway, putting the chances of Lord Lucan being there at 53’- per cent. Botswana got- 28 per cent and Kenya 13 per cent. Superintendent Roy Ransom, who led the search for Lord Lucan, remarked:* 'This conclusion is far from outlandish. I certainly wouldn’t dismiss it.” But it has to be said that a large number of Lucan sightings over the past seven years have been very outlandish indeed...

Like the sighting in October, 1979, in Goondiwindhi,

200 miles from Brisbane, of a 6ft welder, Kenneth Knight, who was said to bear a striking resemblance to the missing man. The arrest bid collapsed when Knight’s former wife announced: “That's Ken, there’s no doubt about it!”

Then, four years ago, a man named Lucan, whose Christian name was Lord, was seized in Las Vegas by two armed F. 8.1. men who stood outside a hotel room yelling: “Come out, Lord Lucan!”

The Lucan who emerged was a short, plump, balding Canadian lawyer who said wearily: “I came here for a rest but security men keep checking my identity wherever I go.” Last spring the hunt switched to the Indian Ocean where a mysterious and apparently wealthy businessman called John Wells let it be known that he might know a way of contacting Lucan. He said he wanted $lOO,OOO for releasing information, but nothing further was heard of the offer.

Superstitious gambling cronies believe they can point to yet another reason for ‘Lucky’s” possible survival. Last year, he won $2OO with a Premium Bond. The odds for a $2OO prize with 100 $2 bonds are 180 to one. Lord Lucan had only 15 bonds. The money went straight towards paying the interest on the missing peer’s debts. Nevertheless, reasoned his friends, somebody, somewhere, still seems to be loving “Lucky;”