Lord Lucan who?

A brief history lesson before we get stuck in – Richard John Bingham was known as Lord Lucan, which is basically another example of those archaic British traditions relating to aristocracy.

He was a bit of a rapscallion growing up, racing boats and Aston Martins and leading a playboy lifestyle. He eventually married Veronica Duncan (who became Lady Lucan) in 1963, with the couple separating in 1972.

Fast forward to 1974, and the now infamous murder. The Telegraph below:

Mrs Rivett, nanny to the three Lucan children, was killed in the basement with a lead pipe. Lady Lucan was also attacked, running into a nearby pub covered in blood screaming for help.

Lord Lucan, the 7th Earl, disappeared and has never been seen since, with a formal death certificate allowing his son to inherit the title finally issued last year.

Lady Lucan later identified her husband as the attacker.

With the death warrant finally issued in 2016, Lady Lucan is revisiting the story for a doccie called My Husband, the Truth:

Asked what happened to her husband following the attack, she said: “I would say he got on the ferry and jumped off in the middle of the Channel in the way of the propellers so that his remains wouldn’t be found – I think quite brave.”

In a bleak insight into their marriage, she claimed her husband would beat her with a cane when she became depressed, to get the “mad ideas out of your head”.

“He could have hit harder,” she told the programme. “They were measured blows. He must have got pleasure out of it because he had intercourse [with me] afterwards.”

The depravity of the British aristocracy never fails to disappoint.

For some rather entertaining theories on what happened to Lord Lucan after his disappearance, we head to Metro:

Lucan lived as a hippy in India called ‘Jungle Barry’

Former Scotland Yard detective Duncan MacLaughlin claimed in 2003 that Lord Lucan had lived as a hippy in India until his death in 1996.

He claimed Lord Lucan had lived under the name Barry Halpin and was known as Jungle Barry.

A photograph claiming to show a bearded, dishevelled Lucan in 1991 also bared a strong resemblance to the missing peer.

It eventually emerged Halpin was very real – but that he was from St Helens and a well-known figure on the Merseyside folk music scene of the 1960s.

He lived in the New Zealand outback with a goat called Camilla

Local residents deep in the New Zealand outback claimed in 2007 that a British ex-pat Roger Woodgate could be Lord Lucan.

He was said to have an upper-class English accent and a strong resemblance to the fugitive peer – as well as a pet possum and a goat called Camilla.

Mr Woodgate has continually denied the claims ever since and points out that he is five inches shorter and 10 years younger than Lord Lucan.

And other bizarre one-off sightings…

A number of people have reported seeing Lord Lucan in a range of bizarre locations and scenarios.

Such sightings include on an ex-Nazi colony in Paraguay, at a sheep station in the Australian outback, backpacking on Mount Etna and working as a waiter in San Francisco.

One couple also reported seeing him in a private hospital in Johannesburg in 1995.

He then came to his senses, moved to Cape Town, went full hipster and now runs a coffee shop at the Biscuit Mill.

You heard it here first.

[sources:telegraph&metro]