Lucky Lucan - the Lord Who Committed Murder

by Read Listen Learn

In the nineteen seventies, eighties and nineties in Britain, the slang expression 'to do a Lucan' was quite common – it means to disappear completely. The Lucan of the expression refers to Lord Lucan or Richard John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan, or 'Lucky' to his friends. As an aristocrat and society character, his name was known in exclusive circles in London but became infamous around the world in November, 1974.

On the evening of the seventh of that month, in a very fashionable district of central London, the police were called to the house of Lord Lucan's wife; they had lived apart recently and Lucan had a flat nearby. An attacker inside the house killed the children's nanny, Sarah Rivett, with a piece of metal pipe, literally smashing her head in. The man then attacked the lady of the house, Veronica Duncan, but failed to kill or seriously hurt her. And it was she, Veronica Duncan, who identified the murderer and her attacker as Lord Lucan, her own husband. He ran away from the attack and, of course, the police wanted to find and arrest him as soon as possible. Who was this man they were looking for? And, why had he done this terrible thing?

Lord Lucan was born on 18 Dec, 1934, in London into a wealthy, aristocratic family. In the Second World War, the boy Lucan was sent to North America to avoid the bombing in London and spent four years living there in great luxury with a millionaire friend of his parents. He returned to Britain at the end of the war, in 1945, and soon started at Eton, Britain's most famous school and popular with aristocratic families. It was at Eton that Lord Lucan began his strong interest in gambling of all kinds.

He liked to escape from school to go to horse races and he enjoyed playing cards for money with his school friends. When he left school, he had to join the army for two years and served as an officer in a regiment in Germany. When he left the army, he went back to London and a well-paid job with a merchant bank. But, his salary was not enough for Lucan who was addicted to gambling and the high life. He was a playboy: he was once considered for the part of 'James Bond'; he drove an Aston Martin sports car and speedboats were one of his hobbies.

In 1963, he married Veronica Duncan, a pretty girl from the right social background. However, marriage or no marriage, his first love was still gambling and the casinos that were, in the late 60s, opening all over London. His favourite game was backgammon, where very large amounts of money can be won and lost in a single game. Around this time, Lord Lucan really became a professional gambler so he left his job at the bank. He said he didn't see why he should work when he could win a year's salary or more in one night at a casino or in one good game of cards. And, often, he did, although many who knew him best said he lost big more often than he won big. The future would tell.....

Lord Lucan began to drink more heavily. He had the nickname 'Lucky Lucan' because of some spectacular wins when gambling but, it seems, 'luck' had decided to leave Lord Lucan, who was now losing very frequently and taking more and more loans from banks, friends and family. He began to chain smoke. In 1972, his marriage broke down and Lord Lucan took the mistaken decision to fight to have the children with him. He became obsessed with the matter, as if winning this battle with his wife would make all come good. He spent as much as 20,000 pounds on legal costs, a huge amount in those days. Naturally, the case went against him.

Now, when he was drunk, and he was often drunk, he would talk of murdering Veronica, his wife. He was bitter about the case but he also openly told friends that killing her would solve his money problems at once. On the night of 7 November, 1974, Lucan put his words into action but, probably drunk, he made a mess of it and killed the children's nanny instead of his wife. He drove away in an old Ford Corsair he had borrowed from a friend. The car was found later with the blood-stained lead pipe in it. Lord Lucan has never been seen since.

The evidence against him was overwhelming. The court said that Sarah Rivett, the nanny, was murdered. It went further and said that Lord Lucan was the murderer. Of course, the press enjoyed every minute of the scandal. People thought Lucan must have escaped overseas. At first, there were hundreds of reports from around the world. People said they had seen him; in South Africa, in Australia, in France... but nothing led anywhere, at least not to Lord Lucan. The reports continue to the present day and the last big one came in 2007 from New Zealand. British police went to investigate but it was just a homeless British man, not Lord Lucan.

Nowadays, most people believe that Lucan died shortly after the murder. He probably killed himself. Many believe that he got himself onto a ship for France, maybe Spain, but decided to kill himself faced with either a lifetime in hiding, with no money, never to come home; or a lifetime in prison for the murder of Sarah Rivett. The fact that no body was ever found may be explained if Lucan threw himself from the ship when it was far from land. Lord Lucan has now officially been listed 'dead'.