Shortly after 10pm, Mrs. Madeleine Floorman, a friend of the Lucans, who lived a short distance away, was dozing in front of the TV after a tiring day when she was awoken by someone pressing the doorbell insistently. Assuming it was a local youth, who had done this kind of thing before, she ignored it and went back to sleep. Some time later, the phone rang. She was sure that the caller was Lord Lucan, but he sounded distressed and became incoherent. She put the phone down and went back to sleep. (Later, some spots of what appeared to be blood were found on her doorstep).

At approximately 10.30 that evening, Lord Lucan telephoned his mother who lived in St John’s Wood, telling her there had been a catastrophe at the house, and he wanted her to collect the children. She went straight there, found the place occupied by police, and informed them that the Lucans were separated, the children were wards of court, and that Lord Lucan currently resided at a nearby flat. She then took the children to her home. The police searched Lord Lucan’s flat. He was not there, but they found his car keys, passport, cheque book, driving license, wallet and glasses. His blue Mercedes car was parked outside. The battery was flat. (It had been suffering from battery trouble for some time).

Lord Lucan was driving another car that night, a Ford Corsair he had borrowed from a friend some 2-3 weeks previously. (He had, in fact, insisted that he wanted the car for that particular evening.) It was about 11.30pm when he arrived in Uckfield, Sussex, at the home of his friends Ian and Susan Maxwell-Scott. The house was 42 miles from Lower Belgrave Street, a journey of about an hour at average speed, though he was a fast driver and might have taken less time. Ian Maxwell-Scott was away, but his wife admitted Lord Lucan and was surprised to see him in disheveled daytime clothing. His flannels looked as though they had been stained and something sponged off.

Between that time and arriving at the Maxwell-Scotts he said had made three phone calls, one to Mrs. Floorman, one to his mother, and he had also tried to telephone Bill Shand Kydd, who was married to Lady Lucan’s sister but there was no reply. Mrs. Maxell-Scott said that he did not tell her where he made these calls from, but she got the impression they had been made after he left the house. At 12.15 he rang his mother from the Maxwell-Scotts house to check that she had the children, and rang Bill Shand Kydd again, but there was no reply.

Three days after the murder, the Ford Corsair was found abandoned at Newhaven. Bloodstains were found inside of both type A and type B, also, a piece of bandaged lead piping, unstained, but very similar to the one found in the murder house. 

Sally Moore in "Lucan: Not Guilty" gives an incorrect account of Lord Lucan’s daily routine and indeed she has never had any contact with Lady Lucan, the one person in a position to know the truth. He was not an early riser, indeed he could not be, as his nights were spent at the gaming tables, and he did not return home until 6am. He slept until lunchtime, then went to lunch at his club, the Clermont. Lady Lucan would join him there at 9pm.

Lady Lucan instructed solicitors, which caused a deterioration in the relationship and after a turbulent Christmas 1972 they separated. From then on, Lucan was determined to gain custody of his children. In March 1973 he obtained a court order and took the two younger children while they were out with their nanny, then collected Frances from school. For the next three months Lady Lucan was cared for by hired nurses and during this time voluntarily went into a psychiatric clinic for a week. Lucan had been hoping that the medical reports would show that Lady Lucan was not fit to have custody of the children,. Although the medical reports were a dominant feature of the custody battle, Lady Lucan states that she does not believe that her husband ever genuinely thought that she was mentally ill, only that it was a ploy in the attempt to gain custody. She did not have any prior history of mental illness, and her problems appear to have been related to the post-natal depression, inappropriately treated. Lord Lucan paid the medical bills, and discussed Lady Lucan’s condition with the Doctor without her knowledge. She feels strongly that he must have made statements that would have coloured the Doctor’s opinion of her medical condition and the required treatment. Lord Lucan would also telephone Lady Lucan and provoke her into verbalising her negative feelings about him, which he then tape-recorded, and later produced in evidence against her. It is usual for Peers of the Realm to win custody of their children, and Lord Lucan must have felt confident that he would do so, but in June, to his surprise and mortification, the Court ordered that the children be returned to their mother.

By now, with the family to support, a nanny to pay, houses to maintain, and legal bills from the custody case, Lucan was deeply in debt. He was also continuing to lose at the tables. He kept a constant watch on the house, and still entertained hopes that he could go back to court and regain custody. He also tried to arrange for Lady Lucan to be bought off with a sum of money, but this came to nothing. He hired private detectives to watch the house, and when he went there to collect the children for his access visits, made secret tape recordings. When he could no longer afford to pay private detectives, he did the snooping himself.

At about 8.30pm, in 46 Lower Belgrave St, the Lucan’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, put the two younger children to bed.. Sandra, a 29 year old redhead, was 5ft 2" in height, the same as Lady Lucan, and was one dress size fuller in figure. Thursday was Sandra’s usual night off, a fact of which Lucan was aware. He also knew that Sandra usually went out with a boyfriend on her free night, but unknown to him, that week she had changed the night to Wednesday. Frances was in her room, playing a game. At approximately 8.40 she went to her mother’s bedroom and asked where Sandra was. Lady Lucan said she had gone downstairs to make tea. (This was another departure from normal routine, as it was usual for Lady Lucan to make tea at about 9pm.) About twenty minutes or so after Sandra had gone downstairs Lady Lucan began to wonder why she hadn’t returned. There are two reported sightings of Lucan near that time. The linkman at the Clermont said he saw Lucan drive up at 8.45pm to ask if any of the usual crowd was there. He said he felt sure Lucan was driving the Mercedes. According to him, Lucan said he would be back later. Another employee believes he saw Lucan standing on the step of the club at about 9pm.

(It is not surprising under the circumstances that the police should describe Lady Frances’ statement as "slightly muddled". Sally Moore attaches a great deal of importance to this testimony, especially as regards timings, given by relation to television programs. Lady Frances was certainly engrossed in the television that evening. After hearing her mother scream, about half an hour passed, but she did not go downstairs to see if there was anything wrong. Lady Frances could not have known what time Sandra Rivett went to make the tea, but said that Lady Lucan went to look for Sandra before the 9 o’clock News started. The differences between the timings given by Lady Lucan and Lady Frances, are of course, critical only in relation to the reported sightings at the Clermont.)

The second letter to Bill Shand Kydd was read out, and this mentioned an upcoming sale at Christies which would satisfy bank overdrafts. It was signed "Lucky" his gambling name. It was found that his total overdrafts exceeded £14,000, although his total debts were far greater.

A third letter from Lucan was then read out. This had been sent to the friend who had lent him the Corsair, and referred to "a traumatic night of unbelievable coincidences", and asked that his children should know that all he cared about was them.

The inquest jury was out for only 31 minutes and their verdict was "Murder by Lord Lucan" . It was the last time that an inquest jury exercised its right to name a murderer. As a direct result of this case, the right was abolished by the Criminal Law Act of 1977.

Theories that do not cite Lucan as the murderer are partly based on two ideas, first, that an attack with a blunt instrument was simply "not like him" - certainly his friends refused to believe it. There was also the fact that the murderer had mistaken Sandra for Lady Lucan, which some think is unlikely unless the murderer was a stranger. I can’t comment on the first, but I can on the second. It was dark, and the murderer did not expect Sandra to be in the house that night. Sandra was also the same height as Lady Lucan. People tend to see what they expect to see. (I recall not so long ago entering a well-lit pub with a group of friends. The wife of one of my friends, who is, like me, under 5ft in height, but otherwise does not resemble me, had decided to stay at home. I suddenly found myself receiving a big hug from a friend of the wife, who was a complete stranger to me!)

Both Patrick Marnham and James Ruddick make strong cases for the more complicated scenario, that Lord Lucan hired a man to kill his wife, the hit man killed Sandra, then Lord Lucan, arriving to clear up and dispose of the body, discovered the mistake and attacked his wife. I will look at this in more detail later, but first there are some specific questions I would like to ask.

The "hit man" theory is altogether too complicated, and it fails to take one very important fact into account.

The odds are that Lord Lucan is dead. Many of his friends believe that he simply took a speedboat or ferry out into the Channel, and leaped over the side. Gamblers do not often give up, but English gentlemen have been known to do the decent thing. The shame of appearing in the dock accused of murder, and of financial ruin, was something he did not want to face, both on a personal level, and also for his family’s sake.

John