by Wallace Wyss –
Image by Richard Bartholomew –
A spectacular Roll Royce has come out of storage, confiscated by the storage renters for non-payment of storage fees. The postwar Rolls was believed to be the last vehicle in which a murderer escaped, in this case not just your garden variety murderer but the handsome and urbane Lord Richard John Bingham, Seventh Earl of Lucan.
This wasn’t a wife killing, but actually a nanny killing, and even the Lord’s widow believes he was responsible for the killing which took place November 7, 1974. Her husband disappeared without a trace.
Lucan, a car connoisseur, had the Rolls customized. Some purists say he should have gone on trial for dis-figuring a Rolls.
The car was on the list of items to go to the Countess, who had won a court battle against her estranged husband, claiming custody of their three children. The tragedy was that the Lord, in debt to his neck, had told friends he had been planning on killing his wife because she broke him financially after he was heavily burdened by debt. He lashed out at a figure in the dark basement of their home, in London’s upmarket Belgravia but apparently it was a case of mistaken identity. Is a murder any less punishable if you kill the wrong victim?
But he could, if apprehended, also be tried for assault and battery, as the Countess was also battered by the Lord and left for dead. But, in a world class display of British strength and resolve, she mustered the strength to crawl to the nearby Plumbers Arms Pub on Lower Belgrave Street, and the subsequent search for the Lord found only an abandoned car.
He was spotted some time later on Carnaby Street in the Roller, though, and hopes are that, though the trail is ice cold, it can be picked up with clues left in the Rolls, which was quite dusty when found.
Lucan was a gambler and he is thought to have fled to a foreign country and lived under an assumed name.
A theory that is more apropos to his bizarre life style is that he shot himself and his body was fed by friends to a tiger in a private zoo. The tiger, named Zorra, denied all complicity in the suicide but was seen greedily licking his chops soon after the murder.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Wallace Wyss
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss is a painter of classic cars. For a list of prints available, text your e-mail address to 213 344 6496. He also has a vivid imagination.
Happy Easter and Happy April the First.
For those who have stopped laughing here is the chilling story
https://www.lordlucan.com/lucan_story_2.htm
But I loved it any way …Wallace !
Sorry all, but it is Lady Penelope’s grandmother’s car.
It was driven by chauffeur most of the time.
Does anyone out there know to whom I allude? :^)
Of course Thunderbirds are go!
that one was pink, though: has Wallace airbrushed it into silver?
You win a free subscription to this site, if Mike is OK with that…….;^D.
Please note I indicated it, (this Rolls) was her grandmothers, she was somewhat more reserved so the Silver colour.
“If at first you don’t succeed… so much for skydiving.”
Henny Youngman
My only previous exp. with lords is that I was in a museum in UK owned by Lord Montagu and he went by and I wanted to talk to him so I said “Oh Lord…”
Also in the UK one dark night I was standing outside the Covent Garden Opera House and a bearded bloke comes up with a RR of Fifties vintage and he claims it has a V12 and we go back and forth on that, whether RR had a V12 (My ref. say straight eight in the early ’50s) , and I recognize him as the Duke of something or other, in the Royal family but bumped further down the line of succession with each new Royal birth (last I heard he was 45th). I did not address him as “Duke” or inquire whether the Palace was short on chauffeurs with him having to chauffeur folks about or why his wife is called Princess Michael of Kent and doesn’t get to have her own name as does Queen Elizabeth..
MUST HAVE BEEN A BIT CUMBERSOME, GETTING INTO THE BACK SEAT OF THAT ROLLS.
Ah well you Americans have problems with peerage and nobility because you fought the American war of Independence to get rid of the Brits back in 1775-83.
However I think that like the Irish and the Australians there’s still a bit of secret admiration for privilege and royalty witness the great time the Obama’s had during their state visit to the UK and Mr Trump’s as yet unscratched itch for a state visit to the UK and to be hosted by QEII.
Anyway there is a strong connection between titled people and cars, they have money so the have nice cars
many have gone motor racing funded by their own coin remember Lord Hesketh and James Hunt?
Currently 3 of the most important Motorsport events in the world happen at Goodwood the estate of Lord March who is the now the Duke of Richmond . I just went to the GRRC Members Meeting
held in awful weather which by the way didn’t stop Emmanuele Pirro chucking about the 250 (GTO) breadvan against the Jags and the Aston’s in the Moss trophy.
I admit it, I am an unrepentant Royalist. I look upon the Royals to set the pace on taste , as for example the Duke of York showing us how to tie a tie. As far as motorcars, I recently found out it was the Duke of Gloucester who started the trend for flat black paint when, back in 1960, he had his James Young-bodied Phantom painted thusly in the rear quarter. much to the horror of Tolls enthusiasts….