NcDeuce
01-06-2004, 01:59 PM
Report: Diana Names Charles in 'Plot' Against Her
LONDON — Princess Diana believed ex-husband Prince Charles was plotting to kill her by staging a fatal car accident, a newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting from a letter Diana allegedly wrote to her butler
The story broke as the royal coroner launched Britain's first formal inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed on Tuesday and asked London police to examine a variety of conspiracy theories that have sprung up since her death.
The Daily Mirror tabloid said Charles was the person named in a letter that Diana purportedly wrote to Paul Burrell the year before she was killed in a car crash in Paris. In the letter, she expressed fear that someone would tamper with the brakes of her car.
In the alleged October 1996 letter, the princess told her butler she believed Charles planned to kill her to open the way for his remarriage, The Daily Mirror tabloid reported.
A spokeswoman for Clarence House, Charles' official residence, had no comment on the report.
Burrell released the note in October but words identifying the person she accused were blacked out.
"My husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry," the paper quoted the note as saying. The paper reprinted a photo of the letter with the words "my husband" still blacked out.
Her divorce was finalized a few months before the letter was allegedly written. By then, Charles' relationship with longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles (search) was well known.
Burrell said Tuesday he was unhappy about the report in the Mirror, which had serialized his book about Diana last fall.
"It was always my intention never to publish that name. I never ever wanted it to be published," he told Sky News TV.
The Mirror said Burrell intended to hand the letter to royal coroner Michael Burgess. The office of Burrell's spokeswoman, Ali Gunn, could not immediately say whether the former butler had given the letter to the coroner.
A French investigation concluded in 1999 that the Paris car crash that killed Diana, Fayed and their driver Henri Paul in 1997 was an accident — and that Paul had been drinking and speeding. But that has not quelled various theories of a plot to kill the princess or to cover up details in her death.
Burgess suggested his inquest would be a broad one to try to clear away some of the speculation, saying he asked London's Metropolitan Police to examine whether conspiracy theories should be part of the investigation.
"I'm aware that there is speculation that these deaths were not the result of a sad but relatively straightforward road traffic accident in Paris," Burgess said.
Burgess said he would focus on four key questions — "who the deceased person was, and how, when and where the cause of death arose."
Burgess then adjourned the case, saying it likely would reopen early next year. He explained that potential witnesses live abroad, and French judicial proceeding and appeals must be concluded before he could obtain documentation compiled by French investigators.
Fayed's father, Egyptian-born billionaire Mohammed al Fayed has repeatedly called for a full public inquiry into the deaths, contending that his 42-year-old son and Diana, 36, were murdered.
"This is what we have been waiting for six years," al Fayed told APTN as he arrived at the Diana inquest. "At last I hope we can see the light."
Al Fayed at one time accused Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, of masterminding a plot to kill Diana because the royal family allegedly objected to her relationship with an Egyptian.
Asked about the suspicions contained in the alleged Diana letter, al Fayed told reporters, "I'm always saying this from the beginning. I suspect not only Prince Charles" but also Philip.
Parallel to allegations of a murder plot, there have been unsubstantiated stories of photographs of the crash site being stolen, of Diana being pregnant, suspicion about closed-circuit TV cameras inside the tunnel where the crash occurred that were said to have been turned to face a wall, and claims that Diana could have been saved if she had reached a hospital more quickly.
Diana's former bodyguard Ken Wharfe dismissed the possibility that she was murdered.
"I have said this many, many times, the Princess of Wales was killed tragically in nothing more than a mundane road traffic accident," he told ITV television.
"If we look at the conspiracy theories perpetrated by Mohamed al Fayed again, you look at the evidence, there is no evidence here. It is mere speculation," Wharfe said.
Many in Britain — and more around the world — appear to share al Fayed's suspicions in varying degrees, although Diana's friends and family dismiss the murder claim and other rumors.
In 2002, France's highest court dropped manslaughter charges against nine photographers who pursued the car before it crashed or who took photos at the site. In November, a French court acquitted three photographers in a case brought by al Fayed, who alleged they invaded his son's privacy by taking pictures at the crash scene. Prosecutors have appealed that verdict.
Clarence House said Prince Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, "are very pleased that the inquest is finally under way." They did not attend the formal opening.
One of Diana's sisters, Lady Sarah McQuorquodale, did attend.
The inquest may "give rise to considerable and possibly unnecessary intrusion into private grief. That I regret, just as I regret the untold pain for some in having to relive the experiences surrounding the deaths," Burgess said.
Hmmmm
LONDON — Princess Diana believed ex-husband Prince Charles was plotting to kill her by staging a fatal car accident, a newspaper reported Tuesday, quoting from a letter Diana allegedly wrote to her butler
The story broke as the royal coroner launched Britain's first formal inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed on Tuesday and asked London police to examine a variety of conspiracy theories that have sprung up since her death.
The Daily Mirror tabloid said Charles was the person named in a letter that Diana purportedly wrote to Paul Burrell the year before she was killed in a car crash in Paris. In the letter, she expressed fear that someone would tamper with the brakes of her car.
In the alleged October 1996 letter, the princess told her butler she believed Charles planned to kill her to open the way for his remarriage, The Daily Mirror tabloid reported.
A spokeswoman for Clarence House, Charles' official residence, had no comment on the report.
Burrell released the note in October but words identifying the person she accused were blacked out.
"My husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry," the paper quoted the note as saying. The paper reprinted a photo of the letter with the words "my husband" still blacked out.
Her divorce was finalized a few months before the letter was allegedly written. By then, Charles' relationship with longtime love Camilla Parker Bowles (search) was well known.
Burrell said Tuesday he was unhappy about the report in the Mirror, which had serialized his book about Diana last fall.
"It was always my intention never to publish that name. I never ever wanted it to be published," he told Sky News TV.
The Mirror said Burrell intended to hand the letter to royal coroner Michael Burgess. The office of Burrell's spokeswoman, Ali Gunn, could not immediately say whether the former butler had given the letter to the coroner.
A French investigation concluded in 1999 that the Paris car crash that killed Diana, Fayed and their driver Henri Paul in 1997 was an accident — and that Paul had been drinking and speeding. But that has not quelled various theories of a plot to kill the princess or to cover up details in her death.
Burgess suggested his inquest would be a broad one to try to clear away some of the speculation, saying he asked London's Metropolitan Police to examine whether conspiracy theories should be part of the investigation.
"I'm aware that there is speculation that these deaths were not the result of a sad but relatively straightforward road traffic accident in Paris," Burgess said.
Burgess said he would focus on four key questions — "who the deceased person was, and how, when and where the cause of death arose."
Burgess then adjourned the case, saying it likely would reopen early next year. He explained that potential witnesses live abroad, and French judicial proceeding and appeals must be concluded before he could obtain documentation compiled by French investigators.
Fayed's father, Egyptian-born billionaire Mohammed al Fayed has repeatedly called for a full public inquiry into the deaths, contending that his 42-year-old son and Diana, 36, were murdered.
"This is what we have been waiting for six years," al Fayed told APTN as he arrived at the Diana inquest. "At last I hope we can see the light."
Al Fayed at one time accused Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, of masterminding a plot to kill Diana because the royal family allegedly objected to her relationship with an Egyptian.
Asked about the suspicions contained in the alleged Diana letter, al Fayed told reporters, "I'm always saying this from the beginning. I suspect not only Prince Charles" but also Philip.
Parallel to allegations of a murder plot, there have been unsubstantiated stories of photographs of the crash site being stolen, of Diana being pregnant, suspicion about closed-circuit TV cameras inside the tunnel where the crash occurred that were said to have been turned to face a wall, and claims that Diana could have been saved if she had reached a hospital more quickly.
Diana's former bodyguard Ken Wharfe dismissed the possibility that she was murdered.
"I have said this many, many times, the Princess of Wales was killed tragically in nothing more than a mundane road traffic accident," he told ITV television.
"If we look at the conspiracy theories perpetrated by Mohamed al Fayed again, you look at the evidence, there is no evidence here. It is mere speculation," Wharfe said.
Many in Britain — and more around the world — appear to share al Fayed's suspicions in varying degrees, although Diana's friends and family dismiss the murder claim and other rumors.
In 2002, France's highest court dropped manslaughter charges against nine photographers who pursued the car before it crashed or who took photos at the site. In November, a French court acquitted three photographers in a case brought by al Fayed, who alleged they invaded his son's privacy by taking pictures at the crash scene. Prosecutors have appealed that verdict.
Clarence House said Prince Charles and his sons, Princes William and Harry, "are very pleased that the inquest is finally under way." They did not attend the formal opening.
One of Diana's sisters, Lady Sarah McQuorquodale, did attend.
The inquest may "give rise to considerable and possibly unnecessary intrusion into private grief. That I regret, just as I regret the untold pain for some in having to relive the experiences surrounding the deaths," Burgess said.
Hmmmm