Who
killed Princess Diana? On August 30, 1997, Princess Diana of Wales died after a
fatal car crash in Paris (Jensen 1). The princess, known worldwide, passed away
along with the driver, Henri Paul and her beau, Dodi Fayed when their car
collided with a concrete column in a tunnel (Jensen 1). It is said that the car
was speeding to get away from paparazzi following them, but other conspiracies
have evolved around this horrific event with different reasons for the crash.
Some of the many conspiracy theories that have developed: driver Henri Paul
intentionally caused the crash, the paparazzi made the car crash intentionally,
and the establishment planned Princess Diana’s death as she predicted (Griffin
1). Let’s take a look at these theories based around Diana’s death and the
likelihood that her death was actually planned.
Some
of Diana’s evident traits were warmth, affection, femininity, kindness,
generosity, courtesy, humility, thoughtfulness, and courage (Smith 1). Nicholas
Haslam once said, “Her nature was spontaneous” and one of her friends stated
that “She had the gift of making other people feel very good” (1). Her friend
went on saying, “She was a princess. But she could step down and make you feel
special”, displaying that Diana had a large sense of selflessness (1). In her
very last interview, she claimed, “I am much closer to people at the bottom
than people at the top”, her relationship with the lower class is close because
she once began as a housekeeper herself (1).
Diana is well known for
being a great humanitarian, she has traveled the world to places like North
America, visiting schools, hospitals, charities, and fundraising galas, as well
as to Angola, Australia, Bosnia, Egypt, India, Pakistan, any many European
countries for other various reasons (“Humanitarian Work” 1). She also advocated
for many AIDS related causes, she was a member of the National AIDS Trust of
the United Kingdom for people suffering from the disease and their families
(“Princess Diana’s Death” 1). The brave princess is also famous for shaking the
hands of someone suffering from HIV with no gloves on, this shocked but changed
the world’s perspective of the disease.
Despite
Princess Diana’s amazing character and service work, she had a very different
side to her that the public never saw. At the beginning of her fame, she had a
hard time adjusting to the lack of privacy she had as she exclaimed, “she could
no longer tell where her public image stopped and her private self began”
(Smith 1). Diana was said to have had a “quicksilver temperament”, that she
could easily slip from one mood to another (1). “She was a curious mixture of
incredible maturity and immaturity, like a split personality”, said one of her
friends, “She was very impulsive” (1). Prince Charles stated that Diana was
known to be very honest but “she had real difficulty telling the truth purely
because she liked to embellish things” (1). One of her relatives claimed, “She
had a perfectly good character, but her temperament overtook her” (1). Even Dr.
Michael Adler from the National AIDS Trust noticed many negative parts of Diana
saying, “She was very, very, insecure. She didn’t believe in herself. There was
not a sort of real center to her personality. Her identity was created for her”
(1). This identity that was created for her had a lot to do with her becoming a
royal, she was forced to act a certain way all the time to keep safe from the
media and news. It turns out that Princess Diana did have a borderline
personality and experienced many of the severe symptoms and received treatment
from time to time for her eating disorder and depression (Smith 1). Diana
seemed to have been struggling with bulimia and her depression throughout the
time her marriage problems began (“Princess Diana” 1).
Although
Princess Diana had many accomplishments in her lifetime, creating “a legacy for
the future”, she had multiple problems that she kept private (1). She struggled
with many problems, both mentally and physically with her spouse but still
managed to show the public world the best version of herself. Now with the
knowledge of Diana’s hidden traits, we could perhaps know more information
about the final days of her life and if anything suspicious really did happen
during her death.
There
are three reoccurring conspiracy theories about Princess Diana’s death, these
three are: that driver Henri Paul intentionally caused the crash, the paparazzi
purposely caused the accident, or that her death was planned by the
establishment as she had once predicted. Regardless of the many different
stories and claims, only one of these conspiracies can be true. Let’s carefully
take a close look at each one to find out what really happened.
The
first conspiracy proposes that Henri Paul, driver of the car that night, had
intentionally crashed the car to kill Princess Diana. It is said that Paul was
drunk the night of the crash, but many believe that his intoxication was simply
a lie to cover up the murder (Griffin 1). A reason that people believe this is
because Henri Paul was never reported behaving as if he was intoxicated that
night before they got into their car (1). There are also many allegations that
two medical experts in France made large mistakes when testing Paul’s blood
samples for alcohol (Chapman 1). Others claim that Henry Paul’s blood samples
were swapped with the blood of a suicide victim on the orders of the secret
service (1). In fact, if this is true, it would explain why the blood test
results came out so high. After testing the blood samples for a second time,
the carbon monoxide readings were so high that Paul would have not even been
able to stand, let alone drive (Chapman 1). Although there were many mistakes
with the test results, it is evident that Henri Paul was somewhat drunk. The
lack of evidence explaining how Paul killed Princess Diana proves that this
conspiracy is false.
The
second conspiracy suggests that the paparazzi followed the car and purposely
caused the accident with their bright camera flashes. This is a very popular
conspiracy and many people still believe it today. There are different forms of
this story, one is that the paparazzi pushed and chased the car until it
crashed in the tunnel (Griffin 1). Another is that the paparazzi encouraged an
environment that could cause the crash (1). Regardless of which form of the
story people believe, the paparazzi are a main spotlight of suspects in causing
Diana’s death. Diana’s son, Prince Harry, affirms that his mother’s death was
because of the group of paparazzi that night (Sadeghi and Mellander 1). Harry
says that those who were guilty of her death “took pictures of his mother as
she lay dying on the back seat” (1). Although this conspiracy could possibly be
true, a final investigation of the death pointed out that paparazzi all have
the same job, which is to cover a story and try to get the best photos (Griffin
1). They all work for different people and companies and it would be impossible
for them all to plan a murder together, their actions that night seemed to be
the normal behavior of paparazzi (1). Therefore, this conspiracy is false as
well.
The
last conspiracy points the blame toward the royal establishment, that they
planned the car crash to kill the princess that night in France. There were
multiple problems with Diana and Charles’ relationship, one being Charles’
interest in Camilla Parker Bowls (Morton 1). Princess Diana had experienced
various times when Prince Charles and Camilla would talk on the phone, Diana
even caught them talking on the phone while Charles was in the bath and
overheard him say, “Whatever happens, I will always love you” (1). These
conversations even happened during their engagement and would usually spark an
argument between the two (1). Diana also discovered flowers that were sent to
Camilla from Charles when she was sick, as well as a gold bracelet engraved “G
and F”, Gladys and Fred (their nicknames for each other) two days before the
royal wedding (1). This worried Diana, she did not want to marry Charles
anymore but was told it was “too late” to do anything (1). Her bulimia began
around this time, which lasted for about a year (1). This huge problem between
the couple leads many to believe that the establishment killed Diana on the
orders of the royal family so that Charles could be with Camilla. A piece of
evidence that was found to support this was a letter written by Princess Diana
before she died, kept safe with her former butler. This letter (See Attachment
1) describes Diana longing for help as her husband is planning her death in a
car crash so that he is free to marry (Rayner 1). This letter not only
foreshadows Diana’s death in a car accident, but it creates suspicion towards
the establishment and whether they were really planning her death. With some of
the numerous facts proving that Princess Diana’s death was planned, they
confirm that this conspiracy is the most valid one. A survey of 20 people
revealed that 90% agree with the theory that Princess Diana’s death was planned
by Prince Charles and/or the establishment.
In
spite the fact that this is the most probable solution for the princess’ death,
people around the world and investigators continue to search for the truth of
the big ‘accident’.
After examining the
intriguing case of Princess Diana’s death, three conspiracy theories are left
to ponder:
1.
Did driver Henri Paul intentionally
crash the car?
2.
Did the paparazzi purposely cause the
crash?
3.
Was Diana’s death planned by the
establishment?
Today, twenty years
after the horrific death, people all over the world continue to search for more
evidence, hoping to finally solve this mysterious case and prove that it was
more than just an accident. However, it’s likely that the royal establishment
plays an important role in solving Diana’s death.
Attachment
1
Works
Cited
Chapman,
John. “Diana's driver was not drunk.” Express.co.uk, 18 June 2007,
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/10445/Diana-s-driver-was-not-drunk.
Griffin,
Andrew. “Princess Diana conspiracy theories: Eight reasons people believe the
crash in Paris wasn't all it seems.” The Independent, Independent Digital News
and Media, 31 Aug. 2017,
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/princess-diana-death-conspiracy-theories-paris-tunnel-car-crash-reasons-why-not-clear-planned-murder-a7918766.html.
Humanitarian
work | The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, www.dianaprincessofwales
memorialfund.org/humanitarian-work.
Jensen,
Erin. “What happened the day Princess Diana died: A timeline.” USA Today, Gannett
Satellite Information Network, 31 Aug. 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/life/2017/08/31/princess-diana-timeline-day-she-died/533000001/.
Morton,
Andrew. “How Diana secretly recorded hours of tapes pouring out her despair
over her imploding marriage to Charles: Soul-Baring audio reveals her bulimia
began when Prince told her she was 'a bit chubby'.” Daily Mail Online,
Associated Newspapers, 10 June 2017,
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4589960/How-Diana-secretly-recorded-hours-tapes.html.
“Princess
Diana’s Death.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2017, www.history.com
/topics/princess-dianas-death.
“Princess Diana.” Biography.com, A&E
Networks Television, 19 Aug. 2017, www.biography
.com/people/princess-diana-9273782.
Sadeghi,
M. M., and H. Mellander. “Alternative Passenger Car Seat - Seat Belt Design for
Crash Safety.” SAE Technical Paper Series, Jan. 1988, doi:10.4271/880900.
Smith, Sally Bedell.
Diana: in search of herself. Signet, 2000.
Rayner, Gordon. “Princess Diana letter: 'Charles
plans to kill me'.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 20 Dec. 2007,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573170/Princess-Diana-letter-Charles-plans-to-kill-me.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment