Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Questioning Princess Diana's Death

Tatum Estrada
Professor Beth Hammett
Composition 1301
09/26/2018 
Questioning Princess Diana’s Death
            After leaving “The Ritz Hotel on Aug. 31, 1997, in Paris, France”, Princess Diana was tragically killed in a car accident along with her driver, Henry Paul and alleged boyfriend named Dodi Fayed (“Princess Diana Remembered: Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Her Death”). After the incident, the story was released by many news channels as being the all too familiar combination of high speeds, drunk driving and Paparazzi. However, was there more to the story than met the eye? Was the so called accident planned by the royal family? Was there another car involved? Was Diana’s death a result of malpractice by her doctors? Or was it merely the over ambitious paparazzi combined with high speeds and drunk driving, like the stories the news released? (“Princess Diana Remembered: Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Her Death”). Let’s take a look at the facts and evidence surrounding these theories to see what really happened to Princess Diana.
Image result for princess diana magazine
            Diana Spencer, born and raised into the outskirts of royalty, was a lean, beautiful blonde haired girl that was adored by her elders (Princess Diana Biography).  Diana was had a shy personality growing up but she was also very caring and had a passion for children. Her love for children “eventually led her to become an assistant at Young England Kindergarten” (Princess Diana Biography). At only 19 years old, Diana’s life changed juristically on July 29, 1981, when she became the Princess of Wales after marrying the heir to the British throne; Prince Charles (Princess Diana Biography). After the marriage and sudden thrust into publicity, Diana’s shy demeanor never faded, the couple was even known as the “garden-loving prince and the shy young woman” to the press and British citizens at the beginning of their marriage (Princess Diana Biography). Throughout their marriage Diana gave birth to two sons named William and Harry, and the nurturing persona that she gained from her years of working with children and having children of her own led her to leading a lot of charity works to help those in need (Princess Diana Biography).  Diana’s shy and compassionate personality described her true identity. However, everything began to change when her marriage to Prince Charles began to fail, and millions of people watched as the situation progressed (Princess Diana Biography).
Image result for diana and charles
            Leading up to their divorce, Diana Struggled with severe depression, bulimia and even self-injury (How Princess Diana Changed Lives by Discussing Her Mental Health). However, these character traits mostly went unnoticed until after her death. This hidden side of Diana was revealed to the world when “Andrew Morton published Diana: Her True Story, after her death, which was a series of interviews with Diana promising to share her true story (How Princess Diana Changed Lives by Discussing Her Mental Health). The interviews discussed and explained what went on behind the closed doors of the Royal Palace between Diana, Charles and Camilla; the woman who was more prominent in his life than Diana, and how their poor marriage caused her to have eating and mental disorders (How Princess Diana Changed Lives by Discussing Her Mental Health). Diana struggled with these negative thoughts and abusive actions for the majority of her marriage with Prince Charles. The amount of reject that she received from him and the fact that she knew about his so called “secret” love affair with Camilla from the start is what ultimately led to the downward spiral of her mental health. (How Princess Diana Changed Lives by Discussing Her Mental Health). 
Image result for diana bulimia

            When Diana was finally able to realize what a horrible life she had been putting up with, she decided to get a divorce with Prince Charles (Princess Diana Biography). This didn’t go over so well with the royal family and caused even more attention from the press. After the divorce, it was no surprise that “Charles resumed his relationship with Camilla Parker” (Princess Diana Biography). However, once Charles was taken out of Diana’s everyday life, she had much more time to focus on the things she loved and time to get her mental health back to normal.

            After the divorce, Diana was able to re-establish herself as a strong, outspoken activist (Princess Diana Charity Work). She became a big voice in the UK about issues like “AID’s and eating disorders” (Princess Diana Charity Work). In her pursuit to help others, she discussed those topics to make them approachable and helping people to be more open about their own issues as well as helping people be more openhearted to the ones living with those issues (Princess Diana Charity Work). Along with her charity works, Diana also became a little more scandalous. One of Diana’s maids even shared that “she saw half-empty contraceptive packets among the princess's belongings during a Mediterranean cruise in the days before Diana and Dodi were killed in a car crash in Paris in August 1997” (Princess 'could not have been pregnant'). Diana was involved with a few different men in her few living years after her marriage, but Dodi Fayed was more to her than just a sexual partner. "They were clearly having a relationship and were a couple," she (Deborah Gribble, who worked on the Fayed family's cruiser) told the jury at the Royal Courts of Justice in London” after the car crash. (Princess 'could not have been pregnant').

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            Many strange conspiracies sprouted up after Princess Diana’s fatal car crash. The public was in utter disbelief that Princess Diana, so loved by the people, could have died in such an abrupt and rather ordinary way. Diana’s sudden death led many to believe that there had to have been something missing from the story, and many wondering; was her death perhaps too ordinary? Although the police “investigations carried out by both French and British authorities concluded that Mr. Paul (Diana and Dodi’s driver) was responsible for the crash” because “he was drunk and on anti-depressants, while trying to shake off paparazzi photographers” the story still felt incomplete (Princess Diana: What happened on the night of her death?) The three conspiracies that we will take a deeper look into are firstly, the theory that “the royal family was ashamed of the public conversation about Diana and Prince Charles divorce and took action to conspire against the princess and ultimately murder her” (Conspiracy Theories: Princess Diana’s Death). The second being that “there were ­allegations a mystery white Fiat Uno could have collided with Diana and Dodi’s car” (Bizarre conspiracy theories that still surround Princess Diana's Paris death). Lastly it was believed that Diana made it to the hospital alive but “her medical care was deliberately sabotaged” (Princess Diana Conspiracy Theories: Eight reasons people believed the crash in Paris wasn’t all it seems).

Image result for princess diana car crash

The first theory, and most voted to be true in a survey I took, entails that the royal family purposely planned the murder of Diana because of her recent divorce to Prince Charles and new relationship with Dodi Fayed” the Royal Family could not bear the inevitable scandal - let alone the idea of Diana marrying a non-Christian” (Princess Diana: What happened on the night of her death?). Also, “Dodi Fayed’s father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, claimed that Diana and Dodi were killed in a plot that was arranged for or carried out by security services on behalf of Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II” (Princess Diana remembered: Conspiracy theories surrounding her death). Mohamad Al-Fayed was one of the main advocates of this theory and believed that Prince Phillip’s “motive, according to the report, would have been Diana being pregnant with Dodi Fayed’s child and that their engagement would soon be announced” (Princess Diana remembered: Conspiracy theories surrounding her death). Another piece of suspicious evidence is that “While leading the inquest, coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker rejected the conspiracy theory, and instructed the jury there was no evidence to support Al-Fayed’s claims the couple were victims of a murder plot directed by Prince Philip and carried out by British secret agents. The jury was not at liberty to disagree”, which could be the result of trying to keep Prince Phillip out of the line of suspects (Princess Diana remembered: Conspiracy theories surrounding her death) The queen was also quite unemotional about Diana’s death (The Truth About the Royal Family's Reaction to Princess Diana's Death). However, even though Diana was involved with Dodi at the time, the investigation found that “no proof of a connection between Prince Philip and the Secret Intelligence Service -- also known as MI6 -- was found in the Stevens inquiry” (Princess Diana remembered: Conspiracy theories surrounding her death). Also “Diana wasn’t found to have been engaged or pregnant” (Princess Diana remembered: Conspiracy theories surrounding her death). All in all, the evidence that contradicts this theory far exceeds the so called “evidence” that was claimed to be true by Mohamad Al-Fayed, therefore it is very unlikely to be true.

            The second theory involves another car, and specific evidence that points to this theory was found when the “analysis of the wreckage of the Mercedes (which Diana and Dodi were in) showed that it had come into contact with a white Fiat Uno, leaving traces of paint on the Mercedes bodywork” (Princess Diana: What happened on the night of her death?). The initial suspect was James Anderson, because he “owned a white Fiat Uno, but had been with his wife at home the night of Aug. 30, 1997”, which gave him a valid alibi and more unanswered questions for the investigation to answer (Princess Diana remembered: Conspiracy theories surrounding her death). This is what they figured out…    
“Two inquest witnesses identified the white Fiat Uno driver as Vietnamese-born French citizen Le Van Thanh, according to the Telegraph.
“Thanh sprayed his car red hours after the incident”, his father Francois alleged to the Daily Mail in 2006.
Thanh didn’t attend the inquest, but has denied that he was the Fiat Uno driver, the newspaper reported. Stevens (an investigator) tried twice to contact Thanh, but Thanh has reportedly refused to speak with him”(Princess Diana remembered: Conspiracy theories surrounding her death).

The investigators aren’t blaming Thanh for purposefully murdering Diana and the other two, but his refusal to speak is certainly suspicious (Princess Diana remembered: Conspiracy theories surrounding her death). That being said, this theory still doesn’t have enough solid evidence to back itself up completely because the lack of being able to speak with Thanh and not knowing if the Fiat involved was purposeful or accidental.

            The final theory lies the fault on the doctors and nurses who took care of Diana immediately after the accident. The theory suggests that on the scene the “doctors allowed Diana to die, on purpose” by treating her incorrectly, which stopped her from recovering (Princess Diana Conspiracy Theories: Eight reasons people believed the crash in Paris wasn’t all it seems).  Another aspect is that “The ambulance carrying Princess Diana, who was still alive at the time, passed one hospital without stopping on its way to another hospital farther away from the scene of the crash” (10 Conspiracy Theories That Still Surround Princess Diana’s Death). If Diana was instead taken to the nearest hospital and the doctors didn’t keep her on the scene for so long trying to “recover” her without the necessary equipment then she might still be alive today, but that didn’t happen, and instead the doctors walked away without a single malpractice suit. This theory is 100% the reason why Diana is not with us today, and even if the crash and attempted and failed recovery was an accident, this evidence explains why she died.
            Diana’s death remains one of the most talked losses to this day, and all that talk led these three theories to also remain a point of topic:
1.      Did the royal family plot to kill Diana?
2.      Was Diana’s death due to the collision with the white Fiat Uno?
3.      Did the doctors on the scene treat her insufficiently?
Although significant amounts of evidence point to the doctors and their malpractice while treating Diana, what truly happened that night in that tunnel remains a mystery.


Works Cited
“Princess Diana Remembered: Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Her Death.” Fox News, FOX
“Princess Diana Remembered: Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Her Death.” Fox News, FOX
Mendle, Jane. “How Princess Diana Changed Lives by Discussing Her Mental
Health.” Time, Time, 30 Aug. 2017, time.com/4918729/princess-diana-mental-health-legacy/.
Pettinger, Tejvan. “Princess Diana Charity Work |  .” Biography Online, Oxford Online,
Rayner, Gordon. “Princess Diana 'Could Not Have Been Pregnant'.” The Telegraph, Telegraph
Reporters, Telegraph. “Princess Diana: What Happened on the Night of Her Death?” The
Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 31 Aug. 2018, www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/0/princess-diana-happened-night-death/.
Finn, Natalie. “The Truth About the Royal Family's Reaction to Princess Diana's Death.” E!
Online, E! News, 31 Aug. 2018, www.eonline.com/news/963436/the-complicated-truth-about-the-royal-family-s-reaction-to-princess-diana-s-death
Novak, Shannon. “Conspiracy Theories: Princess Diana's Death .” OSU.edu, The Ohio State
University , 18 Apr. 2018, u.osu.edu/vanzandt/2018/04/18/conspiracy-theories-princess-dianas-death/.
Evans, Sofie. “Bizarre Conspiracy Theories That Still Surround Princess Diana's Death
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, 19 May 2018, 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
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