Was Princess Diana’s death really an accident or was she
murdered? On the night of August 31st, 1997, the world not only lost a Princess
but also a phenomenal leader and a lovable woman in a car crash. There are
many conspiracy theories about the death of the lost princess:
1. Was Princess
Diana’s death an accident?
2. Was Princess Diana murdered?
Now, let’s examine the case and two
of the conspiracy theories which go over the death of the one and only Princess
Diana.
Princess Diana was known to be a
very compassionate young woman. Also, the princess was a caring mother who
would put her children's needs before her own trying to ensure that her
children would be raised as close to normal as possible. In an article by Top
Biography Books, “Diana was said to be a caring mother, trying to raise her
children as normally as possible” (“Princess of Wales Diana Biography.” 1).
Even when Diana hit a rocky road in life, which ended her marriage to the
Prince and caused her to withdraw from the public life, she kept one of her
lovable traits of being compassionate and continued her charity work.
Diana was very charitable. She also brought
the problems of homelessness and drug abuse into the light. Diana even shook
the hands of patients that had AIDS in a Middlesex hospital and took it upon
herself to once visit victims of an Irish Republican Army bombing in Northern
Ireland (“Princess of Wales Diana Biography.”1). Not only did the Princess take
part in many charities, but she took part in forty-four and made plenty of
appearances on her behalf. (1). This involved her still “visiting the
terminally ill people in hospitals and traveling to Bosnia to meet the victims
of land mines and meet Mother Teresa in New York City’s South Bronx in June
1997” (1). As of today, Diana is known by the world as “the people’s princess”
due to her loving composure (”1). Princess Diana even has a famous quote
stating, “I don’t just want to be a name on a letterhead”, which is stating
that she doesn’t just want to be another princess in the books, but instead
wants to be remembered for doing something for those less fortunate, which was
a success for the people’s princess (1).
Princess Diana was also rebellious
by doing things her own way and breaking protocol. “Diana even picked her own
engagement ring from a local catalog” (Fogler 4). Although all the royal
engagement rings are custom made, the princess decided to break protocol and
pick her own out. Even though she broke protocol she even set a trend due to
both of her sons following her footsteps by writing her own wedding vows (4).
The lost princess made sure to stay active in
her children's life (Fogler 5). She even went against her husband's wishes to
name her children Arthur and Albert and took it upon herself to choose the names
Harry and William (7). The” royal couple even broke protocol by not following
the separation traits by taking nine-month-old William, as well as a nanny,
with them on a six-week tour to Australia and New Zealand” (7). Diana made a
huge difference in her kid's life by sending them to a public school (8). It
didn’t stop there; “she was so set on making sure her kids had as much as a
normal life as possible that she even took them to get hamburgers at
McDonald’s, rode the tube bus, and let them wear jeans and baseball caps; they
even white-water rafted and rode bicycles (8). They even attended Disney and
stood in line like everyone else (8). William was very grateful for the lengths
his mother went to for them to have somewhat of a normal childhood. William told
ABC News Katie Couric in 2012, “She very much wanted to get us to see the
rawness of real life”, “and I can’t thank her enough for that, cause reality
bites in a big way, and it was one of the biggest” (8).
Once the rumors of Prince Charles’ infidelity
started airing, Princess Diana took it upon herself to wear a clingy rushed
minidress for a Serpentine Gallery benefit which surely broke the queen’s dress
code (Fogler 9). Diana was even bold enough to wear a necklace the queen gave
her as a wedding gift as a tiara to an appearance (9). The press even got the
opportunity to get a very revealing interview with the princess, which was done
secretly (10). Her interview soon become personal when she addressed Prince
Charles longtime relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles; "A woman’s
instinct is a very good one; obviously I had knowledge of it from people who
minded and cared about our marriage... There were three of us in this marriage,
so it was a bit crowded” (10). When asked about her own affair with James
Hewitt she didn’t deny it, “Yes, I adored him.
Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down” (10). Diana was
her own women, who didn't let others tell her what to do.
We will be looking at the conspiracy
theories that relate to Princess Diana: Was Princess Diana’s death an accident
or was she murdered?
Many sources feel as if Princess
Diana’s death was accidental. On the tragic night of her death she was out in
“Paris enjoying a night with Egyptian billionaire heir Dodi Fayed, whom Diana
was dating for about a month” ... “After spending over a week on Fayed’s yacht
in the French Riviera, while traveling to London the couple decided to stop in
Paris” (Brayson 1). But of course, the Princess’s presence in Paris wasn't
going to go unnoticed for long. The local paparazzi soon became aware of the
couple's presence in the city. Later
that night the lovebirds went to the restaurant Ritz, because of the privacy of
the public rooms (“Princess Diana Died in Paris. Here's What Happened.” 1).
Although the paparazzi doesn’t get passed the restaurant’s doors, they do however
lurk in the Place Vendome out front (1). Due to the overbearing paparazzi out
front, Diana and Dodi slipped out back after dinner a few minute's past
midnight into a waiting Mercedes that belonged to the Ritz (1). The driver of
the vehicle was a hotel security man; Dodi’s bodyguard rode shotgun while Dodi
and Diana shared the backseat. The couple's apparent destination was Al Fayed’s
town house about four miles away (1). Then unfortunately a chase ensued with at
least one motorcycle, carrying a photographer (1).
After a quick right onto the Cours la Reine, the Mercedes
followed the road into a tunnel, rose again to street level, then plunged again
into a tunnel, this time beneath the Pont de l'Alma, just across the Seine from
the Eiffel Tower and down the hill from the Arc de Triomphe (“Princess Diana
Died in Paris. Here's What Happened.” 1). By now another motorcycle, a motor
scooter and at least one car were in pursuit. It was 35 minutes after midnight.
As square pillars separating westbound from eastbound traffic loomed into view,
the driver suddenly lost control just as he swerved left entering the tunnel
(1). About one third of the way through the tunnel, with a bang and a sickening
squeal of tires audible to tourists strolling along the river, the car slammed
into a pillar at a speed police estimate at 85 miles per hour (1). It
ricocheted off the opposite wall. The entire front of the sedan accordioned
into the front seat. The roof collapsed to the level of the front passengers'
knees. And as if in cruel mockery of the limits of technology, the two front
airbags deployed (1). Fayed and the driver were killed on impact. But the
princess however was rushed to Pitie Salpetriere Hospital which was about four
miles away (1). Doctors made the
announcement: shortly before 4 a.m., Diana, 36, had been pronounced dead (1).
However, the lost Princess could have walked away with her life after that
tragic night with just the buckle of her seatbelt. The pathologist that
performed Diana’s autopsy stated:
I wish I could say she
would have died whatever happened, but the fact is, if she had worn her
seatbelt, she would have been here for Prince William and Harry's weddings,” he
told the Daily Mail. Had she been strapped in “she would have walked away with
a black eye or maybe a broken arm, but nothing more. "Instead, she was
hurtling forward with the weight of one and a half elephants, and the human
body is not designed to suffer those forces. (Tahir 1)
The public announcement of the death
of the princess was delayed for two hours so Prince Charles could wake up both
sons, William and Harry, at Balmoral Castle and deliver the horrible news of
their mothers' death, the mother whom took them to burger joints and to visit
homeless shelters (1). Although there is conclusive evidence suggesting it was
a murder.
Was Princess Diana murdered? There
are many conspiracy theories that deal with the death of the lost princess
involving pointing fingers at many different people to blame her tragic ending
on. Some of the main suspects were the paparazzi, the driver, and the Royal
Family (Brayson 1). Reports have claimed that paparazzi had “run the car off
the road in their relentless pursuit to obtain photos of the couple” (1). The
“original French investigation placed the blame all on the driver, whose blood
alcohol intake had been three times the legal limit at the time of the
accident” (1). Not only was his alcohol level way over but prescription drugs
were also found in his system (1). Later in 2008 a British inquest into the
crash, known as Operation Paget:
blamed both the driver and the
paparazzi in equal measure, with a jury concluding that the driver had been
“grossly negligent” and the paparazzi’s actions which witnesses testified to,
including attempting to block Diana’s vehicle with their cars, led to her
“wrongful death. (1)
Regardless of the “findings of these
investigations, there are also some, namely Fayed’s father, Mohammed Al Fayed,
who maintain that Diana’s killing was an assassination orchestrated by the
British Royal Family” (Brayson 1).
The lost Princess was murdered due
to the high-speed chase put on by the paparazzi. According to the survey in
which I asked multiple people was the death of Princess Diana an accident or
was she murdered the survey favored in the fact that the Princess was indeed
murdered.
The twenty-year anniversary of
Princess Diana’s death took place in 2017. Not only will the phenomenal leader
never be forgotten, but neither will the tragic accident that took place on
August 31st. These are the conspiracy theories about the death of
the Princess:
1.Was Princess Diana’s death an
accident?
2. Was Princess Diana murdered?
The conspiracy theory that best
solves the death of the Princess is she was murdered. Regardless of the
seat belt altercation if the paparazzi would have never put on the high-speed
chase, the lost princes would still be here today.
Works Cited
S Brayson, Johnny. “People Are Still
Debating Princess Diana's Death.” Bustle, Bustle, 15 June 2018, www.bustle.com/p/what-happened-the-night-of-princess-dianas-death-the-story-is-so-tragic-72244.
S Fogle, Asher. “14 Ways Princess
Diana Bucked Tradition.” Good Housekeeping, Good Housekeeping, 22 Apr.
2018, www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g3675/princess-diana-royal-protocol/.
S “Princess Diana Died in Paris. Here's What
Happened.” Newsweek, 30 Aug. 2017, www.newsweek.com/shock-dianas-death-654172.
T “Princess of Wales Diana
Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, Advameg, Inc., 2018, www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Diana-Princess-of-Wales.html.
Tahir,
Tariq. “Princess Diana 'Would Have Been at Harry's Wedding If She'd Worn a
Seatbelt'.” The Sun, The Sun, 22 Sept. 2018, www.thesun.co.uk/news/7320231/princess-diana-would-have-been-at-prince-harrys-wedding-if-she-had-been-wearing-a-seatbelt-pathologist-claims/.
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