Over the past couple of months, we've been looking into some of the wildest conspiracy theories that have been doing the rounds for anything from a couple of weeks, to many years. The conspiracies that we'll be looking at this time however are arguably some of the craziest we've ever heard, but despite that, some of the most popular and widely-believed. They are of course the conspiracies surrounding the death of Princess Diana.
What history tells us
On August 31, 1997, the Princess of Wales died in hospital after being taken there following a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Injuries sustained proved to be too severe for Princess Diana to recover, much like her companion Dodi Fayed, who died at the scene, as well as the driver of the car, Henri Paul. The Mercedes S280's fourth passenger, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured in the crash, but survived.
Media at the time blamed the behaviour of the paparazzi following the car for the tragic event, but a French judicial investigation two years later (1999) discovered that Paul had lost control of the car at high speed, whilst intoxicated and under the effects of prescription drugs. This meant that no criminal charges would be brought against any of the photographers pursuing the vehicle.
The Royal Family were quickly criticised in the press and by the wider public for their reaction to Diana's death, because of how closely they stook to protocol, which was interpreted as a lack of compassion. The refusal of Buckingham Palace to fly the Royal Standard at half-mast was met with vicious headlines, but it was simply because of the Queen being in Scotland at the time that this could not be done.
What do conspiracists say?
It might be fair to say that conspiracies began due to Fayed's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, claiming that the crash was actually orchestrated by MI6 on behalf of the Royal Family. Though an investigation by the French dismissed these claims, it was something that took ahold of some of Diana's most devoted of fans who had been devastated by the Royal Family's overall reaction to the tragedy, breathing life into something that surely could never have happened.
One of the reasons people believe Diana was murdered is because of a note she sent to her butler, which read: "I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high. This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous - [someone] is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him [Prince Charles] to marry."
The idea of a slaying was resparked in 2013, when Scotland Yard revealed they were examining just how credible the information was from a source alleging Diana was killed by a member of the British military. Nothing came of these investigations, but it helped conspiracists gain more ground with their baseless theories.
NOTE: Conspiracies are theories often created with a lack of evidence. Each of our conspiracy reports are based on online research, but should never be taken as 100% fact.
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