Princess Diana: An English Murder
Ten years ago the whole world was grieving for Princess Diana, the legendary lady, who tragically died in one of the most terrible car accidents of the 20th century.
On August 31, 1997 at 0:27 a.m. a car with Princess Diana, her boyfriend Dodi al-Fayed, driver Henrie Paul and Diana’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones ran into the 13th bridge pillar of the Place d'Alma underpass . Dodi and the driver died immediately, whereas the Princess died at about 4:00 a.m. at a hospital.
According to the first version of the accident reported by investigators, several paparazzi photographers that were following Diana’s Mercedes on scooters were to blame for the tragedy. It was said that one of the scooters was probably an obstacle for the Mercedes driver, and with the view of avoiding a clash the driver accidentally hit the bridge pillar. However, witnesses of the tragedy stated that the paparazzi scooters got into the tunnel several seconds after Diana’s Mercedes which meant they on no occasion could provoke the car accident. What is more, there is no official evidence that could prove that the paparazzi were actually guilty of the tragedy.
Investigators of Diana’s tragic death say that the car accident probably occurred because of some other auto that was staying in the tunnel when the princess’s car drove in it. The police found debris of a Fiat Uno car right at the site where Diana’s Mercedes crashed. The discovered debris allowed the police figure out all the characteristics of the car. The police managed to determine even the year of manufacture and the color, but the exact information and witnesses’ evidence about the driver’s looks did not help find the car. Witnesses said they saw a white Fiat Uno zigzagging out of the tunnel several seconds after the tragedy; it seemed that the driver was looking into the rear-view mirror as if there was something terrible behind the car. Later, the witnesses sounded confusing as concerning the white car at the accident site so that it was not clear if the Fiat Uno actually existed or not.
Some details of the tragedy that have never been published before are coming to light now. It turns out that as soon as Diana’s Mercedes went into the tunnel the twilight was dispelled with a bright flash of light that blinded everyone inside the car and around it. In an instant, the break chatter broke the night silence. The version was spread at the suggestion of former MI-6 officer Richard Tomlinson who said that the way the Princess died resembled the plan to assassinate Slobodan Milosevic plotted by British special services. He said that it was planned to blind the Yugoslav president in a tunnel. The police were reluctant to mention the flash of light in official protocols of the investigation. Several months later, British and French newspapers published a sensational report by Richard Tomlinson saying that someone probably used modern laser weapons adopted by special services to provoke the car accident in the tunnel.
How did the Fiat debris get into the tunnel? Why was it so problematic to find the auto when the police knew its technical characteristics? The press insists that British special services were prepared for the tragedy: they placed the Fiat debris in the tunnel stealthily beforehand as they wanted to make the premeditated crash look as a mere car accident. The special services knew that one of the most successful and famous paparazzi of Paris James Andanson who was known as driving a white Fiat Uno would certainly be very close to Diana trying to make pictures of the celebrity.
Mass media reported that the special services could not prove that the paparazzo was guilty of the car tragedy as many witnesses had seen James Andanson without his white Fiat Uno in the evening when the tragedy occurred. At the same time, the paparazzo was seen in the tunnel few minutes after the car accident occurred. Some witnesses also saw an auto resembling his Fiat Uno but with some other number, may be a false one. This is strange that the paparazzo spent hours in front of the Ritz Hotel waiting for a moment to make a sensational picture of Diana and Dodi but suddenly left the place even before the couple left the hotel and went to the tunnel. Right after the accident the paparazzo suddenly disappeared from the car crash site and in the middle of the night he left Paris for Corsica. Some time later he was found dead in a burnt car in the Pyrenees; all documents and pictures concerning Diana’s death were stolen from his office in Paris. It is not ruled out that Andanson was liquidated either as an unwanted witness or the principal offender.
Another witness of the car accident who was close to the crashed Mercedes in the tunnel, reporter James Kit died at a hospital in September 1999. He was to undergo just a simple surgery on his knee but told his friends that he felt as if he would never leave the hospital alive. The reporter planned to publish some documents about the tunnel car accident soon after his discharge from the hospital. Several hours after his death a website with the details of his private investigation and all the documents he was holding in connection with the crime were liquidated.
It is quite logical that the police wanted to see records of the road video surveillance to find out how many autos were inside of the tunnel at the moment of the crash and how that could occur at all. But when road workers opened the boxes with surveillance devices they were surprised to know that the system was out of order.
