In November
1974 John Bingham, the seventh Earl of Lucan - a dashing but dissolute gambler
- mistook his children’s nanny for his estranged wife in the dimly lit basement
of their London home and bludgeoned her to death. He vanished and the
disappearance has inspired novels, a television series, subway graffiti,
litigation, conspiracy theories and scores of sightings. He is assumed to be
dead.
I
met Veronica twice at Eaton Row and she struck me as grounded, self-contained
and un-theatrical. You wouldn't think she was a Countess Dowager. No cobwebs
fogged that brain. After the murder she moved into a small mews house behind
her former six-story home. Sadly it was a sad end for her. Aged 80 she was
found dead here on the dining room floor after a worried friend called the
police. She'd diagnosed herself with Parkinson's disease having lost her smell
and developing a tremor in her arm (not diagnosed by doctors) and then used
pills and alcohol to finish herself off. A pathologist said she died of
respiratory failure.
After chatting to me once she waved me
off and then left the house. I stopped nearby to retrieve a biscuit from my bag
and saw her pass me. Where was she going? I decided to follow at a distance and
she went to the library. Oddly she took the longer route avoiding walking
passed her former home. She survived a murder attempt there so it was
understandable. In the library she picked a book and settle down at a table. I
left thinking I might see her again and was sad when I read in the newspaper
that she'd killed herself.
There's some photos of the mews house
here though after Veronica's death it was refurbished to a high standard.
An
interview with Veronica here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmV5yTzV9U4
The house after
refurbishment...