She was called the “people’s princess.” Beautiful, kind, and caring, Princess Diana captured the hearts of people around the world. But she was also outspoken and, in the eyes of some very powerful people, a troublemaker. Her worst “offense” may have been her love affair with Egyptian millionaire Dodi Al-Fayed. When the princess and her lover died in a tragic car crash, many were quick to wonder whether it was really an accident.
The Deceased: Diana, Princess of Wales
How She Died: In the early hours of Sunday, August 31, 1997, a black Mercedes S280 carrying Princess Diana and her soon-to-be fiancé Dodi Al-Fayed left the Paris Ritz Hotel. The pair were on their way to Dodi’s Paris apartment. In the front seat Dodi’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, sat beside the driver, Henri Paul, deputy chief of security at the Ritz. As usual, Diana’s vehicle was pursued by “paparazzi”—tabloid photographers with the reputation of doing anything to get a lucrative photograph. At least one photographer was snapping pictures from the back of a high-powered motorcycle.
Minutes later the Mercedes entered the Place de L’Alma tunnel. Some eyewitnesses report hearing an explosion, then a crash. Many of the first people to arrive after the crash described a grisly scene—photographers crowding within inches of the crumpled car, which had hit a support pillar, shooting pictures of the dying princess and the other bloodied victims.
Dodi and Henri Paul were killed instantly. Diana was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where she died three and a half hours after the crash. The only survivor was Trevor Rees-Jones—the one person in the car who had fastened his seatbelt.
Early reports blamed the crash on the paparazzi. According to stories, Henri Paul was driving at high speeds trying to evade them. Or perhaps he was blinded by a flash and swerved into the pillar. An outraged public accused the photographers not only of causing the crash, but also of interfering with the efforts of rescue personnel. (A doctor who came upon the wreck about a minute after the crash says those reports are false—the photographers were not obstructing efforts to help the victims.)
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Several photographers and a motorcyclist were detained for investigation. The photographers admitted to the chase but denied any responsibility for causing the crash. According to them, the Mercedes had outrun them before they got to the tunnel. They were quickly released.
A blood test on the driver, Henri Paul, raised other possibilities. He had more than three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, as well as the antidepressant Prozac. Inexplicably, there were also high levels of carbon monoxide.
Was the crash caused by a mix of zealous photographers and a drunk driver? For some, including French officials who concluded their investigation two years later, it was simply a tragic accident. But others remain convinced there’s more to the story.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Was Diana pregnant? Almost immediately after the crash, rumors began to circulate that Diana had been six weeks’ pregnant with Al-Fayed’s child. She had hinted to the press earlier that she was going to “surprise” them. Could she have been planning to announce her engagement or her pregnancy—or both? One person who believes both is Dodi’s father, billionaire businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. He has charged that the CIA has tapes from phone taps indicating that Diana was pregnant, and that she and Dodi intended to marry.
An autopsy, which may have revealed the truth, was not performed until her body was returned to England. When asked if Diana had been pregnant, the coroner replied, “No comment.”
Why was there no traffic-camera video of the Mercedes? Paris has one of the most sophisticated video traffic surveillance systems in the world. When Mohamed Al-Fayed asked to see the tapes from the 17 cameras that covered the route the Mercedes took from the Ritz to the tunnel, French officials told him no tapes existed for those cameras at that time. What would the video have shown?
Why did the Mercedes take an indirect route to Dodi’s apartment? The tunnel where the Mercedes crashed was not on the most direct route between the Ritz and Dodi’s apartment. An eyewitness reports seeing a car blocking an exit, forcing the Mercedes to take the road through the tunnel.
Was Henri Paul hired to keep Diana and Al-Fayed under surveillance? A former British intelligence agent claims Henri Paul was an informant for MI6, the British equivalent of the CIA. There are reports that Paul had multiple bank accounts with balances that are hard to explain, based on his salary as a security officer at the Ritz. Was Paul an expendable part of the network keeping track of Diana and Al-Fayed?
Was Henri Paul really drunk? According to one expert, to account for the amount of alcohol reportedly in Paul’s blood, he would have had to drink the equivalent of 10 ounces of whisky (eight shots) within a few hours of leaving the hotel—uncharacteristic behavior according to friends and co-workers. On security camera tapes recorded just before the Mercedes left the hotel, Paul does not appear drunk. His co-workers have also testified that he was not drunk, nor did he have a reputation for heavy drinking.
The sole survivor of the crash, Rees-Jones, received head injuries and claims the last thing he remembers was leaving the Ritz. He told investigators that Paul did not act drunk at the hotel. As Al-Fayed’s bodyguard, Rees-Jones would have had the responsibility to note whether the driver was in a condition to drive safely.
Was the blood test rigged? Was Henri Paul a scapegoat?
Did Rees-Jones expect trouble? Rees-Jones was the only person in the Mercedes wearing a seatbelt. Did the former British paratrooper know something?
Was another car involved? Investigators found evidence that the Mercedes had been grazed by another vehicle just before the crash. Pieces of a taillight and flecks of white paint embedded into the front bumper of the Mercedes probably belonged to a white Fiat Uno, according to their investigations.
Witnesses report seeing a small car cut in front of the Mercedes moments before the crash. Some speculate that the car intentionally slowed down in front of the fast-moving Mercedes as it rounded a slight corner in the tunnel, causing Henri Paul to swerve. The white Fiat has never been found.
Was there an explosion in the tunnel before the crash?
Eyewitnesses report hearing a loud bang in the tunnel just before the crash. Others say they saw a bright light, much brighter than that made by a photographer’s flash. Was someone trying to disorient or blind the driver of the Mercedes?
Why did it take so long to get Diana to the hospital? The doctor who arrived at the site about a minute after the crash quickly noted the conditions of the passengers, then called emergency services. The first ambulance didn’t arrive until 15 minutes later. Diana was treated at the scene for more than 30 minutes after rescue personnel pulled her from the car. The closest hospital with 24-hour emergency service was only a few miles away, normally a 5- to 10-minute drive. The ambulance carrying Diana took 40 minutes to reach the hospital, finally arriving almost two hours after the crash.
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CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Diana was killed by British intelligence. Richard Tomlinson, a former British intelligence agent, claims British intelligence had the expertise to fake Diana’s crash. He knew of a British plan to assassinate Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic by faking a car crash similar to the one that killed Diana. According to that plan, the crash would take place in a tunnel and the driver would be disoriented with a powerful strobe light.
Mohamed Al-Fayed has said he is “99.9% certain” Diana and his son were murdered. According to Al-Fayed, British and American intelligence agencies had Diana under surveillance for years and were following her and Dodi for three months before the crash.
Al-Fayed has stated that he believes British intelligence killed Diana and Dodi, and that the CIA has documents directly implicating Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband. According to Al-Fayed, a document quotes Philip as saying of the relationship between Diana and Dodi, “Such an affair is racially and morally repugnant and no son of a Bedouin camel trader is fit for the mother of a future king.”
In many ways Diana was an annoyance to the Royal Family and its supporters. After the end of her “fairy tale” marriage to Prince Charles, she aired her uncomplimentary views of the queen, her former husband, and the rest of the Royal Family in the press. And the public took Diana’s side against the Royals. Some felt Diana was a real threat to the monarchy. Maybe her intent to marry Dodi Al-Fayed was the last straw.
Diana was killed by the CIA. Mohamed Al-Fayed claims the CIA has a secret dossier of more than 1,000 pages on Diana. The princess personally campaigned against the use of landmines, visiting injured victims in Angola and Bosnia. Her high-profile involvement led to an international treaty banning landmines that has been ratified by 125 nations. The United States, a major producer of landmines, has not signed the treaty. Diana was a nuisance to the American arms industry… but would she have been targeted for assassination?
Diana was killed by Israeli agents. England, along with the United States, has been a strong supporter of Israel in the ongoing conflicts between that country and its Arab neighbors. If Diana—mother of a future king of England, Prince William—married an Egyptian, gave birth to half-Arab children, or even converted to Islam, public opinion and official policy may have turned against Israel.
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ONE OTHER POSSIBILITY
Diana faked her own death. In spite of overwhelming evidence that Diana died in the crash, some observers believe that she wanted to escape the pressures of her public life so badly that she staged her own death.
Could the driver of the Mercedes have dropped Diana and Al-Fayed off somewhere before entering the tunnel? The army-trained bodyguard, Rees-Jones, may have had the expertise to make a switch. Is Diana really living somewhere in blissful anonymity?
Still other people believe Diana planned to set up the accident… but something went wrong and the plan backfired.
Because the princess was so beloved and died under such strange circumstances, some people will always question the official reports of what happened. Whether Diana faked her death, was murdered, or was actually the victim of a tragic accident, the world may never know.