lucan

[louisa]

[B]The fact that the current Lord Lucan does not want to believe that his father is a murderer is irrelevant. He certainly isn't the first child of killer who can't come to terms with a parent's guilt.

That is so true. It puts me in mind of the Drummond family murders in France in 1952. A middle class English family were on holiday and got massacred when they stopped for the night by a deserted roadside. The culprit turned out to be the grandfather from the farm along the road. He was found guilty and spent many years in prison but eventually got released because of his old age. His own sons said he was guilty - one of them retracted his confession though (due to his family's pressure on him).

Now the murderer's grandson is campaigning to clear his grandfather's name. He has theory involving spies and suchlike, which is a load of convoluted rubbish, in my opinion.

It's a fascinating case for armchair detectives though - the book is titled 'The Dominici Affair'

[DrummondStreet]

I'm sorry you took it that way.

Okay, offense no longer taken.

However, unless you were an eyewitness to the crime or have received information not available to the public, what makes you believe that your insight is more valid than mine?

Neither the tone nor the content of my posts has never indicated that I believe my insights to be superior. I keep my focus on the facts of the case and make a conscious effort to avoid making personal judgements on the thought processes or reasoning skills of other posters.

[DrummondStreet]

Several days after the crime, and it was twice as long as the murder weapon.

The pipe was inside the car which wasn't located for several days either. Regardless of its length, the pipe was wrapped in surgical tape --not something that people usually carry inside their cars. Ever. I doubt that a precise description of the murder weapon was released that quickly to the public giving anyone the chance to create a duplicate and plant it in Lucan's (still missing) car.

Really? Because the current Lord Lucan has "received information not available to the public," which according to you is one of the two criteria that would make his insight "more valuable than that of anyone else". So if his insight is more valuable than anyone else's, but yet irrelevant, what value is anyone's?

Yes, he, like all crime victims know facts of the case not available to the public. So do OJ Simpson's kids, and they don't think that their father killed their mother either. Family members of the accused really struggle with the truth and can't look at the facts objectively. They will even commit perjury by giving false alibis.

There is a recent case of two teenage boys murdering a classmate. They videotaped themselves planning the murder and also their reactions immediately after having committed it. Both boys have confessed their roles in the crime and are in prison. The family of one of the boys is campaigning for his release claiming that his role in the crime was a passive one. I watched the videos and he was not a passive participant. It isn't unusual for family members to be in complete denial despite overwhelming evidence.

[DrummondStreet]

It's a fascinating case for armchair detectives though - the book is titled 'The Dominici Affair'

I'll look that case up. Thanks louisa.

Edit: It turns out that there is a 1973 film "L'affaire Dominici" based on the case. Have you watched it yet?

[louisa]

Hi DrummondStreet

I've watched a couple of videos of the case. I haven't seen the feature film though because I've read that it's biased and leaves out some important incriminating facts. I think it's in French which also put me off because I don't speak the language.

On the Crime and Investigation channel they showed a documentary about the case which I videoed. There is also an Orson Welles documentary on DVD which I bought from Amazon, but it isn't very good and wastes too much time on trivia.

The book 'The Dominici Affair' was wonderfully researched and written by Jean Laborde and is available in paperback. It will grip you from start to finish. I'll be interested to read what you think about it.