Pperhaps the most surprising revelation in Investigate DianaExplore + four-part document that records British and French questions in Princess Diana’s deathregarding “Mishcon Notes.”
On October 30, 1995, Victor Mishcon, Princess Diana’s personal legal representative, attended a closed-door meeting with his most famous client and her private secretary, Patrick Jephson. During the appointment, Diana told Mishcon that “reliable sources”, whom she would not disclose, informed her that by April 1996, efforts would be made to “remove it” her” — or injuring her to the extent that it could be considered “unbalanced” — in a car crash due to failure of brakes or other vehicles. Mishcon prepared a contemporaneous note of the meeting.
Less than two years later, on August 31, 1997, Diana — along with her partner Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul — died in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. Paul, who was under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs, crashed their Mercedes into a pillar at 65 mph, more than twice the speed limit, while dodging the following paparazzi. behind them on motorbikes. It was not until January 6, 2004, that an investigation into the death of Princess Diana was launched by the British Metropolitan Police. Led by then-Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens, it was named Operation Paget. Its findings, totaling 832 pages, were revealed in December 2006.
“The most important part of that report, and the moment of waiting a minute, the sudden light shining through the darkness, was the Mishcon Note,” said Michael Mansfield, the attorney representing Mohamed Al-Fayed, the billionaire father of the company. Dodi, say in the archives. “The bill was in a safe in New Scotland Yard.”
EXCLUSIVE: The ‘Mishcon Notes’ scene in ‘Investigate Diana’:
Following the fatal crash, on September 18, 1997, Mishcon delivered the letter to Sir Paul Condon, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. It was then placed in the aforementioned safe.
“The letter was given by Lord Mishcon to my predecessor, Paul Condon, and he kept it in his safe,” Lord Stevens, who is leading the inquest into Diana’s death, told me. “I only learned of it when I was made commissioner myself… and I learned that Lord Mishcon had said he didn’t take it very seriously.
“However,” he continued. “When the coroner informed me of my investigation, I made sure that letter was immediately given to the royal coroner, who was then Michael Burgess and later Lord Justice. Scott Baker.”
“I met Lord Mishcon about a month before his death, around the spring of 2005, and he understood well the fact that he thought she was paranoid, and he didn’t quite believe it. .“
According to Lord Stevens, the investigation has now thoroughly investigated all 104 allegations surrounding Princess Diana’s death, including probing the origin and reliability of the Mishcon Note.
“The Mishcon letter, we followed that,” Lord Stevens explained. “I interviewed Lord Mishcon three times and further stated that letter, because that is what worries me so much. I met Lord Mishcon about a month before his death, around the spring of 2005, and he understood well the fact that he thought she was paranoid, and he didn’t quite believe it. . He is your attorney, and remember, a lawyer has legal obligations to their client. He was kind enough not to make a mistake about it.”
Mishcon Note echoes another letter allegedly written by Princess Diana in October 1996, two months after her divorce from Prince Charles. It was found by her housekeeper, Paul Burrell, and published in his 2003 book A royal quest.
The wreckage of Princess Diana’s car lies in a tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty
“I am sitting at my desk today in October and longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to stay strong and hold my head high,” Diana wrote. “This particular period of my life is the most dangerous – my husband is planning to ’cause an accident’ with my car, brake failure and serious head injury to clear the way for him to marry Tiggy. ” (Tiggy Legge-Bourke is Prince Charles’ personal assistant. The BBC was forced to pay her damages last year when it was revealed that its journalist, Martin Bashir, had planted in Diana’s head the idea of the Charles case- Tiggy using fake pregnancy documentation.)
In Investigate DianaBurrell admitted, “When she brought me that letter, the princess was going through a very difficult period in her life, so she was unstable and her emotions were also volatile.”
When the second note was made public in 2003, Lord Mishcon claimed that he had no knowledge of its existence. Lord Stevens’ investigation ultimately concluded with “100% certainty” that there was no plot to kill Princess Diana. It was nothing but a tragic accident.
Investigate Diana will premiere on August 18 on Discovery+ in the US and August 21 on Channel 4 in the UK
