Conspiracy Theories about Princess Diana’s Death Essay

IntroductionDiana Spencer, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. She was an eminent celebrity of the late twentieth century well known for her fund-raising work for international charities(http//www. proud.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/The%20House%20of%20Windsor%20from%201952/DianaPrincessofWales.aspx henceforth HoTM).Sadly, she was famous not only due to her good deeds, but mostly because of her divorce with Prince Charles and later on, disputable relationship with the son of Egyptian billionaire Dodi Al Fayed. Princess Diana was constantly surrounded by paparazzi who accompanied her in closely every minute of her life and who tried to video her. Unfortunately this unhealthy interest of paparazzi in Dianas private life ended tragically. Princess Diana and her partner Dodi Al Fayed died in a gondola car accident on Sunday 31th August 1997 in Paris, France (HoTM). At around 1220 am that day, Diana and Fayed left the Ritz hotel to return to the apartment in Rue Arsne Houssaye, they got into the car driven by Henri Paul, the Acting Head of Security at the Ritz Hotel also Trevor Rees-Jvirtuosos, a member of the Fayed familys personal protection team, was in the front passenger seat (HoTM). Their car was followed by paparazzi.The driver, who wanted to run away from them, suddenly lost control over the car and collided head-on with the 13th pillar reenforcement the roof of a tunnel at an estimated speed of 105 km/h (King 2001 10). Although the French investigation concluded that the accident was caused by a drunken driver, there are dumb junto theories surrounding Princess Dianas wipeout. They assume that firstly, the accident was staged to get rid of the paparazzi, secondly The British Secret usefulness planned the accident and finally it was the Royal Family who assassinated Princess of Wales. Diana Spencer was unitary of the most famous woman in the globe, the pre-eminent female celebrity of her generation a direction icon , an image of feminine beauty, admired for her involvement in AIDS issues and the international campaign against landmines (http//www.biography.com/ population/princess-diana-9273782).During her lifetime, she was often referred to as the most photographed person in the world. (http//www.biography.com/people/princess-diana-9273782). Considering her life and her popularity it should come as no surprise that people from all over the world were interested in the mystery of her death. Loss of suchan iconic person always forces people, especially the most faithful fans to think about it more deeply. That is why all the speculations and gang theories about the real cause of Princess Dianas death are born.Conspiracy theories definitionAs Christopher Hodapp (2008 9) explains, a conspiracy speculation is the idea that well-nighone, or a group of someones, acts secretly, with a goal of achieving power, wealth, influence or other benefit. Christopher Hitchens represents conspiracy theories as the exhaust fumes of democracy, the unavoidable result of a freehanded amount of information circulating among a large number of people (Hodapp 2008 25). Although conspiracy theories are viewed with skepticism by scholars because they are rarely supported by any conclusive evidence, they create a visual sense of controversy and due to that fact many people believe them. Together with wars, secret assassinations and terrorist attacks pickings place in nowadays world, peoples leave in their governments and politicians constantly decreases (Burnett 20059).Many people believe that they work in very secretive ways and various facts about well-known historical and menses up to nowts are hidden (Burnett 2005 9). In order to reveal the truth, amateur investigators started to create their own deductions about various events on The Internet (Burnett 2005 9). They shoot also create different conclusions about Princess Dianas death, which later on brook grown up and gained the status of conspiracy theories. As we talk about conspiracy theories, we have to answer two questions What are the attributes of conspiracy theory? How theories about Dianas death meet the criteria of conspiracy theory? fit in to Keely (1999 117), Central to any CT is an ex officio story that the conspiracy theory must undermine and cast doubt upon. This can be related to the official cause of Princess Dianas death given by the police.Secondly as Keely (1999 117) claims, the true intentions behind the conspiracy are invariably nefarious, in Dianas case, those true intentions can be understood as a willingness to kill her. Finally, the last criterion states that the main tool of the conspiracy theorist is data which if true would tend to contradict official version (Keely 1999 118). These data, concerning Dianas death theories, could be all the information which put the blame on the Royal Family. Having ensured that theories about Dianas death meet the criteria of conspiracytheories, we c an examine some of them.Staged accident theoryFrom among hemorrhoid of conspiracy theories about Princess Dianas death circulating on the Internet, the one stating that Diana Spencer did not die, but she arranged her death in order to get rid of paparazzi, because she was tired of constant intrusions into her private life, is the least probable. Conspirators claim that she wanted to disappear from the man life so she staged the accident and that now she leads a normal life, somewhere in a hidden place with a different indistinguishability (http//urbanlegends.about.com/od/historical/a/princess_diana_2.html). Although this may seem ridiculous for most people, conspirators claim that they have evidence. They support their theory saying that the bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, who was also taking part in this car accident still lives, but Mercedes auto experts after deep examination of a smashed car revealed that it would have been almost infeasible for anyone to have survived such a dra matic accident (http//theunexplainedmysteries.com/diana.html).Another piece of evidence that conspirators believe supports their theory is that just six hours before the accident Princess Diana talked to Daily Mail reporter Richard Kay and told him that she was about to withdraw completely from public life (http//www.public-interest.co.uk/diana/dipress.html). Although those presented pieces of evidence are believed to be facts by the conspirators, they can be considerably discredited. One simple, although significant piece of evidence that confirms the death of Princess Diana is the fact that Dr Robert Chapman carried out Dianas post-mortem examination the day after her death. This proves that at that time she could not have been alive (http//dianaremembered.wordpress.com/). The truth is that the conspiracy theory mentioned above is present only on the Internet, one cannot read about it in a book, that is the reason why it appears to be the least probable scenario. However, there a re some theories which make people think about them as they seem to be more probable.M16 theoryThe second conspiracy theory about Princess Dianas death stirs up thegreatest controversy as it states that The British Secret Service -the M16- planned the accident. They believed that Diana was a threat to the British throne and therefore the stability of the state. Another motive was to protect the new world order from the princess with inconvenient ideas, such as illegalise land mines as conspirators claim (Burnett 2005 273). John King in his book Princess Diana the hidden evidence (2001 45) states that M16 mission was to eliminate one of the most prominent figures on the world stage. King (2001 10) points out that Diana was seated directly behind the passenger side-front seat, which concord to Professor Murray of Birmingham University, whom the former interviewed, should have been the safest seat in the car, the most survivable.According to King (2001 11) seconds after the accident M16 agents showed up at the place of the accident and after making sure that Princess Dianas condition is fatal, injected the driver Henri Paul with cocktail of alcoholic drink and drugs and then they disappeared as quickly as they showed up. There can be a lot of different reasons why such important British means planned to kill Princess Diana. Noel Botham (2004 94) comments that some rogue autonomical cells in British Secret Service claimed that Princess Diana is a threat to the state and they are also suspected of eavesdropping her passim her years in the Royal limelight. Another important fact is that the only survivor bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was a former member of the crack Parachute Regiment, one of the toughest in the British Army.Therefore he could also have been an M16 contact (King 2001 124). It appears that this conspiracy theory is more probable than the previous one, considering the fact that gathered evidence, even though not confirmed, bases on some logical and factual information. The following theory is closely connected with the aforementioned in a sense that some conspiracy theorists claim that the Royal Family planned the accident and used M16 as a tool.The Royal Family theoryAs we examining various theories about Princess Dianas death, it is impossible not to mention the Royal Family with whom she related for fifteen years through her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales. In this theory conspirators claim that it was the Royal Family who planned Princess Dianas death. The conspiracy theorists support their hypothesis with theexplanation that the House of Windsor was furious about the fact that Princess Diana might marry Dodi Al Fayed, a Muslim, who would became a stepfather to Princess William and Harry, the heirs to the British throne (King 2001 190). Andrew Golden, the author of the Sunday Mirrors article entitled Queen To Strip Harrods Of Its Royal Crest wrote that the Royal Family may withdraw their seal of approval from Har rods() as a result of Dianas affair with owners son Dodi Fayed (King 2001 189).According to King (2001 190) after some time a prestigious royal warrant actually was withdrawn from Harrods. Thus, it appears that the Royal Family tried to express their disapproval of Dianas relationship with Dodi Al Fayed whose father was the owner of Harrods. Later, as King (2001 191) points out, it was revealed that Prince Phillip in particular was extremely unhappy about the relationship despite the fact that Diana was no longer Prince Charles wife. One of the most prominent supporter of the theory that Diana and Dodi were kill by the Royal Family was Dodis father- Mohamed Al Fayed. He claimed that the English Crown wanted to hide the fact that the couple was about to be engaged and that Diana was large(predicate) with her Egyptian boyfriends child a scandal that the British Royal Family would not be able to put up with (Hodapp 2008 323).However, later it was revealed that according to tests ran on samples of her blood collected at the scene, information about the pregnancy was untrue (Hoddap 2008 324). Bearing in mind the two aforementioned conspiracy theories this one appears to be the most reliable as it provides quite strong motive, namely the fact that the Royal Family treated Dianas relationship with Dodi as a threat to the throne.ConclusionControversy over Princess Dianas death has bothered people from around the world for almost twenty six years. As a result, dozens of different conspiracy theories about this tragic event were created. Some of them, for example the one stating that Princess Diana staged her own death are almost improbable fleck others, like the theory assuming that the Royal Family planned Dianas accident may seem more reliable. The three theories examined in this paper are still being refreshed and reinvestigated by different authors who try to find new evidence and confirm the theory that the death