http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/Diana_Study_overview.pdf
PRINCESS Diana feared she and Camilla Parker Bowles were to be eliminated in a royal plot, paving the way for the Prince of Wales to marry another woman.She believed the two rivals were to be "put aside" to make "the path clear" for Prince Charles to marry royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.
The extraordinary allegation against the Prince is at the heart of the report published yesterday by Lord Stevens into the death of Diana and Dodi Fayed, when their Mercedes crashed in a Paris underpass.
The 832-page report stops short of naming the other woman but it is widely believed to have been Miss Legge-Bourke.
The exhaustive dossier systematically demolishes conspiracy theories that Diana and Dodi were murdered. But Operation Paget's report also provides startling details of the Princess's state of mind as her marriage to Charles disintegrated.
Diana was convinced that he and Miss Legge-Bourke were having an affair.
The "plot" was revealed by Labour peer Lord Mishcon, who took a confidential note of Diana's fears in August 1997. A similar claim was made by Diana in a letter sent to her former butler Paul Burrell.
It read: "This particular phase of my life is the most dangerous my husband is planning "an accident" in my car, brake failure & serious head injury, in order to make the path clear for him to marry." Interviewed by Lord Stevens, Prince Charles said he had no knowledge of Diana's claims until the note was released by Mr
Burrell in 2003.
"The Princess of Wales did not speak to him about it," the report said. "HRH the Prince of Wales knew the woman named in the note as a family friend. There has never been any possibility of marriage to her."
The Stevens report said: "The Princess of Wales did name a woman in her note. It was not Camilla Parker Bowles."
Confronted with the allegations at the Welsh farmhouse where she now lives, Miss Legge-Bourke, 41, said only: "I am not going to talk to you. Happy Christmas."
PRINCESS Diana feared she and Camilla Parker Bowles were to be eliminated in a royal plot, paving the way for the Prince of Wales to marry another woman.She believed the two rivals were to be "put aside" to make "the path clear" for Prince Charles to marry royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.
The extraordinary allegation against the Prince is at the heart of the report published yesterday by Lord Stevens into the death of Diana and Dodi Fayed, when their Mercedes crashed in a Paris underpass.
The 832-page report stops short of naming the other woman but it is widely believed to have been Miss Legge-Bourke.
The exhaustive dossier systematically demolishes conspiracy theories that Diana and Dodi were murdered. But Operation Paget's report also provides startling details of the Princess's state of mind as her marriage to Charles disintegrated.
Diana was convinced that he and Miss Legge-Bourke were having an affair.
The "plot" was revealed by Labour peer Lord Mishcon, who took a confidential note of Diana's fears in August 1997. A similar claim was made by Diana in a letter sent to her former butler Paul Burrell.
It read: "This particular phase of my life is the most dangerous my husband is planning "an accident" in my car, brake failure & serious head injury, in order to make the path clear for him to marry." Interviewed by Lord Stevens, Prince Charles said he had no knowledge of Diana's claims until the note was released by Mr
Burrell in 2003."The Princess of Wales did not speak to him about it," the report said. "HRH the Prince of Wales knew the woman named in the note as a family friend. There has never been any possibility of marriage to her."
The Stevens report said: "The Princess of Wales did name a woman in her note. It was not Camilla Parker Bowles."
Confronted with the allegations at the Welsh farmhouse where she now lives, Miss Legge-Bourke, 41, said only: "I am not going to talk to you. Happy Christmas."
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If you put the words "Princess Diana Conspiracy" into Google, in a 13th of a second you can chose from about 461,000 results.
That ranks pretty high among conspiracy theories — 61,000 more than for Marilyn Monroe and about half the number for JFK. But then, Diana has only been dead less than 10 years.
Like those others, "The People's Princess" died in her prime. Her face never to age, the pathos of her short life to weigh heavily on her doe-eyed expression, forever frozen in time.
Unanswered questions have fueled the conspiracy theories. Some should have been dealt with immediately after the car crash in a Paris tunnel that killed Diana, her boyfriend and the driver.
A three-year investigation by a former head of Scotland Yard answers most — but not all — the questions in a report released this week.
However, those who believe Diana was killed by the British establishment because she was seen as a royal embarrassment, or worse, probably won't be convinced by an investigation led by an establishment figure called Lord Stevens.
Conspiracy theorists suggest Diana was going to marry Dodi Fayed, the playboy son of Harrod's department store owner Mohammed, and that she was pregnant.
How unseemly for the mother of the heir to the British thrown to bare a Muslim child, the story goes, so she had to be eliminated. Dodi's father has been a main proponent of this theory, never missing an opportunity to accuse the royal family of murder.
Other factors provide the tinder. The white fiat believed struck by Diana's black Mercedes has never been found.
It's been alleged the blood of the chauffeur Henri Paul was switched with that of a suicide victim. We've read that a British secret service motorcycle-riding assassin blinded Paul with a massive flash.
Paul, it should be said, was no mere driver but head of security at the Fayed-owned Ritz Hotel where the couple was staying.
The new investigation tested Paul's blood and found he was three times over the drunk drive limit and had mixed in prescription drugs. A recent test linked his DNA with that of his parents, leaving us with a near-incapacitated driver, going out of control at 100 miles an hour in a narrow tunnel.
The doctor who tried to save Diana says she may have survived had she worn a seat belt. That's the official version.
What about the pregnancy and engagement? Well, British investigators tested traces of Diana's blood in the wrecked car that showed she was not pregnant. While it's true Dodi bought the Princess a ring, Diana told the friend she was just having a fling and was not marrying the guy.
Interestingly, it's been reported U.S. intelligence bugged Princess Diana's phone the night she was killed. That's been denied by the U.S. and while Stevens says he's satisfied the Americans aren't holding back anything of relevance, skeptics might ask, why keep the transcripts secret if there is nothing to hide?
This investigation will convince some it was an accident, but not Mohammed Fayed. He says Stevens was blackmailed by British intelligence to conclude there was no conspiracy or assassination.
For those who buy into the Diana conspiracy, that industry will find a ready audience among those who will never believe Diana was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong driver and should have been wearing a seat belt.
Can it be long before Diana knocks JFK into second place in the Google Conspiracy Stakes?
CBS/AP) A British police inquiry released Thursday concluded that the deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend in a 1997 Paris car crash were a "tragic accident" and that allegations of murder are unfounded.
The report also said Diana was not pregnant, that she was not engaged to marry Dodi Fayed, and that their chauffeur was drunk and driving at more than 60 mph — twice the speed limit — when their car crashed while being chased by photographers.
The inquiry, which largely confirmed previous findings by French investigators, also said there was no reason to suspect the involvement of the royal family in the death of Prince Charles' former wife.
"Our conclusion is that, on all the evidence available at this time, there was no conspiracy to murder any of the occupants of the car. This was a tragic accident," said Lord John Stevens, former chief of the Metropolitan Police, who led the investigation of the deaths of Diana, 36, and Fayed, 42.
"There was no conspiracy, and no cover-up," Stevens added.
The couple was killed along with chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes crashed in the Pont d'Alma tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, while being chased by media photographers. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was seriously injured.
Paul was drunk, with a blood-alcohol level twice the British legal limit, and driving at twice the local speed limit before the crash, Stevens said.
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"We can say with certainty that the car hit the curb just before the 13th pillar of the central reservation in the Alma underpass, at a speed of 61 to 63 miles per hour," Stevens said. "Nothing in the very rapid sequence of events we have reconstructed supports the allegation of conspiracy to murder."
CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar says Stevens' report does imply that the photographers present that night did share some of the blame for the accident.
Stevens said the photographers had prompted Diana and Fayed to change travel plans before their death.
The French courts acquitted nine photographers of manslaughter, but this result may re-open questions about exactly what role they did play that night, MacVicar says.
Fayed's father, Mohammed al Fayed, rejected the report, calling it "garbage."
He has alleged that the couple was killed as a result of a plot by the establishment, including British intelligence agencies and Prince Philip, her former father-in-law.
"I am certain, 100 percent, that a leading member of the royal family have planned that and the whole plot, being executed, in his order with the help of members of MI6," al Fayed, owner of Harrods department store, said at a news conference after the report was released.
"I am the father who lost his son and close friend, Princess Diana. Nobody have any right just to predict and spreading rumor, displaying things which is not completely real," al Fayed said, referring to Stevens.
Al Fayed said Diana "conveyed to me all her suffering, all the devastation of threats she have in her life in the last 20 years she was living in the royal family environment."
Contradicting long-standing rumors, family and friends denied in interviews that Diana was about to marry Fayed, and Diana was not pregnant, Stevens said.
"From the evidence of her close friends and associates, she was not engaged and not about to get engaged," Stevens said.
CBS/AP) Princes William and Harry said Tuesday that they are planning a pop concert and memorial service next year to mark the 46th birthday of their mother, Princess Diana, and the tenth anniversary of her death.
The concert is to feature some of Diana's favorite music and will be "full of energy, full of the sort of fun and happiness which I know she would have wanted," William said in an interview with his father's press secretary, Patrick Harrison, which was released to the media.
The band Duran Duran will perform along with Elton John, who sang "Candle In The Wind" at Diana's funeral. The concert will also include a performance by the English National Ballet and songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber in honor of the princess' love of dancing and theater.
The concert is planned for July 1, Diana's 46th birthday, at Wembley Stadium in London.
A memorial service is also planned at an undisclosed location in London on Aug. 31, 10 years after the princess' fatal car crash in a Paris tunnel.
CBS News correspondent Richard Roth says the presence at the memorial service of both sides of the family — royalty and non—royalty — is a significant symbol of royal reconciliation. The Queen's family was not always on the best of terms with the Princess.
Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, the princes' stepmother, Camilla, and Princess Diana's siblings plan to attend the memorial service.
Each of her sons is involved in charities Diana supported or causes they believe she would have endorsed, says Roth.
The concert is intended to raise funds for the work they're doing and for a memorial fund set up after their mother's death.
Diana died along with her friend Dodi Fayed and their driver when their Mercedes crashed inside the Pont d'Alma tunnel as media photographers pursued them.
An official British report into the crash has concluded that a U.S. intelligence agency was bugging Diana's phone without the approval of its British counterpart on the night of her death, according to British newspaper reports.
However, a U.S. intelligence official tells CBS News national security correspondent David Martin that the National Security Agency is working on a statement that will deny eavesdropping on Princess Diana.
eBay bans Diana concert touts
12.28, Thu Dec 14 2006
Auction website eBay has banned the re-sale of tickets for the planned concert for Princess Diana "out of respect".
The concert sold out in minutes as buyers flocked to the website to bid for a chance to attend the star-studded event which will take place at the new Wembely stadium in London next July.
Tickets for the event were spotted being offered on the website priced at up to £300 per pair with one set drawing 19 bids in just over an hour.
But eBay said it was pulling the listings and contacting vendors to explain that they could not re-sell their tickets on the site.
Diana's sons, the Princes Harry and William have organised the large scale event to mark the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death.
Famous stars such as Elton John, who sang a tribute at Diana's funeral, Duran Duran and US artist Pharrell Williams are among many expected to perform on the day.
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