<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A well-known English nobleman and playboy murdered his family nanny, tried to kill his estranged wife and then disappeared on November 7, 1974.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>An injured woman burst into a pub in one of London's poshest districts and claimed her husband had tried to kill her.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Her husband was Richard John Bingham, the seventh Earl of Lucan.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lucan had led the high life, quitting his job as a merchant banker to become a professional gambler - though not an especially good one.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>His exploits and reputation as a debonair Aston Martin-driving, powerboat-racing daredevil led to him being invited to screen test to play James Bond, though he wasn't an actor.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But after his marriage fell apart, he lost custody of his children and began to plot to get them back.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That particular night, Lucan entered the family home, two blocks south of Buckingham Palace, and bludgeoned nanny Sandra Rivett and tried to kill his wife Veronica.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-november-7-lord-lucan-what-happened-on-this-day/e21fe58f-7788-4773-b078-8821ccb82a06" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But he gave up on his attack midway through, leaving his wife bloodied but alive.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The terrified Lady Lucan told her husband she could help him escape. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When he went to the bathroom to get a wet towel, she ran out of the house and raised the alarm at the pub down the road.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When police arrived at the home, Lucan had disappeared.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lucan was not seen again after that night, but wrote a blood-stained letter to his brother-in-law claiming a different version of events.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Lucan claimed that he was driving past the home in Belgravia when he saw a man attacking his wife. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He claimed after he intervened, Lady Lucan accused him of hiring a hitman to kill her.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"V (Veronica) has demonstrated her hatred for me in the past and would do anything to see me accused," he wrote.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"For (his children) George and Frances to go through life knowing their father had stood in the dock for attempted murder would be too much."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A coronial inquest declared Lucan to be the killer in absentia.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He was declared legally dead in 1999, but his son George did not inherit his title until a High Court decision in 2016.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the decades after his death, Lucan has been purportedly spotted all over the globe.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The most famous case of mistaken identity was in Australia, only a few weeks after the murder.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>An Englishman was arrested in Melbourne after police suspected he was Lord Lucan.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But it turned out to be a British cabinet member who had also faked his own death, a few weeks earlier.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Under suspicion of being a spy for Czechoslovakia, John Stonehouse left a pile of his clothes on a Florida beach and disappeared.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>His intention was to reunite in Australia with his mistress.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Stonehouse was repatriated to the UK and jailed for fraud, theft and forgery.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was later revealed Stonehouse had taken a lot of money from the Czechs but provided nothing of value to them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In 2022, an English scientist used facial recognition technology to identify an elderly Queensland man as Lord Lucan.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But other facial recognition experts ruled out the man.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He was also reported spotted in India, South Africa, Italy, France, Colombia, New Zealand and many other places.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span></span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/today-in-history" target="" title="For more from our Today in History archive, click here."><strong><span>For more from our Today in History archive, click here</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get 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