Read The Murder of Princess Diana Online
Authors: Noel Botham
Tags: #Biographies & Memoirs, #Leaders & Notable People, #Royalty, #Princess Diana, #True Accounts, #Murder & Mayhem, #True Crime, #History, #Europe, #England, #Modern (16th-21st Centuries), #20th Century, #Politics & Social Sciences, #Social Sciences, #Communication & Media Studies, #Media Studies
The Murder of Princess Diana (23 page)
SIXTEEN
During his service with MI6, Richard Tomlinson had discovered that one of the paparazzi photographers who routinely followed the Princess of Wales was a member of the UKN, a small corps of part-time British Secret Intelligence Service agents who provide miscellaneous services to MI6 such as surveillance and photographic expertise. This man was believed to be James Andanson who was, at the time of Diana’s murder, under investigation by the French equivalent of Special Branch.
He was suspected of having had a hand in several killings, and was known to be working for at least one foreign intelligence agency. Tomlinson said, “Only an examination of UKN records would yield the identity of this photographer. But he is believed to be James Andanson.”
One of his colleagues in the SIPA photo agency in Paris, for which he worked, confirmed that Andanson had boasted of working for French and British Intelligence.
One French Special Branch source said in a video-recorded interview, “He boasted to friends and neighbors—people who were close to him—of having been in the tunnel and of photographing and even taping the last moments of Diana in the tunnel. I think that James Andanson did not work alone, and it’s likely he was run by, or manipulated by one or more security services or a team, whose mission it was, at some point, to eliminate, harass or sometimes compromise a personality. Andanson was passing on information. People have talked of his links with British and French security services and that has never been proved. But it’s a hypothesis that cannot be ruled out.”
The widow of one of Andanson’s friends said, “He told me he was in the tunnel but he wasn’t caught by the police. He was too canny for that.”
Was the photograph mentioned by the Special Branch agent—the one which Andanson boasted about—the very same photograph which is secretly contained in the judicial files in Paris. If so, and it is inconceivable that two such last-moment photographs of the Princess exist, then how did it come into police possession—and more importantly, why was it not mentioned by the judge in his report?
The answer can only be that it was part of a major cover-up to Diana’s murder. Its discovery may also prove to be the answer as to why Andanson was killed four years ago. He talked too freely and too often, and because of it had to be silenced before revealing too much, one intelligence source advised me. “He was a danger and had to be got rid of.”
Andanson was one of the top paparazzi in Europe, who had amassed a million-pound fortune taking pictures of celebrities and royalty. He flew the Union Jack over his house to show his love of Britain. On one occasion he made £100,000 on a single picture of Prince Charles kissing Tiggy Legge-Bourke, the former nanny to William and Harry, in Klosters, the Swiss ski resort.
He had photographed Diana throughout the summer, and French Special Branch, in an operation unconnected with her murder, secretly copied his private diaries, and learned that he had spent the day of August 23 actually on board the
Jonikal
at the same time as Diana and Dodi. The source explained, “It is not normal for a journalist like Andanson to be on board a yacht like that. But he was on the
Jonikal
for the whole day. His diary clearly shows the entry.”
Jonikal
at the same time as Diana and Dodi. The source explained, “It is not normal for a journalist like Andanson to be on board a yacht like that. But he was on the
Jonikal
for the whole day. His diary clearly shows the entry.”
Jean-Claude Mules said he had learned that Andanson had made a deal with Diana in St. Tropez for pictures of her in a high-cut swimsuit. But there is no way of telling if the two items are connected.
Andanson had made a career of traveling around Europe photographing Princess Diana, yet he claimed not to have been in Paris to snap Diana on, possibly, one of the most important days of her life—her engagement to Dodi Fayed.
He was also a paparazzo with political connections at the highest levels. He was friendly enough with former prime minister Lionel Jospin to ride pillion with him on a motorcycle. Said Tomlinson, “MI6 has a whole cadre of people like Andanson who simultaneously do their own job—their own profession. They happen to have skills that can be used occasionally by MI6 on a contractual basis.”
Two weeks after the crash, the Criminal Brigade finally admitted that traces of white paint in scratches found on the Mercedes indicated that a slight collision had taken place in the mouth of the Alma tunnel. The trace of color on the front right wing and on the body of the right wing mirror of the Mercedes both originated from the same vehicle—a Fiat Uno built in Italy in the period 1983 to 1987.
Red-and-white optical debris found in the tunnel entrance in the right-hand lane also came from a Fiat Uno, and was part of a rear light of a vehicle built in Italy between May 1983 and September 1989.
The
Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale
(IRCGN) experts deduced that it was a collision “three quarters behind,” and at the moment of contact the speed of the Mercedes was faster than that of the Fiat Uno.
Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale
(IRCGN) experts deduced that it was a collision “three quarters behind,” and at the moment of contact the speed of the Mercedes was faster than that of the Fiat Uno.
Judge Stephan reported that the driver of the Fiat Uno had not been able to be identified, despite extremely long and detailed investigations which had been made by the inquiry team. This is complete nonsense. According to Commander Mules, his men didn’t even bother to search the whole of Paris for the mystery Uno, let alone France.
Wrote Clive Goodman, who interviewed Mules in November 2003, “Instead they checked just two suburbs, known as departments, near the tunnel, before deciding to give up.”
Commander Mules said, “We limited ourselves to these departments. We took into account the fact that it was late and the driver must be going home, and witnesses said the car was registered in Paris. One cannot say that we did nothing.” He scoffed at the idea of carrying out a nationwide search for the Uno. “It would be enormous to do that for the whole country. Think a little bit,” he sneered.
There was never any suspicion that the driver just might have been an assassin and perhaps was not going home.
In February 1998, John McNamara and his team of investigators succeeded in doing what the Criminal Brigade had failed to accomplish. The white Fiat Uno had been sold to a dealer in October 1997, having undergone bodywork on the side and the rear light, and having been repainted.
The owner at the time of the crash was James Andanson.
The white paint found on the Mercedes matched that of the Uno. The Criminal Brigade waited two weeks to examine the car and interview Andanson. They claimed that when they saw the car it did not have tires or a battery. “It hadn’t been used for months,” said Commander Mules. This is just untrue. The car was with a dealer waiting to be sold. Andanson’s colleagues insist he had been driving it frequently and recently.
“I was the one who questioned Andanson,” said Mules. After what this Criminal Brigade commander had already admitted, this was not a statement to fill me with any degree of confidence. The photographer, it transpired, had handed Commander Mules a gas station receipt and a motorway toll ticket to prove that he had driven from his home in central France at 3:45
A.M.
for a flight to Corsica from Orly airport. They were both receipts which could easily have been obtained for him by someone else. Nor did they prove that he had not been in the Alma tunnel at 12:25
A.M.
Incredibly, they were enough to satisfy Commander Mules.
A.M.
for a flight to Corsica from Orly airport. They were both receipts which could easily have been obtained for him by someone else. Nor did they prove that he had not been in the Alma tunnel at 12:25
A.M.
Incredibly, they were enough to satisfy Commander Mules.
John McNamara vehemently disagrees with Mules’s prognosis. “We have always maintained that Andanson was at the scene. That is a line of inquiry in which more investigation should have been done into his possible involvement.”
Andanson’s son, James, told police he thought his father was grape-harvesting in Bordeaux and had telephoned home that morning at about 4:30
A.M.
Elizabeth Andanson gave a contrasting statement saying that she had been at home with her husband and he had left at 4
A.M
. She explained these inconsistencies by saying that James, her husband, was always coming or going and it was difficult to recall his precise movements. “The family was very used to that and so never paid a great deal of attention to the times he came and went.”
A.M.
Elizabeth Andanson gave a contrasting statement saying that she had been at home with her husband and he had left at 4
A.M
. She explained these inconsistencies by saying that James, her husband, was always coming or going and it was difficult to recall his precise movements. “The family was very used to that and so never paid a great deal of attention to the times he came and went.”
Confidential police forensic reports contained in Judge Stephan’s report placed Andanson squarely at the center of events in the Alma tunnel. “They indicate that paintwork and plastics from a white Fiat Uno, owned by Andanson, match exactly evidence recovered from Diana’s Mercedes, which clipped a Uno before crashing.
“The computive analysis of the infrared spectra characterizing the vehicle’s original paint, reference Bianco 210, and the trace on the side-view mirror of the Mercedes, shows that their absorption bands are identical,” says one report.
In layman’s terms, the paint scratches from the Fiat Uno found on the side-view mirror of the Mercedes were identical to the paint samples taken from the matching spot on Andanson’s Fiat Uno.
But Commander Mules chose to turn Andanson loose.
Judge Stephan had concluded, totally illogically, that in any case the Fiat Uno played no more than a “passive” part in the tragedy. But a high-speed collision between the two cars, even if only glancing, and with the Mercedes swerving to avoid the slower car, could well have led to the eventual crash. The evidence from a reliable police witness of the Uno having been waiting for the Mercedes, and therefore having possibly deliberately tried to force it off course and off the road, was seemingly ignored by the judge.
Crash specialists Michel Nibodeau-Frindel and Bernard Amouroux, commissioned by Judge Stephan, reported, “The Mercedes was more likely to have gone off course as a result of trying to avoid hitting the Fiat, rather than being knocked off course by it.” This is exactly the scenario that was intended.
If the presence of the Uno was entirely innocent, it is very odd that the driver, even anonymously, has not found a means of passing on his version of events, having had the best possible view of anyone. James Andanson may have denied to police that he was in Paris chasing Diana, but according to the widow of a neighbor he boasted openly of having not only been in Paris, but present at the moment Diana was killed. That could only have been at the wheel of his Fiat Uno.
So what was the truth about Andanson’s undercover activities being probed by the French Special Branch?
It was French writer Dominica Labarrière who first became convinced that former prime minister Pierre Bérégovoy had not committed suicide in 1993, but had been assassinated. In his book
Cet homme a été assassiné,
Labarrière explained that Bérégovoy, a devoted family man, had left no word of goodbye. His notebook, which had been in his pocket half an hour before his death, had disappeared. It probably, he speculated, mentioned the identity of the last person he met.
Cet homme a été assassiné,
Labarrière explained that Bérégovoy, a devoted family man, had left no word of goodbye. His notebook, which had been in his pocket half an hour before his death, had disappeared. It probably, he speculated, mentioned the identity of the last person he met.
The exit wound in his head was too small for that associated with a .357 Magnum, the alleged suicide weapon, and he claimed there had been no real investigation of the death. The suicide verdict was brought in, under political pressure, in fifteen minutes over allegations about interest-free loans to buy an apartment.
Labarrière wrote that many businesses feared the former prime minister, who was an honest man and could have testified in court in a number of criminal cases. He concludes, “I also discovered that James Andanson, the former photographer paparazzi, was in Nevers on the day of Bérégovoy’s death. He knew Bérégovoy well, and I am astonished that his name does not appear. According to me, James Andanson could have played a role in the fatal appointment.”
There had been other occasions when Andanson had been with the victim at around the time of a sudden death or alleged suicide, and he was actively under investigation by the French Special Branch at the time of Diana’s death. It prompted the telling comment by one Special Branch source that “James Andanson had a strange intuition—the art of photographing people who then died suddenly.”
When Andanson himself died suddenly, in a most horrific way, it led some to conclude that his connection with the death of Diana and others may well have caused his own.
Nearly three years after the Paris crash, Andanson’s barely identifiable body was found in the burned-out wreckage of his car in woodland near Nant. This remote part of the plateau in central France is used as an army training area, and Andanson’s body was discovered by commandos on military exercise. They found the car locked but with no sign of the key. It had been locked from the outside.
Andanson was so badly burned he could only be positively identified using his DNA.
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