LONDON (AP) – The son of English aristocrat Lord Lucan – who disappeared after his children’s nanny was bludgeoned to death four decades ago – has asked Britain’s High Court to issue a death certificate so he can inherit his father’s title.
The son, George Bingham, wants to become the Eighth Earl of Lucan.
His father, Richard John Bingham, the Seventh Earl, vanished after nanny Sandra Rivett was found dead at the family’s London home on Nov. 7, 1974. Lucan’s wife, Veronica, was hit in the head repeatedly when she ran downstairs to investigate.
Lord Lucan’s bloodstained car was later found abandoned near England’s south coast.
In 1975, an inquest jury declared him Rivett’s killer. Detectives believe the aristocrat – a heavy gambler nicknamed “Lucky Lucan” – intended to murder his wife and killed the nanny by mistake.