On October 30, 1995, Victor Mishcon, Princess Diana’s personal attorney, met behind closed doors with his most famous client and her personal assistant, Patrick Jepson. During the meeting, Diana disclosed to Mishcon that “reliable sources” had warned her that in April 1996, efforts would be made to either “get rid of her” or damage her to the point where she would be judged “unbalanced” as a result of a vehicle accident caused by brake failure or other methods. Mishcon took copious notes throughout the meeting.
Less than two years later, on August 31, 1997, Diana, Dodi Al-Fayed, and Henri Paul perished in a vehicle collision in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.
Less than two years later, on August 31, 1997, Diana, Dodi Al-Fayed, and Henri Paul perished in a vehicle collision in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. Paul, under the influence of booze and prescription narcotics, rammed their Mercedes into a column at 65 mph, more than twice the speed limit, while dodging photographers on motorcycles.
The British Metropolitan Police did not commence an investigation into the murder of Princess Diana until January 6, 2004. Operation Paget was led by then-Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens. Its 832-page conclusions were made public in December 2006.
“The most important thing about that report, and the wait-a-minute moment, light shining through the darkness suddenly, was the Mishcon Note,” Michael Mansfield, an attorney who represented Mohamed Al-Fayed, the billionaire father of Dodi, says in the docuseries The Diana Investigations. “The note had been put in a safe at the New Scotland Yard.”
In the aftermath of the deadly accident on September 18, 1997, Mishcon sent the memo to Sir Paul Condon, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. It was then put in the safe previously indicated.
“The letter was given by Lord Mishcon to my predecessor, Paul Condon, and he put it in his safe,” Lord Stevens, who headed the Diana death inquiry, tells The Daily Beast. “I was only made aware of that when I was made commissioner myself… and I had been made aware that Lord Mishcon had said he hadn’t actually attached much importance to it.
“However,” he continues. “when the coroner announced his inquest, I made sure that letter was immediately given to the royal coroner, who at that time was Michael Burgess and then subsequently became Lord Justice Scott Baker.”
According to the current Lord Stevens, the investigation extensively explored all 104 claims concerning Princess Diana’s murder, including the origins and veracity of the Mishcon Note.
“The Mishcon letter, we followed that up,” Lord Stevens explains. “I interviewed Lord Mishcon on three occasions and took further statements on that letter, because it’s something that caused me great concern. I saw Lord Mishcon about a month before he died, in about the spring of 2005, and he held course to the fact that he thought she was paranoid, and he hadn’t held much credence to it. He was her solicitor, and remember, a solicitor has legal obligations to their clients. He was kind enough to make no mistake about it.”
The Mishcon Note mirrored a letter that Princess Diana purportedly sent in October 1996, two months after her divorce from Prince Charles. Her butler, Paul Burrell, discovered it and included it in his 2003 book A Royal Duty.
“I am sitting here at my desk today in October longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high,” Diana wrote. “This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous—my husband is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry Tiggy.” (Tiggy Legge-Bourke was Prince Charles’ personal assistant.)
When it was found that BBC journalist Martin Bashir had placed the concept of the Charles-Tiggy affair in Diana’s mind with forged abortion records, the BBC was ordered to pay Legge-Bourke damages last year.
Burrell states, “When she brought me that note, the princess was going through a very tricky part of her life, and so she wasn’t stable and her feelings were erratic.”
In 2003, when the second letter was made public, Lord Mishcon denied ignorance of its existence.
Lord Stevens’s investigation finally determined with absolute confidence that there was no plot to assassinate Princess Diana.
Stevens asserts it was only an unfortunate accident.
The Diana Investigations, a docuseries, which is about the Mishcon note, will premiere on Discovery+ in the U.S. on August 18 and on Channel 4 in the U.K. on August 21.