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CNN Live Today
Fears Come True?
Aired October 20, 2003 - 11:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Conspiracy theorists on the death of Princess Diana will want to listen to this story. A London newspaper reports today that Princess Diana wrote months before her death that she feared someone was planning to harm her in a staged car accident.
For more on that, we go live to London and our Walter Rogers.
Walter, hello.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
It's uncanny and it's chilling, but 10 months before Princess Diana died, she wrote a letter to her butler, Paul Burrell, in which she details how she will be killed in an auto accident, and she says certain people are plotting against her.
Here's the headline in the paper today, "They're planning an accident in my car so Charles can marry again."
Now, this letter has just now come to light, but it's been out there for some time. A publisher has it. There's a new book out here in the U.K., "A Royal Duty" by Princess Diana's Butler, Paul Burrell, in which he makes this and a few astounding other revelations, and of course the newspaper, "The Daily Mirror," is serializing this. I spoke with the editor of the paper just a short while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, "DAILY MIRROR": I think it is fuel to the fire of every conspiracy theorist in the world on a story that has attracted more than probably any since JFK's assassination. And I think the relevance of it in this country is that it's been real unease about the lack of any inquest or any formal legal inquiry into what happened. There's been nothing at all. And that has created an atmosphere of the British establishment covering up something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RODGERS: Now, in the past few weeks, there has been an announcement here in Britain that there will be a coroner's inquest looking into both the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, her male companion in that fatal auto accident. Again, Piers Morgan, the editor of "The Daily Mirror," a short while ago with whom I spoke, said his paper did a poll immediately after this story broke, and the poll suggested 86 percent of the British public now no longer believe that Diana's death was an accident -- Daryn. KAGAN: Those numbers are astounding there. What about the credibility of Paul Burrell? Over the last year or so, the trial he was almost involved in, and other situations with the royal family?
RODGERS: Well, that's a good question. But what's more pertinent is, is the letter itself genuine? And no one questions the genuineness of this letter, written in Princess Diana's hand. Not even a former palace official with whom I spoke today. No question that the letter is genuine. The question, of course, is her allegation of a conspiracy a plot to kill her? She clearly believed that was the case.
One of the interesting aspects of this story is that the newspaper printed a line and the book, "A Royal Duty," prints a line in which you have a black ink overspill which eliminates the name of the person or the institution which Princess Diana believed was out to get her, out to kill her. For legal reasons, that has to be dropped, but she clearly named someone.
KAGAN: And so we'll never know who that is?
RODGERS: Well, Daryn, always and never are words that should only be used by lovers, so I won't go any further than that.
KAGAN: OK, well you just have your next assignment, Walter. Thank you for the latest on that. Walter Rodgers in London.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 20, 2003 - 11:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Conspiracy theorists on the death of Princess Diana will want to listen to this story. A London newspaper reports today that Princess Diana wrote months before her death that she feared someone was planning to harm her in a staged car accident.
For more on that, we go live to London and our Walter Rogers.
Walter, hello.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
It's uncanny and it's chilling, but 10 months before Princess Diana died, she wrote a letter to her butler, Paul Burrell, in which she details how she will be killed in an auto accident, and she says certain people are plotting against her.
Here's the headline in the paper today, "They're planning an accident in my car so Charles can marry again."
Now, this letter has just now come to light, but it's been out there for some time. A publisher has it. There's a new book out here in the U.K., "A Royal Duty" by Princess Diana's Butler, Paul Burrell, in which he makes this and a few astounding other revelations, and of course the newspaper, "The Daily Mirror," is serializing this. I spoke with the editor of the paper just a short while ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, "DAILY MIRROR": I think it is fuel to the fire of every conspiracy theorist in the world on a story that has attracted more than probably any since JFK's assassination. And I think the relevance of it in this country is that it's been real unease about the lack of any inquest or any formal legal inquiry into what happened. There's been nothing at all. And that has created an atmosphere of the British establishment covering up something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RODGERS: Now, in the past few weeks, there has been an announcement here in Britain that there will be a coroner's inquest looking into both the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed, her male companion in that fatal auto accident. Again, Piers Morgan, the editor of "The Daily Mirror," a short while ago with whom I spoke, said his paper did a poll immediately after this story broke, and the poll suggested 86 percent of the British public now no longer believe that Diana's death was an accident -- Daryn. KAGAN: Those numbers are astounding there. What about the credibility of Paul Burrell? Over the last year or so, the trial he was almost involved in, and other situations with the royal family?
RODGERS: Well, that's a good question. But what's more pertinent is, is the letter itself genuine? And no one questions the genuineness of this letter, written in Princess Diana's hand. Not even a former palace official with whom I spoke today. No question that the letter is genuine. The question, of course, is her allegation of a conspiracy a plot to kill her? She clearly believed that was the case.
One of the interesting aspects of this story is that the newspaper printed a line and the book, "A Royal Duty," prints a line in which you have a black ink overspill which eliminates the name of the person or the institution which Princess Diana believed was out to get her, out to kill her. For legal reasons, that has to be dropped, but she clearly named someone.
KAGAN: And so we'll never know who that is?
RODGERS: Well, Daryn, always and never are words that should only be used by lovers, so I won't go any further than that.
KAGAN: OK, well you just have your next assignment, Walter. Thank you for the latest on that. Walter Rodgers in London.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
