Further reading for Lord Lucan

A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan

Info:

1985 Fayetteville N.C. Air Force captain Gary Eastburn was away for 10 weeks of training at an Air force base in Alabama. This being the time before cell phones and emails he stayed in touch with his family, wife Katie and 3 daughters Kara 5, Erin 3, and Jana not yet 2 with nightly phone calls. After 2 days of not being able to reach his wife he started to worry.

It was however, the neighbors who took notice of the car not leaving the drive and the newspapers piling up, when he went to the door and rang the bell there was no answer yet he could hear the baby inside crying. When he peaked in a window he saw Jana, the baby, standing by herself in her crib her arms stretched out towards him as she cried.

At this sight, the police were immediately called. When they arrived, they broke in through a window and proceeded to make their way through the house. In the living room curled in a ball under a Star Wars blanket they found the body of Kara she had been repeatedly stabbed in the chest. Next they entered the master bedroom where they found Erin laying on one side of the bed bludgeoned in the chest and back , on the other side of the bed was Katie, she had been stabbed 15 times and raped. All three of the victims had their throats slit.

A man from the neighborhood sought out police to tell them that around 3:30 in the morning three days before the murder, as he was on his way to work he saw a tall white man wearing jeans, a knit cap and a black members only jacket leaving the Eastburn residence. Headed in the opposite direction the man in the jacket said “Leaving a little early this morning.” when the janitor turned around he saw the tail lights of a white Chevette as they pulled away.

Days before the families murder, they had placed a classified add in the newspaper to try to find a new home for their dog since the family was about to move. The man who adopted the dog, Tim Hennis, matched the composite sketch given by the witness, when he sees the sketch on tv and connected that this was the family he adopted the dog from he goes to the police. He was very cooperative with the police and is let go for lack of evidence tying him to the crime.

However, later that evening they to go Tim’s house with a warrant and take him in. Hennis’ first trial in 1986, ended in conviction and he was sentenced to death. He won an appeal for a new trail which took place in 1989 and ended in acquittal. He was free to continue living his life outside of prison.

In 2005, 20 years after the brutal murders breakthroughs in DNA testing and new interest in the cold case help prove that the semen samples collected belonged to Hennis and he was sentenced to death.

Lord Lucan

Richard John Bingham, born the 7th Earl of Lucan was a man of high class but even higher taste. He lived a life of financial ups and downs but continued to gamble and spend, until the night that the nanny of his children was found bludgeoned to death. He fled the property to never be heard from again. Lucan has never been found despite worldwide sightings, police investigation and widespread press coverage. His story is one movies are made of. Read more using the link above.

Episode 45

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