THURSDAY, MAY 09, 2024
Sujay Gupta
On September 27, Lady Lucan the widow of Richard Bingham,
the 7th Earl of Lucan died at eighty, in London. Her death soon moved to the
footnotes of a media surge, like an awakened volcano which brought with it the
lava of myth, mystery, gossip and conjecture, not about her but her husband
Lord Lucan the 7th Earl of Lucan, the peer, who, in November 1974 murdered the
nanny to his three children, Sandra Rivett, bludgeoning her to death before escaping
into the sunset as a fugitive, whose body was never found.
As theories floated about the whereabouts of Lord Lucan, his
wife steadfastly believed that he had given up his life by drowning in the
ocean, as any honourable man would do, after a deed as dastardly.
With Lady Lucan’s death, the haze of Lord Richard Bingham’s
past, including his supposed Goa life, playing the tin flute and backgammon and
lounging at Bob’s Inn, the iconic and eclectic bar and restaurant run by
Pradeep Lawande in his (again supposed) avatar of Barry Halpin, has re-emerged
as a topic of discussion.
Halpin spent a life in literal haze, smoking , drinking and
playing music and charming several foreigners, especially ladies young and old,
who left enough money for his needs to be taken care of, a far cry from the
palatial environs of his family home at 46 Lower Belgrave Street, central
London.
Was Lord Lucan the fugitive, living as Barry Halpin or
Junglee Barry in Candolim Goa for 22 years till he died in 1996 in Goa,
believed to have drunk himself to death? An excerpt from an article in The
Independent UK, headlined ‘Did Lord Lucan drink himself to death on a beach in
Goa?, dated September 2007 by Mathew Bard, perhaps has a few answers. Or
perhaps not:
Excerpt:
The “revelation” comes from the former Scotland Yard
detective Duncan MacLaughlin, who claims in his book Dead Lucky, published this
week, to reveal what happened to the peer. The trail leading to "Lord
Lucan" began two years ago when MacLaughlin agreed to meet Mark Winch, a
small-time drug dealer he had once pursued until Winch fled to India in 1991.
Winch, he said, lived in a commune in the shanty coastal
town of Ximera with a man he later became convinced was Lucan. In common with
the peer, his neighbour was an expert backgammon player, had a keen knowledge
of culture and expensive cars, spoke German and hailed from Ireland although he
spoke an aristocrat’s English.
At the end of a card game and much honey brandy, Winch asked
Halpin if, in common with many Westerners in Goa at the time, he was a
fugitive. He recalled: “Barry stopped playing, paused, then replied, ‘Isn't
everyone?’ I said, ‘'Well, to a certain degree’.
Maclaughlin then came to Goa to interview locals and as he
wrote in his book, “At Halpin's local bar, Bob’s Inn, the proprietor Pradip
Lawande recalled the scene when a British visitor brought in a newspaper
cutting with a picture of Lord Lucan. He said: “I saw it over his shoulder and
remarked, ‘That looks like you!’ And he nodded and said, ‘That’s right! I’m Lord
Lucan!’ Then he smiled. I never knew whether he was joking or serious and I
didn’t take much notice anyway.”
The myth and mystery of Junglee Barry or Barry Halpin and
whether he was the same fugitive Lord Lucan who escaped after committing a
murder in England question has endured almost during the lifespan of this
column (Business with Pleasure) from 2004 when it commenced its journey in the
Gomantak Times. In August 2005, I first wrote “There’s mystery and history at
Lord Lucan’s lair”.
Then till now, Bob’s Inn, at Candolim has remained ensconced
in a time capsule. Bob Lawande, who looks 40 at 70, his dyed hair neatly combed
and his zest for life and the times well spent as a charmer adding youth to his
years. At lunch time on Diwali, Lawande, for the first time spoke his mind
about the Lord Lucan mystery with “evidence” which could – albeit sadly –
confirm that Lord Lucan and Barry Halpin were diferent people. Sitting on his
alcove for lunch, Bob, as always regaled us with stories from the seventies. He
then went and brought out his copy of Dead Lucky and smiled “There is a very
big chapter on Bob’s Inn. And my place became famous (He once had a sign saying
‘Bob’s Inn, Lucan’s Lair’) and so I kept quiet. But I know Barry since 1962
when he used to come and spend time at my first pub Bob’s (a short distance
from Bob’s Inn). He then played in band in Lucio Miranda’s motel on Baga creek
L’Omir and started literally living here at Bob’s Inn. When Lord Lucan killed
the Nanny and ran from there in 1974, our Barry Halpin was very much here.
Junglee Barry was no murderer. He was my friend”.
Clearly, to Bob, Halpin, very much was the real deal, not
Lucan. And when he cremated his buddy in 1996, the death news in Herald was
titled “Barry Thomas Halpin (Junglee Barry), dearly loved and sadly missed by
all of us. Good bye Old Cock”.
Twelve years after I first wrote about Lucan, Barry and Bob Lawande, there I was having fish and chips and waiting for my mussels in white wine with a chilled bottle of beer and pretty much hearing the same story. The myth perhaps has been busted about Lord Lucan but the romance still lingers. What if….. it was true?
