Princess Diana could have “predicted” her death two years before it happened, according to resurfaced claims in the Discovery+ series, The Diana Investigations. The claims refer to the “Mishcon Note”, an infamous note written by Victor Mishcon in 1995 when he was the Princess of Wales’ legal adviser. The four-part docuseries premiered in the US on 18 August, and aired in the UK on Channel 4 on 21 August under the title Investigating Diana: Death In Paris – but what is the Mishcon note?
What is the Mishcon Note?
The Mishcon Note refers to a note reportedly taken by Mishcon during a meeting he had with Diana on 30 October 1995. During the meeting, which also included Diana’s personal secretary Patrick Jephson, Diana reportedly said that she had heard from a source that efforts would be made to “get rid of her” by April 1996. The source allegedly told Diana that this would occur via a car accident that would either end her life or injure her so far as to make her appear “unbalanced”.
Diana died two years later on 31 August, 1997 in a car crash in Paris alongside her partner Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul. Paul was deemed to be under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs when the car crashed into a pillar going 65mph.
What does the new docuseries say about the Mishcon Note?
In 2004, the Metropolitan Police launched an inquiry into Diana’s death with the 832 pages of findings released in 2006. In the docuseries, Michael Mansfield, a lawyer who represented Al-Fayed’s father, said: “The most important thing about that report, and the wait-a-minute moment, light shining through the darkness suddenly, was the Mishcon Note. The note had been put in a safe at the New Scotland Yard.”
The note was reportedly handed to former Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Condon in 1997 and was subsequently placed in a safe. “The letter was given by Lord Mishcon to my predecessor, Paul Condon, and he put it in his safe,” former Metropolitan Police commissioner John Stevens, who led the inquiry, told 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, 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.” Stevens explains that the investigation looked into all 104 allegations surrounding Diana’s death “including probing the origins and credibility of the Mishcon Note”. He added that the Met Police followed up on the Mishcon Note and that Stevens interviewed Mishcon “on three occasions and took further statements on that letter”. “It’s something that caused me great concern,” he added.
“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 [Diana] 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.” Stevens’ inquiry concluded with “100 per cent” certainty that there was no conspiracy to “get rid of” or murder Diana and that her death was an accident.
