A bloody attempt to kidnap an English princess

* * * Seven men tried to stop Ian Bauer, an unemployed worker from north London, from kidnapping Princess Anne, the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth. 1974 At about 8 pm on March 20th, a tabloid reporter, an ex-boxer, two drivers and three policemen all fought against the ball, but it was the princess herself who made the ball deviate from his goal, a force to be reckoned with.

Princess Anne and her four-month-old husband will go to Buckingham Palace after attending a charity film screening. Anne's waitress was sitting in the back seat of a chestnut Rolls-Royce limousine with the royal logo on it. Opposite to the couple, her bodyguard was sitting in the passenger seat: Detective james wallace Beaton, SO 14 member of the Special Operations Department of Scotland Yard who was in charge of royal protection. When the driver was driving along the shopping center, a white Ford escort car caught up with him, forcing him to stop about 200 yards from Buckingham Palace. A man with a beard and reddish hair got out of the car and rushed to the back with two pistols in his hand. 3 1 year-old detective Beaton thought the man was a disgruntled driver and came out to meet him. The attacker shot the policeman in the right shoulder from six feet away.

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The target is to kidnap Anne, and Ian Bauer's target is a British royal celebrity. 165438+ 10 a year ago, the 23-year-old princess married the British army captain Monet mark phillips. They met through the equestrian circle: this talented rider won the team gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, and in 197 1 year, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) listed Anne (who later became an Olympic equestrian with Phillips at the 1976 Olympic Games) as a sports celebrity of that year. Their wedding attracted 2000 guests, and * * * called 500 million TV viewers the "highest in history" of this wedding. * * * Reporter John J.O'Connor wrote in an article that the media's fascination with celebrities has not changed that much. * * * Reporter John? John J.O'Connor wrote that "Blitzkrieg reported by Internet TV" is "lacking in substance" and "can only confuse and confuse ordinary viewers."

On the night of the attempted kidnapping, SO 14 only sent one person to protect the princess, but then on an informal round trip to Queen Elizabeth's residence, only one bodyguard showed her kindness. Although Bauer doesn't know the route of the limousine that night, the palace has announced that Princess Anne appeared at the event site, which may make it easy for people to follow the chestnut Rolls Royce who accompanied her to leave the theater that night.

Bauer, a 26-year-old psychopath, rented a car named john williams. The police will find two pairs of handcuffs, valium and a ransom letter to the queen. He wrote a messy note criticizing the royal family and demanding a ransom of 2 million pounds with a 5-pound note. Bauer asked the queen to put the money in 20 unlocked suitcases and then put it on the plane to Switzerland. Bauer wrote that Queen Elizabeth II herself needed to appear on the plane to confirm the authenticity of her signature on the required documents.

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Although the metropolitan police in London rarely carry guns, those assigned to protect the royal family carry automatic weapons. Detective Beaton tried to shoot Ian's ball, but his injured shoulder affected his goal. After one shot, his gun jammed.

The ball turned to the back door behind the driver's seat and began to shake. Annie is sitting on the other side.

"Open it, or I'll shoot! He shouted:

The princess and Captain Phillips tried their best to close the car door, and Princess Anne's maid climbed out of the passenger side door. Beaton jumped into the limousine. He stood between the couple and the attacker who shot at the car. The hand of the Bank of East Asia deflected the bullet. Then, the ball hit him for the third time, causing a wound and forcing Beaton to get off the bus and fall to the ground. One of the Queen's drivers, Alexander Callendar, came out to confront the gunman. The ball hit him in the chest and Calende fell in the car. Opening the back door, the ball grabbed Annie's forearm and Philip grabbed her waist.

"Please, E, come out," the ball said to Annie. When two men struggled on Annie, her clothes were torn and her back was torn. Instead of panicking, she had a "very annoying conversation" with the potential kidnappers. She told the police:

"I have always said that I don't want to get off and I don't want to get off." Princess Anne retorted:

Respond to Bauer's request, "very likely."

"I'm scared, and I don't mind admitting it," Captain Phillips said later. He remembered that the most terrible thing was that when the police began to arrive, they felt like an animal in a cage. Then, "the rescue operation is so close, but so far away", when the police hesitated to advance on a gunman beside the princess,

The 22-year-old policeman Michael Hills was the first person to appear on the scene. When he was patrolling nearby, he heard a fight and thought the conflict was due to a car accident. He approached the ball and touched him on the shoulder. The gunman turned and shot at the abdomen of the hill. Before the collapse, Hills kept enough strength to broadcast his radio station.

Ronald Russell, the company's cleaning director, saw this scene on the side of the road while driving home from work. After seeing Ian Bauer confront Officer Hill, he came on foot.

"He needed to tidy up," Russell later recalled. Russell, a 6-foot-4 ex-boxer, stepped forward to punish the gunman for hurting a policeman.

Another driver, Glenmore Martin, parked his car in front of the white Ford in case the ball ran away. He also tried to divert his attention, but when the gunman aimed at him, Martin turned to help the roadside police officer Hill. At the same time, John Brian McConnell, a reporter from the Daily Mail, also came to the scene. He recognized the badge on the car and knew that members of the royal family were in danger.

"Don't be silly, old guys," he said to Bauer. "Put the gun down." The ball hit him. McConnell fell on the road, and now there is a third person bleeding on the sidewalk.

After McConnell fell, the ball returned to his way of fighting for Princess Anne. Ronald Russell approached from behind and hit the back of the head with his fist. When the former boxer distracted the gunman, Anne reached for the door handle opposite the back seat. She opened the door and pushed the car out.

"I think if I get off, he might move," she said. She's right. When the ball ran around the car to the princess, she jumped back with Phillips and closed the door. Ronald Russell then hit him in the face. More police are witnessing this action.

Princess Anne noticed that their appearance made Ian Bauer nervous. "Go on," she said. "Now is your chance."

He ran away.

Peter edmonds, a temporary detective, heard a phone call from police officer Hill about the attack. When he drove to the scene, he saw a man walking through St. James Park with a gun. Edmond chased the ball, threw his coat on the ball's head, caught the ball and arrested him. The authorities found 10 bills over 300 pounds on him. Later, they learned that earlier that month, Bauer rented a house in a dead end in Hampshire, five miles from Sandhurst Military Academy, which was also the home of Princess Anne and Captain Phillips.

The next day, headlines all over the United States recalled the incident that night: "Princess Anne escaped the assassin"; "A lone gunman was accused of planning a royal kidnapping"; "Security measures around Prince Charles have been strengthened"; "Witnesses described the panic in the mall"; "The Queen is Afraid of Att" and "* * *" wrote that if someone tried to kidnap Julie Eisenhower Nixon on Park Avenue, the press would make a luxurious portrait of her in a day or two. Due to the restriction of pre-trial publicity by British law, British Home Secretary Roy Jenkins ordered the writing of an investigation report for the Prime Minister, and told the media that the investigation needed to be "widely confidential"; "Scotland Yard and Buckingham Palace declined to give details."

Our reporter is trying to combine the theory of how a mentally ill and unemployed person can plan a well-funded kidnapping attempt on his own. An office worker told reporters that the police tracked down the typewriter that Bauer rented to write blackmail letters. The newspaper reported that there was a line in the letter that said "Annie will be shot". A few days after the attempted kidnapping, an organization calling itself the Radical Revolutionary Movement of Marxism–Leninism sent a letter to The Times of London, claiming responsibility. Scotland Yard denied that the organization had any connection with Ian Bauer. Others found a familiar theme in the report of blackmail letter. It is said that Bauer said in his letter that he would donate the Queen's blackmail to the national medical service. A month ago, Patricia Hearst was kidnapped by an organization claiming to be * * * * *. In communication with the Hearst family, Sudan said that if the young woman's family donated millions of dollars worth of food to hungry Californians, they would return her.

"At present, there is no indication that this is an isolated act of one person," Jenkins told the House of Commons. It agreed to his request that the results of the investigation be kept confidential.

Minister Jenkins told the newspaper that he ordered an increase in royal protection, but refused to give details. Buckingham Palace issued a statement saying that the royal family "has no intention of living in bulletproof cages". The most important one is Princess Anne, who still cherishes her privacy after admitting that she escaped with impunity.

"Only one person," she said later. In an interview, the princess realized that a person's "greatest danger" might be "those lonely lunatics" who "just got enough" resources to commit crimes together. "If someone really wants to destroy one, it will be easy."

When Ian Bauer appeared in court on April 4th, his lawyer talked about his history of mental illness, but Bauer also issued a statement about his criminal motive: "I want to say that I did this because I wanted to draw people's attention to the lack of facilities for treating mental illness under the national medical service system."

Ian Bauer confessed to attempted murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in a mental hospital, and he spent at least part of his time in Broadmoor, a heavily guarded mental hospital. Even after Ian Bauer was sentenced, the public knew little about him except his date and place of birth and the description of his appearance and behavior by witnesses. 1983, Bauer wrote to a member of parliament, claiming that the attempted kidnapping was a scam and that he was framed.

(The investigation of Scotland Yard continued until June 65438+1October 65438+1October 2005). The British National Archives published these documents to commemorate the "30-year rule", which requires the publication of cabinet documents 30 years after the submission of documents. )

Less than 10 years after this botched kidnapping, the media once again criticized Scotland Yard for failing to protect the royal family. 1982 In July, an unemployed man sneaked into Queen Elizabeth's bedroom. They talked for 10 minutes before the queen came to help. members of a gang