Diana’s dog of death

Re-reading my recent FT article about the alleged Diana-Morrissey conspiracy [FT442:50-51] brought back some long-buried memories of a late-night talk-show on the subject I recall watching as a callow youth back at the time of Princess Di’s 1997 death (I think on Channel 4), during which some nascent conspiracy theories about precisely how it was Diana really ended up in a fatal car crash in a Paris tunnel were discussed. Unexpectedly, one guest suggested she had been assassinated by a special black dog sitting on the back seat of the car in front which, like a weaponised Black Shuck, had fired red laser-beams from its eyes directly into the face of Diana’s driver, disorientating him and making him crash, rather than him simply being highly pissed, as per the standard narrative. As I recall, the host ensured that discussion quickly moved on from this intriguing suggestion towards something far less interesting and worthy of my remembrance twoand-a-half decades later.

I have tried searching out more info about this online, and find there is indeed a fringe theory that a so-called SAS ‘lamping unit’ used lasers akin to a “manmade lightning bolt” to perform a similar stunt, but can discover nothing whatsoever about a deadly trained laser-dog (or possibly a laser-gun merely camouflaged as a back-seat nodding-dog car-toy or something?) being involved. [see https://www.express.co.uk/news/ uk/429536/EXCLUSIVE-SAS-slamping-unit-used-laser-to-dazzlePrincess-Diana-s-driver]

Did I imagine this strange televisual event, misinterpret, or simply misremember it? Does anyone know who this conspiracy theorist was, and if he was serious, just a nut, or perhaps even Mohamed al Fayed in disguise? Like Dodi’s dad, I too would dearly like to know the truth!

SD Tucker

Widnes, Cheshire