Not only was John Bingham born into an aristocratic family whose heritage bestowed on him the title of the 7^th Earl of Lucan, he was also strikingly handsome—so handsome, in fact, that when Cubby Broccoli, producer of several James Bond films, was looking for a new actor to assume the role of Britain’s most iconic spy, Bingham was one of the men he considered.

Lord Lucan, as Bingham was called, never became 007. However, the world eventually came to know him almost as well as if he had been a silver screen star. In November 1974, Lord Lucan filled headlines in England and abroad when he became the prime suspect in the murder of his children’s nanny—and then promptly disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again.

The man whose life contained enough intrigue to fill an Ian Fleming novel was born in London in 1934. He attended the prestigious Eton school, then served in the army before finding employment with a merchant bank. In 1963, Lord Lucan married a secretary and former model named Veronica Duncan (who became Lady Lucan). The couple settled in the Westminster neighborhood of London, where their family grew to include three children: Frances, born in 1964; George, born in 1967; and Camilla, born in 1970.

Despite—or perhaps because of—his family’s wealth, Lord Lucan didn’t seem to understand the intricacies of money management. After earning a significant amount of cash in a few days at the betting tables, he quit his day job, deciding that he would make his living by gambling instead of banking. Though Lord Lucan had some successes, he also had several failures that required family money to erase.

The stress of the family’s financial situation was one of several factors that led Lord and Lady Lucan to separate in 1972. The split wasn’t amicable. Lord Lucan wanted full custody of the children and began spying on Lady Lucan in an effort to collect evidence proving that she was an unfit mother. (Lady Lucan had suffered from postpartum depression following the births of her two youngest children, and continued to suffer from depression and anxiety.) Still, despite Lord Lucan’s efforts to paint his wife as mentally ill, the court sided with Lady Lucan and awarded her full custody of the kids, giving Lord Lucan visitation rights.

If Lady Lucan thought that this judgment would end her husband’s campaign of harassment, she was wrong. Lord Lucan continued spying on her, secretly recording their conversations and soliciting information from nannies who helped care for the children. Lord Lucan’s mental state deteriorated and he began to drink heavily. According to acquaintances, he even threatened to kill his wife.

As it turned out, a member of the Lucan household would suffer an untimely end, but it wouldn’t be Lady Lucan. On the evening of November 7, 1974, the Lucan family’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, went into the basement of the Lucan home to make Lady Lucan a cup of tea. (Lord Lucan had moved out of the home following the separation.) Lady Lucan would later tell authorities that when Rivett hadn’t returned 15 minutes later, she—Lady Lucan—headed downstairs to check on the nanny. There, Lady Lucan was attacked by a man whom she identified as her husband. Lady Lucan managed to escape and contact the authorities, who descended on the home and found Rivett’s body in the basement. She had been bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe. Lady Lucan said that she believed her husband had killed Rivett, but that he hadn’t meant to do so. Instead, Lady Lucan believed that she herself was the target, and that Rivett had been the unfortunate victim of a case of mistaken identity.

Lord Lucan had a different version of the events that took place that evening. Not long after Rivett’s murder and the assault on Lady Lucan, he visited a friend and told her that he had been passing the family home that evening when he chanced upon a man attacking Lady Lucan. According to Lord Lucan, in her addled state Lady Lucan believed that he—Lord Lucan—had sent the man to kill her. Fearing that he would be arrested for something he hadn’t done, Lord Lucan fled the scene.

When informed by his mother via phone that the police wanted to talk to him, Lucan said that he would contact them the following day. At that point, he left his friend’s home in a borrowed car and disappeared. A few days after his disappearance, authorities discovered the car, which contained part of a lead pipe similar to the one that had been used to kill Rivett. Some people believe that Lord Lucan killed himself, while others believe that he escaped. Regardless of his fate, since those early morning hours of November 8, 1974, when Lucan left his friend’s home, no confirmed sighting of him has been reported. Lord Lucan was declared dead in 1999.

In 1975, a coroner’s inquest found that Lord Lucan had killed Rivett. Yet despite this declaration, the dual mysteries of Lord Lucan remain. Did he kill Sandra Rivett? And what happened to him after his disappearance? In the absence of a criminal trial, which will likely never occur, those questions will remain unanswered—probably forever.