As Netflix launches its final season of “The Crown,” focusing on Princess Diana, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, and his billionaire father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, many viewers will be retold the story of Diana’s shocking death through TV news flashes. Personally, I remember getting the news in a phone call from the White House.
When Diana and Dodi were killed in Paris, I was working at the American Embassy there. A career FBI agent, I was assigned to Paris as the legal attaché, meaning I was the U.S. government’s official liaison with French law enforcement. Later, my private work as a consultant would draw me more deeply into the investigation of the tragedy.
The following account, adapted from my book The Fall of the FBI, includes many details about the tragedy and its aftermath that you are unlikely to see in “The Crown.”
White House Calling
A phone was ringing in our Paris apartment. An extension of the embassy switchboard, it had to be answered. It was after 1:00 a.m., on the last day of August 1997.
The operator — stress in his voice — told me the White House was on the line with a request from President Bill Clinton, who was vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard. The president wanted to know the details of Princess Diana’s auto accident, which he had just learned of from a brief CNN news flash.
Leaving that phone line open, I used my cell phone to call the command post of the Paris Police. I
