"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Priness Anne "kidnap" - Ian Ball still inside after 35 years

On the 20th March 1974 Princess Anne and her freshly laundered wimpish first husband Capt. Mark Philips were rolling along Pall Mall in a RoyalRoller to Buckingham Palace after a charity filmscreening. (Note here that the "kidnapper" Ian Ball says, "In 1971 I was working at Filmatic Laboratories Ltd., Lonsdale Road, London, W1, as a van driver. I used to spend every working day travelling around the West End collecting and delivering cans of film. )

A light coloured car (Ford Escort) blocked their path and a man appeared who fired six shots (from 1 or 2 guns depending on source) . Insp. Beatson fired back (he got a George Cross) and he and royal chauffeur Alex Callender were wounded.

Ball was caught by PC Peter Edmonds, of Cannon Row was awarded one of the first Queen's Gallantry Medals as the Metropolitan Police officer responsible for capturing Ball. Edmonds was on duty as a temporary detective constable at Cannon Row police station when the call about the attack was received.

He drove to the scene in his own car, and saw a man with a gun running across St James's Park. Edmonds gave chase and, although threatened with the gun, threw his coat over the fugitive's head, forced him to the ground and arrested him.

Others at the scene who attempted to restrain Ball included Pc Michael Hills and Ronald Russell, a cleaning company manager who, having manoeuvred his car in front of Ball's to block his escape, ran across and punched the assailant. Both of them were shot, both later received the George Medal. A Fleet Street reporter, Brian McConnell, who heard shots and leaped out and tried to reason with Ball, was shot in the chest; he was awarded a Queen's Gallantry Medal, as was the chauffeur, Alexander Callender.

Rowena Brassey, the Princess's Lady-in-waiting, was also present and like the royal cople were unharmed . Indeed it looks like no shots were fired at them.

It appeared that the shooting was preliminary to a kidnap attempt on Princess Anne to hold her to ransom. A ransom letter demanding £3Mn. from the was subsequently found demanding £3m for her release.

Ian Ball, 26, was prosecuted for the attempted murder of the princess's detective, and various offences under the Offences Against the Person Act.

Ball was sentenced to life imprisonment and placed in a mental hospital - initially in Rampton and he is currently blieved to be in Broadmoor.

1. A curious untraceable website has appeared at least in 2005 - see ref in A-infos Anarchist website http://www.ianball.me.uk/ purporting to be a statement from Ian Ball.

On the 22nd May 1975 (1974) I was convicted, at the Old Bailey, of attempting to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne.

From the accompanying document entitled 'Hoax Explanation' you can see that I did not attempt to kidnap Princess Anne - the whole incident was just an elaborate hoax.
It continues as a lettermight from a Nigerian source ....

As I am desperate to get out of Broadmoor, I am offering a £1Million reward to the first person who proves the incident was a hoax.

The reward will be paid as follows:- £55'000 immediately (as this is the amount I currently have in my bank account), and the remainder when I have successfully sued the authorities and received the royalties from my autobiography. From the following you can see that the total amount I will get in damages and royalties will be more than enough to cover the cost of the reward.


This page then links to second page http://www.ianball.me.uk/hoax.html entitled Hoax Explanation which you might like to read.

2. Monsters and Critics on Jan 15th 2009 report that Channel 4 Films commenced filming a documentary about the "kidnapping" on Monday (19.01.09) in Bath, SW England with the intention of screening it in September 2009.

According to this M & C report The princess reportedly replied in an unprincesslybut beleivable way ,say "Not b****y likely!" before diving out the other side of the car.

One wonders how an inmate of Broadmoor can set up a website - is this clever viral marketing by Channel 4 ? He's been locked up 35 years now and didn't kill anyone...don't mess with the Windsors.

PS : "To Kidnap a Princess" with Russel Mabey as Ian Ball was made for TV film (ITV) in 2006 and portrayed Ball as a loner schizophrenic.

5 comments:

paul said...

s this clever viral marketing by Channel 4 ?
in these difficult times for publicly chartered, ad funded channels, I would say yes!

But the base story strikes me as a product of monarchical paranoia.

After all, when you start looking through the buck house railings, you'll spy the corgis as a nutritional option.

Something will have to be done!

Anonymous said...

"1. A curious untraceable website has appeared at least in 2005 - see ref in A-infos Anarchist website http://www.ianball.me.uk/ purporting to be a statement from Ian Ball."

What do you mean by "untraceable" ??

OBTW his ip is 85.233.160.70

Anonymous said...

I covered the story for IRN /LBC commercial radio. I arrived in the mall at around 3am, having beedn called out by news editor Joan thirkettle ( who later went to ITN). Princess Annes car was still in position but all the other cars had been removed. I parked my car a small red Truimph GT6 in the side road facing the royal car ( right by the Queen Mums then residence and reported in to the news room. in those days we had first generation bulky Motorola pocket radios (no cell. phones then) I was about to broadcast when the then news came tghrough that Ball had been charged so the criminal Justices ASct then applied and all i could do was report what i could physically see from my vantage point. The Fleet Street journalist Brian McConnell, who was shot, I'd known brian for many years (a drinking companion at El Vinos's, Fleet Street) he had been drinking earlier that night and feeling quite merry he took a taxi home and indeed when it all happened he jumped out opf his taxi and remonstrated with ian ball exact words were according to brian " Now look here, you can't do this the lady is a friend of mine" , he was shot for his troubles!

Clearly it happened and i have seen the Channel 4 film.


Regards


Julian Bray

www.eventandroadshowplanners.com

ziz said...

Fascinating. Thanks for the details.

One wonders how many Plods would have turned out these days. Prolly half the Met and the Royal Air Force.

Anonymous said...

$ whois ianball.me.uk

Domain name:
ianball.me.uk

Registrant:
Ian Ball

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
Kent 2
Broadmoor Hospital
Crowthorne
Berks
WR1 3DB
United Kingdom

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish