Diana: Death of a Goddess

Author David Cohen was born in Haifa, Israel. As a child, he lived in Paris and Geneva, before moving to the United Kingdom. He has a PhD in psychology and is a psychiatrist. He has directed several documentaries and written other books of an "exploratory" nature. Leroux claimed to have been a former member of the OTS and Di Mambro's personal driver. He claimed that Kelly had been initiated, along with several other famous people, into the OTS in 1982. According to Leroux, Kelly's death, deemed an accident, was actually a plot by the group's leader after she stopped paying them, and the massacres were actually a plot by the Italian mafia. alongside David Carr-Brown. Following this he started a documentary on DIana, In 2017, he made an updated version of the 2003 film, Diana: 20 Years On. He followed the 2003 documentary up with Diana: Death of a Goddess. == Publication history ==

The book was published in 2004 by Century, an imprint of Random House. It was again published by Arrow (also an imprint of Random House) in 2005. The book was a bestseller. == Contents ==

The book is largely based on interview testimony, including police contacts and intelligence officials, as well as the person who claimed he had been hired to kill Diana. The book's back cover displays what is purported to be a photo of the car that crashed, shortly before it occurred, while the book's cover claims that it contains "SENSATIONAL new material" on her death. The photo is not actually the last known photo before the crash. In the prologue, Cohen then discusses how Guy had contacted him shortly after Diana's death, and how he had met Guy and the story of the Order of the Solar Temple, as well as Guy's claimed involvement in the organization, and the connection to Grace Kelly. Cohen claims that he had been able to confirm most of Guy's information. Following her death, Guy gave him new information that was claimed to show a parallel the Grace Kelly death, with a plot to kill her. Cohen says that he is generally skeptical of conspiracy theories, and that the book is the result of his attempt to confirm or deny what Guy had told him about the plot to kill Diana. After tracing the history of Diana's relationships and her previous life, he traces the chronology of the crash and the police and paparazzi involvement. He criticizes the French investigation. He accuses them of silencing the witnesses, and not investigating a claim that Diana had cocaine in Diana's bag, which he says they covered up. The book also investigates the death of James Andanson, a paparazzo photographer who Cohen connects to the case through the claimed Fiat Uno. He argues Andanson may have been a secret service agent. He also connects Prince Charles to the Solar Temple. Cohen also disputes the idea that Henri Paul was drunk at the time of the crash. Cohen argues that it is plausible given what he knows that Charles's associates decided to kill Diana to make sure that she did not cause him problems. He concludes that there was a conspiracy, but the crash was "at least partly" an accident. == Reception ==

Diana: Death of a Goddess received mixed reviews. Beryl Bainbridge writing for New Statesman called it a "good read" that "goes a long way towards raising doubts" about the official ruling of the case. She said the book "uncovers much that was deliberately concealed", and praised it for being informational without becoming sensational, saying the book gave a "riveting" account of Henri Paul's life. The Sunday Age said that though many of Cohen's conclusions seemed credible, the Solar Temple link required "a stretch of the imagination". Manning noted the connection as "a strand in the conspiracy web that hasn't been examined before". Jean-François Mayer, a researcher of the Solar Temple, cited the book as one of many works promoting "far-fetched rumors linking the Solar Temple to all kinds of criminal cases and other mysterious events", with Cohen speaking to dubious figures in his investigation on the group. He said that there was no trace of any such tie substantiated by the investigation into the OTS. The claim of the connection to Grace Kelly likely stems from the fact that Jean-Louis Marsan, the Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple (OSTS), was a childhood friend of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, Kelly's husband. Despite the name, the OSTS was a different neo-Templar order and had little to no connection to the Solar Temple, though Marsan had met its leader on one occasion. == References ==