RedHanded - Episode 159 - The Nepalese Royal Massacre

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

On 1 June 2001 a bloody massacre unfolded within the palace walls of the Nepalese royal family in Kathmandu. It left 10 members of the royal family dead - including the king, the queen and all 3 of their children. These killings sparked dangerous conspiracy theories across the globe, started a civil war and set in motion a series of events that led directly to the fall of the entire royal dynasty of Nepal.  But was the right man blamed...? Was this atrocity the work of a son scorned by a love lost, or a secret military coup designed to overthrow the powerful monarchs?  Patreon: www.patreon.com/redhanded References: www.redhandedpodcast.com   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And welcome to Red Handed. Right, before we kick off into today's episode, a bit of a blast from the past. It only happened like two weeks ago, but still feels like ages ago. If you guys remember, we came second in the listener's choice at the British Podcast Awards, all the thanks being to you guys. So if you also remember, we said that if you got us into the top three, we were going to do two bonus episodes for you on cases of your choice. So that's what we're going to do. So we're going to be putting out one of these bonus episodes this month. So in August, then we're going to do the other one next month. So the two cases that came top of the voting board really surprised us, actually.

It wasn't two that I was expecting at all, but it was the Sower murders here in the UK and the Somerton man, or some of you may know it as Tam and Shud, which is out of Australia. Shocked. Not what I was thinking. I also like did not compute what the Soa murders actually is I had to look it up and I was like oh Holly and Jessica now I know what that means so good point actually yep so we're gonna do the Holly and Jessica case this month and then we're gonna do Summer Tin Man next month so yeah I just wanted to keep you guys in the loop thank you again for all the voting you did and enjoy your two episodes because you deserve it so apart from that if that is still not enough content because with that you are going to be getting like six episodes of

something or other from red handed this month and next month possibly seven next month there's just a lot happening but if you still feel like that's just not quite enough for you then I would suggest that you head on over to our Patreon, which is www. You're the only person in the galaxy that still says www. It reminds me of like watching Blue Peter when I'm little and they're like www.bbc forward slash Blue Peter. Like there's nobody does that anymore. I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. So yeah, HPTTS colon forward slash www.worldwideweb.patreon.com

slash red handed, whatever the fuck, like the links in the episode description, guys, go get it there. It's also very easy to find. So yeah, there basically, we've got a ton more content coming out every single month. So go check it out. See if it takes your fancy. If it does, you can subscribe there. That's all my notes for the pre-show amble. Yeah. And if you want to have a chat with Seb, just give him an email at redhandedpatreon at gmail.com. I saw someone on their Facebook group being like, oh, Seb is like, you know, the friend of the show equivalent. I was like, no, he's not. We pay him. It's not the same thing. Yeah. He's the show. he's not friend of the show it's thanks to you guys thanks to the patrons thanks to everyone listening that we can have our own Seb and Seb makes a big difference to the show if it wasn't for him we wouldn't be able to churn out all of

this extra content and all of these extra episodes so thank you to you and thank you to Seb we're just here to be the mouthpieces of content and let it flow through us like a magical river of crime. I don't know. I'm very tired. I didn't sleep last night because I got bitten on the face by a bug and it's really swollen and itchy. Oh no. Yeah, I'm tired. But we've got a case to do.

So I'll just not look at my face in this camera. Let's do it, shall we? Let's do it. It does appear that around the world, the British royal family are the most famous of royals. And I guess that's probably down to Britain's historic love of colonialism. But in fact, there are 25 other monarchies around the world. I was surprised by that. I thought there'd be way more. Only 25. Well, 26 in total, including the Brits. And whilst most of these other 25 are far less talked about than the Windsors. The Saxe-Coburgs, they changed their name

because it was German. I know, I was going to say. The Brits called Germans. So while a lot of these other monarchies are talked about a lot less than our Windsor slash Saxe-Coburgs. And remember that the Windsors here, they do only simply reign because we have a constitutional monarchy system here. So, you know, they are just like figureheads. They're just like ceremonial monarchs, if you will. But some of these other monarchs around the world have very real and direct political power. Up until 2007, the Nepalese royal family would have been considered one of these truly powerful monarchies. But in 2001, a bloody massacre within the palace walls in Kathmandu set off a series of events that led directly to the fall of the entire royal dynasty

in Nepal. On the 1st of June 2001 in Kathmandu, which just to clarify is the capital city of Nepal, the Nepalese royal family were gathering at the Narayathni royal palace. It was a tradition. Every two weeks on the first and third Friday of the month, the family had a dinner party and as usual, the crown prince, 29-year-old Dipendra, was playing host. As the people arrived, the prince was as cordial as ever. He welcomed them in, served them drinks, and the room was full of music, laughter, and the sound of billiard balls being struck.

Did you know that Prince Harry got caught playing strip billiards in Vegas? There's a picture of him completely naked. Strip billiards. I didn't know that, but I believe it 100% without any further evidence being provided. Of all of the stripards. I didn't know that, but I believe it 100% without any further evidence being provided. Of all of the strip games you could be playing, strip billiards. Also something I learned. Did you know the Prime Minister has to go and talk to the Queen every week?

I think it's on Thursdays. She's 94. Leave her alone. Fucking hell. No, I didn't know that. I just thought it was like the only time I ever sort of witnessed that was when Theresa May had to come talk to the Queen after they had to like get the DUP in to like get themselves a majority parliament or whatever. And then I went down there

because I used to work in Victoria and just booed for a bit. It was really fun. And then I came home. I hope that Boris isn't going now because he's full of COVID. She's so old. Can't trust him. He probably is. She's probably shaking her hand. She's just licking her face. So, sorry, I got distracted by Prince Harry's billiard balls.

So let's get back to Nepal. At 7.57 that evening, almost all of the guests had arrived. The only people missing were Prince Dipendra's father, King Birendra, and his uncle, the king's brother, who was called Gayendra. In all, there were 22 royal guests that night, including the prince's sister, Princess Shruti, his mother, Queen Aishwarya, the queen mother, and a few uncles, aunts, and cousins. Anyone who was anyone in Nepalese high society was in attendance. But soon, Dipendra began to act very oddly indeed. He seemed drunk. But those who noticed, mainly his brother-in-law Kumar and his cousin Paras, were surprised. Dipendra was a well-known big drinker and he could really handle his booze, and no one could ever remember seeing him out of

control like he was that night. It was also very well known to his cousins and his sister that Dependra regularly smoked weed and hash. But that night, to their horror, a clearly inebriated Dependra sat down, ignored his guests and called for a servant to go and get his joints for him. Joints which he then lit up, there and then in the middle of the party. His cousins and brother-in-law were getting nervous. The king was set to arrive at any moment and what Dependra was doing was deeply disrespectful. While they were shocked by what they were seeing, they figured that maybe Dependra was just acting out due to stress. The crown prince had not been in a great place for a while. He had been struggling with his mental health and he'd

been on antidepressants for over a year. He used to be a fit young man, but he had all but stopped exercising like he used to. He was fluctuating in weight and he seemed to be scared of the future, of growing old. Dependra's issues came from a simmering rage he'd felt for years. He was growing frustrated about being the prince and about one day becoming king, and his resentment towards his family was only being compounded day by day.

Some of Dependra's cousins also knew that given all of this, entertaining was becoming a major chore for him. So they had thought it was odd when he had chased them so hard for an RSVP to that night's party. These frequent gatherings at the palace were generally pretty casual, or as casual as royal parties get. But what we mean is that if you came, you came. There was never really any pressure to show up.

But this time, Dependra had apparently actively hounded some of his relatives to confirm that they were definitely coming. Like we said, it was not a well-kept secret in the family that Dependra had some stuff going on, so I think that some of them were perhaps expecting that there was going to be some sort of announcement about his situation. His situation being that Dipendra was in love. But why would this be a situation, I hear you ask?

Well, just like any Gurkha Wood movie, which I'm so proud of myself because I discovered this week, Gurkha Wood is the name for the film industry in Nepal. And I was like, ah, makes sense. So yeah, just like any good movie from generally that part of the world, Dependra's love was doomed by family feuds. Just in this case, they happened to be powerful political and royal family feuds. Dependra was in love with a woman named Devyani Rana. Devyani was a part of an incredibly wealthy and powerful family. Her father was Pasupati Shamsha Jang Bahadur Rana. He had been

the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Nepal. Pasupati Rana was also the son of Mohan Shamsha Rana, the last Rana Prime Minister of Nepal. The Rana dynasty were a political powerhouse in Nepal and up until the 1950s they had controlled the nation politically for over a century and they were also fervent monarchy abolitionists. It's important to say that at this time the power pendulum seems to have swung from political dynasties to royal dynasties and back again every few decades. Mohan Rana, so Divyani's paternal grandfather, had been the prime minister who had succeeded at the time in actually reducing the Nepalese monarchy to nothing but mere figureheads. In 1951, however, the throne was restored and power was returned to the monarchy.

Subsequently, Mohan Rana went into exile in India. With this, the rest of the Rana family lost almost all of their power and they were stripped of all of their hereditary offices and privileges. So Divyani's granddad was the last man in Nepalese history who had successfully wielded more power than the monarchy. The Rana political dynasty represented an existential crisis of epic proportions for the royals of Nepal. So the history of Divyani's family being the very power that tried to destroy the monarchy didn't make her an ideal candidate for the crown prince. And her mum's side of the family didn't help that much either.

Divyani's mum was from a very wealthy Indian family. In fact, her mother was Rani Usha Skindia, the daughter of a Maharaja. So great, on her mum's side, Divyani's technically royalty, so that has to be good news, right? Well, actually, no, wrong. The Nepalese royal family have no love for India at all during this time period. To understand why, we need to do one of our red-handed, not-in-this-economy political rundowns of a huge and far-reaching and massively complex and complicated geopolitical issue in 10 bullet points or less. Or more. Probably more. Definitely more. You'll be none the wiser because you can't see our scripts. It's just whenever I take a breath to pause for air. No one count. So in the 1950s, the Rana political dynasty signed a treaty

between India and Nepal. The two countries were to have a special relationship. And it's important to note that the Rana family were an autocratic regime. They had been hereditary prime ministers in Nepal for decades. Up until the 1950s, they had actually referred to themselves as Maharajas, which if if you know, Hindi means great kings. Like, they were almost considering themselves as equivalent to royalty. Don't be confused into thinking that the Ranas, just because they were as part of the government, were democratically elected. They were not. It's better to think of the political Ranas and the Nepalese royal family as two, like, warring clans. They were two sides of the same coin,

just with the royal family up until 1990, holding absolute power after they took it back from the Ranas in the 50s. And I suppose there's no major difference, you know, logically speaking between hereditary prime ministers and a royal family. It's essentially the same thing. It's like when we were in Cuba, and that one tour guide was like, we have a fucking monarchy here, man, because it's just Fidel's brother. Absolutely. That is 100% the thing that needs to be super clear as to the situation in Nepal pre-1990, all this time that we're talking about. Even in 2001, really up until 2008, there was no democratic system. The story we're going to tell today is how Nepal went on that very slow, long, bloody march towards democracy.

So after this treaty was signed between Nepal and India, slowly India started to tighten its grasp on Nepal and began exerting a huge amount of influence within the nation. There were constant border disputes, issues over free movement, trade, citizenship and the right to work. And in 1988, things came to a head when India put an economic blockade on Nepal, which lasted for almost two years. And the economic consequences of this dispute were incredibly severe. I cannot stress this enough, this blockade by India pushed Nepal to the brink. Nepal's GDP growth fell off a cliff, going from 9.7% in 1988 to just 1.5% in 1989. That is unbelievable. And the impact of the sanctions was so bad because Nepal is what we can call India locked. You can

obviously refer to a lot of countries as being landlocked if they're just surrounded by other countries at every border. Consider where Nepal is geographically speaking. The only border that it doesn't technically share with India is the Himalayas, including Everest. So literally the highest point on earth exists separating Nepal from China and every other border that Nepal has borders with India. They're completely trapped. They are at the mercy of this giant powerhouse of a nation that is tightening its grasp every year during this time. Have you seen The Way Back? No, I haven't. Some people say it's a true story. Some people say it's bullshit. It's based on a book called The Long Walk,

which is basically people escaping from a gulag in Siberia and walking to India. It's a good film. Colin Farrell's in it. I think my brother was watching it and I've seen bits of it, but I haven't watched the whole film. But now that you're saying that, it sounds familiar. There's like some theories about like the guy who wrote the book claiming it was him, but actually he'd heard it from someone else and he just sold off the story as his own.

Anyway, my geography, especially in that part of the world, is appalling. But it really helped me to understand how Siberia, Mongolia, China, Nepal and India are one long walk. Yep, exactly. Just one long block of land with loads and loads and loads of fucking border disputes and everybody fighting it out over that. So that's what's happening. But yeah, so as you can tell, like Nepal is in a very like not very geographically advantageous location for themselves unless they can find a way to somehow knock down Mount Everest. But then the other border is just touching China. Like, does that solve anything? Probably not. It's like, have you seen Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Like, what would be their coast is entirely Croatia. And there's like a meme of it. It's like literally all the way down to where Bosnia stops. It's just Croatia lining the coast. And there's a meme that's just like Bosnians. Oh, we want to go swimming. Croatia, no. Oh, that's sad.

So as things worsened economically in Nepal, people took to the streets. Demonstrations erupted all over the nation, and the Jana Andolan, or the People's Movement, were demanding a multi-party democracy to replace the absolute monarchy and hereditary prime ministerial system. After the protests raged for months, with violence escalating daily, in April 1990, King Berenda finally removed the 30-year ban on political parties. A new constitution was written and it came into effect in November that

year. So Nepal was now a constitutional monarchy. I think because the protests were what got Nepal to get to the point that it was considered a constitutional monarchy. And we'll go on to see that it wasn't absolute at this point. The monarchy didn't devolve all their power. They were sort of starting on that journey towards doing that. Because it took these protests and this sort of civil unrest to get there, a lot of people thought that the king didn't want this to actually happen, that he was sort of being forced into taking this action.

But actually, a lot of reports claim, and a lot of people who knew him very well said that King Birendra actually believed in a constitutional role for the monarchy, not a dictatorship. King Birendra was well-travelled. He'd studied abroad, he had lived in Japan, he had been to a lot of other countries, and I think he was very much a modernist. And I can believe that he genuinely did want to move the country to a constitutional monarchy because I see him as kind of like a benevolent dictator. But the issue was the rest of the family. King Birendra's brother and his wife, the queen, totally disagreed with him. They felt that King Birendra was giving away far too much. At the time that this was all happening, Dependra was in England. He had

been sent there as a teenager to attend Eton, like every other monarch ever. I just can't imagine, like, just be like, oh, just going to fucking GCSE maths and then, like, the Prince of Nepal is sitting next to you. Just getting changed for PE and, like, the fucking Prince of Jordan is in his pants next to you. So weird. That's where the term whipping boy comes from. Oh, when they used to have like a surrogate kid that they'd beat the shit out of because they couldn't hit the prince. Exactly. Eton, ladies and gentlemen. They also have to wear tights.

So uniform. Good. I'm glad. And did you know that, sorry, I'm really coming out with my royal family facts today. The royal family used to go to Gordonstoun, which is up in Scotland. But Prince Charles got bullied there. So now they all go to Eton. I mean, it's not nice to be bullied, but still. He's doing all right. He seems to have come out of it a completely normal person.

Oh, yes, completely. And I was going to say, and he's probably fine because he knew he was going to be king. Who knows if that will ever happen? Maybe one day. If the public will accept me, I will be your queen. So when things really started to kick off back in Nepal and Prince Dipendra was just sort of rowing a boat around in Eton, which is what I assume that they all do instead of actually learn, the queen called her son to come home and stop his father. She warned him if the king handed over too much of his power, the future was uncertain. By all accounts, the crown prince was furious.

But in some other reports, he was angry with his mother for undermining his father. And in yet still more reports, he was angry at his father for doing what he was doing. So we don't really know. Maybe a bit of both. India's role in this transformation within Nepal is very important. The Indian government harboured, supported and encouraged the opposition parties behind this uprising. And in return, they again exerted their political power in Nepal to help put in place pro-Indian parties and leaders.

So yes, as you can see, as far as the Nepalese royal family are concerned, Devyani Rana is not a great match for them. It's basically too much Rana, too much India. Yeah, he literally couldn't have picked a worse girl. Couldn't have picked a worse person because half Indian, half fucking Rana. And they're like, are you fucking serious? You're bringing her home.

I don't know. I don't want to get too conspiracy minded too quickly. But I'm like, it's very convenient that she happens to be the girl that he meets and falls in love. I don't know, we'll get there, we'll get there. But despite knowing all of these issues, too much Rana, too much India, and him being very too much a Nepalese royal,

the couple had come forward to ask for permission to marry. But unsurprisingly, this had been swiftly denied. Dipendra's family were having absolutely none of it. And in a move pulled straight out of a fucking Bollywood film, or really pan-Indian film, maybe pan-Asian, I don't know, the Queen Mum got an astrologist involved to quash the romance. The holy mystic Megman that she called in predicted that Devyani would be barren and that any union between her and the prince would therefore bear no heirs anyway so it was an absolute no-go this is a real

classic thing that people do there's a lot of corruption in marriage politics i can only speak for india as that's the region i'm aware of people do this when they don't want an alliance to go ahead they'll just go hire somebody slip a bit of money and tell him to tell the family that you shouldn't get married because something awful is going to happen. And people fucking believe it. To this day, people believe it. So as much as I can joke about this, it would have been taken very seriously by everyone in the family, especially anyone who even thought about softening their stance and possibly agreeing to this marriage. I also think that given who Devyani Rana was, it was definitely also to humiliate her,

if I'm perfectly honest. But whatever the reason, this made the prince furious. His family had made it clear they were not going to compromise. He was just going to have to get over it. So now that we all understand a little bit more about Dependra's pain and the political history of Nepal, let's get back to the party. By 8.15, drunk Dependra was in such a bad state that his cousin Paris and his brother-in-law Kumar decided to put him to bed. That is bad, isn't it? 8.15 already in bed. I usually make it till nine. God. They carried him to his residence in the palace. He seemed to be unconscious.

Kumar now remembers thinking that it was weird Dipendra didn't respond to anything that they were asking him, except when they asked him if he had a gun holster and whether they should try and take it off. Dipendra, according to Kumar, replied clearly that he had no gun on him, and then he told them to leave. See, it's like they're like, it's weird because he's like slurring. He's ignoring us. He seems unconscious. But when I ask about the gun, it's like they're like, it's weird because he's like slurring, he's ignoring us, he seems unconscious. But when I ask about the gun, he's like, no, no, no, it's fine. I haven't got a gun on, just go. And like, that's the only thing that he says clearly,

which made Kumar suspicious that maybe the prince was putting it on. But, you know, this is again just retrospective hearsay. Back at the party, the king finally arrived. But he, along with the other guests, were told that the prince had been taken ill and gone to bed. Diviani had been trying to call Dipendra all night, but he hadn't been picking up. At 8.23pm, Diviani tried calling Dipendra again, and when he didn't answer, she finally called palace security to go and check on him. It wasn't like Dipendra to ignore her like this. And she too knew how unhappy he'd been recently, so she

was worried. Palace security went into Dipendra's room and noted that they heard the noises of someone throwing up. Assuming that, like they had been told, the prince was just a bit unwell, had had a bit too much to drink, they left him to it. After the visit from palace security at around 8.39 that evening, Dependra finally called Devyani back. Again, she says that he sounded okay, and he told her that he was fine, he was going to sleep, and that they'd talk tomorrow. By 8.45pm, all of the guests were in the billiard room. The king was now there too. At 8.52pm, the doors to the royal billiard room opened, and the crown prince, who everyone thought was in his bedroom recovering,

suddenly walked in. People were immediately confused. The prince had changed out of his suit into army fatigues. Some even wondered for a second if the party had been a fancy dress affair and everyone but the prince had simply forgotten. But Dependra wasn't there for jokes. He walked in slowly towards his father, the king. When he got right next to him, the prince pulled out a gun and aimed it at his father and fired. He shot three times. Immediately, Dependra dropped the gun and, according to witnesses, almost looked surprised himself. The room was in total shock. Everyone stared in horror. But it's like they were in such a daze that no one moved, no one screamed, no one even tried to run.

The only two people who moved were the prince and a doctor who happened to be a guest. Dipendra walked out of the building and the doctor rushed forward and tried to stop the king from bleeding out. The prince went outside where he now picked up an M16 semi-automatic machine gun that he'd hidden out there. Back in the billiard room, people were thinking that the gun had gone off by accident. And that might sound odd at first, but you have to understand that almost all of the men in the Nepalese royal family were packing heat all the time. Dipendra, his dad, his brothers, they're all obsessed with guns. And not just normal guns. Any new gun acquired, for example, by the Nepalese army, the royal family would get a couple sent to them for their collection. Dependra was probably the most enthusiastic about firearms though. He was rarely seen without one on him and he would often spend his nights at the palace shooting birds. It was a noise that

people had learned to ignore and perhaps at first in the confusion it might have been believable to think that the shooting was just an accident. So no one expected Dependra to walk back in, this time carrying a machine gun. But he did, and he walked straight up to the king, who was now laying bleeding on the floor, surrounded by frantic relatives trying to staunch the flow of blood. But Dependra coldly and boldly aimed his gun straight at his father and fired again.

This time the king's younger brother tried to stop him, but the prince shot him. His uncle's wife, Princess Shardra, ran out from the crowd to try and help her husband. Dipendra gunned her down. Kumar, his brother-in-law, now stepped forward and tried to reason with the prince. He asked him to stop, think about what he was doing, and put the gun down. Dipendra swiftly fired shots at Kumar. His sister Shruti tried to help her husband. Dipendra took aim and shot her too. King Birendra, despite having been attacked twice, was still alive.

He tried reaching for the first gun that the prince had dropped after shooting him, but the king's sister, Princess Shobha, saw what he was doing and ran to stop him, saying no, there's been enough violence. This alerted Dipendra to what his father was trying to do. So Dependra shot his aunt repeatedly and then turned to his father and fired again. The prince, for as mad as he was acting, was focused and exact in his aim. He specifically targeted those who had tried to reason with him or those who had tried to help anyone that he'd shot. By this point, the room was chaos. It was finally evident to everyone that this was no accident. People were running, hiding or playing dead.

But Dependre wasn't in a rush. He walked slowly from person to person around the room. His face was expressionless, like he was in a trance. He had a singular goal and he was totally focused. Methodically, the prince went around the room checking people, firing at them, even if they were laying on the floor and not moving. At 8.52pm, palace security finally noticed that something wasn't quite right. At first, the commandos were unable to get into the billiard room,

but by this point, Dependra was done. He'd stopped the shooting and walked out into the garden. His mother, the queen, and his younger brother, Neerajan, ran after him. At this point, finally, the military could get into the room and Dipendra's cousin, Paras, who was completely unharmed, took charge. Unbelievably, at this point, the king was still alive. He was rushed to a military hospital in Kathmandu. Meanwhile, back at the palace, Dipendra was heading to the royal temple. His mother and his brother were chasing after him.

Dependra turned and shot his brother and just carried on his way. Everyone describes him as being almost like very robotic in what he's doing. One person who was there even described him as like looking like the Terminator, like completely unaffected by what was going on. After he shot his brother, the queen continued following Dependra, screaming at him. So he turned and opened fire on his mother as she was chasing him up the steps of the temple. Finally, at 8.57pm, exactly an hour after the shootings had first begun,

Dependra fired a single bullet to the side of his head and died. In one night, ten members of the Nepalese royal family had been murdered. And as horrific as that was, the consequences of what happened were unbelievably far-reaching. The next day, Saturday 2nd June 2001, Nepal woke up to the horror of what had happened. Their king, their queen, Prince Nirajan and 25-year-old Princess Shruti, who left behind two daughters, were all dead. It's hard to convey just how loved King Birendra was in Nepal. Because remember, even after there had been those sort of protests and they had sort of asked for a reduction in the power of the

monarchy, people still wanted him to stay there. People still believed that he believed in a constitutional monarchy. People of Nepal actually thought of King Birendra as being an incredibly kind person, a benevolent dictator, like we said. Some even believed that he was the literal reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. So as far as they were concerned, whoever had killed him had committed the highest act of blasphemy. The country went into mourning, but there would be no time to come to terms with anything because that very same day, the entire murdered royal family, minus the crown prince Dipendra, were cremated.

And that's because Prince Dipendra was still alive. And as his family were placed on their funeral pyres, Dipendra was proclaimed king of Nepal while he lay in a coma. But the man who caused so much damage to his family and his country reigned for just two days. On the 4th of June at 3.45pm, Dipendra was declared dead. He was quickly and quietly cremated and his royal residence was razed to the ground. The new king was crowned immediately after, and this was Prince Skyendra. He was the murdered king's brother and Prince

Paras' father. And as much as the old king was loved, King Geyendra and his whole family were loathed. In particular, the public absolutely hated Prince Paras. He was everything wrong with an all-powerful monarchy. He was a rich, drugged-up playboy who did what he wanted when he wanted and never paid the price. He was described in Nepal as a, quote, career disco man for his love of the nightclubs of Kathmandu. I love that so much. I want to be a career disco man. You can be. You can be anything you like.

I will get your T-shirt that says career disco man. No questions to be asked because you deserve it. Thanks. t-shirt that says career disco man. No questions to be asked because you deserve it. Thanks. So apart from being a career disco man and just being a bit of a general wanker about town, there was more to why people hated Paris. Because since 1996, Paris had been involved with nine separate criminal cases. Cases which had left three people dead. One of the cases being that he had shot and killed a bouncer in Kathmandu, but no action was taken against him. And just a year before the massacre, so in 2000, in a drunk driving incident, Paras had run over two people, killing them. One of them was Praveen Gurang, a well-loved Nepalese musician. Paras and his

family successfully pressured police and paid off investigators, though, to bury the case. At the time, national protests had erupted in outrage, but again, Paras got away with it, got free. As far as the people of Nepal were concerned, he was living, partying proof that the monarchy lived above the law and across the country the very name Parashah filled people with hatred and with fear. Many people also blamed him for what became of the crown prince Birendra. A lot of people thought Birendra was this great guy just like his father and they thought that Paris was the one who got him involved in drugs and this kind of thing. It's hard to know. It's very clear to see that Paris was into all of that kind of

thing. But whether Berenger was doing that independently or he was led astray by Paris, it's hard to know. But the point is that when Paris's father, King Geyendra, took over, it was never going to be an easy transition. And it didn't help that the official statement put out by the palace after the massacre happened was that an automatic weapon had simply gone off at the party by accident and that's how everyone died. But no one in Nepal believed this. Scotland Yard even offered to do a forensic investigation into the killings but the royal family refused. I wonder why. The public became furious. They knew that they were being lied to,

and in this vacuum, conspiracy theories started to emerge. This threw the nation into a state of intense turmoil and ultimately led to the downfall of the entire Nepalese monarchy. The favourite theory of the people of Nepal was that their new king had in fact orchestrated the entire thing and framed Prince Dipendra as the killer. Dipendra was known in the kingdom as a modernist. He wanted to transform the monarchy just like his father. The two of them

supported democracy and sharing power between a monarchy and a parliament. But interestingly, King Gayendra's arm of the family didn't want to do this at all. And it seemed like too much of a coincidence that almost everyone who was shot and killed that night was part of the faction of the family who wanted to see the transformation and those who had been spared all wanted to hold on to royal power it is interesting isn't it like you're at a party guy goes nuts he's on like a revenge rampage he starts firing in there to prove a point because he's in love with this girl and no one in the family will accept it but he only kills the half of the family that wanted to devolve power. And Paris and everyone else is fine. And Guyandra is just not even there. And presumably the only witness accounts we have from what actually happened are all from the royal family themselves. Precisely. And the ones who were left

are like, oh, but you know, this parliament thing, though, not really vibing with the parliament jam. So it's entirely possible, I think, that it's all just made up. Absolutely. There are no accounts that exist of what happened in that room on that night. The 10 members of the Nepalese royal family were murdered, apart from that of the survivors, who, as we said, conveniently are part of one very tight-knit faction of that family. So after King Gayendra was crowned him publicly calling the whole incident an accident was probably the biggest mistake he could have made because it made him look so suspicious because it was just so implausible and the protests quickly erupted all over Nepal. So some

people might say, why did he say it was an accident if they were doing it to frame Dependra? Why not just say from the start it was Dependra? The reason is like, there are legality issues. So accusing a monarch, even if he's dead, of a crime like that could have seen Gayendra get in some sort of trouble. So that could have been the reason. Ultimately, what you can think he's trying to do is say, oh, it was an accident. I know you don't believe that. Really, what it was is it was Dependra, because that's what the rest of the survivors came out and said later on. So these protests erupted all over the place because everyone in Nepal knew that they were being lied to. And words that people had feared to speak as like solo voices on their own took on a completely

different life amongst the crowds of the protests and people now boldly chanted, Paris you're a criminal, leave the country. The sentiment was very much that people had been proud of their kingdom before but now they did not trust their new king and they were demanding to know the truth of what had really happened to him. Ultimately with this massacre, everything that's happened so far, it came down to one question. Was the killing of the entire Nepalese royal family an act of personal catastrophe by a man who was filled with rage at him being denied his love? Or was this a coup? You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't.

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This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On the Media. To listen, subscribe to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts. Let's have a look at the evidence suggesting that it was Dependra. Firstly, that's quite clearly the people who survived the night say that it was him. And secondly, according to his own family, Dependra had previously threatened them. On his 29th birthday, just a year before the massacre, he erupted at his family saying, quote, no one is going to stop me marrying Divyani.

I mean what I say. I'll kill anyone who tries to stand in my way. But surely all of the people who had that said to them are now dead. Where's that coming from? Not sure. It wouldn't be a difficult rumor to spread is what I'm saying. Things had even become physical that night, apparently when his sister Princess Shruti called him out for daring to threaten them

and for being so selfish. He slapped her and pushed her to the ground. She was heavily pregnant at the time. This incident shocked all of them and highlighted the simmering rage that Dipendra had been harbouring towards them. He had also clearly not given up on Divyani as the two were still together.

Had he just snapped and murdered those who'd stood in his way and then killed himself, knowing logically that there was no other way out? And like you said, this part of the story is something that we just have reports of. Again, as to whether it actually happened is hard to know. Is it just a way in which to sort of besmirch Dipendra's name and add to his motivations? Some theories also state that after years of waiting, Dependra and Divyani had secretly married and just hoped that when they announced it that the family would just accept it. Perhaps they had done this and perhaps they had announced it and it hadn't

gone down well and the family had threatened to disown Dependra. Without his royal allowance, he had nothing. Could that be the reason that triggered the massacre? Possibly. Probably. To me, it's perfectly plausible that Dependra did do it. According to tutors and those who worked in the palace, ever since he was a child, Dependra always knew that he had absolute power. Lieutenant General Vivek Kumar Shah, an aide-de-camp at the Royal Palace for 26 years who knew

Dependra since he was a child, wrote in his book on this case about Dependra, quote, He was kind of a dual character. Outside he was very much gentle, very much liked by everyone, but inside from the beginning probably he didn't get the kind of love he should have as a child. That's what my belief is. He had a kind of sadistic nature. He would burn a cat or a mouse. He would enjoy that. Dependra also liked guns. He had a whole range of them in his bedroom, including machine guns, hunting rifles, pistols, you name it. Again, the sources of these kind of character witnesses, what is his reasoning here? Is he part of this coup? Was he part of the other faction? It's hard to tell. But the guy who said this does seem to have been very close to the king who died. It's

hard to know. This is very much a history lesson. It's like, which source do you believe? There isn't a definitive answer. But what we have to say is that Dependra is definitely the kind of man who has never been told no before. He was the crown prince. He was the eldest. He was the heir to the throne. He does fit the type of killer that would have committed a crime like this is all I'm saying. It isn't implausible. But just for fun, let's consider some of the issues with this case that could fan the flames of conspiracy. Just like with his parents and his siblings, no autopsy was carried out on Dependra. The only thing that was noted by doctors when he was in hospital was that Dependra had been shot in the left side of his head, but Dependra was right-handed. So, of course, rumours started circulating immediately. One of those being that Dependra

had in fact been shot by the guards and that he did not shoot himself. The new royal family responded by saying that as everyone knew, Dependra was a gun fanatic and he trained himself to shoot with both hands, even if he was some sort of ambidextrous, magical gun man. In your last moments, why would you be like, oh, this will show them. I'm going to show them that I can shoot myself

with my left hand and the left side of my head just for shits and giggles. Like that makes no sense to me at all. No, me either. And to be honest, even this is something that is quibbled over. There are people who say that because there was no autopsy, there was no evidence of this being presented.

This is just from the official report from the doctors. Other people say that Depender was actually shot in the back and therefore he definitely didn't shoot himself. Again, we don't have enough information, but the most credible sources do seem to agree that he had been shot in the left side of the head. And I suppose that I can understand why if a guard had shot him and, you know, he subsequently dies of this injury, that technically is treason. Oh, yeah.

So I can sort of see a possible another avenue of them covering it up just so the guard doesn't have to like be hanged or whatever they do in Nepal if you commit treason. So I can see that as well. It might not necessarily be a part of the entire like political overhaul coup situation, but it might be. So the lack of autopsy in and of itself may have made people suspicious, but I can believe that in Nepal, chopping up a royal after they've died to have a look at their insides is probably not something that would have been sanctioned, particularly if you think it's the son of actual Vishnu. They are next to God in all senses, so I can imagine that autopsies would have probably been out of the question anyway.

A lot of suspicion was also raised by Dependra's behaviour on the day in question. He'd been seen out a couple of times that day and he appeared to be in great spirits. At 3pm he was spotted having a laugh at a squash tournament and he appeared to be in great spirits. At 3pm he was spotted having a laugh at a squash tournament. Oh to be a royal. And then at 5pm he was seen attending a wedding before heading home to greet his guests. Is that the kind of day you have for yourself if you're planning to murder your entire family in a machine gun massacre? Maybe weddings and squash were his favourite things and he was just like I'm just going to get one more of each in before I go. I don't know.

But I think royals are just so used to having everything they want that maybe it would be. I don't know why I'm trying to go through the thought process of a Nepalese monarch because I'm so far from what that is. No, it's true. But even strip it back to just like a normal man, you know, if he is doing this because he's been so provoked by his family because they won't let him be with the love of his life, Devyani. Are you not spending that day with her before you fucking murder your family and then kill yourself? Are you really being like, hey, babe, I know we were going to hang out today, but I've got a squash tournament and then a wedding and then my family are coming around.

And you know what that's like. We'll talk tomorrow. Yeah, that's the thing that's weird to me about his actions. But of course, you you know what he's doing that day doesn't prove that he didn't do it maybe up until the party he hadn't planned to do it and then something happened on that night at the party that had triggered him into it we don't know but the other two issues is as we said a bit earlier is how 12 people of the 22 in attendance were spared if Dependra had like lost it and just started fucking shooting why bother to be so calculated about who

was shot and killed if you're just there to like wreak revenge and then kill yourself why would you bother to like spare some people and murder some That's the thing that seems weird to me. Because some people were shot multiple times, mercilessly, like his father. While others, like Prince Paris, were left completely unharmed. Also, the questions that people ask are, where were the cooks and the waiters and the drink servers and the servants

and all of the other people that would have been in there serving the royal family that night? None of them were heard from after and none of them were reported as being hurt or killed in gunfire. So where did they go? If no one else knew to run and escape, how did they? It's weird. Also, another question that is important to ask, putting our hat on that we think it is possibly a military coup to stop King Birendra giving away too much power, why was the king, after he was shot, taken to a military hospital further away when there were perfectly good hospitals in Kathmandu

that were much closer? And something else that has struck people as suspicious was that Gayendra wasn't at the party that night, which seems like quite a large coincidence to the public that the new king just happened to miss that particular family get together. Another big issue is that Prince Nerijan, who's Dependra's younger brother, had a gun on him that night as well. Why didn't he use it to stop his brother? People suspected that he too was a part of the plot to stop his father from giving away all of the family's power, because we already know he was not too thrilled

about it. The biggest issue for me, though, is how the palace security didn't respond sooner. Some reports suggest that it was all over within two minutes, but still, they didn't get into the billiard room until Dependra had finished. Surely their actual job, their only job, is to make sure that no one's shooting anyone inside of the palace. This is the thing that is completely baffling to me because they make it sound like these palace security people were just sat in a little room watching some cameras on the grounds, just having a cup of tea and chilling out,

like bored security guards at a fucking abandoned warehouse. This is the fucking entire Nepalese royal family. And also what's important to state is there were 22 members of the royal family there that night, but there were also other people who were their guests. There were people there who were just other friends and other people, other people of interest. You can't be for sure that none of those people

are going to come in and hurt them, especially when there was so much civil and social and political unrest in the country at the time and all the time leading up to this. I cannot believe that there weren't security people in the room just hanging around in the corner staying out of the way but keeping watch. Very weird. So these questions are often brought up to suggest that the whole thing was a conspiracy. Like we said, it was well known that King Birendra was keen to share power with the government and reduce the standing of the monarchy, but almost no one else in the family wanted this. As we also outlined earlier in the episode,

this massacre took place against a major backdrop of political and social unrest in Nepal, and public opinion was increasingly geared towards democracy. India were also making plays to do all sorts of power grabs in Nepal. Some even suggest that the Indian Secret Service plotted the entire massacre to undermine the Nepalese monarchy, remove them, and then replace them with pro-Indian politicians to enable them to keep their hooks in the country. So in the wake of the massacre and growing unrest and suspicion

around his involvement, King Gayendra ordered an inquiry into the killings. But given that the report was commissioned by the palace and that the investigators were also chosen by the new king, it didn't fill people with much faith. And it only got worse because this commission began on the 8th of June and wrapped it all up in just six days. And the people that did it produced some absolutely non-report and just said that Dependra was high and drunk and killed everyone because of an argument. Basically, the entire report is just transcripts of interviews from the people who survived. I get it that that is considerable evidence. If you're only looking at that, you're not investigating the possibility that it was a coup.

You're only looking at that. So basically, in this report, there were a ton of gaps. And journalists in Nepal were banned from interrogating this official account. Not suspicious at all. And this report, unsurprisingly, did nothing, and the rumours continued. On the night of the cremations of the royal family, a mass curfew was put in place in Kathmandu. People suspected that this was because there were actually hundreds of bodies to burn. People believed that an army of soldiers had also been

shot dead at the palace that night, because the whole thing had in fact been a military coup, and the Indian government were behind it. And some people suspected that Gayendra was just their stooge. But if it wasn't down to foreign interference, and it was in fact an internal royal coup masterminded by the new king, had the massacre of his brother's side of the family just been a way to kill all of the troublemaking, royal power-devolving birds with one stone. If that was the plan, it backfired horribly. Gayendra was deeply unpopular.

Once he was crowned, he dissolved parliament, he jailed journalists, and tried to return Nepal once again to an absolute monarchy. His actions gave rise to a Maoist and very anti-monarchist insurgency. Ultimately, the Maoists brought Gayendra down and ended the monarchy altogether, and Gayendra finally stepped down in 2008. And that same year, the first democratic elections were held in Nepal. Gayendra now lives as an ordinary citizen in a two-bed flat in Kathmandu. There are whispers among his few remaining supporters that he may one day make a play for power again.

But I doubt it. So we can't say for sure what we think really happened in this case. There just isn't enough evidence. If you believe those who were there that night and those who survived, then Dependra did it. But if you suspect the survivors of being in league with a military coup to bring down the king and stop the destruction of the monarchy, well, that's also a possibility. The point is that this massacre, whether political or just down to one man's rage at his love being stamped on, led to immense changes in Nepal,

and eventually ushered in some form of democracy. A few years later, Nepali Times publisher Kundad Dixit put it well when he explained, quote, I wouldn't have minded Nepal retaining a cultural monarchy, even if only as a tourist attraction. But we had such bad luck with dictatorial monarchs that it's hard to make the argument of, oh, well, sometimes a benevolent dictator is good for a country like this. How long are you going to wait for luck to give you a benevolent dictator? I acknowledge that Nepal has its problems now, with its widespread poverty and unemployment, frequent power cuts and political leaders acting like little kings themselves. The democratic system is not being practiced well by our parties, and that is a huge source of frustration. But still, I go with democracy.

It is not a perfect system, but at least with democracy there's a chance for the people to fix their own problems, including dealing with leaders who think they're so far above the law that they can get away with murder. So if this story teaches us nothing else, it's the power of protest, of democracy, and of holding the powerful to account. A lesson that I think we can all agree is as vital in 2020 as it ever was. It's interesting, isn't it? I mean, I don't even know how I should say this. But yeah, there have been accusations of the British royal family equally murdering people and getting away with it. I don't really think I need to drop that name.

So it's interesting that this is really not that long ago at all. 2001. It's mad. I know we were only like 10 at the time. But still, that is not a long time ago it feels like a story from the fucking 18th century it feels like sort of like princess in the tower richard iii math poisoning shakespeare play nope very much not so it's in modern nepal and i do have to say the whole story was about nepal today i fucking love nepal i know there's a lot of issues going on there right now they had the horrible earthquake as well, which was super tragic. And I know now

still Nepal doesn't have a lot of love for India. And fair enough, because India's fucking doing a number on them continuously. But I loved Nepal. The people were so friendly. The country was absolutely beautiful. And the food was fucking delicious. So if you can go, go to Nepal. You can go visit the palace now because King Gayendra, he's no longer king, like you said, he's just living in a fucking two bed in Kathmandu somewhere. The palace is now a tourist attraction. So you can go there. And I think basically the entire tour is about this massacre. So you can go have a look at the billiard room, I think. Because what's a holiday to Nepal without a billiard room?

Precisely. A massacry billiard room. I missed out out so maybe i'll have to come back just for that bit of a different one but we thought it was just interesting we've looked at family annihilators before but in this one it was not only one family being murdered and the consequences of that but they're far-reaching consequences for an entire nation and possibly even the geopolitical stability of that entire region so yeah interesting there are a couple of documentaries out there which i'll link below if you guys want to check out but they are super fucking old and super fucking tacky so hopefully we've done a good job of upgrading this story or just at least bringing it up to date so yeah with that if you don't follow us on social media yet i demand

to know why and then i think you should just go follow us at red handed the pod on all of the social medias yes we are on pretty much every single one that I as an old person I'm aware of you can also come and support us on patreon I'm not going to read out the link again it's in the episode description or you know just google it at www.google.com here are some fabulous people who have done just that and supported us. So thank you very much. Jen F. Crystal.

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Goodbye. Bye. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing.

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