The story of Earl of Lucan's playboy best pal who brought up his children

Earl of Lucan wrote a desperate letter on the night that he vanished Begged his friend Bill Shand Kydd to look after his three children Was married to wife Christina and they wereawarded custody of children He also fell for interior designer Sally Ramsay Patrick who also moved in with him

By Geoffrey Levy and Richard Kay for the Daily Mail

Published: 18:38 EST, 31 December 2014 | Updated: 02:23 EST, 1 January 2015

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On the night that the Earl of Lucan vanished, he wrote a desperate letter stained with blood, almost begging a friend to look after his three children.

Lucan, who had been battling for custody of his children on the grounds that his wife was paranoid and unstable, was a man with a circle of some of the richest and most influential friends in London. But the one he asked to help was Bill Shand Kydd, his brother-in-law.

If you can manage it I want them to live with you, wrote Lucan at the Sussex house of his friends Ian and Susan Maxwell-Scott, before disappearing 40 years ago after the murder of his nanny.

Bill Shand Kydd, right, with his wife Christina. Before vanishing, the Earl of Lucan asked his brother-in-law to look after his children

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The story of Earl of Lucan's playboy best pal who brought up his children