12. A Century and a Half After a Stalker Broke Into Buckingham Palace, Another Queen Woke Up to Find a Nutjob Seated at the Edge of Her Bed
The fact that Thomas Fowler had gotten so close to Queen Victoria without hindrance was a black eye for Buckingham Palace security. A century and a half later, palace security got another – and even worse – black eye when yet another stalker got close to another queen. On the morning of July 9th, 1982, Queen Elizabeth II was awoken by some unusual noises in her bedroom and opened her eyes to find a strange man seated at the edge of her bed. Blood seeped out of a cut in one of his hands, and he held a shard of broken glass in another.
When she talked to him, the queen realized that he was a disturbed individual, so she phoned the palace switchboard and asked that police be sent over, but none arrived. She phoned again, but again, no help was sent. So she eventually left the bedroom, and personally summoned the police, who eventually came in and arrested the intruder. The man, Michael Fagan, had been able to simply walk into the queen’s bedroom. Apparently, the armed police officer responsible for guarding her door had left his post before his replacement had arrived.
