Therefore the means he used to transfer obscure information to someone with whom he had no communication during these early, crucial years is not clear. Even the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II sent his best wishes to her via his wife. More about that later. Romanov relatives had been turned away at the same bank. Why did no other Romanov relative know this? Godl know what the Russian emperor told his own daughters, and how would a demented peasant girl alone know information that senior Romanov family members were ignorant of? Since Anastasia would be the primary beneficiary of the money, she had to be removed as a claimant for it.
In Anna Anderson innocently answered a question that she had last seen her uncle, the Grand Duke of Hesse in His unauthorized trip during wartime would have been considered treason. Interestingly, the Soviet government confirmed the secret trip which he had denied when it published previously secret tsarist archives in two books, Monarkhia pered Krusheniem, Moscow, and Romanovyi germanskie vliyania, Moscow, Again, how would a demented peasant girl know all of this? It was at this point that the grand duke went to work to try to find some missing person they could say that Anna Anderson really was.
The Franziska Schanzkowska myth was born. Godl again attacks Gleb Botkin: At the same time, he made it clear that he would not accept one cent, and he never did. Godl refers to court experts and contradictory testimony and compares the process to the O. Quite unlike the O. Another court appointed forensic expert, Dr. Otto Reche, founder and former president of the German Anthropological Society, concluded that she was Anastasia after a full year of testing and examination. By contrast, Anna Anderson was adjudged free of mental illness by two different doctors. However, she did have a high-strung, difficult personality and, when upset, developed red blotches on her face just like Empress Alexandra.
Opponents of Anna Anderson tried to say that the scars she bore were received in an explosion in a hand grenade factory during World War I. None of these injuries would be typical of a hand grenade explosion. In addition, Anna Anderson had a congenital foot deformity just like Anastasia. She had a cauterized mole on a shoulder-blade just like Anastasia.
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She had a scar on the middle finger of her left hand from a carriage door being shut on it as a child just like Anastasia. She had a small, faint scar on her forehead from a fall as a child just like Anastasia. Three fingers of one of her hands were the same length just like Anastasia and Empress Alexandra. Godl alleges that Anna Anderson must have had plastic surgery to make her look more like Anastasia.
Anna Anderson - Wikipedia
Extensive photographs from the time of her appearance in February until her death in reveal no such changes. The only alterations were done to the only known photograph of Franziska Schankowska to make her look more like Anna Anderson. At this point, Mr. Gilliard asks in the article how anyone could have failed to see the decoration, and therefore, her statement proved nothing. Later in court, when he was asked by one of the judges to submit his evidence against Anna Anderson, he informed the court that he had burned all such documents!
One has to ask who was cunning? The statement was also signed by ten other close relatives. They dared not issue this denunciation until the dowager empress had died. One would have to say that this was an extraordinarily short mourning period.
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In truth, they knew that they had to act quickly because the ten year waiting period to claim the money in the English bank had expired on July 17 of that same year. They could only get it if Anna Anderson were safely out of contention. There is much more to this case which cannot be easily summarized here. The next installment will focus on the other article on Mr. The reader is referred to books on the subject: The writer of this article also invites questions and comments: You are commenting using your WordPress.
You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email required Address never made public. Create a free website or blog at WordPress. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Be Anna royalty or not, she acted like a Grand Duchess and flatly refused to dine out on her persona. She wouldn't be caught dead in Los Angeles, Jack later said.
Anna turned Maria and Patte down, so Patte told Maria to withdraw her endorsement. The withdrawal was not in Charlottesville, where reporters aware of the inside story would have done the questioning. It was done at a Washington, DC, airport before low level society page bimbos, as Patte anticipated. Yet the night before they told an entirely different story. The title "Kind Rasputin" is a triple entendre, two in English and one in German.
We had a pleasant encounter with history last week by taking the daughter of Rasputin, "the mad monk of Russia," to the Gaslight for a hamburger. She was in town over the weekend with her friend Patricia Barham, a film and theatre columnist from Los Angeles. While here, they tried and failed to get the apparent Grand Duchess Anastasia to leave her Albemarle County farm for L. The apparent Grand Duchess is, of course, Anna Anderson, the woman who has claimed for 50 years to be the surviving daughter of the last Russian royal family.
If you missed the social news of the summer, Anna moved here from Germany in August and may settle permanently in Albemarle. Rasputin's daughter, Maria, has been in the U. As was reported during her earlier visit here in August, she came to this country as a circus animal trainer with Ringling Bros. We learned this trip she was a member of the Hagenbach Brothers animal act, a job she took after several years touring Europe as a Russian folk dancer.
Making a living was a problem for Russian emigres during the 20s and 30s and Maria grabbed at an offer to go on the stage. Girls like Maria who spent their childhood having tea with the Czar's children every Wednesday weren't trained to make a living, but Maria had some talent and endless spunk, it appears. For although Maria was mauled by a bear in Peru, Indiana, she stayed with the circus until the traveling show played Miami, Florida, where she quit and went to work as a riveter in a defense shipyard, she related Saturday night.
She stayed in defense plant work until when she was laid off because of her age, Since then she has been working in hospitals and baby sitting for friends. Since credibility gap had yawned intrusively into the conversation, we asked her how she got into the animal training game, and where she got the courage to whip up on lions and tigers. She learned in London, was her unelaborated answer though she noted, "After you've been the target of a revolution, nothing scares you anymore. That lasted until personal enemies decided Rasputin-style religion was going too far and they ended him in a legendary assassination said to involve poisoning, stabbing, and drowning.
Maria said she had it rough in the Bolshevik revolution the year after her father was murdered and eventually left Russia for Berlin, Bucharest, Paris, London, and Miami. Her English vocabulary isn't all it might be, she readily admits. She says she speaks Russian best but also German and French.
When the time came to write a book - and virtually every notable Russian emigre wrote at least one in the decade - she dictated her memoirs and the result was, "My Father," an anecdotal book on Rasputin published in Her friend Pat Barham is in the throws of re-write on a second Rasputin book based on Maria's recollections.
She intends to call it, "The Rape of Rasputin" and described it as "sexsational and exciting" but not funny. Maria claims a leaning to be psychic and Pat affirms that on election morning two weeks ago, Maria said that Mrs. Richard Nixon had come to her in a dream and smiled. Maria has "signs" like that often, Pat said. Since being interviewed is an old game for Rasputin's only legitimate daughter, she talks willingly and seemingly without reservation. This prompted Gaslight owner John Tuck to volunteer that the father of one of his boyhood chums was one of the band of assassins that did Rasputin in.
John didn't know, or at least didn't say. Friends asked why he didn't close the paper down since he could have done it like this," she said with a snap of fingers. We did and found waiting a pot of white chrysanthemums to carry home through the season's first snow flurry. I took a photo of Maria and Anna and put it on a ceramic mug for sale at Zazzle. You can get it here.
See a Problem?
Grigori Effimovich, aka Rasputin The name Rasputin in Russian does not mean "licentious," as is sometimes said, though there's a similar Russian adjective "rasputnii" with that meaning. Most historians agree that his name signifies, roughly, a place where two rivers meet, which describes the area from which the Rasputin family originates. It is said that Rasputin tried to have his name changed to the inconspicuous "Novykh" "New Man" after his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but this is a subject of dispute.
Rasputin today is a common surname without negative connotations, as the contemporary Russian writer, Valentin Rasputin, would be quick to explain. The Royal Children Five photos whose authenticity is beyond question This is one of the most famous photos of the 5 Romanov kiddies, taken around After meeting her, the son of the czar's court physician believed totally that she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia he knew as a girl.
The Resurrection of the Romanovs: Anastasia, Anna Anderson, and the World's Greatest Royal Mystery
His book describes the intrigues behind denying her recognition. While the DNA testing itself was done by honest professionals, the samples they were given to test were almost certainly rigged. The DNA experts had no way to know that, and they said as much. The truth is, there's no evidence the tissue and hair they tested actually came from Anna Manahan. Briefly, here's the case for Anna before the DNA tests Anna was thoroughly convinced and convincing that she was Anastasia Anna matched Anastasia's physical measurements, including the unique scars Anna evidently had the memories Anastasia had In the most trying or the least trying of circumstances, Anna was always in character The people who knew the Grand Duchess back in Russia - at least those who had nothing to lose if she were proven to be alive - all swore Anna was Anastasia Such evidence does not die with Anna.
Here's a letter to another newspaper, the Cville Weekly printed Dec. Most folks have come to accept that Anna Anderson Manahan was not Anastasia. The few still questioning it have more going for them than small numbers would suggest. For one, none of the DNA findings would be acceptable as evidence in a US court due to grievous flaws in provenance and possession.
Of the samples termed "Anna Manahan DNA," only one has any serious claim to authenticity - the piece of intestine. No one knows the origin of the hair. The world is relying on, "Hey, a North Carolina shopkeeper who outbid everyone else for cartons of Jack's books packed by Althea Hurt, says he found a box of hair in one carton. We can accept that the North Carolina book dealer is not churning publicity to generate payback for his high bid.
We can believe that Althea Hurt doesn't know a box of hair from a book. But we know Jack Manahan as legendary for being a life-long packrat. The hair could have belonged to his mother, or could easily be one of the thousands of curios he bought on his habitual buying trips here and abroad.
Search for Mystery
Only our romantic simplicity makes it Anna's hair. So it's the intestine we rely on, kept under lock and key and anonymously cataloged at Martha Jefferson Hospital. Not at UVa Hospital, where with the most careful cataloging they still managed to switch babies. At Martha Jefferson a mistake is In the course of getting it from here to there the sample passed from hand to hand. So much for the thread of secure possession. For all anyone knows, the worldwide Russian Nobility Association could have provided a substitute courier for a brief but important few hours.
Is it reasonable to think this group of Romanovs ignored the travel route of that telltale tissue, considering they had already committed a fortune and more than 50 years to discredit Anna Anderson's claim? The truth is, with Anderson dead, discrediting is more important now than when she was alive. Had the Anderson DNA checked out, Manahan heir Althea Hurt, who already demonstrated she will fight for her property rights all the way to the supreme court, could lodge a legal claim to much of what these distant relatives of the Czar inherited since They remain unchallenged heirs to their prized possessions only so long as there is no proven survivor of the Romanov family massacre.
This is to ignore? So far as the respected professionals associated with the DNA testing, had that substitution in transit happened none of them would know. Everything they are saying is the truth as far as they know it. The link to read the abstract summary is here. This is what I found there: Annals of Human Biology - Publisher: January 28, - Abstract: A set of human remains unearthed near Ekaterinburg, Russia has been attributed to the Romanov Imperial Family of Russia and their physician and servants. That conclusion was officially accepted by the Russian government following publication of DNA tests that were widely publicized.
The published study included no discussion of major forensic discrepancies and the information regarding the burial site and remains included irregularities. Furthermore, its conclusion of Romanov identity was based on molecular behaviour that indicates contamination rather than endogenous DNA.
The published claim to have amplified by PCR a bp region of degraded DNA in a single segment for nine individuals and then to have obtained sequence of PCR products derived from that segment without cloning indicates that the Ekaterinburg samples were contaminated with non-degraded, high molecular weight, 'fresh' DNA. Noting major violations of standard forensic practices, factual inconsistencies, and molecular behaviours that invalidate the claimed identity, we attempted to replicate the findings of the original DNA study.
The consensus haplotype of Elisabeth differs from that reported for Alexandra at four sites. Considering molecular and forensic inconsistencies, the identity of the Ekaterinburg remains has not been established. Our mtDNA haplotype results for Elisabeth provide yet another line of conflicting evidence regarding the identity of the Ekaterinburg remains. One day in I joined Manahan and some German prince for lunch at the Hardware Store, a Charlottesville restaurant.
The royal was a Romanov here to visit with Anna. For Jack and for the royal there was nothing out of the ordinary in that remark. So here's my summary. In science it's usually safest to look for the simple answer. When money and royalty are involved, the simple answer is usually wrong. She possessed information only Anastasia would have known. Until we discover she learned these things in some other way, I believe Anna Anderson was Anastasia and the crucial DNA sample was switched in transit.
Witnesses said she survived the Romanov family massacre because the jewels sewn into her clothing acted as a bullet-proof vest. She and the jewels were smuggled out of Russia by Alexander Tchaikovsky, a conscripted soldier who was part of the unit assigned to dispose of the bodies. Eventually she surfaced in Berlin, mentally unstable. Her attempt for recognition by her relatives was thwarted by reports, some by her, of Romanov wealth secreted away by the Tsar for his children in an English bank.
If Anna achieved recognition, the fortune would go to her and not to the relatives she needed for recognition. By the time the great wealth was found to be not so great, sides had been taken, positions had been staked out, hearts broken could not be mended, and the past was doomed to be prologue.
In the s there was a much greater reason than money for one powerful, wealthy Romanov to deny recognition. The real Anastasia knew he had secretly been a traitor in , and so did Anna Anderson. But that's beyond the scope of this page. The Real Romanovs by Gleb Botkin is one book that relates the details. Late in life Anna married an American, Jack Manahan.
When she died, Jack became her heir. Jack grew dotty in his dotage and before he died, he named as his heir a young woman believed, rightly or wrongly, to be a fortune hunter. She wasn't, but she showed great tenacity in fighting off challenges to Jack's will. By winning it all she came into enough wealth millions to pursue Romanov claims around the world for the rest of her life, should Anna Anderson be proven to be the genuine article. And this heir is a lawyer. This echoed the situation of the s when a son fathered by Alexander Tchaikovsky was considered a loose cannon heir who could deprive relatives of the Tsar and Tsarina of rank and inheritance.
All over again in the s disproving Anna's claim became a burning issue among Romanovs. This new heir's ability to pursue Anna's claims rested - not on Romanov family acceptance - but merely on Anna passing a DNA test. If Anna passed, suits to recover past dispersals could begin, and the entire Romanov family would be insecure in their possessions. The intestine tissue sample went from Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, to the UK by mail, and passed through many hands including customs before it reached the lab. Some of the most well-entrenched, influential, and resourceful people in Europe, including English royalty, had a huge interest in that package.
Because it went by mail, no one can say with certainty that the piece of intestine that began the trip is the same piece of intestine that was delivered. All we know is that powerful people desperately needed the DNA test to fail. It matched, they said, the DNA of Franziska Schwanzkowska, an unschooled, certified insane Polish factory worker with no Romanov connections and no access to the inside information everyone agrees Anna Anderson knew.
That they happened to have Franziska's family DNA available for comparison is another tie to the Romanov machinations of the s, and the latest link in the long chain of plausible denial. Missing from my work here is information about Jack Manahan, a fascinating man. Others have collected history and anecdotes about him, which I added to this page for fear it could disappear from the web and be lost to us. Perhaps the New York Times had a piece. He certainly deserved it. He was, after all, royalty. Not because he was married to Anastasia, but because he was the king of us Charlottesville eccentrics.
He woke us up from the common-placeness that is the plague of our age. I won't forget him. He woke me up. Aside from his marriage to Anna "Anastasia" Anderson, he was truly a larger-than-life person. But the life story of the man many Charlottesville residents knew only as an amusing "character" is interesting and impressive. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he held high posts in several prestigious organizations such as the presidency of the Huguenot Society of Manakin.
He received his bachelor's, master's government , and doctoral history degrees from UVA. Jack's law studies at Harvard were interrupted by war. He was number one in ordnance, number three in navigation, thirteenth in seamanship-- but way down in engineering.
Anna Anderson
Almost every longtime Charlottesville resident over 50 knew or has heard stories about Jack. An employee at The Daily Progress says Jack often ordered food from Ken Johnson's Cafeteria located near the site of what is now Ruby Tuesday's along Emmet Street , and when he went in to get the take-out trays, he'd stuff his pockets with condiments.
Then he and Anastasia would sit in the car in the parking lot and eat their dinner, of which potatoes were always a part. Anastasia believed the KGB wanted to kill her, and among other weird aversions, she would not eat from anything metal. Which explains why their battered old station wagon was always full of empty Styrofoam trays. Sandy McAdams says that once on a visit to his bookstore, Jack raised the back door of the vehicle, a Ford Futura, to reveal a box of puppies among the jumble of styrofoam.
About a decade ago, McAdams pointed to a dog at his feet and told the story. As he ambled by, other students stared at Jack with his untied shoes and disheveled clothes as they would a street person. But the thesis-writer squelched the snickers by announcing, "You just saw the son-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Her suit against members of Romanov family to prove her claims dragged through the German courts until , when the German supreme court declared that her allegations could be "neither established nor refuted. Jack and Anna were married at the Albemarle County Courthouse on December 23, in a civil ceremony performed by Charlottesville police sergeant Raymond Pace.
Soon the longtime bachelor's living quarters, a small Italianate house on University Circle, began to deteriorate. Many stories and articles in local media detail the numbers of animals and shocking conditions inside and outside the house. The garden is wild and untended, high grass spreads across the path, and creeper bars the way to the front door, in a way that suggests visitors are few and rarely welcome.
The suit is baggy," they write, "the tie egg-stained. In the center, incongruously, is a huge tree stump; on the walls old pictures recalling the glories of imperial Russia contend in cramped space with bric-a-brac and childish daublings; over everything hangs the pervasive smell of cats. The balcony, which should be a pleasant place to contemplate the view, is piled high with a mountain of potatoes which have overwhelmed their container— a large plastic bath.
The stump recalls her time in the Black Forest, and the cats— well, the cats are there simply because "Anastasia's life is centered on her cats. The cats were Anastasia's reincarnated friends. Obviously, you don't take Russian nobility to the veterinarian, even a Charlottesville veterinarian. He said his uncle told him about the night Jack and Anastasia stopped to chat, and his uncle asked Jack why there was a tree stump on the station wagon roof.
Jack explained that they needed to take it to the dump. McGehee's uncle offered to tie it down, but Jack declined the offer. Then he drove off slowly, careful not to tax the wagon beyond its physical endurance. Was it the same stump? During competency hearings for Anna in , the Daily Progress reported, Jack testified that Anna did not like strangers and believed that artificially heated houses spread germs and disease. A more logical explanation about the stump was supplied by a neighbor when the furnace in the house was broken.
Even though Jack was well off on paper, he didn't seem to have much cash. So he would drag pieces of wood-- from limbs to whole trees-- into the house and feed them into the fireplace. But wood wasn't all that was burned there. The neighbor-- like a young man who testified at a later trial-- reported that if one of the plus cats died, Anastasia cremated it in the fireplace. Evidently that was okay since its soul had departed.
Dining out with the Manahans must have been unusual. Summers and Mangold continue in The File on the Czar: She clutches a rain hat filled with silver foil, ready to wrap leftover meat from dinner, which she scoops up and saves for those feline friends of hers. Anastasia ordered strong, hot tea and put 12 spoons of sugar into the cup and then poured a little at a time into the saucer and drank it. Then she took a large handbag, opened it, and scraped the rest of the food inside.