Mystery Files (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Rasputin - full transcript
Exploring the various different accounts surrounding the death of Rasputin.
December 17, 1916,St.
Petersburg, Russia,
Grigori Rasputin,
self-styledmystic and confident
to Tsar Nicholas
II, is fatally shot.
His Russian assassins
fear Rasputin's control
over their ruling
family has gone too far.
The facts of Rasputin's murderhave
been largely unchallenged
for almost a century.
But secret documents
nowsuggest he had other enemies
who wanted him dead.
So who else was present
onthe night of the murder?
What we now know about the plot
effectively changes
theperspective that's been given
to us for the last 100 years.
Re-investigating
theofficial autopsy photographs
and using advanced
ballistic testing
to unravel who really
held the smoking gun,
we open the mystery
files on Rasputin.
1905,
TsarNicholas II is on the throne
of Imperial Russian.
The Romanov dynasty has
ruled for 300 years.
Nicholas's empire spans
from China in the east
to Germany in the west.
In the capital, St.Petersburg,
the Winter Palace
is the seat of their power.
The tsar's German wife,
Tsarina Alexandra,
has five children,
four girls and the boy,
Alexei, the youngest
andcherished heir to the throne.
But behind closed doors,
the imperial couple
hid a dark secret
from their subjects.
Alexei is born with a diseasethat
threatens the dynasty.
Hemophilia is an
inheritedcondition, in which
your blood does not clot.
100 years ago it is untreatable.
One bad knock and
Alexei could die.
Historian and author
Helen Rappaport
explains the family's plight.
He was a little boy.
He wanted to be like
ordinary little boys.
He wanted to run
around and play.
And he was very closely watched.
But even so, there
are occasional times
when he banged himself.
And the next thing is this
poorchild is in excruciating pain.
To protect
publicconfidence in their line
of succession, the
Romanovs keep Alexei's
illness carefully concealed.
For support, Tsarina Alexandraturns
to the Orthodox Church.
She is a devout believer.
But it can't heal her only son.
The obsession with
producing a son and heir
was so consuming that it wasin
a way quite understandable
that she should be equallyobsessed
in keeping him alive
and would turn to a
man like Rasputin.
On November the 1, 1905,
into this state of
private desperation
enters Grigori Rasputin,
amysterious, present-born faith
healer from Siberia.
Historian Charlotte
Zeepvat is an authority
on Russia's royal family.
Around the end of the 19th,
beginning of the 20th century,
there was huge appetite
in St. Petersburg
for a spiritual experienceand
spiritual stories.
And it's this void
that he steps into.
With his
seeminglymystical powers with faith
healing, Rasputin hasrecently
become a sensation
of Russian higher society.
Brian Moynihan is anexpert
on Russian history.
He arrives in St.
Petersburglike some great medieval rocket
from the past.
He would go to these
salons where they all
would be drinking tea
and they would all
be very respectable seeming.
And he would entertain
themwith stories of Siberia
and stories of
peasants because they
never met a peasant before.
In a letter theTsar
writes, a few days ago,
I received a peasant
from the Tobol province.
He made a remarkably
strong impression
on Her Majesty and me.
Nicholas and Alexandra arevery
impressed with Rasputin.
They like him when
they first meet him.
In time, he's invitedinto
the Alexander Palace
to meet the children.
This is AlexandraPalace,
25 kilometers south
of St. Petersburg.
It is here that
Rasputin is first
asked to perform a healingfor
the imperial family.
Rasputin prays over the
youngprince, and the boy relaxes.
He sleeps peacefully.
And when he wakes the
nextmorning, the pain is gone.
He clearly had some kind of
incredible, suggestive powers.
It's never been explained.
Probably never will be.
He had some kind
of mesmeric power.
This proved to be something that
Rasputin could respond tothat
medical science couldn't.
In the Tsarina's mind,
Rasputin can work miracles.
Rasputin is called the Mad Monk.
He was never a monk.
And he most
certainly wasn't mad.
Rasputin lives
in this modest apartment
in central St.
Petersburg, just a few
streets from the Winter Palace.
His increasing involvementwith the Romanovs
persuades the Tsar toallow the
Okhrana, Russia's
infamous secret police,
to monitor Rasputin
for his own protection.
Under the Ukhrana's
watchful eye,
Rasputin receives visitorsfrom
every walk of life,
churchman, nobility,
military officials,
all seeking an
audience with the now
famous peasant from Siberia.
But the most frequentvisitors
are the opposite sex.
This photo of Rasputin
surrounded by admirers
is reproduced in its thousands.
Rasputin without
questionbecomes a superstar.
He was aman
of prodigious character,
huge energy.
In many ways, very
enlightened and humane
and sympathetic and kind.
In others, I mean
a heroic womanizer.
Rumors of what
goes on in his apartment
are soon the talk of Russia.
Whereverthere
was an opportunity,
he'd take it.
On trains, during tea parties,
you name it, if there was
a possibility, he was there.
He is, as it were,
a bit of rough
for a certain type
of Russian lady.
Speculation
overrescued debauched lifestyle
escalates into the
ultimate public scandal,
an alleged affair with
the Tsarina herself.
It was very widelybelieved
throughout Russia.
And it didher
reputation enormous harm.
It was dragging the imperial
name into disrepute.
A crude cartoondepicting
that their supposed
tryst is widely circulated.
He has last but
not with the Tsarina.
There was no question
she was his meal ticket.
With her, he was at his
holiest, his most moral.
This intimate photo showsthat
despite the innuendos,
Rasputin is still trustedby
the imperial household.
He was their only ray of hope.
I really don't think they
caredthat he was grubby and smelly
and had a reputation for
beinga drinker and a womanizer.
The fact was this man
could help their son.
Nicholas actually
said at one point,
I'd rather have 10
Rasputins than one
of Alexandra's screaming fits.
But to a skeptical aristocracy,
Rasputin appears to
hold the royal family
in a strange, hypnotic grip.
His influence over the
Romanovs is he even
openly debated in parliament.
In one speech,
Rasputin is denounced
as a filthy, depraved peasant.
The empress listens
to him too much.
And world events bring
Rasputin into conflict
with other powerful forces.
In 1914, Europe isengulfed in a brutal war.
Russia allies with
France and Britain
in a savage struggle
againstGermany's military might.
Initial military successes were
followed rapidly by absolutedisasters
by a breakdown moral.
By the end of October 1915,
the war had taken a
terrible toll on Russia.
Approximately 1 and 1/2
millionsoldiers are dead or wounded.
Rasputin, a man
committed to peace,
allegedly urges Tsar Nicholasto
withdraw Russian troops
and consider making
peace with Germany.
It's now that Rasputin'sleverage
with the Romanovs
attracts the attention ofthe
British Secret Service.
Based at their headquarters
at the Astoria Hotel
in central St.Petersburg, British agents
are increasingly anxious
to gauge the stability
of their Russian allies.
This is 1 WhitehallCourt in
London, England,
headquarters of the BritishSecret
Service during World War
I. Historian Andrew
Cook has been
permitted to re-examine
secretfiles and correspondence.
British intelligence
were aware from the word go
thatRasputin was one of the leading
people of influence in
Russia who was actually
arguing in private for
an independent peace
deal with the Germans.
In the winter of 1916, Germany
is fighting on two fronts.
In the west are theFrench
and British lines.
In the east,
the Russianarmy is engaged in a series
of ferocious battles.
If the
Russianspulled out of the war,
this would be a fatal turn
ofevents for Britain and France,
because according
toBritain's own calculations,
it would have taken the
Germanstwo, three weeks, four weeks
at tops, to totally overrunBritish
and French positions
on the Western Front.
With Russian
internalsecurity and now the British
Secret Service
mistrusting his motives,
Rasputin's life is on the line.
But history records that itis
a member of the Romanov's
disgruntled inner
circle, who decides
to bring Rasputin's involvementin
Russia's affairs to an end.
Prince Yusupov is
the scion of one of the riches,
eldest families in Russia.
He is an Oxford educated fop.
People like Yusupov, oldschool,
top drawer aristocracy,
couldn't bear what
was happening.
Felix Yusupov certainly
saw Rasputin as an obstacle
toRussia's recovery in the war.
It was really that
crucial to him
that Rasputin be physicallyremoved
from the equation.
On December 16,1916,
Yusupov lures Rasputin
to a party at his palace
hereon the banks of the Moyka
Canal in St. Petersburg.
Knowing Rasputin's
weakness of women,
Yusupov has promised
theself-styled holy man a meeting
with his wife, Princesslrena,
a prominent society
beauty and the Tsar's niece.
In reality, the princess
is not even in the city.
The trap is set.
According to accounts
written by Yusupov,
Rasputin begins to
enjoy his hospitality.
But instead of Yusupov'swife,
hidden away upstairs
is a group of men.
Among them is
Vladimir Purishkevich,
a well-known politician,
and Dimitri Pavlovich,
a member of the imperial family.
Two other unidentified
men are also
among the guests in the palace.
Unknown to Rasputin,
these menare conspiring to kill him.
Yusupov offers
Rasputin some cakes.
But they are not
coated with sugar.
They are laced with
potassium cyanide.
He's supposed to
have eaten the poison
and not been affected.
It has since
beensuggested that the would be
assassins fed Rasputinpoison
which was out of date
and harmless.
According
toYusupov's version, when
the poison fails to
work, it's then decided
that there's no alternative.
He'll have to be shot.
At around
3:00 in the morning,
Yusupov makes the critical move.
Yusupov returns
tohis conspirators to report
that Rasputin is now dead.
But later,
when theprince checks on the body,
Rasputin suddenly revivesenough
to grab him by the neck.
Yelling for help,
Yusupov breaks free.
With seemingly
superhuman strength,
the holy man attempts
toescape across the courtyard.
Then from a distance,
one of the conspirators,
Purishkevich takes aim.
His shots hit Rasputin
in the back and his second shot,
according to his own account,
hit Rasputin in the
back of the head.
Finally, the gentleman assassins
have finished Rasputin off.
Wanting their victim
to disappear forever,
his corpse is thrown into theicy
waters of the nearby river.
But his body is
found, not far away,
near the Petrowski Bridge.
The police investigationinto
the murder is brief.
The Tsarina places Yusupov
under house arrest,
but the prince denies
all involvement.
Yusupov is never charged.
Rasputin is first buried,
then his body moved.
In transit, it disappears
andhas never been seen since,
leaving no physical evidence.
The prince and his
conspirators have
seemingly got away with murder.
This is the accepted storyof
Rasputin's final hours,
based on two of the
killer's recollections.
But Yusupov's is written11
years after the event.
Yusupov's account is essentially
modeled on a Gothic
horror story,
in particular,
the story ofthe beast that will not die.
The true extent of
thebrutality of Rasputin's murder
has only recently come to
lightin a long forgotten autopsy
report.
Stored deep in the
Russian archives
are a unique collection
of photographs
taken in the immediate
aftermath of the murder.
Unpublished at the time and
heldin storage for over 80 years,
they show the crime scene.
They show a courtyard withfresh
blood drops in the snow.
They show Rasputin'sfrozen
body in the minutes
after it is dragged
out of the river.
And they reveal in graphicdetail
Rasputin's autopsy.
Across his body arebruises
and bullet wounds,
one that appears
to have been fired
into the front of
Rasputin'shead from close range
and not from behind, as
the assassins claimed.
According to
Purishkevich and Yusupov
the head wound was to
the back of the head
and fired at a distance.
Leading forensic pathologist,
Professor Derrick Pounderhas
gone back to the archives
and studied the original
autopsy report of 1970.
When I first saw the
Rasputin photographs,
I was really surprised
that they existed.
There's a shot to the center
of Rasputin's forehead.
And this is a
typical coup de grace
shot, in other words,
the finalshot to finish someone off.
Purishkevich's
accounts and indeed
Yusupov's simply do not
add up once you actually
look at the autopsy evidence.
Professor Pounder decides
to reexamine the
physical evidence,
to establish if the
bullet was actually
fired from close range.
Purishkevich claims
to have killed
rescued with a Savage pistol.
This pistol fires the
samebullet, a 32 caliber round,
at the same velocity
as the assassin Savage.
An animal skin is set up
against a block of gel.
This is specially designed
tosimulate the physical density
of a human body.
An ultra high speed camera
willcapture the moment of impact.
We can tell the distance of shot
by the presence of the
soot and propellant.
The bullet is
fired from close range.
The round penetrates.
And if we
lookat the bullet hole, no soot
and propellant residue and justa
small, thin, black bullet
wipe at the very
margin of the wound.
Professor Pounder establishes
that the wound in rescuedautopsy photograph
is not from a long range shot.
It shows clearly
that the fatal shot was
actually fired from the front.
It was
firedat point blank range.
Effectively, the assassinwould have placed
the gun directly
between Rasputin's eyes
and pulled the trigger.
But there appears
tobe another crucial difference
thrown up by the photographs.
When we examined the forehead,
we see that it's a largerwound
than would be expected.
It's about half an
inch in diameter.
From thephotos, Professor Pounder
calculates thatRasputin's wound is bigger
than usually caused by
the point 32 caliber
pistol Purishkevich carried.
That then begs the
question, if it wasn't
a weapon fired byYusupov and Purishkevich,
what kind of weapon was it?
What kind of weapon
could it have been?
It's comparable to one produced
by 0.455, a Webley revolver.
The Webley revolver is a
Britisharmy design from about 1887.
At the time of the First WorldWar
when Rasputin was killed,
it was issued to most officers.
The British made Webley
fires large caliber andjacketed
rounds of solid lead.
The Savage pistol
fires a smaller caliber
jacketed rounds, where
the entire bullet
is encased in copper.
Unjacketed ammunition
was banned in 1907,
because when it hits the target,
instead of a clean entry,
the lead distorts
andreleases energy on impact,
causing more collateral
tissue and bone damage.
To make a comparison,
the scientists
test fire the Webley's leadround
from the same close range
that the fatal shot
was apparently fired.
When we compare thesetest
shots with the gunshot
wound to the center ofthe
forehead of Rasputin,
what we see is something
verysimilar to the Webley shot.
It appears that
notonly has the pistol not been
shot from long
range, but the wound
was not caused by the
smaller caliber pistols
carried by the assassins.
The forensic and
ballistics evidence
does not match the accountsby
Yusupov and Purishkevich.
It then begs the
question, if they didn't
fire the fatal shots, who did?
One theory isthat
Dimitri Pavlovich, one
of the conspirators, carried
a large caliber pistol
and so fired the fatal shot.
But Yusopov and Purishkevich
both testified that
Pavlovichhad left the building
before the incident occurred.
This is where the plot thickens.
Attention turns to the
two shadowy figures who
will also present that night.
Their identities have
never been established.
Evidence has come to lightthat
points directly to one
Oswald Raynor.
Rayner met Yusupov
while at Oxford
University seven years earlier.
Rayner in later life
actually confessed
to his family that he
had been present at the murder.
Further proof
of Rayner's involvement
in covert operations
is contained
in a memo between the
Britishintelligence chief in Russia
and one of Rayner's associatessoon
after Rasputin's body
is dredged up.
It reads, "Although matters
havenot proceeded entirely to plan,
our objective has
clearly been achieved."
It goes on to say that
"the demise of dark forces" --
a code name for Rasputin--"has
been well received by all,
although a few awkwardquestions
have already been
asked about wider involvement."
Rayner is attending
to loose ends.
But one of the Russian
assassins testifies
that the two unnamed men
are Russian soldiers.
We know that a
certain number of people
on the British intelligencemission
were actually wearing
and actually had issuedto
them Russian overcoats
and Russian uniforms.
British personnel were often
seen in Russian army outfits.
To me, evidence pointsvery
strongly to the fact
that there were at least
two British officers
present that evening.
Based on this theory, it
is now possible to retrace
theevents on that fateful night
in December 1916.
3:00 AM, the YusupovPalace,
Rasputin is shot.
The
conspiratorskick and beat him.
His hands are tied.
It's a horrible mess.
It's a case of we've
got to kill this person,
and we really don't know how.
They lay him down.
And if historian Andrew
Cook'sversion of events is correct,
the British agent OswaldRayner
stands over the body.
It's at that particularpoint
that a British officer
is literally forced
to take his revolver
and shoot Rasputin
at point blank range
to be absolutely
sure that he is dead.
Rayner makes no mistake.
The plot was motivated purely,
I believe, by the
fact that he was
centrally involved
in the initiative
to pull Russia out of the war.
British intelligence foundthat
the best way of removing
him would be to
actually have Russians
themselves being seen to be
thepeople who assassinated him.
Rasputin's murderers never meant
for his body to be discovered.
And it's nearly a century
laterthat new forensic evidence
reveals doubts over
the possible killer.
If the British intendedthat
Rasputin's death would
guarantee Russia remained
an ally
that plan succeeded.
But within a year
of his death, Russia
is plunged into a revolution.
And Rasputin's royal patrons,
Tsar Nicholas and his family,
are brutally executed as
thecommunist-led Bolsheviks seized
control.
It was the beginning of
therise of the Soviet Union
and the end of an
imperialdynasty, fatally weakened
by an infamous Siberian mystic.
Petersburg, Russia,
Grigori Rasputin,
self-styledmystic and confident
to Tsar Nicholas
II, is fatally shot.
His Russian assassins
fear Rasputin's control
over their ruling
family has gone too far.
The facts of Rasputin's murderhave
been largely unchallenged
for almost a century.
But secret documents
nowsuggest he had other enemies
who wanted him dead.
So who else was present
onthe night of the murder?
What we now know about the plot
effectively changes
theperspective that's been given
to us for the last 100 years.
Re-investigating
theofficial autopsy photographs
and using advanced
ballistic testing
to unravel who really
held the smoking gun,
we open the mystery
files on Rasputin.
1905,
TsarNicholas II is on the throne
of Imperial Russian.
The Romanov dynasty has
ruled for 300 years.
Nicholas's empire spans
from China in the east
to Germany in the west.
In the capital, St.Petersburg,
the Winter Palace
is the seat of their power.
The tsar's German wife,
Tsarina Alexandra,
has five children,
four girls and the boy,
Alexei, the youngest
andcherished heir to the throne.
But behind closed doors,
the imperial couple
hid a dark secret
from their subjects.
Alexei is born with a diseasethat
threatens the dynasty.
Hemophilia is an
inheritedcondition, in which
your blood does not clot.
100 years ago it is untreatable.
One bad knock and
Alexei could die.
Historian and author
Helen Rappaport
explains the family's plight.
He was a little boy.
He wanted to be like
ordinary little boys.
He wanted to run
around and play.
And he was very closely watched.
But even so, there
are occasional times
when he banged himself.
And the next thing is this
poorchild is in excruciating pain.
To protect
publicconfidence in their line
of succession, the
Romanovs keep Alexei's
illness carefully concealed.
For support, Tsarina Alexandraturns
to the Orthodox Church.
She is a devout believer.
But it can't heal her only son.
The obsession with
producing a son and heir
was so consuming that it wasin
a way quite understandable
that she should be equallyobsessed
in keeping him alive
and would turn to a
man like Rasputin.
On November the 1, 1905,
into this state of
private desperation
enters Grigori Rasputin,
amysterious, present-born faith
healer from Siberia.
Historian Charlotte
Zeepvat is an authority
on Russia's royal family.
Around the end of the 19th,
beginning of the 20th century,
there was huge appetite
in St. Petersburg
for a spiritual experienceand
spiritual stories.
And it's this void
that he steps into.
With his
seeminglymystical powers with faith
healing, Rasputin hasrecently
become a sensation
of Russian higher society.
Brian Moynihan is anexpert
on Russian history.
He arrives in St.
Petersburglike some great medieval rocket
from the past.
He would go to these
salons where they all
would be drinking tea
and they would all
be very respectable seeming.
And he would entertain
themwith stories of Siberia
and stories of
peasants because they
never met a peasant before.
In a letter theTsar
writes, a few days ago,
I received a peasant
from the Tobol province.
He made a remarkably
strong impression
on Her Majesty and me.
Nicholas and Alexandra arevery
impressed with Rasputin.
They like him when
they first meet him.
In time, he's invitedinto
the Alexander Palace
to meet the children.
This is AlexandraPalace,
25 kilometers south
of St. Petersburg.
It is here that
Rasputin is first
asked to perform a healingfor
the imperial family.
Rasputin prays over the
youngprince, and the boy relaxes.
He sleeps peacefully.
And when he wakes the
nextmorning, the pain is gone.
He clearly had some kind of
incredible, suggestive powers.
It's never been explained.
Probably never will be.
He had some kind
of mesmeric power.
This proved to be something that
Rasputin could respond tothat
medical science couldn't.
In the Tsarina's mind,
Rasputin can work miracles.
Rasputin is called the Mad Monk.
He was never a monk.
And he most
certainly wasn't mad.
Rasputin lives
in this modest apartment
in central St.
Petersburg, just a few
streets from the Winter Palace.
His increasing involvementwith the Romanovs
persuades the Tsar toallow the
Okhrana, Russia's
infamous secret police,
to monitor Rasputin
for his own protection.
Under the Ukhrana's
watchful eye,
Rasputin receives visitorsfrom
every walk of life,
churchman, nobility,
military officials,
all seeking an
audience with the now
famous peasant from Siberia.
But the most frequentvisitors
are the opposite sex.
This photo of Rasputin
surrounded by admirers
is reproduced in its thousands.
Rasputin without
questionbecomes a superstar.
He was aman
of prodigious character,
huge energy.
In many ways, very
enlightened and humane
and sympathetic and kind.
In others, I mean
a heroic womanizer.
Rumors of what
goes on in his apartment
are soon the talk of Russia.
Whereverthere
was an opportunity,
he'd take it.
On trains, during tea parties,
you name it, if there was
a possibility, he was there.
He is, as it were,
a bit of rough
for a certain type
of Russian lady.
Speculation
overrescued debauched lifestyle
escalates into the
ultimate public scandal,
an alleged affair with
the Tsarina herself.
It was very widelybelieved
throughout Russia.
And it didher
reputation enormous harm.
It was dragging the imperial
name into disrepute.
A crude cartoondepicting
that their supposed
tryst is widely circulated.
He has last but
not with the Tsarina.
There was no question
she was his meal ticket.
With her, he was at his
holiest, his most moral.
This intimate photo showsthat
despite the innuendos,
Rasputin is still trustedby
the imperial household.
He was their only ray of hope.
I really don't think they
caredthat he was grubby and smelly
and had a reputation for
beinga drinker and a womanizer.
The fact was this man
could help their son.
Nicholas actually
said at one point,
I'd rather have 10
Rasputins than one
of Alexandra's screaming fits.
But to a skeptical aristocracy,
Rasputin appears to
hold the royal family
in a strange, hypnotic grip.
His influence over the
Romanovs is he even
openly debated in parliament.
In one speech,
Rasputin is denounced
as a filthy, depraved peasant.
The empress listens
to him too much.
And world events bring
Rasputin into conflict
with other powerful forces.
In 1914, Europe isengulfed in a brutal war.
Russia allies with
France and Britain
in a savage struggle
againstGermany's military might.
Initial military successes were
followed rapidly by absolutedisasters
by a breakdown moral.
By the end of October 1915,
the war had taken a
terrible toll on Russia.
Approximately 1 and 1/2
millionsoldiers are dead or wounded.
Rasputin, a man
committed to peace,
allegedly urges Tsar Nicholasto
withdraw Russian troops
and consider making
peace with Germany.
It's now that Rasputin'sleverage
with the Romanovs
attracts the attention ofthe
British Secret Service.
Based at their headquarters
at the Astoria Hotel
in central St.Petersburg, British agents
are increasingly anxious
to gauge the stability
of their Russian allies.
This is 1 WhitehallCourt in
London, England,
headquarters of the BritishSecret
Service during World War
I. Historian Andrew
Cook has been
permitted to re-examine
secretfiles and correspondence.
British intelligence
were aware from the word go
thatRasputin was one of the leading
people of influence in
Russia who was actually
arguing in private for
an independent peace
deal with the Germans.
In the winter of 1916, Germany
is fighting on two fronts.
In the west are theFrench
and British lines.
In the east,
the Russianarmy is engaged in a series
of ferocious battles.
If the
Russianspulled out of the war,
this would be a fatal turn
ofevents for Britain and France,
because according
toBritain's own calculations,
it would have taken the
Germanstwo, three weeks, four weeks
at tops, to totally overrunBritish
and French positions
on the Western Front.
With Russian
internalsecurity and now the British
Secret Service
mistrusting his motives,
Rasputin's life is on the line.
But history records that itis
a member of the Romanov's
disgruntled inner
circle, who decides
to bring Rasputin's involvementin
Russia's affairs to an end.
Prince Yusupov is
the scion of one of the riches,
eldest families in Russia.
He is an Oxford educated fop.
People like Yusupov, oldschool,
top drawer aristocracy,
couldn't bear what
was happening.
Felix Yusupov certainly
saw Rasputin as an obstacle
toRussia's recovery in the war.
It was really that
crucial to him
that Rasputin be physicallyremoved
from the equation.
On December 16,1916,
Yusupov lures Rasputin
to a party at his palace
hereon the banks of the Moyka
Canal in St. Petersburg.
Knowing Rasputin's
weakness of women,
Yusupov has promised
theself-styled holy man a meeting
with his wife, Princesslrena,
a prominent society
beauty and the Tsar's niece.
In reality, the princess
is not even in the city.
The trap is set.
According to accounts
written by Yusupov,
Rasputin begins to
enjoy his hospitality.
But instead of Yusupov'swife,
hidden away upstairs
is a group of men.
Among them is
Vladimir Purishkevich,
a well-known politician,
and Dimitri Pavlovich,
a member of the imperial family.
Two other unidentified
men are also
among the guests in the palace.
Unknown to Rasputin,
these menare conspiring to kill him.
Yusupov offers
Rasputin some cakes.
But they are not
coated with sugar.
They are laced with
potassium cyanide.
He's supposed to
have eaten the poison
and not been affected.
It has since
beensuggested that the would be
assassins fed Rasputinpoison
which was out of date
and harmless.
According
toYusupov's version, when
the poison fails to
work, it's then decided
that there's no alternative.
He'll have to be shot.
At around
3:00 in the morning,
Yusupov makes the critical move.
Yusupov returns
tohis conspirators to report
that Rasputin is now dead.
But later,
when theprince checks on the body,
Rasputin suddenly revivesenough
to grab him by the neck.
Yelling for help,
Yusupov breaks free.
With seemingly
superhuman strength,
the holy man attempts
toescape across the courtyard.
Then from a distance,
one of the conspirators,
Purishkevich takes aim.
His shots hit Rasputin
in the back and his second shot,
according to his own account,
hit Rasputin in the
back of the head.
Finally, the gentleman assassins
have finished Rasputin off.
Wanting their victim
to disappear forever,
his corpse is thrown into theicy
waters of the nearby river.
But his body is
found, not far away,
near the Petrowski Bridge.
The police investigationinto
the murder is brief.
The Tsarina places Yusupov
under house arrest,
but the prince denies
all involvement.
Yusupov is never charged.
Rasputin is first buried,
then his body moved.
In transit, it disappears
andhas never been seen since,
leaving no physical evidence.
The prince and his
conspirators have
seemingly got away with murder.
This is the accepted storyof
Rasputin's final hours,
based on two of the
killer's recollections.
But Yusupov's is written11
years after the event.
Yusupov's account is essentially
modeled on a Gothic
horror story,
in particular,
the story ofthe beast that will not die.
The true extent of
thebrutality of Rasputin's murder
has only recently come to
lightin a long forgotten autopsy
report.
Stored deep in the
Russian archives
are a unique collection
of photographs
taken in the immediate
aftermath of the murder.
Unpublished at the time and
heldin storage for over 80 years,
they show the crime scene.
They show a courtyard withfresh
blood drops in the snow.
They show Rasputin'sfrozen
body in the minutes
after it is dragged
out of the river.
And they reveal in graphicdetail
Rasputin's autopsy.
Across his body arebruises
and bullet wounds,
one that appears
to have been fired
into the front of
Rasputin'shead from close range
and not from behind, as
the assassins claimed.
According to
Purishkevich and Yusupov
the head wound was to
the back of the head
and fired at a distance.
Leading forensic pathologist,
Professor Derrick Pounderhas
gone back to the archives
and studied the original
autopsy report of 1970.
When I first saw the
Rasputin photographs,
I was really surprised
that they existed.
There's a shot to the center
of Rasputin's forehead.
And this is a
typical coup de grace
shot, in other words,
the finalshot to finish someone off.
Purishkevich's
accounts and indeed
Yusupov's simply do not
add up once you actually
look at the autopsy evidence.
Professor Pounder decides
to reexamine the
physical evidence,
to establish if the
bullet was actually
fired from close range.
Purishkevich claims
to have killed
rescued with a Savage pistol.
This pistol fires the
samebullet, a 32 caliber round,
at the same velocity
as the assassin Savage.
An animal skin is set up
against a block of gel.
This is specially designed
tosimulate the physical density
of a human body.
An ultra high speed camera
willcapture the moment of impact.
We can tell the distance of shot
by the presence of the
soot and propellant.
The bullet is
fired from close range.
The round penetrates.
And if we
lookat the bullet hole, no soot
and propellant residue and justa
small, thin, black bullet
wipe at the very
margin of the wound.
Professor Pounder establishes
that the wound in rescuedautopsy photograph
is not from a long range shot.
It shows clearly
that the fatal shot was
actually fired from the front.
It was
firedat point blank range.
Effectively, the assassinwould have placed
the gun directly
between Rasputin's eyes
and pulled the trigger.
But there appears
tobe another crucial difference
thrown up by the photographs.
When we examined the forehead,
we see that it's a largerwound
than would be expected.
It's about half an
inch in diameter.
From thephotos, Professor Pounder
calculates thatRasputin's wound is bigger
than usually caused by
the point 32 caliber
pistol Purishkevich carried.
That then begs the
question, if it wasn't
a weapon fired byYusupov and Purishkevich,
what kind of weapon was it?
What kind of weapon
could it have been?
It's comparable to one produced
by 0.455, a Webley revolver.
The Webley revolver is a
Britisharmy design from about 1887.
At the time of the First WorldWar
when Rasputin was killed,
it was issued to most officers.
The British made Webley
fires large caliber andjacketed
rounds of solid lead.
The Savage pistol
fires a smaller caliber
jacketed rounds, where
the entire bullet
is encased in copper.
Unjacketed ammunition
was banned in 1907,
because when it hits the target,
instead of a clean entry,
the lead distorts
andreleases energy on impact,
causing more collateral
tissue and bone damage.
To make a comparison,
the scientists
test fire the Webley's leadround
from the same close range
that the fatal shot
was apparently fired.
When we compare thesetest
shots with the gunshot
wound to the center ofthe
forehead of Rasputin,
what we see is something
verysimilar to the Webley shot.
It appears that
notonly has the pistol not been
shot from long
range, but the wound
was not caused by the
smaller caliber pistols
carried by the assassins.
The forensic and
ballistics evidence
does not match the accountsby
Yusupov and Purishkevich.
It then begs the
question, if they didn't
fire the fatal shots, who did?
One theory isthat
Dimitri Pavlovich, one
of the conspirators, carried
a large caliber pistol
and so fired the fatal shot.
But Yusopov and Purishkevich
both testified that
Pavlovichhad left the building
before the incident occurred.
This is where the plot thickens.
Attention turns to the
two shadowy figures who
will also present that night.
Their identities have
never been established.
Evidence has come to lightthat
points directly to one
Oswald Raynor.
Rayner met Yusupov
while at Oxford
University seven years earlier.
Rayner in later life
actually confessed
to his family that he
had been present at the murder.
Further proof
of Rayner's involvement
in covert operations
is contained
in a memo between the
Britishintelligence chief in Russia
and one of Rayner's associatessoon
after Rasputin's body
is dredged up.
It reads, "Although matters
havenot proceeded entirely to plan,
our objective has
clearly been achieved."
It goes on to say that
"the demise of dark forces" --
a code name for Rasputin--"has
been well received by all,
although a few awkwardquestions
have already been
asked about wider involvement."
Rayner is attending
to loose ends.
But one of the Russian
assassins testifies
that the two unnamed men
are Russian soldiers.
We know that a
certain number of people
on the British intelligencemission
were actually wearing
and actually had issuedto
them Russian overcoats
and Russian uniforms.
British personnel were often
seen in Russian army outfits.
To me, evidence pointsvery
strongly to the fact
that there were at least
two British officers
present that evening.
Based on this theory, it
is now possible to retrace
theevents on that fateful night
in December 1916.
3:00 AM, the YusupovPalace,
Rasputin is shot.
The
conspiratorskick and beat him.
His hands are tied.
It's a horrible mess.
It's a case of we've
got to kill this person,
and we really don't know how.
They lay him down.
And if historian Andrew
Cook'sversion of events is correct,
the British agent OswaldRayner
stands over the body.
It's at that particularpoint
that a British officer
is literally forced
to take his revolver
and shoot Rasputin
at point blank range
to be absolutely
sure that he is dead.
Rayner makes no mistake.
The plot was motivated purely,
I believe, by the
fact that he was
centrally involved
in the initiative
to pull Russia out of the war.
British intelligence foundthat
the best way of removing
him would be to
actually have Russians
themselves being seen to be
thepeople who assassinated him.
Rasputin's murderers never meant
for his body to be discovered.
And it's nearly a century
laterthat new forensic evidence
reveals doubts over
the possible killer.
If the British intendedthat
Rasputin's death would
guarantee Russia remained
an ally
that plan succeeded.
But within a year
of his death, Russia
is plunged into a revolution.
And Rasputin's royal patrons,
Tsar Nicholas and his family,
are brutally executed as
thecommunist-led Bolsheviks seized
control.
It was the beginning of
therise of the Soviet Union
and the end of an
imperialdynasty, fatally weakened
by an infamous Siberian mystic.