Poisoned, shot and beaten: why cyanide alone may have failed to kill Rasputin

Theories around the death of Grigori Rasputin still abound 100 years after the event. We examine the scientific credibility of some of the claimsThe end of December marked the 100th anniversary ofthe death of Rasputin, the “mad monk of Russia”, or “lover of the Russian queen” if you believe theBoney M song, though you probably shouldn ’t. While the song is undoubtedly a floor-filler, unsurprisingly it is not exactly a reliable historical account of Rasputin’s life.Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, a mystic and spiritual healer born in Pokrovskoe in Siberia, wielded huge influence over the Russian royal family, particularly Alexandra, the Tsarina, who looked to the spiritual healer to cure her haemophiliac son, Alexei. The life of Rasputin was certainly pretty strange but it is the stories surrounding his death that are the strangest of all.Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - January 13, 2017 Category: Science Authors: Kathryn Harkup Tags: Chemistry Forensic science Source Type: news