Virginia Myths and Legends by Hines Emilee;

Author:Hines, Emilee;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4086371
Publisher: Globe Pequot

The mystery of Anna/Anastasia would have fallen into obscurity but for events that transpired a world away, back in Russia.

In Ekaterinburg, called Sverdlovsk during the Soviet period, Alexander Avdonin had been both fascinated and horrified by the execution of the royal family. Throughout his life he had visited the Ipatiev House, where the executions had taken place. He had talked to anyone who would tell him what they remembered about that terrible time. Then the writer and filmmaker Geli Ryabov came to Sverdlovsk to show a film about the Soviet militia and became intrigued with the events and the setting. In 1977 the two were introduced and joined forces to search for the royal family’s remains.

The government had just torn down the Ipatiev House, claiming that it was attracting secret tsarists. But Avdonin and Ryabov had an unexpected gift: The son of one of the executioners gave them a copy of his father’s report, describing what was done with the bodies and where they were dumped. He said it was his way of atoning for the “terrible thing.”

Avdonin and Ryabov found the site, dug down, and found three skulls. Realizing that it was still dangerous to pursue the truth about the Romanovs, they returned the skulls to the grave a year later, in 1980.

When the Communist government fell in 1989, the Soviet Union broke into separate countries, and the secrets of tsarist and Communist times were revealed. Ryabov went public with the news of their discovery, but it took two more years before a scientific expedition traveled to the site in 1991 and photographed it, observed by Russian officials.

Nine skulls and hundreds of bones were found in the grave, but there should have been eleven skulls, for the eight Romanovs had been killed along with three servants. DNA was taken from members of the British royal family, who were cousins of the Romanovs. There was no doubt that these were the Romanov remains. But the bones of the tsarevich and one of his sisters were missing. But which grand duchess? By superimposing photographs of the skulls onto photographs of the Romanovs, it was announced that Marie, not Anastasia, was the missing heiress. However, after further tests, forensic archaeologist William Maples announced in 1992 that Anastasia was the missing grand duchess.

Members of the British royal family declared categorically that Anna Manahan had been an imposter.

There ensued a lengthy series of lawsuits in Virginia over the tissue from Anna Manahan’s bowel. Finally, an attorney for Gleb Botkin secured the right to have the hospital release the tissue, and it was tested by two different labs. The conclusion: Anna was not a Romanov.

Rumors persisted that the hospital sample had been switched in transit, as it passed through many hands. Then another sample of Anna’s DNA was found. In a Chapel Hill, North Carolina, used book store, a customer bought a book for $100 that had belonged to John Manahan. Inside was an envelope labeled “Anna’s hair.” Follicles clung to the strands. The sample

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