Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky listener, Discretion is advised. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't have sex in the U. S s R.
Speaker 1: Those are the words that great visitors in bold block
Speaker 1: lettering upon arriving at the Museum of Love and Erotica
Speaker 1: in St. Petersburg. From the outside, the muse Arrows, as
Speaker 1: it's called, appears fairly innocuous. Muted reds and grays, long
Speaker 1: since faded by the sun paints the building's facade, blending
Speaker 1: into the equally faded asphalt of the parking lot it
Speaker 1: shares with the Shell gas station across the street. But
Speaker 1: once inside, the palid hues of the city give way
Speaker 1: to midnight blacks and electric pinks. Decor unapologetically flaunting sex
Speaker 1: and kink over every square inch of its curated studio space.
Speaker 1: Past the throne of dildos and gift shop laden with
Speaker 1: leather accessories, the museum offers exhibit after exhibit of artifacts
Speaker 1: dedicated to the exploration of sex and sexuality through history.
Speaker 1: Fertility statues stand proudly next to displays of vintage vibrators
Speaker 1: of I'll Say Dubious historical accuracy. But perhaps the most
Speaker 1: interesting piece in the entire space is sitting in a
Speaker 1: jar behind a pane of glass. It isn't dressed in
Speaker 1: the same jarring, neon or velvet allure in keeping with
Speaker 1: the rest of the exhibit, but then again, it doesn't
Speaker 1: need to. The pound of flesh bobbing inside the formal
Speaker 1: toa i'd filled jar speaks for itself. This artifact, of course,
Speaker 1: is the dismembered penis of one Gregory resputant. In the
Speaker 1: centuries since his death, the infamous Russian mystic has become
Speaker 1: more myth than man, though the latter is hard to
Speaker 1: ignore after catching a glimpse of the astonishing appendage on
Speaker 1: display at the museum. At least it would be astonishing
Speaker 1: if it were real. False reports involving the aforementioned phallus
Speaker 1: have been in circulation since the nineteen twenties, after a
Speaker 1: group of women in France claimed to have kept it
Speaker 1: in an ice box to take it out for use
Speaker 1: in certain fertility rituals. Others say that was just a
Speaker 1: sea cucumber, and the actual Genitalia resided with Maria, his daughter,
Speaker 1: until she sold it sometime in the seven knees. It's
Speaker 1: difficult to trace then what happened to the quote actual
Speaker 1: or quote false penis. But in the year two thousand
Speaker 1: a man would pay eight thousand dollars for something that
Speaker 1: claimed to be a resputants penis, and the man proudly stated,
Speaker 1: I am sure that it is real. Now there's a
Speaker 1: lot to unpack there, After all, who pays eight thousand
Speaker 1: dollars to only be sure they have the real deal?
Speaker 1: Or maybe it's worth taking a step back and asking
Speaker 1: the more glaring question of why would someone want to
Speaker 1: buy the penis in the first place. Unfortunately, or maybe
Speaker 1: fortunately actually, I do not have the answers to those questions.
Speaker 1: But here is one answer. If you were wondering whether
Speaker 1: the organ is real, I can tell you that at
Speaker 1: the time of resputants autopsy, his body was yes, riddled
Speaker 1: with bullet wounds and blunt force trauma, but otherwise fully intact,
Speaker 1: and the organ on display in the muse Arrows is,
Speaker 1: at least in this writer's estimation, probably from a non
Speaker 1: human animal with a size meant to shock audiences to
Speaker 1: increase the mythology of its alleged source. Fascinating and deeply
Speaker 1: compelling as the pickled mystery meat is. I think it's
Speaker 1: even more interesting to examine the actual human who is
Speaker 1: allegedly once attached to it when he was still alive.
Speaker 1: Resputant aroused distrust and scandal without having to say a word.
Speaker 1: One look at a photo of him with his long,
Speaker 1: greasy black hair and his gaunt, deep set eyes provide
Speaker 1: all the reason as to why, over a hundred years later,
Speaker 1: his image is still deeply unsettling the story of his
Speaker 1: life is infamously debaucherous. Even today, his name is synonymous
Speaker 1: with villain in our cultural psyche. Though perhaps it's all
Speaker 1: too common for stories to be lost to be consolidated
Speaker 1: over time, the mad Monk's legend defies historical precedent. Instead
Speaker 1: of being lost or diminished, histories are inexplicably being added,
Speaker 1: like Jenga pieces stolen from the base of a teetering
Speaker 1: tower that refuses to fall. So why is it that
Speaker 1: museum's boast to have his most prized possession, even though
Speaker 1: it is most certainly not real, And why has Risputant
Speaker 1: as a myth persisted as a cultural phenomenon while the
Speaker 1: man himself has really slipped into shadows. The answer is
Speaker 1: a fact Resputin himself knew entirely too well. As long
Speaker 1: as people want to believe something is real, the truth
Speaker 1: can afford to be subjective. I'm Danis Schwartz, and this
Speaker 1: is noble blood. When Google searches of Resputant turn up
Speaker 1: picture after picture of greasy beards, wild eyes, and political
Speaker 1: cartoons illustrating sexual acts with Russian monarchs, it's sometimes hard
Speaker 1: to remember that long before any of that, he was
Speaker 1: just Gregory Alfamovitch Rasputin, a young man from a small
Speaker 1: village in Siberia, born in eighteen sixty nine. He married
Speaker 1: young at eighteen and fathered seven children, though only three
Speaker 1: made it to adulthood. But such was life in late
Speaker 1: nineteenth century Siberia. Childhood mortality rates were high, access to
Speaker 1: basic education was practically non existent, and the Russian idea
Speaker 1: of Sogda or God's will, was the guiding force for
Speaker 1: the majority of the peas and population. There is very
Speaker 1: little known about the exact details of our Sputent's early life,
Speaker 1: most of which come to us via a biography written
Speaker 1: by his daughter Maria long after he had passed. It's
Speaker 1: safe to say that this biography might have some historical inaccuracies.
Speaker 1: Early on, she claims that a comment tore through the
Speaker 1: sky on the night of Resputant's birth, when in reality
Speaker 1: we know there's no recorded comment passing in Earth's view
Speaker 1: that entire year. But we do know the one aspect
Speaker 1: of his adulthood that would shape the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: When Rasputin was twenty eight years old, he took a
Speaker 1: trip to a Siberian monastery and returned as a strunk
Speaker 1: or religious pilgrim, ready to share all that he had
Speaker 1: learned on his travels and spread the word of God.
Speaker 1: According to accounts from his closest acquaintances, his intentions began
Speaker 1: honestly enough, but that didn't mean that he practiced quiet
Speaker 1: lee quite the opposite. In fact, he immediately garnered attention
Speaker 1: from other villagers with his peculiar ways. He stopped eating
Speaker 1: meat and drinking alcohol, But his most unusual affectation was
Speaker 1: the way he performed during his services. With crazy glances
Speaker 1: and grimaces, he became impossible to ignore, and fairly quickly
Speaker 1: his strange confidence and charisma led to followers. After that
Speaker 1: initial pilgrimage, where Sputent didn't stay home for long, he
Speaker 1: continued traveling across the continent, going so far as Greece,
Speaker 1: but never failing to make his way back to Russia.
Speaker 1: But the more that he traveled, the less it seemed
Speaker 1: that Russia wanted him back. People were becoming more skeptical
Speaker 1: of the uncomp poly man roaming their streets, especially since
Speaker 1: a large portion of his disciples were women, which have
Speaker 1: been so bad if he didn't openly kiss them in public.
Speaker 1: So that was troubling, as were the vague allegations of
Speaker 1: sexual assaults that tended to follow in the wake of
Speaker 1: his travels. Even before Gregory had married, he had amassed
Speaker 1: quite the reputation as a young ladies man, so you
Speaker 1: can imagine the type of power dynamic at play when
Speaker 1: Respute and found himself in a position where people not
Speaker 1: only listen to what he had to say, but respected him,
Speaker 1: praised him, reciput and found a way to exploit his
Speaker 1: power for personal gain. In one instance, when a woman
Speaker 1: came to him distraught after a sexual encounter between the
Speaker 1: two of them that she had felt coerced into, he
Speaker 1: simply replied that quote, there was no sin in what
Speaker 1: they had done. They had simply been celebrating the Holy Trinity.
Speaker 1: Another report accounts the two sisters, aged fifteen and tw empty,
Speaker 1: were manipulated into sexual acts with the man after being
Speaker 1: lured into a bath house. When their mother confronted Respute
Speaker 1: and seething with anger, he merely looked at her calmly
Speaker 1: and said, quote, now you may feel at peace. The
Speaker 1: day of salvation has dawned for your daughters. In Resputant's mind,
Speaker 1: or at least the way he spun his religious teachings
Speaker 1: to his followers, opening oneself to the possibility of sexual encounters,
Speaker 1: i e. Stripping in bath houses was a way to
Speaker 1: prove to God that they were able to resist temptations
Speaker 1: of the flesh, and sometimes those trips did end in abstinence.
Speaker 1: Temptations resisted, but only sometimes. For his part, Resputent did
Speaker 1: openly admit to being a sinner, explaining that while he
Speaker 1: did try to resist sin, he was ultimately exempt from
Speaker 1: judgment because he was quote a man of God, succumbing
Speaker 1: to these sins while in his serve us. Now, I
Speaker 1: am of the belief that if something looks like a
Speaker 1: duck and quacks like a duck, then it's most likely
Speaker 1: a sexual predator, and that Rasputin was using the religious
Speaker 1: rhetoric of confronting temptations as a way to exploit vulnerable women. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: at the time, his exploits were seen as merely salacious
Speaker 1: Monks will be monks. But as gossip around his personal
Speaker 1: life spread, so did rumors of his abilities as a mystic.
Speaker 1: One night, the Virgin Mary supposedly came to him crying,
Speaker 1: tears streaming down her face as she told him to quote,
Speaker 1: go wander and cleanse the people of their sins. Resput
Speaker 1: and believed that he had been chosen by God, and
Speaker 1: he made it his job to let everyone know. For
Speaker 1: however creepy and manipulative this man was, he was also
Speaker 1: smarter than most people gave him credit for. He was
Speaker 1: expert at the long con planting seeds of gossip that
Speaker 1: would flower exactly when he needed them to. His actions
Speaker 1: seemed erratic at times, but every move was calculated to
Speaker 1: cultivate this man of God persona which he was honestly
Speaker 1: probably narcissistic enough to believe was true. But at the time,
Speaker 1: especially in more elite social circles, people took him pretty
Speaker 1: plainly at face value. He was a peasant, most likely
Speaker 1: simple minded, and he therefore posed very little threat. So
Speaker 1: what if he had a reputation as a philanderer. Surely
Speaker 1: only the week fell for such ploys. Right before we
Speaker 1: go any further into respute and story, I'd like us
Speaker 1: to pivot for a moment towards St. Petersburg. Behind the
Speaker 1: waves of civil unrest and political turmoil, the Romanov's sat
Speaker 1: comfortably inside the walls of Alexander Palace, confident in their
Speaker 1: nearly three hundred year old dynasty, and they're obviously God
Speaker 1: given authority to rule. At least if they told themselves
Speaker 1: that enough times, maybe it would finally become reality. In truth,
Speaker 1: the royal family it was harboring a possibly dynasty ending secret.
Speaker 1: The Tsarovitch was sick. Alexey, the fifth child but only
Speaker 1: son of Zar Nicholas and the Zarina Alexandra Fedorovna, had
Speaker 1: been diagnosed with hemophilia, a rare blood disorder that inhibits
Speaker 1: blood from clotting, normally subjecting its victims to possibly fatal
Speaker 1: internal bleeding at the drop of a hat. The Czar
Speaker 1: and Zarina were understandably distraught concerning the health of their son,
Speaker 1: though his illness posed a greater threat to the Russian
Speaker 1: monarchy as a whole. Alexei was their only son, and
Speaker 1: if you remember our past episode on Paul the First
Speaker 1: of Russia, his grudge match against his mother, Catherine the
Speaker 1: Great still persisted into the twentieth century in the form
Speaker 1: of a law that only sons could inherit the Russian throne.
Speaker 1: The Czar and Czarina had desperately waited for a son.
Speaker 1: With each pregnancy their hopes were a nude, and with
Speaker 1: each daughter, their hopes were dashed four times in a row, Girl, girl, girl, girl.
Speaker 1: The Zarina Alexandra had been so desperate for a son
Speaker 1: that she had turned to the church and mysticism for help.
Speaker 1: The originally of German descent, Alexandra converted to Russian Orthodox
Speaker 1: Christianity upon her engagement to Nicholas, and she adopted the
Speaker 1: practice wholeheartedly into her life. It's easy to laugh at
Speaker 1: the idea of mysticism now, but in the turn of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century in Russia it was not an common practice,
Speaker 1: especially amongst the aristocracy. People craved excitement, anything to break
Speaker 1: up the monotony of their day to day lives. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about the way wealthy people today talk about moon
Speaker 1: juice and alkalies, lemon water and healing crystals. But at
Speaker 1: that time, for those inside the palace walls, mysticism had
Speaker 1: genuine credence. One of the crown's closest religious advisors would
Speaker 1: tell the Tsar, God sends consolation to his people from
Speaker 1: time to time in the guise of righteous men, and
Speaker 1: they are the mainstays of Holy Russia. Considering that the
Speaker 1: Czar and Czarina truly believed that they had been chosen
Speaker 1: by God to rule the people of Russia, their belief
Speaker 1: in mysticism compounded. God had chosen them, so obviously he
Speaker 1: had chosen these mystics to carry out his work as well.
Speaker 1: So after one mystic claimed to be able to influence
Speaker 1: the gender of a child during pregnancy, and then the
Speaker 1: Sarina gave birth to a son, the practice of mysticism
Speaker 1: came to be consulted on all matters of everyday life,
Speaker 1: and that man, not resputing yet just some other random guy,
Speaker 1: became a mainstay at court. After the diagnosis of her son,
Speaker 1: Alexandra sought the help of that mystic more desperate to
Speaker 1: alleviate her son's suffering. But over time members of the
Speaker 1: court began to grow skeptical of that religious advisor whispering
Speaker 1: in the Queen's ear. After a considerable amount of pressure
Speaker 1: from his staff, Czar Nicholas was forced to send Alexandra's
Speaker 1: beloved mystic away. But before the mystic left, he foretold
Speaker 1: one final prophecy quote, Someday you will have another friend
Speaker 1: like me who will speak to you of God. The
Speaker 1: dust had barely settled on that mystic being fired before
Speaker 1: Resputin was suddenly knocking on the palace door, well metaphorically knocking.
Speaker 1: Resputin knew that the road to power ended on the
Speaker 1: roman Off doorstep, but he also recognized how nearly impossible
Speaker 1: it was going to be for him to get there.
Speaker 1: After all, he was a peasant with no connections to
Speaker 1: the capital and only a questionable reputation to his name,
Speaker 1: But he wouldn't let that stop him by virtue of
Speaker 1: his chosen profession. By nineteen o five, Resputin had become
Speaker 1: an expert in finding spaces for himself in social circles
Speaker 1: where none had existed before. He was a social climbing assassin,
Speaker 1: using people and then burning bridges like he needed the
Speaker 1: tinder to keep warm, And maybe he did, but that
Speaker 1: didn't mean the flames would never catch up to him,
Speaker 1: as it were. In nineteen o five, Resputin found himself
Speaker 1: in St. Petersburg in the company of three of the
Speaker 1: Czar's closest acquaintances. Years of travel and power grabbing all
Speaker 1: came down to one t on an innocuous autumn afternoon.
Speaker 1: So what did the Siberian peasant do to woo the
Speaker 1: god divined rulers of Russia? Absolutely nothing, or rather, he
Speaker 1: made the nobles feel as though they were nothing, certainly
Speaker 1: no more important than any of the peasants that he
Speaker 1: often met on the street. He used the informal Russian
Speaker 1: you pronoun that used for friends and family instead of
Speaker 1: the respectful you reserved for elders and people of higher birth,
Speaker 1: and when Rasputin met the Tsar and Szarina, he addressed
Speaker 1: them as Batushka and Matushka, or little father and little mother,
Speaker 1: which was the common name the peasant class took to
Speaker 1: calling the royal couple, and infuriatingly enough, they ate it up.
Speaker 1: Nicholas and Alexandra hated all the pomp and circumstance that
Speaker 1: typically followed them as Russian monarchs, so when Resputin who
Speaker 1: had been waiting years for this very encounter, showed them
Speaker 1: the same ambivalence he showed say soap. The royal couple
Speaker 1: was immediately smitten. After years without a quote unquote man
Speaker 1: of God at her side, the Czarena remembered the parting
Speaker 1: words of her last trusted religious adviser, some day you
Speaker 1: will have another friend like me who will speak to
Speaker 1: you of God. And as she watched with wide eyes
Speaker 1: and bated breath, while the mysterious holy Man stood over
Speaker 1: her son and her son's muscles finally unclenched after days
Speaker 1: of restlessness, there was no doubt in her mind her
Speaker 1: friend had arrived. News of resputants present in the palace
Speaker 1: quickly made the rounds in Saint Petersburg. Unsurprisingly, people were
Speaker 1: skeptical of the unkempt, self proclaimed spiritual healer who spent
Speaker 1: so much of his time around the royal family. His
Speaker 1: infamous reputation as a sexual predator had followed him on
Speaker 1: his travels to the capital, and yet the Czar and
Speaker 1: Czarina kept him in their inner circle, unwilling to listen
Speaker 1: to anyone who disparaged their newfound friend. Worse yet, the
Speaker 1: rumors were beginning to fester. After all, what exactly was
Speaker 1: he doing with the royal family? They had five children,
Speaker 1: four of them young girls. Someone with a past like
Speaker 1: his shouldn't the Czar and Czarina be more concerned. For
Speaker 1: once peasants and nobles were in agreement, respute and needed
Speaker 1: to go. He was not known for his reticence in
Speaker 1: sharing political opinions, and the last thing that anyone wanted
Speaker 1: was for resput and notorious sex fiend parading around as
Speaker 1: a religious holy man to have influence over the Russian government.
Speaker 1: Public outcry trickled its way into the palace, but would
Speaker 1: be destined to fall on deaf ears. For the Zarina,
Speaker 1: Resputant's place in the palace was indisputable. His prayers were
Speaker 1: keeping her son alive. Alexey's hemophilia was still a state secret,
Speaker 1: one that the Crown couldn't afford to get out for
Speaker 1: fear that their god given right to rule would crumble
Speaker 1: under the ailment of the crown prince. After all, if
Speaker 1: God had chosen them, why wouldn't he have given them
Speaker 1: a healthy air. Their silence would ultimately only add more
Speaker 1: fuel to the fire of rumors swirling around the city
Speaker 1: before long, speculation as to the nature of Resputen and
Speaker 1: the Zarina's relationship was being called into question, especially after
Speaker 1: correspondence between the two was leaked to the press. Quote
Speaker 1: I know that much of what I do and think
Speaker 1: is not good. I want to be a good Christian,
Speaker 1: a good person, but it is so hard, Alexandra had
Speaker 1: written in a private letter to the monk. Quote so
Speaker 1: often I have to fight bad habits. But help me,
Speaker 1: don't abandon me. I am weak and not good. End quote. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: all of the bridges Resputant had burned to reach the
Speaker 1: Romanovs had their flames, threatening to burn down the entire palace.
Speaker 1: Even beyond the basic accusations of infidelity, other more disturbing
Speaker 1: allegations were coming to the forefront. People were beginning to
Speaker 1: question the paternity of the Tsarevich himself, with others accusing
Speaker 1: the mad monk of sexually assaulting the young Romanov daughters,
Speaker 1: even possibly getting one pregnant. Before long, the entire country
Speaker 1: was alight with conspiracy, conspiracy that would carry on for
Speaker 1: far longer than one lifetime. Bony M's now iconic lyric
Speaker 1: rah Rah Rasputine, lover of the Russian Queen is, no
Speaker 1: doubt a clever couplet, but it's evidence is placed on
Speaker 1: faulty ground. The Zarina may have had her faults, but
Speaker 1: if she was anything, it was a devout Christian and
Speaker 1: loyal wife. And in addition to keeping her son's illness
Speaker 1: out of the public eye, she also suffered from chronic pain.
Speaker 1: In secret. After five difficult pregnancies, her body had taken
Speaker 1: a fair amount of abuse, leaving her with sciatica that
Speaker 1: would sometimes keep her bedbound for days. She was not
Speaker 1: in a condition to be carrying on an illicit love affair,
Speaker 1: even if she wanted to, which, based on her character,
Speaker 1: I don't think she did. But of course, once again,
Speaker 1: the truth didn't matter. Before the rumors could have just
Speaker 1: been dismissed. But after personal letters surfaced and were proven
Speaker 1: legitimate by the star himself, the crown was looking as
Speaker 1: unstable as ever. The people thought that the infidelity rumors
Speaker 1: were true, and the Zarina was furious. The question remained,
Speaker 1: who had leaked the letters? How did this happen? The
Speaker 1: obvious answer lies with the recipient, But Resputin was a
Speaker 1: trusted friend, Surely he never would have done such a thing.
Speaker 1: It should come as no surprise that no one was
Speaker 1: a bigger fan of Resputen than Resputen. So when the
Speaker 1: Czarina herself began sending him not just letters but personal confessions,
Speaker 1: he couldn't keep them to himself. Years earlier, an acquaintance
Speaker 1: of Resputants had found himself inside the monks St. Petersburg
Speaker 1: apartment where Resputin was showing off his personal letters from
Speaker 1: the Czarina. He was boasting about his status as one
Speaker 1: of her closest spiritual advisors. The acquaintance smiled and nodded,
Speaker 1: acting impressed when he was called to do so, but
Speaker 1: in the back of his mind he was taking notes.
Speaker 1: Perhaps he asked to see the letters up close. Fast
Speaker 1: forward three years, and the Czarina's letters were being printed
Speaker 1: and dissected by every major news outlet around the world.
Speaker 1: Rasputin attempted to do some damage control, but Alexandra would
Speaker 1: no longer permit him inside the palace walls. After years
Speaker 1: of begging, the Czarina was finally taking the advice of
Speaker 1: nearly every one of her advisors, and she sent Rasputin packing.
Speaker 1: After all, her son hadn't had a severe attack in years.
Speaker 1: There was no immediate need for resputant services. So that autumn,
Speaker 1: on a family vacation to their hunting lunch, nobody thought
Speaker 1: twice when their carriage took an unusually hard bump in
Speaker 1: the road. That was until the young Tsarevich could no
Speaker 1: longer contain his screams. After what seemed like no time
Speaker 1: at all, Alexei went from playing on the hounds to
Speaker 1: crying helplessly in agony. On his deathbed, Nicholas and Alexandra
Speaker 1: were beside themselves. Their family vacation had turned into their
Speaker 1: worst nightmare. Their son lay pale and incoherent, while his
Speaker 1: leg and hip swelled with blood. He was in pain,
Speaker 1: so agonizing that the staff took to putting cotton in
Speaker 1: their ears to deafen his blood curdling screams. The doctors
Speaker 1: worked on him tirelessly, but the Crown Prince showed no
Speaker 1: signs of improvement. When Alexey was finally read his last rites,
Speaker 1: the Czarina could no longer sit and watch helplessly as
Speaker 1: her one and only son slipped away painfully into the night.
Speaker 1: Rising from her son's bedside, Alexandra used what little energy
Speaker 1: she had to compose a telegram to Gregory Rasputin asking him,
Speaker 1: begging him to help save her son. When resput And
Speaker 1: received word of the young boy's condition, he was remarkably unbothered.
Speaker 1: The doctors had told the royal couple their son would
Speaker 1: be dead by mourning, but the mystic simply scoffed. God
Speaker 1: has seen your tears and heard your prayers, He assured
Speaker 1: the queen. The little one will not die. Do not
Speaker 1: allow the doctors to bother him too much. Upon receiving word,
Speaker 1: Alexandra immediately relaxed. She walked back to her son's bedside
Speaker 1: with renewed vigor, announcing to the others holding vigil that
Speaker 1: during the night, I received a telegram from Father Gregory,
Speaker 1: and he has reassured me completely and miraculously, Despite quite
Speaker 1: literally being on the brink of death, Alexei recovered within days,
Speaker 1: His fever broke, the swelling began to receive, and his
Speaker 1: appetite returned. It was a miracle, one that seemingly only
Speaker 1: took place under resputants command. None of it made any sense,
Speaker 1: and yet it didn't have to. All that mattered was
Speaker 1: that Theisarevich was alive and the monarchy was safe for
Speaker 1: another day. Over a century later, Alexei's recovery remains a
Speaker 1: mystery to historians, but of course there are several theories.
Speaker 1: The first and probably most likely has everything to do
Speaker 1: with the final words of resputants telegram to Alexandra, do
Speaker 1: not allow the doctors to bother him too much. To
Speaker 1: this day, there is still no cure for hemophilia, but
Speaker 1: given the advancements in medical knowledge, we are now certainly
Speaker 1: aware of how not to treat the disease. Rule number one,
Speaker 1: don't give the patient blood thinners. Unfortunately, for Alexei, aspirin
Speaker 1: seemed to be the royal doctor's drug of choice. The
Speaker 1: new at the time miracle drug, now widely known as
Speaker 1: a blood thinner, seemed to be a cure for so
Speaker 1: many common ailments, so why not try it against the
Speaker 1: well rare blood disorder that prevents blood from plotting. But
Speaker 1: in any case, Resputent's intervention against the doctors could have
Speaker 1: possibly saved Alexei's life. Ironically, the best sort of treatment
Speaker 1: the boy could have received at the time was time
Speaker 1: time without doctor's force feeding him blood thinners and poking
Speaker 1: and prodding at his already bleeding body. But others are
Speaker 1: more skeptical that Resputent was involved at all in the
Speaker 1: young boys treatment plan. The timeline of events that led
Speaker 1: to Alexei's recovery is sketchy at best. At what point
Speaker 1: exactly did Alexandra send that telegram, how quickly did respute
Speaker 1: and respond? It's widely understood that contacting Resputent had been
Speaker 1: the Czarina's absolute final option, with the last rites having
Speaker 1: already been and to her son. After a certain point,
Speaker 1: the doctors would have most likely stopped treating the boy
Speaker 1: to let him pass on in peace. Resputant's words could
Speaker 1: have reached the hunting lodge while Alexei was already on
Speaker 1: the mend. But once again the truth didn't matter. The
Speaker 1: Czarina believed Resputin had been sent by God to save
Speaker 1: her son, and any previous grudge she may have held
Speaker 1: against the man meant nothing so long as her son
Speaker 1: was safe. Without even being on the same side of
Speaker 1: the country, Resputin had once again managed to make his
Speaker 1: way back inside the Royal Palace. The start of the
Speaker 1: new year brought with it the three hundred year anniversary
Speaker 1: of Romanov rule in Russia, a legacy that great came
Speaker 1: with a mounting pressure. Nicholas was beginning to feel in
Speaker 1: his bones. Ever since the nineteen oh five revolution, when
Speaker 1: his power as Supreme Autocrat had been strict with the
Speaker 1: founding of the Russian legislative body known as Duma, he
Speaker 1: had never been able to shake the shadow of revolution
Speaker 1: that he felt breathing down his neck. He was the
Speaker 1: Czar of Russia, wasn't he? Duma be damned? He was
Speaker 1: a Romanov and the Romanovs had been chosen by God
Speaker 1: to rule the mighty nation of Russia, come hell or
Speaker 1: high water. So how would he strive to prove himself
Speaker 1: as a competent ruler by going to war, of course,
Speaker 1: or rather by sending thousands of young men to go
Speaker 1: off to war for him. Unlike the majority of Russian aristocrats,
Speaker 1: Resputin was actually staunchly against Russia going to war. He
Speaker 1: didn't need to be able to see the future to
Speaker 1: know that war would mean the deaths of thousands of
Speaker 1: young Russian men, primarily peasants like himself, not aristocrats. Resputin
Speaker 1: was quoted as saying, quote, We're already the biggest country
Speaker 1: in the world. Why do we need more real estate?
Speaker 1: But try as he might, Resputent's effort went unheard. Luckily
Speaker 1: for him, vodka proved to be a great listener. With
Speaker 1: war on the horizon and feeling his influence waning, he
Speaker 1: wasted no time in drowning his sorrows and drowning his
Speaker 1: decade plus of sobriety. After an assassination attempt in his
Speaker 1: hometown left him bedbound as he healed, Waking up one
Speaker 1: morning to the newspaper reporting Germany's declaration of war against
Speaker 1: Russia was enough to make him want to curl up
Speaker 1: at the bottom of a bottle. Resputants dependence on alcohol
Speaker 1: would follow him for the rest of his life. From
Speaker 1: this point on, he rarely ever attended events sober, only
Speaker 1: pulling himself together enough for the royal couple not to
Speaker 1: suspect that something was seriously wrong. So when Alexandra ordered
Speaker 1: the monk to embark on a trip to Moscow in
Speaker 1: a desperate attempt to bolster his reputation into something salvageable,
Speaker 1: she couldn't have known that this trip would lead to
Speaker 1: one of the most infamous nights of Resputant's life. On
Speaker 1: the evening of March twenty six, nineteen fifteen, Resputin went
Speaker 1: to an establishment called the Yard in Moscow to partake
Speaker 1: in their typical nighttime festivities. Never one to be unprepared,
Speaker 1: Resputin arrived having already down half of his body weight
Speaker 1: in vodka, and he promptly ordered more. Upon his arrival,
Speaker 1: other patrons of the r began to take notice of
Speaker 1: the oddily dressed, boisterous man in the corner. The patrons
Speaker 1: held their hands up to their mouths in shock when
Speaker 1: the man started to grab at more than a few
Speaker 1: of the performers, and then Resputant stood and started off
Speaker 1: on an alcohol fuel tirade for the benefit of the
Speaker 1: entire establishment. According to witnesses, the unhinged monk became quote
Speaker 1: sexually psychopathic, alluding to his legendary fallis, and rumored in
Speaker 1: decent relationship with a zarina. He referred to her as
Speaker 1: quote the old girl, and proceeded to detail his control
Speaker 1: over her, eliciting even more disgusted from the crowd. Finally,
Speaker 1: when one patron dared him to prove that he was
Speaker 1: the real resputent, he did the only thing a man
Speaker 1: like Resputent would think to do. He dropped his pants
Speaker 1: and waived his member at the crowd. It's legendary size
Speaker 1: apparently all the identification needed. After that, the police were
Speaker 1: called and Resputent was led away quote snarling and vowing vengeance. Today,
Speaker 1: Resputent's night at the yard is debated wildly amongst historians.
Speaker 1: Some say there are no police reports from that night
Speaker 1: that would suggest Resputent was even at the r in
Speaker 1: the first place. Meanwhile, others say that there were too
Speaker 1: many reputable witnesses to have the story be anything but true.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, the truth behind the actual events of
Speaker 1: that night are of little importance. What mattered, what still
Speaker 1: matters in resputen story is that people believed it was true,
Speaker 1: and so it was, which leads us to one of
Speaker 1: the most notorious myths in the Resputent canon, the prophecy.
Speaker 1: In the months leading up to his death, Resputen had
Speaker 1: rightly so begun to grow increasingly paranoid about his demise.
Speaker 1: He took on an extremely fatalistic view on life, often
Speaker 1: recounting his knowledge that the end for him was near.
Speaker 1: But according to legend, in the weeks before his death,
Speaker 1: Resputen wrote a letter to the royals describing what would
Speaker 1: be known as his quote final prophecy. Russians are, he began,
Speaker 1: I have a presentiment that I shall leave this world
Speaker 1: before the first of January. If I am killed, not
Speaker 1: one member of your family will survive more than two years.
Speaker 1: The tragic demise of the Romanovs and the Russian monarchy
Speaker 1: has been the subject of fascination and speculation for over
Speaker 1: a hundred years, and this letter remains one of the
Speaker 1: most infamous relics of the past. And while this letter
Speaker 1: does seem like exactly the type of manipulation Resputent would
Speaker 1: pull to try to solidify his place within the royal fold,
Speaker 1: it really is just another tally on the ever growing
Speaker 1: list of false rumors associated with the infamous mad Monk.
Speaker 1: The letter itself is really the prophecies undoing. It's the
Speaker 1: diction that really disproves the letters authenticity. It begins by
Speaker 1: addressing Nicholas as Russians are, which, as we stated earlier,
Speaker 1: was just not how Resputent spoke. He rarely, if ever,
Speaker 1: used terms of authority with royals, and he continued to
Speaker 1: call the Czarina and Czar little mother and little father
Speaker 1: until his death. The prophecy, like so many other parts
Speaker 1: of the resput and myth, is something that people love
Speaker 1: to hold onto In this case, maybe because it's a
Speaker 1: detail that makes the Romanov killings next all the more
Speaker 1: tragic and romantic. On the night of December six, nineteen sixteen,
Speaker 1: Resputin was invited to the home of a man named
Speaker 1: Felix Yusupo for an evening of dinner and drinks. When
Speaker 1: Resputin arrived, you suppose and his two compatriots greeted their
Speaker 1: new companion with warm smiles and casual conversation. But beneath
Speaker 1: the thin veneer of pleasantries, a more sinister plot was
Speaker 1: already brewing. The young Russian prince Felix Yusupov had been
Speaker 1: orchestrating a plan for weeks, carefully crafting timetables and alibis
Speaker 1: in preparation for what was sure to be his crowning achievement,
Speaker 1: ridding Russia of the religious fraud Gregory Rasputin. Yusupov was
Speaker 1: not necessarily how one would imagine a murderer, for one,
Speaker 1: he had never before committed a serious crime, let alone homicide.
Speaker 1: But ever, the idealist Yusupov had watched from afar as
Speaker 1: respute and whispered into the ear of the Czarina, and
Speaker 1: he became increasingly infuriated with his position in court. Why
Speaker 1: should this peasant have such sway over the most important
Speaker 1: political decisions in Russia. In his mind, Rasputin needed to
Speaker 1: be taken out of the equation, and he wanted to
Speaker 1: be the one to do it. Originally, Yusupov went to
Speaker 1: the President of the Duma to collaborate on the assassination attempt,
Speaker 1: pleading quote, if the Emperor were freed of the influence
Speaker 1: of Resputin and his wife, everything would change. He would
Speaker 1: be a good constitutional monarch. Unfortunately for him, the President
Speaker 1: would hear nothing of it. Quote do you think I
Speaker 1: keep office for assassins? He blustered in truth. As much
Speaker 1: as the Duma hated Respute and killing him would not
Speaker 1: have been beneficial to their cause. It was obvious that
Speaker 1: the end of the monarchy was near, and when it
Speaker 1: finally fell, the Duma was trying to establish a democratic
Speaker 1: government that would rise in its place, where Sputent's influence
Speaker 1: over the Romanovs was making them tremendously unpopular and only
Speaker 1: helping bring down the monarchy quicker. Why would the Duma
Speaker 1: want to help kill a man who was making their
Speaker 1: job easier and so Prince Felix Yusupov, a man with
Speaker 1: the criminal rap sheet of a pacifier, was left to
Speaker 1: orchestrate the assassination of the most notorious villain in all
Speaker 1: of Russia alone. I think it's important to note that
Speaker 1: the events that occurred next will always remain something of
Speaker 1: a mystery. After all, we only hear the version told
Speaker 1: from the point of view of the murderer. A I've
Speaker 1: said on this podcast many times before. History is told
Speaker 1: by the victors, and the night of December sixteenth, nineteen
Speaker 1: sixteen is no exception. Around eleven p m. Respute and
Speaker 1: arrived at Yusopope's home, where he was promptly led down
Speaker 1: into the basement to wait for Yusopope's wife to join them.
Speaker 1: While they waited, Felix offered respute and refreshment. Small cakes
Speaker 1: and glasses of wine were pushed in Gregory's face, which,
Speaker 1: after an initial hesitation, he indulged in thoroughly. Yusupov watched
Speaker 1: him with a mixture of horror and fascination, the memory
Speaker 1: of having crushed cyanide capsules between his fingertips still fresh
Speaker 1: in his mind as he waited for the man to
Speaker 1: succumb to the poison. Slowly resputant's eyes began to droop.
Speaker 1: He brought his hand to his throat, almost distractedly, like
Speaker 1: he was fighting off an itch. He couldn't scratch. But
Speaker 1: after an hour he still sat drinking his poisoned wine,
Speaker 1: completely awake and very much alive. By one in the morning,
Speaker 1: you Suppov was livid, having had to entertain the man
Speaker 1: he was trying to kill for over two hours. Excusing himself,
Speaker 1: You Suppov ascended from the basement to reconvene with his
Speaker 1: co conspirators. This wasn't how the night was supposed to go.
Speaker 1: The poison was supposed to allow them time to dispose
Speaker 1: of the body cleanly, to cover their tracks with minimal risk.
Speaker 1: Now it was obvious they would have to use a
Speaker 1: more sure fire method. When you Suppose returned, it was
Speaker 1: with a revolver behind his back. Taking a deep breath,
Speaker 1: he told the monk, Gregory Alfmovich, you'd best come look
Speaker 1: at that crucifix and say a prayer before it. He
Speaker 1: brought the gun out from behind him and pointed the
Speaker 1: barrel at the other man, and after a moment's hesitation,
Speaker 1: he fired a bullet into Resputeen's chest, a meat itly
Speaker 1: Resputent fell to the floor, and upon hearing the shot,
Speaker 1: Usupov's compatriots came down to inspect the body. As the
Speaker 1: blood began to spread, the men dragged Resputent's body across
Speaker 1: the floor to avoid God forbid, staining the bear skin rug,
Speaker 1: and then they took the jacket off of his back.
Speaker 1: Although the first part of their plan had gone slightly
Speaker 1: off the rails, the second phase was being put into play.
Speaker 1: Another of the men dressed in Resputent's coat and drove
Speaker 1: away from the palace to make it look like Gregory
Speaker 1: left of his own volition, while the man imposing as
Speaker 1: Resputen made his swift getaway. The rest of the men
Speaker 1: left the basement and hung about the house waiting for
Speaker 1: their next move, But Yusopov couldn't sit still. For some
Speaker 1: inexplicable reason, he felt the need to check the body.
Speaker 1: When his feet found their way back to the scene
Speaker 1: of the crime, he took a small breath of relief.
Speaker 1: The body was just as they had left it. But
Speaker 1: then the figure on the ground began to move with
Speaker 1: blood leaking from his mouth. Resputant opened his eyes, greenish
Speaker 1: and snakelike. According to the Prince, and stared him down
Speaker 1: with an expression of satanic hatred. Felix Resputant croaked, blood
Speaker 1: flying from his mouth with every forced syllable. Yusupov ran
Speaker 1: to warn the others, but when he came back down,
Speaker 1: Resputin was gone. He had walked out the door and
Speaker 1: into the snow, heading towards the side courtyard. The Prince
Speaker 1: followed after him, his accomplices and tow As they followed
Speaker 1: the bleeding peasant past the iron gates, one of the
Speaker 1: men shot once twice, but they both missed, until the
Speaker 1: third finally found a home in Resputant's back, causing the
Speaker 1: man to once again collapse to the ground. Upon approaching
Speaker 1: the body, a fourth and final bullet was fired, this
Speaker 1: time between his eye ways. The sound of the last
Speaker 1: bullet cut through the night air like a knife, making
Speaker 1: the silence that followed feel almost like a dream, or
Speaker 1: maybe a nightmare. As the blood slowly dyed the snow
Speaker 1: beneath their feet, Crimson red at last, the mad mystic,
Speaker 1: the most universally hated man in all of Russia, Gregory
Speaker 1: alfmo Vitrusputin, was dead This morning. At six o'clock, Gregory
Speaker 1: Resputin suddenly passed away after a party at one of
Speaker 1: the most aristocratic houses in the center of Petrograd. Days
Speaker 1: before they would find the body, news outlets were already
Speaker 1: reporting the murder, and the citizens of the capital city
Speaker 1: were celebrating in the streets. Felix Yusopov, however, was not
Speaker 1: one of those people celebrating. The morning after the assassination,
Speaker 1: Yusupov woke at his father in law's house to a
Speaker 1: phone call from his residence the police had arrived to
Speaker 1: question him. When he did meet with the police, he
Speaker 1: immediately took offense at being accused of anything. Quote, if
Speaker 1: people murder Resputin, they planned to connect the crime with
Speaker 1: me and my party, he refuted helplessly as the police
Speaker 1: raided his home. When questioned about the multiple gunshots heard
Speaker 1: by multiple witnesses the night before, Yusupov claimed certain members
Speaker 1: of the party overindulged and shot a stray dog for fun.
Speaker 1: He took them back to his home and showed them
Speaker 1: the carcass of said dog, still lying in the snow.
Speaker 1: As the police drove away their questions. Unsatisfactorily answered, you
Speaker 1: suppose couldn't help but stare at the snow covered courtyard
Speaker 1: where just twelve hours before, an entirely different body had
Speaker 1: been lying beneath his feet. That body had still yet
Speaker 1: to be found, but everyone in Russia seemed to agree
Speaker 1: that all signs pointed towards Felix you Suppove. Meanwhile, inside
Speaker 1: the Alexander Palace, the Romanovs, specifically the Czarina, were inconsolable
Speaker 1: by her orders. You Supov was illegally placed under house arrest,
Speaker 1: no longer able to flee the city like so many
Speaker 1: of his accomplices already had. Her friend was gone, and
Speaker 1: somebody was going to pay. It would be two more
Speaker 1: days until Resputant's body would be pulled out of the
Speaker 1: icy Nivo River, nearly two d and fifty feet away
Speaker 1: from where the party had dumped his body from the
Speaker 1: top of the Great Petrofsky Bridge. When the police finally
Speaker 1: excavated the body from the ice, Resputant's torso was still
Speaker 1: bound by rope, but his arms extended out from his body,
Speaker 1: situated in such a way that it was rumored Resputant
Speaker 1: was still alive when he hit the water, and his
Speaker 1: final act was making the sign of the cross as
Speaker 1: he died. For years, Russian officials kept the autopsy of
Speaker 1: Gregory Resiputin out of the public eye, leaving the real
Speaker 1: cause of death up for speculation. All the while newspapers
Speaker 1: at the time, with nothing else to go on, we're
Speaker 1: also reporting off hearsay. Combined, these circumstances almost encouraged the
Speaker 1: story to grow into the mythic proportions we've come to
Speaker 1: know them today. However, since then, the autopsy has been
Speaker 1: made available, and here's what we know. At the time
Speaker 1: of his death, Resputin had been very drunk. The report
Speaker 1: notes the thick stench of alcohol on his corpse, even
Speaker 1: after spending two nights in the icy depths of the river.
Speaker 1: He had suffered a large blunt force trauma to the
Speaker 1: head in addition to the three bullet wounds found on
Speaker 1: his body. His lungs, however, did not contain any water,
Speaker 1: suggesting he was actually dead by the time he was
Speaker 1: thrown from the bridge that night. The autopsy concluded the
Speaker 1: third bullet wound to the forehead, not the drowning, was
Speaker 1: Resputant's real cause of death. However, what's more interesting is
Speaker 1: the lack of any trace of poison other than copious
Speaker 1: amounts of alcohol in the bloodstream. The very distinct scent
Speaker 1: of cyanide was found nowhere on the body, leading the
Speaker 1: doctors to believe that the goods were sputan ingested earlier
Speaker 1: that evening were never poisoned in the first place. Historians
Speaker 1: have a couple of working theories as to how this happened.
Speaker 1: The first is that one of you supposed co conspirators
Speaker 1: had a sudden change of heart before a Sputin was
Speaker 1: scheduled to arrive at the palace, and he switched the
Speaker 1: actual cyanide with a harmless alternative. Another theory is that
Speaker 1: the poison they sourced might not have actually been lethal
Speaker 1: in the first place. You Supope was not exactly the
Speaker 1: world's greatest hit man. It would have been easy for
Speaker 1: him to have been duped into thinking he had purchased
Speaker 1: the real thing. The final theory is one that changes
Speaker 1: what we know about the Night of resputants murder altogether.
Speaker 1: This theory is that you suppose jazzed up the story
Speaker 1: for dramatic purposes. After a Sputant's body was found and
Speaker 1: Yusupope was understood to have been the culprit behind his demise,
Speaker 1: the Zarina wanted to put him and his accomplices on trial, however,
Speaker 1: it was painfully obvious from the celebrations in the street
Speaker 1: that a jury of his peers would find Usupov not guilty,
Speaker 1: And while the Zarrena wanted justice to be served, she
Speaker 1: also knew that a not guilty verdict would be viewed
Speaker 1: as a slight on the monarchy, an institution that was
Speaker 1: growing less and less stable by the day. The solution
Speaker 1: to this was, you suppose ordered exile from the capital
Speaker 1: to his family's estates in central Russia without a trial.
Speaker 1: Years later, after the monarchy fell, you suppope and his
Speaker 1: family fled Russia, and he took with him, among priceless
Speaker 1: jewe poles and a couple of rem brands, his story
Speaker 1: about the night he killed Gregory Resputin. Yusupov often boasted
Speaker 1: of this accomplishment to people he would meet on his travels,
Speaker 1: and it makes sense he would aggrandize some of his
Speaker 1: claims to bolster his reputation, especially if he could stand
Speaker 1: to make money off of it. In the memoir, he
Speaker 1: would go on to write, so what actually happened that night, Well,
Speaker 1: it's impossible to say, after all, As Joseph Ferman notes
Speaker 1: in his biography, resputing the untold story. The autopsy surgeon
Speaker 1: could have not been looking for the poison and failed
Speaker 1: to see it. An autopsy from nineteen sixteen is hardly
Speaker 1: as reliable as one would be today, so in reality,
Speaker 1: Resputin very well could have been poisoned, but just not
Speaker 1: given a lethal dose. Some like to speculate that Resputin
Speaker 1: had built up an immunity to poison, but that's actually
Speaker 1: not possible with cyanide personally. For no real reason, In
Speaker 1: just a hunch, I think that the Prince was sold
Speaker 1: fake pills and he didn't use a lethal dose. But
Speaker 1: in the larger sense, the truth about reciputants murder stomped
Speaker 1: mattering a long time ago. The lack of details released
Speaker 1: to the public in the immediate aftermath, mixed with the
Speaker 1: already larger than life mythos of the man in question,
Speaker 1: created a perfect storm of mystery and intrigue that has
Speaker 1: flourished into a story that is most likely far superior
Speaker 1: to the actual source material, Which brings us back to
Speaker 1: the Excuse me pickled penis sitting in the Museum of
Speaker 1: Sex and Erotica in St. Petersburg. Although its origins are
Speaker 1: now widely understood to be of the bovine variety. The
Speaker 1: legend associated with it remains, and if we are to
Speaker 1: believe the events of that night at they are actually occurred,
Speaker 1: then resputed and obviously wanted his let's say, larger than
Speaker 1: life legacy to have carried on. The question does remain,
Speaker 1: why do we continue to give the spotlight to someone
Speaker 1: as deeply controversial and problematic as Resputant. On a purely
Speaker 1: esthetic level, the idea that someone with the hygiene practices
Speaker 1: of a cockroache had access to Russia's most powerful royals
Speaker 1: is a confounding mystery in and of itself. But mix
Speaker 1: in the sex, the scandal, and the mysticism, and it's
Speaker 1: a recipe for intrigue. The legendary assassination is just icing
Speaker 1: on the cake. But underneath the chaotic Jenga tower that
Speaker 1: has become Resputants legacy, I think it's important to remember
Speaker 1: that the man beneath it all was just a man,
Speaker 1: one who's all too real body was exhumed shortly after
Speaker 1: the Czar's abdication, taken to the outskirts of the city,
Speaker 1: and hastily cremated by the hands of inexperienced soldiers. And
Speaker 1: after the flames had died out, the men dumped what
Speaker 1: charge remains there were into a nearby stream, where he
Speaker 1: calmly washed back into the earth from whence he came.
Speaker 1: That's the strange and possibly even true story of Gregory Rasputin,
Speaker 1: But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: the all two real story of one of the few
Speaker 1: people he left behind. Perhaps the only person to rival
Speaker 1: the larger than life persona of Gregory Resputin is his
Speaker 1: daughter Maria. After fleeing the country following the Bolshevik Revolution,
Speaker 1: Maria lived a nomadic lifestyle with her first husband until
Speaker 1: his death in nine As the mother to two daughters.
Speaker 1: By this point, she knew she had to find a
Speaker 1: way to provide for her and her family. Cut to
Speaker 1: Maria Resputin taming lions in the Traveling circus In Maria
Speaker 1: joined the Bush circus Us as a dancer, eventually making
Speaker 1: her way to America with the Ringling Brothers as their
Speaker 1: animal tamer. She was often billed as the daughter of
Speaker 1: the mad monk whose feats in Russia astonished the world.
Speaker 1: When asked if she minded being in a cage with
Speaker 1: the animals, she famously replied, why not, I've been in
Speaker 1: a cage with Bolsheviks. Her career with the Circus only
Speaker 1: ended after she was brutally mauled by a polar bear.
Speaker 1: Miraculously she survived the attack, of course she did. I
Speaker 1: think it's actually a little ironic. Polar bear attack is
Speaker 1: the only method of death that has never been rumored
Speaker 1: to be ascribed to Resputing himself. Maria spent the rest
Speaker 1: of her life supporting her family by becoming a factory worker.
Speaker 1: It's funny how history can feel so distant from our
Speaker 1: lives when in reality, Resputent's daughter died in nine seventy seven,
Speaker 1: the same year Star Wars would play in theaters for
Speaker 1: the first time. M m. Noble Blood is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
Speaker 1: The show is written and hosted by Dani Schwartz. Executive
Speaker 1: producers include Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The
Speaker 1: show is produced by rema Ill Kali and Trevor Young.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is on social media at Noble Blood Tales,
Speaker 1: and you can learn more about the show over at
Speaker 1: Noble Blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts, from I
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M