Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener, Discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: We don't have sex in the USSR. Those are the
Speaker 2: words that greet visitors in bold block lettering upon arriving
Speaker 2: at the Museum of Love and Erotica in Saint Petersburg.
Speaker 2: From the outside, the muse Arrows, as it's called, appears
Speaker 2: fairly innocuous. Muted reds and grays, long since faded by
Speaker 2: the sun paints the building's facade, blending into the equally
Speaker 2: faded asphalt of the parking lot it shares with the
Speaker 2: Shell gas station across the street. But once inside, the
Speaker 2: pallid hues of the city give way to midnight blacks
Speaker 2: and electric pinks. Decor unapologetically flaunting sex and kink over
Speaker 2: every square inch of its curated studio space. Past the
Speaker 2: throne of dildos and gift shop laden with leather accessories,
Speaker 2: the museum offers exhibit after exhibit of artifacts dedicated to
Speaker 2: the exploration of sex and sexuality through history. Fertility statues
Speaker 2: stand proudly next to displays of vintage vibrators of I'll
Speaker 2: Say Dubious historical accuracy. But perhaps the most interesting piece
Speaker 2: in the entire space is sitting in a jar behind
Speaker 2: a pane of glass. It isn't dressed in the same
Speaker 2: jarring neon or velvet allure in keeping with the rest
Speaker 2: of the exhibit, but then again, it doesn't need to.
Speaker 2: The pound of flesh bobbing inside the formalda filled jar
Speaker 2: speaks for itself. This artifact, of course, is the dismembered
Speaker 2: penis of one Gregory Resputen. In the century since his death,
Speaker 2: the infamous Russian mystic has become more myth than man,
Speaker 2: though the latter is hard to ignore after catching a
Speaker 2: glimpse of the astonishing appendage on display at the museum.
Speaker 2: At least it would be astonishing if it were real.
Speaker 2: False reports involving the aforementioned fallis have been in circulation
Speaker 2: since the nineteen twenties, after a group of women in
Speaker 2: France claimed to have kept it in an ice box
Speaker 2: to take it out for use in certain fertility rituals.
Speaker 2: Others say that was just a sea cucumber, and the
Speaker 2: actual Genitalia resided with Maria, his daughter, until she sold
Speaker 2: it sometime in the seventh these it's difficult to trace,
Speaker 2: then what happened to the quote actual or quote false penis?
Speaker 2: But in the year two thousand a man would pay
Speaker 2: eight thousand dollars for something that claimed to be resputants penis,
Speaker 2: and the man proudly stated, I am ninety nine percent
Speaker 2: sure that it is real. Now there's a lot to
Speaker 2: unpack there, After all, who pays eight thousand dollars to
Speaker 2: only be ninety nine percent sure they have the real deal?
Speaker 2: Or maybe it's worth taking a step back and asking
Speaker 2: the more glaring question of why would someone want to
Speaker 2: buy the penis in the first place. Unfortunately, or maybe
Speaker 2: fortunately actually, I do not have the answers to those questions.
Speaker 2: But here is one answer. If you were wondering whether
Speaker 2: the organ is real, I can tell you that at
Speaker 2: the time of resputant's autopsy, his body was yes, riddled
Speaker 2: with bullet wounds and blunt force trauma, but otherwise fully intact,
Speaker 2: and the organ on display in the muse erros is,
Speaker 2: at least in this writer's estimation, probably from a non
Speaker 2: human animal with a size meant to shock audiences to
Speaker 2: increase the mythology of its alleged source. Fascinating and deeply
Speaker 2: compelling as the pickled mystery meat is. I think it's
Speaker 2: even more interesting to examine the actual human who is
Speaker 2: allegedly once attached to it when he was still alive.
Speaker 2: Resputant aroused distrust and scandal without having to say a word.
Speaker 2: One look at a photo of him with his long,
Speaker 2: greasy black hair and his gaunt, deep set eyes provide
Speaker 2: all the reason as to why, over one hundred years later,
Speaker 2: his image is still deeply unsettling the story of his
Speaker 2: life is infamously debaucherous. Today, his name is synonymous with
Speaker 2: villain in our cultural psyche. Though perhaps it's all too
Speaker 2: common for stories to be lost to be consolidated over time,
Speaker 2: the mad Monk's legend defies historical precedent. Instead of being
Speaker 2: lost or diminished, histories are inexplicably being added, like Jenga
Speaker 2: pieces stolen from the base of a teetering tower that
Speaker 2: refuses to fall. So why is it that museum's boast
Speaker 2: to have his most prized possession, even though it is
Speaker 2: most certainly not real, And why has Resputant as a
Speaker 2: myth persisted as a cultural phenomenon while the man himself
Speaker 2: has really slipped into shadows. The answer is a fact
Speaker 2: Resputin himself knew entirely too well. As long as people
Speaker 2: want to believe something is real, the truth can afford
Speaker 2: to be subjective. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble blood.
Speaker 2: When Google searches of Resputant turn up picture after picture
Speaker 2: of greasy beards, wild eyes, and political cartoons illustrating sexual
Speaker 2: acts with Russian monarchs, it's sometimes hard to remember that
Speaker 2: long before any of that, he was just Gregory Alfamovich Resputant,
Speaker 2: a young man from a small village in Siberia, born
Speaker 2: in eighteen sixty nine. He married young at eighteen and
Speaker 2: fathered seven children, though only three made it to adulthood.
Speaker 2: But such was life in late nineteenth century Siberia. Childhood
Speaker 2: mortality rates were high, access to basic education was practically
Speaker 2: non existent, and the Russian idea of subda, or God's
Speaker 2: will was the guiding force for the majority of the
Speaker 2: peasant and population. There is very little known about the
Speaker 2: exact details of Hersputen's early life, most of which come
Speaker 2: to us via a biography written by his daughter Maria
Speaker 2: long after he had passed. It's safe to say that
Speaker 2: this biography might have some historical inaccuracies. Early on, she
Speaker 2: claims that a comet tore through the sky on the
Speaker 2: night of Resputen's birth, when in reality we know there
Speaker 2: is no recorded comment passing in Earth's view that entire year.
Speaker 2: But we do know the one aspect of his adulthood
Speaker 2: that would shape the rest of his life. When Resputen
Speaker 2: was twenty eight years old, he took a trip to
Speaker 2: a Siberian monastery and returned as a strunk or a
Speaker 2: religious pilgrim, ready to share all that he had learned
Speaker 2: on his travels and spread the word of God. According
Speaker 2: to accounts from his closest acquaintances, his intentions began honestly enough,
Speaker 2: but that didn't mean that he practiced quiet, quite the opposite.
Speaker 2: In fact, he immediately garnered attention from other villagers with
Speaker 2: his peculiar ways. He stopped eating meat and drinking alcohol,
Speaker 2: But his most unusual affectation was the way he performed
Speaker 2: during his services. With crazy glances and grimaces, he became
Speaker 2: impossible to ignore, and fairly quickly his strange confidence and
Speaker 2: charisma led to followers. After that initial pilgrimage, Resputant didn't
Speaker 2: stay home for long. He continued traveling across the continent,
Speaker 2: going so far as Greece, but never failing to make
Speaker 2: his way back to Russia. But the more that he traveled,
Speaker 2: the less it seemed that Russia wanted him back. People
Speaker 2: were becoming more skeptical of the uncom poly man roaming
Speaker 2: their streets, especially since a large portion of his disciples
Speaker 2: were women, which have been so bad if he didn't
Speaker 2: openly kiss them in public. So that was troubling, as
Speaker 2: were the vague allegations of sexual assaults that tended to
Speaker 2: follow in the wake of his travels. Even before Gregory
Speaker 2: had married, he had amassed quite the reputation as a
Speaker 2: young ladies man. So you can imagine the type of
Speaker 2: power dynamic at play when Resputin found himself in a
Speaker 2: position where people not only listened to what he had
Speaker 2: to say, but respected him praised him. Resputin found a
Speaker 2: way to exploit his power for personal gain. In one instance,
Speaker 2: when a woman came to him distraught after a sexual
Speaker 2: encounter between the two of them that she had felt
Speaker 2: coerced into, he simply replied that quote, there was no
Speaker 2: sin in what they had done. They had simply been
Speaker 2: celebrating the Holy Trinity. Another report accounts that two sisters
Speaker 2: aged fifteen and twelve were manipulated into sexual acts with
Speaker 2: the man after being lured into a bath house. When
Speaker 2: their mother confronted Resputants, seething with anger, he merely looked
Speaker 2: at her calmly and said, quote, now you may feel
Speaker 2: at peace. The day of salvation has dawned for your daughters.
Speaker 2: In Resputant's mind, or at least the way he spun
Speaker 2: his religious teachings to his followers, opening oneself to the
Speaker 2: possibility of sexual encounters, i e. Stripping in bathhouses was
Speaker 2: a way to prove to God that they were able
Speaker 2: to resist temptations of the flesh, and sometimes those trips
Speaker 2: did end in abstinence. Temptations resisted, but only sometimes. For
Speaker 2: his part, Resputant did openly admit to being a sinner,
Speaker 2: explaining that while he did try to resist sin, he
Speaker 2: was ultimately exempt from judgment because he was quote a
Speaker 2: man of God, succumbing to these sins while in his service. Now,
Speaker 2: I am of the belief that if something looks like
Speaker 2: a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's most
Speaker 2: likely a sexual predator, and that Resputant was using the
Speaker 2: religious rhetoric of confronting temptations as a way to exploit
Speaker 2: vulnerable women. Unfortunately, at the time, his exploits were seen
Speaker 2: as merely salacious. Monks will be monks. But as gossip
Speaker 2: around his personal life spread, so did rumors of his
Speaker 2: abilities as a mystic. One night, the Virgin Mary supposedly
Speaker 2: came to him crying, tears streaming down her face as
Speaker 2: she told him to quote, go wander and cleanse the
Speaker 2: people of their sins. Resputant believed that he had been
Speaker 2: chosen by God, and he made it his job to
Speaker 2: let everyone know. For however creepy and manipulative this man was,
Speaker 2: he was also smarter than most people gave him credit for.
Speaker 2: He was an expert at the long con planting seeds
Speaker 2: of gossip that would flower exactly when he needed them to.
Speaker 2: His actions seemed erratic at times, but every move was
Speaker 2: calculated to cultivate this man of God, persona which he
Speaker 2: was honestly probably narcissistic enough to believe was true. But
Speaker 2: at the time, especially in more elite social circles, people
Speaker 2: took him pretty plainly at face value. He was a peasant,
Speaker 2: most likely simple minded, and he therefore posed very little threat,
Speaker 2: So what if he had a reputation as a philanderer.
Speaker 2: Surely only the weak fell for such ploys. Right, before
Speaker 2: we go any further into resputant story, I'd like us
Speaker 2: to pivot for a moment towards Saint Petersburg. Behind the
Speaker 2: waves of civil unrest and political turmoil, Romanovs sat comfortably
Speaker 2: inside the walls of Alexander Palace, confident in their nearly
Speaker 2: three hundred year old dynasty and there obviously God given
Speaker 2: authority to rule. At least if they told themselves that
Speaker 2: enough times, maybe it would finally become reality. In truth,
Speaker 2: the royal family was harboring a possibly dynasty ending secret.
Speaker 2: The Tsarevich was sick. Alexei, the fifth child but only
Speaker 2: son of Zar Nicholas and the Tsarina Alexandra Fedorovna, had
Speaker 2: been diagnosed with hemophilia, a rare blood disorder that inhibits
Speaker 2: blood from clotting, normally subjecting its victims to possibly fatal
Speaker 2: internal bleeding at the drop of a hat. The tsar
Speaker 2: and Zarina were understandably distraught concerning the health of their son,
Speaker 2: though his illness posed a greater threat to the Russian monarchy,
Speaker 2: as a whole. Alexei was their only son, and if
Speaker 2: you remember our past episode on Paul the First of Russia,
Speaker 2: his grudge match against his mother, Catherine the Great still
Speaker 2: persisted into the twentieth century in the form of a
Speaker 2: law that only sons could inherit the Russian throne. The
Speaker 2: tsar and Tzarina had desperately waited for a son. With
Speaker 2: each pregnancy, their hopes were renewed, and with each daughter,
Speaker 2: their hopes were dashed. Four times in a row, girl, girl, Girl, Girl.
Speaker 2: The Tsarina Alexandra had been so desperate for a son
Speaker 2: that she had turned to the church and mysticism for help.
Speaker 2: Though originally of German descent, Alexandra converted to Russian Orthodox
Speaker 2: Christianity upon her engagement to Nicholas, and she adopted the
Speaker 2: practice wholeheartedly into her life. It's easy to laugh at
Speaker 2: the idea of mysticism now, but in the turn of
Speaker 2: the twentieth century in Russia, it was not an un
Speaker 2: common practice, especially amongst the aristocracy. People craved excitement, anything
Speaker 2: to break up the monotony of their day to day lives.
Speaker 2: I mean, think about the way wealthy people today talk
Speaker 2: about moon juice and alkalized lemon water and healing crystals.
Speaker 2: But at that time, for those inside the palace walls,
Speaker 2: mysticism had genuine credence. One of the crown's closest religious
Speaker 2: advisers would tell the Tsar, God sends consolation to his
Speaker 2: people from time to time in the guise of righteous men,
Speaker 2: and they are the mainstays of Holy Russia. Considering that
Speaker 2: the Tsar and Tzarina truly believed that they had been
Speaker 2: chosen by God to rule the people of Russia, their
Speaker 2: belief in mysticism compounded. God had chosen them, so obviously
Speaker 2: he had chosen these mystics to carry out his work
Speaker 2: as well. So after one mystic claimed to be able
Speaker 2: to influence the gender of a child during pregnancy, and
Speaker 2: then the sarena gave birth to a son, the practice
Speaker 2: of mysticism came to be consulted on all matters of
Speaker 2: everyday life, and that man not Resputin yet just some
Speaker 2: other random guy, became a mainstay at court. After the
Speaker 2: diagnosis of her son, Alexandra sought the help of that mystic,
Speaker 2: more desperate to alleviate her son's suffering. But over time
Speaker 2: members of the court began to grow skeptical of that
Speaker 2: religious adviser whispering in the queen's ear. After a considerable
Speaker 2: amount of pressure from his staff, Zar Nicholas was forced
Speaker 2: to send Alexandra's beloved mystic away. But before the mystic left,
Speaker 2: he foretold one final prophecy quote, Someday you will have
Speaker 2: another friend like me who will speak to you of God.
Speaker 2: The dust had barely settled on that mystic being fired
Speaker 2: before Resputen was suddenly knocking on the palace door, well
Speaker 2: metaphorically knocking. Resputin knew that the road to power ended
Speaker 2: on the Romanov doorstep, but he also recognized how nearly
Speaker 2: impossible it was going to be for him to get there.
Speaker 2: After all, he was a peasant with no connections to
Speaker 2: the capitol and only a questionable reputation to his name,
Speaker 2: But he wouldn't let that stop him by virtue of
Speaker 2: his chosen profession. By nineteen oh five, Resputin had become
Speaker 2: an expert in finding spaces for himself in social circles
Speaker 2: where none had existed before. He was a social climbing assassin,
Speaker 2: using people and then burning bridges like he needed the
Speaker 2: tender to keep warm, and maybe he did, but that
Speaker 2: didn't mean the flames would never catch up to him,
Speaker 2: as it were. In nineteen oh five, Resputin found himself
Speaker 2: in Saint Petersburg in the company of three of the
Speaker 2: Tsar's closest acquaintances. Years of travel and power grabbing all
Speaker 2: came down to one tea on an innocuous autumn afternoon.
Speaker 2: So what did the Siberian peasant do to woo the
Speaker 2: god divined rulers of Russia? Absolutely nothing, or rather, he
Speaker 2: made the nobles feel as though they were nothing, certainly
Speaker 2: no more important than any of the peasants that he
Speaker 2: often met on the street. He used the informal Russian
Speaker 2: you pronoun that used for friends and family instead of
Speaker 2: the respectful you reserved for elders and people of higher birth,
Speaker 2: And when Resputen met the Tsar and Tsarina, he addressed
Speaker 2: them as Batushka and Matushka, or little father and little mother,
Speaker 2: which was the common name the peasant class took to
Speaker 2: calling the royal couple, and infuriatingly enough, they ate it up.
Speaker 2: Nicholas and Alexandra hated all the pomp and circumstance that
Speaker 2: typically followed them as Russian monarchs, so when Resputen, who
Speaker 2: had been waiting years for this very encounter, showed them
Speaker 2: the same ambivalence he showed say soap. The royal couple
Speaker 2: was immediately smitten. After years without a quote unquote man
Speaker 2: of God at her side, the Czarina remembered the parting
Speaker 2: words of her last trusted religious adviser, some day you
Speaker 2: will have another friend like me who will speak to
Speaker 2: you of God. And as she watched with wide eyes
Speaker 2: and bated breath while the mysterious holy Man stood over
Speaker 2: her son and her son's muscles finally unclenched after days
Speaker 2: of restlessness, there was no doubt in her mind her
Speaker 2: friend had arrived. News of Resputant's present in the palace
Speaker 2: quickly made the rounds in Saint Petersburg. Unsurprisingly, people were
Speaker 2: skeptical of the unkempt, self proclaimed spiritual healer who spent
Speaker 2: so much of his time around the royal family. His
Speaker 2: infamous reputation as a sexual predator had followed him on
Speaker 2: his travels to the capital, and yet the Czar and
Speaker 2: Czarina kept him in their inner circle, unwilling to listen
Speaker 2: to anyone who disparaged their new found friend. Worse yet,
Speaker 2: the rumors were beginning to fester. After all, what exactly
Speaker 2: was he doing with the royal family? They had five children,
Speaker 2: four of them young girls. Someone with a past like
Speaker 2: his shouldn't the Tsar and Tzarina be more concerned. For
Speaker 2: once peasants and nobles were in agreement, Resputin needed to go.
Speaker 2: He was not known for his reticence in sharing political opinions,
Speaker 2: and the last thing that anyone wanted was for Resputin,
Speaker 2: notorious sex fiend parading around as a religious holy man,
Speaker 2: to have influence over the Russian government. Public outcry trickled
Speaker 2: its way into the palace, but would be destined to
Speaker 2: fall on deaf ears. For the Czarina, Resputant's place in
Speaker 2: the palace was indisputable. His prayers were keeping her son alive.
Speaker 2: Alexei's hemophilia was still a state secret, one that the
Speaker 2: crown couldn't afford to get out for fear that their
Speaker 2: God given right to rule would crumble under the ailment
Speaker 2: of the crown prince. After all, if God had chosen them,
Speaker 2: why wouldn't he have given them a healthy air. Their
Speaker 2: silence would ultimately only add more fuel to the fire
Speaker 2: of rumors swirling around the city. Before long, speculation as
Speaker 2: to the nature of Resputant and the Czarina's relationship was
Speaker 2: being called into question, especially after correspondence between the two
Speaker 2: was leaked to the press. Quote I know that much
Speaker 2: of what I do and think is not good. I
Speaker 2: want to be a good Christian, a good person, but
Speaker 2: it is so hard, Alexandra had written in a private
Speaker 2: letter to the monk. Quote so often I have to
Speaker 2: fight bad habits. But help me, don't abandon me. I
Speaker 2: am weak and not good end quote. Suddenly, all of
Speaker 2: the bridges where Sputant had burned to reach the Romanovs
Speaker 2: had their flames, threatening to burn down the entire palace.
Speaker 2: Even beyond the basic accusations of infidelity, other more disturbing
Speaker 2: allegations were coming to the forefront. People were beginning to
Speaker 2: question the paternity of the Tsarevich himself, with others accusing
Speaker 2: the mad monk of sexually assaulting the young Romanov daughters,
Speaker 2: even possibly getting one pregnant. Before long, the entire country
Speaker 2: was alight with conspiracy, conspiracy that would carry on for
Speaker 2: far longer than one lifetime. Bony M's now iconic lyric
Speaker 2: rah rah Rasputine Lover of the Russian Queen is no
Speaker 2: doubt a clever couplet, but its evidence is placed on
Speaker 2: faulty ground. The Czarina may have had her faults, but
Speaker 2: if she was anything, it was a devout Christian and
Speaker 2: loyal wife. And in addition to keeping her son's illness
Speaker 2: out of the public eye, she also suffered from chronic
Speaker 2: pain in secret. After five difficult pregnancies, her body had
Speaker 2: taken a fair amount of abuse, leaving her with sciatica
Speaker 2: that would sometimes keep her bedbound for days. She was
Speaker 2: not in a condition to be carrying on an illicit
Speaker 2: love affair, even if she wanted to, which, based on
Speaker 2: her character, I don't think she did. But of course,
Speaker 2: once again, the truth didn't matter. Before the rumors could
Speaker 2: have just been dismissed. But after personal letters surfaced and
Speaker 2: were proven legitimate by the star himself, the crown was
Speaker 2: looking as unstable as ever. The people thought that the
Speaker 2: infidelity rumors were true, and the Czarina was furious. The
Speaker 2: question remained, who had leaked the letters? How did this happen?
Speaker 2: The obvious answer lies with the recipient, But Resputen was
Speaker 2: a trusted friend, surely he never would have done such
Speaker 2: a thing. It should come as no surprise that no
Speaker 2: one was a bigger fan of Resputin than Resputen, so
Speaker 2: when the Czarina herself began sending him not just letters
Speaker 2: but personal confessions, he couldn't keep them to himself. Years earlier,
Speaker 2: an acquaintance of Resputants had found himself inside the Monk's
Speaker 2: Saint Petersburg apartment, where Resputen was showing off his personal
Speaker 2: letters from the Czarina. He was boasting about his status
Speaker 2: as one of her closest spiritual advisers. The acquaintance smiled
Speaker 2: and nodded, acting impressed when he was called to do so,
Speaker 2: but in the back of his mind he was taking notes.
Speaker 2: Perhaps he asked to see the letters up close. Fast
Speaker 2: forward three years, and the Tsarina's letters were being printed
Speaker 2: and dissected by every major news outlet around the world.
Speaker 2: Resputin attempted to do some damage control, but Alexandra would
Speaker 2: no longer permit him inside the palace walls. After years
Speaker 2: of begging, the Tsarina was finally taking the advice of
Speaker 2: nearly every one of her advisors, and she sent Resputin packing.
Speaker 2: After all, her son hadn't had a severe attack. In years,
Speaker 2: there was no immediate need for resputant services, so that autumn,
Speaker 2: on a family vacation to their hunting launch, nobody thought
Speaker 2: twice when their carriage took an unusually hard bump in
Speaker 2: the road. That was until the young Tsarevich could no
Speaker 2: longer contain his screams. After what seemed like no time
Speaker 2: at all, Alexei went from playing on the ground to
Speaker 2: crying helplessly in agony. On his deathbed, Nicholas and Alexandra
Speaker 2: were beside themselves. Their family vacation had turned into their
Speaker 2: worst nightmare. Their son lay pale and incoherent, while his
Speaker 2: leg and hip swelled with blood. He was in pain,
Speaker 2: so agonizing that the staff took to putting cotton in
Speaker 2: their ears to deafen his blood curdling screams. The doctors
Speaker 2: worked on him tirelessly, but the crown Prince showed no
Speaker 2: signs of improvement. When Alexei was finally read his last rites,
Speaker 2: the Czarina could no longer sit and watch helplessly as
Speaker 2: her one and only son slipped away painfully into the night.
Speaker 2: Rising from her son's bedside, Alexandra used what little energy
Speaker 2: she had to compose a telegram to Gregory Resputen, asking him,
Speaker 2: begging him to help save her son. When Resputant received
Speaker 2: word of the young boy's condition, he was remarkably unbothered.
Speaker 2: The doctors had told the royal couple their son would
Speaker 2: be dead by mourning, but the mystic simply scoffed. God
Speaker 2: has seen your tears and heard your prayers, he assured
Speaker 2: the queen. The little one will not die. Do not
Speaker 2: allow the doctors to bother him too much. Upon receiving word,
Speaker 2: Alexandra immediately relaxed. She walked back to her son's bedside
Speaker 2: with renewed vigor, announcing to the others holding vigil that
Speaker 2: during the night, I received a telegram from Father Gregory,
Speaker 2: and he has reassured me completely and miraculously, Despite quite
Speaker 2: literally being on the brink of death, Alexei recovered within days.
Speaker 2: His fever broke, the swelling began to receive, and his
Speaker 2: appetite returned. It was a miracle, one that seemingly only
Speaker 2: took place under Resputant's command. None of it made any sense,
Speaker 2: and yet it didn't have to. All that mattered was
Speaker 2: that the Tsarevich was alive and the monarchy was safe
Speaker 2: for another day. Over a century later, Alexei's recovery remains
Speaker 2: a mystery to historians, but of course there are several theories.
Speaker 2: The first and probably most likely has everything to do
Speaker 2: with the final words of Resputant's telegram to Alexandra, do
Speaker 2: not allow the doctors to bother him too much. To
Speaker 2: this day, there is still no cure for hemophilia, but
Speaker 2: given the advancements in medical knowledge, we are now certainly
Speaker 2: aware of how not to treat the disease. Rule number one,
Speaker 2: don't give the patient blood thinners. Unfortunately, for Alexei, aspirin
Speaker 2: seemed to be the royal doctor's drug of choice. The
Speaker 2: new at the time miracle drug, now widely known as
Speaker 2: a blood thinner, seemed to be a cure for so
Speaker 2: many common ailments, so why not try it against the
Speaker 2: well rare blood disorder that prevents blood from clotting. But
Speaker 2: in any case, Resputant's intervention against the doctors could have
Speaker 2: possibly saved Alexi's life. Ironically, the best sort of treatment
Speaker 2: the boy could have received at the time was time
Speaker 2: time without doctors force feeding him blood thinners and poking
Speaker 2: and prodding at his already bleeding body. But others are
Speaker 2: more skeptical that Resputant was involved at all in the
Speaker 2: young boy's treatment plan. The timeline of events that led
Speaker 2: to Alexi's recovery is sketchy at best. At what point
Speaker 2: exactly did Alexandra send that telegram, how quickly did Resputant respond.
Speaker 2: It's widely understood that contacting Resputant had been the Tsarina's
Speaker 2: absolute final option, with the last rites having already been
Speaker 2: read to her son. After a certain point, the doctors
Speaker 2: would have most likely stopped treating the boy to let
Speaker 2: him pass on in peace. Resputant's words could have reached
Speaker 2: the hunting lodge while Alexei was already on the mend.
Speaker 2: But once again, the truth didn't matter. The Czarina believed
Speaker 2: Resputen had been sent by God to save her son,
Speaker 2: and any previous grudge she may have held against the
Speaker 2: man meant nothing so long as her son was safe.
Speaker 2: Without even being on the same side of the country,
Speaker 2: Resputin had once again managed to make his way back
Speaker 2: inside the royal Palace. The start of the new year
Speaker 2: brought with it the three hundred year anniversary of Romanov
Speaker 2: rule in Russia, a legacy that great came with a
Speaker 2: mounting pressure, Nicholas was beginning to feel in his bones.
Speaker 2: Ever since the nineteen o five Revolution, when his power
Speaker 2: as Supreme autocrat had been stripped with the founding of
Speaker 2: the Russian legislative body known as Duma, he had never
Speaker 2: been able to shake the shadow of revolution that he
Speaker 2: felt breathing down his neck. He was the Czar of Russia,
Speaker 2: wasn't he? Duma? Be damned? He was a Romanov and
Speaker 2: the Romanovs had been chosen by God to rule the
Speaker 2: mighty nation of Russia, come hell or high water. So
Speaker 2: how would he strive to prove himself as a competent
Speaker 2: ruler by going to war, of course, or rather by
Speaker 2: sending thousands of young men to go off to war
Speaker 2: for him. Unlike the majority of Russian aristocrats, Resputin was
Speaker 2: actually staunchly against Russia going to war. He didn't need
Speaker 2: to be able to see the future to know that
Speaker 2: war would mean the deaths of thousands of young Russian men,
Speaker 2: primarily peasants like himself, not aristocrats. Resputin was quoted as saying, quote,
Speaker 2: we are already the biggest country in the world. Why
Speaker 2: do we need more real estate? But try as he might,
Speaker 2: Resputin's effort went unheard. Luckily for him, vodka proved to
Speaker 2: be a great listener. With war on the horizon and
Speaker 2: feeling his influence waning, he wasted no time in drowning
Speaker 2: his sorrows and drowning his decade plus of sobriety. After
Speaker 2: an assassination attempt in his hometown left him bedbound as
Speaker 2: he healed, Waking up one morning to the newspaper reporting
Speaker 2: Germany's declaration of war against Russia was enough to make
Speaker 2: him want to curl up at the bottom of a bottle.
Speaker 2: Resputant's dependence on alcohol would follow him for the rest
Speaker 2: of his life. From this point on, he rarely ever
Speaker 2: attended events sober, only pulling himself together enough for the
Speaker 2: royal couple not to suspect that something was seriously wrong.
Speaker 2: So when Alexandra ordered the monk to embark on a
Speaker 2: trip to Moscow in a desperate attempt to bolster his
Speaker 2: reputation into something salvagible, she couldn't have known that this
Speaker 2: trip would lead to one of the most infamous nights
Speaker 2: of Resputant's life. On the evening of March twenty sixth,
Speaker 2: nineteen fifteen, Resputen went to an establishment called the Yar
Speaker 2: in Moscow to partake in their typical nighttime festivities. Never
Speaker 2: one to be unprepared, Resputant arrived having already downed half
Speaker 2: of his body weight in vodka, and he promptly ordered more.
Speaker 2: Upon his arrival, other patrons of the ar began to
Speaker 2: take notice of the oddily dressed, ooisterous man in the corner.
Speaker 2: The patrons held their hands up to their mouths in
Speaker 2: shock when the man started to grab at more than
Speaker 2: a few of the performers, and then Resputant stood and
Speaker 2: started off on an alcohol fueled tirade for the benefit
Speaker 2: of the entire establishment. According to witnesses, the unhinged monk
Speaker 2: became quote sexually psychopathic, alluding to his legendary fallas and
Speaker 2: rumored indecent relationship with the Czarina. He referred to her
Speaker 2: as quote the old girl, and proceeded to detail his
Speaker 2: control over her, eliciting even more disgust from the crowd. Finally,
Speaker 2: when one patron dared him to prove that he was
Speaker 2: the real Resputant, he did the only thing a man
Speaker 2: like Resputin would think to do. He dropped his pants
Speaker 2: and waived his member at the crowd. Its legendary size
Speaker 2: apparently all the identification needed. After that, the police were
Speaker 2: called and Resputin was led away quote snarling and vowing vengeance. Today,
Speaker 2: Resputin's night at the Yar is debated wildly amongst historians.
Speaker 2: Some say there are no police reports from that night
Speaker 2: that would suggest Resputin was even at the Yar in
Speaker 2: the first place. Meanwhile, others say that there were too
Speaker 2: many reputable witnesses to have the story be anything but true.
Speaker 2: In my opinion, the truth behind the actual events of
Speaker 2: that night are of little importance. What mattered, what still
Speaker 2: matters in resputant story is that people believed it was true,
Speaker 2: and so it was, which leads us to one of
Speaker 2: the most notorious myths in the Resputant canon, the prophecy.
Speaker 2: In the months leading up to his death, Resputant had
Speaker 2: rightly so begun to grow increasingly paranoid about his demise.
Speaker 2: He took on an extremely fatalistic view on life, often
Speaker 2: recounting his knowledge that the end for him was near.
Speaker 2: But according to legend, in the weeks before his death,
Speaker 2: Resputen wrote a letter to the royals describing what would
Speaker 2: be known as his quote final prophecy Russians are, he began,
Speaker 2: I have a presentiment that I shall leave this world
Speaker 2: before the first of January, if I am killed and
Speaker 2: not one member of your family will survive more than
Speaker 2: two years. The tragic demise of the Romanovs and the
Speaker 2: Russian monarchy has been the subject of fascination and speculation
Speaker 2: for over one hundred years, and this letter remains one
Speaker 2: of the most infamous relics of the past. And while
Speaker 2: this letter does seem like exactly the type of manipulation
Speaker 2: Resputin would pull to try to solidify his place within
Speaker 2: the royal fold, it really is just another tallly on
Speaker 2: the ever growing list of false rumors associated with the
Speaker 2: infamous mad Monk. The letter itself is really the prophecies undoing.
Speaker 2: It's the diction that really disproves the letter's authenticity. It
Speaker 2: begins by addressing Nicholas as Russian Czar, which, as we
Speaker 2: stated earlier, was just not how Resputin spoke. He rarely,
Speaker 2: if ever, used terms of authority with royals. He continued
Speaker 2: to call the Czarina and Tzar little mother and little
Speaker 2: father until his death. The prophecy, like so many other
Speaker 2: parts of the Resputant myth is something that people love
Speaker 2: to hold on to, in this case, maybe because it's
Speaker 2: a detail that makes the Romanov killings next all the
Speaker 2: more tragic and romantic. On the night of December sixteenth,
Speaker 2: nineteen sixteen, Resputin was invited to the home of a
Speaker 2: man named Felix Usupov for an evening of dinner and drinks.
Speaker 2: When Resputant arrived, Yusupov and his two compatriots greeted their
Speaker 2: new companion with warm smiles and casual conversation. But beneath
Speaker 2: the thin veneer of pleasantries, a more sinister plot was
Speaker 2: already brewing. The young Russian prince Felix Yusupov had been
Speaker 2: orchestrating a plan for weeks, carefully crafting timetables and alibis
Speaker 2: in preparation for what was sure to be his crowning achievement,
Speaker 2: ridding Russia of the religious fraud Gregory Rasputin. Usupav was
Speaker 2: not necessarily how one would imagine a murderer, for one
Speaker 2: he had never before committed a serious crime, let alone homicide.
Speaker 1: But ever, the.
Speaker 2: Idealist Usupav had watched from afar as Resputin whispered into
Speaker 2: the ear of the Czarina, and he became increasingly infuriated
Speaker 2: with his position in court. Why should this peasant have
Speaker 2: such sway over the most important political decisions in Russia.
Speaker 2: In his mind, Resputin needed to be taken out of
Speaker 2: the equation, and he wanted to be the one to
Speaker 2: do it. Originally, Usupov went to the President of the
Speaker 2: Duma to collaborate on the assassination attempt, pleading quote, if
Speaker 2: the Emperor were freed of the influence of Resputen and
Speaker 2: his wife, everything would change. He would be a good
Speaker 2: constitutional monarch. Unfortunately for him, the President would hear nothing
Speaker 2: of it. Quote do you think I keep office for assassins?
Speaker 2: He blustered in truth. As much as the Duma hated Resputen,
Speaker 2: killing him would not have been beneficial to their cause.
Speaker 2: It was obvious that the end of the monarchy was near,
Speaker 2: and when it finally fell, the Duma was trying to
Speaker 2: establish a democratic government that would rise in its place,
Speaker 2: Wheresputen's influence over the Romanovs was making them tremendously unpopular
Speaker 2: and only helping bring down the monarchy quicker. Why would
Speaker 2: the Duma want to help kill a man who was
Speaker 2: making their job easier, and so Prince Felix Yusupov, a
Speaker 2: man with the criminal rap sheet of a pacifier, was
Speaker 2: left to orchestrate the assassination of the most notorious villain
Speaker 2: in all of Russia alone. I think it's important to
Speaker 2: note that the events that occurred next will always remain
Speaker 2: something of a mystery. After all, we only hear the
Speaker 2: version told from the point of view of the murderer.
Speaker 2: As I've sat on this podcast many times before, history
Speaker 2: is told by the victors, and the night of December sixteenth,
Speaker 2: nineteen sixteen is no exception. Around eleven p m. Resputen
Speaker 2: arrived at Yusupov's home, where he was promptly led down
Speaker 2: into the basement to wait for Usopov's wife to join them.
Speaker 2: While they waited, Felix offered resputant refreshment. Small cakes and
Speaker 2: glasses of wine were pushed in Gregory's face, which, after
Speaker 2: an initial hesitation, he indulged in thoroughly. Usopov watched him
Speaker 2: with a mixture of horror and fascination, the memory of
Speaker 2: having crushed cyanide capsules between his finger tips still fresh
Speaker 2: in his mind. As he waited for the man to
Speaker 2: succumb to the poison. Slowly, Resputant's eyes began to droop.
Speaker 2: He brought his hand to his throat, almost distractedly, like
Speaker 2: he was fighting off an itch he couldn't scratch. But
Speaker 2: after an hour he still sat drinking his poisoned wine,
Speaker 2: completely awake and very much alive. By one in the morning,
Speaker 2: Yusupov was livid, having had to entertain the man he
Speaker 2: was trying to kill for over two hours. Excusing himself,
Speaker 2: Usupov ascended from the basement to reconvene with his co conspirators.
Speaker 2: This wasn't how the night was supposed to go. The
Speaker 2: poison was supposed to allow them time to dispose of
Speaker 2: the body cleanly to cover their tracks with minimal risk.
Speaker 2: Now it was obvious they would have to use a
Speaker 2: more sure fire method. When Usupov returned, it was with
Speaker 2: a revolver behind his back. Taking a deep breath, he
Speaker 2: told the monk, Gregory Alfmovich, you'd best come look at
Speaker 2: that crucifix and say a prayer before it. He brought
Speaker 2: the gun out from behind him and pointed the barrel
Speaker 2: at the other man, and after a moment's hesitation, he
Speaker 2: fired a bullet into Resputant's chest. Mediately, Resputant fell to
Speaker 2: the floor, and upon hearing the shot, Usopov's compatriots came
Speaker 2: down to inspect the body. As the blood began to spread,
Speaker 2: the men dragged Rasputin's body across the floor to avoid
Speaker 2: God forbid, staining the bear skin rug, and then they
Speaker 2: took the jacket off of his back. Although the first
Speaker 2: part of their plan had gone slightly off the rails,
Speaker 2: the second phase was being put into play. Another of
Speaker 2: the men dressed in Resputan's coat and drove away from
Speaker 2: the palace to make it look like Gregory left of
Speaker 2: his own volition, while the man opposing as Resputen made
Speaker 2: his swift getaway. The rest of the men left the
Speaker 2: basement and hung about the house waiting for their next move,
Speaker 2: but Usupov couldn't sit still. For some inexplicable reason, he
Speaker 2: felt the need to check the body. When his feet
Speaker 2: found their way back to the scene of the crime,
Speaker 2: he took a small breath of relief. The body was
Speaker 2: just as they had left it, But then the figure
Speaker 2: on the ground began to move with blood leaking from
Speaker 2: his mouth. Resputant opened his eyes, greenish and snakelike, according
Speaker 2: to the Prince, and stared him down with an expression
Speaker 2: of satanic hatred. Felix Resputant croaked, blood flying from his
Speaker 2: mouth with every forced syllable. Yusupov ran to warn the others,
Speaker 2: but when he came back down, Resputant was gone. He'd
Speaker 2: walked out the door and into the snow, heading toward
Speaker 2: the side courtyard. The Prince followed after him, his accomplices
Speaker 2: in toe. As they followed the bleeding peasant past the
Speaker 2: iron gates, one of the men shot once twice, but
Speaker 2: they both missed until the third finally found a home
Speaker 2: in Resputant's back, causing the man to once again collapse
Speaker 2: to the ground. Upon approaching the body, a fourth and
Speaker 2: final bullet was fired, this time between his eyes. The
Speaker 2: sound of the last bullet cut through the night air
Speaker 2: like a knife, making the silence that followed feel almost
Speaker 2: like a dream, or maybe a nightmare. As the blood
Speaker 2: slowly dyed the snow beneath their feet, Crimson red at last,
Speaker 2: the mad mystic, the most universally hated man in all
Speaker 2: of Russia, Gregory Alfmovitrosputin, was dead this morning at six o'clock.
Speaker 2: Gregory Resputin suddenly passed away after a party at one
Speaker 2: of the most aristocratic houses in the center of Petrograd.
Speaker 2: Days before they would find the body, news outlets were
Speaker 2: already reporting the murder, and the citizens of the capital
Speaker 2: city were celebrating in the streets. Felix Yusupov, however, was
Speaker 2: not one of those people celebrating. The morning after the assassination,
Speaker 2: Yusupov woke at his father in law's house to a
Speaker 2: phone call from his residence the police had arrived to
Speaker 2: question him. When he did meet with the police, he
Speaker 2: immediately took offense at being accused of anything. Quote, if
Speaker 2: people murdered we resputen, they planned to connect the crime
Speaker 2: with me and my party, he refuted helplessly as the
Speaker 2: police raided his home. When questioned about the multiple gunshots
Speaker 2: heard by multiple witnesses the night before, Usupov claimed certain
Speaker 2: members of the party over indulged and shot a stray
Speaker 2: dog for fun. He took them back to his home
Speaker 2: and showed them the carcass of said dog, still lying
Speaker 2: in the snow. As the police drove away their questions. Unsatisfactorily,
Speaker 2: answered Usupov couldn't help but stare at the snow covered courtyard,
Speaker 2: where just twelve hours before, an entirely different body had
Speaker 2: been lying beneath his feet. That body had still yet
Speaker 2: to be found, but everyone in Russia seemed to agree
Speaker 2: that all signs pointed towards Felix Usupov. Meanwhile, inside the
Speaker 2: Alexander Palace, the Romanovs, specifically the Tsarina, were inconsolable by
Speaker 2: her orders. Yusupov was illegally placed under house arrest, no
Speaker 2: longer able to flee the city like so many of
Speaker 2: his accomplices already had. Her friend was gone, and somebody
Speaker 2: was going to pay. It would be two more days
Speaker 2: until Resputen's body would be pulled out of the icy
Speaker 2: Nevo River, nearly two hundred and fifty feet away from
Speaker 2: where the party had dumped his body from the top
Speaker 2: of the Great Petrovsky Bridge. When the police finally excavated
Speaker 2: the body from the ice, Resputen's torso was still bound
Speaker 2: by rope, but his arms extended out from his body,
Speaker 2: situated in such a way that it was rumored Resputen
Speaker 2: was still alive when he hit the water, and his
Speaker 2: final act was making the sign of the cross as
Speaker 2: he died. For years Russian officials kept the autopsy of
Speaker 2: Gregory Resputen out of the public eye, leaving the real
Speaker 2: cause of death up for speculation. All the while newspapers
Speaker 2: at the time, with nothing else to go on, were
Speaker 2: also reporting off hearsay. Combined, these circumstances almost encouraged the
Speaker 2: story to grow into the mythic proportions we've come to
Speaker 2: know them today. However, since then, the autopsy has been
Speaker 2: made available, and here's what we know. At the time
Speaker 2: of his death, Resputin had been very drunk. The report
Speaker 2: notes the thick stench of alcohol on his corpse, even
Speaker 2: after spending two nights in the icy depths of the river.
Speaker 2: He had suffered a large blunt force trauma to the
Speaker 2: head in addition to the three bullet wounds found on
Speaker 2: his body. His lungs, however, did not contain any water,
Speaker 2: suggesting he was actually dead by the time he was
Speaker 2: thrown from the bridge that night. The autopsy concluded the
Speaker 2: third bullet wound to the forehead, not the drowning, was
Speaker 2: Resputant's real cause of death. However, what's more interesting is
Speaker 2: the lack of any trace of poison other than copious
Speaker 2: amounts of alcohol in the bloodstream. The very distinct scent
Speaker 2: of cyanide was found nowhere on the body, leading the
Speaker 2: doctors to believe that the goods Resputin ingested earlier that
Speaker 2: evening were never poisoned in the first place. Historians have
Speaker 2: a couple of working theories as to how this happened.
Speaker 2: The first is that one of you Suppo's co conspirators
Speaker 2: had a sudden change of heart before Sputin was scheduled
Speaker 2: to arrive at the palace, and he switched the actual
Speaker 2: cyanide with a harmless alternative. Another theory is that the
Speaker 2: poison they sourced might not have actually been lethal in
Speaker 2: the first place. Usupov was not exactly the world's greatest
Speaker 2: hit man. It would have been easy for him to
Speaker 2: have been duped into thinking he had purchased the real thing.
Speaker 2: The final theory is one that changes what we know
Speaker 2: about the night of Resputant's murder altogether. This theory is
Speaker 2: that Usopov jazzed up the story for dramatic purposes. After
Speaker 2: Oursputant's body was found and Yusopov was understood to have
Speaker 2: been the culprit behind his demise, the Czarina wanted to
Speaker 2: put him and his accomplices on trial. However, it was
Speaker 2: painfully obvious from the celebrations in the street that a
Speaker 2: jury of his peers would find Yusupov not guilty, and
Speaker 2: while the Sarina wanted justice to be served, she also
Speaker 2: knew that a not guilty verdict would be viewed as
Speaker 2: a slight on the monarchy, an institution that was growing
Speaker 2: less and less stable by the day. The solution to
Speaker 2: this was Yusopov's ordered exile from the capital to his
Speaker 2: family's estates in central Russia without a trial. Years later,
Speaker 2: after the monarchy fell, Usopope and his family fled Russia,
Speaker 2: and he took with him, among priceless Jews, rules, and
Speaker 2: a couple of Rembrandts, his story about the night he
Speaker 2: killed Gregory Resputen. Yusupov often boasted of this accomplishment to
Speaker 2: people he would meet on his travels, and it makes
Speaker 2: sense he would aggrandize some of his claims to bolster
Speaker 2: his reputation, especially if he could stand to make money
Speaker 2: off of it. In the memoir, he would go on
Speaker 2: to write, so what actually happened that night, Well, it's
Speaker 2: impossible to say, after all, As Joseph Furman notes, in
Speaker 2: his biography, Resputant the untold story. The autopsy surgeon could
Speaker 2: have not been looking for the poison and failed to
Speaker 2: see it. An autopsy from nineteen sixteen is hardly as
Speaker 2: reliable as one would be today, so in reality, Resputin
Speaker 2: very well could have been poisoned, but just not given
Speaker 2: a lethal dose. Some like to speculate that Resputant had
Speaker 2: built up an immunity to poison, but that's actually not
Speaker 2: possible with cyanide personally. For no real reason, In just
Speaker 2: a hunch, I think that the Prince was sold fake
Speaker 2: pills and he didn't use a lethal dose. But in
Speaker 2: the larger sense, the truth about Resputant's murder stopped mattering
Speaker 2: a long time ago. The lack of details released to
Speaker 2: the public in the immediate aftermath, mixed with the already
Speaker 2: larger than life mythos of the man in question, created
Speaker 2: a perfect storm of mystery and intrigue that has flourished
Speaker 2: into a story that is most likely far superior to
Speaker 2: the actual source material, Which brings us back to the
Speaker 2: excuse me? Pickled penis sitting in the Museum of Sex
Speaker 2: and Erotica in Saint Petersburg. Although its origins are now
Speaker 2: widely understood to be of the bovine variety. The legend
Speaker 2: associated with it remains, and if we are to believe
Speaker 2: the events of that night at the r actually occurred,
Speaker 2: then Resputin obviously wanted his, let's say, larger than life
Speaker 2: legacy to have carried on. The question does remain, why
Speaker 2: do we continue to give the spotlight to someone as
Speaker 2: deeply controversial and problematic as Resputant. On a purely esthetic level,
Speaker 2: the idea that someone with the hygiene practices of a
Speaker 2: cockroache had access to Russia's most powerful royals is a
Speaker 2: confounding mystery in and of itself. But mix in the sex,
Speaker 2: the scandal, and the mysticism, and it's a recipe for intrigue.
Speaker 2: The legendary assassination is just icing on the cake. But
Speaker 2: underneath the chaotic Jenga tower that has become Resputant's legacy,
Speaker 2: I think it's important to remember that the man beneath
Speaker 2: it all was just a man, one whose all too
Speaker 2: real body was exhumed shortly after the Tsar's abdication, taken
Speaker 2: to the outskirts of the city, and hastily cremated by
Speaker 2: the hands of inexperienced soldiers, and after the flames had
Speaker 2: died out, the men dumped what charred remains there were
Speaker 2: into a nearby stream, where he calmly washed back into
Speaker 2: the earth from whence he came. That's the strange and
Speaker 2: possibly even true story of Gregory Resputin, But stick around
Speaker 2: after a brief sponsor break to hear the all too
Speaker 2: real story of one of the few people he left behind.
Speaker 2: Perhaps the only person to rival the larger than life
Speaker 2: persona of Gregory Resputen is his daughter Maria. After fleeing
Speaker 2: the country following the Bolshevik Revolution, Maria lived a nomadic
Speaker 2: lifestyle with her first husband until his death in nineteen
Speaker 2: twenty six. As the mother to two daughters. By this point,
Speaker 2: she knew she had to find a way to provide
Speaker 2: for her and her family. Cut to Maria Resputin taming
Speaker 2: lions in the Traveling Circus. In nineteen twenty nine, Maria
Speaker 2: joined the Bush Circus as a dancer, eventually making her
Speaker 2: way to America with the Ringling Brothers as their animal tamer.
Speaker 2: She was often billed as the daughter of the mad
Speaker 2: monk whose feets in Russia astonished the world. When asked
Speaker 2: if she minded being in a cage with the animals,
Speaker 2: she famously replied, why not, I've been in a cage
Speaker 2: with Bolsheviks. Her career with the circus only ended after
Speaker 2: she was brutally mulled by a polar bear. Miraculously she
Speaker 2: survived the attack, of course she did. I think it's
Speaker 2: actually a little ironic. Polar bear attack is the only
Speaker 2: method of death that has never been rumored to be
Speaker 2: ascribed to Resputant himself. Maria spent the rest of her
Speaker 2: life supporting her family by becoming a factory worker. It's
Speaker 2: funny how history can feel so distant from our lives
Speaker 2: when in reality, Resputant's daughter died in nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 2: the same year Star Wars would play in theaters for
Speaker 2: the first time.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaronmanky. The show is written and hosted by
Speaker 1: Danas Schwartz. Executive producers include Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rima Il Kali
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