Shortly after midnight on July 17, 1918, at a house in the town of Ekaterinburg in the Ural mountains, Bolshevik guards awakened the deposed Tsar Nicholas II together with his family and forced them into the basement, where they were shot and clubbed to death. NOVA follows forensic tests of skeletons discovered in Ekaterinburg in 1979 that are alleged to be the remains of the Russian royals, and explores the intriguing claim that Anna Anderson of Charlottesville, Virginia, was really the long lost Anastasia.
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00:00Tonight on NOVA
00:04Tsar Nicholas and his family are brutally executed
00:09But did they all die?
00:12For years this woman claimed to be Princess Anastasia
00:16Now the family's mass grave is uncovered
00:20And these bones can solve the mystery
00:24Science takes on the legend of the lost princess
00:28Anastasia, dead or alive
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01:14Siberia, 1991
01:24A birch forest just outside the mining town of Yekaterinburg
01:29Soldiers stand by as a long hidden Soviet secret comes to light
01:35The lost grave of Nicholas II
01:42The last Tsar of Russia
01:45Murdered by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution
01:52The bodies of the Tsar and his family have been missing for almost 75 years
01:57The investigators hope to close this historic case
02:05But they're frustrated by an unexpected problem
02:08They can't find two of the bodies
02:15Two of the Tsar's children
02:17This startling discovery
02:23Reopens one of the most famous unsolved mysteries of the 20th century
02:28The legend of Anastasia
02:31The youngest daughter of the Tsar
02:33Historians say that she died with her family
02:37But others insist that the young princess somehow escape the Bolshevik terror
02:42This idea gained support when in 1922 the woman in this picture claimed to be Anastasia
02:52It was the start of a lifelong struggle for recognition
02:56Is it possible that her story was true?
03:00I personally am convinced that she was genuine
03:04I don't know why the evidence hasn't spoken to more people before
03:09To me it's plain as day that she has to be genuine
03:16I don't believe it
03:18Anastasia died that night along with the rest of their family
03:24Now, after 75 years of controversy
03:27The Tsar's bones offer new evidence
03:30And forensic science and DNA testing may finally solve
03:34The mystery of Anastasia
03:38It all began in the last days of the Russian Imperial Court
03:50As the youngest daughter of the Tsar
03:57Anastasia Romanov lived a life of privilege
04:00Her father, Nicholas II, ruled with complete authority
04:05Revered as God's representative on Earth
04:12Anastasia had three beautiful sisters
04:16Maria, Tatiana, and Olga
04:20Her baby brother, Alexei
04:26Was heir to a dynasty that had acquired a sixth of the world's surface
04:31At the beginning of this century
04:37The children's lives were a real-life fairy tale
04:40A constant round of bright young men
04:43Magnificent palaces
04:45And elegant yachts
04:46It was a perfect world
04:52And it couldn't last
04:54The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin
05:04Despised the Romanovs and all they stood for
05:07With the Russian Revolution of 1917
05:12The Tsar was stripped of his power and placed under house arrest
05:16In the bloody civil war that followed
05:20The Tsar and his family were shuffled from place to place
05:24In 1918
05:26The family was confined to the Apatyev house
05:29In the Siberian mining town of Yekaterinburg
05:36The white army, loyal to the Romanovs
05:38Rallied against the Bolsheviks
05:42Hoping to rescue the imperial family
05:44And restore the Tsar to the throne
05:46They stormed Yekaterinburg in July 1918
05:52But it was too late
05:55All that remained in the Apatyev house
05:58Were the horrifying signs of a massacre
06:02Witnesses were questioned
06:05An abandoned mine was searched
06:08And the accumulated evidence was photographed and filed
06:12Bullets, buttons, buckles, false teeth
06:18A single severed finger
06:21And a few fragments of the imperial jewels
06:27The conclusion
06:29The Bolsheviks had murdered the Tsar
06:31His wife Alexandra
06:33Their physician Dr. Botkin
06:35Three servants
06:36And all five Romanov children
06:43But the bodies had vanished
06:45And for 70 years
06:47What really happened to the Tsar's family
06:49Remained a well kept Soviet state secret
06:53Russian author Edvard Radzynski
06:55Has spent years investigating the murder
06:58You see
06:59I had consciousness of Soviet people
07:02The same people
07:04We know about this execution
07:08Only from line of our test book
07:12The Romanov's were executed
07:15By people
07:16In the Apatyevsky house
07:19In basement
07:20That's all
07:21But when I began to read
07:24In detail
07:25How revolutionary people
07:27Killed innocent girls
07:29It was really terrible science
07:34Radzynski found a key document in the case
07:37The Yurovsky note
07:39Here was the story of the Romanov's last hours
07:42Written by the Soviet commandant
07:44Who organized the execution
07:46Yakov Yurovsky
07:48Everyone was asleep
07:54We woke Botkin
07:56And he woke the others
07:58We explained
08:00Because of the unrest in the town
08:03The family must be moved to the ground floor
08:06The Romanov's suspected nothing
08:10Nikolas carried Alexei in his arms
08:13The others carried cushions
08:15And other small items
08:17When they came in
08:20The commandant told the Romanov's
08:22That the Yurovsky executive committee
08:24Had ordered that they be shot
08:27Nikolas was killed immediately
08:34But afterwards
08:36The very strange story began
08:40The bullets bounced off Grand Duchess
08:46And returned to the Assassins
08:48The bullets flew through the room
08:51The assassins
08:57They were former workers
09:00Peasants
09:01They had really religious sense
09:04And they understood that it's true
09:07They got protected
09:09The Grand Duchess
09:11Because they continued to shoot
09:13And bullets continued to return them
09:15They did not know
09:16That the Tsarina hit their jewels
09:19In the courses of Grand Duchess
09:21And these jewels protected them
09:24They decided that it's good
09:26And they really became crazy
09:32The execution took 20 minutes to complete
09:36Yurovsky reported that the death squad
09:38Had to resort to bayonets
09:40To kill the children
09:41But Radzinski is not convinced
09:46That this would have finished them off
09:51Yurovsky Road
09:52We check the pulses
09:54It's a lie
09:55How to check it?
09:56Check out in this terrible smoke
09:59Among blood
10:00It was as lakes
10:02Of blood
10:11Nineteen months after the secret murder
10:17A young woman is pulled from a canal in Berlin
10:20A failed suicide
10:22She refuses to answer any questions
10:25And is taken to a public mental hospital
10:29The staff calls her Miss Unknown
10:31And because of her accent
10:33Assumes she is a Russian refugee
10:37Nearly two years after being admitted
10:39The woman reveals what she says
10:41Is her true identity
10:43Anastasia Romanov
10:45The youngest daughter of the Tsar
10:49She tells a fantastic story of escape
10:52Dramatized in this Hollywood film
10:54Remembering nothing of the shootings
10:57She claims to have been rescued
10:59By one of her captors
11:00The soldier named Tchaikovsky
11:04Smuggled her through hundreds of miles
11:06Of dangerous territory
11:08And over the border into Romania
11:17But her rescuer was soon killed
11:19And Anastasia fled to Berlin
11:21In search of a royal relative
11:23Failing to find her family
11:26She threw herself into the canal
11:29Known to the world as Anna Anderson
11:33The woman became an international celebrity
11:36But she was always reluctant
11:38To speak of the murders
11:40Please don't speak about his dark
11:43Really not
11:44Please not
11:46Because of his sailor
11:47And thinking you know
11:48Please not
11:50Dreadful
11:52Conservate for myself
11:55Anna Anderson's tragic story
12:01Attracted many supporters
12:02Over the course of her life
12:06One of them was Peter Kurth
12:08Who became fascinated as a teenager
12:13The author of several biographies
12:15Kurth first met Anna Anderson in 1971
12:18At that time she was living in Virginia
12:23Married to a retired history professor
12:25Named Jack Manahan
12:27This house is so completely changed
12:36From when Anastasia was living here
12:39You literally could not see the house
12:41From the street
12:42She had great big bags full of things
12:44And tree stumps
12:46And bushes
12:47And brambles
12:48And she had something like 80 cats
12:51On this property
12:53When I finally got down
12:55Quaking in my boots
12:56At the prospect of meeting this great
12:5820th century legend
12:59She refused to come out of her room
13:01Jack greeted me out here
13:04Finally after we'd been out here
13:06Two or three hours
13:07Standing here
13:08He went back into the house
13:09Jack did
13:10Banged on the door again
13:11And said
13:12Now Anastasia
13:13Enough is enough
13:14We're gonna sit in the car
13:15And I'm gonna honk the horn
13:16Four times
13:17And on the fourth honk
13:19You are coming out
13:21I'm not
13:22She said
13:23But we did
13:24We sat there
13:25He honked the horn
13:26And he turned to me
13:27And said
13:28She'll be right out now
13:29And she was
13:30Just as he'd predicted
13:31And I jumped out of the car
13:32To greet her
13:33And called her
13:34Your Imperial Highness
13:35And she brushed me away
13:36And said
13:37Don't shake my hand
13:38Jumped in the front seat of the car
13:39And sat there
13:40Ferocious
13:41Cowl on her face
13:42For about five minutes
13:43And then just as suddenly
13:45As we drove off into town
13:47She relaxed
13:48She became
13:49Absolutely
13:50Friendly
13:51Charming
13:52Easy going
13:53Helpful
13:54This
13:57This really
13:58That was the moment
13:59When my
14:00Strong interest
14:01In the subject
14:02Made a
14:03Move into
14:04A complete
14:05Rapture
14:06Once I had entered
14:09This very strange
14:10Kingdom
14:11On University Circle
14:12In Charlottesville
14:13I was sunk
14:14I was a goner
14:15There was no way out
14:16There was no way back
14:17After that
14:20How can I tell you
14:21Who I am?
14:25In which way?
14:28Can you tell me that?
14:29Can you really prove to me
14:31Who you are?
14:37Seventeen at the time
14:38Of their first meeting
14:39Peter Kurth set out
14:40To investigate
14:41Anna Anderson's claims
14:43From the start
14:45Visitors were struck
14:46By Anna Anderson's
14:47Physical similarity
14:48To Anastasia
14:49She was the right height
14:50At the same hair
14:51And eyes
14:52And more unusual traits
14:53A damaged finger
14:54On the left hand
14:55A distinctive bunion
14:56On the toe
14:57A cauterized mole
14:58On the shoulder
14:59A cauterized mole
15:00On the shoulder
15:01And Anna Anderson
15:02Was covered
15:03With scars
15:04Including
15:05A star shaped
15:06Mark
15:07On the foot
15:08The pattern
15:09Of a Bolshevik
15:10Bayonet
15:11Dr. Eugene Botkin
15:12The Tsar's
15:13Personal Physician
15:14Was murdered
15:15Along with the role
15:16Of the role
15:17Of the role
15:18Of the role
15:19Of the role
15:20Of the role
15:21Of the role
15:22Of the role
15:23Of the role
15:24Of the role
15:25Of the role
15:26Of the role
15:27Of the role
15:28Of a loyal family
15:29In Siberia
15:30His son
15:31Gleb Botkin
15:32Was a playmate
15:33Of the young Anastasia
15:34And was with her
15:35During the family's
15:36Imprisonment
15:37My father
15:38Gleb Botkin
15:39Met Anastasia
15:42After she reappeared
15:44In Europe
15:45For the first time
15:46At Castle Sion
15:48Which was the home
15:50Of the Duke
15:51Of Loestenberg
15:52He had planned
15:54To meet with her
15:55And to show
15:56A series of pictures
15:57That they had worked
15:59On together
16:00As it happened
16:02He saw her pass
16:03By him
16:04In the hallway
16:05And the minute
16:06He saw her
16:07He knew
16:08It was Anastasia
16:09Just the way she walked
16:10The way she looked
16:11It had been less than
16:13Ten years
16:14Since they had seen
16:15One another last
16:16And that's a relatively
16:18Short time
16:19And he just recognized her
16:20He knew she was she
16:21He just recognized her
16:22He knew she was she
16:23And subsequently
16:24They did go through
16:25The pictures
16:26And she was a
16:27She
16:28Whenever they would come
16:29To one of the pictures
16:30Done in Siberia
16:31She'd get very upset
16:32Another early visitor
16:34Was Pierre Girard
16:36Anastasia's former tutor
16:38Girard met Anna Anderson
16:40At the request of the Romanov family
16:43After several visits
16:45And some hesitation
16:46The tutor declared her a fraud
16:48In his book
16:49The False Anastasia
16:51Girard wrote
16:52That Anna Anderson
16:54Did not even remotely resemble
16:56The real Grand Duchess
16:58Anastasia's uncle Ernst
17:01The German Grand Duke of Hesse
17:03Became another active opponent
17:05To Anna Anderson
17:06He secretly hired a detective
17:08To investigate her claims
17:10The detective produced this photograph
17:13Said to be a Polish woman
17:15Named
17:16Franziska Szanskowska
17:18Szanskowska
17:20Szanskowska had disappeared
17:21From her rooming house
17:22In Berlin
17:23Just before Anna Anderson
17:24Was pulled from the canal
17:26Her scars
17:29Said the detective
17:30Were the result
17:31Not of the firing squad
17:32But of an explosion
17:34In the hand grenade factory
17:35Where she worked
17:37In 1928
17:39Twelve of Anastasia's relatives
17:41Issued a statement
17:42Denouncing Anna Anderson
17:44Incensed
17:49Gleb Botkin wrote
17:51To the Tsar's sister
17:52It is easier to understand
17:56A crime committed
17:57By a gang of crazed
17:58And drunken savages
18:00Than the calm
18:01Systematic
18:02Endless persecution
18:03Of one of your own family
18:07My family
18:09Have always believed
18:12That her claims
18:14Were bogus
18:15They believed
18:17That they were doing
18:18The correct thing
18:20For the family
18:21Not for themselves
18:22But for the family
18:23And for the memory
18:24Of the family
18:25Not all the Romanovs
18:27Rejected Anna Anderson
18:28Gleb Botkin
18:29Was able to enlist
18:30The help of Anastasia's cousin
18:31Princess Xenia
18:32Who had fled Russia
18:33For the United States
18:34In Vermont
18:47In Vermont
18:48Peter Kurth
18:49Tracked down Xenia's daughter
18:50Nancy Weinkoop
18:51Nancy Weinkoop
18:53She was a six year old girl
18:55When her mother invited
18:56Anna Anderson
18:57For a visit
18:58Well from what I can gather
19:00She really wanted to
19:02See for herself
19:04And I think originally
19:06She wanted to disprove it
19:08But the more she went into it
19:11Because there was such a controversy
19:13She knew there was a controversy
19:15So what side was she going to go in on
19:17The only way she could find out
19:19Was to bring her over
19:20And so she sent this
19:22Old Scottish nanny of mine over
19:24And got her
19:25Brought her back
19:26For six months
19:27She tried to trip her up
19:30And she never could trip her up
19:33And she always used to say
19:34She was just herself
19:36She wasn't trying to be somebody else
19:38I think if you are trying to be somebody else
19:41You slip up here or there
19:42Or you sort of give an attitude
19:44Or a pose of something
19:46She never
19:47Never struck my mother
19:48As being anybody
19:49But just herself
19:50It was during this first trip to America
19:53That the woman from the canal
19:55Began to call herself
19:56Anna Anderson
19:57In an attempt to avoid the press
19:59But no matter the name
20:02There was no stopping
20:03The international guessing game
20:05Was she?
20:07Or wasn't she?
20:09I got the feeling
20:11When I was with her
20:13That there was a family resemblance
20:16In not so much physical
20:18But the way she behaved towards me
20:21There was this great feeling of love and affection
20:24And I have felt it
20:26With a lot of my European aunts
20:28And of course that's the thing
20:30How can you stand up in court and say
20:32She affects me the same way as aunt so and so
20:35You know they'll look at you as though you're crazy
20:38But court was where Anna Anderson's struggle for recognition
20:42Would play out
20:43The Romano family filed a motion
20:45To have all the Tsar's children officially declared dead
20:48Thereby clearing inheritance rights
20:51Anna Anderson's lawyers countersued
20:54Claiming that she, Anastasia, was alive
20:57The trial was a media circus
21:00The witnesses going direct from court
21:03To German newsreel appearances
21:05Felix Dassel
21:07A former captain in the Russian dragoons
21:10Was wounded during the First World War
21:12Recuperating in a private hospital near the Tsar's palace
21:16Dassel and the other patients
21:18Were visited often by the Tsar's daughters
21:20Maria and Anastasia
21:22Ten years after the war
21:27Captain Dassel met Anna Anderson
21:29And showed her an old photograph
21:31Of a fellow patient
21:33It's the man with the pockets
21:35She declared
21:37Dassel said that Anastasia herself
21:40Had given the man that nickname
21:42And that no impostor could ever have known such a small detail
21:46The attorney opposing Anna Anderson
21:53Dr. Gunther von Berenberg-Gassler
21:55Is not impressed by such anecdotes
21:58She was a confidence trickster
22:05Of great refinement
22:07A famous example of this
22:10Is the so-called darling letter
22:13In a letter to Anastasia's aunt
22:17Anna Anderson
22:18Who spoke no English at the time
22:20Put an apostrophe in the middle of the word
22:23Darling
22:24Berenberg-Gassler believes
22:26That she copied the word
22:27From this published letter
22:29Written by the Tsarina Alexandra
22:31But Anna Anderson mistakenly thought
22:34That a comma from the line above
22:36Was part of the word darling
22:38If that's not tricky
22:43I don't know what is
22:45Berenberg-Gassler pressed the case
22:49That Anna Anderson really was
22:51Franziska Shanskowska
22:53The missing factory worker
22:55That the German detective had uncovered
22:57If that was a Polish factory worker
23:01I am the Pope
23:03There were many, many aspects of her personality
23:06And her character and her being
23:09That were utterly distinctive
23:11There was nothing imaginary about
23:13This immense dignity that she had
23:16Which was not apparent at first sight
23:19It was something you had to be around her long enough
23:21And you would see it revealed
23:22You would see these moments of transformation
23:25Of her body, her face, her voice, her personality
23:28This is not the invention of her partisans
23:30This is real
23:31I can only say she had a special talent for learning
23:38It reminds me of Pygmalion
23:44If you look at the history of courtesans
23:49In the baroque era
23:50You find mistresses of princes
23:53Who came from the lowest origins
23:55And they later became very great ladies
24:00Often even achieving great things in politics
24:04Was this woman, taken by so many for royalty
24:12Really a Polish peasant?
24:14Or some sort of mark
24:17To photo comparison expert Jeff Oxley
24:20It certainly looks that way
24:22We assume, to begin with
24:24That they are the same person
24:26We start off without assumption
24:28And we set up two points
24:30In this case, the best two points
24:32Is the interocular distance
24:34That is the distance between the centre of the eyes
24:37We painted in red
24:39So that you can tell the difference
24:41And we painted the other one
24:42Of Francesca
24:44In green
24:46Now with this system
24:48If those two points are correlated
24:51And it is the same person
24:53Other points on the face
24:55Should be correlated
24:56And again, you'll notice
24:58As we fade in of one and out of the other
25:00For example, let's take this point here
25:02Fade into the red
25:04The red, you can see
25:05It coincides exactly
25:07With the point
25:08When we fade into the green
25:10So those are consistent
25:12And that's consistent
25:13Now let's have a look at the mouth
25:14If you come into the mouth
25:15The coincidence
25:16In terms of its size
25:18And its position
25:19Is almost exact
25:24It looks very great on computers
25:25But I do not believe it at all
25:27It will take a lot more than a computer
25:28To convince me
25:29That this woman was born
25:31You know, made hand grenades
25:32In the First World War
25:33In a factory
25:34She couldn't
25:35I mean, she didn't know
25:36That you were supposed to get change back
25:37From your money
25:38When you left it on the counter
25:39If you bought something
25:40They had to teach her things like this
25:41Because she
25:42Her contact with the real world
25:44Had been so minimal as a child
25:46I know all these aspects of her are true
25:48I know that the people who knew
25:49Or even many who didn't believe her
25:51Knew that she was somebody
25:52Very distinct
25:54They knew she was
25:55That she was really somebody
25:58The German court sought more definitive proof
26:02Without Anastasia's fingerprints
26:05Or dental records
26:06There could be no quick verdict
26:08The case dragged on for decades
26:10Examining every possible bit of evidence
26:13In 1960
26:17Even Anna Anderson's ears
26:19Were compared to photographs of Anastasia's
26:22In 1993
26:24Forensic expert Peter Venesis
26:27Repeated the ear test
26:28With more advanced technology
26:30We are basing this on the assumption
26:33Which has been validated over the years
26:35That there are no two ears the same
26:37Even on identical twins
26:39And once the person has passed the age of four months
26:44Then the design contours of the ear
26:47Its attachment to the face
26:50Remain the same
26:52They don't change
26:53Even into advanced elderly age
26:56Photographs of Grand Duchess Anastasia
26:59Are enlarged to focus on the ears
27:02These are then compared to the ears of Anna Anderson
27:06Seen here
27:07Along with five other women
27:09Because there's an element of human judgement involved
27:14Six different technicians score the ears separately
27:17Without knowing the subject's identity
27:20Okay, can you give me a wipe
27:22There is one particular set of photographs
27:25Which has scored better than the other
27:28This is the right ear that matched the best
27:33And Anastasia's
27:35The best match
27:37And Anastasia's
27:39Venesis scores the ears on a scale from one to five
27:45The angle of view or orientation
27:48Sometimes complicates the scoring
27:50I could only give it to five if it was
27:53If the orientation was good and it was a perfect match
27:58But in view of the fact that the orientation did vary
28:02I would therefore give it a score of about four as being a very good match
28:07On the left ear the match was even better
28:12Slightly more turned isn't it?
28:14Yeah
28:16If one takes the inner part of that ear into consideration only
28:21I would have said a five for that, most definitely a five for that part of the ear
28:26And I don't think that this pattern on the inner aspect of the ear would have occurred purely by chance
28:33I think this was significant
28:35The match was amazingly close
28:38This is the set that you can see
28:43From this set here
28:45This is the lady in question that in fact
28:47Was seemed to be the most likely of the other five candidates
28:53The lady in question was Anna Anderson
28:57All those pluses, how many pluses can you get?
29:11I mean it goes on and on ad infinitum
29:13Unless of course you don't believe and then you don't listen to any of the pluses
29:18In 1967 the German court ruled that Anna Anderson had failed to prove that she was Anastasia
29:26She had lost her long struggle for recognition
29:33Penniless, she left Europe and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia
29:44She stayed at the home of Jack Manahan, a retired history professor
29:48Six months after her arrival, Jack and Anna Anderson were married
30:01As Anastasia Manahan, she lived out her increasingly eccentric life surrounded by her beloved cats and dogs
30:08Her days were punctuated by visits from the media
30:13In 1983, local reporters covered the publication of Peter Kurth's book
30:19She is Anastasia
30:21I feel that a real injustice has been committed in this case
30:26She thinks so too
30:33Not long after this last meeting, Anastasia Manahan was committed to a nursing home
30:39Deemed mentally unstable and unable to look after herself
30:42In 1984, she died
30:45Her true identity no clearer than it had been the day she was pulled from a canal in 1920
30:51In the 1970s, a group of amateur detectives living in Yakutierenberg started a hunt for the lost grave of the last Tsar
30:56A copy of the secret executioner's report was discovered
31:13A photograph of the man in charge of the burial turned up
31:17He stood atop a set of wooden boards
31:20On the back it was labeled, Standing on the Tsar's Tomb
31:24The detectives found what they were looking for
31:28And then, covered it up
31:31They swore an oath of silence
31:33And waited for the end of the communist regime
31:36In 1991, the grave was exhumed again
31:40This time, before the cameras of Russian television
31:44For 75 years, the fate of the Tsar and his family
31:49Had been a matter of conjecture, opinion and faith
31:52Now, these bones would turn the case over to the world of science
32:02Forensic anthropologist, Dr. William Maples
32:05When the grave was opened, the bodies were stacked one on top of the other in a haphazard fashion
32:12Arms and legs, akimbo, it was just a typical jumbled mass grave
32:23Dr. Maples was called in by the Russians to help identify the bones
32:26Here we have several of the cranial remains from the grave
32:32This skull is that of Alexandra, the Tsaritsa
32:41It shows impressive dental work with crowns that are made of 100% pure platinum
32:47Here we have the two front teeth
32:53Beautiful workmanship, clearly not only the best dental care of its time
32:58But the most expensive dental care you could imagine
33:02This skull is Tsar Nicholas
33:07He was missing many of his teeth and had rather severe periodontal disease
33:13If he hadn't have been killed in 1918
33:19He probably would have had to have his teeth removed and dentures made
33:26Because his overall dental health was not good at all
33:34One is tempted to wonder if being the Tsar gives you the right not to go to the dentist as much as you should
33:41The bones also showed graphic evidence of a violent end
33:49All of the skulls show extensive facial damage, probably from rifle butts
33:57We have some interesting injuries
34:01We have a broken jaw, the lower jaw, the mandible is broken here on the left side of the body
34:08I believe this is where the gunshot entered her head
34:13And from her lower jaw traversed up through her palate
34:20Behind her nasal structures
34:23And through the front part of her brain
34:27To emerge from the top of her head, right about here
34:30This is the breast bone from this individual skeleton 9
34:37And it has a stab wound from a large weapon such as a bayonet or something
34:43That goes all the way through it, comes out the back surface
34:47This skull received a gunshot wound
34:50A fairly small caliber here
34:52Traversed through the brain and exited over here in her right temporal area
35:03To back up the physical evidence
35:05The Russians sent samples of the bones to London
35:08Where Dr. Peter Gill would perform forensic DNA tests
35:12So what we are going to do is to extract the DNA from all of these sets of bones
35:20And to compare that DNA with DNA from other relatives
35:27Standard DNA testing uses DNA from the chromosomes unique to every individual
35:34But to test the Tsar's bones, comparisons must be made across several generations
35:39So Dr. Gill will use DNA from mitochondria, the cell's energy base
35:47Mitochondrial DNA is passed on intact from mother to child
35:53Because it remains virtually identical over many generations
35:57Mitochondrial DNA is an excellent indicator of maternal bloodlines
36:01Like all DNA, mitochondrial DNA is made up of four bases
36:11Adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine
36:16Which appear over and over
36:18It is the order of the bases that determines a family's DNA profile
36:22England's Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh
36:27Is related through the maternal line to Anastasia's mother, Tsarina Alexandra
36:35So his mitochondrial DNA has the same pattern as the Tsarina and her children
36:41He donated a blood sample to Dr. Gill
36:44The mitochondrial DNA was extracted and compared to the DNA from the bones found in Yekaterinburg
36:50The DNA patterns matched exactly
36:55The estimate we've given is the lowest one which we could imagine
37:00A probability of about 98.5% that this is the Romanov family
37:08These results need to be taken in conjunction with the anthropological evidence
37:14And then other probability estimates may be given
37:20It's like putting together a big jigsaw
37:23If the bones in the grave were a puzzle, there were two important pieces missing
37:30The Russians expected to find eleven bodies in the grave
37:35But there were only nine
37:37Who was missing?
37:38All the male skeletons were middle-aged
37:43So Alexei, the fourteen-year-old heir to the throne
37:47Was definitely absent
37:49Among the females, the middle-aged Tsarina and Maid were present
37:54Along with three younger women
37:56One of the Tsar's four daughters was unaccounted for
38:00At the time of their deaths, Olga would have been almost 23 years old
38:07Tatiana, 21
38:09Maria, 19
38:11And Anastasia, 17 years, one month
38:19This is probably the skull of Olga, the oldest daughter
38:24Her wisdom teeth showed complete roots
38:28Which would be expected in someone about 23 years old
38:32At the time of her death
38:34The other two daughters that were found
38:38Did not have complete roots on those particular teeth
38:42So they were clearly younger than this
38:45Searching for the mysterious Anastasia
38:48Maples looked to the vertebrae, the bones in the back
38:51When we're young, small bony rings lie between each vertebrae
39:00Around age 18, these rings fuse with the larger bones
39:06If Anastasia, age 17, were in the grave
39:10Then some of the vertebrae would appear without rings
39:12None of the vertebrae show any really open rings
39:21That aren't more or less united
39:24None of the vertebrae show any just very partially united rings
39:34If she were present, then some vertebrae should show immaturity, marked immaturity
39:40And they don't
39:43None of the bones show any immaturity
39:46As you would see in a 17-year-old girl
39:49So, in my opinion, Anastasia wasn't among the nine buried in that grave
39:58What had happened to the two youngest children of the Tsar?
40:02Maples believes the answer lies in the Yurovsky note
40:07The secret account of the Romanov murder written by the head executioner
40:12According to Yurovsky, the grisly job of disposing of the 11 bodies took almost three days
40:18The site chosen was an abandoned mine
40:25But it turned out that no one knew where the selected mine shaft was
40:30The Commandant sent riders to find a place, but no one could
40:38Several times the truck broke down
40:40Finally, with daylight approaching, they reached their destination
40:45The victims were stripped, their clothing burned, and the naked bodies lowered down the mine shaft
40:53The Bolsheviks threw grenades into the pit, but the explosions failed to seal off the grave
40:59Fearing the bodies would be discovered, the disposal squad returned the next night
41:08They retrieved the corpses, and set out for deeper mines several miles away
41:13But again, fate intervened
41:20At about 4.30 on the morning of July 19th, the vehicle got permanently stuck
41:26Since we are not going to reach the mines, we had to bury them or burn them
41:34By about 7 in the morning, a pit 6 feet deep and 8 feet square was ready
41:47The bodies were put in the hole
41:50And the faces and all the bodies were doused with sulfuric acid
41:53So they couldn't be recognized
41:56And to prevent any rotting smell
42:02But not all the victims were buried, said Jurovsky
42:05Two of the bodies were destroyed in a bonfire built nearby
42:13Even a burned body will leave some remains
42:16But after 4 years of searching, there are still no signs of the missing children
42:20Dr. Maples believes the evidence, though elusive, is still there
42:29A lot can be done out here at this site
42:32There's a lot of debris down here
42:36Some of it looks like rocks
42:38Some of it looks potentially like bone
42:40Bone will stick to your tongue because it's dry, especially burned
42:42So that's a good way of telling rocks from bones
42:45But that's nothing
42:49So were the bodies burned?
42:51Or was Jurovsky's story merely a cover-up for the embarrassing escape of Anastasia and Alexei?
42:56Through the years, several men claimed to be Alexei
42:57Through the years, several men claimed to be Alexei
42:59But the young heir suffered from hemophilia, a disease of the blood which prevents clotting
43:02Even a minor injury could have killed him
43:05So the chances of Alexei surviving the firing squad seem nil
43:06But Anastasia was another matter
43:09Anastasia was another matter
43:11Anastasia was another matter
43:13Anastasia was another matter
43:15Anastasia and Alexei
43:16Through the years, several men claimed to be Alexei
43:19But the young heir suffered from hemophilia, a disease of the blood which prevents clotting
43:22Even a minor injury could have killed him
43:25So the chances of Alexei surviving the firing squad seemed nil
43:29But Anastasia was another matter
43:35Was it possible that the mischievous daughter who loved to play tricks
43:41Had performed the greatest escape act of all?
43:52If they had known during the Hamburg trials that the body was missing
43:55I guarantee you they would have clinched it
43:57Because she damn near won
44:00In Germany, she almost made it
44:03When she died, Anna Andersen's body was cremated
44:07This ruled out the possibility of DNA comparisons with the Tsar's bones
44:14Ever since Gleb Botkin championed her cause in the 1920s
44:18Anna Andersen's supporters had sought proof of her authenticity
44:22Botkin's daughter Marina Schweitzer
44:24continued the search even after Anna Andersen's death
44:28At the time that they identified the remains of the whole imperial family
44:34Of course, we wondered if we could do the same for the Grand Duchess
44:40It's a matter of loyalty, you know
44:42There's somebody here to keep on with what ought to be done
44:45It's a matter of family loyalty, whatever you want to say, yeah
44:50In 1993, almost a decade after Anna Andersen's death
44:56The Schweitzers found what could be the conclusive piece of evidence
45:00The question may arise as to how do we know this is Miss Manahan's tissue
45:06And I can assure you that the number that we have correlates to the number on the surgical pathology report
45:12Which also correlates to her history number
45:15And I know full well that this indeed is the tissue of Anastasia Manahan
45:19Tissue received as a portion of small bowel from her
45:22Anna Andersen had undergone surgery at a Charlottesville hospital in 1979
45:26A small portion of her intestine had been removed and routinely stored in the pathology lab
45:34Dick and Marina Schweitzer hired Dr. Peter Gill, the same scientist who identified the Tsar's bones
45:41To determine once and for all Anna Andersen's true identity
45:46Dr. Gill, I'm now going to seal this bag from the D-block
45:50This has the four tissue samples that you took and the control from that block
45:53Okay, thank you
45:55These bags have an adhesive on them that seal the bag
46:00And the bag can only be re-entered one time
46:04Dr. Gill will compare DNA from the intestine to the DNA of the Duke of Edinburgh
46:11Already established to be identical to his cousins, the Tsar's children
46:16If the DNA tests were to prove that Anna Andersen were Anastasia
46:23I suppose my reactions would be twofold
46:28One of sorrow, that she died without her identity
46:35Or with her identity being questioned
46:39And I think that would be sad
46:44I suppose the second one would be a bit of chagrin
46:51That the family would have a wonderful American expression, egg on its face
46:55But, you know, it would be a sad mistake
47:00But it would be an honest mistake
47:03If we find out that two or three reputable tests for DNA
47:10Demonstrate that she has not related to these bones
47:13That she is not the same
47:15Then I will say, well, it looks like we made a mistake
47:18I will say that and I won't mind saying that
47:20It won't reflect negatively on me at all
47:22I will then want to know who on earth she was
47:25As anyone who knew her would want to know
47:27Since the 1920s, Anna Andersen's opponents claim to know exactly who she was
47:35The missing factory worker, Franziska Shanskowska
47:39And now this theory, too, can be put to the test
47:44A maternal grand-nephew of Franziska Shanskowska has been found in Germany
47:48The nephew, Karl Mausher, gives blood so that his DNA can be compared to Anna Andersen's
47:58After months of work, the results are in
48:11Hello? Hello? Is Mr. Schweitzer there, please?
48:14This is Mrs. Schweitzer
48:15Thank you
48:17I'm phoning up with the results of our tests
48:21Now, shall I give it to you straight?
48:25Yes, okay
48:27The sample that we got from the tissue
48:31Did not match the DNA profile which we would expect to have found from the
48:37Grand Duchess Anastasia
48:38We then compared the tissue sample with a blood sample from Karl Mausher
48:52And we actually got a positive match
48:56Oh, that's not possible
48:58That is just unbelievable
49:00Unbelievable
49:01But that's all right, I'm sorry to interrupt you, Doctor
49:03Yeah, okay
49:05So, that does support the view that
49:09Anna Andersen, uh, was, um, Kanschowska
49:15Oh, that's not possible
49:17It's just impossible
49:19It's just impossible
49:21It's just out of this world
49:23That's unbelievable
49:25Shown here are some of the differences that we've observed
49:28So, this upper sequence is out of the Duke of Edinburgh
49:31Then we have Anna Andersen sequence
49:33And thirdly, Karl Mausher
49:35And you can see that there are differences between the sequences of the Duke of Edinburgh
49:40And Anna Andersen
49:42For instance, in this region, the sequence of the Duke of Edinburgh reads GGGT
49:47Whereas within Anna Andersen, it reads GGAT
49:52And in fact, this is the same as that of Karl Mausher in this region, who also reads GGAT
49:59And we can keep on looking at these other differences
50:03Um, to, to demonstrate the point that
50:07Anna Andersen does not have the same sequence as the Duke of Edinburgh
50:11And is therefore not the missing princess
50:14She is not Anastasia
50:16It's not possible
50:18Something happened, something happened
50:19I don't know how
50:20Fungina would never be taken in by a Polish peasant
50:23And what about Princess Xenia?
50:25And, uh, Princess Xenia
50:27And what about, um, uh, uh, Saxa Halterberg
50:31That's right
50:32All those people, the Leuchtenbergs
50:34They, they just wouldn't do it
50:36They would never have been taken in by somebody of less than really aristocratic origins
50:43Peter Kurth followed Anna Andersen's story for 20 years
50:49Shortly after hearing the DNA results, he came down with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized
50:56It, it is impossible for me to accept that Anna Andersen was Franziska Shenskowska
51:01It will never happen, I promise you
51:03This is because, as I've said, I knew her
51:06And I'm speaking not as an expert, but as a witness
51:09As someone who knew what she was like, knew what her presence was like, knew what her face was like
51:12Knew what her manner, her gestures, her every fiber was made of
51:19She was an absolute lady right down the line
51:22There was nothing about her that made you think of factories and fields
51:27Nothing
51:29In addition to Dr. Gill's lab, DNA tests were also performed by the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
51:37And at Penn State University
51:38All three labs came up with the same DNA profile for Anna Andersen
51:44Indicating she could not have been Anastasia
51:50The DNA test supports one conclusion
51:53Anna Andersen was Franziska Shenskowska
51:56It isn't about Anna Andersen, these statistics about what chances it would be that she was this, that or the other thing
52:05It's not about her at all, it's about science
52:08Science, the tragedy of science and the dark side of science is that it does not take into account the authentic experience of real people
52:14This was the big thing that was taken from her, was the right to insist on her own experience and her own memories
52:23So that's all I'm doing here now, is insisting on my own experience
52:26You read a book, but I was leaving this dirt
52:32That's it, living it
52:34Dirt it was, and nothing else Mr. Monaghan
52:37Not something comfortable reading a book
52:39No
52:40When you sit comfortable and eat nicely and read
52:42I have been leaving this dirt
52:45Dirt I was leaving
52:46If Anna Andersen wasn't Anastasia, what did happen to the real princess?
52:55Anastasia and Alexei almost certainly died that night, in my opinion
53:01I've known too many murderers
53:05I've seen what murderers do
53:07Kind-hearted executioners don't seem to be real in the world, only in myths and legends
53:18I just don't see how anyone could have survived it
53:22Could have survived the beating
53:24Could have survived the shootings
53:27Could have survived the stabbing
53:29Bodies falling out of trucks, after all of what happened to them in the Apatyev house
53:39I don't believe it
53:41Those two children died that night, along with the rest of their family
53:48In Russia, the search for the two missing children continues
53:53And until new evidence turns up, what really happened to Anastasia Romanov
53:58Will remain a mystery
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