16 March 2021 - ANASTASIA THE FAKE

 

ANASTASIA THE FAKE 

G'day folks,

In July of 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks in a basement in Ekaterinburg. However, rumors soon started to spread that Anastasia, the youngest Romanov daughter had managed to escape. These rumors were exploited by several imposters, but one of them went down in history as one of the greatest con artists ever - Anna Anderson.

In 1920, a nameless woman was pulled out of the Landwehr Canal in Berlin after a failed suicide attempt. She had no identifying documents and refused to talk, so the authorities sent her to a mental institution, where she stayed for 2 years. It was there that people started pointing out her physical resemblance to Grand Dutchess Anastasia, as well as her aloof demeanor and strange scars. When she finally started speaking again, it turned out that she also had a barely noticeable Russian accent. 

Many former aides and relatives of the Russian Royal Family came to visit Anderson to see if there was any truth to these claims. When she was shown old photographs of the family, her face would always turn red and she would become increasingly upset while refusing to speak. Only later that night she told one of the nurses: "The gentleman has a photo of my grandmother." She appeared to know many small details of the royal family's personal life. Though there were numerous inconsistencies in her stories and many doubted her legitimacy, word started to spread that Anderson was, in fact, Anastasia.



Upon her release from the asylum, Anderson’s circle of supporters grew, and they even began a long battle to win her legal recognition as Anastasia. By 1927, an alleged former roommate of Anderson claimed that her name was Franziska Schanzkowska, not Anna and certainly not Anastasia. This didn’t stop Anderson from indulging in her celebrity life and trying to get hold of the royal inheritance. 

 

She ultimately lost her case in the legal proceedings that dragged on for decades, but she stuck to her story until her death in 1984. Years later, the bodies of the Royal Family were recovered and a posthumous DNA test finally proved that Anderson was indeed a fraud. If anything, she was likely Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker who had gone missing in 1920.


Clancy's comment: Interesting story, eh?

I'm ...

 



 

 


 

 

 

2 comments:

  1. Are we sure? Where money is involved, and I presume a lot, I would not trust any test, DNA or otherwise, unless I could be assured of the bona fides of the laboratory. Basically, I'm not sure it is a condition that could ever be met since I have seen evidence of how easily all records, including medical records and lab records can be falsified. If she was or was not the true heir likely can never be proven to my satisfaction for these reasons.

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  2. That's a long time to keep up a con.

    ReplyDelete