THE MONK RASPUTIN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3023, 9 March 1917, Page 5

THE MONK RASPUTIN

REMARKABLE STORIES OF HIS END IN PETROGRAD CONFLICTING STATEMENTS Some time ago tbo body of Raspufe the mysterious monk of "Russia, wa recovered 1 from the Nova. The Petrc grad correspondents' of various paper state that one Friday night two youii| jnien belonging to the highest Petro grad society drove up in a motor-oa to the house on Corokoraya Street oc cupied by a man whoso name was no tonoiis throughout Russia, This niai was taken in a car to a large house o' •/ we Moika Canal, owned by Prine ttussupoff Siimarokoff. ■ Elston. Tin attaohed to the house extendi «'om the canal to Offitserskaya Street At 3 o'clock on Saturday morning t policeman on the Moika and anothei policeman on the Offitserskaya heart .'shots and cries from the garden. Tin Jwliceman on the Cfßtierskaya sav several persons coming out of the gaty ; aud asked them what had happened, 'but received no explanation. Shortlj afterwards a motor-car drove up into ■the garden, and another car arrived at the door of the houso on the Moika Side. .' The judicial authorities were tailed iip, and traces of blood were Scon oh the snow in the garden. According to tho "Daily Mail" correspondent, a Moscow paper reports how early on Saturday morning following a policeman, on hearing four revolver shots, approached the Yussupoff Palace. A man in uniform emerged, iind thus addressed the policeman: "I am a member of, the Dun a." Ho then gavo tho namo of ono of tho Deputies of tho Right. "You aro a patriot?" he asked the policeman. "Yes," was . tho answer. "Then listen. I have ' just killed ." The body, clad in a . fur coat, was then borno out from the palace and placed in a motor-car, which, with the man in uniform, set off in the direotiou of tho Marinski Square.' The policeman, reported what had happened, and an investigation followed 1 . Body Found in an Icehole. ; In the course of Saturday and Sun--'day an investigation was made by the. judicial authorities, a number of persons examined, and the main facts'as to the assassination established. In •the ico on tho branch of the Neva near the Petrovsky Island, a freshly made hole was discovered. Near the hole ttero traces of blood, and not fairway lay a pair of goloshes, with suspicious red marks. Divers were sot to work. The "Times" correspondent states definitely that the body was recovered by divers from the bottom of an ice- . hole in the Neva War. Petrovsky Bridge, which crosses one of tho lesser arms of the river, north of the city. "The extraordinary interest aroused by tho event,'' says the "Daily Telegraph" correspondent; "is due not only to the personality of the murdered man, but also to the high rank of tho persons immediately concerned. One ofthem, a handsome young man of thirty, received part of his education in England, and some years ago was very popular in fashionable society in .London. _ It is said that he and several of his friends and relatives cast lots as to who should ..accomplish the act. . Tho name of a well-known and formerly ' reactionary deputy is also .mentioned iu connection with the affair." / "A Mad Dog Shot." 'Accounts current in Petrograd, quoted by tho 'Times" representative, allege that the polico found, traces of blood in tho snow in the Palace garden. On demanding an explanation from the servants, the police were informed that a mad dog had just been shot. In corroboration of this statement, tho dead body of a dog was produced. The animal's body and a lump of. blood-stained snow were-re-moved for examination. It is suggested that the fact that tho garden of tho Yussupoff Palace runs back from the Moika front as far as the Ohfitserskaya Street may have some bearina on the question as to how tbo victim's body was removed.' Router's Petrograd correspondent says:— . It is no exaggeration to say that the whole of Russia breathes more freely for tho removal of a most baleful influence recognised as one of the pivots of the Germanophile forces. This hideous mediaeval nightmare is now dissipated, and no purpose would be served by recapitulating, its immoral horrors. One may leave history to marvel at the power wielded by the uneducated Siberian peasant with his notorious depravity, whose name is execrated throughout the length and breadth of tho Empire. . His unlimited sway over certain personalities is generally ascribed to hypnotic powers.