Posted on Friday, May 03, 2013 - 08:15 pm:

---

Ayappaseranam:

alleged supernatural powers.

---

Posted on Friday, May 03, 2013 - 08:13 pm:

---

Rasputin:

---

Posted on Friday, May 03, 2013 - 08:12 pm:

---

quote:

Two days later, Rasputin's body, poisoned, shot four times, badly beaten, and drowned, was recovered from the river. An autopsy established that the cause of death was drowning.[citation needed] It was found that he had indeed been poisoned,[citation needed] and that the poison alone should have been enough to kill him. There is a report that after his body was recovered, water was found in the lungs,[citation needed] supporting the idea that he was still alive before submersion into the partially frozen river.[39]

---

Posted on Friday, May 03, 2013 - 08:09 pm:

---

quote:

The group led him down to the cellar, where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a large amount of cyanide. According to legend, Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men. Conversely, Maria's account asserts that, if her father did eat or drink poison, it was not in the cakes or wine because, after the attack by Guseva, he suffered from hyperacidity and avoided anything with sugar. In fact, she expresses doubt that he was poisoned at all. It has been suggested, on the other hand, that Rasputin had developed an immunity to poison due to mithridatism.[35]
Determined to finish the job, Prince Yusupov became anxious about the possibility that Rasputin might live until the morning, leaving the conspirators no time to conceal his body. Yusupov ran upstairs to consult the others and then came back down to shoot Rasputin through the back with a revolver. Rasputin fell, and the company left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to get one, and while at the palace, he went to check on the body. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Yusupov. He grabbed Yusupov and attempted to strangle him. At that moment, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at Rasputin. After being hit, he fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission. Some accounts say that his killers also severed his penis (subsequently resulting in urban legends and claims that certain third parties were in possession of the organ).[36][37][38] After binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River.

---