This bloodied jacket from the assassinated Alexander II has been taken as evidence for DNA in the current search for my clues for more information to justify the burial site and interrment of the Romanovs. Tragic Footnotes to history: When scientists first searched for Nicholas II's own DNA- they found some on the bloodied scarf and shirt he wore when there was an attempt on his life when he was the Tsaraevitch travelling in Japan. They found blood but the evidence was too contaminated by handling. Yet the two assassination attempts- 1 fatal and the other resulting in a long saber wound give proof of the total vulnerability of the imperial family. No wonder Nicholas and Alexandra preferred to retreat to the Alexander Palace and lead semi-sequestered lives. Nicholas would have died in the Outsu attack except for the swift action of his cousin George, who beat off the attacker (one of the police guard on the rickshaw, ) before he could strike a fatal blow. That incident alone- to a young man, who as a child had seen his disembowelled grandfather, legless and dying- must have left Nicholas II with what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Syndome which may explain his odd personal attitudes when in later danger. When I was writing my novel, I wondered how and why Nicholas could seem interested in the food- delicious Asian menu on the train when he was sent into captivity in Tobolsk- and always- the weather- when he could have been expressing terror and alarm. Everyone around him wondered, I believe. Now I can see- he was dissociating- not really there in those moments, so terrified all he could 'note' was the sunrise or the chicken stir fry! Today, his blood and that of his brutally slain grandfather is again under the microscope to solve more mysteries regarding their deaths.
This bloodied jacket from the assassinated Alexander II has been taken as evidence for DNA in the current search for my clues for more information to justify the burial site and interrment of the Romanovs. Tragic Footnotes to history: When scientists first searched for Nicholas II's own DNA- they found some on the bloodied scarf and shirt he wore when there was an attempt on his life when he was the Tsaraevitch travelling in Japan. They found blood but the evidence was too contaminated by handling. Yet the two assassination attempts- 1 fatal and the other resulting in a long saber wound give proof of the total vulnerability of the imperial family. No wonder Nicholas and Alexandra preferred to retreat to the Alexander Palace and lead semi-sequestered lives. Nicholas would have died in the Outsu attack except for the swift action of his cousin George, who beat off the attacker (one of the police guard on the rickshaw, ) before he could strike a fatal blow. That incident alone- to a young man, who as a child had seen his disembowelled grandfather, legless and dying- must have left Nicholas II with what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Syndome which may explain his odd personal attitudes when in later danger. When I was writing my novel, I wondered how and why Nicholas could seem interested in the food- delicious Asian menu on the train when he was sent into captivity in Tobolsk- and always- the weather- when he could have been expressing terror and alarm. Everyone around him wondered, I believe. Now I can see- he was dissociating- not really there in those moments, so terrified all he could 'note' was the sunrise or the chicken stir fry! Today, his blood and that of his brutally slain grandfather is again under the microscope to solve more mysteries regarding their deaths.