Yusupov Palace on Moika

There's only one thing he says in this, his memoir, that is true, in which he does admit that killing Rasputin was a cowardly crime, which is the only truthful thing he says.

They lured Rasputin to the Yusupov Palace in Petersburg, claiming that they're inviting him to a party where he will get a chance to meet Yusupov's lovely young wife, and then they do him in in a dastardly way.

And in fact, they then help to bring about the end of the dynasty through this actual murder.

Is the story that they gave him wine laced with cyanide and that didn't kill him, and then they gave him cakes laced with cyanide and that still didn't kill him, and then they gave him more wine laced with cyanide and that didn't kill him, and eventually they all tried to stab him and that didn't kill him, and then they threw him in the river and the autopsy was that he died by drowning, is any of that true, or is that just all the same he smells like a goat, he's a magician stuff?

The perceived reign of Rasputin and the resulting contempt of the people eventually came to a boil in 1916, early in the morning hours of December 30th.

Two relations of Tsar Nicholas, a cousin named Dmitry Pavlovich and a nephew named Felix Yusupov, invited Rasputin for dinner and a party at the Yusupov family's Moika Palace in St. Petersburg.

Little's known for certain of that night.

It was cold, that much is true, but it was not cold enough for the Nevka River next to the palace to be frozen over.

Or it would have been.

For of course, Rasputin was not yet dead.

When the group returned to Moika Palace and went downstairs to dispose of the body, Rasputin jumped up.

He attacked Yusupov with the crazed energy of a vindictive madman.

The two had known each other since their student days at Oxford.

Rayner was in the Russian capital at the time of the murder, and there's reason to believe he was at or near the Yusupov Palace that night.

Supporters of the theory, including the team behind a well-known BBC documentary, focus on the fatal shot to Rasputin's forehead.

They argue it may have come from a British-style revolver fired by a professional like Rayner, rather than by one of the amateur attackers.