Yes, I have already read it carefully, and here are my notes:
1: It states that it is Maria who is missing from the grave. (Some people seem obsessed with putting the Anastasia story to rest.)
2: He says that the unknown woman was pulled from the canal shortly after FS's disappearance. WRONG. FS disappeared almost three weeks after AA was found.
3: He states that the DNA identified her as FS. Read Elspeth's post from yesterday.
4: He states that no-one knew for certain what fate had befallen the Imperial Family. Later, he states that there was a Berliner Illustrierte at Dalldorf, dated 10.23.21 that gave all the details about the execution and the rumor about Anastasia being alive. AA told the nurses at Dalldorf about the last night in Ekaterinburg, about her father being shot first, about the jewels hidden in the clothing etc. And the nurses stated that the magazines lying around were rather old.
5: "Supporters fed her information". Pure speculation.
6: Gleb Botkin was cunning and used her for his own aims? More speculation.
7. Botkin was a source of obscure information that Anderson would recount as memories? He met her in 1927, years after Harriet Rathleff-Keilmann had filled a book of AA's memories.
8. "When Anderson was questioned by Romanoff family representatives on specific events....." Names, please.
9. "The fact she couldn't speak or read Russian, English or French at the time ..." Only problem is, that this was not a "fact".
10. "He (Gleb Botkin) also created the prevailing myth the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga (sisters of Nicholas II) tried to bribe Anderson to renounce her claim with the offer of a house anywhere in the world and a generous annuity, an impossibility considering their precarious financial situations."
According to Botkin, Xenia Leeds told him that AA was promised a place to live in Europe if she would renounce her claim. Grand Duchess Xenia went to the Bank of England on the 10th anniversary of the murder of the IF and found out that no information and no money was available due to AA's claim. She yelled at Xenia Leeds, who in turn yelled at Botkin, and AA refused to go along with the demand of renouncing her claim and left Oyster Bay. You really have to read Botkin's book to get the details, it's quite a mess.
11. "Anderson's supporters were also responsible for her childhood "memory" of Alexandra's brother, the Grand Duke of Hesse, visiting Russia during the First World War." No, they were not. When Harriet Rathlef-Keilmann asked AA if she had ever met her uncle Ernie, AA said "yes". "When did you see him last?" "During the war, at home with us in Russia."
12. "From the outset money was the principal objective, and Gleb Botkin became increasingly obsessed with tracing and claiming tsarist assets. When paranoid legitimate claimants would beat them he urged legal action be taken to have Anderson recognized Nicholas II's heir." Gleb Botkin was not obsessed. He was asked by AA to make sure that her relatives did not get the money she believed was in a bank in England as dowry for the four Grand Duchesses. He engaged Edward Fallows to help her, and shortly after he and AA had a falling out, and he did not see her for another 10 years.
13. "Before she became Anastasia, Franziska Schanzkowska was mentally unstable. Incarcerated in two mental hospitals before disappearing in 1920, tantrums and breakdowns were regular occurrences and her most devoted supporters considered her impossible to live with." Her most devoted supporters? Who were the devoted supporters of FS? The Wingenders?
14. "Her psychiatric problems may have been caused or exacerbated by the serious head injuries suffered in 1916 from a hand grenade explosion," From medical reports from the AEG factory and statements from FS's family, we know that FS suffered no injuries from the explosion.
15. "During a visit to the United States in 1930 she suffered a breakdown and was certified "dangerous to herself and others" and committed to a mental hospital, not the first or last such incarceration." She was not certified, she was just hauled away while 3 doctors were paid very well for signing the admission papers. As soon as she arrived at Ilten sanatorium in Germany, she was told that she was free to go, there was nothing wrong with her.
16. "During the 1920's she was almost constantly in and out of one German hospital or another, mental or general. We can only speculate whether during any of these frequent spells away from prying eyes if Anderson underwent cosmetic surgery of some sort, to create or enhance features and flaws to match those of the real Anastasia. " Speculate, indeed! She was placed at Dalldorf asylum since the police had no idea of what to do with her. Her later hospitalisations were for tuberculosis of the arm.
17. "At first she accepted her identity, however the realisation she was considerably shorter was a factor in her switch to Anastasia." There was no switch, she confessed to Thea Malinowsky in 1921 that she was Anastasia.
18. "Her childhood friends remembered her (FS) as pretentious, putting on airs and graces." And according to her own sister Gertrude, she was "just one of the girls."
