Rasputin - The Mad Monk

This was thought to be but idle chatter to save his skin, and it was ignored. Still, Rasputin was no an easy man to kill. The nobles tried to poison him but cyanide had no effect. He narrowly avoided being run down by a wagon and avoided numerous other attempts on his life. When one of the nobles shot him, instead of falling down dead, he jumped to his feet and tried to kill his attacker. When he was shot a second time, still he refused to die. Finally he was captured, bound tightly in a fur robe and tossed, helpless, into the icy waters of the Neva River. Even then, it is said, when his body was recovered, he had three fingers raised and pressed against his chest in the sign of benediction.

Seven months later, in July 1918, the Bolshevik revolutionaries executed the Tsar and his family. The final prophecy of the mad monk had come true.