In any case, the extended family was really sick of his meddling and dangerous influence. Therefore, some of them decided to take matters into their own hands. On the night of December 17th, 1916, the Great Duke Dmitri Romanov, Prince Felix Yussupov, Vladimir Purishkevich (a member of the Russian Parliament), and Dr. Lazaret invited Rasputin to the Yussupov palace under the pretence of meeting (and according to one historian, to heal) Felix's wife Irina. Upon arrival, Rasputin was taken to a dining room in the basement. He was told that Irina had some guests and Rasputin was to rest and drink tea until the guests left.

Rasputin was offered pastries and wine which he initially refused. This somewhat threw the Prince into a panic. He told the other conspirators (who were waiting in another room off the stairs), "...that animal is not eating or drinking." When Felix returned, however, Rasputin had opened the wine and began to drink. After drinking a couple of glasses, he showed no signs of having been poisoned. After a while, he may have started feeling something because he asked for tea. Then stood, walked around the room, then asked Felix to play the guitar and sing. For two hours this "nightmare" continued.

When Felix checked in with is co-conspirators next, he was pale. He said that Rasputin had eaten and drank the poisoned food and still nothing had happened. When he again returned to his guest, the only signs of the poison affecting him was that he was burping and had some excessive salivation. Nerves were beginning to give way. Felix decided to end it. He took a revolver and while Rasputin was looking at a fancy cross, shot him in the back. Rasputin gave a bestial cry and fell to the floor.

Dimitry and the doctor allegedly went for the car and to destroy Rasputin's coat and boots (they were not destroyed). In the meantime, Felix wanted to see Rasputin again, so he went and took another look. The body was still warm with small drops of blood coming from the wound. He lifted the body by the shirt and shook it and dropped it again to the floor. He then noticed that the left eye started to open, then the right eye. Suddenly the Rasputin leapt from the floor with a "devil's look" in his eyes and a wild cry and attacked Felix. Felix struggled for a moment and broke free. Rasputin fell again to the floor.

The prince ran, calling for the revolver again. When they returned, Rasputin was crawling up the stairs. He made it out and began to run through the snow near the fence crying, "Felix, Felix...I'll tell everything to the tsarina!" In a panic, Purishkevich missed twice with the revolver, then biting himself on the wrist to make himself concentrate, shot Rasputin in the back. Then again in the head. Rasputin fell, holding his head.

Felix began to beat Rasputin with a rubber truncheon. Finally Purishkevich had him pulled off the body. They took the body back into the house and discovered that Rasputin was still alive. He wheezed with each breath and was able to look at them through one eye. Finally Dimitry and the doctor returned. The body was wrapped in a cloth and taken by car to the Niva river and dumped in.

That, at least, is the version that Felix Yusupov gave in a book he wrote from exile in Paris in the 1920's. Historian's throw doubt on points of this version.

1. The reason the wine did not poison him was that it was a weak mixture.
2. The poison in the pastries did not affect Rasputin because he NEVER ate meat or pastries or other sweets.
3. It was not Purishkevich who shot Rasputin, but Great Prince Dimitry. Purishkevich and Yusupov covered for the Great Prince. Everyone believed it was Dimitry, but the fact could not be argued with the other two pleading guilty. Even then, Dimitry was exiled to Paris.

When the body was retrieved two days later from the river, it appeared as if the Rasputin had tried to claw is way out from the ice. He died from drowning after being unsuccessfully poisoned, shot three times and beaten. He was buried in secret to avoid desecration. Thus ended Grigory Yefrimovich Rasputin.