-------- Original Message -------- Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 14:43:19 -0600 From: Brandy848@xxxxxxxxx (Brandy Purdy) To: hathorn@xxxxxxxxxxx I know who you're talking about. Peter Stuart Ney though I don't know that I would class him with Anna Anderson who claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia since P.S. Ney never made the claim as far as I know except on his deathbed. Anyway, the theory goes that Marshal Ney, called "the bravest of the brave" of Napoleon's marshals, faked his death, he always had the loyalty of the men who served under him, the firing squad used blanks and he had pouches of blood or red dye under his clothes which burst, then he was spirited away to America, others like old soldiers who had served under Marshal Ney recognized him, I believe after coming to America he moved at least once because of this before he finally settled in North Carolina where he became a popular school teacher. He possessed knowledge that would supposedly support this claim, after his death notations were found in history books about Napoleon and his wars correcting what he considered errors on the authors' part, also studies of the handwriting of Marshal Ney and Peter Stuart Ney have been declared identical for whatever that's worth, handwriting analysis being a much debated science, and P.S. Ney was said to have scars where the real Marshal Ney was known to have had them. Peter Stuart Ney is buried in a churchyard in North Carolina and as far as I know there are no plans to use DNA testing to resolve the case. I'm just relating all this off the top of my head, I've always been intrigued by the case and have read whatever I could find on it, but I haven't read anything in a long time because of various other projects and obligations and illness. I don't have any plans to write about it, there's just too much military stuff involved and as a writer that's one of my weaknesses, sports, battles, politics, I'm more interested in the personal issues. While it would be very interesting to explore P.S. Ney's mind, if he were really Ney or delusional, there would be just too much of the military and political issues in it for me to feel I could do justice to it. There's one man who has studied the case for years, he wrote a self published book called Execution Denied, I have it around here somewhere, though he chose to present his research in the form of a novel instead of a nonfiction work, personally I think he should have done the latter, but that's just my personal opinion as the only other books on the case were written decades ago and are out of print and usually in excess of $50 each though I know of a couple of older unsolved mysteries books that can be had much cheaper that have briefchapters about the case. Hope this info helps.
Visit my website www.brandypurdy.com to learn about the historical novels I've written "The Confession of Piers Gaveston," and "Vengeance Is Mine A Novel of Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Lady Rochford." -- Cordially, Nan Hawthorne www.nanhawthorne.com Historical fiction blogs, books, and a Celtic music radio show!