Career
Foreign many years prior to this, Veerman had been known as Heino Tammet, a name he first used when in the printing business. A few of his postcards are extant. Veerman began to claim he was Alexei Nikolaevich when he was 68 years old.
Letters to British royalty, claims that he had met Scandinavian royalty and other such incidents led to a visit from the RCMP, a medical examination and a gentle warning to cease and desist.
His belief that he was once the young prince persisted more quietly, while his health gradually declined. Veermann died of a form of leukemia in 1977;
Unfortunately for the claim, the tsarevitch Alexei was a hemophiliac, and Heimo Tammet was not.
In an attempt to explain this away, Kendrick has maintained that the tsarevitch"s disease was misdiagnosed, and that Tammet had a disease that might conceivably cause similar symptoms. An article written by Kendrick, and published in the American Journal of Hematology, provided a full exposition of Kendrick"s hypothesis, though without any disclosure of its relationship to the Tammet case.
Subsequent genetic studies have determined that Alexei had hemophilia B.
Tammet"s wife gave a tooth (or teeth) to scientists for deoxyribonucleic acid testing, but the tests were not done and the specimen has not been returned.
Number other suitable specimens have been submitted for testing. Tammet, deaf in one ear, claimed that that was the result of a gunshot at close range fired by Yurovsky near the tsarevitch"s ear. Tammet also claimed that he had an undecended testicle corresponding to the tsarevitch"s undescended testicle.
