Nevermore shall there be an author such as Edgar Allan Poe. He created the genre of detective fiction with his publication of The Murders in the Rue Morgue, paving the way for the creation of fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, Poirot, and Miss Marple. But the circumstances surrounding Poe’s for-real death are one of the greatest mysteries of all.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: October 7, 1849--
He was born Edgar Poe in Boston in 1809 and dad fucked off almost immediately, then mom died when he was two and Edgar the orphan was raised, but not adopted, by the Allan family. Just in case you thought that was a middle name. It’s not. Edgar was not what one would call an upstanding citizen. Fucking writers, amirite? He gambled and drank and got court-martialed from West Point and cheated on his wife which resulted in children out of wedlock and they divorced then he married his 13-year-old first cousin and then she died and then he died. But what caused his death?
After 11 years of cousin marriage, his wife died of tuberculosis and Edgar followed two years later, and some said he died of the same thing. Or maybe it was diabetes, or heart disease, or alcohol, or fucking rabies. The circumstances are odd as fuck, as Poe was found on October 3, 1849 in a Baltimore tavern and he was in bad shape. Unresponsive and assumed to be in an alcoholic stupor, he was admitted to hospital and died four days later on October 7, aged 40. But what killed him?
Some said it was alcohol withdrawal, but there are circumstances that suggest he might have been a victim of a violent crime in the commission of … voter fraud? The allegation that he’d been on a drinking bender aren’t in line with those who say he’d given up the booze. And the descriptions of his final days in hospital contradict drink being the culprit. What suggests violence is Edgar’s strange attire and the location and time he was found.
The bar where he was found was used as a polling place for a local election, which was common practice. Poe was known to wear a black wool suit, but was found attired in a cheap suit that did not fit him properly; he was also wearing a ridiculous straw hat. At the time, corrupt politicians would hire “cooping gangs” to kidnap people off the street and coerce them with both alcohol and violence, forcing them into a variety of disguises to get them to vote for their candidate multiple times to steal an election.
Such circumstances make Poe being a victim of violent cooping a distinct possibility, but since Poe never regained consciousness there was no one to tell the tale of how his heart beat its last.
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I read this on Oct. 7 but I came back to read it again after your FB post (proving that social media can be used for good as well as evil).
Enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
😁