The Washington bee., 1908-09-12
FAMOUS ROGER MURDER
Where Poe Got the Plot for a
Famous Short Story.
BAFFLINGGOTHAMC CRIME
Details of the Most Puzzling Murder
Case in New YOrk's Criminal An
naIs-Pathetic Fate of Beautiful
Mary ROgers-AttemPts TO Solve
Riddle by Expert CriminolOgists.

The most famous murder mystery
IN New York was the case of Mary
Rogers, around which Edgar Allan
Poe wrote his famous story Of Marie
Roget. Mary Rogers was a pretty
cigar girl who worked on lower
Broadway and lived with her mother.
One Sunday morning she left home,
and was seen later boarding a stage
coach at the Astor House with
strange man. About a week later
the body was found in the North Riv-
er, opposite the Stevens Institute in
Hoboken. Poe was living In Phila-
deIphia at the time, but read the New
\ Ork papeTs-at that time there
were several tiashy Sunday papers in
New York-and from the clippings
OF these Sunday papers he wrote his
celebrated Marie Roget, setting the
scene OF the murder in Paris instead
OF New York. That story and The
Murders in the Rue Morgue," are the
two stories that made Poe famous on
both continents and established his
reputation as a writer of detective
tales.
His theory was that a young naval
officer had gone with this girl TO
Hoboken, to the Elysian Fields which
was not unlike the Coney Island of
to-day. but withou its large buildings,
where people went on Sunday to
drink beer. Poe's theory, as brought
out in his story of Marie Roget, was
that the young naval officer had as
saulted the girl and choked her in d
small boat that he had previously
moored on the Jersey side, and that
he rOWed down the river, threw her
body overheard and escaped to his
vessel in the lower harbor. In tusti-
tcatIon OF this theory Poe describes
marks on her back as having been
the imprint of the ribs of the boat
where she lay before being thrown
overheard. He also noted the fact
that a boat was found floating in
the bay about where the Liberty
Monument now stands. That vas
generally accepted as the solution OF
the mystery.
superintendent Byrnes, in his
book on The Criminal Cases Of
America, taAes up the Mary Rogers
case and puts another construction
on the case-that she was accompa-
Eied by dark man Yh0 came from
Philadelphia and murdered her and
then escaped.
The girls body was found in the
river nearly nude, but in a thicket on
the shore of Hoboken, arranged
with very dramatic effect, were found
her belOngings-hat, shawl. &c.,-tO
give the impression that the murder
had been done there. Some four or
five years ago, writes William NJ.
Clemens, l went to HOboken and
looked into this case. l found, nifty
years after, that there were ave Iiv-
ing witnesses. | found one old gen
tleman who was a constable in 1912
and endeavored to make an arrest in
the case | fount there was a road
two sons, two rough, tough boys of
the Bowery type, and 1t was proved
by these witnesses that this girl had
been seen at the roadhouse. justify
ing the theory both OF Poe and
Byrnes. But, going over the news
paper files, | found a small account
OF the finding OF a mans body in the
river of Fulton street without coat or
hat, we'll dressed, as a dandy of that
day dressed; and in further inVesti-
eating the case and talking with
these old people, / proved to my sat
isfaction that both the man and the
woman were killed in the road house
for their money and both thrown in
to the boat, and the girls apparel
placed in the thicket to attract at
tention. One of these witnesses was
arrested on suspicion at the time,
and afterwards moved West and dis
The other was drowned.
The Bachelors Excuses.