DAY 10: The Death of Edgar Allen Poe (ShortHand’s 13 Days of Halloween)

Summary

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RedHanded: DAY 10 - The Death of Edgar Allan Poe (ShortHand’s 13 Days of Halloween)

Main Theme & Purpose

In this Halloween-themed “ShortHand” episode, hosts Georgia and Helen tackle the strange, unresolvable case of Edgar Allan Poe’s mysterious death. They blend dark humor with compelling historical storytelling to trace how the godfather of modern horror and detective fiction lived, wrote, and died — focusing especially on the enduring mystery of his final days.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Poe in the Pantheon of Horror

• Why Poe Matters:
  • “When you look at the great literary pantheon of horror, it’s just not complete without… Edgar Allan Poe.” (Georgia, 04:17)
  • The hosts reflect on his lasting influence, noting classics like “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Raven.”
• Netflix Adaptations:
  • Humorous banter about recent Netflix adaptations diverges into a ranking of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Hill House,” and “Bly Manor”—with Helen and Georgia both agreeing nothing beats “Hill House.” (05:39–06:51)

2. Poe’s Life: A Series of Gothic Misfortunes

• Early Orphanhood:
  • Poe never had certainty about his birthplace or date. Even his name possibly comes from King Lear.
  • “Both his parents would be dead [by his third birthday]… Edgar Allan Poe was an orphan at the age of just 2. Pretty on brand start to a horror author’s life.” (Helen, 09:36)
• Adoption and Upbringing:
  • Raised by the wealthy Allan family but never legally adopted. Enjoyed privilege but lacked stability.
• Failed Romance and University Scandal:
  • Engaged to childhood sweetheart, but lost her due to intercepted correspondence and financial issues at university: “So naturally he gambled [the rest of his tuition]… Instead, he lost more than $2,000.” (Helen, 12:22)
• Military and Literary Beginnings:
  • Brief army stint, then a breakthrough: published “Metzengerstein,” often credited as the first modern horror story, and “Berenice,” which drew complaints for its graphic nature. (Georgia, 13:16)

3. Poe’s Controversy: Cousin Marriage & Artistic Turmoil

• Marriage to a 13-year-old Cousin:
  • Poe married Virginia, his 13-year-old cousin, when he was 26. Both hosts note it was not normal, then or now. (16:05-17:18)
  • “Some biographers try and clean this up… But that’s not great, is it, Edgar? Especially when quite a lot of your stories involve brothers and sisters fucking each other.” (Georgia, 17:25)
• Emotional Instability:
  • Poe was erratic, both professionally and personally.
  • “W. H. Auden…calls Poe ‘an unmanly sort of man whose love life seems to have been largely confined to crying in laps.’” (Georgia quoting Auden, 18:27)

4. Poe the Genius and the Outsider

• Substance Abuse and Social Alienation:
  • “He was unable to speak in public without a little drinky, which would inevitably set him off on a mad bender.” (Helen, 18:39)
  • George Orwell is quoted: “Poe was not far from being insane in the literal, clinical sense.”
• Unparalleled Literary Output:
  • Poe invents detective fiction with “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” inspires later writers from Dostoevsky to Baudelaire, and even helps define early science fiction.

5. Rise, Fall, and Tragedy

• Breakthrough and Heartbreak:
  • “The Raven” is a smash hit, but Poe only earns $15—the world gets the poem, Poe gets more heartache. (Helen, 22:16)
  • Poe’s wife/cousin Virginia dies at 24, leading him to spiral into drinking and instability.
  • “He had a knack for romanticizing all things dark, occult, and satanic… only to reveal the true monster is the human capacity for evil itself.” (Georgia, 19:41)
• Last Glimpse of Happiness: Poe rejoins his old flame Elmira and allegedly quits drinking for a temperance society. (Helen, 23:33)

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The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe

The Final Days

• Bizarre Last Sightings:
  • Poe arrives in Baltimore on September 28, 1849, then disappears until October 3. Found by Joseph Walker in a tavern, “unresponsive…dressed quite strangely.” (Georgia, 24:21)
  • He is hospitalized by Dr. J.E. Snodgrass, spends days hallucinating, and dies on October 7.
• Official Cause of Death:
  • “Congestion of the brain” or “parenitis”—both vague and uninformative terms. Theories abound, more than 26 published. (Helen, 25:47)

The Theories (26:18 – 30:51)

• Theory 1: Alcohol Poisoning

  • Fits Poe’s reputation, but attending doctor John Moran claims Poe showed no sign of alcohol and had been sober. (Georgia, 26:18)

• Theory 2: Beaten by Thugs

  • Moran believed Poe had been assaulted, possibly explaining his delirium and odd clothing. (Georgia, 27:38)

• Theory 3: Rabies

  • Symptoms match late-stage rabies (trouble with water, lucid moments before death). (Helen, 28:33)

• Theory 4: Cooping

  • Poe may have been a victim of voter fraud gangs (“cooping”), explaining his disappearance, injuries, and strange attire: “In which corrupt politicians would hire gangs…force them into passing their vote repeatedly…given a series of disguises…” (Georgia, 29:14)

• Other Theories:

  • Diabetes, heart disease, epilepsy, tuberculosis, suicide, murder, cholera, hypoglycemia, syphilis, influenza, brain tumour — basically, everything and nothing.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Poe’s Mystique:
  • “His life…it was every bit as dark, prophetic, melancholy, as incesty…as all of his best writing. And as for his death—it is shrouded in secrets.” (Georgia, 07:08)
• On Theories of Death:
  • “There are more than 26 published theories as to what happened, from the mundane to those more fitting of our mystery writer.” (Helen, 25:47)
• Summary of Poe’s Impact:
  • “He’s the Beatles of books. So whatever flavor of spooky entertainment you are lining up for the next few days, thank the real master of the macabre…the man behind every single curtain—he’s behind you right now—Edgar Allan Poe.” (Georgia, 31:11)
• Hosts' Halloween Farewell:
  • “Take a second to thank the real mastery of the macabre…Happy Halloween.” (Helen, 32:16)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 04:17 – Poe’s importance & literary classics
• 07:36 – Circumstances of his mysterious death introduced
• 08:04 – Poe’s murky origins and family background
• 12:22 – University gambling debacle
• 16:05 – Poe’s controversial marriage to his cousin
• 19:41 – Poe’s literary impact and mood
• 22:16 – “The Raven” and Poe’s fleeting fortune
• 23:33 – Brief happiness, new engagement, temperance
• 24:21 – Poe’s disappearance and discovery in tavern
• 26:18 – Breakdown of death theories (alcohol, violence, rabies, cooping)
• 30:51 – Poe’s literary legacy and enduring influence
• 32:16 – Closing remarks: Poe’s contribution to horror

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Conclusion

This episode masterfully blends the eerie and the absurd, offering a whirlwind tour of Poe’s troubled existence, groundbreaking art, and the mystery that still lingers over his death. Listeners get not just a biography, but a taste of how Gothic myth and reality blur in the life and last moments of one of horror’s true architects. As the hosts suggest, Poe’s ultimate legacy is that he’s still haunting us—nevermore far from our cultural imagination.

Transcript

[Helen]

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[Georgia]

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[Helen]

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[Georgia]

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[Georgia]

Usually every single week over on Amazon Music, we release brand new episodes of our bite sized sister show Shorthand. It's like Red Handed's Little Friend, where we delve into all sorts of fascinating topics from hell in different religions, Haitian Voodoo, the death of Edgar Allan Poe, Cotard syndrome, Japan, Suicide Forest, and so much more.

[Helen]

And this Halloween, from the 19th of October to the 31st of October, we are going to be pulling out 13 of our most terrifying episodes of Shorthand to drop straight into your Red Handed feed every single day.

[Georgia]

But beware, each episode will only be available for 24 hours, so get listening or abandon all hope.

[Helen]

Enjoy. Hey Poindexter, it's Halloween.

[Georgia]

Put the book away. For your information, I'm about to read you a classic tale of terror by Edgar Allan Poe. Hello? Hello. All Hallows Eve is almost upon us. I can feel the veil thinning from here.

[Helen]

Hooray.

[Georgia]

And when you look at the great literary pantheon of horror, it's just not complete without the American short story writer, poet, critic, and former Stoke Newington resident, and also editor, the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe.

[Helen]

Shivers. Full body chills. Do you remember that guy used to comment that on every single one of our Instagram posts? We were like, it's not the right podcast. Thank you for your support, but it's not the right podcast.

[Georgia]

I'm saying nothing and I want that on the record. Edgar Allan Poe, however, very much is on the record. He changed writing forever with his spooky atmospheres, psychological hijinks, and sheer preternatural creepiness in stories like the Telltale Heart, the Mask of the Red Death, the Fall of the House of Usher. Usher. And of course, Lisa Simpson's favorite, the Raven.

[Helen]

The Raven is just a very satisfying poem to read. Yeah, it's just so fun. I love it.

[Georgia]

Yeah.

[Helen]

The Fall of the House of Usher.

[Georgia]

Yeah.

[Helen]

And what Netflix did to it.

[Georgia]

The Fall of the House Of Usher is my favourite Edgar Allan Poe story.

[Helen]

Prison to Netflix.

[Georgia]

I told you that I fell out with my friend about it. What? My friend tried to tell me that it was better than Hill House and I was like, I actually need quite a lot of space and time away from you now.

[Helen]

How, on what planet is it better than Hill House?

[Georgia]

Don't get me started on what they had to say about Bly Manor, because I actually will expire.

[Helen]

Uh, I think the Fall of the House of Usher is worse than Bly Manor. Yeah, I think it goes Fall of the House of Usher, Bly Manor and then Hill House.

[Georgia]

I think I have a particular problem with Bly Manor because I hate the turning of the screw. I just think, like, congratulations to the first person who thought of the story. Right. But the amount of times it's been refangled, it's not that good of a story to have been done as many times as it has.

[Helen]

No, but that's the thing is, I also think it's not that interesting a story. So I was like, not being that, like, attached to the source material. You can only, like, make me like it more if you do a good job. Whereas the Fall of the House of Usher, if you really like it, they can only destroy it by making it worse. And that is what they did.

[Georgia]

I agree.

[Helen]

It was so bad.

[Georgia]

I know. What?

[Helen]

I don't know how bad it was.

[Georgia]

Beating of the hideous heart of the Netflix executive that's ruined my life.

[Helen]

Oh, God. It was so all of the. Oh, my God. The desperate clutching attempts to be relevant to young people. Kill me.

[Georgia]

Anyway, we're not going to be talking about Netflix. We're going to be talking about the real deal. Edgar Allan Poe himself and his life, because it was every bit as dark, as prophetic, as melancholy, as incesty, which everyone forgets as all of his best writing. And as for his death, well, fittingly for the inventor of the mystery novel, it is shrouded in secrets.

[Helen]

Found in a pub, wearing someone else's clothes, Poe was rushed to hospital, where he hallucinated and screamed incoherently for days, then died before he could say a word of explanation. It's a mystery that has stumped generations of writers with more than 26 published theories and counting. So what happened to Edgar Allan Poe? Here's the shorthand.

[Georgia]

So, first off, it's not actually just Poe's death that's shrouded in mystery. There's a lot about his life that's up for debate, including the very beginning, when and where he was born. He never had a birth certificate. Poe mostly said that he was born in Boston in 1809, but a lot of his biographers from the same time say that he was actually born in Baltimore in 1811. And since Poe also sometimes said that he was born in 1813, two years after his own mother died, were inclined to go with the biographers on that one. Either way though, it's a pretty dramatic start. His parents, Elizabeth and David, were both actors, and when he was born, they were both members of a repertory company in Boston. Even his name, Edgar, may well have come from King Lear, which is what they were practicing at the time he showed up. Edgar sucks so much as a character. I hate Edgar. I hate him. I had to sit through so many monologues. Oh my God, he's such a fucking drip anyway. Why? Bastard. Wet. Full bass. Fuck off. Don't care. Put a shirt on. The Poes were one of the oldest and most respected families in Baltimore. Edgar's grandfather was good pals with none other than the Lancelot of the revolutionary set. Lafayette, as in the Lafayette from Hamilton.

[Helen]

But if you think this is the classic Nepo baby story, think again. Because before Edgar's third birthday, both his parents would be dead. His mother died of tuberculosis at age 24 and Edgar's father, who had already abandoned the family, died just weeks later. So Edgar Allan Poe was an orphan at the age of just 2. Pretty on brand start to a horror author's life. By then Elizabeth had taken her children to Richmond, Virginia and there a rich merchant called John Allen had taken a fancy to the infant. That's what the biographies say anyway, which is an unnecessarily creepy way of saying that John and his wife hadn't had any kids of their own and saw the orphaned highborn boy as a nice opportunity to sub in as an heir. The Allans were another elite upper class family and though John Allan never legally adopted Edgar, he gave him every shot at success.

[Georgia]

In about 1815, little Edgar was taken to England to attend the Manor House School in Stoke Newington. And the Manor House School is. I'll take a picture of it where I'm going now because it's next to the dentist and there is a little rock that is like of the original Manor House School with a little plaque. And then there's a. Across the road there's like two plaques that say Poe on it. Apparently there's a bust. I don't think I've ever come across this bust. Anyway, after about five years in Stoke Newington, the Family returned stateside to Virginia, and Edgar got engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Roystep. He wanted to go off to university, and she said that she was fine to wait until he graduated to get married. So off he went. And he was at the University of Virginia for exactly 11 months before he was kicked out for not paying the fees. And by the time he returned, Elmira Royster was engaged to someone else.

[Helen]

11 months. Look, everyone's dying at like 24 of tuberculosis, I get.

[Georgia]

Turns out that even though Poe had been writing to Elmira the whole time, her dad had been intercepting the letters.

[Helen]

Oh, sneaky.

[Georgia]

Like in the notebook.

[Helen]

That's very Sad.

[Georgia]

That sneaky Mr. Royster was nudging Elmira towards another suitor, one who was on track to make a name for himself in the world of business, not some lanky, stringy writer who was firmly on track to be a penniless artist. He was not considered to be a particularly great prospect then, and he wouldn't be now either.

[Helen]

Nah. Especially since, like we said, Edgar Allan Poe was kicked out of uni for not paying his fees. And that's because his not actually adopted father, John Allen, had slightly dropped the ball on Poe's glittering education. Poe had arrived with $110, less than half of the tuition money that he needed. So naturally he'd gambled it to try and win the rest. Instead, he lost more than $2,000. Poe and Alan following this, had a massive bust up via letter, of course, and Alan refused to send any more money. So Poe went to Boston without a penny and published a pamphlet of poems called Tamburlaine and Other Poems. It did not make a splash. Poe was out on his arse in pretty much every way going. So he joined the army.

[Georgia]

He did a bit better there. He rose to regimental Sergeant Major in.

[Helen]

Just two years, so he'd naturally place Edgar Allan Poe. I didn't know that about him.

[Georgia]

And apparently getting that high up in just two years, even back then, is quite impressive. And John Allan liked where all of this was going, so he organized for Poe to get into a military school instead. But by this time, Poe was itching to get back to the poet life. And since John Allan wouldn't sign off on Poe's resignation, Poe basically skived and acted up until he was kicked out of the army. He was court martialled for extreme dereliction of duty. And then he went off to New York, where he started to pick up some steam. He published a collection of poems called Poems, several of which are now considered masterpieces, to be fair. So after some success on the poem front, he moved on to short stories, and he got some of those published as well. Metzengerstein was published in the Southern Literary messenger and is today considered to be the first modern horror story. That's very cool. And the follow up, Bernice, was so graphic and so terrifying that the paper that published it got complaints. The Southern Literary Messenger's editors, sensing Poe's genius and possibly courting the controversy at the same time, hired him as a literary critic and he became a respected voice in the arts.

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[Helen]

All of which sounds pretty great, but still wasn't enough to live on. What's more, Poe had properly fallen out with John Allen about Alan's new wife and when Alan died he ended up leaving Poe nothing. So Poe moved in with his aunt Maria Clem and his 12 year old cousin Virginia. Uh oh, here we go. He was pretty close to Maria and Virginia, calling Virginia sissy for sister and Maria Muddy for mother. And if you think that's gross then, well you're not going to like the next bit because the following year, 1836, Edgar Allan Poe married Virginia, his then 13 year old cousin, when he was 26.

[Georgia]

And it was a bit more common back then, but it wasn't that. I've read extensively on him marrying his cousin, right? And how acceptable it actually would have been not very like. It's, yes, more common than it is now, but it wouldn't have been like normal. Fine.

[Helen]

People would have been talking about it, doing it.

[Georgia]

Exactly.

[Helen]

And they weren't.

[Georgia]

Some biographers do try and clean this up, saying that they didn't really have that much of a physical relationship, but more of an emotional connection, more like they were brother and sister. But that's not great, is it, Edgar? Especially when quite a lot of your stories involve brothers and sisters fucking each other. Anyway, Edgar Allan Poe most certainly contained multitudes. He was skittish and spontaneous and he loved having affairs, especially with two women in particular, Francis Sergeant Osgood and Elizabeth F. Ellet. His affair with Elliot was so established and well known that when Virginia was on her deathbed years later, she would claim that Ellet had murdered her. But despite the many women he was involved with out of wedlock, he's maybe not the smooth Lothario that you possibly are imagining if you've never seen a fucking picture of him. And we do know, thanks to this Sick Burn from W.H. auden, who calls Poe an unmanly sort of man whose love life seems to have been largely confined to crying in laps. Lol. Barbaric.

[Helen]

Poe also, other than crying into laps, loved his boozing. He was eventually fired from the Southern Literary messenger for drinking and would lose a ton of opportunities the same way. Throughout his life, he was unable to speak in public without a little drinky, which would inevitably set him off on a mad bender. In his personal and professional affairs, Poe was erratic, to say the least. And we have another big literary name to back us up on that. George Orwell himself said that Poe was not far from being insane in the literal, clinical sense. But then again, Poe had an amazing creative and intellectual mind. The New York Tribune said this. His conversation was at times supra, mortal in its eloquence. His voice was modulated with an astonishing skill, and his large and expressive eyes shot fiery tumult into theirs. Who listened?

[Georgia]

In his writing, he obviously kept things quite gloomy. He had a knack for romanticising all things dark, occult and satanic. He drew from his own terrifying dreams and pulled them into surreal, impressionistic visions of terror and sadness, featuring powerful imagery of death, decay and loss. He'd write supernatural horror narratives that started domestic and then spun out into wild, dreamlike fantasies, only to reveal the true monster is the human capacity for evil itself. He moved around a lot in his life between various towns on the northeast coast, most of which we've not been keeping you up with. But his time in Philadelphia from about 1838 onwards was his real golden age. It was there that he bashed out the Tell Tale Heart, the Mask of the Red Death, the Black Cat, the Pit and the Pendulum, the Imp of the Perverse, which I'm gonna reserve as my rapper name. And then also my favourite, the Fall of the House of Usher and then the Murders in the Rue Morgue. The last one in that list is a short detective fiction story and is considered to be the originator of the entire murder mystery genre. It features an eccentric detective who solves bizarre puzzling crimes and it also inspired fairy loving Arthur Conan Doyle to invent Sherlock Holmes.

[Helen]

It was while he was working as sub editor at the New York Mirror that Poe first published his poem the Raven. In it, a narrator sits in a strange room and asks a raven about the possibility of seeing his love again in the afterlife. And the raven gives the constant reply nevermore. This was Poe's absolute smash hit. Charles Baudelaire said in his introduction to the French edition of the Raven, it lacks nothing, neither the fever of ideas, nor the violence of colours, nor sickly reasoning, nor drivelling terror, nor even the bizarre gaiety of suffering, which makes it more terrible.

[Georgia]

I'm always very impressed. I think that's just because language is just not something that I am good at. But when something like a poem is translated into another language and it's still good is like mind boggling to me. My favourite one though is that in order to make Tom Riddle make sense in the French version of Harry Potter, Voldemort's middle name has to be Elvis.

[Helen]

Brilliant. So yes, despite it being an absolute banger, Poe earned just $15 from the Raven's publication. It did however, open all sorts of doors for him in the literary world. He took on literary clients and was invited all over the world to give lectures and recite poems. He was the first American writer to live completely off his earnings from writing alone.

[Georgia]

But all that success and admiration's not very Halloweeny, is it? Well, never fear, nevermore. The tragedy is just around the corner. Not long after the publication of the Raven, Poe's wife and cousin and cissy and child died of tuberculosis at the age of just 24. Poe was massively reliant on Virginia for his emotional and mental well being and when she died, he spiralled. He had a string of affairs and short lived engagements and then turned in a big way to the booze. In 1848 he published Eureka, which he calls an explanation of the universe. Some people consider it a masterpiece, but quite a lot of other people think that it's incoherent gibberish.

[Helen]

Still, just before the end, there was a spell of calm happiness for Poe. He finally got re engaged to his school sweetheart, Elmira Royster, who'd been widowed for a few years. He also joined a temperance society, which is basically Alcoholics Anonymous, but way more morally intense and religiously motivated.

[Georgia]

Lizzie Borden was in a temperance society.

[Helen]

So finally it looked like things were smoothing out. Then, in 1849, Poe planned a trip. He would board a ferry from Richmond to Baltimore, then head on from there to New York. And he arrived as planned in Baltimore on 28 September. But he wouldn't leave alive.

[Georgia]

He saw a few acquaintances when he got there, but then disappeared for days. Then almost a week later, on October 3rd. It's October 3rd, he was seen sitting in a pub called Ryan's Tavern and he was in a bad way. A Baltimore printer called Joseph Walker found Poe, attempted to rouse him, but Poe was totally unresponsive. He could manage a few grunts and lurching movements, but not much more. He was also dressed quite strangely. Poe was known to always wear a tailored black woollen suit, but here he was in a very cheap, ill fitting suit that was way too big for him. Walker sent a note to a doctor called J.E. snodgrass. Snodgrass happened to know Edgar Allen Poe and he arrived quickly. He immediately said that Poe must have been incredibly bladdered and sent him to a hospital.

[Helen]

In hospital, Poe drifted in and out of consciousness for days. He woke up, hallucinated and rambled in strange nonsense before passing out again. And before he could become lucid enough to explain what was going on, Poe died on 7 October 1849. The newspapers reported the cause of death as congestion of the brain.

[Georgia]

I think I've got a bit of that.

[Helen]

And the doctors noted it down as parentesis, which means inflammation of the brain. But both terms are pretty nondescript, vague terms that doctors wrote when they had actually no idea what had happened. And the cause of death of Edgar Allan Poe quickly slipped into mystery. Like we said, there are more than 26 published theories as to what happened, from the mundane to those more fitting of our mystery writer.

[Georgia]

Firstly, let's knock out the obvious, that he just got absolutely rat arsed and then passed out. And then he died of alcohol poisoning, which feels quite neat. He was, after all, a lifelong boozy. Susie and Dr. J.E. snodgrass, the doctor who examined him first at the pub, was convinced that he was blackout drunk. But then again, Poe had recently joined a quite strict temperance society and had mostly stayed away from the bottle for quite a while. And it's not inconceivable that someone who swears to abstinence would relapse and then kill themselves with drinking because they'd have a break and their tolerance had gone out the window. So how about this? John Morin was the attending physician at the hospital for Poe's final few days. And he did spend days examining Edgar Allan Poe, much longer than Snodgrass had. And John Moran was resolute that Poe wasn't drunk, that he hadn't been drinking in the days leading up to his death. John Moran said there was no trace of alcohol in his system. And he added that the duration of Poe's illness and the fact that he seemed to recover slightly before he died very suddenly were inconsistent with alcohol withdrawal. Dr. Moran said that he thought it was much more likely that Edgar Allan Poe had been beaten by thugs.

[Helen]

Plot twist.

[Georgia]

Hmm.

[Helen]

So why would Snodgrass lie? Presumably because he's some sort of fucking made up fairy tale creature.

[Georgia]

What was it? The imp of the.

[Helen]

The imp of the perversion?

[Georgia]

Yeah.

[Helen]

Well, Dr. Snodgrass, as well as being a physician, was a made up magical creature. No, he was also a radical follower and proponent of. Of the temperance movement. He saw alcohol as a deep moral evil and preached that its total eradication was necessary for the good of society. So it's very likely that he could have seen Poe's death as an opportunity to spread the word. We even know that he changed Walker's note before he passed it on to the hospital, changing the words rather the worse for wear to deep intoxication and then to beastly intoxication.

[Georgia]

Been there a few times.

[Helen]

So the plot thickens. Another fairly popular theory goes that Poe in fact died of rabies.

[Georgia]

I've heard this one.

[Helen]

Rabies patients are known to appear to get better just before their deaths. If you want to know more about it, we have done an entire shorthand on rabies. It's somewhere in there. Dig it out. There are also hospital reports showing that Poe had had a lot of difficulty drinking water in the last few days. And fear of water is a classic rabies symptom.

[Georgia]

And yet another explanation, which is in the running for the favourite one, is that Edgar Allen Poe was a victim of cooping.

[Helen]

Never heard of it.

[Georgia]

I will explain. Back in those days, the olden times. The olden daysels. It was quite common to use drinking establishments as polling places, which is pretty Victorian era to me. That's where they got half the navy as well. And the tavern that Poe was found in before he went to hospital and died was at the time being used as a polling station. And there was a very naughty practice going around at the time called cooping, in which corrupt politicians would hire gangs of criminals to intimidate random people and force them to vote repeatedly for their candidate. They were even given a series of disguises to pass by multiple times without arousing suspicion.

[Helen]

Amazing.

[Georgia]

Often these poor people were beaten by these voting gangs or they were forced to drink alcohol to force them into passing their vote. So this theory could explain quite a lot why Poe was so disorientated, why he disappeared for several days and his doctor saying that he had been beaten by thugs and also his weird ill fitting suit that didn't belong to him.

[Helen]

So, yes, there are plenty of other explanations which include, but are not limited to, diabetes, heart disease, epilepsy, tuberculosis, suicide, murder, cholera, hypoglycemia, syphilis, influenza, and maybe even a brain tumour. And it is certainly possible that Poe got cooped. Really, we'll never know what went down or how he really died. Leaving us with Poe's greatest and most vexing mystery of all.

[Georgia]

I think he got cooped and one of the thugs bit him and gave him rabies.

[Helen]

Love it. Still, at the rate Poe was going at the time, his death was going to happen sooner or later. As the Buffalo Commercial put it in their report on his death, we hope he has found rest. But he needed it. That's good.

[Georgia]

I like that because he looked like shit. And he also gave us a hell of a lot. In his 40 years on Earth, he's considered the architect of the modern short story. He was an enormous influence on French symbolists like Baudelaire and Verlant, as well as Russian greats like Dostoevsky, who all went on to change modern literature in their own way. In works like the Unparalleled Adventure of Hans Fall and Von Kempelen and his discovery, Poe built on early science fiction writing to create a blueprint for modern sci fi. And like we said, he practically invented both mystery novels and modern horror itself. So what we're saying is that he's the Beatles of books. So whatever flavor of spooky entertainment that you are lining up for the next few days, take a second to thank the real mastery of the macabre, the man behind it all, the man behind every single curtain he's behind you right now, Edgar Allan Poe.

[Helen]

I'm here for it. And happy Halloween.

[Georgia]

Yeah, you deserve it.

[Helen]

You do.

[Georgia]

Goodbye. Bye.

[Lawless Planet Narrator]

How hard is it to kill a planet? Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere. When you see what's left, it starts to look like a coin.

[Georgia]

Crime scene Are we really safe? Is our water safe? You destroyed our tap.

[Lawless Planet Narrator]

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

[Georgia]

We call things accidents.

[Alina Urquhart]

There is no accident.

[Georgia]

This was 100% preventable.

[Lawless Planet Narrator]

They're the result of choices by people. Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime. These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet. Stories of of scams, murders and cover ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the earth or destroy it. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad free right now by joining Wondry plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

[Alina Urquhart]

It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast Morbid, where your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group with a touch of humor. Shout out to her. Shout out to all my therapists out the years. There's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. That mother is not real. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes. You should tune in to our podcast Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondery plus and the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.