The Ghost of Edgar Allan Poe
Photo taken from brittanica.com
Edgar Allan Poe was one of America’s greatest writers. He had a brief life, and called many different cities his home but he spent his final years in Baltimore. In September 1849, Poe was living in Virginia and went to Baltimore for a friends birthday party. He took a glass of wine for the toast then left the party and disappeared. On October 3rd, he was found again, five days after the party wearing someone elses clothes. He was taken into Church Home Hospital and died three days later. Most people think he died of alcohol poisoning, others think he was drugged or even had a brain tumor.
There is a ghost in the form of a man dressed in black that wanders the streets of the old part of Baltimore which was where Poe walked during his days of living. The ghost has also been seen in the halls of the hospital where he died and by his grave site in Westminster Presbyterian Church. The Poe house which is now a museum is believed to be haunted by the spirit of a heavy-set woman, possibly Poe’s grandmother. Doors also shut and open by themselves and people also felt like they were being tapped.
During the Baltimore Riots of 1968 after Martin Luther King Junior’s assassination, all the power went out in the neighborhood. However, strange flickering lights were seen coming from Poe’s house throughout the whole night which was physically impossible. The final area of Poe’s ghost is that every year on his birthday, January 19th, a strange figure wearing black has been seen going into the graveyard and placing three red roses on Poe’s grave. It seems like this great writer’s spirit is still not at rest!
(Source: Cohen, Daniel. Hauntings and Horrors. 2002)
