Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. On June, the authorities
Speaker 1: showed up to arrest her. I realized that it might
Speaker 1: have come as a shock to her, but for all
Speaker 1: her neighbors and the community beyond them, it had only
Speaker 1: been a matter of time. Justice would eventually win the day.
Speaker 1: Her crime was murder. Just a little over two months prior,
Speaker 1: on Easter Sunday, in fact, she had walked into the
Speaker 1: home of her neighbors, the Lafontse, and found the place empty, well,
Speaker 1: not entirely. There was a cradle off to one side
Speaker 1: of the main room, and in it slept the family's
Speaker 1: youngest son. I'm not sure I fully understand why she
Speaker 1: did what she did next, but some people simply make
Speaker 1: bad choices. She chose to harm the boy, as horrible
Speaker 1: as that sounds, and as a result of his injuries,
Speaker 1: the boy died. Whether or not that was her intent
Speaker 1: is irrelevant. She was guilty of murder, and so they
Speaker 1: came to arrest her. The trial was swift, so many
Speaker 1: people came forward to testify against her that her guilt
Speaker 1: was without question. Still, witnesses were examined and cross examined,
Speaker 1: testimonies were heard. The judge deliberated and then returned to
Speaker 1: the courtroom to declare his verdict. Guilty. Her sentence was execution,
Speaker 1: specifically by hanging, so a gallows was hastily built nearby
Speaker 1: and preparations were made. On the appointed day, she was
Speaker 1: led to the wooden platform by strong men. Her hands
Speaker 1: and feet were bound, and a noose was slowly fitted
Speaker 1: around her neck, and then after a pronouncement by a priest,
Speaker 1: the trap door was opened and she fell. I wish
Speaker 1: I could offer a happy ending to this story. Then
Speaker 1: at the last minute a witness came forward to reverse
Speaker 1: the charges, or that the news snapped and the killer
Speaker 1: was given a second chance. But this isn't one of
Speaker 1: those stories. No, the killer was guilty and she hanged
Speaker 1: for her crime the end. I suppose in that way,
Speaker 1: this story isn't really anything special. Sadly, the pages of
Speaker 1: history are filled with the names of killers, and most
Speaker 1: of them met a similar fate. But this story has
Speaker 1: one small difference that deserves to be pointed out, the
Speaker 1: killer you see was special. No, she wasn't a queen
Speaker 1: or a celebrity or even well off. She wasn't even human.
Speaker 1: She was a pig. He was failing all of his classes,
Speaker 1: and that meant his plan was working. Before long, he
Speaker 1: would be expelled and everything would be okay. That probably
Speaker 1: doesn't make a lot of sense right now, so perhaps
Speaker 1: we need to take a step backwards. Ed didn't have
Speaker 1: the best of luck no matter how he tried, and
Speaker 1: it started young too. By the age of three, both
Speaker 1: of his parents were gone, leaving him an orphan. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: some friends of the family took ed in and raised
Speaker 1: him as their own. Even that was riddled with trouble though.
Speaker 1: As he grew older, Ed started to fall out with
Speaker 1: his adoptive parents. They fought constantly, and not all of
Speaker 1: it could be chalked up to the head butting between
Speaker 1: strict parents and angst written teens. The fact was his
Speaker 1: father was a bit of a jerk. The guy was rich,
Speaker 1: you see, but he refused to share that wealth with
Speaker 1: his family, which is why it was ironic when Ed's
Speaker 1: father sent him to college to get him out of
Speaker 1: the house and and the quarreling because he didn't send
Speaker 1: the young man away with any cash. Ed was a
Speaker 1: smart guy and he did well during his first term,
Speaker 1: but those classes were expensive, and since he was broke,
Speaker 1: the debt just sort of added up. When Ed asked
Speaker 1: his father later for the money to pay off his school,
Speaker 1: that's the man pulled him out of college instead. With
Speaker 1: one door closed to him, the young man had to
Speaker 1: find a different path. A few weeks later, he enlisted
Speaker 1: in the army, which came with a little pay and
Speaker 1: a lot of commitment, but nothing close to a college education.
Speaker 1: He stuck with that for two years before begging his
Speaker 1: father to help him go back to school, and it worked.
Speaker 1: Ed's dad helped the man get into West Point, of
Speaker 1: all places, and for a while it seemed that everything
Speaker 1: was going to be all right. But again, he did
Speaker 1: all of this without his father's money, so of course,
Speaker 1: the debts returned. At one point, the school sent him
Speaker 1: a letter asking for payment, and Ed replied that he
Speaker 1: kept trying to ask his father for the cash, but
Speaker 1: the man was drunk a bit too often, so West
Speaker 1: Point did something sneaky. They forwarded Ed's letter to his father. Naturally,
Speaker 1: the man was embarrassed and upset, but he also paid
Speaker 1: the debt off. Oh and then he disowned Ed and
Speaker 1: cut off all communication with him, which was unfortunate because
Speaker 1: Ed needed his father's permission to withdraw his enrollment from
Speaker 1: the school. So there you go. That's why Ed was
Speaker 1: purposefully failing his classes at West Point. He didn't want
Speaker 1: to stick around, In fact, he couldn't afford to, so
Speaker 1: he needed to do everything in his power to make
Speaker 1: his time there as short as possible. He stopped going
Speaker 1: to classes, he stopped going to the required chapel gatherings,
Speaker 1: even stopped eating. But after a while, this school caught
Speaker 1: on and because West Point is a military college, they
Speaker 1: arrested him and then dismissed him for negligence of duty.
Speaker 1: Ed did all right, though life would continue to be
Speaker 1: tough for him, but he poured that pain and suffering
Speaker 1: into his true passion writing. Over the next eighteen years,
Speaker 1: he would build a name for himself, and while he
Speaker 1: would never again be on good terms with his father,
Speaker 1: John Allen, he would carry the man's name with him
Speaker 1: for the rest of his short life. Ed, you see,
Speaker 1: was one of America's first literary celebrities, and we still
Speaker 1: read his work today. So be thankful that his father
Speaker 1: disowned him and that West Point kicked him out of college,
Speaker 1: because without those failures, the world might never have met
Speaker 1: Edgar Allan Poe. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.