Poe was found barely conscious lying in a gutter on East Lombard Street. He was rushed to a hospital where he trembled, screamed “Reynolds” which is a mystery because no one knows who this is, and died on October 7, 1849.
There are only theories about what caused his death. Some said it was caused by alcoholism; others, that he was in a psychotic state and rabies has been blamed. Another postulation is that he might have been drugged and murdered because the clothing he was wearing wasn’t his and the cane he carried belonged to another man.
Edgar Allen Poe House and Museum
The small building where Poe lived with his grandmother, Maria Poe, aunt and cousin, Virginia Clemm, is on North Amity Street in Baltimore, Maryland. It contains five rooms, an entranceway, kitchen and three bedrooms. Poe’s bedroom is in the attic. There are no bathrooms in the house.
The staircase leading to the attic can scarcely fit one person at a time. People have reported mysterious cold spots, eerie lights, doors and windows open and shut by themselves heard spectral voices, felt unseen hands touch them and have seen the specter of a heavyset grey haired woman dressed in clothing of the early 1800s. There have been no reported sightings of Poe there.
Poe’s Ghost Sighted at Fort Monroe
The author enlisted in the Army on May 26, 1827, using the pseudonym Edgar A. Perry and was stationed at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. He was dissatisfied with military life and desperately wanted to reign.
During this traumatic time, he compiled a collection of verse, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems in 1829. People have seen his ghost seen writing while he’s sitting at a desk.
Poe’s Haunted Grave
He was interred the Old Western Burial Ground. The Westminster Presbyterian Church, now Westminster Hall, was built over the part of the cemetery where the graves and tombs date back to a century before the church was constructed.
Much of the cemetery, where Poe is buried, is still accessible above ground in the churchyard but a large part of the graveyard can only be reached via the catacombs underneath the church. A fair number of people committed suicide in them between 1890 and 1920. Ghosts are said to haunt them. People have claimed to have seen Poe’s ghost by his grave and in the haunted catacombs. There are cold spots, sounds of footsteps, disembodied whisperings and some experients have felt a soft caress of unseen hands in the caacombs.
Mysterious Man Called Poe Toaster Visited Poe’s Grave Each Year
In 1949, a mysterious man dressed in black, wearing a black fedora and scarf and carrying a cane, began to leave a bottle of cognac and three red roses on the gravesite on Poe’s birthday, January 19.
There was a note to Poe that the man hasn’t forgotten him. Many people think there could be more than one mystery man. There was no visit in 2010.
How Can Poe Haunt Different Places?
His ghost in Fort Monroe is a residual haunting. This entity has no intelligence and is energy imprinted in space and time. It’s theorized that trauma creates the phenomenon. Poe was very unhappy when he was stationed there. Poe’s ghost in the graveyard could be an apparition, an intelligent ghost. While sightings have been reported, there is no information as to whether or not Poe’s specter interacted with people. If there was no interaction, it doesn’t mean the entity has no intelligence because he might be ignoring people.
Articles Related to Edgar Allen Poe’s Ghost
People who enjoyed this article might want to read Haunted Edgar Allen Poe, along with Ghosts of Fort Monroe and What Was Nathanial Hawthorne's Ghost?
Source:
The Ghostly Register, Arthur Meyers, (Contemporary Books, Inc., 1986).
Jill Stefko - I'd rather deal with the paranormal than human abnormal - having dealt extensively with both.
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