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