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THE DEVIL WITHIN
The Five Lost Days: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe
Episode One | Edgar Allan Poe Series
On September 27, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe boarded a steamship in Richmond, Virginia, with plans for the future and a woman he hoped to marry. Five days later, one of America's most celebrated masters of the macabre had seemingly vanished from the historical record.
When Poe resurfaced in Baltimore on October 3, he was delirious, gravely ill, and reportedly wearing clothes that weren't his own. He had been discovered outside a tavern serving as an election polling place, unable to explain where he'd been or what had happened to him. Four days later, at just forty years old, Edgar Allan Poe was dead.
Nearly two centuries later, the circumstances remain a mystery.
In this episode of The Devil Within, Branden Morgan investigates the strange final days of Edgar Allan Poe, exploring theories involving alcoholism, disease, robbery, and a sinister nineteenth-century election fraud scheme known as cooping, in which unsuspecting men were allegedly kidnapped, drugged, disguised, and forced to vote repeatedly.
But Poe's story doesn't end with his death.
Twenty-six years after his burial, his remains were exhumed and relocated to a more prominent grave in Baltimore. What followed was a particularly disturbing legend: that scratches had been discovered inside his coffin, suggesting the man who famously wrote about the horrors of premature burial had himself been buried alive.
Is there any truth to the story, or did generations of admirers simply invent the perfect ending for America's greatest Gothic storyteller?
From Poe's unexplained disappearance to the macabre folklore surrounding his grave, The Five Lost Days explores the uncomfortable territory where documented history ends and legend begins.
Some mysteries remain unsolved. Others become immortal.
IN THIS EPISODE
• Poe's final departure from Richmond and his plans to marry Elmira Royster Shelton.
• The five missing days between September 27 and October 3, 1849.
• His mysterious discovery at a Baltimore polling place.
• The competing medical and criminal theories surrounding his death.
• The terrifying nineteenth-century practice of premature burial and the invention of safety coffins.
• Poe's 1875 exhumation and the legend of the scratches inside his coffin.
COMING NEXT: THE GHOST OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
Our investigation continues in Baltimore, where Poe's presence supposedly lingers nearly two centuries after his death. From his former home on Amity Street and the cemetery where he rests to the haunted taverns of Fell's Point, we explore the ghost stories, strange encounters, and enduring legends surrounding the man who made the macabre an American art form.
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The Devil Within is written and hosted by Branden Morgan. An Evio Creative production.
EPISODE KEYWORDS
Edgar Allan Poe, The Five Lost Days, Edgar Allan Poe death, Edgar Allan Poe mystery, Baltimore 1849, Poe's final days, premature burial, buried alive, Poe's grave, Poe exhumation, cooping, election fraud, Gothic literature, historical mysteries, true crime history, paranormal history, The Devil Within, Branden Morgan, Evio Creative.
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