Beautiful Cigar Girl (Mary Rogers)

The death of Mary Rogers is known to many as America's first murder mystery. Published by Edgar Allen Poe as "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt in 1842, Mary's story became America's introduction to true crime, but for all it's retelling, and the country's brief and feverish fascination with the "beautiful cigar girl" Mary's case still remains technically unsolved. 

 

Mary, known as a legendary beauty, unknowingly set a standard the the rest of the country would run with for centuries to come, but her untimely, brutal death, which should have served as a warning, seems to have fallen on deaf ears. No amount of adoration kept her from turning up in the Hudson River, dead. 

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Article from the Smithsonian

The Mystery of Marie Rogêt Full Text

 

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