For more than half a century, a mysterious visitor would make an annual pilgrimage to Edgar Allan Poe’s grave site to leave three roses and a bottle of cognac to mark the anniversary of the author’s birth. The Seattle Times reports that for the first time in six decades, the illusive mourner failed to show on January 19 of this year. This unexpected absence has left many wondering if the stranger in the black hat and white scarf has met an untimely end, and if he’ll ever return. “I’m confused, befuddled,” said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. “I don’t know what’s going on.” The first written reference to the visitor was published in a 1949 issue of The Evening Sun of Baltimore. Since then the mysterious mourner has developed a following of his own, with Jerome and many other Poe enthusiasts staking out Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, to watch the dark figure leave his gifts at Poe’s grave stone each year.

The visitor’s identity remains unknown, though like a good mystery, several theories abound. Some believe him to be David Franks, a poet and performance artist local to Baltimore, known for his outrageous pranks. Franks passed way last week, which may explain the absence this year, though no evidence has ever tied the shadowy mourner to the poet. Others have pegged curator Jerome as the visitor, which he strongly denies. “If I was doing it, that is fraud, pure and simple. I could lose my job,” Jerome said. This year, a new layer is added to the mystery: Why did he stop? “We don’t know if he stopped,” answers Jerome. “He just didn’t come this year.”

Read The Seattle Times article