She had disappeared from her home in lower Manhattan a few days earlier and had been the object of an eager search. They commandeered a boat to retrieve what proved to be the remains of Mary Cecilia Rogers. People believed the water had healing powers and paid one cent a glass to refresh themselves with it after strolling the River Walk.Īs the young men gazed at the water, they saw an unexpected sight: a dead body. Two young men were relaxing along the Hudson River near Sybil’s Cave, where a rocky cliff had been excavated to reach a natural spring. The year was 1841, and Hoboken offered a countrified respite from the sultry heat of New York City. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.A watery grave…It was a pleasant July afternoon in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The book includes a bibliography and several maps of Manhattan and the Jersey Shore.Ĭopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Drawing on news accounts of the time and the many fictional accounts surrounding the case, Geary's retelling is detailed and well researched, and his impressive black-and-white drawings depict Victorian New York with great care. Geary comes up with his own twist on the mystery and manages to capture the spirit of a booming and boisterous New York City in the 1840s, a city without a full-time police force at a time when bodies turned up in the city's rivers regularly.
There were rumors of a botched abortion and accusations pointing to gangs of ruffians or spurned lovers some observers even suggested that the body wasn't Mary Rogers's at all. But after her bruised and bound corpse was found floating in the Hudson, a rushed investigation and hasty burial led to rampant speculation about her character and her murder. With her "natural vivacity" and "dark smile," Rogers was popular and had many admirers. Rogers sold cigars in a tobacco store that catered to many of the city's illustrious characters, including Tammany Hall politicos, authors James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving, and, most particularly, Edgar Allen Poe, who was so intrigued by the mystery that he wrote a novel based on the story and offered his own theories about the murder. Geary (Jack the Ripper) adds to his Treasury of Victorian Murder series, this time retelling a true tale of the disappearance and murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers, which prompted a media frenzy in 1840s New York.
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