One day, after a long walk, we were looking through an evening paper, when the following paragraph attracted our attention.
EXTRAORDINARY MURDERS
This morning about three o'clock the inhabitants of the Rue Morgue were awakened by loud shrieks coming from the fourth storey of a house in that street, which was occupied by a certain Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter, Camille L'Espanaye. After some fruitless attempts to get into the building, the gateway was broken and several neighbours accompanied by two gendarmes entered the house. By this time the cries had ceased, but as the party rushed to the first landing, they heard two or more rough angry voices upstairs. When the people reached the second landing, these sounds had also ceased and everything was quiet.
The party hurried from room to room. When they came to a large back room in the fourth storey (its door was locked with the key inside, and they had to break it), they stood struck with horror and astonishment.
The apartment was in the wildest disorder, all the tables and chairs were broken and thrown about in all directions. The bed stood in the middle of the room. On one of the chairs they noticed a razor covered with blood. Upon the floor they found: four Napoleons, an ear-ring, three large silver spoons, and two bags, containing nearly four thousand francs in gold. All the drawers of the bureau which stood in the corner were open. A small iron safe was discovered under the bed. It was open, with the key still in the door. There was nothing in it but a few old letters and other papers of little importance.
No traces of Madame L'Espanaye were seen anywhere, but they noticed an unusual quantity of soot in the fireplace. A search was made in the chimney, and the body of the daughter was dragged from it. It was quite warm. The face and the throat of the girl were covered with several scratches and bruises.
After an investigation, the body of the old lady was discovered in the small back yard of the building. Her throat was deeply cut, and, upon an attempt to raise her, the head fell off.
To this horrible mystery there is not as yet the slightest clue.
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About The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Mystery and crime stories as we know them today did not emerge until the mid-nineteenth century when Edgar Allan Poe introduced mystery fiction's first fictional detective, Auguste C. Dupin, in his 1841 story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The acknowledged father of the mystery story, Poe continued Dupin's exploits in novels such as The Mystery of Marie Roget (1842) and The Purloined Letter (1845).
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is the most famous example of a mystery style known as the locked room, in which "a murder victim is found inside an apparently sealed enclosure and the detective's challenge is to discover the murderer's modus operandi."
Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first to shift the focus of mystery stories from the description of shocking events and eerie setting to a "study of the criminal's mind."
