The
Blackest Bird
A Novel of Historyand Murder
Joel Rose
Contents
Title Page Maps Epigraph The Blackest Bird Chapter One: July 26, 1841,Midnight Chapter Two: Old Hays Chapter Three: Murder Chapter Four: Between Two Tides Chapter Five: The City Brain Chapter Six: In the Lair of the Green Turtle Chapter Seven: News of Murder Breaks in the Public Prints Chapter Eight: The Investigation Begins in Earnest Chapter Nine: In a Clearing Chapter Ten: What Colt Did Chapter Eleven: Aftermath to Murder Chapter Twelve: Death of the Corkcutter Daniel Payne One Year Later Chapter Thirteen: His Is the Rampant Temerity Chapter Fourteen: Somewhere Deep in the Distance Stereotomy Chapter Fifteen: The Sunday Sermon Chapter Sixteen: A Man Condemned Chapter Seventeen: The Bridge of Sighs Chapter Eighteen: The Tombs Chapter Nineteen: The Sister of the Pretty Hot Corn Girl Chapter Twenty: The Dark Deeds of Ruby Pearl Chapter Twenty One: During His Time in the Tombs Chapter Twenty Two: The Ponce Chapter Twenty Three: Armagnac Chapter Twenty Four: Anderson’s Segar Shop Chapter Twenty Five: The Night Soil Cart Chapter Twenty Six: Snowden’s Ladies’ Companion Chapter Twenty Seven: Murders in the Rue Morgue Chapter Twenty Eight: The Mystery of Marie Rogêt Part One and Part Two but Not Yet Part Three Chapter Twenty Nine: A Bitter Reunion Chapter Thirty: Marriage Beneath the Gibbet Chapter Thirty One: The Marriage Banquet Chapter Thirty Two: Preparation for a Hanging Chapter Thirty Three: A Dagger in the Heart Chapter Thirty Four: The Politics of Fire in New York City Chapter Thirty Five: Into the Five Points Chapter Thirty Six: Conjecture on the Death of John C. Colt Chapter Thirty Seven: A Poem Before Dying Chapter Thirty Eight: Colt’s Patent Chair Chapter Thirty Nine: Grave Robbers Chapter Forty: Following Poe Chapter Forty One: Ambush Below the Heights Chapter Forty Two: The Band Undone Chapter Forty Three: A Visit Paid by Old Hays to the Colonel, Samuel Colt, at His Paterson Arms Manufacturing Company Chapter Forty Four: The Wake and Funeral of Tommy Coleman Chapter Forty Five: Aftermath to Obsequies Chapter Forty Six: Sergeant Mcardel Chapter Forty Seven: For His Soul A Year And A Half Later Chapter Forty Eight: The Hunt for the Murderer of Mary Rogers Resumes Chapter Forty Nine: George Palmer Putnam Chapter Fifty: Stopping in at The Tobacconist’s Shop Chapter Fifty One: Mary Devereaux Chapter Fifty Two: The New York Sun, the New York Moon, and All the Stars in the New York Sky Chapter Fifty Three: 130 Greenwich Street Chapter Fifty Four: What Song the Syrens Sing Chapter Fifty Five: A Carman Chapter Fifty Six: The Brennan Farm Chapter Fifty Seven: Mr. Poe, Do You Remember Me? Chapter Fifty Eight: Poe, Poe, a Thousand Times Poe Chapter Fifty Nine: Poe Makes Overtures to His Doomed Wife Chapter Sixty: Beneath a Bust of Pallas Chapter Sixty One: Murder for Pleasure Chapter Sixty Two: If Not He, Who? Chapter Sixty Three: Grip the Raven and We’ll All Have Tea Chapter Sixty Four: The Black Bird Chapter Sixty Five: Miss Lynch’s Conversaziones Chapter Sixty Six: Back in the Lair of the Green Turtle Ten Months Later Chapter Sixty Seven: My Dreams Are of the Unknown Chapter Sixty Eight: Turtle Bay Chapter Sixty Nine: The Dead Are but for the Moment … Motionless Chapter Seventy: The Bells Chapter Seventy One: And the Fever Called Living Is Conquered At Last Afterword Author’s Note and Acknowledgments About the Author