Read what we know and what has never been discovered about the case that inspired Poe's terrifying tale at CrimeReads. Tales immediately grew up around the true crime, and were even published, many of which have since been debunked. Poe's account expands upon the crime, and adds the twist of the cat, but the bones of the story are there in a real life report from Connecticut. This narrative begins years before, when the narrator’s honorable character is well known and celebrated. It just so happened that the year before, a sensational story about a woman's remains found plastered into a cellar wall was syndicated in newspapers across the the country. The Black Cat (1843) Summary On the eve of his death, an unnamed narrator opens the story by proclaiming that he is sane, despite the wild narrative he is about to convey. He abused and then killed his pet cat, and then murdered his long-suffering wife. When he was young he was gentle-natured and kind to animals, but in adulthood he fell into drunkenness. "The Black Cat" is fiction, but Poe took inspiration from real events. 'The Black Cat' is a horrifying story of animal abuse and murder, told in the first person by a man who undergoes an alarming change of character. He tries to cover up the murder by hiding her body in the wall of the cellar, closing up the wall before the police arrive. It concerns a man who abuses his one-eyed black cat, and in so doing manages to kill his wife. Edgar Allan Poe's haunting short story "The Black Cat" was first published in The Saturday Evening Post in August of 1843.
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