When the body of 20-year-old Mary Rogers was found in the Hudson River in 1841, New Yorkers were transfixed. Known citywide as the “Beautiful Cigar Girl,” Mary’s mysterious death set off a media ...

The 1841 death of Mary Rogers drew national attention and inspired Poe’s detective fiction Christina Coulter has been a Staff Writer covering crime at PEOPLE since 2025. Her work has previously ...

Mary Cecilia Rogers, 20, known as New York's "Beautiful Cigar Girl," vanished in July 1841 and was found dead in the Hudson River days later A handkerchief with her initials and rumors of a botched ...