Mary's Murder Theories

Mary's murder is one of the most popular unsolved murder cases of all time. Why? Well because no one could ever figure out who did it. Three years before Mary’s death she disappeared, then later returned to work at a local cigar store, which is where she picked up the name “cigar girl”, there she was seen as very attractive by men that came in and out of her store, but no one thought anything of it at the time. A gang of thugs and Daniel Payne are two theories linked to the mysterious death of Mary Rogers. Since, the Cigar Girls murder has such little evidence, there are many theories as to what happened. Mary was found floating in “the Hudson River on July 28, 1841” (Macgowan). Mary was only 21 years of age when she pasted (“Great mysteries”). She was spotted by several men who had mistaken her for a pile of clothes at first (Macgowan). This evidence is significant because these could have been the gang of men who murdered Mary in the first place just trying to divert the attention someplace else. Three years before, Mary mysteriously walked out of town, wasn't seen for awhile, then returned like nothing happened to work at a local cigar shop (Macgowan). In …show more content…
Locals suspected gangs were the cause of Mary's murder (Macgowan). After, Mary's death the Coroner, an official who investigate murders, examines her body to find “thumb and finger marks on…” Mary’s throat, insinuating she had been strangled (Macgowan). The Coroner added that he found multiple hand marks on Mary’s throat, implying multiple people were involved in the murder (Macgowan). This evidence strongly supports the Daniel Payne theory. After a few days, more of Mary’s clothes were discovered, but investigators think the murderer dumped the clothes after the murder took place to get rid of all evidence tying them to the murder (Macgowan). As a result, of the way Mary was found, the theory of her being attacked by a gang seems to be the popular