The Stranger in Alexandria

December 4, 2008 5:23 AM

"Two people emerged from the ship, a man and his wife. .. Mrs. Wise immediately called for a doctor to look after the woman... The husband and wife were shown to Room 8, where the woman's condition continued to deteriorate... Eventually, the husband summoned the doctor, hotel staff and even the owner’s wife to Room 8 to ask a very unusual request: He asked that everyone present swear an oath never to reveal their identities." So, begins and essentially ends Alexandria Virginia's mystery of the Female Stranger.

The woman died and the man with her commissioned an elaborate tombstone which still sits in St. Pauls Episcopal Church Cemetery. The tombstone he commissioned reads:

To the memory of a
FEMALE STRANGER
whose mortal sufferings terminated
on the 14th day of October 1816
Aged 23 years and 8 months

This stone was placed here by her disconsolate
Husband in whose arms she sighed out her
latest breath and who under God
did his utmost even to soothe the cold
dead ear of death.

How loved how valued once avails thee not
To Whom related or by whom begot
A heap of dust alone remains of thee
Tis all though art and all the proud shall be

To him gave all the Prophets witness that
through his name whosoever believeth in
him shall receive remission of sins
Acts. 10th Chap. 43rd verse”

Was she royalty? The daughter of Aaron Burr? None of the people sworn to secrecy ever broke their oath.

posted by vacapinta (47 comments total)

She was from ...THE FUTURE!

seriously, this is so cool. I thought I knew all the Unsolved Mysteries already.
posted by The Whelk at 6:03 AM on December 4, 2008

Spooky stuff - but infuriating, as we'll never know who she was, short of time travel being invented. Thanks for the post.
posted by Happy Dave at 6:08 AM on December 4, 2008

I know what you're getting at, vacapinta, but I think this might be too big a job for the MeFi Detectives.
posted by arcticwoman at 6:28 AM on December 4, 2008 [9 favorites]

Fascinating! I lived in Alexandria in for 1.5 years and failed to learn of this story.

It seems like the perfect kernel for a novel or film.
posted by odacrem at 6:28 AM on December 4, 2008

People, people. It's quite obvious that she was the Earl of Oxford.
posted by No-sword at 6:38 AM on December 4, 2008 [5 favorites]

Not to be cynical, but:

The elaborate funerary was reported to be in excess of $1,500, quite a hefty fee even then. Several Alexandria businessmen, the sort for whom the extension of credit to refined gentlemen would be routine, were now owed a substantial amount. When they arrived to collect their due, they were astonished by what they found. Or better yet, they were astonished by what they did not find: the Male Stranger. The man had vanished, and he had not been seen since. Those who had taken an oath to keep the identity of the mysterious strangers secret did not divulge their secret, and even the guest registry had been scrubbed of references that might violate the sacred oath given before the woman’s death.

This sounds like a con. Can it be confirmed that there's a body in the Female Stranger's grave? The only allegedly outside person who could have confirmed or denied she was sick, let alone dead, was the doctor, about which the tale has this to say: an unlicensed practitioner who practiced the medical arts for one dollar per visit. Uh...yeah. Sounds like just the guy royalty or the daughter of the President would summon.
posted by DU at 6:42 AM on December 4, 2008 [7 favorites]

I don't know why this synapse is firing, but -- how do we know for certain that the female stranger was actually female?

Someone with that much money would also have been that much more interested in avoiding any kind of scandal, and thus that much more interested in enlisting people to keep a same-sex relationship a secret. So this could also have been a very well-placed individual and his lover, traveling in drag.

Doesn't explain the "who they were", but it may explain "why they were so insistent on staying secret".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:42 AM on December 4, 2008

I'm pretty sure that if they exhume the body, all they'll find is a freshly killed hare.
posted by hermitosis at 6:44 AM on December 4, 2008 [3 favorites]

how do we know for certain that the female stranger was actually female?

If they were both male (or both female, for that matter), people would have no way of proving (or even suspecting) that the pair were anything but good friends or perhaps relatives, so I don't see that as any reason for secrecy.

I agree with DU that it looks exactly like flim flam: strangers in town, urgency (no time for the gulls to think), compelling tale (young love, suffering woman, deathbed request, etc.), a weird excuse for anonymity (deathbed oath), and an unusually big pile of money that disappears leaving nothing but a buried box no one dares dig up. The couple and the "doctor" split the cash and vanish. And even if they did dig it up and they found a body, it could still be a con, though just a little more convoluted.
posted by pracowity at 6:59 AM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

Re-reading the story after seeing pracowity and DU's take on it puts me in the flim-flam camp. I love a good mystery, but I also love a good nostalgic con. So I'm happy either way.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:07 AM on December 4, 2008

I'm a bit confused by the flim-flam supporters. The survivors received goods and services to run up their debt (headstone, funeral service, hotel stay) - so they weren't exactly running away with fistsfull of cash. And she apparently lingered for several days after her arrival before dying. Not a very well-planned scam. I'm just saying.
posted by AuntLisa at 7:21 AM on December 4, 2008

a weird excuse for anonymity

And a weird reason for needing it. Why did the assembled people even know her identity? Nobody else recognized her, so did they somehow? And the owner of the inn: They called the guy in specifically to a) tell her who she was and then b) make him swear never to tell? That makes no sense.

The only reason to do something like that is to get Respectable People to back up your story and cough up the money for the grave. (BTW, the mortician or someone has to be in on this in some way, like maybe a kickback, because the gravestone and site were presumably paid for out of that $1500.)
posted by DU at 7:23 AM on December 4, 2008

Neat post. I'm curious to know more about how we know what we (think we) know. I mean, what are the sources for the story? Did people talk to newspapers? For one thing, it just seems weird that businessman who were out a large amount of money would not pursue it in court. Anyway, thanks!
posted by chinston at 7:24 AM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I tried to find primary sources online (i.e. I did a little googling). Nothing. In fact, other than the given link, there's very little that isn't in the form of "and they say you can still see her on lonely nights, standing in the window with a candle".
posted by DU at 7:29 AM on December 4, 2008

Why did the assembled people even know her identity? Nobody else recognized her, so did they somehow?

I guess they didn't recognize her. The con artists had to make it out like they were rich and therefore good for the cash, so they made a false claim of identity to a limited circle of people who wouldn't know a duchess from a drab, but they didn't want a wider circle of people inspecting the supposed duchess (or whoever) because someone might figure it out.

And after they realized they'd been had, the connec agreed never to admit it and embarrass themselves.

Something like that?
posted by pracowity at 7:36 AM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

Here's a bit I found on google books - some slightly different details, some apparently fanciful. For a bonus, check out the handwritten remark on page 171.
posted by chinston at 7:37 AM on December 4, 2008 [5 favorites]

I found out who it was. But I will not violate the solemn oath I swore!!!
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 7:43 AM on December 4, 2008

The survivors received goods and services to run up their debt (headstone, funeral service, hotel stay)

True, but the costs were supposedly unusually high. If they actually did the headstone and funeral for very little but then cut the doctor and undertaker in on the loot, everyone would make money. And if they were sneaky enough, they could have received redundant money, enough to pay for ten hotel stays and buy ten headstones and ten funerals, from several people who didn't know about one another's contributions.
posted by pracowity at 7:43 AM on December 4, 2008

I guess they didn't recognize her...And after they realized they'd been had...

Yep. No evidence, exactly, but completely classic and fits all the data (which are few).
posted by DU at 7:43 AM on December 4, 2008

I don't know about anyone else, but that stone looks like it says dead "car" of death, not ear. This changes everything.
posted by Xurando at 7:45 AM on December 4, 2008

So...John Titor once had a wife?
posted by Thorzdad at 8:07 AM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

I agree that this sounds fishy, but pracowity's "con" doesn't make any damn sense at all. There's no way to profit from running up large bills from all of these businessmen for a funeral - you know, a supposedly witnessed event managed by those same businessmen. Something strange is (obviously) going on here, but until someone can make this "con" possible, plausible, and worthwhile at all, I have to say no.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:13 AM on December 4, 2008

I'm with Navelgazer about being suspicious of the con claim. The expenses for a funeral that they incurred (even a lavish one) probably wouldn't be in the form of fungible goods that could either be repossessed or resold for value - let alone carted off. For example, the inscribed stone tablet would have been an expensive portion of the costs, but is still standing there - unpaidfor - as a testament to this mystery.

I think there must have been something else going on here. The story mentions a ledger with their names on it in the hotel, but it says nothing of a cleansing of the ship's records. I wonder if that is a suitable lead.
posted by greekphilosophy at 8:19 AM on December 4, 2008

I think there has got to be a cypher in the epitath leading to the truth behind the hoax. The last line is the clue:

To him gave all the Prophets witness that
through his name whosoever believeth in
him shall receive remission of sins
Acts. 10th Chap. 43rd verse”

First off, it's a slight misquote of the verse. To him give all the Prophets witness, but in this case they gave it, past tense. What do the prophets give witness [or swear] to? His name, but in this case they, the cabal of townfolk, gave witness not to reveal the name. Through the name [the stranger] receives remission of his sins, or debts as they are sometimes called (think forgive us our debts...).

I theorize that the object is something stolen from the French monarchy. April, 1816 is 23 years and 8 months after the 10th of August Insurrection.
posted by Pollomacho at 8:22 AM on December 4, 2008

It's Lord Lucan!
posted by Ynoxas at 8:22 AM on December 4, 2008

There's no way to profit from running up large bills from all of these businessmen...

I took the quoted text to mean that the Male Stranger went around, hat in hand, to get donations to pay for the funeral "until I can get money wired from my Castle High In The Mountains". But now that you mention it, it seems ambiguous.
posted by DU at 8:24 AM on December 4, 2008

The story mentions a ledger with their names on it in the hotel...

That's another thing that makes little sense, except possibly as a sweetener for a con. If you want to be secret, why not just sign in with fake names? Why sign in with your real names and then scrub it after death? Why would her death require you to suddenly be anonymous, especially when she was already near death when you signed in?
posted by DU at 8:27 AM on December 4, 2008

I'm in the "flim-flam" camp. No one wanted to admit they were scammed, hence no one talked about it.

However, I remember as a kid having a book that told a story that kind of had similar features (I think it was in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or something similar). Daughter and mom check into a hotel (in France I think), mom gets ill, daughter calls the doctor. The doctor convinces her to go see the sights while he cares for her mother. The daughter gets back and finds the name of the hotel slightly changed, the room repainted and refurnished, and the hotel staff has no memory of either the daughter or the mother checking into the hotel, and their previously excellent English has deteriorated to where she can barely communicate with them. Their names had even been removed from the hotel register. What had actually happened is that the doctor saw the ill woman and immediately recognized signs of some severe contagious illness, possibly the plague, and to avoid panic they dispose of the ill woman and cover all traces she'd ever been there to the point of completely redoing the hotel room itself. Urban legend of course, but it makes for a good story.

So on the long shot that this isn't flim-flammy, perhaps it was to cover up a deadly communicable disease? Just a theory while we're throwing them out there.
posted by sephira at 8:38 AM on December 4, 2008

The epitaph quotes ("to whom related, or by whom begot") Alexander Pope's "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady," which concerns a noble girl who acts "a Roman's part" and throws herself on a sword when her family betrays her. The Biblical citation is from a passage where Saint Peter affirms the equality of all believers.

The implication is clear: the Female Stranger was a daughter of the Chiaramonti, the blood of Pope Pius VII. When she wed a foreigner below her station and outside the faith, she was cast out and cut off, and soon died of shame and despair. To the end, she implored her husband to bring no dishonor to her name, and he agreed; but when she passed, he sold the last of her jewels to buy her a burial in Protestant ground as a final rebuke to her family.

(Notice that the linked article itself is by a "Michael Lee Pope." COINCIDENCE?

Yes, probably.)
posted by Iridic at 8:50 AM on December 4, 2008

I put forth that this was not flim-flam, but instead rot and piffle.

Also, I recall the same story that sephira describes, and believe she is correct in attributing it to the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. The illustrations in those books were scarier than the stories, by leaps and bounds if my memory serves. Maybe I'll have to seek them out again to see if I'm right.
posted by owtytrof at 9:00 AM on December 4, 2008

There's no way to profit from running up large bills from all of these businessmen for a funeral - you know, a supposedly witnessed event managed by those same businessmen.

Person A agrees privately, just between the prince and person A, to fund the entire thing and to keep it under his hat. In return, of course, the prince makes it clear that he will never forget person A and hints that he will make it well worth his while financially.

Person B agrees privately, just between the prince and person B, to fund the entire thing and to keep it under his hat. In return, of course, the prince will never forget person B, etc.

Person C agrees privately, just between the prince and person C, to fund the entire thing and to keep it under his hat. In return, of course, the prince will never forget person C, etc.

And so on. Each subscriber pays enough to cover the entire hotel stay and lavish funeral that never really happens, or that happens for a fraction of the money the con artists have collected in total. Each subscriber's vanity and greed has allowed him to be conned into believing he is forming some sort of special secret bond with a very important person and the very important person's family, and he believes, of course, that he is going to get all of his money back and then some when the very important person gets back home.

However, I remember as a kid having a book that told a story that kind of had similar features

This?
posted by pracowity at 9:04 AM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

Nobodys perfect
Not even a perfect stranger
But oh what a gal
She was such a perfect stranger*
posted by mosk at 9:06 AM on December 4, 2008

This?

That would be it (but not where I read it). Also reminded me that the doctor had the young lady delayed to get medicine - it's been awhile since I read the story.

Perhaps this Female Stranger was the original catalyst for this urban legend?
posted by sephira at 9:40 AM on December 4, 2008

Obviously, it was the Dauphin in drag.
posted by thivaia at 9:46 AM on December 4, 2008

Most definitely a scam. The whole stuff about "revealing their secret identities under a solemn oath of non-disclosure" reminds me far too much of this earlier FPP about the psychology of the Pigeon Drop. I don't think that those $1,500 were the real booty, though: probably the scammers were simply exploiting the fact that the more you spend (even if it's on credit), the more credit-worthy you seem. I'm more inclined to think that the real scam may have involved the Male Stranger receiving a Large Sum of Money as either a "credit" or a "safe investment", possibly leaving some worthless "family heirloom" behind "in escrow".
posted by Skeptic at 9:52 AM on December 4, 2008

Wait, I screwed up the dates, it was 23 years 8 months from October, 1816, which puts her "birth" at February, 1793. I think now that the mysterious stranger was Napoleon who supposedly exiled in 1815. February 1793 was when Napoleon declared war on the British and began seizing French territory from the British and French revolutionaries. So who was the wife? Not a body at all but the temporary hiding place for the Sancy which would be reappear in 1828.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:00 AM on December 4, 2008

Dig 'er up!
posted by klangklangston at 11:51 AM on December 4, 2008

I think I figured out who the Male Stranger was.
posted by chinston at 12:10 PM on December 4, 2008

Strange that the epitah did not simply say America or Burst.

Also, holy crap that shit show was on for eight fucking seasons?!?
posted by Pollomacho at 12:16 PM on December 4, 2008

could it just be simpler? that the guy, seeing his wife was gonna die and knowing he was going to have to bury her, and also knowing they had little or no money from their travel, hatched the plan. he got the others to swear to keep their names secret, so he could rack up the funeral debts and leave without anyone finding him.

that said, totally dig her up.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 12:22 PM on December 4, 2008 [2 favorites]

he got the others to swear to keep their names secret, so he could rack up the funeral debts

Once he was discovered as a fraud wouldn't the others have outed him?
posted by Pollomacho at 12:53 PM on December 4, 2008

Willie Nelson unavailable for comment.
posted by Smedleyman at 1:48 PM on December 4, 2008

Neat story. Thanks, vacapinta.
posted by homunculus at 3:24 PM on December 4, 2008

And so on. Each subscriber pays enough to cover the entire hotel stay and lavish funeral that never really happens

In other words, it's The Producers' scam.
posted by msalt at 5:38 PM on December 4, 2008

This sounds a lot like an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
posted by Kimothy at 7:10 PM on December 4, 2008

Cute, typical old scam. We know the medical care was cheap and it's likely the room wasn't too expensive either. I doubt the funeral was really $1500. That's equivalent to around $25000 today. Looks like a relatively plain stone. Who all would have shown up for a funeral? How do we know how much it cost? Did they ask the funeral director? Would he have answered such a question? More likely, the quoted cost of the funeral is just the sum of the credit amounts reported unpaid by the outraged creditors around town. I'd bet the anonymous couple walked away with 90% of it.

As for the question of why they bothered to swear everyone to secrecy, there are all kinds of possible reasons. Maybe they just wanted to add an extra layer of defense, to keep people revealing anything about them. Maybe some of these people found something out somehow. I dunno, maybe one of the con artists accidentally flashed a tattoo or something, or someone from the ship knew their home port. Or perhaps the lady really was sick at first, but the con was an improvisation when they realized people were willing to extend credit. Then, the oath would have been a quick fix to the fact that they had already given out their real identities. Or maybe they just were hoping to keep the whole thing a secret so they could keep pulling the same scam without word getting out about it. Or maybe the fake identities they gave were grandiose ("I'm the Prince of Westphalia and this is my royal wife...") and the request for secrecy was just theater. ("GOOD DAY MY NAME IS PRINCE OKAMA MUGU AND I HAVE HEARD THAT YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH SECRET OF UTMOST SECRECY...")

Etc.
posted by Xezlec at 9:14 PM on December 4, 2008

Maybe the female Stranger *is* buried there.

Even grifters can die and want a nice grave paid for by a bunch of marks.
posted by codswallop at 11:33 PM on December 4, 2008