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Artemus Marquis 2

Artemus Marquis (1804-1830) was a US Army cadet who attended West Point during the 1830s. In 1830, he and his sister Lea Marquis died in a fire while attempting to perform a blood sacrifice on the unconscious Cadet Edgar Allan Poe, and they were posthumously blamed for the murder and evisceration of Cadets Leroy Fry and Randolph Ballinger.

Biography[]

Artemus Marquis was born in New York in 1804, the son of Daniel and Julia Marquis, and the brother of Lea Marquis. Raised in an upper-class family, Artemus was protective of his sister, and, after she fell ill with the falling sickness and claimed to have talked with her great-great-grandfather Henri Le Clerc in a dream, Artemus and Lea's other family members agreed to resort to Le Clerc's occultist blood sacrifice rituals to restore Lea's health. Upon seeing signs of improvement in Lea, the family became convinced of the success of their Satanic rituals.

In 1830, Artemus and Lea eviscerated the body of Cadet Leroy Fry after they found his hanging body near the base, and Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer hired detective Augustus Landor to investigate the apparent Satanic murder of Fry. Landor enlisted the help of Cadet Edgar Allan Poe, who learned of Cadet Marquis' dabbling in the occult from Cadet Jack Hamilton, and Poe infiltrated Marquis' friend group of partiers, drinkers, and gamblers. Poe became enamored with Lea, who eventually decided to lure Poe to his death so that her family could perform another ritual to cure her illness. Before the siblings could murder Poe, however, Landor discovered Doctor Marquis' role in the evisceration after recognizing Le Clerc's book in Marquis' library and noticing Marquis' possession of a coat worn by the officer who had retrieved Fry's body from Cadet Haratio Cochrane on the night of the murder. Landor entered the basement as the siblings and their mother prepared to sacrifice Poe, and a panicked Julia knocked down a lamp, starting a fire. During the confrontation, Landor was able to disarm Artemus of his knife, and, when a falling piece of wood knocked out Lea, Artemus cradled his unconscious sister in his arms. Landor was able to rescue Poe and drag Julia away from the fire, but the ceiling caved in on Artemus and Lea before they could escape, killing them.

Gallery[]

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