Lea Marquis (1802-1830) was an American socialite who lived in West Point, New York during the 1830s. In 1830, she and her brother Artemus 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[]
Lea Marquis was born in New York in 1804, the daughter of Daniel and Julia Marquis, and the sister of Artemus Marquis. From a young age, she was afflicted with random seizures, taking a toll on her health as she came of age. During a near-death affliction, Lea claimed to have communicated with her great-great-grandfather, the occultist Henri Le Clerc, who convinced her of the merits of black magic. The ways of conventional science having failed him, Daniel Marquis resorted to Le Clerc's blood sacrifice rituals to heal his daughter, and, after she miraculously recovered, her family became convinced that the evisceration of men's hearts in a Satanic ceremony was the only way to keep her alive.
Artemus cradling an unconscious Lea moments before their death
In 1830, Lea and Artemus 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 infiltrated Artemus' group of friends and met Lea at an event where she played the piano. Lea was impressed with Poe's knowledge of poetry and French, and she accepted his offer of a date at a cemetery, where they discussed the poetry of death, their shared ability to communicate with the dead, and how Poe was similar to her brother in their interest in morbidity. Poe became enamored with Lea, who - in spite of her attraction to Poe - 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.