
Randolph Ballinger (died 1830) was a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1830, he and his friends Leroy Fry and Joseph Stoddard raped Mattie Landor as she left a ball at the academy, causing her to commit suicide shortly after. Ballinger also sought the affection of his friend Artemus Marquis' sister Lea, and he assaulted Edgar Allan Poe out of jealousy after seeing Poe return from a date with Lea. He was fought off by Poe's friend and Mattie's father Augustus Landor, who later secretly murdered and hanged Ballinger along the Hudson River before eviscerating him to imitate the Satanic desecration of Fry's body; Ballinger's death was later blamed on Artemus and Lea.