What Killed Edgar Allen Poe? Edgar Allen Poe was an American mystery writer, he lived a very short and depressing life. He was born on January 19, 1809 but his unfair life began after that. When Edgar was three years old, his dad left him and his mom died of tuberculosis. Shortly, he was separated from his siblings William and Rosalie because he had been adopted by John and Frances Allan. Frances was happy with her new son but John was not. At the age of 17, Edgar enrolled into the University of Virginia, only to be kicked out because he could not pay his tuition. Adding to his grief, he learned that his step mom died of tuberculosis. Soon after, he enrolled in a military school called West Point only to be kicked out later. Afterwards, he lived with his aunt and future wife Virginia, who also died of tuberculosis. From then, he went on to become a writer and wrote most of his well known poems such as The Raven, Annabel Lee, Spirits of the Dead, and much more. Due to the major losses he had faced, Edgar turned to drugs and alcohol during this point in his life. Edgar Allen Poe died on October 7, 1849 at a hospital located in Washington Hill, Baltimore. Prior to his death, he had been admitted into the hospital for four days. Edgar Allen Poe was not killed because he died in a hospital while showing symptoms of rabies, a brain tumor found on his dead body decades after his death, and overuse of alcohol that Edgar Allen Poe claimed made him ill. Although it was never truly