

In 1830, Cadet Fry was found hanged at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After the body was desecrated by the removal of the heart during the funeral, the academy's officials commissioned the widowed, retired New York City police officer Augustus Landor to investigate the case. Landor's investigation revealed that it was murder, not suicide. He appointed Cadet Edgar Allan Poe as his assistant in his further investigation.