Edgar Allan Poe's haunting short story "The Black Cat" was first published in The Saturday Evening Post in August of 1843. It concerns a man who abuses his one-eyed black cat, and in so doing manages to kill his wife. He tries to cover up the murder by hiding her body in the wall of the cellar, closing up the wall before the police arrive. But the cat manages to get revenge. You can read the entire story online.
"The Black Cat" is fiction, but Poe took inspiration from real events. It just so happened that the year before, a sensational story about a woman's remains found plastered into a cellar wall was syndicated in newspapers across the the country. Poe's account expands upon the crime, and adds the twist of the cat, but the bones of the story are there in a real life report from Connecticut. Tales immediately grew up around the true crime, and were even published, many of which have since been debunked. Read what we know and what has never been discovered about the case that inspired Poe's terrifying tale at CrimeReads. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Byam Shaw)