Never More Doubt

Other prominent people buried at the graveyard include Gen. Samuel Smith, who helped organize the defense of Baltimore in the War of 1812, and Col. James McHenry, secretary of war under presidents George Washington and John Adams.

Porpora helped save the church by dressing volunteers in black choir robes and organizing paid tours of the catacombs beneath the church.

"He deserves a medal for what he did for that place," Jerome said. "He kept it in the public eye when no one else was paying much attention to it."

Under Porpora, Jerome became a tour guide. And in his spare time, Jerome began pursuing what turned into a lifelong passion for Poe.

Early on, Jerome came across a decades-old article that mentioned briefly an "anonymous citizen who creeps in annually to place an empty bottle (of excellent label) against the tomb of Poe."

So on a whim in 1977, on Poe's Jan. 19 birthday, Jerome stopped by the author's grave and was astonished to find a bottle and three roses.

The next year, Jerome staked out the cemetery. But after sitting for hours, he rushed to a nearby building to use the bathroom and returned to find roses and cognac sitting against the grave.

Other Poe devotees began accusing Jerome of making up the incident, so he brought others with him in following years. In 1981, peering together from the catacomb windows, they saw someone dressed in a black fedora, white scarf and black coat walking in the darkness. They believed it was a man because of his size, height and gait.

About the same time, Porpora was being forced out of his role as Poe's local guardian. The University of Maryland's law school was acquiring Westminster Church. And the city announced that it was taking over the Poe House. Porpora, who was the church historian and curator of the house, was asked to be neither under the new regimes.

Many say he was let go because of his flair for the dramatic. Porpora had begun embellishing his tours with historically dubious stories. He talked of a mass burial grave at the church from the Revolutionary War that was later debunked and of a

visit to the cemetery by Poe, which some historians doubt had occurred.

"It's one thing to do publicity, but you don't throw out the truth for publicity's sake," said Jeff Savoye, secretary of Baltimore's Poe Society.

So when Porpora announced that he had invented the rose-and-cognac tradition, others in Baltimore's Poe community were unconvinced.

Among the many problems with Porpora's claim, the biggest is his insistence that he began the ritual as a stunt to garner attention for the church in 1967. But church members had talked about the tradition dating back to 1949.

Digging this week through archives at the Maryland Historical Society, Jerome found the article that had led him to discover the cognac and roses. It was dated 1950. And there are other inconsistencies in Porpora's story, which has changed a bit since he first made his claim.

In some versions, he made up the tale for a newspaper story, which appears to have run in 1976. In others, he was the figure in black.

Porpora attributes people's doubts to how popular and speculative the tradition has become since he says he began it. For Jerome, however, there is no doubt: Porpora's claim could not be true. The 1950 article is proof.

When Jerome found the article, he said he felt relieved but also a little sad. He said he feels indebted to his former mentor but also to the man who taught him to love Poe -- the man in black.

A few years ago, the mystery man left a note for Jerome, along with the bottle and roses, that said, "The torch will be passed."

The next year, he said, a noticeably younger man appeared with another note. The man in black had passed away, the note read, but his two sons will continue his tradition.

The last note from the two sons contained something else, personal information, Jerome said, that he just can't talk about.

Jerome insists that he still does not know the identity of the man or those of his successors.

"But if I found out who did it, I wouldn't even tell my wife," he said.

After all, like the man in black did, Jerome loves Poe. And anyone who loves Poe, he explained, understands the importance of mystery.