For the love of Poe

As mysterious as the disputed cause of Edgar Allan Poe's death, is the male figure in a black coat and hat who comes to offer tribute to the writer every year since January 1949, a century after Poe's death. The "poe toaster" enters the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, Maryland in the early hours of the morning on every January 19th (Poe's birthday), where he raises a cognac toast before departing, leaving three red roses and a half-empty bottle of Martell cognac on the grave. The roses are said to represent Poe himself, his wife Virginia, and his mother-in-law, Maria Clemm. The significance of the cognac is unknown but for notes left by the toaster indicating the bottle was left to continue family tradition. Many of the bottles have been kept at the Baltimore Poe House and Museum. The toaster often left notes in addition to the roses and cognac, some simply in devotion to Poe, but others indicating the "torch" of being the Poe toaster was going to be passed. In 1993 a short note read to that effect, and in 1999 another one was left saying the original toaster had passed away the year before and a son had taken over the tradition.
In 2006, much to the dismay of the Edgar Allen Poe House and Museum curator Jeff Jerome, several people attempted to accost and identify the toaster, possibly angered by notes left by the new toaster. In 2001 and 2004 the toaster left notes commenting on current events, causing somewhat of a furor.
In 2007, around 60 people showed up for the event, and in 2008, nearly 150.
In 2009, on the 200th anniversary of Poe's death, suddenly the crowd was much smaller than in past years, and in 2010, the Poe toaster failed to make an appearance for the first time since the tradition began.
One thing the curator has never revealed to the media is a gesture the toaster apparently makes every year, in hopes of one day identifying him.