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Short Summary
Paris, early 19th century. A young man befriended C. Auguste Dupin, an impoverished nobleman with remarkable analytical abilities. They shared lodgings and spent their nights walking through Paris, where Dupin demonstrated his deductive powers by reading his companion's thoughts.
When news broke of brutal murders in the Rue Morgue, where two women were killed in a locked room, Dupin took interest in the case.
In investigations such as we are now pursuing, it should not be so much asked 'what has occurred,' as 'what has occurred which has never occurred before.'
Examining the crime scene, Dupin discovered evidence overlooked by the police: unusual strength was required for the murders, witnesses reported hearing two voices - one speaking French and another making strange sounds, and the method of escape seemed impossible through apparently locked windows. After analyzing these clues, Dupin concluded that an orangutan had committed the murders, while its owner, a French sailor, had been present and shouted in horror.
Dupin placed an advertisement claiming to have captured an orangutan. When the sailor came to claim it, he confessed that his escaped pet had killed the women while imitating his shaving routine. The sailor had followed the animal to the scene but could only watch in horror. The case was solved, the wrongly accused man was released, and Dupin's superior analytical methods were vindicated.
Detailed Summary
Division of the summary into chapters is conditional.
Introduction to Dupin and His Methods
A young man living in Paris became acquainted with an extraordinary gentleman named C. Auguste Dupin. Despite coming from an illustrious family, Dupin had been reduced to poverty but managed to maintain a modest lifestyle through his remaining patrimony. The two men decided to live together in an old, abandoned mansion in the Faubourg St. Germain.
They lived an eccentric life, keeping their shutters closed during the day and venturing out only at night. During these nocturnal wanderings, Dupin demonstrated his remarkable analytical abilities, often reading his companion's thoughts through careful observation and deduction. His friend was particularly impressed by Dupin's ability to follow his train of thought and predict his actions, as demonstrated when Dupin correctly guessed he was thinking about an actor named Chantilly.
The mental features discoursed of as the analytical are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We know of them that they are always to their possessor a source of the liveliest enjoyment.
The Mysterious Murders
One evening, they came across a newspaper article describing horrific murders in the Rue Morgue. Two women, Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter Mademoiselle Camille, had been brutally killed in their fourth-story apartment. The police were baffled by the crime scene's bizarre nature and the conflicting accounts of witnesses who heard strange voices during the murders.
The apartment was in the wildest disorder - the furniture broken and thrown about in all directions... Upon the floor were found four Napoleons, an ear-ring of topaz, three large silver spoons...
The daughter's body was found stuffed up the chimney head downward, while the mother's corpse was discovered in the yard behind the building, her head nearly severed from her body. Despite extensive investigation, the police had made no progress in solving the case. A bank clerk named Adolphe Le Bon, who had recently delivered money to Madame L'Espanaye, was arrested though there was little evidence against him.
The police are confounded by the seeming absence of motive - not for the murder itself - but for the atrocity of the murder. They are puzzled by the seeming impossibility of reconciling the voices heard in contention.
Dupin's Investigation
Intrigued by the case and concerned for Le Bon, who had once done him a favor, Dupin decided to investigate. He obtained permission to examine the crime scene with his friend. While there, he meticulously observed details that the police had overlooked, particularly regarding the windows and the unusual strength required to commit the murders. He also noted the peculiar nature of the voices heard by witnesses - while everyone agreed one was that of a Frenchman, each witness attributed the other voice to a speaker of a different foreign language.
After their investigation, Dupin explained to his friend that he had solved the mystery. He revealed that the murders were not committed by a human at all, but by an Ourang-Outang. The peculiar voices heard by witnesses, the incredible strength displayed, and the senseless violence all pointed to this conclusion. To prove his theory, Dupin placed an advertisement in a newspaper claiming to have captured a large Ourang-Outang, knowing this would draw out its owner.
Resolution of the Mystery
As Dupin predicted, a sailor soon arrived at their residence. Upon questioning, the sailor revealed that he had captured the Ourang-Outang in Borneo and brought it to Paris, hoping to sell it. The animal had escaped from his room after observing him shaving, taking his razor with it. The sailor had pursued the creature but watched in horror as it climbed into the L'Espanayes' apartment via a lightning rod.
The sailor then provided a full account of the murders as witnessed through the window. The Ourang-Outang had entered the room while the women were arranging papers from an iron chest. It had seized Madame L'Espanaye by the hair and begun imitating a barber's movements with the razor. When she struggled, the animal became enraged and killed her. The daughter had fainted, and the Ourang-Outang, in its frenzy, had killed her as well, stuffing her body up the chimney and throwing the mother's corpse out the window.
The fury of the beast, who no doubt bore still in mind the dreaded whip, was instantly converted into dread. Conscious of having deserved punishment, he seemed desirous to conceal his bloody deeds.
The strange voices heard by witnesses were explained: the gruff voice speaking French was the sailor's exclamations of horror as he watched from outside, while the shrill voice that no one could identify was that of the Ourang-Outang itself. The animal was later caught and sold to the Jardin des Plantes. Adolphe Le Bon was immediately released from custody when Dupin presented his findings to the police.
Throughout the investigation, Dupin demonstrated that what appeared most unusual about the case was precisely what made it solvable. The extreme brutality, the apparent impossibility of escape, and the mysterious voices all pointed to a non-human perpetrator. He criticized the Paris police for their lack of methodology and their tendency to confuse the unusual with the insolvable.
Let it not be supposed that I am detailing any mystery, or penning any romance. What I have described in the Frenchman was but the result of an excited, or perhaps of a diseased intelligence.