Physicians summoned to the scene concluded they were the bones of a woman who had been between the ages of sixteen and twenty when she died. Under the heading “Mysterious,” the paper noted that the bones were “in a good degree of preservation” and must have been deposited behind the wall within the previous twenty-five years – after the home was built and before Stebbins moved in, a short time before he began to expand the cellar. The Greenfield Democrat, published in a neighboring town, was the first to break the news in mid-July. This story originally appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. The body, he clearly believed, had been entombed behind the wall by someone who was either unskilled in building stone walls or had been in a hurry to hide the remains. Whether it is due to mental illness or intentional deceit, the narrator’s duality is a central thematic concern.“The condition of the wall appeared as if part of the wall had been removed,” he informed the Vermont Phoenix, “and the human body crowded in, and the wall, unworkman-like, replaced.” He emphasized the term “unworkman-like” in his letter to the newspaper in nearby Brattleboro, published after press reports of the discovery circulated in the summer of 1842. While it is possible that the narrator himself does not recognize what he is doing, this lack of self-awareness likewise makes his narration suspect. For example, he invokes traditional superstitions about black cats as though to explain his behavior toward Pluto while simultaneously disavowing such superstitions.
The narrator ascribes his mood swings and violence to The Consequences of Alcohol Addiction, but it is difficult to know how much credence to give this assertion-or any that he makes-as he engages in deceptive narrative practices that qualify him as an unreliable narrator. His actions themselves are equally erratic and contradictory he weeps after killing Pluto but sleeps soundly after murdering his wife. His behavior would seem to contradict this portrait, as he abuses and eventually kills both his wife and his beloved pet cat. The story’s narrator and protagonist describes himself as gentle and compassionate by nature, with a particular respect for animals.
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