In the fall of 1816, an anonymous husband and wife disembarked from a ship in Alexandria harbor and checked into the City Hotel attached to Gadsby’s Tavern. The man’s wife was seriously ill, and died after a few days. Some say she was the daughter of Aaron Burr, others that she was an orphan who accidentally married her own brother. Still others say she was taken to America by her employer, who jealously shot and killed her lover. Since no one knows who she was, readers fill in the blanks with whatever story they like best.