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A mysterious black-clad stranger continued an eerie 40-year tradition in the wee small hours of Thursday morning by placing a bottle of cognac and a red rose on the tombstone of Edgar Allan Poe to mark the 180th birthday of the famed horror writer. Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House museum in Baltimore, said the 1989 visitor is likely not the same person who began the tradition in 1949, but the scenario has changed little. No one knows the identity of the visitor, who occasionally in the past has dressed in a black top hat and white scarf. “I think it’s nice to have a mystery, especially connected with Poe. We are curious, but we’ve been strong so far,” Jerome said.