On January 17th of 1894, a couple stood before a minister at the Vendome Hotel in Denver,

Colorado. Henry Howard and Georgiana Yoke were about to be married, standing near them

was their witness, a woman named Minnie Williams. The bride had come from Indiana to escape

a scandalous reputation and had found work in Chicago at a store owned by Henry. She was

a tall, slender woman, about 25 years of age, the blue eyes and blonde hair, and she was

madly in love with Henry. It sounds wonderful. It sounds perfect, actually. But there was

trouble in paradise even before they met the minister there at the hotel. You see, Henry

was already married. He was, in fact, married to two other women, and Minnie, the woman standing

as witness, was actually Henry's mistress of over a year. Even Henry's name was fake. His

real name had been abandoned long before, and it would be months before Georgiana would

discover who he really was. Sometimes we think we know a person, only to discover that

we were fooled. Community is built on trust, and that trust allows us to make connections,

to let down our guard and to feel safe. When that trust is broken though, our mind's

quickly shifted disappointment and stress and outright fear.

Sure it happens less often now in the age of Facebook and social media, but in the late

1800s, very little stood in the way of a person falsifying their identity, and Henry Howard,

or whoever he was prior to that moment in Denver, had turned that skill into an art. Few

people knew this about Henry though. In fact, few people could have imagined what deep, dark

secrets boiled just beneath the surface of this smiling young groom. And when the world

finally did find out exactly ten months later, they could barely contain their horror.

I'm Aaron Mankey, and this is lore.

Henry Howard was born in New Hampshire in 1861 as Herman Muget. His parents were wealthy

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