Red Barn Murder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Red Barn Murder involved the killing of a young Suffolk woman, Maria Marten, by her lover, William Corder, the son of the local squire. The two had arranged to meet at the Red Barn, a local landmark, before eloping to Ipswich in order to be married. Maria was never heard from again. Although Corder sent her family letters claiming she was in good health, her body was later discovered buried in the barn after her stepmother claimed to have dreamt about the murder. Corder fled, but was tracked down, found guilty of murder, and hanged in Bury St. Edmunds in 1828. The story dominated the media, provoking numerous articles in the newspapers, songs and plays.
Contents |
[edit] The murder
Maria Marten was the 25-year-old daughter of a mole-catcher from Polstead, Suffolk. She was an attractive girl and relationships with men from the neighbourhood had already resulted in two children, one of whom had died as a baby. In 1826, she formed a relationship with the 24-year-old William Corder. Corder was the son of a local farmer, and had a reputation as something of a fraudster and a ladies' man. Marten gave birth to his child in 1827 and was apparently keen to marry. The child died (later reports suggested that it may have been murdered), but it seemed that Corder still intended to marry Maria. In the presence of Maria's stepmother, he suggested that she meet him at the Red Barn from where he proposed that they elope to Ipswich. He told Maria to dress in man's clothing so as to avert suspicion.
On 18 May 1827 she set out to meet him at the Red Barn, which was situated on Barnfield Hill, about half a mile from the Martens' cottage. This was the last time she was seen alive. Corder also disappeared, but later turned up and claimed that Maria was in Ipswich, Great Yarmouth, or some other place nearby, and that he could not bring her back as his wife for fear of provoking the anger of his friends and relatives. The pressure on Corder to produce his wife eventually forced him to leave the area. He wrote letters to Maria's family claiming they were married and living on the Isle of Wight, and gave various excuses for her lack of communication: she was unwell, had hurt her hand, or that the letter must have been lost.
Suspicion continued to grow, and her stepmother began to claim to be having dreams that Maria had been murdered and buried in the Red Barn. On 19 April 1828 she persuaded her husband to go to the Red Barn and dig in a certain spot. He quickly uncovered the remains of his daughter buried in a sack. She was decomposed but still identifiable. An inquest was carried out at the Cock Inn at Polstead, where Maria was formally identified from some physical characteristics: her hair and a tooth she was known to be missing. Evidence was also uncovered to implicate Corder in the crime: his green handkerchief was discovered around the body's neck.
[edit] Trial
Corder was easily discovered. The Constable in Polstead was able to obtain his old address from a friend, from where he tracked him to a woman's boarding house in Brentford which he was running with his new wife, Maria Moore. He was taken back to Suffolk where he was tried at Shire Hall, Bury St. Edmunds. The trial started on 7 August 1828, having been put back several days because of the interest the case had generated. The exact cause of death could not be established. It was thought that a sharp instrument, possibly Corder's short sword, had been plunged into Marten's eyesocket, but this wound could have been caused by her father's spade when he was exhuming the body. Strangulation could not be ruled out as Corder's handkerchief had been discovered around her neck. To avoid any chance of a mistrial, Corder was indicted on nine charges (including one of forgery). He was found guilty and sentenced by the judge, Chief Baron Alexander, to hang and afterwards be dissected:
| That you be taken back to the prison from whence you came, and that you be taken from thence, on Monday next, to a place of Execution, and that you there be hanged by the Neck until you are Dead ; and that your body shall afterwards be dissected and anatomized ; and may the Lord God Almighty, of his infinite goodness, have mercy on your soul! |
Corder spent the next three days in prison agonizing over whether to confess to the crime and make a clean breast of his sins before God. After several meetings with the prison chaplain and entreaties from his wife, he finally confessed. He strongly denied stabbing Maria, claiming instead he had accidentally shot her in the eye after they argued while she was changing out of her disguise.
He was hanged shortly before noon on 11 August 1828 in Bury St. Edmunds before a crowd of thousands. His body was then cut down and taken to Shire Hall where it was slit open along the abdomen to expose the muscles. The crowds were allowed to file past until six o'clock when the doors were shut. The next day the dissection and autopsy were carried out and a death mask was made that is still preserved in the Moyse's Hall Museum in Bury St. Edmunds. Corder's skin was tanned and used to bind an account of the murder.
After the trial doubts were raised both about the veracity of the story of the stepmother's dreams and about the fate of Maria and William's child. The stepmother was only a year older than Maria, and it was suggested that she and Corder had planned the murder to dispose of Maria so that the affair they were having could continue without hindrance. Since her dreams had started only a few days after Corder married Moore, it was suggested that jealously was the motive for revealing the body's resting place and that the dreams were a simple subterfuge. Both Corder and Maria Marten had claimed that they had taken their dead child to be buried in Sudbury, but no records of this could be discovered and no trace of the burial site of the child was ever found.
[edit] Popular interest
The case had all the elements to ignite a fervent popular interest, and created its own small industry. The Red Barn was stripped for souvenirs, down to planks being removed from the sides. Plays were being performed while Corder was still awaiting trial, and even Maria's gravestone was chipped away to nothing by souvenir hunters. Pottery models and sketches were sold and songs composed, including one mentioned in the Vaughn Williams opera Hugh the Drover. Another period song, "The Red Barn", can be found on the 2004 album "2" by Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman. This fascination continued into the 20th century with both a film (Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn made in 1935 and starring Tod Slaughter) and a song by Tom Waits.
[edit] References
- The Red Barn Murder. St Edmundsbury Council. Retrieved on 13 November, 2006.
- Victorian Murder at the Red Barn - Polstead - Suffolk. Suffolk Coast. Retrieved on 13 November, 2006.
