Red Barn Murder

A young woman, Maria Marten, was shot dead by her lover William Corder at the Red Barn, a local landmark.

Corder sent letters to Marten's family claiming that she was well, but after her stepmother spoke of having dreamed that Maria had been murdered, her body was discovered in the barn the next year.

He later obtained money by passing a forged cheque for £93 and had helped local thief Samuel "Beauty" Smith steal a pig from a neighbouring village.

Corder had been sent to London in disgrace after his fraudulent sale of the pigs, but he was recalled to Polstead when his brother Thomas drowned attempting to cross a frozen pond.

Marten was worried that she could not leave in broad daylight, but Corder told her that she should dress in men's clothing so as to avert suspicion, and he would carry her things to the Red Barn and change before they continued on to Ipswich.

Corder also disappeared, but later turned up and claimed that Marten was in Ipswich, or some other place nearby, and that he could not yet bring her back as his wife for fear of provoking the anger of his friends and relatives.

An inquest was carried out at the Cock Inn at Polstead (which still stands today), where Marten was formally identified by her sister (also named Ann) from some physical characteristics.

[5] He was running the boarding house with his new wife Mary Moore, whom he had met through a lonely hearts advertisement that he had placed in The Times (which had received more than 100 replies).

Thomas Hardy noted the Dorset County Chronicle's report of his capture: …in parlour with 4 ladies at breakfast, in dressing gown & had a watch before him by which he was 'minuting' the boiling of some eggs.

A search of the house uncovered a pair of pistols supposedly bought on the day of the murder; some letters from a Mr. Gardener, which may have contained warnings about the discovery of the crime; and a passport from the French ambassador, evidence which suggested that Corder may have been preparing to flee.

The hotels in Bury St Edmunds began to fill up from as early as 21 July, and admittance to the court was by ticket only because of the large numbers who wanted to view the trial.

The judge was the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, William Alexander, who was unhappy with the coverage given to the case by the press "to the manifest detriment of the prisoner at the bar.

It was thought that a sharp instrument had been plunged into her eye socket, possibly Corder's short sword, but this wound could have been caused by her father's spade when he was exhuming the body.

The indictment charged Corder with "murdering Maria Marten, by feloniously and wilfully shooting her with a pistol through the body, and likewise stabbing her with a dagger.

Thomas Marten then told the court how he had dug up his daughter, and Maria's 10-year-old brother George revealed that he had seen Corder with a loaded pistol before the alleged murder and had later seen him walking from the barn with a pickaxe.

[14] The prosecution suggested that Corder had never wanted to marry Maria Marten, but that her knowledge of some of his criminal dealings had given her a hold over him, and that his theft of the money sent by her child's father had been a source of tension between them.

There was some discussion as to whether the cause of death was suffocation; it was reported that Corder's chest was seen to rise and fall for several minutes after he had dropped, and it was thought probable that pressure on the spinal cord had killed him.

In 1967, Donald McCormick wrote The Red Barn Mystery, which brought out a connection between Corder and forger and serial killer Thomas Griffiths Wainewright when the former was in London.

According to McCormick, Caroline Palmer, an actress who was appearing frequently in a melodrama based on the Red Barn case and had been researching the murder, concluded that Corder may have not killed Marten, but that a local gypsy woman might have been the killer.

[29] The case had all the elements to ignite a fervent popular interest: the wicked squire and the poor girl, the proverbial murder scene, the supernatural element of the stepmother's prophetic dreams, the detective work by Ayres and Lea (who later became the single character "Pharos Lee" in stage versions of the events) and Corder's new life which was the result of a lonely hearts advertisement.

Plays were being performed while Corder was still awaiting trial, and an anonymous author published a melodramatic version of the murder after the execution, a precursor of the Newgate novels which quickly became best-sellers.

[35] Many different versions of the events were set down and distributed due to the excitement around the trial and the public demand for entertainments based on the murder, making it hard for modern readers to discern fact from melodramatic embellishment.

[4] He was apparently so connected with the case that a newspaper artist who was asked to produce a picture of the accused man drew a likeness of Curtis instead of Corder.

Pottery models and sketches were sold and songs were composed, including one quoted in the Vaughan Williams opera Hugh the Drover and Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus.

Corder's skeleton was put on display in a glass case in the West Suffolk Hospital, and apparently was rigged with a mechanism that made its arm point to the collection box when approached.

[45] Taylor sings the following lyrics, to the tune of Dives and Lazarus: Several other versions of the song were recorded, including one from Billy List of Brundish, Suffolk, which can also be heard on the British Library Sound Archive website.

[48] The story has been dramatised for radio a number of times, including two radio dramas by Slaughter (one broadcast on the BBC Regional Programme in 1934,[49] and one broadcast on the BBC Home Service in 1939[50]), a fictionalised account of the murder produced in 1953 for the CBS radio series Crime Classics, entitled "The Killing Story of William Corder and the Farmer's Daughter"[51][52] and "Hanging Fire", a BBC Monday Play by Lisa Evans broadcast in 1990 telling the story of the events leading up to the murder as seen through the eyes of Marten's sister Ann.

[53] Christopher Bond wrote The Mysterie of Maria Marten and the Murder in the Red Barn in 1991, a melodramatic stage version with some political and folk-tale elements.

[54][55] The folk singer Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band recorded a song in 1971 entitled "Murder of Maria Marten" on their album No Roses.

Firefighters saved 80% of the thatched roof at Marten's former home after a chimney fire threatened the "iconic Suffolk cottage", now run as a bed and breakfast.