Red Barn Murder

0:01 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frey. And I'm Tracy B. Wilson. So we are into our Halloween season doings, and today's episode features a murder. This incident, which has come to be known as the Red Barn murder, is sometimes mentioned in discussion of the Greenbrier County, West Virginia murder of Elva Zona Hester Shue, because dreams play a part in the apprehension of both perpetrators. But other than that, they're not related. So for setup, in late April 1828, a story from Suffolk ran in papers throughout England under the headline Horrible Murderer. I will also say there were a lot of stories that ran in England

0:54 about this that were titled Horrible Murder. Some of them are not the same story, but they all seem to have the same title. And it opened this way. Quote, a murder has been brought to light within a few days it pulsed in this county. The circumstances which have reached us are as follows. Mariah Martin, a fine young woman, age 25, the daughter of a mole catcher in the above village, formed an imprudent connection two or three years ago with a young man named William Corder, the son of an opulent farmer in the neighborhood by whom she had a child. On the 19th of May last, she left her father's house, stating that she was going to the Red Barn to meet William Corder, who would be waiting there with a chaise to convey her to Ipswich,

1:39 where they were to be married. The story that unfolded from there was almost surreal, not just for how awful it was, but because it contained many odd twists and turns. It includes cross-dressing disguises, psychic dreams, a disturbing exhumation, and a family's just staggering grief. And it was only the beginning of the story. This is a telenovela of a ride that has so much weird drama, even aside from being a tragic murder. Mariah Martin was born July 24, 1801, to Thomas and Grace Martin. As mentioned just a moment ago, Thomas was a professional mole catcher. He kept those animals out of crops in the area. Mariah was smart, and to get an education that would have been inaccessible to her otherwise, her parents sent her to live with a

2:31 minister and his family in Lamb. She helped out around the minister's house, and in return, she got lessons. But that arrangement was cut short when Mariah was only nine because her mother, Grace, died. And Mariah had to return home to take care of her younger siblings. But she continued her education herself, reading and memorizing as much as she could. Sometime later, Thomas Martin remarried to a woman named Anne, who was just a few years Mariah's senior, but Mariah remained at home and helped with the family.

3:06 She had several more half-siblings through Anne, and Anne and Mariah had a good relationship. But though Mariah may have been book smart, she was not especially wise when it came to men. When she was 17, Mariah started a relationship with Thomas Corder. That's the older brother of the William mentioned in the news story at the top of this episode. Because Thomas and William came from a wealthier family than Mariah, there have been a lot of theories over the years that she was hoping that she would marry up into better social and financial standing through these relationships, but that is just speculation. Thomas insisted that they keep their relationship secret, but that became difficult when Mariah got pregnant. Initially,

3:51 Thomas continued to court her a bit more openly than before initially into her pregnancy, but his interest and then the frequency of his visits at the Martin home started to diminish in the months she was expecting. After she gave birth to the baby, Thomas did not, as he had promised, marry her. She actually went to a magistrate to get an order of affiliation. That's basically a legal document that would have established him as the father of the child, so he would have had a financial duty for its well-being. But that didn't really matter for long because the child died in infancy, and Thomas Corder exited Mariah's life. At this point, in the standards of the time, Mariah had a tarnished reputation, but she did find another

4:35 suitor in Peter Matthews. Peter was not from Polstead, but he had relatives there, so presumably the two of them met while he was visiting his family. By all accounts, Mariah was transparent and upfront with him about her previous relationship and pregnancy. Soon, Mariah was pregnant again. Peter and Mariah had a son, Thomas Henry, and Peter did provide financial support for the boy, but he did not have any intention of marrying Mariah. According to an 1828 book detailing the particulars of the case, Thomas Henry was, quote, liberally supported as he has ever been by his natural father, who intends, when at a proper age, to have him properly educated and make a future provision for him. In the time since Mariah had been left by Thomas Corder,

5:26 Thomas had died. He apparently fell through ice on a pond that he was trying to cross and drowned. The Corder family had, in the course of a year and a half, lost four members of the family, three brothers and their father, leaving only the younger brother, William Corder, and his mother to manage the family's prosperous farm. William was born in 1803, and he had lived a fairly spoiled life as a child. He went to a private boarding school and he was smart, but he was not popular.

5:58 He was nicknamed Foxy, which sounds kind of cool, but it was not because his schoolmates thought he was a sneak. and he had a reputation for lying and on occasion stealing. In addition to any small-time theft William may have been involved in at the school, there are two instances of his getting money through illicit means in his early life.

6:19 At one point when he was a boy, he asked a family friend if they would lend his father 10 pounds, which they did. They gave it to William, presuming that he would bring it to his father. But when that family friend spoke with William's father, it became apparent that the whole thing was a scheme on William's part. His father had never needed such a loan. William also sold another farmer some of his family's pigs and pocketed the money.

6:46 His father thought the pigs had been stolen, and this actually set off a big conflict with the farmer, who believed he had fairly purchased them before the truth came out. Yeah, I think the resolution was that the quarters had to buy their own pigs back because of this little guise of William's. In March of 1826, then 24-year-old William, who, as we said, was the only man left in his family, started a relationship with Mariah Martin. William's deceitful and thieving behavior continued when he was with Mariah. According to that same 1828 account we mentioned a moment ago, Mariah did not receive one of her regular letters with money enclosed from Peter Matthews. And here is what happened. Quote, Mariah Martin,

7:33 not having received a remittance from a quarter from whence it had regularly come before, became uneasy and wrote to the gentleman and frankly expressed her disappointment and her necessities. In consequence of this communication, and more with a view to exculpate himself from a charge of remissness than to recover the money, he instituted an inquiry at the post office, which led to a discovery that the identical notes sent by him had passed through the hands of a person of the name of Corder. So William had taken the support money that Matthews had sent for Henry Thomas and pocketed it. Corder denied this despite being identified by the people involved. There were an estimated 900 people living in

8:18 Polstead at the time, so not so many that people could easily be confused about who was who. And one of the clerks that was involved in handing over this letter expressly remembered giving it to William because he commented on his glasses and noted Corder's bad eyesight. This matter continued to escalate, with no apparent resolution, with William continually denying it, until William convinced Mariah to lie for him and say that she had received the money and was mistaken, and that put an end to it. Mariah got pregnant a third time. This quarterbrother stuck around through the pregnancy despite his mother's dismay and dislike of Mariah. Mariah made it clear that she wanted to be married, and it

9:05 looked from the outside like Mariah and William loved each other. Their baby, like Mariah's first baby, did not live very long, though. It died just a few weeks after being born. The couple took the baby away to be buried, and they said they were going to bury it at Sudbury, which is a little less than 10 miles away. That didn't happen, though.

9:27 They instead buried the baby closer to home, which would be found out later. And then, six weeks or so after she had given birth, Mariah vanished. And we'll dig into what happened next after we pause for a sponsor break. Mariah had continued throughout her pregnancy to say that she wanted to marry William. And William had led her to believe that he wanted the same thing. He had, in fact, publicly stated his intention to marry her, and he had told her family the same thing. Once the baby was born, both Mariah and her father continued to bring this matter up to William, and he continually responded that he would marry her, but there also always seemed to be some sort of reason why he had to postpone the matter.

10:20 William also started telling Mariah after their child was born that she was wanted by the authorities for having illegitimate children. This was 100% false, and it seems like he used a threat of turning her in for this made-up crime to manipulate her. Finally, William told her it was time, he was ready to marry her, and the two of them hatched a plan. It was not a secret plan, though.

10:47 They told Mariah's family about it. Because the Corder family was against the marriage, the two of them planned for Mariah to go in disguise, dressed as a man, so they could conceal that they were meeting. They would meet at the Red Barn, as we mentioned in the intro, and at the barn, she was going to change into her bridal attire, and then the couple would travel from there to Ipswich, about 15 miles away, and they would be married. The red barn is interesting because it wasn't on the quarter's property. It and the land around it were rented by the quarter family from another villager, a Mrs. Cook.

11:25 This had been a place where the couple had met on numerous occasions. And because the Martin family knew of this plan, they were not concerned when they didn't hear from Mariah for several days, imagining her to be a new bride enjoying some sort of honeymoon with William. Newspaper reports stated, quote, she did not return at the time expected.

11:46 But being in the habit of leaving home for many days together, no great alarm was expressed by the parents. When, however, several weeks had elapsed and no intelligence was received of their daughter, although William Corder was still at home, the parents became anxious in their inquiry. So that's correct. William Corder had returned to Polstead and was living his life as usual. And when the Martins asked William where their daughter was, he always had an explanation, saying something like she was staying in a nearby town, but that he was trying to get his family and friends prepared to accept her as his wife before he brought her back to Polstead. But then at one point he added a very weird comment. He told the family that Mariah's sister

12:30 should feel free to wear her clothes as she would not want them anymore. This went on for several months. Then, in August, Corder said he was ill and needed to go abroad for his health, but before he left, he had the well in the barn filled in. The Martin family and William's mother started to receive letters from William saying that he and Mariah were on the Isle of Wight together, but none of the letters had a postmark from the Isle of Wight. They were all postmarked from London.

13:02 This weird situation stretched on for almost a year. Naturally, the family and other Polstead residents started wondering and worrying about Mariah. And then Mariah's stepmother, Ann, reported that she had been having dreams that Mariah had been murdered and was buried in the red barn. After several nights of Ann having this dream, Mariah's father got a neighbor friend, got permission from Mrs. Cook, who leased that barn property to the quarters, and then went to investigate. Using the mole spade that he typically employed for his work, and with the neighbor using a rake, the two men began to turn the dirt of the barn floor and made the horrible discovery that they feared. Mr. Martin unearthed his

13:48 daughter's shawl just 18 inches under the ground, and the neighbor found part of Anne's body. The two men immediately left the barn, and soon a larger, organized effort to exhume the body began. In the course of digging up the barn, Mariah's outer coat, bonnet, and shoes were also discovered. Mariah's body, which according to some accounts had been stuffed into a sack, was of course already badly decomposed, so there was no way to try to examine any of the soft tissue for evidence of violence. But the coroner, W. Wayman, conducted an examination and found that her skull did have several holes in it and appeared to have been shot.

14:30 At this point, William became the number one suspect, but nobody knew where he was. After the body had been thoroughly examined for other evidence, Mariah was given a proper burial in the church cemetery with many of the villagers in attendance. William was eventually tracked down. It was kind of a long, arduous investigative journey, but it happened. He was living in Ealing Lane in London. I think technically it was just outside of London at the time. Here is one of the descriptions of William that appeared in the papers after he was apprehended. And get ready because there's some new and surprising information just casually dropped in here. Quote, he was yesterday brought up for a short examination prior

15:11 to his transmission to Suffolk. His age, he stated to be 24. His complexion is florid, but during the time he was at the bar, it varied considerably. His dress was fashionable, and when taken into custody... He, in conjunction with his wife, kept a boarding school for ladies at the Grove House, Ealing Lane, Middlesex. It was because of this boarding school that investigators were able to get to Corder.

15:38 The lead investigator, named Lee, posed as a man whose daughter was interested in enrolling. When the investigator was admitted to the home, Corder was, quote, in the parlor with four ladies at breakfast. He was in his dressing gown and had a watch before him by which he was minuting the boiling of some eggs. Lee called him to one side and told him that he was a London police officer and had to apprehend him on a most serious charge. He seemed somewhat alarmed, and at his request, they retired to the drawing room. But on his being made acquainted with the nature of the offense, he denied all knowledge of it and also of his unfortunate victim. So, in addition to Surprise being married, Corder denied ever having

16:24 known Mariah, at which point Lee detained him and searched the house. he found a plethora of damning items, including letters from someone named Gardner, one of which warned Corder that Mariah's body had been found and told him to be careful. This is actually interesting because Gardner is a person that he was friends with back in Polstead and was one of the people who gave authorities information that led them to the house on Ealing Street. But Lee also found pocket pistols, a powder flask, and ball ammunition.

16:57 There was also a new passport and documents that indicated that Corder had at least considered fleeing to continental Europe. When Corder's wife was questioned, it was revealed that she met him through a matrimonial ad that had been placed in a Fleet Street pastry cook's shop and that he had only known the woman for a little more than two months before he married her. They had been married in November of 1827, so roughly six months after the murder. Initially, no one told his wife what he was being charged with, and she thought that it was bigamy. William had, it turned out, corresponded with quite a number of women who answered his ad for a wife, which read in part, quote,' Matrimony, a private gentleman, age 24, entirely independent, whose disposition is

17:45 not to be exceeded, has lately lost the chief of his family by the hand of Providence, which has occasioned discord among the remainder.' under circumstances most disagreeable to relate. To any female of respectability who would study for domestic comfort and willing to confide her future happiness in one every way qualified to render the marriage state desirable, as the advertiser is in affluence, the lady must have the power of some property which may remain in her own possession.

18:17 Many very happy marriages have taken place through means similar to this now resorted to, And it is hoped no one will answer this through impertinent curiosity. But should this meet the eye of any agreeable lady who feels desirous of meeting with a sociable, tender, kind, and sympathizing companion, they will find this advertisement worthy of notice. Honor and secrecy may be relied on. The replies that Corder wrote to the women who responded to the ad were being written.

18:48 At the same time, he was sending letters to Mariah's father about how happy she and William were together. Incidentally, this whole matrimonial ad twist is why we have not been reading out the title of the 1828 account we have read some excerpts from because it kind of gives away this whole marriage advertisement component that we only just got to. We love a long, weird title, and this one has all of it. The book was written by journalist Jay Curtis, and it was titled An Authentic and Faithful History of the Mysterious Murder of Mariah Martin with a Full Development of All the Extraordinary Circumstances Which Led...

19:30 to the discovery of her body, into which is added the trial of William Corder, taken at large in shorthand specially for this work, with an account of his execution, dissection, etc., and many interesting particulars relative to the village of Polstead and its vicinity, the prison correspondence of Corder, and 53 letters in answer to his advertisement for a wife. This book will make an appearance later in a surprisingly grisly way.

20:04 Every time we read a title that long, I think about My days working as an assistant to a catalog librarian and just having to type all of that into a mark record, it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. We are going to get into William Corder's trial after we hear from the sponsors that keep Stuff You Missed in History class going. Once William was in custody and this case was public knowledge, all kinds of speculation and rumors started flying. One particular theory about William began to circulate that is super unsettling, and that is that people suspected foul play in the death of the baby he had fathered with Mariah. But the people in her family who saw her and the infant day-to-day in the time

20:55 between the child's birth and death felt that the baby's decline was natural. investigators began to ask a lot of questions to determine if the baby had been buried at Sudbury and there was no evidence that it had. The whereabouts of the burial or if there had been one were never conclusively determined, but the fact that Mariah had been with William when he took the child away for burial seemed to mitigate concern over foul play, particularly when there was the larger murder investigation and trial happening. Corder was transported to Suffolk for trial. The proceedings took place at Shire Hall in Bury St. Edmunds, and there was concern from the outset about the crowds that were pouring into the town to see how things would play out.

21:42 So much so that all places with rooms for rent filled up. According to the J. Curtis account, quote, in consequence of this anticipation, the chief baron Alexander gave preemptory orders that no person should be admitted into any part of the court. The officers accepted until he had taken his seat on the bench. And this mandate was accompanied by a threat that if he found it disobeyed, he would fine or commit the undersheriff and jailer for neglect.

22:14 and it was through acting in strict conformity to this order that great confusion prevailed among the dense crowd which had collected about the entrance, and the consequence was that by his own fiat, the lordship was excluded himself from making his entree for nearly 20 minutes. As early as six o'clock in the morning, both the entrances to the court were literally besieged by persons of every grade and society, from the baronet's heir to the Suffolk peasant, but the order which the judge had issued on the previous night was strictly enforced. When the trial finally started on August 7th, Corder entered a plea of not guilty, my lord. Corder was charged with 10 different counts of murder. This is

23:00 an interesting and kind of unusual situation, which really couldn't be done today, I don't think. Each different count was based on a different way that he might have carried out the murder, including... gunshot, stabbing, strangling, etc. Because of the state of decomposition of her body, how exactly she died, as we said earlier, was uncertain. So these different counts were all charged to make sure no matter what evidence or testimony might arise in court to implicate William and Mariah's death, there would be a charge that it aligned with.

23:35 The trial didn't take especially long by today's standards. It was two days of testimony, first for the prosecution, which involved Mariah's family and included her younger brother, saying he had seen William leaving the barn with a pickaxe on May 18th, several weeks after the alleged wedding. Prior to 1836 in Britain, defense barristers could not address the jury on behalf of the defendant, so William Corder had to tell his own story to the jury directly. And William's statement to the jury began by pointing out that he had been unfairly characterized as a monster in the press from the moment he was taken into custody. He also pointed out that the coroner in the case was also an attorney for the prosecution, which he felt was problematic

24:22 and caused inherent bias. He also stated that he had not been provided with information regarding any of the evidence that would be used against him. He mentioned that his father and brothers had died right before he began seeing Mariah, and then he stated, quote, I have heard the indictment read and the evidence offered to sustain it, and I am ready to admit that the facts are such as would naturally excite in the minds of every man the strongest suspicion of my guilt. But those facts are capable of explanation, and conscious as I am of my entire innocence...

24:57 Then he got to the meat of his defense, which was that he claimed Mariah had been depressed. That was actually something that was supported by the statements of her family during the prosecution's presentation of the case. He said that on the night they went to the Red Barn, they had gotten into an argument, during which he told her, quote, that I had then seen sufficient to convince me we should never live happily together, and I was therefore resolved before it was too late not to marry her, informing her that I should return home and that she might act as she thought proper, respecting her future conduct. In consequence of this determination, I turned from her, and had scarcely proceeded to the outer gate of the barnyard when

25:54 I heard a loud report like that of a gun or pistol. Alarmed at this noise, I immediately ran back, and to my horror, I found the unhappy girl on the ground apparently dead. So Corder claimed that Mariah had shot herself with one of his pistols, and that he knew he would be suspected, thus his subsequent cover-up. The jury retired at 1.50.50 p.m. on August 10th to deliberate.

26:22 At 2.25, so just 35 minutes later, they announced they were ready to return to the courtroom. That defense speech, indicating that Mariah had ended her own life, did not help Corder. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. That night, which was the night before his execution, Corder gave another version of the events at the Red Barn, confessing to the murder. He stated, quote, I acknowledge being guilty of the death of poor Mariah Martin by shooting her with the pistol. The particulars are as follows. When we left her father's house, we began quarreling about the burial of the child. She apprehending that the place wherein it was deposited would be found out. The quarrel continued

27:07 for about three quarters of an hour. Upon this and other subjects, a scuffle ensued, and during the scuffle, and at the time I think she had hold of me, I took the pistol from the side pocket of my velveteen jacket and fired. She fell and died in an instant. I never saw even a struggle. I was overwhelmed with agitation and dismay. The confession goes on to describe the panicked burial, and William also stated that he did not in any way mutilate or further harm Mariah's body. Quote, I declare to Almighty God I had no sharp instrument about me and that no other wound but the one made by the pistol was inflicted by me. I have been guilty of great idleness and at times led a dissolute life, but I hope through the mercy of God

27:57 to be forgiven. Heads up, things are going to get a little bit gory today. If you're squeamish, maybe jump ahead a minute, minute and a half. Corder was hanged outside the prison at noon the day after the verdict was delivered. More than 7,000 people are estimated to have watched his execution, with some accounts placing that number closer to 10,000. The body stayed on the gallows for an hour, after which it was taken down and brought inside where a surgeon named George Creed made an incision from the chest down to the abdomen and then, according to the account, written by journalist Curtis, quote, folded back the skin so as to display the muscles of the chest to public view.

28:40 The hall where this was displayed was once again rushed by spectators eager to see this grisly display. An estimated 5,000 people filed through the room to see Corder's opened body. At 6 p.m., all remaining members of the public were ushered out and the hall was closed. so that William Corder's face and head could be cast in plaster. Corder was dissected the next day at the county hospital by Dr.

29:06 Creed in a procedure that was open to medical students and physicians, but it sounds as though some members of the general public also made their way in. Corder's skeleton was displayed at a hospital for years and then in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons before being cremated in the early 2000s due to degradation. If you listen to our recent behind the scenes, I mentioned that phrenology was going to jump up. There was also a little moment in all of this where they did some phrenology at this examination and dissection, which is... just silly.

29:41 There is also a weird, gruesome, and recent coda to the story of William Corder. So in 1899, the Moises Hall Museum opened in Suffolk in the 12th century building of the same name and it had acquired a number of artifacts related to the Red Barn murder over the years, including one of the death masks made from the plaster cast taken of Corder's face, and even, grisly also, one of Corder's ears. The museum has a dedicated William Corder display.

30:13 Several decades ago, a number of Dr. George Creed's personal items were donated to the museum, And in the spring of 2025, museum curators realized that the books had been overlooked and just stored on an office shelf. When the books were examined, a surprising detail emerged. George Creed had written a note inside one of the books, which is a copy of Jake Curtis's account of the trial that we've quoted from. And the note from Creed indicates that the cover of that book is made from William Corder's skin, which the doctor says he tanned himself. and that he made the cover. There is a second book also about the case, which is also bound in William's skin. So it's almost Halloween, and that would seem like a good

31:00 place to end it, but in case that feels a bit too grim, because it is grisly, we have some tabloid-grade rumors about the case to share. If you watch Bravo, this is right in line with all of those shows. Over the years, there have been some really dramatic theories that have arisen about this case, and specifically... about Mariah's stepmother, Anne, and this fascinates me. There was a rumor which appeared in the papers at the time this was all playing out that Mariah had known that William had murdered their baby and she had threatened to expose him for that if he didn't marry her. But a variation of this rumor indicated that Anne, her stepmother, had also known about their lie about burying the baby at Sudbury, but had

31:44 kept that secret. And this actually came up during the trial as well, but the jury and everyone else agreed that Anne seemed mortified by the details of the case when she was giving testimony, so she probably did not know anything about this. Another popular theory that has circulated over the years regarding Mariah's stepmother is scandalous, because some people started to think that she knew where the body was because she was involved in the murder as an accessory.

32:14 This theory hinges on the idea that Anne and William also had a romantic relationship and that William was getting rid of Mariah as part of a larger plot to be able to be with Anne. Proponents of this theory have suggested that Anne came up with the dream story to implicate William without having to explain in any kind of concrete terms why she would know the location of the body. Why Ann Martin is implicated in these rumors is unclear other than just that people like to make things up. You know, is this simply a case of people believing sort of a wicked stepmother trope? Is it a way to explain away her claims of a paranormal clue that somehow she had these, you know, visionary dreams of where the body was? Or is it just people

33:01 trying to keep alive the strange story by adding new embellishments to it? If any of these allegations about Anne were true, any supporting information is certainly long gone and non-verifiable. So I'm not sure why she's catching strays on this story, but she is. But that is the story of the Red Barn murder, which is fascinating, icky, weird. Humans, why are you so messy? Is my question. Yeah. I have listener mail. This is from our listener, Vanessa, who says, Hi, Holly and Tracy. I was so excited to see this week's podcast episode about Romo, as he's affectionately called in our house. That's Robert Moses. I'm listening to it with my nine-year-old, who also loves history and infrastructure projects. This

33:49 is far better than trying to get him to read my signed copy of The Power Broker. His first question was where all the people would live once the slums were cleared, which is a great question. I concur. Thank you for your nuanced approach to the life of someone with a large and complex legacy. Still no cats, so here is Kiddo testing out his Halloween costume. You guys, this is brilliant. He wanted to be a bug zapper.

34:14 So this is a really smart costume where he has sort of a cool, is that a hexagonal, tent around his body that sits on his shoulders. And it lights up from the inside and you can see bugs stuck in it. And I'm all about this. This is a brilliant Halloween costume. I love it. I hope he wins all the prizes and gets 100 pounds of candy for this because it's so good. It's so good. Vanessa, thank you for sending this to us. I'm seriously, I'm in love with this costume. If you would like to write to us, share your Halloween costumes, your theories about or anything related to the Red Barn murder or anything you would like to, you can do that at HistoryPodcast at iHeartRadio.com.

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