Crime Centenaries in 1928 The Mystery of the Red Barn

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6667, 21 July 1928, Page 5 (Supplement)

Crime Centenaries in 1928 The Mystery of the Red Barn

HHERE “crime centenaries” are concerned, 1928 must be regarded as a good vintage year. The list Includes that of Captain Montgomery (one of officers, who committed suicide in Newgate on the morning he was to have gohe to the gallows for forging a £lO note): William Corder (of “Red Barn" Infamy); Rowland Stephenson. M.P. (hospital treasurer and banker, Who embezzled a vast sum, and fled to America); Joseph Hunton (one of the few Quakers to be condemned to death); and the unspeakable William Burke; (who, with’ his partner. Hare, began hlfl abominable career of “trafficking” in dead bodies, and then,’ when the supply fell off, proceeded to procure from among theliving). A sinister roll-call. 1 ; In chronological sequence, the first of these different cases is that of Captain Montgomery. It Is a specially sad one, for Montgomery was hn ex-officer, the son of an Irish magistrate, and had served with , distinction in the Peninsular. On being “demobbed,” he drifted about London “living on his wits.” It was a poor “living,” and, on a bright May morning he found himself at the Old Bailey, convicted of swindling a silversmith, from whom he had obtained goods by means of a counterfeit bank note. This was a hanging matter then, and sentence of death was passed. But Montgomery did not go to the gallows. On what was to have been the morning of his appearance on the scaffold, the Newgate turnkey found him lying dead in the condemned cell, a flask of prussic acid clenched between his stiffened fingers. “It would almost look,” said the coroner, “as if the de’ceased had destroyed himself to avoid the Ignominy of a public execution.” Nothing hidden from this lynxeyed official. On August 7, 1828, there stood ironed in the dock at Bury St. Edmunds a prisoner whose case aroused immense interest., This was Wllliapi Corder, a man of property and local position: and the crime alleged against him was that of murdering a young woman of the district, Maria Marten. The circumstances had little to remove them from the common-

■ place. Thus, there was the village , girl; the young squire, whose Intentions toward her were strictly, dishonourable; a promise of marriage . that did not materialise; tears /and' > reproaches; and then a last desperate,, . attempt to wriggle out of difficulties' J*. by a callous and deliberately planned . murder. A good many fables have been I built up round Marla. The populai 1 version depicts her as a simple and blameless lass whom William Border . “deceived” for his own flagitious pur' [ poses. The true one is somewhat different. Thus, Maria Marten, who j lived at Polstead, in Suffolk, had beep i guilty of several "slips” prior to Qor- . der’s appearance on the scene. Her i parents, however, overlooked this fact, and she was held up to all as a' pattern of feminine virtue. who had' some property in the nigh- [ bourhood, undoubtedly “took adran . tage” of her. When discovery was i Inevitable, he, under promise of mar . riage, persuaded her to.dress up as,a . boy and elope with him. They were . to meet at the Red Barn, and then i set off-for London, where the parson . and the ring would be awaiting them.. From the-time she went to /the, I tryst, Maria vanished. Border wrote . several letters to her 'parents, declarI ing that she was duly married to hlita,’ : and that they were living in London like a couple of turtle doves. However, he withheld the exact address. ’ “Murder will out,” Twelve months j later, at the instance of Mrs. Marten i (who is said to have had a vivid j dream on the subject), the “Red I Barn” was searched. There, under the flooring, was discovered the body ’ of the missing Maria, stabbed through breast and shot through the head. S order was apprehended In London/ brought back to Bury, charged • with the girl’s murder. At his trial r he declared that she had shot herself, The jury of rustics, however, disbe- ■ lleved this theory, for he was known to have taken a pick-axe with him to 1 the barn, and this’struck them as an - odd equipment for a honeymoon. Also I it was discovered that, since Maria's i death, the prisoner had married soniel body else. "Should this meet the eye i of any agreeable lady, who feels dei sirous of meeting with a social, teni der, kind, and sympathetic compan- ) ion, she will find this advertisement ■ worthy of her notice," was the fashion;

in which-he announced the vacancy*. / ‘rhe gdllt of Border was held to bo established; and bn August 11 he wag publicly hanged, the execution being by . a crowd of 10,000, , ; Among the 1828 criminals, Joseph ’Hunibh stands ouf prominently if only from the jact that he was one of tha few members of the" Society of Friends to reach /the scaffold. /As; a. linen draper he got Into financial difficulties; '• and. to help himself out he forged % .bill oh acUstomejr.Sir William Cujtla, He. ehdeaoured to abscond to America; and; under a pseudonym, whota to the “Times,'.l, protesting his \ innocence. li| October,‘hpwever, he vfas convicted and'hanged at Newgate. . , .. The yedr 1828 went out under thd . shadow of a succession of particularly shuddering crimes in Edinburgh. U was. fdr these that William Burke, to* getter with his partner, William Haf% , was-responsible. ' t . Although bis dreadful deeds wert committed in Scotland, it Ireland that had/ the dishonour- of . being Burke’s .native country. From Bork he went to Edinburgh, where be lodged ln.a house kept by a man of ill-repute ; William Hare, One day a fellow lodger dledl and the couple sold the corpse to a doctor for dissection. The ’ guineas that it fetched filled the pair with the truly horrible Idea of procuring fresh "subjects.”,. Homeless mep and women were Invited to the lodging-house and offered shelter. There ’ they were systematically drugged’-./and suffocated. As soon as the breath had leflrtheir poor bodies, they were wheeled on a barrow to tha anatomists. The surgeons, who bought the “specimens,” asked no Inconvenient questions as to their origin, but readily paid five guineas for each, "sample" that was delivered to them. The discovery of this abominable traffic was due to the fact that the friends of a missing woman found her body in the dissecting room of a Dr. Knox.. Burke and Hare, who had sold it to him, were at once arrested. Hare, to save his skin, volunteered to tun| “King's evidence.” The offer was accepted, and he went free. Burke, of course, was convicted; and, on Bhrlst* mas Eve, 1828. he was sentenced to. death. - ■ As philologists have noted, since this atrocious scoundrel’s day, the expression “to Burke” has been added to the English language. A questions ~ able hono“ r * ,