DOI: 10.1057/9781137439390.0001 William Corder and the Red Barn Murder
Also by Shane McCorristine SPIRITUALISM, MESMERISM, AND THE OCCULT, 1800 1920 (5 vols, edited, 2012) SPECTRES OF THE SELF: Thinking about Ghosts and Ghost-seeing in England, 1750 1920 (2010) DOI: 10.1057/9781137439390.0001
William Corder and the Red Barn Murder: Journeys of the Criminal Body Shane McCorristine Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Leicester, UK DOI: 10.1057/9781137439390.0001
Shane McCorristine 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978 1 137 43938 3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published by 2014 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN: 978 1 137 43939 0 PDF ISBN: 978 1 349 49427 9 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McCorristine, Shane, 1983 William Corder and the Red Barn murder : journeys of the criminal body / Shane McCorristine. pages cm 1. Corder, William, 1803 1828. 2. Murder Great Britain Case studies. 3. Murderers Great Britain Case studies. 4. Public executions Great Britain Case studies. 5. Murder in mass media Case studies. 6. Fame Social aspects Case studies. I. Title. HV6535.G6P654 2014 364.152 3092 dc23 2014028129 www.palgrave.com/pivot doi: 10.1057/9781137439390
Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements vi vii 1 The Murder in the Red Barn 1 2 The Criminal Body Dismembered 20 3 The Criminal Body Remembered 44 Appendix 1: Crime, Trial, and Dismemberment 68 1.1 Corder s Defence 68 1.2 Conduct, Confession, and Execution of Corder 71 1.3 Phrenology of Corder 83 Appendix 2: Representations and Afterlives 85 2.1 Red Barn Ballads 85 2.2 The Red Barn, or the Mysterious Murder 92 2.3 William Corder s Skull 98 Bibliography 103 Index 110 DOI: 10.1057/9781137439390.0001 v
List of Illustrations 1.1 (a) William Corder, (b) Maria Martin 2 1.2 The Red Barn at Polstead 9 1.3 Execution of William Corder 16 2.1 William Hogarth, The Reward of Cruelty 25 2.2 George Cruikshank (no title) 30 2.3 George Cruikshank (no title) 33 2.4 Bust of William Corder 36 3.1 Corder s skeleton 46 vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137439390.0002
Acknowledgements This book has been written as part of the Harnessing the Power of the Criminal Corpse project at the University of Leicester, generously funded by the Wellcome Trust. I have the pleasure of being a member of this project and it was at one of our meetings in Leicester that the idea of a book on the Red Barn murder case developed. I would like to thank my fellow members for their contributions to that and later discussions: Rachel Bennett, Professor Owen Davies, Dr Zoe Dyndor, Dr Elizabeth Hurren, Professor Peter King, Dr Francesca Matteoni, Professor Sarah Tarlow, Dr Floris Tomasini, and Dr Richard Ward. For their assistance with materials and permissions I would like to thank the staff at Rare Books, Cambridge University Library; British Library, London; Bury Record Office, Bury St Edmunds; Moyse s Hall Museum and St Edmundsbury Borough Council Heritage Service; John Johnson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford; the British Newspaper Archive; Barry Belasco at Foulsham Publishers; and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Finally, this would not have been half as fun to write without the support and curiosity of my family, and the patience and love of my wife Corinna. DOI: 10.1057/9781137439390.0003 vii