Welcome back everyone to what is probably going to be a very personal and very interesting episode. Today we are going to look at a really important ballad that shows how ballads and songs were used to communicate crime reports, and links earlier murder ballads as a way of tracking historical crimes.
Murder ballads have never lost status in popularity, as shown by songs like Pretty Polly, but there are many many more, and as current podcast and television ratings show, true crime still fascinates us. In fact, the way I learned of this ballad wasn’t through digging through databases, but through a documentary series called “A Very British Murder” which follows the fascination with murder mysteries. So when the first episode started to talk about the importance of broadsheets in spreading news, and that there had been a ballad that also inspired a play, I knew I had to go ahead and cover this one. Then I discovered that the all amazing Tom Waits song “Murder in the Red Barn” was inspired by the same… I mean talk about meant for this podcast.
It was also a topic very close to me as it mimics so much of what happened to my own aunt, but before we talk about that let’s look at the original ballad, then we’ll talk a bit about the history.
COME all you thoughtless young men, a warning
take by me,
And think upon my unhappy fate to be hanged upon
a tree;
My name is William Corder, to you I do declare,
I courted Maria Marten, most beautiful and fair.
I promised I would marry her upon a certain day,
Instead of that, I was resolved to take her life away.
I went into her father's house the 18th day of May,
Saying, my dear Maria, we will fix the wedding day.
If yon will meet me at the Bed barn, as sure as I have
life,
I will take you to Ipswich town, and there make you
my wife;
I then went home and fetched my gun, my pickaxe
and my spade,
I went into the Red-barn, and there I dug her grave.
With heart so light, she thought no harm, to meet me
she did go,
He murdered her all in the barn, and laid her body low;
After the horrid deed was done, she lay weltering in
her gore,
Her bleeding mangled body he buried, under the Redbarn floor.
Now all things being silent, her spirit could not rest,
She appeared unto her mother, who suckled her at her
breast;
For many a long month or more, her mind being sore
oppress'd,
Neither night nor day she could not take any rest.
Her mother's mind being so disturbed, she dreamt
three nights o'er,
Her daughter she lay murdered, beneath the Redbarn floor;
she sent the father to the barn, when he the ground
did thrust,
And there he found his daughter mingling with the
dust.
My trial is hard, I could not stand, most woeful was
the sight,
When her jaw-bone was brought to prove, which
pierced my heart quite;
Her aged father standing by, likewise his loving wife,
And in her grief her hair she tore, she scarcely could
keep life.
Adieu, adieu, my loving friends, my glass is almost
run,
On Monday next will be my last, when I am to be
bang'd;
So you young men who do pass by, with pity look on
me.
for murdering Maria Marten I was haug'd upon the
Tree
___________________
This original version does a good job of capturing what happened. There are a few things it doesn’t include though, and it goes to prove why I get fascinated with what isn’t said in earlier murder ballads.
The other reason is what happened with my own aunt when I was about 16. I haven’t shared this story hear yet, and it’s one I only tend to share when absolutely necessary in my personal life, because to be honest it makes people uncomfortable and it’s not easy on me either.
My aunt had struggled with dependence issues since she was in high school. She was a naturally outgoing and artistic person, so was naturally drawn to groups that tended to live a little wild, but also she was doing a lot of self-medicating as a result of abandonment and mental abuse issues at home. My mother too suffered from abuse issues, but luckily was able to pull herself out of it. My aunt’s usage lead her to becoming involved with one of her crack dealers, who was no surprise… violent.
She tried to run from him many times, but each time he’d find her, knock her out and drag her back.
He eventually took to threatening family, and that if she left he would set my grandparents home on fire and shoot anyone who ran out.
To put that into perspective both me and my cousin, her oldest son lived with my grandparents at the time. My uncle with cerebral palsy was also living there.
So she stayed, but no matter what was happening she always called at least every couple of weeks to check in.
Then she wasn’t calling, and my grandmother was having horrible dreams that she never gave details of. She called the boyfriends mother trying to get in touch with my aunt, and she just always said she’d have her call her back.
Three months went by, then the police showed up at our door.
The abusive dealer boyfriend had strangled her to death, and then had his cousin help him bury her in a shallow grave.
A grave she stayed in for three months until the cousin, unable to take the guilt anymore, came forward.
I don’t remember much from that night other than sitting in silence and shock with my cousin as my grandmother wailed.
Perhaps this is why I became obsessed with these songs. It shows that this experience isn’t a once in a while thing, but something that happens often enough to become an archetypal story. One that still captures our attention.
It’s why both Shirley Collins and Tom Waits. I had actually not heard the Shirley Collins version, which is pretty much word for word to the original, but it’s really worth a listen. Especially if you’re a fan of bands like Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention, which I won’t lie are two of my all time favs.
Anyways… the murder of Maria, or what would be eventually referred to as The Murder in the Red Barn.
The relatively full story is that Maria was a poor girl in the village of Postead in Suffolk county. William Corder was the son of a wealthy farmer, and would have been a catch for Maria, which is likely why her first child had been by William’s older brother, though that child died shortly after. Which, quick side note, because this is something that bugs the tits off me is when people talk about average life-span in the past. For some reason people will hear that the average life span was mid-fifties and think that nobody lived past 60. So not true. The issue was that so many died young. Close to 1 in 3 children would die before one. Then count in all the childhood accidents that would have killed before modern medicine. I’m such a child. I would have died at 14 from asthmatic bronchitis…almost did. My older sister would have died from any of the handful of broken bones she got. My youngest would have died from cat scratch fever... Yes it’s real. That would mean that out of four sisters, only one would have survived.
So Maria had already lost a child with William’s older brother, and she also had a child with a wealthy member of the aristocracy who would send money to care for the child but would have nothing to do with it because… eww peasants. Anyways, here’s what I love about this story. In none of the accounts I’ve found does anyone bring this up in a way to justify the murder. There’s no sentiment of her being a morally low woman who had a natural end due to her actions.
As for William, he was known as a bit of a dick. He would forge checks, steal, and even steal from his own family to get cash. He was such a shit that the local constable was marked as saying, “I’ll be damned if he will not be hung some of these days”
He did go off to London for a bit but all of his brothers and father died within a year and a half, meaning he was the only one left to manage the family farm, and that’s when he starts seeing Maria, and gets her pregnant. Despite having worked to keep their affair a secret, he still agreed to marry her even though the child had died. By the by, there are those who argue that it’s possible that the child was also murdered. Anyways, as I said, William as a land owner would have been a hell of a catch for Maria, and he told her the local authorities were after her for having another child out of wedlock, so when he asks her to elope, she of course agrees. He has her sneak off and meet him in the red barn. All of this was said in front of her step-mother Ann.
After this, he would always return without her, claiming she was busy and that’s why she hadn’t returned any letters. She was always in some area where the couple was currently staying, and unable to come with him for some reason or another.
Eventually, Ann began having horrible dreams that Maria was dead and buried in the red barn. The dreams became so constant that she finally convinced Maria’s father to go look. There are some grisly descriptions of what happened when they discovered the body, but the green scarf around the body's neck identified her because not only was she wearing it when Ann saw her leave, but it also belonged to William.
They would eventually track him down where he was running a hotel with his new wife… a wife he met by placing an ad for a wife in the newspaper. There they found two pistols that were purchased the same day that Maria had been murdered. The defense would argue that Maria knew about some of Willam’s more shady dealings, and that had given her the ability to blackmail him, and that is why he killed her.
I mean this is prime time t.v. today, and this was in 1828… almost 200 years ago.
He would eventually confess to the murder, claiming he accidentally shot her in the eye during an argument.
Here’s where times get very different. After he was hung William’s body was dissected and put on display in the courtroom for everyone to come and see. Over 5000 people came to see his body, and his skeleton was used as a learning skeleton at West Suffolk Hospital. Eventually, his skeleton would be moved to the Royal College of Surgeons, where it would stay until 2004 when William’s family requested it be cremated. It was.
Now, I’ve linked the Murderpedia page on this case, because there is so much fascinating stuff I don’t have time for here.
What I do have time for is a more modern variation on the pregnant and abandoned theme. I actually just came across this one while writing up this episode and it was too perfect a comparison to not include.
It’s called Winter’s Going and it’s by Bonnie Dobson:
And the leaves turn green
I remember times
That we have seen
I cannot rid myself
Of old memories
Winter's going
And the leaves turn green
Young woman crying
In the soft spring light
Pain in her body
Makes her weep for the night
Flowers around her
Can't bring her delight
Young woman crying
In the soft spring light
Summer will come
And where will I hide?
Summer will come
And where will I hide?
Child that I'm carrying
Can't be demonized
Summer will come
And where will I hide?
You said you loved me
And I believed
You said you'd marry me
And I believed
You said you'd come back
And I believed
You said you loved me
And I believed
Autumn will come
And I know what I'll do
Autumn will come
And I know what I'll do
I'll kill your baby
And then I'll kill you
Autumn will come
And I know what I'll do
I know a bit Medeaesq but I do love with the script is flipped like this. I think it’s because we all think we know how something will happen because we’ve seen the pattern so many times, then out of nowhere, the pattern changes. There's a shift and I live for these little nuggets.
With that said, that’s where I’m going to leave you because I’d encourage you to keep an eye out for oddities that break the patterns and molds, and as always if you find any inspiration in these, and use them to create some work of your own, please share with me at bawdyballads@gmail.com, and until next time, stay saucy.
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