The New Taste for Blood

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0:00:06 > 0:00:10Murder's the darkest and most despicable crime of all,

0:00:10 > 0:00:13and yet we're attracted to it.

0:00:15 > 0:00:18Grisly crimes like these would appal us

0:00:18 > 0:00:21if we encountered them in real life.

0:00:21 > 0:00:24But something happens when they're turned into stories

0:00:24 > 0:00:27and safely placed between the covers of a book.

0:00:29 > 0:00:31If you think about people's reaction

0:00:31 > 0:00:34to notorious killers like Dr Crippen,

0:00:34 > 0:00:37or to great detectives like Sherlock Holmes or Poirot,

0:00:37 > 0:00:41you'll see that this preoccupation with murder has a very long history.

0:00:46 > 0:00:48In this series, I'll trace its origins

0:00:48 > 0:00:52back to the sprawling London of the early 19th century,

0:00:52 > 0:00:55when newspapers first began to delight in reporting murder

0:00:55 > 0:00:57to a frightened public.

0:00:58 > 0:01:03An appetite for sensation developed as Britain became more literate,

0:01:03 > 0:01:06and working-class people were starting to be able to read.

0:01:08 > 0:01:12I'll show how all this had a huge influence on Charles Dickens,

0:01:12 > 0:01:14who turned murder and its detection

0:01:14 > 0:01:17into a suitable subject for literature,

0:01:17 > 0:01:20and how the detective writers who followed,

0:01:20 > 0:01:23from Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie, distanced murder

0:01:23 > 0:01:25from sordid reality.

0:01:25 > 0:01:29They turned it into an elegant kind of crossword puzzle,

0:01:29 > 0:01:32involving the most respectable of suspects.

0:01:35 > 0:01:39In this first programme, I want to begin not with fiction,

0:01:39 > 0:01:42but with real-life murder, 200 years ago.

0:02:12 > 0:02:14Grasmere, in the Lake District.

0:02:14 > 0:02:17In 1811, the writer Thomas De Quincey

0:02:17 > 0:02:22was renting a cottage from his friend, the poet William Wordsworth,

0:02:22 > 0:02:23when something happened

0:02:23 > 0:02:27to shatter the tranquillity of this lakeside village.

0:02:29 > 0:02:31A young family had been murdered -

0:02:31 > 0:02:35not here, but 300 miles away in the docklands of London.

0:02:35 > 0:02:40Yet the news shocked Grasmere, because this was something new,

0:02:40 > 0:02:44a senseless and motiveless murder by a stranger

0:02:44 > 0:02:47of four people, all at once.

0:02:47 > 0:02:49In the preceding year, 1810,

0:02:49 > 0:02:54there had only been 15 convictions for murder in the whole of Britain.

0:02:54 > 0:02:58De Quincey was struck by the effect this crime had

0:02:58 > 0:03:00on the good people of Grasmere.

0:03:01 > 0:03:04"One lady, my next door neighbour,

0:03:04 > 0:03:08"never rested until she had placed 18 doors,

0:03:08 > 0:03:12"each secured by ponderous bolts and bars and chains,

0:03:12 > 0:03:16"between her own bedroom and any intruder of human build.

0:03:16 > 0:03:22"At every sixth step, one was stopped by a sort of portcullis."

0:03:26 > 0:03:30But De Quincey noticed something else besides fear

0:03:30 > 0:03:32in the reaction to this murder.

0:03:32 > 0:03:35There was an element of ghoulish enjoyment.

0:03:35 > 0:03:37He felt that the British

0:03:37 > 0:03:42were turning into a nation of what he called murder-fanciers.

0:03:42 > 0:03:46Quincey began to define what made a good murder,

0:03:46 > 0:03:50breathlessly describing the ultra-fiendishness of the crime

0:03:50 > 0:03:54and revelling in the murderer's "tiger's heart".

0:03:54 > 0:03:58The murder that repulsed and gripped in equal measure

0:03:58 > 0:03:59took place in December,

0:03:59 > 0:04:01near the church of St George's in the East,

0:04:01 > 0:04:06at 29, the Ratcliff Highway, Wapping.

0:04:10 > 0:04:13The family who lived here were terribly young.

0:04:13 > 0:04:17Timothy Marr was a former sailor. He was just 25.

0:04:17 > 0:04:21His wife, Celia, had recently given birth to their baby boy,

0:04:21 > 0:04:24and they also had an apprentice, James, who was 14.

0:04:30 > 0:04:34On the evening of 7th December, just before midnight,

0:04:34 > 0:04:38the Marr family sent out their servant, Margaret Jewell,

0:04:38 > 0:04:41into the poorly-lit neighbourhood to buy oysters,

0:04:41 > 0:04:46not then a luxury, but a cheap and nutritious type of street food.

0:04:46 > 0:04:48Her journey was fruitless.

0:04:48 > 0:04:50There were no oysters to be had at this late hour.

0:04:55 > 0:04:58On her return, she found that she had been locked out.

0:04:58 > 0:05:00Margaret banged on the front door

0:05:00 > 0:05:02and called out for the Marrs to open up.

0:05:05 > 0:05:08While Margaret the maid was waiting to be let in,

0:05:08 > 0:05:12she heard a sound inside the house.

0:05:12 > 0:05:16She heard footsteps, and the crying of the baby.

0:05:17 > 0:05:20But nobody came to let her in.

0:05:20 > 0:05:23She was still waiting outside at half past midnight

0:05:23 > 0:05:26when the night watchman came by.

0:05:26 > 0:05:29Their conversation and Margaret's banging

0:05:29 > 0:05:32woke up the next door neighbour, a pawnbroker,

0:05:32 > 0:05:35and it was he who eventually got access to the house

0:05:35 > 0:05:39by climbing over the wall and coming in through the back door.

0:05:48 > 0:05:51The Marrs' next door neighbour now started to search the house,

0:05:51 > 0:05:55and very soon, he came across the body of James, the apprentice.

0:05:55 > 0:05:57His head had been bashed in,

0:05:57 > 0:06:01so much so that his brains were splattered on the ceiling.

0:06:01 > 0:06:02Then he found Mrs Marr, Celia.

0:06:02 > 0:06:06She was face down, crushed up against the front door.

0:06:06 > 0:06:10Then behind the shop counter, there was Mr Marr, also face down,

0:06:10 > 0:06:13just as dead as the rest of them.

0:06:13 > 0:06:16A little crowd had gathered outside the front door,

0:06:16 > 0:06:20so the neighbour now went running out. He shouted "Murder! Murder!"

0:06:20 > 0:06:25These people outside knew the Marr family, and they had a question.

0:06:25 > 0:06:26Where was the baby?

0:06:30 > 0:06:33The baby was still in his cradle...

0:06:33 > 0:06:35but his throat had been slit.

0:06:41 > 0:06:45Into this scene of slaughter came Constable Charles Horton,

0:06:45 > 0:06:48from the nearby marine police office at Wapping.

0:06:49 > 0:06:50After searching the shop,

0:06:50 > 0:06:54Horton concluded that no money had been taken.

0:06:54 > 0:06:57He then explored the rest of the house.

0:07:01 > 0:07:05When he reached the bedroom, he discovered the murder weapon,

0:07:05 > 0:07:07a maul, leaning against a chair.

0:07:07 > 0:07:12A maul is a special type of mallet used by ships' carpenters.

0:07:12 > 0:07:14It was covered with blood.

0:07:21 > 0:07:24The Marrs' shop and home was now turned into a morgue,

0:07:24 > 0:07:28and it was also open to the public.

0:07:28 > 0:07:30In the days following the murder,

0:07:30 > 0:07:33hundreds of people traipsed through to look at the bloodstains,

0:07:33 > 0:07:38even to gawp at the bodies which were laid out upon the beds.

0:07:38 > 0:07:43All ranks in society came, from the richest to the very poorest.

0:07:43 > 0:07:46This sort of access to a crime scene

0:07:46 > 0:07:49would be utterly inconceivable today.

0:07:49 > 0:07:54This parade of neighbours and strangers through the murder scene

0:07:54 > 0:07:57was motivated by fear, by curiosity

0:07:57 > 0:08:00and a feeling that they too should look for clues

0:08:00 > 0:08:02and help to solve the crime.

0:08:03 > 0:08:07Regency London, which was expanding rapidly,

0:08:07 > 0:08:09had no centralised police force.

0:08:10 > 0:08:13Policing relied on night watchmen and constables,

0:08:13 > 0:08:15paid for by local parishes.

0:08:15 > 0:08:17Magistrates had to depend on witnesses

0:08:17 > 0:08:20willing to come forward with information.

0:08:20 > 0:08:25The overcrowded streets of the East End teemed with foreign sailors.

0:08:25 > 0:08:26Crime was rising,

0:08:26 > 0:08:30but people were more worried about disease, destitution or war

0:08:30 > 0:08:32than they were about being murdered.

0:08:32 > 0:08:36But now, locals began to fear every stranger in their midst.

0:08:36 > 0:08:38Without the murderer being quickly apprehended,

0:08:38 > 0:08:40fear would soon turn to panic.

0:08:46 > 0:08:49To discover more about the problems faced by the authorities

0:08:49 > 0:08:52in a case like the killing of the Marrs,

0:08:52 > 0:08:54I've come to meet Rosalind Crone

0:08:54 > 0:08:56at the Marine Police Museum in Wapping,

0:08:56 > 0:09:00still located in its original 1811 building.

0:09:05 > 0:09:07What have you got there in that big book?

0:09:07 > 0:09:09This is what we call a register,

0:09:09 > 0:09:13which lists all the constables who were working

0:09:13 > 0:09:16for the Thames River Police, or the Marine Police,

0:09:16 > 0:09:18in the early 19th century.

0:09:18 > 0:09:20So if we look down the ledger here,

0:09:20 > 0:09:22we can see the name of Charles Horton.

0:09:22 > 0:09:27- And he's the man who responds to the Marrs' murder?- He is.

0:09:27 > 0:09:29He's the first constable on the scene.

0:09:31 > 0:09:34The Marine Police were employed specifically

0:09:34 > 0:09:38to protect the docks and ships' cargoes from light-fingered locals.

0:09:38 > 0:09:40It was just by chance that their man, Horton,

0:09:40 > 0:09:42was near to the Marrs' shop.

0:09:42 > 0:09:46You've picked up the cutlass that men would have carried for...

0:09:46 > 0:09:48- Defence?- Protection, yes.

0:09:48 > 0:09:51And he would have had a little set of handcuffs, too.

0:09:51 > 0:09:53I don't think they were expecting

0:09:53 > 0:09:55to capture too many female criminals through those.

0:09:55 > 0:09:58- No, you'd slip out of those easily. - Straight on and off.

0:09:59 > 0:10:01And they were only one of many.

0:10:01 > 0:10:05There were thousands of these small proto-police forces across London?

0:10:05 > 0:10:09Yes. What we've got to remember about the early 19th century is,

0:10:09 > 0:10:11we are dealing with old policing structures,

0:10:11 > 0:10:18as opposed to a police force, which comes in in about the late 1820s.

0:10:18 > 0:10:21So we have, basically, policing at a local level,

0:10:21 > 0:10:23often the parish level,

0:10:23 > 0:10:26with the employment of a small number of constables

0:10:26 > 0:10:28and then a larger force of night watchmen.

0:10:28 > 0:10:33We've got to remember that these constables are mainly reactive.

0:10:33 > 0:10:36They're not active. They're not detectives.

0:10:36 > 0:10:40And we are dealing with a murder here that was particularly horrendous

0:10:40 > 0:10:44and pretty much unheard of among the local community.

0:10:44 > 0:10:45This is a really shocking act.

0:10:45 > 0:10:49What did people think of the response of the authorities?

0:10:49 > 0:10:51Lacking. They hadn't caught anyone yet,

0:10:51 > 0:10:54and it gave people a real sense of fear,

0:10:54 > 0:10:55but also a sense of anger,

0:10:55 > 0:10:58because the authorities looked like they weren't doing enough.

0:10:58 > 0:11:00They hadn't caught the perpetrator.

0:11:00 > 0:11:03He was still out there at large, and could commit another crime.

0:11:05 > 0:11:09To find the killer, the authorities relied on rewards.

0:11:09 > 0:11:13In Wapping, the magistrates first offered a reward of £50.

0:11:13 > 0:11:15Then other parishes and the Home Office

0:11:15 > 0:11:19chipped in to increase this to £700, a staggering sum.

0:11:21 > 0:11:25How did the news spread outside the immediate neighbourhood?

0:11:25 > 0:11:26How did it get outside London?

0:11:26 > 0:11:28When a crime happened,

0:11:28 > 0:11:31especially a particularly notorious crime such as this one,

0:11:31 > 0:11:35with fairly salacious details, news spreads quickly -

0:11:35 > 0:11:36first of all through newspapers,

0:11:36 > 0:11:39newspapers that are mainly bought by more affluent people

0:11:39 > 0:11:40because they're quite expensive.

0:11:42 > 0:11:46A key thing is that you don't have to be able to read to get the news?

0:11:46 > 0:11:49That's right. News is read aloud.

0:11:49 > 0:11:52Newspapers are read aloud in public houses and coffee shops.

0:11:52 > 0:11:55Some people in streets would club together to buy a newspaper

0:11:55 > 0:11:56and read it to each other.

0:12:05 > 0:12:07The Marrs' neighbours in the East End

0:12:07 > 0:12:11showed an admirable sense of community in the face of their fear.

0:12:14 > 0:12:17Seven days after the slaying of the Marrs,

0:12:17 > 0:12:19thousands lined the streets to pay their respects.

0:12:21 > 0:12:24The funeral cortege made its way through Wapping

0:12:24 > 0:12:27to the parish church of St George's in the East.

0:12:30 > 0:12:36There was a terrible sense of outrage and shock after this crime.

0:12:36 > 0:12:40The victims were killed in their own home by strangers.

0:12:40 > 0:12:43Nobody around here felt safe.

0:12:43 > 0:12:45There was also a good deal of sympathy

0:12:45 > 0:12:49for this young, hard-working, respectable family.

0:12:49 > 0:12:51Only two months earlier,

0:12:51 > 0:12:53Mr and Mrs Marr had been at the church

0:12:53 > 0:12:55for the christening of their son.

0:12:55 > 0:12:59Now, all three of them were buried in a single grave.

0:12:59 > 0:13:02Their tombstone has disappeared,

0:13:02 > 0:13:07but their epitaph read "Life is uncertain in this world".

0:13:25 > 0:13:29Though deep in mourning, the East End was chilled by the realisation

0:13:29 > 0:13:34that a brutal murderer remained at large, and might strike again.

0:13:41 > 0:13:44And then, only 12 days after the killing of the Marrs,

0:13:44 > 0:13:48it seemed that the same murderer visited Wapping a second time.

0:13:50 > 0:13:54On 19th December, a very strange sight was seen

0:13:54 > 0:13:57outside the King's Arms pub in New Gravel Lane.

0:13:57 > 0:14:00The lodger who lived on the top floor of the pub

0:14:00 > 0:14:02started climbing out of the window.

0:14:02 > 0:14:05He came down a rope that was made by his bedsheets.

0:14:05 > 0:14:08People passing by in the streets stopped and stared at him,

0:14:08 > 0:14:10wondering what was going on.

0:14:10 > 0:14:12It became clear when they heard what he was saying.

0:14:12 > 0:14:14He was shouting "Murder! Murder!"

0:14:18 > 0:14:22A crowd soon gathered and forced its way in.

0:14:22 > 0:14:25Inside, they found the bodies of the publican, John Williams,

0:14:25 > 0:14:27his wife and his servant.

0:14:27 > 0:14:30Like the Marrs, they had been hacked and beaten to death.

0:14:33 > 0:14:35That night, there was pandemonium.

0:14:36 > 0:14:40Fire bells were rung and drums were beaten in alarm.

0:14:40 > 0:14:43Volunteers armed with cutlasses and pistols

0:14:43 > 0:14:46searched houses and boats moored on the Thames.

0:14:46 > 0:14:48Even London Bridge was closed.

0:14:48 > 0:14:50The desperate magistrates now demanded

0:14:50 > 0:14:52that anyone at all suspicious be picked up -

0:14:52 > 0:14:55foreigners, vagrants, all the usual suspects.

0:14:57 > 0:15:00Valuable time was wasted on false leads.

0:15:02 > 0:15:06And people were starting to grow angry with the authorities,

0:15:06 > 0:15:08who failed to protect their community

0:15:08 > 0:15:11from what now looked like a serial killer.

0:15:14 > 0:15:17But at last, there was a breakthrough.

0:15:17 > 0:15:18A sharp-eyed police constable

0:15:18 > 0:15:21noticed a clue on the murder weapon itself,

0:15:21 > 0:15:23not before time, you might think.

0:15:23 > 0:15:25He spotted initials on the handle, JP,

0:15:25 > 0:15:30and a woman came forward to say that she knew who JP was.

0:15:30 > 0:15:34It was John Peterson, a sailor from Hamburg.

0:15:34 > 0:15:37But, it has to be said, he had the perfect alibi.

0:15:37 > 0:15:40On the night of the killings, he had been away at sea.

0:15:44 > 0:15:47Another lodger, a 27-year-old seaman called John Williams,

0:15:47 > 0:15:50quickly became the prime suspect,

0:15:50 > 0:15:53from no other evidence than that he'd had access to the maul.

0:15:56 > 0:15:58Williams was arrested

0:15:58 > 0:16:01and taken to Cold Bath Fields prison for questioning.

0:16:05 > 0:16:07Two days after Christmas,

0:16:07 > 0:16:10the prison guards found his lifeless body

0:16:10 > 0:16:13hanging from an iron bar in his cell.

0:16:17 > 0:16:20Because John Williams had committed suicide,

0:16:20 > 0:16:22everybody instantly jumped to the conclusion

0:16:22 > 0:16:25that this was an admission of guilt.

0:16:25 > 0:16:28He killed himself to cheat the hangman.

0:16:28 > 0:16:31The police and the magistrates were delighted with this outcome.

0:16:31 > 0:16:34They'd really needed to reassure Londoners

0:16:34 > 0:16:38that the killer was off the streets and that the case had been solved.

0:16:38 > 0:16:42At the same time, though, they had been denied the proper trial

0:16:42 > 0:16:45and execution to provide a sense of closure.

0:16:50 > 0:16:52On New Year's Eve, 1811,

0:16:52 > 0:16:55a cart bearing John Williams' body left the prison

0:16:55 > 0:16:58and made its way through the streets of Wapping.

0:17:01 > 0:17:03It was a very public display

0:17:03 > 0:17:06that the authorities had at last got their man.

0:17:09 > 0:17:13Shops were shut, and blinds were drawn.

0:17:13 > 0:17:16There is little evidence that Williams really was guilty,

0:17:16 > 0:17:18but scapegoat or not,

0:17:18 > 0:17:21his dead body was used to placate the people of Wapping.

0:17:23 > 0:17:27When the procession reached the home of the Marrs, it came to a halt.

0:17:27 > 0:17:32The cart with the murderer's body was now directly outside their home.

0:17:33 > 0:17:36Here's the murder weapon, the bloodied maul,

0:17:36 > 0:17:38positioned by his head. At this point,

0:17:38 > 0:17:42one of the members of the crowd leaped up onto the cart,

0:17:42 > 0:17:44and they twisted his body around

0:17:44 > 0:17:47so that he had to look at the home of his victims.

0:17:47 > 0:17:50It was as if the crowd were forcing him

0:17:50 > 0:17:54to confront the consequences of his actions.

0:17:56 > 0:17:59This ritual of punishment ended here

0:17:59 > 0:18:02at the crossroads of old Cannon and Cable Street.

0:18:03 > 0:18:07At the end of the procession, the crowd did find its voice.

0:18:07 > 0:18:10There were groans and cheers and shouts

0:18:10 > 0:18:13as John Williams' body was lowered into a shallow grave

0:18:13 > 0:18:16at the centre of the crossroads,

0:18:16 > 0:18:19and then a stake was hammered through his heart.

0:18:19 > 0:18:21This was traditionally what you did to a suicide,

0:18:21 > 0:18:24to stop his or her ghost from wandering around.

0:18:24 > 0:18:27But John Williams' skeleton did go wandering.

0:18:27 > 0:18:31A couple of decades later, gas pipes were installed along here,

0:18:31 > 0:18:35and the workmen digging the hole discovered his bones.

0:18:35 > 0:18:39His skull somehow ended up in the possession of the landlord

0:18:39 > 0:18:41at the Crown and Dolphin.

0:18:47 > 0:18:51The horror in Wapping reached all corners of the country

0:18:51 > 0:18:54through illustrated, one-sheet publications called broadsides.

0:18:54 > 0:18:57These sold in their hundreds of thousands.

0:19:00 > 0:19:04Newspaper proprietors realised that sensational killings

0:19:04 > 0:19:06could boost circulation enormously.

0:19:10 > 0:19:12But fact and fiction became blurred.

0:19:14 > 0:19:18By the time the Ratcliff Highway story reached the Lake District,

0:19:18 > 0:19:22the murders had taken on an almost mythic quality,

0:19:22 > 0:19:24a process that did not go unnoticed

0:19:24 > 0:19:27by Grasmere's most curious resident, Thomas De Quincey.

0:19:31 > 0:19:34Thomas de Quincey was a complete oddball.

0:19:34 > 0:19:36He was addicted to opium,

0:19:36 > 0:19:40and spent a lot of his time in a sort of crazy, creative dream.

0:19:40 > 0:19:43He was an unconventional, but rather brilliant writer.

0:19:43 > 0:19:46Some people think the two things are connected.

0:19:46 > 0:19:49When he was living here at Dove Cottage, he would produce

0:19:49 > 0:19:54the best-known piece of writing about the Ratcliff Highway killings.

0:19:57 > 0:20:02Thomas De Quincey's essay on murder was basically a great, big tease.

0:20:02 > 0:20:05He was setting out to provoke all the newspaper readers

0:20:05 > 0:20:10who had sucked up the details of the real-life crimes and relished them.

0:20:10 > 0:20:14De Quincey claimed that there was this imaginary murder club

0:20:14 > 0:20:17for people who took things even further.

0:20:17 > 0:20:18They were connoisseurs of crime,

0:20:18 > 0:20:22and they believed that murder ought to be elevated

0:20:22 > 0:20:26into one of the fine arts. This was all satirical, of course.

0:20:26 > 0:20:29At their meetings, they talked about their favourite murderers,

0:20:29 > 0:20:31and top of the tree was John Williams,

0:20:31 > 0:20:35the most accomplished practitioner yet of this new act.

0:20:38 > 0:20:43"Mr Williams has exalted the ideal of murder to all of us.

0:20:43 > 0:20:47"He has carried his art to a point of colossal sublimity.

0:20:47 > 0:20:53"All other murders look pale beside the deep crimson of his.

0:20:53 > 0:20:56"Leave aside morality after the deed is done.

0:20:56 > 0:20:58"Why not enjoy a good murder?"

0:21:02 > 0:21:06De Quincey's satirical musings on the dark side of human nature

0:21:06 > 0:21:09might well have been fuelled by his heavy,

0:21:09 > 0:21:11if not excessive, use of opium.

0:21:14 > 0:21:19This amazing thing is Thomas De Quincey's set of opium scales.

0:21:21 > 0:21:25Today, his drug-taking sounds really squalid and debauched.

0:21:25 > 0:21:28But actually, opium was quite an established part

0:21:28 > 0:21:31of 19th-century life. It wasn't illegal.

0:21:31 > 0:21:34You could buy the powder at the chemist's,

0:21:34 > 0:21:36or you might take it in liquid form.

0:21:36 > 0:21:38This is tincture of opium.

0:21:38 > 0:21:40There's actual drugs in there.

0:21:40 > 0:21:45And this is Kendal Black Drop, a famous local brand.

0:21:45 > 0:21:48You might give this to your baby if it cried,

0:21:48 > 0:21:49or to kill the toothache,

0:21:49 > 0:21:51which was how Thomas de Quincey himself got started.

0:21:51 > 0:21:54He would take his laudanum,

0:21:54 > 0:21:58or tincture, in a glass of brandy,

0:21:58 > 0:22:02thereby getting addicted to alcohol at the same time.

0:22:02 > 0:22:04And his consumption was extraordinary -

0:22:04 > 0:22:098,000 drops a day, we hear, or a whole ounce.

0:22:09 > 0:22:12This isn't opium, it's ginger, but that's a whole ounce.

0:22:12 > 0:22:14He would take that in a single day.

0:22:14 > 0:22:17If you did that without being used to it, it would clearly kill you.

0:22:21 > 0:22:26Drug-inspired or not, De Quincey gives us a fundamental insight

0:22:26 > 0:22:29that we all enjoy a good murder,

0:22:29 > 0:22:31although sometimes we're reluctant to admit it.

0:22:32 > 0:22:36De Quincey skewered this idea that we consume murder,

0:22:36 > 0:22:41that we judge them, that we like a good one, with vulnerable characters

0:22:41 > 0:22:43and interesting developments.

0:22:43 > 0:22:48But if a crime is dull and brutish, as he said, we damn it unanimously.

0:22:49 > 0:22:52And this sense that we enjoy murder

0:22:52 > 0:22:56runs from De Quincey's time right until the present day.

0:23:02 > 0:23:0420 years after the murder in Wapping,

0:23:04 > 0:23:06another killing was turned

0:23:06 > 0:23:10into one of the 19th century's most potent stories.

0:23:12 > 0:23:13It would be mythologized

0:23:13 > 0:23:16and transformed into popular entertainment

0:23:16 > 0:23:18within weeks of the murder itself.

0:23:24 > 0:23:27This story played to the growing obsession with violent crime.

0:23:29 > 0:23:32It would be acted out not in the turbulent East End,

0:23:32 > 0:23:35but in the sleepy Suffolk village of Polstead.

0:23:37 > 0:23:39It was here, in 1827,

0:23:39 > 0:23:43that a crime took place that still resonates today.

0:23:43 > 0:23:47Maria Marten and the murder in the red barn.

0:23:50 > 0:23:55Maria Marten was the daughter of the local mole catcher.

0:23:55 > 0:23:57She lived on the edge of the village with her family

0:23:57 > 0:23:59and her illegitimate child.

0:24:01 > 0:24:05In a much grander house at the centre of Polstead

0:24:05 > 0:24:08lived the man who would kill her.

0:24:08 > 0:24:11This is the much grander house lived in by William Corder.

0:24:11 > 0:24:16His father was a prosperous and God-fearing yeoman farmer.

0:24:16 > 0:24:19In some of the stories that later sprang up around this case,

0:24:19 > 0:24:22William Corder was described as the squire of the village,

0:24:22 > 0:24:26but this actually makes him sound straighter than he really was.

0:24:26 > 0:24:28He did have criminal contacts in London,

0:24:28 > 0:24:30and when he'd been at school,

0:24:30 > 0:24:34his friends had given him a nickname that reflected his sneaky ways.

0:24:34 > 0:24:36They called him Foxy.

0:24:47 > 0:24:50The third character in the story was the red barn itself,

0:24:50 > 0:24:53which stood in a field just outside Polstead.

0:24:57 > 0:25:00There is a very melodramatic explanation

0:25:00 > 0:25:02of the name of the red barn.

0:25:02 > 0:25:05As the sun set, the evening light is supposed

0:25:05 > 0:25:07to have turned the barn the colour of blood,

0:25:07 > 0:25:11giving it the reputation amongst the locals as a place of evil.

0:25:14 > 0:25:15So it was an ideal place

0:25:15 > 0:25:19for secret meetings between William Corder and his lover.

0:25:19 > 0:25:23They weren't going to be observed.

0:25:25 > 0:25:27Friday, 18th May was the last time

0:25:27 > 0:25:30that anyone in Polstead saw Maria alive.

0:25:30 > 0:25:33That night, she had a secret rendezvous with William Corder

0:25:33 > 0:25:36under the cover of darkness at the red barn.

0:25:36 > 0:25:39She thought that they were planning to run off together.

0:25:47 > 0:25:52For a whole year, as far as Maria's parents knew, she really had eloped.

0:25:53 > 0:25:57William Corder even wrote to them saying "I have left her at Ipswich".

0:25:57 > 0:25:59Maria couldn't write herself, he said,

0:25:59 > 0:26:00because she had hurt her wrist.

0:26:02 > 0:26:07In April 1828, Maria's stepmother began to have nightmares.

0:26:09 > 0:26:12"I have dreamt on three nights that she was murdered

0:26:12 > 0:26:14"and buried in the red barn", she said.

0:26:15 > 0:26:18This apparent intervention by providence

0:26:18 > 0:26:20in the form of Maria's stepmother's dream

0:26:20 > 0:26:23would become an important part of the story.

0:26:24 > 0:26:27Her father now began a search,

0:26:27 > 0:26:30and soon found Maria's decomposing body

0:26:30 > 0:26:33in the exact spot the dream predicted.

0:26:38 > 0:26:42The prime suspect was, of course, William Corder.

0:26:42 > 0:26:46He was arrested by the constables in Brentford, outside London,

0:26:46 > 0:26:49where he had set up home with a new wife.

0:26:50 > 0:26:53In the phenomenon De Quincey had identified,

0:26:53 > 0:26:55the sordid red barn murder

0:26:55 > 0:26:59now provided excellent raw material for entertainment.

0:27:03 > 0:27:06And in the 1820s, the most theatrical way

0:27:06 > 0:27:09of telling the story of notorious murders was melodrama.

0:27:11 > 0:27:14This stylised form of theatre was performed here

0:27:14 > 0:27:15at the Old Vic in London,

0:27:15 > 0:27:19which had opened ten years before the events in Polstead.

0:27:19 > 0:27:22The proper name of the theatre was the Royal Coburg,

0:27:22 > 0:27:26but because of all the gory murder mysteries they put on here,

0:27:26 > 0:27:29everybody called it the Blood Tub.

0:27:29 > 0:27:32Let's find out how that murder in sleepy Suffolk

0:27:32 > 0:27:34got turned into a smash hit melodrama.

0:27:38 > 0:27:42Melodramas were a heady mix of music and acting.

0:27:42 > 0:27:44They had sensational plots,

0:27:44 > 0:27:47with actors representing good and evil,

0:27:47 > 0:27:50all to a raucous musical accompaniment.

0:27:50 > 0:27:54For a modern audience, they were rather like pantomime.

0:27:56 > 0:27:58To learn how real-life murder

0:27:58 > 0:28:01was turned into this wildly popular form of entertainment,

0:28:01 > 0:28:04I've come to meet the actor Michael Kirk.

0:28:04 > 0:28:07Michael, what exactly is melodrama?

0:28:07 > 0:28:11I suppose if we were describing melodrama nowadays,

0:28:11 > 0:28:13we would probably describe it as over the top.

0:28:13 > 0:28:19A story of great love, great passion...and they meant it.

0:28:19 > 0:28:22It was very, very important.

0:28:22 > 0:28:26The story of a melodrama is, "If we don't do this, we die."

0:28:26 > 0:28:27It's that important.

0:28:29 > 0:28:32And did the audience not mind the basic implausibility?

0:28:32 > 0:28:34Because we get coincidences,

0:28:34 > 0:28:38we get people seeing things in dreams, ghosts.

0:28:38 > 0:28:41I think they loved it, because it was so popular.

0:28:41 > 0:28:45And they loved to know what was going on.

0:28:45 > 0:28:47They didn't want mystery or anything like that.

0:28:47 > 0:28:51They wanted to know who the villain was, who the heroine was,

0:28:51 > 0:28:57and that was very important. And they wouldn't just sit there and watch.

0:28:57 > 0:29:00They would so much want to be part of the play.

0:29:03 > 0:29:09The catcalls and the mayhem allowed people to let off steam.

0:29:09 > 0:29:10Safe in their seats,

0:29:10 > 0:29:14the audience always enjoyed seeing justice being done,

0:29:14 > 0:29:17the murderer being punished and order restored.

0:29:18 > 0:29:21They would expect to jeer the villain,

0:29:21 > 0:29:24cheer the young village maiden.

0:29:24 > 0:29:26It would have been a bloodbath out there.

0:29:26 > 0:29:29I think it must have been every man for himself.

0:29:29 > 0:29:33And I actually don't think we ought to talk about it any more.

0:29:33 > 0:29:34We ought to go up there and give it a go.

0:29:37 > 0:29:40So it's time for curtain up for Maria Marten,

0:29:40 > 0:29:42or The Murder In The Red Barn.

0:29:46 > 0:29:49Scene the third, inside the red barn.

0:29:49 > 0:29:52Corder, discovered digging a grave.

0:29:52 > 0:29:54Villain's music.

0:29:54 > 0:29:55SOMBRE MUSIC

0:29:55 > 0:30:00All is complete. I now await my victim. Will she come?

0:30:00 > 0:30:04Oh, yes. A woman is fool enough

0:30:04 > 0:30:08to do anything for the man she loves.

0:30:08 > 0:30:11Hark! It is her footsteps bounding across the field.

0:30:11 > 0:30:16She comes with love in her heart, a song on her lips.

0:30:16 > 0:30:22Little does she think that death is so near.

0:30:22 > 0:30:24William not here?

0:30:24 > 0:30:31Where can he be? What ails me? I feel fear in my heart.

0:30:31 > 0:30:36My limbs tremble. I will return to my home.

0:30:36 > 0:30:37Stay, Maria.

0:30:39 > 0:30:43William! I'm so glad that you are here.

0:30:43 > 0:30:46You don't know how frightened I've been.

0:30:46 > 0:30:50- Did anyone see you cross the fields? - Not a soul.

0:30:50 > 0:30:55- I followed your instructions. - That's good. Now, Maria,

0:30:55 > 0:31:01do you remember threatening to betray me about the child to the constable?

0:31:01 > 0:31:04It was but a girlish threat.

0:31:06 > 0:31:08Tremolo fiddles.

0:31:08 > 0:31:11But don't talk about that now. Let's leave this place.

0:31:11 > 0:31:14Not yet, Maria.

0:31:14 > 0:31:18Look what I have made here.

0:31:18 > 0:31:22A grave! William, what do you mean?

0:31:22 > 0:31:26To kill you! To bury your body there.

0:31:26 > 0:31:31You are a clog upon my actions,

0:31:31 > 0:31:35a chain that keeps me from reaching ambitious heights.

0:31:35 > 0:31:38Spare me! Oh, spare me!

0:31:38 > 0:31:40It is no use. My mind's resolved.

0:31:40 > 0:31:44You die tonight!

0:31:44 > 0:31:45Aaagh!

0:31:46 > 0:31:49Oh, you wretch!

0:31:49 > 0:31:55Oh! May this crime forever be accursed.

0:31:56 > 0:31:57Thunder and lightning.

0:31:57 > 0:31:59THUNDER CRASHES

0:31:59 > 0:32:00Thank you.

0:32:02 > 0:32:04APPLAUSE

0:32:07 > 0:32:10It wasn't only in cities and towns

0:32:10 > 0:32:13that people could enjoy murderous melodramas.

0:32:13 > 0:32:18They also appeared in the repertoire of travelling marionette theatres.

0:32:18 > 0:32:22The story of the red barn was being performed at country fairs

0:32:22 > 0:32:26even before William Corder stood trial.

0:32:26 > 0:32:31Oh, Maria, hello! You've come! You've come!

0:32:31 > 0:32:34And these belonged to a company that actually toured East Anglia?

0:32:34 > 0:32:39Yes, so we know that this company performed Maria Marten.

0:32:39 > 0:32:43What was it like to go and see a puppet show?

0:32:43 > 0:32:45Oh, incredibly exciting.

0:32:45 > 0:32:48Not only was it exciting to see the characters,

0:32:48 > 0:32:50it was also exciting to see the scenery,

0:32:50 > 0:32:52because they had proper puppet scenery.

0:32:52 > 0:32:57It was a miniature version of being in any theatre.

0:32:57 > 0:33:00So this is not for children and it's not just funny,

0:33:00 > 0:33:03- these are important points? - Absolutely.

0:33:03 > 0:33:08They did a whole range of different types of plays.

0:33:08 > 0:33:12They did everything that was exciting or amusing the people.

0:33:12 > 0:33:15So they did the melodramas and the murders.

0:33:15 > 0:33:17People in outlying rural areas

0:33:17 > 0:33:22would have really looked forward to the marionette theatre coming.

0:33:23 > 0:33:25Even from a distance,

0:33:25 > 0:33:28you can tell that William Corder here is the villain.

0:33:28 > 0:33:31He's got a very villainous moustache.

0:33:31 > 0:33:35Yes, and he's got glassy, staring eyes.

0:33:37 > 0:33:41Oh, William! I cannot wait until we are together.

0:33:41 > 0:33:45Well, that's what you think, but I haven't brought you here for love.

0:33:45 > 0:33:49I've brought you here, my girl, to kill you!

0:33:49 > 0:33:51Oh, William! Do not treat me so!

0:33:51 > 0:33:55Die, woman!

0:33:58 > 0:34:01Back in real life, once William Corder had been captured,

0:34:01 > 0:34:06his story continued. He was brought back to Bury St Edmunds,

0:34:06 > 0:34:08the nearest assize town to Polstead.

0:34:11 > 0:34:15The trial began on 7th August 1828,

0:34:15 > 0:34:18in the Shire Hall of Bury St Edmunds.

0:34:18 > 0:34:21William Corder initially pleaded not guilty,

0:34:21 > 0:34:23but later on, he did confess.

0:34:23 > 0:34:26He claimed that he had shot her in the eye by accident,

0:34:26 > 0:34:30and that the gun had gone off in his trembling hands.

0:34:33 > 0:34:35The trial lasted just two days,

0:34:35 > 0:34:38and the jury took only 35 minutes to reach their decision.

0:34:40 > 0:34:42Guilty.

0:34:43 > 0:34:45On the day of his hanging,

0:34:45 > 0:34:48a huge crowd gathered outside the jail,

0:34:48 > 0:34:51in the hope of catching a glimpse of the villain.

0:34:52 > 0:34:57It took William Corder a long time to die, around ten minutes,

0:34:57 > 0:35:01and that was with the hangman pulling down on his legs.

0:35:01 > 0:35:04As the newspapers said, he died hard.

0:35:07 > 0:35:09His body was barely cold

0:35:09 > 0:35:12before the story of William Corder

0:35:12 > 0:35:15was featuring in street ballads and alehouse songs.

0:35:19 > 0:35:22At the Cock Inn in Polstead, I'm meeting Vic Gammon

0:35:22 > 0:35:26to hear how the story of Murder In The Red Barn was turned into music.

0:35:32 > 0:35:36# It's William Corder, it is my name

0:35:36 > 0:35:41# I brought my friends to grief and shame

0:35:41 > 0:35:45# Unlawful passions caused my fall

0:35:45 > 0:35:50# And now my life must pay for all. #

0:35:51 > 0:35:55Now, there's a whole lot of William Corder songs, aren't there, that's not the only one?

0:35:55 > 0:35:57No, I've found about four of them.

0:35:57 > 0:36:00There's one really famous one. The Murder Of Maria Marten

0:36:00 > 0:36:03is the one that really circulated in a large way.

0:36:03 > 0:36:04It was a national hit, then?

0:36:04 > 0:36:08It was a national hit, that's a good way to put it.

0:36:08 > 0:36:11It's really the interest in the case,

0:36:11 > 0:36:14plus the fact that there was at that time, the 1820s,

0:36:14 > 0:36:17a strong popular singing tradition -

0:36:17 > 0:36:20people singing for themselves, for recreation, for fun -

0:36:20 > 0:36:24- that meant things like this were a hit.- Well, let's have a sing.

0:36:24 > 0:36:25Yes, let's.

0:36:25 > 0:36:29# Come, all you thoughtless young men

0:36:29 > 0:36:33# A warning take by me

0:36:33 > 0:36:38# And think upon my unhappy fate to be hanged upon the tree

0:36:38 > 0:36:43# My name is William Corder

0:36:43 > 0:36:46# To you I do declare

0:36:46 > 0:36:50# I courted Maria Marten

0:36:50 > 0:36:54# Most beautiful and fair. #

0:36:54 > 0:36:57Supposing I was a servant in London in 1928

0:36:57 > 0:37:00and I wanted to learn this song, how would I go about doing it?

0:37:00 > 0:37:02The most likely way you would learn it

0:37:02 > 0:37:04is from a street ballad singer.

0:37:04 > 0:37:06There were hundreds of these people,

0:37:06 > 0:37:08even in the mid-19th century in London.

0:37:09 > 0:37:11They're not just buskers,

0:37:11 > 0:37:16because they would both sing and sell the ballad at the same time,

0:37:16 > 0:37:19and that's the way you would learn the tune.

0:37:20 > 0:37:23We have accounts of large crowds of people standing

0:37:23 > 0:37:25listening to ballad singers.

0:37:25 > 0:37:26It's a really good idea,

0:37:26 > 0:37:29because if everybody across Britain is singing this,

0:37:29 > 0:37:31it's like a massive public safety warning,

0:37:31 > 0:37:35saying "Don't go murdering ladies and burying them in barns.

0:37:35 > 0:37:37"It will be bad for you. You will die".

0:37:37 > 0:37:40Yes! You can look at it that way,

0:37:40 > 0:37:43or you can look at it on the way that the popular press

0:37:43 > 0:37:48both delights in and takes a sort of distanced view

0:37:48 > 0:37:50of gory happenings and so on.

0:37:50 > 0:37:54There's both the fascination and the warning element in there.

0:37:54 > 0:37:55They're both quite strong.

0:37:55 > 0:37:58The lesson of the song is, though, don't do it, isn't it?

0:37:58 > 0:38:01Although they are taking a bit of pleasure

0:38:01 > 0:38:02in the "bleeding, mangled body".

0:38:02 > 0:38:05- Shall we try the "bleeding, mangled" verse?- Yeah, I like that one.

0:38:05 > 0:38:10# With heart so light she thought no harm

0:38:10 > 0:38:13# To meet him she did go

0:38:13 > 0:38:20# He murdered her all in the barn and laid her body low

0:38:20 > 0:38:23# And after the horrible deed was done

0:38:23 > 0:38:27# She lay weltering in her gore

0:38:27 > 0:38:31# Her bleeding, mangled body he buried

0:38:31 > 0:38:34# Beneath the red barn floor. #

0:38:34 > 0:38:37That's ridiculously ghoulish!

0:38:37 > 0:38:40The blood, the body, the mangling, ugh!

0:38:40 > 0:38:43Murder is not a nice thing, and this is relishing in that detail.

0:38:43 > 0:38:44The voice of an angel.

0:38:44 > 0:38:45GLASSES CLINK

0:38:58 > 0:39:02Melodramas and broadsides and ballads

0:39:02 > 0:39:04had made Polstead infamous.

0:39:04 > 0:39:08Murder tourists arrived, wanting to visit the village

0:39:08 > 0:39:12to see the red barn, and even to touch the grave of poor Maria.

0:39:14 > 0:39:19This board here tells us that Maria Marten is buried nearby.

0:39:19 > 0:39:23She was aged just 25 years.

0:39:23 > 0:39:25We can't see her actual gravestone

0:39:25 > 0:39:28because it was chipped to pieces by souvenir hunters,

0:39:28 > 0:39:30and there isn't a trace of it left.

0:39:34 > 0:39:36As in many a crime story,

0:39:36 > 0:39:39the murder in the red barn shows that we are more interested

0:39:39 > 0:39:42in the character and the deeds of the murderer

0:39:42 > 0:39:43than those of the victim.

0:39:45 > 0:39:48William Corder's crime created a weird industry

0:39:48 > 0:39:52in what we might call murder souvenirs.

0:39:52 > 0:39:53Anyone who had the cash

0:39:53 > 0:39:57could buy one of these ceramic models of the red barn,

0:39:57 > 0:40:00take it home and have it on your own mantelpiece.

0:40:00 > 0:40:02Slightly more exclusive

0:40:02 > 0:40:06were knick-knacks made out of the timbers of the red barn itself.

0:40:06 > 0:40:10This is a little snuffbox in the shape of a shoe.

0:40:10 > 0:40:14The items associated with the crime were more valuable.

0:40:14 > 0:40:19These were the actual pistols. These are what he used to shoot her.

0:40:20 > 0:40:23Ascending up the scale of gruesomeness,

0:40:23 > 0:40:25this is a book about William Corder,

0:40:25 > 0:40:27written by a journalist from The Times.

0:40:27 > 0:40:31You'd think it was just a book, until you open up the cover

0:40:31 > 0:40:35and you read that the leather binding is made

0:40:35 > 0:40:38from the skin of the murderer,

0:40:38 > 0:40:42taken from his body and tanned by a surgeon

0:40:42 > 0:40:44from the Suffolk Hospital.

0:40:44 > 0:40:49But top of the tree, absolutely most gruesome of all,

0:40:49 > 0:40:52this is the back of William Corder's head.

0:40:52 > 0:40:55It's the skin from his scalp.

0:40:55 > 0:40:58You can see on it the little hairs,

0:40:58 > 0:41:01and just over here is the murderer's ear.

0:41:03 > 0:41:07Phrenologists were also keen to study Corder's head,

0:41:07 > 0:41:09because they thought the lumps and bumps on it

0:41:09 > 0:41:13represented the homicidal aspects of his personality.

0:41:14 > 0:41:16What is this?

0:41:16 > 0:41:21This is a full 3-D bust of William Corder, taken from death.

0:41:21 > 0:41:23It does bear some of the grim signs

0:41:23 > 0:41:27of his death by strangulation and asphyxiation.

0:41:27 > 0:41:28If you look at the front

0:41:28 > 0:41:31where you can see the lips and the nose are swollen,

0:41:31 > 0:41:35that is where all the blood vessels are bursting in his face.

0:41:35 > 0:41:38Here, you can see someone struggling through death.

0:41:40 > 0:41:43Tell me what happened to William Corder's body afterwards.

0:41:43 > 0:41:46He would have probably been left to hang for about an hour,

0:41:46 > 0:41:48just to make sure he was certainly dead.

0:41:48 > 0:41:51Then he would have been taken down to the Shire Hall,

0:41:51 > 0:41:53where basically, they would have publicly anatomised him.

0:41:53 > 0:41:56So I'm getting an impression of this dead body

0:41:56 > 0:41:58being brought into the Shire Hall over there,

0:41:58 > 0:42:04- and swarms of people coming to examine it, all in public?- Yes.

0:42:04 > 0:42:06Presumably, it would have been

0:42:06 > 0:42:09the same sort of grand day out as the execution.

0:42:09 > 0:42:11If you missed the execution,

0:42:11 > 0:42:13you could go along and watch the body being cut up.

0:42:13 > 0:42:14It was, in essence,

0:42:14 > 0:42:19your chance to see a celebrity of the nefarious sort.

0:42:19 > 0:42:21Would you say that he has contributed

0:42:21 > 0:42:23- to the local tourist industry? - Absolutely.

0:42:23 > 0:42:27Since he's been on display here for the last hundred years,

0:42:27 > 0:42:29people come in every day saying,

0:42:29 > 0:42:31"Have you still got the book bound in skin?

0:42:31 > 0:42:33"Have you got the bit of skin?" etc.

0:42:33 > 0:42:34And to be honest,

0:42:34 > 0:42:36the likes of the community of Polstead

0:42:36 > 0:42:38still celebrate the story of William Corder

0:42:38 > 0:42:40and the murder in the red barn.

0:42:40 > 0:42:45It's really funny to hear you saying "We celebrate our local murderer"!

0:42:45 > 0:42:50I think it's because the story has gone under so many transitions

0:42:50 > 0:42:54to become basically so fabricated that it is a story.

0:42:54 > 0:42:57And I think we're celebrating the story,

0:42:57 > 0:43:01as opposed to the reality of the nastiness of the crime.

0:43:01 > 0:43:05And it has all the bearings of a great, entertaining play.

0:43:07 > 0:43:09The tale of Maria Marten showed

0:43:09 > 0:43:12how a crime of passion in rural Suffolk

0:43:12 > 0:43:15could become a national source of entertainment.

0:43:15 > 0:43:17It elevated William Corder

0:43:17 > 0:43:21into one of the most notorious murderers of the century.

0:43:21 > 0:43:2420 years later, it would be a famous murderess

0:43:24 > 0:43:28who would similarly enthral the public.

0:43:28 > 0:43:31This attractive and apparently cold-hearted woman

0:43:31 > 0:43:33became infamous for her part

0:43:33 > 0:43:36in the crime known as the Bermondsey Horror.

0:43:39 > 0:43:41Maria Manning was living

0:43:41 > 0:43:44at No.3, Miniver Place, Bermondsey, South London,

0:43:44 > 0:43:46with her husband, Frederick.

0:43:46 > 0:43:49The year was 1849.

0:43:50 > 0:43:52Frederick and Maria Manning

0:43:52 > 0:43:55were a newly married couple in their late twenties.

0:43:55 > 0:43:59Frederick had been a guard on the railways,

0:43:59 > 0:44:02and then he had failed in business as a publican

0:44:02 > 0:44:04and now he was unemployed.

0:44:04 > 0:44:08His wife, Maria, was much more exotic.

0:44:08 > 0:44:11She was Swiss, and she had lived the high life as a lady's maid.

0:44:11 > 0:44:14She had travelled abroad and stayed in stately homes.

0:44:14 > 0:44:17But she too had fallen on hard times.

0:44:17 > 0:44:20Now she was making ends meet as a dressmaker.

0:44:20 > 0:44:24A frequent visitor to the Mannings' house in Miniver Place

0:44:24 > 0:44:28was Patrick O'Connor. He worked for the Customs,

0:44:28 > 0:44:30and he was rumoured to be a very wealthy man.

0:44:32 > 0:44:35The three of them certainly had a curious relationship.

0:44:35 > 0:44:39In fact, it was scandalous. This was almost certainly a love triangle.

0:44:42 > 0:44:45On Thursday, 9th August, Patrick O'Connor told friends

0:44:45 > 0:44:49that he had been invited to have dinner with the Mannings.

0:44:49 > 0:44:52This was the last time he was seen alive.

0:44:54 > 0:44:59Sometime during that evening, he was ruthlessly killed.

0:44:59 > 0:45:02Then, using his keys, Maria went to his lodgings

0:45:02 > 0:45:07and stole his valuables, including his stock and share certificates.

0:45:07 > 0:45:09Four days later,

0:45:09 > 0:45:14O'Connor was reported missing to a now centralised Metropolitan Police.

0:45:16 > 0:45:18On Friday the 17th of August,

0:45:18 > 0:45:23two police constables got access to 3 Miniver Place.

0:45:23 > 0:45:26They were PC Barnes of the K Division

0:45:26 > 0:45:30and PC Burson of the M Division, both for the Metropolitan Police.

0:45:30 > 0:45:33Inside the house, they found a state of confusion.

0:45:33 > 0:45:36Whatever furniture had been here had disappeared

0:45:36 > 0:45:38and the Mannings were gone.

0:45:38 > 0:45:41The constables reported back that the nest were still here

0:45:41 > 0:45:43but the birds had flown.

0:45:44 > 0:45:47Their search then took them into the back kitchen.

0:45:48 > 0:45:51The two police constables had eagle eyes.

0:45:51 > 0:45:52In the kitchen,

0:45:52 > 0:45:56they noticed that one of the flagstones was loose near the hearth.

0:45:56 > 0:45:59They soon had it up and there was O'Connor.

0:45:59 > 0:46:04He was naked, he's been trussed up, he'd been tossed in quicklime

0:46:04 > 0:46:06and his dead body was now blue.

0:46:08 > 0:46:11The hunt for the murderers was now on,

0:46:11 > 0:46:16led by the newly formed detective branch of the Metropolitan Police

0:46:16 > 0:46:18under inspector Charles Field.

0:46:18 > 0:46:23The Bermondsey horror was a chance for them to prove themselves.

0:46:23 > 0:46:27First, Field's men had to track the Mannings down.

0:46:27 > 0:46:28But where were they?

0:46:28 > 0:46:33The Mannings had split up and run in different directions.

0:46:33 > 0:46:36It seems that Maria had gone off first without

0:46:36 > 0:46:40the knowledge of her husband, but with the couple's stolen wealth.

0:46:40 > 0:46:43The Mannings had robbed O'Connor and they'd killed him,

0:46:43 > 0:46:46and on top of that, Maria had double-crossed her husband.

0:46:48 > 0:46:50Maria fled north to Scotland

0:46:50 > 0:46:54while the hapless Fredrick caught a steamer to the Channel Islands.

0:46:55 > 0:46:58To discover more about how the detectives were able to trace

0:46:58 > 0:47:02the Mannings, I met up again with Rosalind Crone in south London.

0:47:05 > 0:47:08In 1811, when we have the Ratcliff Highway murders,

0:47:08 > 0:47:11there's a slightly chaotic response from the authorities

0:47:11 > 0:47:14but things are very different by the times of the Mannings, aren't they?

0:47:14 > 0:47:18Yes. What we see is a much more joined-up system of policing,

0:47:18 > 0:47:21but more significantly they're joined by a new detective force.

0:47:21 > 0:47:25Now, the Metropolitan Police force in 1829 are meant to be very much

0:47:25 > 0:47:28a preventing crime force,

0:47:28 > 0:47:31so they patrol beats and keep a watch over people and property.

0:47:31 > 0:47:35The detective force, founded in 1842, is meant to detect crime.

0:47:35 > 0:47:37It's a slightly different function.

0:47:37 > 0:47:39But they're only a small office at this stage -

0:47:39 > 0:47:43about eight man in total in their office in Scotland Yard.

0:47:43 > 0:47:46So we've got this new detective squad and they're allowed, actually,

0:47:46 > 0:47:48to go after the criminals for the first time.

0:47:48 > 0:47:50How did they actually catch Maria?

0:47:50 > 0:47:54First of all, the detective sergeant who's sent out to have a

0:47:54 > 0:47:57look at the house, is able to track down the cab driver who takes

0:47:57 > 0:47:59Maria to the station.

0:48:04 > 0:48:07He's able to figure out that she goes to Euston station

0:48:07 > 0:48:09and gets on a train bound for Edinburgh.

0:48:12 > 0:48:16Then he's able to use telegraphic communications to wire up

0:48:16 > 0:48:19a message to his colleagues in the Edinburgh police,

0:48:19 > 0:48:22putting out a description of Maria which they circulate

0:48:22 > 0:48:24and are able to track her down.

0:48:27 > 0:48:29Maria was arrested in Edinburgh.

0:48:29 > 0:48:33Shortly afterwards, Frederick was apprehended in St Helier.

0:48:35 > 0:48:38This was a coup for the new team at Scotland Yard.

0:48:38 > 0:48:42Their success in capturing the Mannings was the first time

0:48:42 > 0:48:45the public became conscious of their emerging role

0:48:45 > 0:48:47investigating homicide.

0:48:53 > 0:48:57Beside this square was the site of Horsemonger Lane Gaol

0:48:57 > 0:48:59where the Mannings spent their last days.

0:49:01 > 0:49:04The Mannings became national celebrities,

0:49:04 > 0:49:07especially the dark, bewitching Maria.

0:49:08 > 0:49:13The Times newspaper alone ran 72 articles on the case, and an

0:49:13 > 0:49:18illustrated book about the couple sold a colossal 2.5 million copies.

0:49:21 > 0:49:25What was it that made Maria Manning so fascinating?

0:49:25 > 0:49:27Now, Maria Manning - well, part of her fascination is,

0:49:27 > 0:49:31of course, because she's a woman and the idea of a female murderess

0:49:31 > 0:49:34flies in the face of Victorian notions of femininity.

0:49:34 > 0:49:37But it's also because she's foreign, and also

0:49:37 > 0:49:41because she has been a lady's maid in some of the grand houses

0:49:41 > 0:49:44and dresses beautifully in these black silk gowns

0:49:44 > 0:49:45and she's very attractive.

0:49:45 > 0:49:49It seems to me that she's unacceptably ambitious -

0:49:49 > 0:49:52she's not happy to just be a servant,

0:49:52 > 0:49:55she wants to get married to a rich man, and even better than that

0:49:55 > 0:49:57she wants to marry another man that she didn't actually hook.

0:49:57 > 0:50:00- She's got two men on the go. - Yes, yes, that's right.

0:50:06 > 0:50:11On 25th October 1849, the Mannings, husband and wife,

0:50:11 > 0:50:15were brought to the greatest theatre in the land.

0:50:15 > 0:50:19The Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey.

0:50:24 > 0:50:27For the ever curious British public,

0:50:27 > 0:50:29this latest melodrama was reaching its climax.

0:50:31 > 0:50:33They'd met a new hero, the detective,

0:50:33 > 0:50:36who could hunt down and capture the killer.

0:50:36 > 0:50:39And murder itself had entered the modern age.

0:50:39 > 0:50:41The perpetrators fleeing by train,

0:50:41 > 0:50:45the sleuths tracking them down by telegraph.

0:50:45 > 0:50:49The stage was set for the finale the nation had been waiting for.

0:50:51 > 0:50:56Numerous distinguished visitors would now turn up to watch the show.

0:50:56 > 0:50:58There are members of the House of Lords

0:50:58 > 0:51:00and some very grand foreign diplomats

0:51:00 > 0:51:02like the Austrian Ambassador

0:51:02 > 0:51:05and the first secretary to the Prussian delegation.

0:51:05 > 0:51:09All the action would happen in Court Number One.

0:51:23 > 0:51:26Maria made the fateful climb from the cells below

0:51:26 > 0:51:30to put in her most important public appearance.

0:51:30 > 0:51:35She was dressed to kill in her usual close-fitting dress

0:51:35 > 0:51:36of fine, black satin.

0:51:42 > 0:51:44The charges are read out.

0:51:44 > 0:51:48Frederick George Manning is accused of murdering Patrick O'Connor,

0:51:48 > 0:51:51aided by his wife, Maria Manning.

0:51:51 > 0:51:52Both of them plead not guilty.

0:51:58 > 0:52:01The court heard that O'Connor had been shot through the eye

0:52:01 > 0:52:06and received 17 blows to the head that had smashed his skull.

0:52:06 > 0:52:11There were details to suggest that this was a premeditated crime.

0:52:11 > 0:52:13In the weeks before O'Connor's disappearance,

0:52:13 > 0:52:16the Mannings had bought a crowbar from an ironmonger

0:52:16 > 0:52:21in King William Street, a shovel from a shop in Tooley Street

0:52:21 > 0:52:24and quicklime from a builder in Bermondsey Square.

0:52:25 > 0:52:29And it wasn't the only damning evidence that Maria faced.

0:52:29 > 0:52:32By the second day, she seemed to be on trial not only for being

0:52:32 > 0:52:35a killer, but also for being a woman.

0:52:37 > 0:52:39To save his client from the gallows,

0:52:39 > 0:52:44Frederick's defence barrister chose to blame Maria for the crime.

0:52:44 > 0:52:47He demonised her as that most terrible of creatures,

0:52:47 > 0:52:49a female of loose morals,

0:52:49 > 0:52:53quite capable of doing the foul deed on her own.

0:52:54 > 0:52:58We're all in the habit, he says, of associating the female

0:52:58 > 0:53:03character with the idea of mildness and obedience.

0:53:03 > 0:53:07The female is capable of reaching a higher point in virtue than

0:53:07 > 0:53:12the male, but when she gives way to vice, she sinks far lower.

0:53:14 > 0:53:16The court deliberated for two days

0:53:16 > 0:53:21and then the jury withdrew for 45 minutes.

0:53:21 > 0:53:25When they came back, it was with a verdict of guilty.

0:53:30 > 0:53:33Frederick Manning is given the opportunity to address

0:53:33 > 0:53:36the whole court but he turns it down.

0:53:36 > 0:53:41Maria is given the same chance and she takes it. She lets rip.

0:53:41 > 0:53:46There is no justice for a foreigner in this country.

0:53:46 > 0:53:50I have no protection from the judges or my husband.

0:53:52 > 0:53:56In the middle of this explosive rant, Maria grabs the herbs,

0:53:56 > 0:54:01used as air fresheners in the court, and hurls them at the judge.

0:54:01 > 0:54:04I am unjustly condemned by the court.

0:54:06 > 0:54:08Shameful England.

0:54:11 > 0:54:14Maria Manning and her black satin dress

0:54:14 > 0:54:17would cast a really long shadow over years to come.

0:54:17 > 0:54:21She became known as the Lady Macbeth of Bermondsey

0:54:21 > 0:54:23and she inspired Charles Dickens.

0:54:23 > 0:54:27He refashioned her as Hortense the lady's maid, who turns out to

0:54:27 > 0:54:30be the killer in Bleak House.

0:54:30 > 0:54:32She was immortalised in wax.

0:54:32 > 0:54:36Her figure at Madame Tussauds became so popular that it was

0:54:36 > 0:54:41still on display there when I first visited the gallery in the 1970s.

0:54:46 > 0:54:49The case was a sensation of the age.

0:54:49 > 0:54:55Yes, there was sex, greed and treachery, but there was much more.

0:54:55 > 0:54:59There was detection by methodical police work, bringing with it

0:54:59 > 0:55:03a new and satisfying kind of resolution for the public.

0:55:17 > 0:55:21The execution of the Mannings took place on 13th November,

0:55:21 > 0:55:24up on the roof of the Horsemonger Lane Gaol.

0:55:24 > 0:55:28This was pure theatre - a huge crowd was expected,

0:55:28 > 0:55:30so three days beforehand,

0:55:30 > 0:55:35the surrounding streets were all cleared and barricades were erected.

0:55:35 > 0:55:39On the day, it was estimated that 50,000 people turned up,

0:55:39 > 0:55:42with 500 policemen to maintain order.

0:55:42 > 0:55:44Hangings were getting increasingly scarce,

0:55:44 > 0:55:47particularly for females, so this double dose of husband

0:55:47 > 0:55:51and wife was a complete treat for execution lovers.

0:55:53 > 0:55:57Changes in the law back in the 1820s meant that the death penalty

0:55:57 > 0:56:00was now reserved only for treason or murder.

0:56:00 > 0:56:04Previously, it had been applied to a whole range of crimes.

0:56:04 > 0:56:09So by 1849, a public hanging was a real occasion,

0:56:09 > 0:56:13which is why Charles Dickens chose to observe this one.

0:56:16 > 0:56:20He and a group of his friends rented a room overlooking the jail

0:56:20 > 0:56:24and they held a sort of party as events unfolded.

0:56:24 > 0:56:28Now, Dickens was fascinated by murder and murderers.

0:56:28 > 0:56:30He was also in favour of capital punishment.

0:56:30 > 0:56:33He believed that they should hang for their crimes.

0:56:33 > 0:56:37But what really upset him on this occasion was the ghoulish

0:56:37 > 0:56:40and disrespectful behaviour of the crowd.

0:56:44 > 0:56:48Outside the jail, the crowd waited for showtime.

0:56:48 > 0:56:52They sang mocking songs and ate commemorative biscuits.

0:56:54 > 0:56:58We hear that inside, in private, there was

0:56:58 > 0:57:02a final reconciliation between Frederick and Maria.

0:57:02 > 0:57:05They ascended to the gallows as husband and wife.

0:57:10 > 0:57:15The Mannings were hanged side by side, on a scaffold

0:57:15 > 0:57:18that had been lifted up to give maximum visibility

0:57:18 > 0:57:22and theatricality to the grim business.

0:57:22 > 0:57:27Maria was defiant and stylish to the end,

0:57:27 > 0:57:31wearing her black satin dress and gloves for her final appearance.

0:57:33 > 0:57:35She died with dignity.

0:57:43 > 0:57:46The case of the Mannings was a turning point

0:57:46 > 0:57:48in the history of crime.

0:57:48 > 0:57:50It had been a case played out in public,

0:57:50 > 0:57:57a ghastly melodrama with the nation sucking up every gory detail.

0:57:57 > 0:57:59But it was also a case that had been solved

0:57:59 > 0:58:02by the new Metropolitan Police force,

0:58:02 > 0:58:06its constables and especially its detectives.

0:58:06 > 0:58:10A new chapter in the history of murder was about to begin.

0:58:35 > 0:58:38Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd