Some time ago I wrote an article about the Greenbrier Ghost. For those who are not familiar with the tale, it concerns a young woman named Elva Zona Shue. In 1896, she eloped and married a man named Erasmus Stribbling Trout Shue. Shortly afterwards, in January 1897, Elva Shue was found dead in her home. Her body was briefly examined by a doctor, who said her death was from natural causes and she was then buried.
Normally that would be the end of the story, but ElvaƵs mother, Mary Heaster, said that her daughterƵs ghost kept visiting her at night and telling her that she had been murdered. Heaster contacted the authorities and was so persistent that an enquiry was opened. ElvaƵs corpse was exhumed and it was found that she had injuries that indicated she had been strangled.
Erasmus Shue was arrested, tried and found guilty. A state highway sign now marks the spot and states that the case is ƵOnly known case in which testimony from ghost helped convict a murderer.Ƶ
That may have been true as far as the makers of the sign were concerned, but there was an earlier case that is similar, but which could have had a twist in the tale.
It concerns Maria Marten, a 26-year-old girl from the village of Polstead, in Suffolk, England. Maria, who had never been married but who already had two children, was in a relationship with a farmerƵs son, William Corder. Corder had a reputation for theft, fraud and passing bad checks, but Maria liked him and the couple had a child in 1827. Unfortunately that child died; rumor later suggested it had been murdered, and Maria was anxious to marry Corder.
Corder had seemed reluctant but one day, in the presence of MariaƵs stepmother, Ann, he told her that he had heard the local constable was going to prosecute Maria for having illegitimate children. In order to avoid this, he suggested that Maria meet him at a place called the ƵRed BarnƵ from where they would travel to the nearby town of Ipswich and get married.
On Friday, May 18, 1827, Corder appeared at the cottage where Maria lived and told her she had to leave at once because a warrant for her arrest had been issued. Maria, dressed in menƵs clothes to avoid being recognized, set out for the Red Barn. She was never seen alive again.
Corder also disappeared for a time and, when he returned, he claimed that they were married and that Maria was living in Ipswich. When he continued to stay in Polstead, though, and when Maria didnƵt join him, people began to ask questions and so he moved away again. This time, he began to write letters to MariaƵs family giving various excuses to explain why she wasnƵt writing herself.
This is when the similarity to the Greenbrier Ghost came about. MariaƵs stepmother, Ann, began to tell people she had been visited in her dreams and told that Maria had been murdered and buried in the Red Barn. This time it wasnƵt the authorities who investigated, but Ann persuaded MariaƵs father to go to the barn and dig in a particular grain-storage bin. This he did, and he soon unearthed a body wrapped in a sack. An inquest was held and the corpse was identified as Maria by means of her hair, clothing and a missing tooth. Around the dead girlƵs neck was a green scarf that was recognized as belonging to William Corder.
The local constable, a man named Ayres, managed to get an address where Corder had stayed when he was previously away and, together with James Lea, a London police officer, set about trying to trace him. The trail led to the town of Brentford and there they found that Corder had posted a lonely-hearts ad in three newspapers. ItƵs not clear what the ad said but heƵd received 193 replies and, through them, heƵd met a woman named Mary Moore and had married her.
Together the two of them were running a boarding house for ladies called Everley Grove House. Lea pretended that he wanted to board his daughter there, was admitted and surprised Corder in the parlor, where he was boiling eggs. Corder was arrested and the house was searched. Letters were found warning Corder of the discovery of MariaƵs body together with a pair of pistols and a passport issued by the French ambassador, indicating he intended to flee.
The pair took Corder back to Suffolk where he stood trial beginning on Aug. 7, 1868. He was charged with nine different offenses and pleaded not guilty to all of them. The postmortem examination suggested that Maria had been shot. Ann, her stepmother, gave evidence of what had happened on the day she left, and her brother told the court that he had seen Corder carrying a loaded pistol and later leaving the barn with a pickaxe in his hand. There was further evidence that the pair had argued because Corder stole money from her.
CorderƵs own testimony was that he had told Maria to meet him at the barn. He said they had argued there and then he left. Ƶ he was walking away he heard a shot and returned to find her lying dead with his pistol beside her. Panicking, heƵd then buried her and left the area.
The jury didnƵt believe him. They took just 35 minutes to find him guilty and the judge then sentenced him to be taken to prison and there to be hanged and his body sent for dissection.
Justice was swift in those days; just four days after sentence was passed, Corder was publicly executed at Bury St. Edmunds in front of a crowd estimated to be somewhere between 7 and 20 thousand people.
The sentence of dissection was carried out at Cambridge University. Parts of CorderƵs skin were tanned and used to bind at least two books about the murder while his skeleton was on display in a museum for over 100 years before being finally cremated in 2004.
Now for the twist: After the trial and execution, rumors began to circulate. Ann, MariaƵs stepmother, was only one year older than Maria was. There was talk that she was also having an affair with Corder. The rumor said that she and Corder had planned the murder together to get rid of Maria but, when Ann heard that Corder had married someone else, she made up the story of the dreams out of jealous rage. CorderƵs version of events could have been true, Ann could have shot Maria but, since everyone who was there at the time is now long gone, we will never know what truly happened and, just like the Greenbrier case, a ghost may well have helped to bring a murderer to justice.
Derek Coleman is a part-time writer who is a native of England and who now lives in Hurricane. He can be reached at tallderek@hotmail.com.
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