Reports of the case made much of the \u201cwonderous discovery\u201d of the murdered child. The dog, it was said, was not simply an animal driven by instinct to dig up a corpse, but a divine messenger who had been sent by God to uncover the heinous sin. \u201cSee the will and wonderfull woork of almighty God to reveale this most wicked act,\u201d wrote one pamphleteer, who warned his readers that, through such miraculous signs, God would not suffer murder to go unpunished.<\/p>\n
The miraculous justice of God<\/h3>\n
True accounts of murder in the early modern period were often embellished with stories of the strange and supernatural. It was understood that God sent signs to reveal secret murder, \u201csometimes by birds, sometimes by beasts, and sometimes by the apparition of the person murdered\u201d.<\/p>\n
Common belief held that the benevolent hand of God played no part in the methods and motives of murder, but in his outrage God worked against sin by delivering justice through miraculous means. Such beliefs were not limited to the pages of true crime pamphlets. Coroners looked for divine signs in the corpses under their view, such as bleeding wounds or blinking eyes, which supposedly occurred only when the murderer drew near.<\/p>\n
- Read more | Supernatural stories: 9 unusual British folktales<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
So deep was the belief in wondrous signs that suspects were put on trial on the basis of such \u201cevidence\u201d, and murderers whose consciences were burdened by the guilt of their sins were moved by divine signs to give themselves up to the authorities.<\/p>\n
Case #1: murderer Ralph Suckey<\/h3>\n
In 1658, a Norfolk gentleman named Ralph Suckey murdered a man who had \u201cdone him great injury\u201d. There was no evidence linking Suckey to the crime, yet he was gripped by a fear of wondrous discovery. Murderers, it was believed, \u201cstandeth in dread of everie bush, beast and bird, he imagineth that every thing discovereth his evill, and many times it falleth out, that the silly creatures of the earth detecteth him\u201d.<\/p>\n
One day, soon after the murder, Suckey was walking to Burnham village when he became disturbed by a flock of crows, whose cawing and cackling he imagined to be reproofs and accusations. Four of the birds broke away and with noisy cries swooped over Suckey\u2019s head. This \u201cdid affright\u201d him so badly, and worked to \u201copen the guilt of his conscience\u201d, that he felt compelled to approach a bystander to whom he expressed \u201cwords of great suspition\u201d.<\/p>\n
Murderers, it was believed, ‘standeth in dread of everie bush, beast and bird, he imagineth that every thing discovereth his evill’ <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
Suckey was presented to a justice of the peace whereby he gave a full confession. He was later indicted at the Thetford assizes for murder. The presence of crows in a Norfolk field was entirely unremarkable, yet Suckey\u2019s belief in wondrous discovery resulted in him attaching a dreadful significance to their natural behaviour \u2013 a significance that forced him to confess his crime.<\/p>\n
Case #2: the ghostly messenger of Middle Row<\/h3>\n
In other, more dramatic cases, bodies were revealed by ghostly apparitions. Belief in avenging spirits, ghouls, demons and witches was commonplace for people in the 16th and 17th centuries, and reports of the supernatural would have been considered true. On 16 March 1679, at a house in Middle Row, London, a maidservant had been sent to fetch night-clothes from an upstairs bed room. As she entered the chamber she was confronted by the ghostly image of the previous tenant, who had been a midwife.<\/p>\n
- On the podcast | Dan Jones shares a ghost story from the Middle Ages and explains what it might tell us about medieval attitudes to the afterlife<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Belching fire and radiating bolts of lightning, this terrifying spirit instructed the maid to dig under the tiles of the downstairs fireplace. This message from the dead was relayed to the master of the house, who was sceptical but nonetheless had the tiles lifted. There he found the diminished remains of two little children, whose bodies were \u201cso dried that they be reduced to small substance\u201d.<\/p>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>True accounts of murder in the early modern period were often embellished with stories of the strange and supernatural. (Image by Shane Clusky)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n The bones were carried to the Cheshire Cheese pub to be viewed by a curious public, and by several surgeons who agreed the bodies were very old. No one thought to question the maid\u2019s story of a ghostly messenger, nor did they consider if she had buried the infants under the fireplace. They only marvelled that \u201cno secret can overpass [God\u2019s] boundless wisdom, nor escape his sight\u201d.<\/p>\n
Case #3: the flayed corpse<\/h3>\n
Even the smallest of coincidences leading to the discovery of murder could be interpreted as divine. As one pamphleteer wrote, \u201cheaven can and will send, if not the sun of plain proof, yet at least the glimmering light of circumstance, to the detecting of the most secret murder\u201d.<\/p>\n
In London, on 25 March 1684, the subtle directions of God, it was believed, led to the discovery of the partial remains of an unknown victim. Several boys were playing close to the Falcon inn, on or near Gray\u2019s Inn Lane, when they accidentally struck their ball into a nearby pond. One of the boys, stirring up the water with a stick, was surprised to see some hair floating near to the surface.<\/p>\n
- Read more | Murder and mayhem in Georgian Britain: the scandalous work of Johnson\u2019s General History<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Believing it to be a periwig, the boy attempted to coax this \u201cprize\u201d to the water\u2019s edge, only to find the hair was attached to a \u201cwhole human skin\u201d that had been \u201cflay\u2019d off, in all its proportions, with hair, brest, ears etc\u201d intact. The discovery of the skin was in its own right a frightening affair. Hundreds of spectators came to view the gruesome remains, \u201cnot only the ordinary sort, but the gentry in their coaches\u201d.<\/p>\n
During the inquest it was agreed that the killer must have been a man of remarkable skill to remove the skin so precisely. Strange, too, was the \u201cunusual and amazing\u201d manner in which the skin was found. The corpse, it was said, would have remained undiscovered had God not intervened by redirecting a ball in play.<\/p>\n
Coroners and \u201ccruentation\u201d<\/h3>\n
People in the 16th and 17th centuries did not have to look very hard to find divine meaning in the discovery of bodies; they enthusiastically attached the label of wondrous discovery to the smallest instances of happenstance. In fact, such was coroners\u2019 faith in the verity of divine intervention that they sometimes sought to reveal the identity of murderers through a miraculous test called cruentation.<\/p>\n
- Read more | Murder and mayhem in Georgian Britain: the scandalous work of Johnson\u2019s General History<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
- On the podcast | Dan Jones shares a ghost story from the Middle Ages and explains what it might tell us about medieval attitudes to the afterlife<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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