Apologies in advance for the rather morbid question. After listening to a podcast about Spring-Heeled Jack, I got sucked into a wiki-hole and found myself spending some time reading about the infamous murder of Maria Marten by William Corder, what became popularly known as the Red Barn Murder.
My understanding is that books bound in human skin are rare, though a cursory search reveals the existence of a pocket book bound in the tanned skin of William Burke, another infamous 19th century criminal. My hunch is that the practice -while rare- dovetails with the widespread popularity and publicity surrounding specific criminal cases and associated souvenir-mania. Maria's headstone was destroyed by collectors who wanted pieces of memorabilia and the Red Barn was itself supposedly stripped bare, the wood being sold off for tooth picks.
Is this hunch on the right track? How much of these specific practices can we attribute to public fascination with the murder and murderer? What does the treatment of William Corder remains after his death reveal about 19th century British attitudes towards crime, those that commit them, their humanity and the human body?
Additionally, so as not to lose Maria in all of this, how are those subjected to violent crime received and transmitted through popular culture. In other words, with what appears to be a frequent fixation on the one who committed the crime, how were the victims of highly publicized crimes remembered and situated within popular narratives?
I admittedly haven't perused what I consider to be the most reliable sources, so correction on certain (or many) points may be needed. Thanks in advance!
I've been watching this thread hoping a real historian would appear who could give more context, but if you're interested in this subject you may want to check out the work of William Roughhead --- he was a late 19th century Edinburgh lawyer who pioneered the genre of true crime writing. He started off just being an avid attender of trials, then got a gig writing up accounts of famous crimes based on court records and contemporary newspaper accounts. His early works like 12 Scots Trials are more primary-source packed and inside-baseball; in his later stuff for the general public he gave in a bit more to his storyteller's instincts (the Classic Crimes anthology's a good place to start). Some of the cases he writes about were contemporary to him, but he also goes back and digs into famous cases of the past --- his account of Burke and Hare has a really comprehensive account of all the players and gives a lot of context about Edinburgh society at the time and the way the medical profession worked, public attitudes toward anatomists and hangings. He was also friends with Henry James and he and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle worked together on the Oscar Slater case, trying to overturn a conviction....