From the Red Barn to Netflix

Why are humans obsessed with true crime - and what is behind our appetite for the unsavoury?

Did you binge the hit Netflix drama Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story? Couldn't get enough of podcast Serial? Do you love every show there is about Ted Bundy? If so, you're not alone.

The fascination is not new of course. Almost two centuries ago, enterprising manufacturers produced colourful representations of the 1827 Red Barn murder in pottery so that people could buy one and display it on the mantelpiece. 

The example below shows William Corder enticing Maria Marten into the Red Barn, a local landmark in Polstead, Suffolk. Presumably not quite as realistic as Netflix, but I don't intend to find out.