The Bizarre Tragedy of Killer Catherine Hayes

Fascinating People Fascinating Places

Daniel Mainwaring

Documentary, Society & Culture:documentary, History, Society & Culture

5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

WARNING: This episode includes eye witness accounts of a violent murder and subsequent execution. Catherine Hayes was born into an unexceptional working class family at the end of the 17th century in Birmingham, England. Like so many of that era, and most of us today, she led a life that ordinarily wouldn’t warrant mention in a history book. But one event caused her name to become synonymous with infamy: the murder of her husband. She claimed innocence up until her last breath but she was executed as a result of the crime. Was she the killer? Was she even morally responsible for the crime? And if she was -- as she claimed -- innocent, then why did she complicate the prosecution of the actual assailants? What was the true nature of her relationship with the two men? This episode casts a light not only on the brutal world of the so-called Bloody Code era in England where 200 crimes -- many quite trivial -- could lead to the death penalty. it also casts light on our recent ancestors prejudices, negative perceptions of women, and on Catherine’s own rather disturbing behavior. Sound and Music: Pixabay

Transcript

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0:00.0	You shall be taken from the place where you are
0:09.0	and carried to the place from whence you came
0:12.0	and from thence to the place of execution.
0:19.0	Tibern, London, 1726.
0:25.6	The crowd gathers ready to watch a grim spectacle, the public execution of nine men and one woman.
0:33.6	Under England's so-called Bloody Code, there are 200 capital offences.
0:39.3	Today's accused have been found guilty of assault, theft or practicing homosexuality.
0:46.3	The trials and executions elicited a variety of responses.
0:51.3	Cheers, jeers and tears. While many onlookers remain silent,
0:57.0	unsure how to react as they witness the life force being squeezed out of another human
1:04.0	being. But the neutrals in the crowd, those neither connected to the accused or their victims, haven't just
1:13.4	come to see another round of hangings. They've been promised a much rarer and far more
1:19.7	gruesome spectacle. Under English law, there is no crime worse than treason, But every man is the king of his household.
1:30.3	If a wife kills her husband, she's not just a murderer.
1:34.3	She's also guilty of something much worse.
1:37.3	Petty treason.
1:39.3	And if you do that, you're burnt at the stake. As the mob watch, Catherine Hayes is directed to climb above a heap of logs,
1:51.0	where she's tied to a waiting stake.
1:54.0	The attendant stag bundles of bone-dry sticks all around her
1:58.0	until her lower half is buried under wood. The single flame
2:03.0	bearer ignites the pyre and Catherine begins to wail. Fortunately for her, the law has
2:10.6	some mercy. A noose has been tied around her neck. The hangman slowly pulls on the rope and it begins to tighten.
	...

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