Old story from Auvergne

                                     THE RED INN OR THE BLOODY INN.


It deals with an horrifying story about passengers lost and never found.
For nearly twenty-three years, around the years 1800's, a man named Pierre Martin and his wife Marie, owners of an inn located in the woods , have robbed more than fifty passengers before killing them.They were arrested.
The press then , gives different nicknames for the inn such as "red inn"," bloody inn" or "cut throat".
The story began in October 1831 with the discovery of a corpse near the Allier river , a few miles from the inn.This is the body of a farmer who, having lost his calf on the way , would have stopped at the inn a few days before.
The magistrate goes to the inn to investigate the disappearance of the man.A month later, the Martins were arrested.
On june, the trial began with more than one hundred witnesses.They all relayed rumors: the inn-keepers would have cooked pies and stews with parts of the corpses, some farmers have seen human hands in the pot from the kitchen, others reported seeing the ded sheets and walls spotted with blood.
The trial lasted a long time. Then a poor man who had seen and heard everything told the truth.
He was expelled from the inn because he couldn't pay his bed.He hid near the hostel, where he had seen the killing of a traveler.
Finaly convicted of two murders, four attempted murders and six robberies, the Martins were sentenced to death and to be guillotined in the courtyard of their inn.
The performance took place on October 2nd 1833 at noon when the angelus rang. It was said that 30 000 people witnessed the execution.
This event became very popular and several French films have been made from this sad story...