In the 19th century, among other times throughout
history, it was very difficult for universities to get human bodies for students to dissect
so they could train in surgical techniques and, in general, just learn about the human
body.
The only ones that could legally be acquired by universities at this point were those from
executed convicts.
This had once been an adequate supply, but thanks to certain legal changes that resulted
in a drastic reduction of executions and thanks to the fact that the study of anatomy had
become more popular as medical science progressed, there began to exist a huge shortage of human
bodies.
In order to get around this problem, college professors and private tutors would sometimes
pay under the table for bodies, no questions asked.
From this, it was not uncommon for people known as "resurrectionists" or "body snatchers"
to watch cemeteries and, when a body was buried, they would dig it up.
They'd then take any valuables that may have been left with the person.
Finally, if the body was fresh enough, they'd take it to sell.
This practice became bad enough that it wasn’t unheard of for relatives of a deceased loved
one to stand in shifts over the grave for several days to keep the body safe from being
stolen while it was still fresh.
This practice is actually thought to be where all the bodies found in the basement of Ben
Franklin’s home at 36 Craven Street, London came from.
The remains appear to have been from when Franklin allowed anatomist William Hewson
to set up an anatomy school there.
Given the range of skeletons found, from children to adults, Hewson also appears to have purchased
bodies illegally, rather than getting them from executed criminals.
Making good use of them though, among other discoveries, he became the first to describe
clearly the three components of blood - red blood cells, white blood cells, and plasma.
In any event, this practice of illegally selling bodies to medical professionals all brings
us to William Burke and William Hare, who decided to skip the waiting stage....
Originally from Ireland, Burke and Hare both seemed to have led more or less crime-free
lives up until the point when they decided to go on a killing spree.
Burke had previously been a servant to an officer in the military, and had a wife and
two kids.
Though when he eventually decided to move to Scotland, his wife refused to go, so he
left her and the kids behind.
Once in Scotland, he worked various jobs including baker, cobbler, weaver, and a general laborer.
As for Hare, he worked as a Union Canal laborer in Scotland.
The two met when Burke moved to the West Port region of Edinburgh, into Tanner's Close,
where Hare owned a lodging house that Burke lived in for a time.
They began their crime at this lodging house, though it all started innocently enough with
an elderly gentlemen named Donald who owed Hare £4 in rent up and died while at the
lodging house.
Knowing that one could sell a body to universities, they decided to fill the coffin with bark
and steal the body to sell to make up for the loss of the rent money the dead man owed.
They originally intended to sell the body to a Professor Alexander Munro of Edinburgh
Medical College, but after making inquiries were re-directed to private lecturer Dr. Robert
Knox who taught anatomy classes to University students.
Once contacted, Dr. Knox’s assistants instructed Burke and Hare to bring the body after nightfall.
When they arrived that night, the body was inspected and the industrious duo were offered
£7.10s, which would be around £730 today, or around $950.
This seems to have gotten the wheels turning in the pair’s heads.
Not long after, Hare had another sick tenant on his hands- Joseph the Miller.
While Joseph wasn't necessarily sick enough to die, they reportedly rationalized that
he might and as he was in great pain, they ought to just put him out of his misery sooner,
rather than later, and sell his body after the deed was done.
They did so by first getting him really drunk to the point that he passed out.
Next, one of them pinched his nose and held his mouth shut, while the other laid on his
body and held Joseph's arms and legs down, in case he should struggle.
By doing it this way, they left no mark of violence on the body, which might arouse suspicion.
It also made it appear that Joseph had died either of illness or over-intoxication.
The pair then decided to repeat this process whenever sick tenants popped up.
The problem was that Hare's tenants remained annoying healthy.
It was then they decided to escalate the money making scheme to its next level- simply luring
people in from the streets, initially people who wouldn't be terribly missed or would be
thought to have died from natural causes.
While exact details of all their murders are hard to discern, due to differing accounts
of events by the two and Hare's wife and Burke's mistress, as well as the scant amount of direct
evidence, from here, it is generally thought their murders went as follows
Next up was Abigail Simpson: In February, the two invited this elderly woman to spend
the night at Hare's lodging house, rather than return home directly.
She was in Edinburgh temporarily to collect her pension money.
They subsequently got her drunk, but made the mistake of getting too drunk themselves,
at which point they passed out and slept the night through...
The next morning, Simpson awoke and was preparing to leave, but was first offered some whiskey
to cure her hangover…
They soon got her very drunk again and she passed out and was subsequently smothered
in the same fashion as Joseph the Miller was.
Dr. Knox inspected the body personally and was pleased to find it extremely fresh, paying
£10 for it.
Next was an unnamed Englishmen: This man was a match salesman who became ill while lodging
at Hare's.
Burke and Hare subsequently, to quote Burke "put him out of his misery" and sold his body.
Then there was an unnamed old woman who was lured in by Hare's wife, Margaret, who later
claimed to be ignorant of her husband's deeds, though probably wasn’t.
For example, on this occasion, she lured the woman in, got her very drunk, and then sent
for Burke and her husband, leaving them alone with the passed out woman.
Next, on April 9, 1828, an eighteen year old Mary Patterson and her friend Janet Brown,
who were prostitutes and fairly well known around town, were invited to breakfast at
Burke's brother's house.
Patterson became extremely drunk and passed out, but Brown held her liquor better.
Burke then invited Brown to a tavern to get her further drunk.
She still didn't get drunk enough to pass out, so he once again invited her back to
his brother's house for more drinks.
However, Helen McDougal, Burke's mistress, showed up and was upset at Burke having prostitutes
in the house and an argument ensued.
He eventually got rid of Helen, but she remained outside screaming at the house, so Brown decided
to leave, despite Burke trying to get her to stay.
This argument ultimately saved her life.
Patterson was not so lucky and was murdered and sold to Dr. Knox.
Brown decided to return after becoming concerned for Patterson and asked after her.
She was told she had left with Burke and would be returning soon, so Brown decided to wait,
which nearly cost her own life.
However, her landlady became concerned about her after learning of the missing Patterson
and that Brown was alone waiting with the people who had been with Patterson last, and
so sent her servant to fetch Brown from the house.
Despite the fact that many of the students recognized Patterson, having previously hired
her services, her body being sold and dissected was kept quiet and Brown was not told by anyone
what had happened to Patterson, despite her frequently inquiring around town.
Then there was a woman named Effie who was an acquaintance of Burke's and a beggar who
he occasionally bought leather from when he worked as a cobbler.
When she offered to sell some leather scraps to Burke, he invited her to drink at the lodging
house' stable.
She was murdered after their standard modus operandi and sold for £10.
Next a drunk woman was in the process of being arrested and taken to jail until she sobered
up when Burke claimed to the police that he knew her and would take her home.
Apparently the worst police officers of all time, they went ahead and handed the woman
over to Burke.
The two subsequently murdered her in their normal fashion and sold her body for £10.
An old woman and her deaf grandson came next in June of 1828.
Burke had been attempting to lure an old man home at the time, promising him free whiskey,
but while walking home with the man, an old woman with her deaf grandson asked Burke for
directions.
Burke then told them he'd take them where they needed to go and left the old man, who
was none too pleased at the loss of the promised free whiskey.
Rather than take her directly where she wanted to go, he invited her to stop for a rest at
his home.
The grandmother was made drunk after their normal fashion and smothered while the boy
was entertained in another room by Helen and Margaret.
Once she was dead, they argued on whether they should simply let the boy go, as they
didn't think he'd drink whiskey and they didn't want to make it obvious the boy had been murdered.
In the end, though, because they were afraid he might return with authorities looking for
his grandmother, they decided to kill him.
Rather than get him drunk and smother him, they instead broke his back.
The two bodies together sold for £16.
Next we have one Mrs. Ostler who came to the lodging house and stayed briefly before being
murdered and sold.
Ann McDougal was a relative of Helen McDougal's- Burke's mistress.
While in Edinburgh, she decided to stay at the lodging house, to her doom. Burke supposedly
didn't take part in this murder, asking Hare to do the smothering, as Ann was a friend...
Next we have one Mary Haldane who, like Mary Patterson, was a prostitute.
Hare invited her back to his lodging house and got her drunk and he and Burk smothered
her in the stable.
Peggy Haldane was Mary's daughter and, unfortunately, she learned that her mother had gone to Hare's
lodging house, so went their looking for her.
Initially the two denied the Mary had been there, saying they didn't take in prostitutes.
Eventually, they admitted she stopped by and invited Peggy in for a drink and subsequently
got her drunk and murdered her as they had just done to her mother.
James Wilson was an 18 year old mentally disabled person who also was somewhat crippled with
a bad foot.
He was fairly well known around town due to the fact that he often lodged with various
people (whoever would take him in).
He was also known for his kind-hearted disposition and for entertaining children on the streets.
In October of 1828 Hare approached Wilson, who asked him if Hare had seen his mother.
Hare replied he knew where she was and Wilson should follow him.
Soon Burke joined them, but they couldn't manage to get James to drink much.
Despite this, they attempted to kill him anyways, but he almost proved a match for the two.
In the struggle, he managed to throw them off him and pin Burke down, but the pair prevailed
and he was eventually smothered.
After he was murdered, his mother began inquiring after him.
When Jamie's body was recognized by students of Dr. Knox, Knox quickly began dissecting
the cadavers' face as well as cut off the head and feet in order that if authorities
came knocking, no one could later positively identify the body.
This all brings us to how they were caught.
Burke and his mistress Helen McDougal no longer lived with Hare when they killed their last
person.
As to the reason why, it appears Hare suggested they kill Helen, with Burke refusing to let
that happen.
Thus, it’s thought the pair might have moved out for Helen's safety after this, as the
move appears to have happened almost immediately after the subject was broached.
However, Burke and Hare continued their scheme, despite no longer living together.
Whatever the case, Mary Docherty (or sometimes referred to as Mary Campbell) was lured into
Burke’s new lodging house thanks to both having thick Irish accents and, when Burke
learned her name, he told her his mother was a Docherty and they were probably relatives.
She was not murdered directly, due to the fact that there were other lodgers present
at his home, James and Ann Gray.
To get around the problem, they convinced the Gray's to leave and stay at the Hare's
lodging house.
However, Ann Gray returned the next day to retrieve her stockings she had left near a
bed.
Initially she was not allowed to retrieve them, but later managed to get into the room
and found Docherty's body under the bed.
She subsequently alerted the police, though not before being offered £10 a week by Helen
to keep quiet.
Burke and Hare did manage to remove the body before the police arrived, but not without
witnesses observing them carrying a large tea chest from the house.
The porter of Dr. Knox also later confirmed that the body in question was brought in a
tea-chest.
However, initially this was not known and the police had little direct evidence.
But when interrogated, Burk and Helen's stories as to when Docherty left didn't match (one
said 7am, one said 7pm), so they were arrested.
The police then discovered Docherty's body in Dr. Knox's classroom.
When the story of this last murder became well known publicly, others came forward and
began to connect disappearances with people coming in contact with Burke and Hare shortly
before they vanished.
However, because there was very little direct evidence that the two had actually murdered
anyone (no actual witnesses and the bodies disposed of), the case against them surprisingly
wasn't a good one.
It was also unclear at the time whether Helen and Margaret had actually been involved directly
or even knew what had been going on.
With the lack of direct evidence, the Lord Advocate decided that Burke had been the leader,
presumably as the last murder took place in his lodging, and so offered Hare full immunity
if he would just confess and give evidence against Burke.
Hare accepted the deal and also implicated Helen who, as noted, Hare had previously suggested
the pair murder.
As for Burke, he soon cleared her, claiming his lady love knew nothing of the murders
(though this is very likely false from the evidence at hand).
On that note, while authorities still thought that Helen had been involved, because it could
not be directly proven, the jury was forced to let her off, but convicted Burke.
When the verdict was read, Burke was reportedly overjoyed that Helen was free but was himself
subsequently executed via hanging just over a month later on January 28, 1829.
Seats with a view of the gallows apparently went for an extremely high price over normal
executions and it was a bit of a jam packed execution.
In fact, when he witnessed the angry crowd screaming at him, Burke reportedly rushed
to the noose in an attempt to speed up the process, possibly afraid they might turn into
a mob and make his death a lot worse than a short drop and a sudden stop.
He did not die immediately upon being dropped, however, but kicked about for around one to
two minutes before finally going still.
He was then left to hang for around a half hour.
As for the aftermath of everyone else, Hare was released from prison in February of 1829
after being cleared thanks to his aid in convicting Burke.
He was initially to be set free immediately, as per the deal he had struck.
However, it was discovered that an old law allowed that a person might be detained until
they could pay the cost of their prosecution, so he was kept for two months until he could
do so.
Little is known of what happened to him after.
He disappeared shortly after being trapped in The King's Arms Inn with a mob having chased
him into the building, attempting to stone him.
He was allowed to stay at the Inn until well into the night when the crowd dispersed.
Once they were gone, he fled and was not heard from again.
Helen McDougal was likewise attacked by a mob and was only saved from being killed by
the police.
She then fled to England, but was again attacked by a mob and saved by the police.
What happened to her next isn't known, but it is thought that she moved to Australia.
Margaret Hare also met a mob upon her release, encountering a mob both in Glasgow and Greenoch,
before fleeing to Ireland.
It is not known what happened to her next.
As for Dr. Knox, Burke swore that Knox had not known anything about where the bodies
were coming from, so he wasn’t convicted of any crime.
However, while Dr. Knox continued to teach for a time, he had the problem of frequently
having his lectures interrupted by crowds yelling that he should have been strung up
with Burke.
Dr. Knox’s home was also frequently vandalized.
Eventually, students stopped wanting to take his classes and he lost his primary source
of income.
He did at least for a little while continue to buy bodies, making his classes one of the
few a student could attend and actually get to work on a real body, so some still attended.
But this advantage ended with the passage of the Anatomy Act of 1832, which greatly
expanded the supply of cadavers through legal means, which subsequently mostly killed the
black-market for cadavers.
He then tried to get an official position at the University, but failed.
He was also soon forced to resign his position as curator at a museum he himself had founded.
He eventually moved to London, working at a Cancer Hospital and publishing various works.
As for Burke’s body, after being hung, it was sent to be dissected at Edinburgh Medical
College.
This dissection was done publicly, led by Professor Alexander Monro.
Burke’s skeleton and tanned skin are currently on display at Edinburgh Medical College in
their museum.
The Police Information Center in Edinburgh also has a card case made out of Burke's skin.
Also, when Professor Monro led the dissection of Burke, he took some of the blood to use
as ink and wrote with it: "This is written with the blood of Wm Burke, who was hanged
at Edinburgh.
This blood was taken from his head."
Also in the aftermath of all this a new word was coined- burking, which was just a word
to describe the general smothering method Burke and Hare had used to kill their victims.
Finally, if you’re wondering, all total, it is estimated that Burke and Hare took in
approximately £160 (close to £17,000 today or around $22,000) over the course of the
year for their victims' bodies.