Burke and Hare

 

With the ever-advancing breakthroughs in medical science, the demand for human corpses grew steadily and in the early 1800s the number of students wishing to study anatomy increased dramatically. Up until the nineteenth century British law forbade the use of cadavers, other than those of recently executed criminals, and so the devious practice of grave robbing became a profitable business. In fact the practice of ‘body snatching’, as it became known, was so rife in certain parts of Edinburgh that many graveyards had to be protected by large walls and railings, and some even resorted to having watchtowers erected.

Two Irish immigrants, William Burke and William Hare, aware of the growing demand for fresh bodies and that the price paid for these bodies was rising all the time, devised their own sinister scheme for supplying cadavers to the classrooms – with no questions being asked.

Burke arrived from Ulster to work as a labourer on the New Union Canal in Edinburgh. In 1827 the two men met when Burke took up lodgings at Hare’s lodging house in Tanners Close, West Port, and it was from here that they hatched their deadly plan to make some easy money. They started off by simply robbing graves and selling the cadavers to doctors to use in their anatomy classes, but they thought that the digging late at night was too much like hard work. In truth, the two men hit upon their scheme by pure chance when one of Hare’s lodgers, an old army pensioner by the name of Donald, fell ill and died. Although Hare was unconcerned about the old man’s death, he was annoyed that he had passed away still owing him £4 in rent.

 

big business in bodies

 

Shortly after Hare had called the authorities to come and remove the body, he came up with an idea that meant he could recoup his losses. With Burke’s help they removed Donald’s body from the coffin and weighted it down with logs so the authorities wouldn’t be suspicious. They hid the body until the coffin had been removed and then went off in search of Professor Robert Knox. One of Knox’s assistants told Burke and Hare that they were definitely interested in taking the body and asked the men to bring it back after dark.

Later that night they took the body round to Knox’s rooms in a large hessian sack and, after a couple of his assistants studied the body, Knox offered to pay the princely sum of £7. Burke and Hare were delighted with their night’s work and realised how easy it would be to make significant amounts of money with little effort. So, having found a willing buyer for their bodies, Burke and Hare set to work supplying cadavers to Dr Knox on a full-time basis.

A few days later, another of Hare’s lodgers, a miller by the name of Joseph, was also taken ill. Although Joseph was not seriously ill, Burke and Hare decided to help him out of his misery once and for all and gave the man large amounts of whisky until he fell into a drunken stupor. With their victim unable to struggle, it was an easy job to suffocate the poor man to death, leaving no obvious marks on the body to cause suspicion. According to his later confession, Burke appeared to nearly always carry out the murder while Hare was the one to negotiate terms with the good doctor.

Needless to say, Joseph was soon on the doorstep of Dr Knox and this was a process that would be repeated time and time again over the next eleven months. Obviously, with the remainder of the lodging house guests in full health, the dynamic duo had to search further afield for their victims. All went well until they murdered a prostitute by the name of Mary Paterson. When the body was delivered to the classroom of Dr Knox, several of his students recognised her – probably because they had taken advantage of her services – and they started to ask Burke and Hare how they had come into the possession of such a fine specimen. Burke and Hare were not prepared to give any details and were not aware that a close friend of Mary’s, Janet Brown, was busy making enquiries into the strange disappearance of her associate.

Apart from the close shave regarding Mary Paterson, Burke and Hare’s trade in bodies had gone smoothly, and it wasn’t long before they started taking uncalculated risks. They even went as far as approaching two local policemen who were carrying a woman who was in a drunken state back to the prison to sleep it off. Burke approached the policemen and told them that he was a friend of the woman and that he would take her home and make sure she was taken care of. Of course the policemen didn’t realise quite how she was going to be ‘taken care of’ and Burke and Hare earned themselves a few more easy pounds that night.

 

doctor’s denial

 

Little did Burke and Hare realise quite what an ally they had in Dr Knox until they brought him the cadaver of eighteen-year-old James Wilson, who was known in the neighbourhood as ‘Daft Jamie’. He was a popular character who was known for his entertaining stories which kept the street kids highly amused. In October 1838, Hare happened across Jamie who was walking the streets looking for his widowed mother. Hare told the innocent young lad that he knew where his mother was and asked him to go back to his house with him to wait for her. Burke, who had been taking a drink in the local inn, watched the pair go by and realised exactly what was happening and returned to the house.

Back at the house Burke and Hare convinced Jamie to drink some whisky, but he would only take a few sips saying he didn’t like the taste. However, before long he was sleeping happily on the spare bed and the two men attempted their usual method of killing by suffocation, but Jamie proved to be too strong for them and fought back. They eventually managed to overpower the hapless boy and that night Dr Knox handed over another £10 for the latest body.

Needless to say, several of Knox’s students recognised the popular boy and started to ask questions. Luckily for Burke and Hare, Dr Knox was not prepared to lose his supply of bodies and denied that the body was that of Jamie. He ordered them to carry on with the dissection immediately, and he made sure they focused on the recognisable deformed foot first to destroy any identifiable evidence.

 

THE FINAL JOB

 

The Burke and Hare ‘body business’ was abruptly cut short when they took the life of a recent arrival to Edinburgh, Mary Docherty. Burke started chatting to Mary in the local tavern and invited the woman to come back to his house. That evening Mary spent a pleasant few hours with Burke and mistress Helen McDougal, Hare and his wife Margaret and another couple, James and Ann Gray, who had been staying at the lodging house. After several drinks, Burke convinced Mary to stay the night at the lodging house and the Grays left after Burke promised to pay for alternative lodging so that Mary could use their room. The Grays seemed quite happy with this arrangement and promised to return for breakfast the following morning.

When the Grays returned the next day they were curious why Mary Docherty was not at the breakfast table and started to ask questions. Helen told them she had asked the lady to leave because she had started to become too familiar with Burke. After breakfast, Ann Gray went to the bedroom to get some socks she had left behind and was taken aback when Burke yelled at her to stay away from the bed.

Later on that same day the Grays were left alone in the house and Ann, curious about why Burke wouldn’t allow her near the bed, went to have a closer look. When they found the body of Mary Docherty lying there, they both ran from the house straight into the arms of Helen. When they questioned her about the body, Helen panicked and begged them to remain silent, promising them the sum of £10 a week for their loyalty. However, the couple were outraged at her suggestion and went to fetch a policeman.

Aware that they were about to be tumbled, Helen and Margaret ran off to warn their respective partners, so that the body could be removed. By the time the police arrived that night there was nothing to be found. When the police questioned the neighbours, they told them that they had seen Burke and Hare leaving the house that afternoon carrying a large tea chest.

The police decided to interview Burke and Helen separately and, although they corroborated each other’s stories, they slipped up on the time that they said Mary left the house. Burke said she had left at seven o’clock in the morning, while Helen claimed that it was seven in the evening, leaving a twelve-hour discrepancy.

Following an anonymous tip-off Mary Docherty’s body was traced to the classrooms of Dr Knox and James Gray positively identified her as being the woman they had seen in the Hare household. The police brought the Hares in for questioning and it wasn’t long before the whole sorry story started to unravel.

It is believed that Burke and Hare were responsible for the deaths of between twelve and thirty people, but at the end of the day Burke was the only one to be prosecuted and then only for the murder of Mary Docherty. William and Margaret turned king’s evidence against Burke, which in turn sent their colleague to the gallows.

Burke was hanged on January 28, 1829, in front of a large, expectant crowd chanting, ‘Burke him, Burke him!’ His mistress, Helen McDougall, escaped punishment when the charges against her were not proven.

Ironically, no charges were ever brought against Dr Knox, who had so willingly bought the bodies from Burke and Hare. It is alleged that William Hare died a penniless pauper in London in 1859, no doubt haunted by his past. It has also been said that Helen McDougal turned up in the village of Redding, Stirlingshire, but disappeared a few days later. It is alleged that she was burnt to death in a house that mysteriously caught fire in New South Wales.

One strange twist to this macabre story is that Burke’s body went the same way as his victims – it was donated to a medical school for dissection!