Knox the Boy That Buys the Beef

Serial of xvi killings committed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1828

Burke

Hare

The Burke and Hare murders were sixteen serial killings committed over a period of about x months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken past William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures.

Edinburgh was a leading European centre of anatomical study in the early 19th century, in a fourth dimension when the need for cadavers led to a shortfall in legal supply. Scottish law required that corpses used for medical research should only come from those who had died in prison house, suicide victims, or from foundlings and orphans. The shortage of corpses led to an increase in body snatching past what were known as "resurrection men". Measures to ensure graves were left undisturbed—such every bit the use of mortsafes—exacerbated the shortage. When a lodger in Hare's firm died, he turned to his friend Burke for advice and they decided to sell the body to Knox. They received what was, for them, the generous sum of £7 10s. A little over two months after, when Hare was concerned that a lodger suffering from fever would deter others from staying in the house, he and Burke murdered her and sold the torso to Knox. The men continued their murder spree, probably with the knowledge of their wives. Burke and Hare'southward deportment were uncovered after other lodgers discovered their last victim, Margaret Docherty, and contacted the police.

A forensic examination of Docherty's body indicated she had probably been suffocated, but this could not be proven. Although the police force suspected Burke and Hare of other murders, there was no evidence on which they could accept action. An offer was put to Hare granting amnesty from prosecution if he turned king's evidence. He provided the details of Docherty's murder and confessed to all 16 deaths; formal charges were made against Burke and his married woman for iii murders. At the subsequent trial Burke was found guilty of one murder and sentenced to decease. The example against his wife was found non proven—a Scottish legal verdict to comport an private but not declare them innocent. Burke was hanged before long later on; his corpse was dissected and his skeleton displayed at the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh Medical Schoolhouse where, as at 2021, it remains.

The murders raised public sensation of the need for bodies for medical research and contributed to the passing of the Anatomy Deed 1832. The events have made appearances in literature, and been portrayed on screen, either in heavily fictionalised accounts or as the inspiration for fictional works.

Background [edit]

Anatomy in 19th-century Edinburgh [edit]

Graveyard watchtower, built in Dalkeith in 1827

In the early 19th century Edinburgh had several pioneering anatomy teachers, including Alexander Monro, his son who was also called Alexander, John Bell, John Goodsir and Robert Knox, all of whom adult the subject into a mod science.^[one] Because of their efforts, Edinburgh became one of the leading European centres of anatomical study, alongside Leiden in the Netherlands and the Italian urban center of Padua.^[ii] The instruction of anatomy—crucial in the study of surgery—required a sufficient supply of cadavers, the demand for which increased as the science developed.^[3] Scottish law determined that suitable corpses on which to undertake the dissections were those who died in prison, suicide victims, and the bodies of foundlings and orphans.^[iv] With the ascension in prestige and popularity of medical training in Edinburgh, the legal supply of corpses failed to keep pace with the demand; students, lecturers and grave robbers—besides known as resurrection men—began an illicit trade in exhumed cadavers.^{[5] [6]}

The situation was confused by the legal position. Disturbing a grave was a criminal offense, every bit was the taking of property from the deceased. Stealing the body itself was not an offence, as information technology did non legally belong to anyone.^{[7] [viii]} The cost per corpse changed depending on the flavour. It was £8 during the summer, when the warmer temperatures brought on quicker decomposition, and £ten in the winter months, when the demand by anatomists was greater, because the lower temperatures meant they could store corpses longer so they undertook more dissections.^[9]

By the 1820s the residents of Edinburgh had taken to the streets to protestation at the increase in grave robbing.^[10] To avert corpses being disinterred, bereaved families used several techniques in order to deter the thieves: guards were hired to watch the graves, and watchtowers were built in several cemeteries; some families hired a big stone slab that could be placed over a grave for a short catamenia—until the torso had begun to disuse past the point of existence useful for an anatomist. Other families used a mortsafe, an atomic number 26 muzzle that surrounded the coffin.^[xi] The high levels of vigilance from the public, and the techniques used to deter the grave robbers, led to what the historian Ruth Richardson describes every bit "a growing atmosphere of crisis" amongst anatomists because of the shortage of corpses.^[12] The historian Tim Marshall considers the situation meant "Shush and Hare took graverobbing to its logical conclusion: instead of digging up the dead, they accepted lucrative incentives to destroy the living".^[xiii]

Robert Knox [edit]

Knox was an anatomist who had qualified as a md in 1814. After contracting smallpox as a child, he was blind in one eye and badly disfigured.^[14] He undertook service as an army doc at the Boxing of Waterloo in 1815, followed by a posting in England and then, during the Cape Frontier War (1819), in southern Africa. He eventually settled in his dwelling town of Edinburgh in 1820. In 1825 he became a boyfriend of the Purple College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, where he lectured on anatomy. He undertook dissections twice a day, and his advertising promised "a full demonstration on fresh anatomical subjects" as part of every grade of lectures he delivered;^[xv] he stated that his lessons drew over 400 pupils.^[16] Clare Taylor, his biographer in the Oxford Lexicon of National Biography, observes that he "built up a formidable reputation every bit a teacher and lecturer and almost unmarried-handedly raised the contour of the written report of anatomy in Britain".^[fourteen] Another biographer, Isobel Rae, considers that without Knox, the study of anatomy in Uk "might not have progressed equally it did".^[17]

William Burke and William Hare [edit]

Facial reconstruction of William Burke

William Burke was born in 1792 in Urney, County Tyrone, Ireland, i of 2 sons to middle-form parents.^[xviii] Burke, along with his brother, Constantine, had a comfy upbringing, and both joined the British Army as teenagers. Shush served in the Donegal militia until he met and married a woman from Canton Mayo, where they later settled. The wedlock was brusque-lived; in 1818, after an argument with his father-in-police force over land ownership, Burke deserted his married woman and family. He moved to Scotland and became a labourer, working on the Union Culvert.^[19] He settled in the small village of Maddiston nigh Falkirk, and prepare home with Helen McDougal, whom he affectionately nicknamed Nelly; she became his second wife.^[20] After a few years, and when the works on the canal were finished, the couple moved to Tanners Close, Edinburgh, in November 1827.^[21] They became hawkers, selling 2nd-hand dress to impoverished locals. Burke then became a cobbler, a merchandise in which he experienced some success, earning upwards of £1 a calendar week. He became known locally as an industrious and good-humoured man who often entertained his clients by singing and dancing to them on their doorsteps while plying his trade. Although raised as a Roman Cosmic, Burke became a regular worshipper at Presbyterian religious meetings held in the Grassmarket; he was seldom seen without a bible.^[20]

Decease mask of Burke (left) and life mask of Hare (correct)

William Hare was probably born in County Armagh, County Londonderry or in Newry. His historic period and yr of birth are unknown; when arrested in 1828 he gave his age equally 21, but one source states that he was born between 1792 and 1804.^{[18] [22]} Information on his earlier life is scant, although it is possible that he worked in Ireland as an agronomical labourer earlier travelling to Britain. He worked on the Union Culvert for seven years before moving to Edinburgh in the mid-1820s, where he worked as a coal man's assistant.^{[18] [22]} He lodged at Tanner'south Close, in the house of a homo named Logue and his wife, Margaret Laird, in the nearby West Port surface area of the town. When Logue died in 1826, Hare may have married Margaret.^[a] Based on gimmicky accounts, Brian Bailey in his history of the murders describes Hare equally "illiterate and uncouth—a lean, quarrelsome, violent and amoral graphic symbol with the scars from erstwhile wounds about his head and forehead".^[2] Bailey describes Margaret, who was also an Irish immigrant, equally a "difficult-featured and debauched virago".^[23]

In 1827 Burke and McDougal went to Penicuik in Midlothian to work on the harvest, where they met Hare. The men became friends; when Burke and McDougal returned to Edinburgh, they moved into Hare's Tanner'south Shut lodging business firm, where the two couples soon caused a reputation for hard drinking and boisterous behaviour.^[18]

Events of November 1827 to November 1828 [edit]

View of Burke'due south house from the rear

Hare'south lodging-house in Tanner'south Shut

On 29 November 1827 Donald, a lodger in Hare's firm, died of dropsy shortly before receiving a quarterly regular army pension while owing £4 of back rent.^[24] Afterwards Hare bemoaned his financial loss to Shush, the pair decided to sell Donald's trunk to one of the local anatomists. A carpenter provided a bury for a burying which was to exist paid for past the local parish. After he left, the pair opened the bury, removed the body—which they hid under the bed—filled the coffin with bark from a local tanners and resealed it.^[25] After dark, on the twenty-four hours the coffin was removed for burying, they took the corpse to Edinburgh University, where they looked for a purchaser. According to Burke'south later testimony, they asked for directions to Professor Monro, but a pupil sent them to Knox's bounds in Surgeon's Square.^{[26] [b]} Although the men dealt with juniors when discussing the possibility of selling the body, it was Knox who arrived to prepare the price at £7 10s.^[c] Hare received £4 5s while Burke took the balance of £3 5s; Hare's larger share was to cover his loss from Donald'due south unpaid hire.^[29] According to Shush's official confession, as he and Hare left the university, one of Knox'south assistants told them that the anatomists "would be glad to see them again when they had another to dispose of".^[30]

In that location is no agreement as to the society in which the murders took identify.^[31] Burke made two confessions only gave different sequences for the murders in each statement. The first was an official ane, given on 3 January 1829 to the sheriff-substitute, the procurator fiscal and the banana sheriff-clerk. The second was in the form of an interview with the Edinburgh Courant that was published on 7 February 1829.^[32] These in turn differed from the club given in Hare's statement, although the pair were agreed on many of the points of the murders.^{[33] [d]} Contemporary reports likewise differ from the confessions of the ii men. More recent sources, including the accounts written by Brian Bailey, Lisa Rosner and Owen Dudley Edwards, either follow one of the celebrated versions or present their ain order of events.^[east]

Almost of the sources agree that the first murder in January or February 1828 was either that of a miller named Joseph lodging in Hare'southward house, or a salt seller named Abigail Simpson.^[33] The historian Lisa Rosner considers Joseph the more than likely; a pillow was used to smother the victim, while afterwards ones were suffocated by a hand over the nose and rima oris.^{[36] [f]} The novelist Sir Walter Scott, who took a keen interest in the instance, also idea the miller was the more probable starting time victim, and highlighted that "there was an additional motive to reconcile them to the deed",^[33] as Joseph was suffering from a fever and had become delirious. Hare and his wife were concerned that having a potentially infectious lodger would exist bad for business. Hare again turned to Shush and, subsequently providing their victim with whisky, Hare suffocated Joseph while Shush lay across the upper torso to restrict movement.^[38] They again took the corpse to Knox, who this time paid £ten.^{[39] [g]} Rosner considers the method of murder to exist ingenious: Shush's weight on the victim stifled movement—and thus the ability to make noise—while it also prevented the chest from expanding should any air become past Hare's suffocating grip. In Rosner'south opinion, the method would have been "practically undetectable until the era of modern forensics".^[37]

The order of the two victims next subsequently Joseph is also unclear; Rosner puts the sequence every bit Abigail Simpson followed by an English male person lodger from Cheshire,^[40] while Bailey and Dudley Edwards each have the order as the English male lodger followed past Simpson.^{[41] [42]} The unnamed Englishman was a travelling seller of matches and tinder who fell ill with jaundice at Hare'southward lodging business firm. As with Joseph, Hare was concerned with the effect this illness might have on his business, and he and Burke employed the same modus operandi they had with the miller: Hare suffocating their victim while Shush lay over the body to stop movement and noise.^[43] Simpson was a pensioner who lived in the nearby hamlet of Gilmerton and visited Edinburgh to supplement her pension past selling common salt. On 12 Feb 1828—the only verbal engagement Burke quoted in his confession—she was invited into the Hares' business firm and plied with enough alcohol to ensure she was also drunk to return abode. After murdering her, Burke and Hare placed the trunk in a tea-chest and sold information technology to Knox.^[44] They received £ten for each body, and Shush'southward confession records of Simpson'south body that "Dr Knox canonical of its being so fresh ... but [he] did not ask any questions".^[45] In either February or March that year an old adult female was invited into the business firm by Margaret Hare. She gave her plenty whisky to autumn comatose, and when Hare returned that afternoon, he covered the sleeping woman'southward mouth and olfactory organ with the bed tick (a stiff mattress cover) and left her. She was dead past nightfall and Burke joined his companion to send the corpse to Knox, who paid another £10.^[46]

Mary Paterson, who was killed by Burke while she was intoxicated

Burke met 2 women in early on Apr: Mary Paterson (also known as Mary Mitchell) and Janet Brown, in the Canongate expanse of Edinburgh.^[h] He bought the two women alcohol before inviting them back to his lodging for breakfast. The three left the tavern with ii bottles of whisky and went instead to his blood brother Constantine's house. Afterward his brother left for work, Burke and the women finished the whisky and Paterson savage comatose at the tabular array; Burke and Brown continued talking merely were interrupted by McDougal, who defendant them of having an affair. A row broke out between Shush and McDougal—during which he threw a drinking glass at her, cut her over the eye—Chocolate-brown stated that she did not know Burke was married and left; McDougal too left, and went to fetch Hare and his wife. They arrived shortly later on and the two men locked their wives out of the room, and then murdered Paterson in her slumber.^[48] That afternoon the pair took the trunk to Knox in a tea-chest, while McDougal kept Paterson'southward skirt and petticoats; they were paid £8 for the corpse, which was still warm when they delivered information technology. Fergusson—one of Knox's assistants—asked where they had obtained the trunk, as he idea he recognised her. Burke explained that the girl had boozer herself to expiry, and they had purchased it "from an sometime woman in the Canongate". Knox was delighted with the corpse, and stored information technology in whisky for three months before dissecting it.^{[49] [50]} When Brown later on searched for her friend, she was told that she had left for Glasgow with a travelling salesman.^[49]

At some indicate in early-to-mid 1828 a Mrs Haldane, whom Shush described as "a stout onetime woman", lodged at Hare's premises. After she became drunk, she fell asleep in the stable; she was smothered and sold to Knox.^[51] Several months afterward Haldane's daughter (either called Margaret or Peggy) also lodged at Hare'due south house. She and Burke drank together heavily and he killed her, without Hare's assistance; her trunk was put into a tea-chest and taken to Knox where Burke was paid £8.^[52] The side by side murder occurred in May 1828, when an former adult female joined the house as a lodger. I evening while she was intoxicated, Burke smothered her—Hare was not nowadays in the house at the fourth dimension; her body was sold to Knox for £x.^[53] Then came the murder of Effy (sometimes spelt Effie), a "cinder gatherer" who scavenged through bins and rubbish tips to sell her findings. Effy was known to Burke and had previously sold him scraps of leather for his cobbling business. Burke tempted her into the stable with whisky, and when she was drunk enough he and Hare killed her; Knox gave £10 for the trunk.^{[54] [55]} Some other victim was found past Burke too drunk to stand. She was being helped by a local lawman dorsum to her lodgings when Burke offered to have her there himself; the policeman obliged, and Burke took her dorsum to Hare'southward house where she was killed. Her corpse raised a further £ten from Knox.^[54]

Burke and Hare murdered two lodgers in June, "an old woman and a dumb boy, her grandson", every bit Shush later recalled in his confession.^[56] While the boy sat past the fire in the kitchen, his grandmother was murdered in the bedroom by the usual method. Shush and Hare and so picked upwardly the boy and carried him to the same room where he was also killed.^{[55] [i]} Burke later said that this was the murder that disturbed him the nearly, equally he was haunted past his recollection of the boy's expression.^[58] The tea-chest that was normally used by the duo to transport the bodies was found to exist as well minor, so the bodies were forced into a herring barrel and taken to Surgeons' Foursquare, where they fetched £8 each.^{[59] [60]} According to Burke's confession, the butt was loaded onto a cart which Hare's horse refused to pull further than the Grassmarket. Hare called a porter with a handcart to help him ship the container. Once back in Tanner'south Close, Hare took his acrimony out on the horse by shooting it dead in the yard.^[61]

On 24 June Burke and McDougal departed for Falkirk to visit the latter's father. Shush knew that Hare was brusk of cash and had even pawned some of his clothes. When the couple returned, they found that Hare was wearing new dress and had surplus money. After he was asked, Hare denied that he had sold another body. Shush checked with Knox, who confirmed Hare had sold a woman's body for £eight. It led to an statement betwixt the two men and they came to blows. Burke and his wife moved into the domicile of his cousin, John Broggan (or Brogan), two streets away from Tanner's Close.^{[62] [63]}

James Wilson, known locally as Daft Jamie

Margaret Docherty

The breach betwixt the two men did not last long. In late September or early Oct Hare was visiting Burke when Mrs Ostler (besides given equally Hostler), a washerwoman, came to the property to exercise the laundry. The men got her boozer and killed her; the corpse was with Knox that afternoon, for which the men received £8.^{[64] [65]} A week or 2 afterwards one of McDougal's relatives, Ann Dougal (also given every bit McDougal) was visiting from Falkirk; later a few days the men killed her by their usual technique and received £10 for the body.^[66] Shush later claimed that near this time Hare's wife suggested killing Helen McDougal on the grounds that "they could not trust her, as she was a Scotch woman", but he refused.^[67]

Shush and Hare'due south next victim was a familiar figure in the streets of Edinburgh: James Wilson, an 18-twelvemonth-old man with a limp caused by deformed anxiety. He was mentally disabled and, according to Alanna Knight in her history of the murders, was inoffensive; he was known locally every bit Daft Jamie.^[68] Wilson lived on the streets and supported himself by begging. In November Hare lured Wilson to his lodgings with the hope of whisky, and sent his wife to fetch Burke. The two murderers led Wilson into a sleeping room, the door of which Margaret locked before pushing the key back under the door. Equally Wilson did not like excess whisky—he preferred snuff—he was not as drunkard as nigh of the duo'south victims; he was too strong and fought back against the ii attackers, but was overpowered and killed in the normal way. His body was stripped and his few possessions stolen: Shush kept a snuff box and Hare a snuff spoon.^[69] When the trunk was examined the following day past Knox and his students, several of them recognised information technology to be Wilson, only Knox denied information technology could be anyone the students knew. When word started circulating that Wilson was missing, Knox dissected the body ahead of the others that were being held in storage; the head and feet were removed earlier the master dissection.^{[70] [71]}

Idealised etching of Burke murdering Margaret Docherty (also known every bit Margery Campbell) past Robert Seymour

The terminal victim, killed on 31 October 1828, was Margaret Docherty,^[j] a middle-anile Irish gaelic adult female.^[74] Burke lured her into the Broggan lodging business firm by claiming that his mother was as well a Docherty from the same area of Republic of ireland, and the pair began drinking. At one point Shush left Docherty in the visitor of McDougal while he went out, ostensibly to buy more whisky, merely really to get Hare. Two other lodgers—Ann and James Grey—were an inconvenience to the men, and so they paid them to stay at Hare'due south lodging for the night, claiming Docherty was a relative. The drinking connected into the evening, by which time Margaret had joined in. At around 9:00 pm the Grays returned briefly to collect some clothing for their children, and saw Burke, Hare, their wives and Docherty all drunkard, singing and dancing. Although Shush and Hare came to blows at some signal in the evening, they subsequently murdered Docherty, and put her body in a pile of straw at the end of the bed.^{[75] [76]}

The side by side day the Grays returned, and Ann became suspicious when Burke would not let her approach a bed where she had left her stockings. When they were left alone in the business firm in the early evening, the Grays searched the straw and found Docherty's body, showing blood and saliva on the face. On their mode to alert the police, they ran into McDougal who tried to bribe them with an offer of £10 a week; they refused.^[77] While the Grays reported the murder to the police, Burke and Hare removed the body and took it to Knox's surgery.^[k] The police search located Docherty'due south bloodstained clothing hidden nether the bed.^[79] When questioned, Burke and his wife claimed that Docherty had left the house, simply gave different times for her departure. This raised enough suspicion for the law to take them in for questioning. Early the following forenoon the police force went to Knox's dissecting-rooms where they plant Docherty'due south body; James identified her as the adult female he had seen with Burke and Hare. Hare and his married woman were arrested that day, as was Broggan; all denied any knowledge of the events.^[80]

In total sixteen people were murdered past Burke and Hare.^[81] Burke stated afterward that he and Hare were "generally in a state of intoxication" when the murders were carried out, and that he "could not slumber at night without a canteen of whisky by his bedside, and a twopenny candle to burn down all night beside him; when he awoke he would have a drink from the bottle—sometimes one-half a bottle at a draught—and that would brand him slumber."^[82] He also took opium to ease his conscience.^[83]

Developments: investigation and the path to courtroom [edit]

On 3 November 1828 a warrant was issued for the detention of Burke, Hare and their wives; Broggan was released without further action.^{[84] [85]} The four suspects were kept apart and statements taken; these conflicted with the initial answers given on the 24-hour interval of their arrests.^[84] Afterwards Alexander Blackness, a police surgeon, examined Docherty'due south trunk, ii forensic specialists were appointed, Robert Christison and William Newbigging;^{[86] [l]} they reported that it was probable the victim had been murdered by suffocation, simply this could non be medically proven.^[89] On the basis of the report from the 2 doctors, the Burkes and Hares were charged with murder.^[90] Equally function of his investigation Christison interviewed Knox, who asserted that Burke and Hare had watched poor lodging houses in Edinburgh and purchased bodies before anyone claimed them for burial. Christison thought Knox was "deficient in principle and heart", only did not think he had broken the police force.^[91]

Although the police were sure murder had taken identify, and that at to the lowest degree one of the four was guilty, they were uncertain whether they could secure a conviction.^[92] Police force likewise suspected there had been other murders committed, simply the lack of bodies hampered this line of enquiry.^[93] As news of the possibility of other murders came to the public's attention, newspapers began to publish lurid and inaccurate stories of the crimes; speculative reports led members of the public to presume that all missing people had been victims. Janet Brown went to the police and identified her friend Mary Paterson's article of clothing, while a local bakery informed them that Jamie Wilson'due south trousers were being worn by Burke's nephew.^[94] On 19 November a warrant for the murder of Jamie Wilson was made against the iv suspects.^[95]

Sir William Rae, the Lord Advocate, followed a regular technique: he focused on one individual to extract a confession on which the others could exist convicted. Hare was chosen and, on 1 December, he was offered immunity from prosecution if he turned king's testify and provided the total details of the murder of Docherty and any other; because he could non be brought to bear witness against his wife, she was also exempt from prosecution.^{[92] [96]} Hare fabricated a full confession of all the deaths and Rae decided sufficient testify existed to secure a prosecution. On 4 December formal charges were laid against Burke and McDougal for the murders of Mary Paterson, James Wilson and Mrs Docherty.^{[97] [98]}

Statement by Burke in January 1829 to the Edinburgh Courant, "docter Knox Never incoureged him Nither taught or incoregd him to murder any person" [sic]^[99]

Knox faced no charges for the murders because Shush'southward statement to the police exonerated the surgeon.^[100] Public awareness of the news grew as newspapers and broadsides began releasing farther details. Stance was confronting Knox and, co-ordinate to Bailey, many in Edinburgh thought he was "a sinister ringmaster who got Burke and Hare dancing to his tune".^[101] Several broadsides were published with editorials stating that he should have been in the dock alongside the murderers, which influenced public opinion.^[100] A new discussion was coined from the murders: burking, to smother a victim or to commit an anatomy murder,^{[102] [m]} and a rhyme began circulating around the streets of Edinburgh:

Upwardly the close and doon the stair,
But and ben' wi' Burke and Hare.
Shush's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the boy that buys the beefiness.

—19th century Edinburgh rhyme^[94]

Trial [edit]

The trial began at 10:00 am on Christmas Eve 1828 earlier the Loftier Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh'due south Parliament Business firm. The case was heard past the Lord Justice-Clerk, David Boyle, supported by the Lords Meadowbank, Pitmilly and Mackenzie. The court was full shortly after the doors were opened at 9:00 am,^[north] and a large crowd gathered exterior Parliament House; 300 constables were on duty to forestall disturbances, while infantry and cavalry were on standby as a further precaution.^{[104] [105]}

McDougal and Burke

The Hares

The case ran through the twenty-four hour period and night to the following morn; Rosner notes that even a formal postponement of the case for dinner could take raised questions about the validity of the trial.^{[106] [o]} When the charges were read out, the two defence counsels objected to Burke and McDougal being tried together. James Moncreiff, Shush's defence lawyer, protested that his customer was charged "with three unconnected murders, committed each at a different time, and at a different identify" in a trial with some other accused "who is not fifty-fifty alleged to have had whatever business concern with two of the offences of which he is accused".^[108] Several hours were spent on legal arguments nearly the objection. The judge decided that to ensure a off-white trial, the indictment should be separate into separate charges for the iii murders. He gave Rae the option every bit to which should be heard showtime; Rae opted for the murder of Docherty, given they had the corpse and the strongest evidence.^{[109] [110]}

In the early afternoon Shush and McDougal pleaded non guilty to the murder of Docherty. The first witnesses were then chosen from a list of 55 that included Hare and Knox; not all the witnesses on the list were chosen and Knox, with three of his administration, avoided being questioned in courtroom.^{[111] [112]} One of Knox'due south assistants, David Paterson—who had been the principal person Burke and Hare had dealt with at Knox's surgery—was chosen and confirmed the pair had supplied the doctor with several corpses.^[113]

In the early evening Hare took the stand to requite evidence. Under cantankerous-test near the murder of Docherty, Hare claimed Burke had been the sole murderer and McDougal had twice been involved past bringing Docherty back to the house after she had run out; Hare stated that he had assisted Burke in the delivery of the body to Knox.^[114] Although he was asked virtually other murders, he was not obliged to answer the questions, every bit the accuse related only to the expiry of Docherty.^[115] After Hare's questioning, his married woman entered the witness box, carrying their infant daughter who was suffering from whooping cough. Margaret used the kid'southward coughing fits as a way to give herself thinking fourth dimension for some of the questions, and told the court that she had a very poor retentivity and could non recollect many of the events.^{[116] [117]}

The final prosecution witnesses were the two doctors, Black and Christison; both said they suspected foul play, but that there was no forensic testify to support the suggestion of murder.^[116] There were no witnesses chosen for the defence force, although the pre-trial declarations past Burke and McDougal were read out in their place. The prosecution summed up their case, subsequently which, at three:00 am, Burke'south defence lawyer began his final statement, which lasted for two hours; McDougal'southward defence lawyer began his accost to the jury on his customer's behalf at 5:00 am.^[118] Boyle so gave his summing upwards, directing the jury to accept the arguments of the prosecution.^[119] The jury retired to consider its verdict at 8:thirty am on Christmas Day and returned fifty minutes later. Information technology delivered a guilty verdict against Shush for the murder of Docherty; the same charge confronting McDougal they establish not proven.^[p] Every bit he passed the death sentence against Shush, Boyle told him:

Your body should exist publicly dissected and anatomized. And I trust, that if it is always customary to preserve skeletons, yours will be preserved, in social club that posterity may keep in remembrance your awful crimes.^[120]

Aftermath, including execution and dissection [edit]

Shush'southward execution; from a contemporary print

McDougal was released at the cease of the trial and returned home. The following twenty-four hours she went to buy whisky and was confronted past a mob who were angry at the non proven verdict. She was taken to a police force edifice in nearby Fountainbridge for her own protection, but subsequently the mob laid siege to information technology she escaped through a back window to the main police station off Edinburgh's High Street.^{[121] [122] [q]} She tried to see Burke, just permission was refused; she left Edinburgh the next day, and in that location are no clear accounts of her later life.^[123] On 3 Jan 1829, on the communication of both Catholic priests and Presbyterian clergy, Shush made another confession. This was more detailed than the official one provided prior to his trial; he placed much of the arraign for the murders on Hare.^[124]

On 16 January 1829 a petition on behalf of James Wilson'due south female parent and sister, protesting against Hare's amnesty and intended release from prison, was given lengthy consideration past the High Court of Justiciary and rejected past a vote of four to ii.^[125] Margaret was released on 19 January and travelled to Glasgow to notice a passage dorsum to Ireland. While waiting for a send she was recognised and attacked by a mob. She was given shelter in a police station before existence given a police escort onto a Belfast-bound vessel; no articulate accounts be of what became of her later on she landed in Ireland.^[126]

Burke's preserved skeleton

Burke was hanged on the forenoon of 28 January 1829 in front of a crowd possibly every bit large as 25,000;^{[127] [r]} views from windows in the tenements overlooking the scaffold were hired at prices ranging from 5s to 20s.^[129] On one February Burke'south corpse was publicly dissected past Professor Monro in the anatomy theatre of the academy's Old College.^[130] Police force had to be called when large numbers of students gathered demanding access to the lecture for which a limited number of tickets had been issued. A modest riot ensued; at-home was restored only later 1 of the university professors negotiated with the crowd that they would be allowed to pass through the theatre in batches of l, afterward the dissection. During the procedure, which lasted for two hours, Monro dipped his quill pen into Burke'due south blood and wrote, "This is written with the blood of Wm Burke, who was hanged at Edinburgh. This blood was taken from his head".^[131]

Burke's skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical School where, as at 2022, information technology remains.^[132] His death mask and a book said to be bound with his tanned skin can be seen at Surgeons' Hall Museum.^{[133] [134]}

Hare was released on five February 1829—his extended stay in custody had been undertaken for his ain protection—and was assisted in leaving Edinburgh in disguise past the mailcoach to Dumfries. At one of its stops he was recognised past a beau passenger, Erskine Douglas Sandford, a junior counsel who had represented Wilson'south family; Sandford informed his fellow passengers of Hare'southward identity. On arrival in Dumfries the news of Hare's presence spread and a large crowd gathered at the hostelry where he was due to stay the dark. Law arrived and bundled for a decoy coach to draw off the oversupply while Hare escaped through a dorsum window and into a carriage which took him to the town's prison house for safekeeping. A crowd surrounded the building; stones were thrown at the door and windows and street lamps were smashed earlier 100 special constables arrived to restore society. In the small hours of the forenoon, escorted past a sheriff officer and militia baby-sit, Hare was taken out of town, set downwardly on the Annan Road and instructed to make his style to the English border.^[135] At that place were no subsequent reliable sightings of him and his eventual fate is unknown.^{[18] [s]}

Caricature of Knox, harvesting corpses

Knox refused to make any public statements about his dealings with Shush and Hare. The mutual thought in Edinburgh was that he was culpable in the events; he was lampooned in caricature and, in February 1829, a crowd gathered outside his house and burned an effigy of him.^{[136] [t]} A committee of research cleared him of complicity and reported that they had "seen no evidence that Dr Knox or his assistants knew that murder was committed in procuring whatever of the subjects brought to his rooms".^[139] He resigned from his position as curator of the College of Surgeons' museum, and was gradually excluded from academy life past his peers. He left Edinburgh in 1842 and lectured in United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and mainland Europe. While working in London he fell foul of the regulations of the Royal College of Surgeons and was debarred from lecturing; he was removed from the roll of fellows of the Imperial Society of Edinburgh in 1848.^{[14] [140]} From 1856 he worked as a pathological anatomist at the Brompton Cancer Hospital and had a medical practise in Hackney until his death in 1862.^{[fourteen] [141]}

Legacy [edit]

Legislation [edit]

Calling-card example made of Burke'southward skin

The question of the supply of cadavers for scientific research had been promoted by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham earlier the crimes of Shush and Hare took place.^[u] A parliamentary select committee had drafted a "Neb for preventing the unlawful disinterment of human bodies, and for regulating Schools of Anatomy" in mid 1828—half dozen months earlier the murders were detected. This was rejected in 1829 past the House of Lords.^{[4] [144]}

The murders committed by Burke and Hare raised public awareness of the demand for bodies for medical purposes, and of the trade that doctors had conducted with grave robbers and murderers. The East London murder of a 14-year-old boy and the subsequent try to sell the corpse to the medical school at King'south College London led to an investigation of the London Burkers, who had recently turned from grave robbing to murder to obtain corpses; ii men were hanged in December 1831 for the crime. A bill was chop-chop introduced into Parliament, and gained imperial assent nine months later to become the Beefcake Human activity 1832.^{[4] [145]} This Act authorised dissection on bodies from workhouses unclaimed later 48 hours, and ended the do of anatomising every bit office of the capital punishment for murder.^{[4] [146]}

In media portrayals and popular civilization [edit]

The events of the West Port murders have made appearances in fiction. They are referred to in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1884 curt story "The Body Snatcher" and Marcel Schwob told their story in the last chapter of Imaginary Lives (1896),^[147] while the Edinburgh-based author Elizabeth Byrd used the events in her novels Balance Without Peace (1974) and The Search for Maggie Hare (1976).^[148] The murders have also been portrayed on stage and screen, ordinarily in heavily fictionalised grade.^{[149] [v]}

David Paterson, Knox's assistant, contacted Walter Scott to ask the novelist if he would be interested in writing an business relationship of the murders, but he declined, despite Scott's long-standing involvement in the events.^[159] Scott later wrote:

Our Irish importation have made a great discovery of Oeconomicks, namely, that a wretch who is non worth a farthing while alive, becomes a valuable commodity when knockd on the head & carried to an anatomist; and interim on this principle, accept cleard the streets of some of those miserable offcasts of society, whom nobody missd because nobody wishd to meet them once more.^[160]

See too [edit]

• Organ trade
• London Burkers

Notes and references [edit]

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Gilliland observes that although at that place is no evidence that the couple had been formally married, they were considered as such under Scottish police.^[18]
2. ^ It has been suggested that, but for this chance encounter, the public opprobrium which later fell on Knox might have attached to Monro.^[27]
3. ^ £7 10s in 1827 equates to approximately equivalent to £657 in 2020, according to calculations based on Consumer Price Index measure of inflation.^[28]
4. ^ The original copy of Hare's confession—given on 1 December and accepted every bit the ground of his turning king'southward evidence—was subsequently lost, although the details were widely reported in the press of the time.^[33]
5. ^ The modern sources that provide a chronological list of the murders are:
   • Brian Bailey, Burke and Hare: The Year of the Ghouls; Bailey also tabulates the guild from the two Shush confessions, three contemporary publications and his ain;^[31]
   • Lisa Rosner, The Anatomy Murders;^[34]
   • Owen Dudley Edwards, Shush and Hare.^[35]
6. ^ Rosner reflects that the pair were unlikely to change their modus operandi for the 2d murder, specially for a less constructive method of smothering a victim.^[37]
7. ^ £10 in 1828 equates to approximately £875 in 2016.^[28]
8. ^ The 2 women were described in contemporary accounts equally prostitutes, but there is no evidence that this was true.^[47]
9. ^ Some contemporary accounts land that Shush murdered the male child by putting him over his human knee and breaking his dorsum; both Rosner and Bailey consider this highly unlikely, and the latter describes it as "a piece of sensational embroidery".^{[54] [57]}
10. ^ Margaret Docherty'south proper noun is besides given equally Margery, Mary or Madgy with the alternative surname Campbell.^{[72] [73]}
11. ^ It was a Sabbatum and the dissecting rooms were closed, and then the tea-chest containing the trunk was left in the cellar; Knox gave the men £5 and told them he would examine it on Monday, when he would pay them the balance.^[78]
12. ^ During their careers both Newbigging and Christison were Presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; Christison also became the president of the British Medical Association and ane of the personal physicians to Queen Victoria.^{[87] [88]}
13. ^ The original meaning changed over fourth dimension in general use as a word for any suppression or camouflage.^[102]
14. ^ I of the spectators nowadays was Marie Tussaud, also known as Madame Tussaud, who made several sketches during the case. She had a wax model of Shush on display in Liverpool within a fortnight of his execution.^[103]
15. ^ Burke and McDougal even had their evening repast of soup and staff of life at 6:00 pm, while they were still in the dock; the case continued while they ate.^[107]
16. ^ On hearing the not proven verdict Shush turned to McDougal and said, "Nelly, you are out of the scrape".^[119]
17. ^ Some accounts of the escape state that she was disguised as a human for her escape from Fountainbridge, which Rosner considers "picturesque though unlikely".^[123]
18. ^ 1 contemporary source, A. Wood's 1829 work West Port Murders, considers the number of attendees "more nearly to 40 thousand souls than to thirty-five thousand".^[128]
19. ^ Several tales of Hare's fate exist. These include that he worked at a lime pit until he was recognised, upon which betoken his fellow-workers threw him into the pit, which turned him blind; he may have turned to begging on Oxford Street, London. Other possibilities are that he went to Ireland or America and lived for 40 years afterwards the murders.^[18]
20. ^ Rosner gives the date as x February;^[137] Bailey gives xi;^[138] Taylor gives 12.^[fourteen]
21. ^ In guild to change public stance on the matter, Bentham donated his trunk to exist publicly dissected and his corpse to exist preserved every bit an "machine-icon"; information technology has been on display in University College London since 1850.^{[142] [143]}
22. ^ On stage:
    • The Anatomist (1930) past James Bridie.^[150]
    • The Physician and the Devils by Dylan Thomas.^[151]
    On radio:
    • "The Anatomist" (1937) by Bridie; based on his own play.^[152]
    On film:
    • The Body Snatcher (1945), based on Stevenson's story.^[153]
    • The Mankind and the Fiends (1960).^[150]
    • Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) depicted Burke and Hare in the late Victorian era as employees of Dr. Jekyll.^[154]
    • Burke & Hare (1971)^[155]
    • The Doctor and the Devils (1985), based on Thomas's play.^[150]
    • Burke & Hare (2010).^[156]
    On television:
    • "The Anatomist" (1939) by Bridie.^[157]
    • "The Anatomist" (1956) an episode of the ITV Play of the Week series.^[158]

References [edit]

1. ^ "The Pioneers of Medical Scientific discipline in Edinburgh". The British Medical Periodical. ii (761): 135–37. 31 July 1875. JSTOR 25241571.
2. ^ ^{a b} Bailey 2002, p. fourteen.
3. ^ Roughead 1921, p. 3.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Goodman, Neville G (23 Dec 1944). "The Supply of Bodies for Autopsy: A Historical Review". The British Medical Periodical. 2 (4381): 807–11. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4381.807. JSTOR 20347223. PMC2287094. PMID 20785803.
5. ^ Richardson 1987, p. 54.
6. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 17.
7. ^ Knight 2007, p. 14.
8. ^ Barr 2016, p. 97.
9. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 49.
10. ^ Cunningham 2010, p. 229.
11. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 21–22.
12. ^ Richardson 1987, p. 101.
13. ^ Marshall 1995, p. four.
14. ^ ^{a b c d e} Taylor 2004.
15. ^ Bates 2010, p. 61.
16. ^ Roughead 1921, p. 275.
17. ^ Rae 1964, p. 126.
18. ^ ^{a b c d due east f g} Gilliland 2004.
19. ^ Douglas 1973, p. 30.
20. ^ ^{a b} Douglas 1973, p. 31.
21. ^ Roughead 1921, p. 262.
22. ^ ^{a b} Rosner 2010, p. 66.
23. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 33.
24. ^ Knight 2007, p. 22.
25. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 25–26.
26. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, pp. 100–02.
27. ^ Roughead 1921, p. xi.
28. ^ ^{a b} UK Retail Cost Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, 1209 to Nowadays (New Series)". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved ii December 2021.
29. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, pp. 102–03.
30. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 251.
31. ^ ^{a b} Bailey 2002, p. lxx.
32. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 233–34.
33. ^ ^{a b c d} Dudley Edwards 2014, p. 106.
34. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 271–72.
35. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, pp. twenty–xxi.
36. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 53–54.
37. ^ ^{a b} Rosner 2010, p. 54.
38. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 41–42.
39. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, p. 108.
40. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 56–57, 79.
41. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 41–45.
42. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, pp. 107–09.
43. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 42–43.
44. ^ Roughead 1921, p. 17.
45. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 42, 44.
46. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 79–80.
47. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 116–17.
48. ^ Knight 2007, pp. 37–39; Bailey 2002, pp. 45–47; Lonsdale 1870, pp. 101–02.
49. ^ ^{a b} Knight 2007, p. 41.
50. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 104–05.
51. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, pp. 133–34.
52. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 126–27.
53. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, pp. 115–sixteen.
54. ^ ^{a b c} Bailey 2002, p. 58.
55. ^ ^{a b} Knight 2007, p. 45.
56. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 182.
57. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 148.
58. ^ Roughead 1921, p. xix.
59. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 59.
60. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 148–49.
61. ^ Roughead 1921, pp. 267–28.
62. ^ Knight 2007, pp. 48–49.
63. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 149.
64. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 169.
65. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 64–65.
66. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, pp. 137–38.
67. ^ Roughead 1921, p. xx.
68. ^ Knight 2007, p. 51.
69. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 66–67.
70. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 189–xc.
71. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 68.
72. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 272.
73. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, p. 432.
74. ^ Knight 2007, p. 56.
75. ^ MacGregor 1884, p. 99.
76. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 72–74.
77. ^ Leighton 1861, pp. 198–200.
78. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 76.
79. ^ Ward 1998, p. 15.
80. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 77–78.
81. ^ Woods 1829, p. 202.
82. ^ Roughead 1921, p. 270.
83. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, p. 127.
84. ^ ^{a b} Rosner 2010, p. 215.
85. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 80.
86. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 78.
87. ^ White 2004.
88. ^ Kaufman, Matthew H (2004). "Peter David Handyside's Diploma as Senior President of the Royal Medical Society". Res Medica. 268 (1). doi:10.2218/resmedica.v268i1.1021.
89. ^ Knight 2007, p. 69.
90. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 78–79.
91. ^ Ward 1998, p. 17.
92. ^ ^{a b} Rosner 2010, pp. 218–19.
93. ^ Knight 2007, p. 73.
94. ^ ^{a b} Bailey 2002, p. 81.
95. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 219.
96. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 80–81.
97. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 221.
98. ^ Sharpe 1829, pp. 1–three.
99. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 114–15.
100. ^ ^{a b} Knight 2007, p. 87.
101. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 135.
102. ^ ^{a b} "burking, n." Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Printing. Archived from the original on xi September 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2016. (subscription required)
103. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 105.
104. ^ Knight 2007, p. 75.
105. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 83.
106. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 212, 225.
107. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 94.
108. ^ Sharpe 1829, p. 10.
109. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 225.
110. ^ Dudley Edwards 2014, pp. 175–76.
111. ^ Sharpe 1829, pp. 4–six.
112. ^ Knight 2007, pp. 77–78.
113. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 90.
114. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 95.
115. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 226–27.
116. ^ ^{a b} Knight 2007, p. 82.
117. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 100–01.
118. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 102–03.
119. ^ ^{a b} Rosner 2010, p. 230.
120. ^ Roughead 1921, pp. 257–58.
121. ^ Roughead 1921, pp. 60–61.
122. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 107–08.
123. ^ ^{a b} Rosner 2010, p. 232.
124. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 113.
125. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 237–38.
126. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 236–37.
127. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 115–16.
128. ^ Wood 1829, p. 233.
129. ^ Roughead 1921, p. 64.
130. ^ Howard & Smith 2004, p. 54.
131. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 244.
132. ^ "William Burke". Edinburgh University. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
133. ^ "Bag made from Burke'south skin". Surgeons' Hall Museums. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 31 Baronial 2016.
134. ^ "Shush Expiry Mask". Surgeons' Hall Museums. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 31 Baronial 2016.
135. ^ Roughead 1921, pp. 75–76.
136. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 252–53.
137. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 253.
138. ^ Bailey 2002, p. 146.
139. ^ London Medical Gazette 1829, p. 572.
140. ^ Bailey 2002, pp. 150–51.
141. ^ Rosner 2010, pp. 268–69.
142. ^ "Jeremy Bentham car-icon". University College London. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
143. ^ "A History of Man Autopsy". Purple College of Surgeons of England. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
144. ^ Evans, Alun (2010). "Irish Resurrectionism: 'This Execrable Trade'". Ulster Periodical of Archæology. 69: 155–70. JSTOR 41940979.
145. ^ Richardson 1987, pp. 196–97.
146. ^ Hutton 2015, p. iv.
147. ^ McCracken-Flesher 2012, pp. 106, 139.
148. ^ Knight 2007, p. 107.
149. ^ McCracken-Flesher 2012, pp. 18–19.
150. ^ ^{a b c} McCracken-Flesher 2012, p. 18.
151. ^ Knight 2007, p. 106.
152. ^ "The Anatomist". BBC Genome. BBC. Archived from the original on vi September 2016. Retrieved ane July 2016.
153. ^ McCracken-Flesher 2012, p. 145.
154. ^ "Dr Jekyll and Sis Hyde (1971)". Screenonline. British Film Plant. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
155. ^ "Burke & Hare (1971)". British Motion picture Establish. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
156. ^ "Shush & Hare (2010)". British Film Found. Archived from the original on six September 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
157. ^ "The Anatomist". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
158. ^ "Towers, Harry Alan (1920–2009)". Screenonline. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
159. ^ Knight 2007, p. 103.
160. ^ Rosner 2010, p. 74.

Sources [edit]

• Bailey, Brian (2002). Shush and Hare: The Yr of the Ghouls. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. ISBN978-1-84018-575-one.
• Barr, Olivia (2016). A Jurisprudence of Movement: Mutual Law, Walking, Unsettling Place. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. ISBN978-ane-317-53184-five.
• Bates, Alan (2010). The Beefcake of Robert Knox: Murder, Mad Science and Medical Regulation in Nineteenth-Century Edinburgh. Brighton: Sussex Bookish Press. ISBN978-ane-84519-381-2.
• Cunningham, Andrew (2010). The Anatomist Anatomis'd: An Experimental Field of study in Enlightenment Europe. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN978-0-7546-6338-6.
• Douglas, Hugh (1973). Shush and Hare: the truthful story. London: R. Hale. ISBN978-0-7091-3777-1.
• Dudley Edwards, Owen (2014). Burke and Hare. Edinburgh: Birlinn. ISBN978-ane-78027-217-7.
• Gilliland, J (2004). "Burke, William (1792–1829)". Oxford Lexicon of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4031. {{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) (Subscription or United kingdom public library membership required.)
• Howard, Amanda; Smith, Martin (2004). "William Burke and William Hare". River of Blood: Serial Killers and Their Victims. Boca Raton, FL: Universal Publishers. ISBN978-1-58112-518-four.
• Hutton, Fiona (2015). The Study of Anatomy in Britain, 1700–1900. London: Routledge. ISBN978-1-317-31933-7.
• Knight, Alanna (2007). Shush and Hare. London: The National Athenaeum. ISBN978-1-905615-xiii-1.
• Leighton, Alexander (1861). The Court of Cacus, or the Story of Shush and Hare. London: Houlston & Wright. OCLC 14825980.
• London Medical Gazette: Or, Journal of Practical Medicine. Vol. 3. London: Longman. 1829. OCLC 477185625.
• Lonsdale, Henry (1870). A Sketch of the Life and Writings of Robert Knox, the Anatomist. London: Macmillan & Co. OCLC 1061812.
• MacGregor, George (1884). The History of Burke and Hare and of the Resurrectionist Times. Glasgow: Thomas Morison. OCLC 60729104.
• Marshall, Tim (1995). Murdering to Dissect: Grave-robbing, Frankenstein and the Anatomy Literature. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN978-0-7190-4543-i.
• McCracken-Flesher, Caroline (2012). The Medico Dissected: A Cultural Autopsy of the Burke and Hare Murders. Oxford: Oxford Academy Printing. ISBN978-0-xix-991031-1.
• Rae, Isobel (1964). Knox, the Anatomist. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. OCLC 3165493.
• Richardson, Ruth (1987). Death, Autopsy and the Destitute. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN978-0-7102-0919-1.
• Rosner, Lisa (2010). The Anatomy Murders . Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN978-0-8122-4191-4.
• Roughead, William (1921). Burke and Hare. Edinburgh: William Hodge & Co. OCLC 60737065.
• Sharpe, Charles Kirkpatrick, ed. (1829). Trial of William Shush and Helen G'Dougal. Edinburgh: Robert Buchanan, William Hunter, John Stevenson, Baldwin & Cradock. OCLC 506067495.
• Taylor, Clare L (2004). "Knox, Robert (1791–1862)". Oxford Lexicon of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford Academy Printing. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15787. {{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) (Subscription or Britain public library membership required.)
• Ward, Jenny (1998). Crimebusting: breakthroughs in forensic scientific discipline . London: Blandford. ISBN978-0-7137-2639-eight.
• White, Brenda M (2004). "Christison, Sir Robert, first baronet (1797–1882)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5370. {{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) (Subscription or Uk public library membership required.)
• Wood, A (1829). West Port Murders. Edinburgh: Thomas Ireland. OCLC 506071737.

External links [edit]

Historical case notes review at the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh

• Street literature related to Shush and Hare at the National Library of Scotland
• Echoes of the Scottish Resurrection Men

choaboody.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders

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