Burke - The Anatomy of Edinburgh's Medical Murderer

William Burke on trial, 1829.

BURKE

[William Burke, executed at Edinburgh in 1829 for murdering by suffocation or strangulation to sell bodies for dissection.]

1 Kill (a person) to sell the body for dissection;

suffocate or strangle secretly. archaic. E19

2 figurative. Stifle, smother (publicity or inquiry);

hush up, suppress (rumour);

avoid (a problem). M19

In the 19th century, Edinburgh had a problem: although it was a world-renowned centre of medical science and anatomical research, it had a shortage of bodies for dissection. The main source of legal cadavers, executed criminals, was dwindling, and while body-snatchers (the ghoulishly termed Resurrectionists) did their best to keep up with demand by their covert exhumations, it was not enough and the universities were still left choked of good, clean, healthy bodies to open, probe and pick apart. Cue the entrance of the entrepreneurial Irishmen William Burke and William Hare, who simply cut out the middleman (death by natural causes), delivering straight from murder scene to dissection table in a matter of hours.

William Hare giving evidence, 1829.

While there is a morbid interest and fascination in the activities of Burke and Hare (even in Edinburgh, which proudly advertises their gruesome misdeeds to cooing tourists), these were, as if it needed to be spelt out, men of quite horrific brutality. They stumbled somewhat into their murderous careers when a pensioner they knew died of natural causes. No doubt aware of the need for cadavers (the Resurrectionists' work was well-known and the subject of ardent public revulsion), they sold the poor man's mortal remains to a Dr Robert Knox for £7.10s. From that moment, unwilling to idly wait for acquaintances to die of their own accord, Burke and Hare embarked on a murderous campaign that would last ten months and claim at least sixteen victims. Their usual method was to lure the victims back to their lodgings, ply them with alcohol, and then strangle or suffocate them. Their victims were usually working-class women, but also included an 18-year-old man who suffered from some form of intellectual disability and a mute 12-year-old boy.

Dr Robert Knox

Their crimes were detected after a body was discovered in Burke's house. It was generally agreed that Burke, being the more intelligent of the two, was the brains of the operation, and so Hare was offered immunity from prosecution if he confessed and testified against Burke. He did, and Burke was convicted and sentenced to death. He was hanged on the 28th January 1829 before a crowd of over 20,000 onlookers. The following day his body was publicly dissected to a sell-out audience, and his skeleton in still displayed in the University of Edinburgh's Anatomy Museum. William Hare left Edinburgh and, after several sightings, he disappeared from public view altogether; his ultimate fate remains unknown. Dr Knox, while legally cleared of any implication in the crimes, was found guilty in the court of public opinion (probably not least because he was one creepy looking guy) and his reputation, business and research suffered irreparable damage.

The execution of William Burke, 28th January 1829

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