The Crime Book

22

A

pair of Irish immigrants

became unlikely grave

robbers – and ultimately

killers – in 19th-century Scotland

when greed got the better of them.

William Burke and William Hare

worked as labourers in Edinburgh,

where they met in 1827 after

Burke and his companion, Helen

McDougal, moved into a lodging

house in Edinburgh run by Hare

and his wife Margaret.

When an elderly lodger died of

natural causes and still owed rent,

Burke and Hare sneaked into the

cemetery, dug up his coffin,

snatched his body, and carried

it in a tea chest to Edinburgh

University’s medical school.

Dr Robert Knox, a popular anatomy

lecturer who urgently needed

corpses for dissection lessons,

paid them £7 and 10 shillings

(about £585 today) for the body.

A unique business idea

Inspired by their success, and

delighted by such an easy stream

of income, the pair repeated it

again and again, robbing newly

buried coffins and selling the

cadavers to Knox. However, they

soon tired of digging up graves in

the middle of the night. So, in

November 1827 when a lodger

became ill, Burke expedited the

man’s demise by covering his

mouth and nose while restraining

him – a smothering technique that

became known as “burking”.

That first murder was the start

of the duo’s killing spree, targeting

strays and prostitutes on the streets

of Edinburgh. Their modus

operandi involved plying a victim

with drink until they fell asleep.

Then, Burke smothered them using

Hare (left) and Burke (right)

financially exploited a shortage in the

legal supply of cadavers at a time when

Edinburgh was the leading European

centre of anatomical research.

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

THEME

Bodysnatching and

multiple murder

BEFORE

November 1825 Thomas

Tuite, a bodysnatcher, is

captured by a sentry in Dublin,

Ireland, in possession of five

bodies and with his pockets

full of sets of teeth.

AFTER

7 November 1876 A gang

of counterfeiters breaks into

Oak Ridge Cemetery in

Springfield, Illinois, to steal

Abraham Lincoln’s body and

hold it for ransom. The plot is

foiled by a Secret Service

agent posing as a member

of the gang.

BURKE’S THE

BUTCHER, HARE’S THE

THIEF, KNOX THE BOY

THAT BUYS THE BEEF

BURKE AND HARE, 1827–28

022-023_Burke_and_Hare.indd 22 13/01/2017 15:09

23

See also: Jack the Ripper 266–73

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS

his unique technique. They loaded

the body into a tea chest and

transported it at night to Dr Knox’s

surgery. They received £7–10

(£550–800 today) for each body.

Burke and Hare got away with

murder for 11 months until the body

of Irishwoman Margaret Docherty

was discovered by two guests at

Hare’s boarding house, Ann and

James Gray. The Grays notified the

police, and an inquiry led them to

Dr Knox. Docherty’s body had since

been moved to the university

lecture hall, which had become

Knox’s dissecting theatre.

After a newspaper report

pointed the finger at Burke and

Hare, there was a public outcry for

their prosecution. William Burke,

William Hare, Helen McDougal, and

Margaret Hare were all arrested by

police shortly afterwards and

charged with murder. Dr Knox was

questioned by police, but was not

arrested as he had not technically

broken the law.

Every man for himself

Requiring more evidence for a

conviction, the court’s Lord

Advocate attempted to extract

a confession from one of the four,

and he chose Hare. He was

offered immunity from prosecution

and testified that Burke had

committed the murders. Burke was

subsequently convicted of three

Robert Knox was a pre-eminent

Scottish anatomist whose career was

overshadowed by his involvement in

the Burke and Hare case.

Diagnosing psychopathy

The Hare Psychopathy Checklist

(named after Canadian

psychologist Robert Hare) is a

diagnostic tool used to identify

a person’s psychopathic

tendencies. Originally designed

to assess people accused of

crimes, it is a 20-item inventory

of personality traits assessed

primarily via an interview.

The subject receives a score for

each trait depending on how

well each one applies to them.

The traits include lack of

remorse; lack of empathy;

inability to accept responsibility

for actions; impulsivity; and

pathological lying.

When psychopaths commit

crimes, it is likely that their acts

are purposeful. The motives

of psychopathic killers often

involve power or sadistic

gratification. Not all violent

offenders are psychopaths,

but FBI investigations found

that psychopathic offenders

have more serious criminal

histories and tend to be more

chronically violent.

murders and, on 28 January, 1829,

hanged in front of a cheering

crowd numbering up to 25,000.

People were said to have paid up

to £1 (about £80 today) for a good

view overlooking the scaffold.

Burke’s body was publicly

dissected by Dr Knox’s rival,

Dr Monro, at the anatomy theatre of

Edinburgh University’s Old College,

attracting so many spectators that

a minor riot occurred. His skeleton

was later donated to Edinburgh

Medical School. Hare, although he

confessed to being an accomplice,

was freed, and fled to England.

With his reputation in tatters, Knox

moved to London to try to revive

his medical career.

In all, Burke and Hare killed 16

victims in what became known

as the West Port Murders. The

murders led to the passing of the

Anatomy Act 1832, which

increased the supply of legal

cadavers by authorizing the

dissection of unclaimed bodies

from workhouses after 48 hours.

This proved effective in reducing

cases of body snatching. ■

I am sure ... that in the whole

history of the country –

nothing has ever been

exhibited that is in any

respect parallel to this case.

Lord Meadowbank

022-023_Burke_and_Hare.indd 23 13/01/2017 15:09