Burke and Hare Murders
In the 19th Century, there was an acute shortage of fresh corpses in Scotland. The trend was majorly as a result of improvements and advances in the sector of medicine, there was increased demand for cadavers for classes of human anatomy and research, especially in the city of Edinburg which hosted pioneer anatomists. The shortage in cadavers was as a result of illegalization of bodies to dissect. The only legalized bodies were those of criminals, unclaimed orphans, and victims of suicide. With the drying up of bodies to conduct research on, most of the anatomists resulted to buying cadavers from grave robbers. Other anatomists were willing to give a blind eye to subjects of murder. This is where the services of Burke and Hare were happy to be of help.
In that era, those who stole bodies from graves or unburied bodies from morgues sold them to local anatomy schools. These body snatchers were referred to as resurrection men. Although they enjoyed brief moments of success and prosperity, the public soon came to realize their activities and began hiring guards to protect the buried or put heavy slabs on top of the graves. However, researchers still needed to put more bodies in their surgery tables and were willing to pay top dollar for them. One of such prominent doctors was Robert Knox, who had the policy of full demonstration on his anatomy subjects during his lectures. It was during this time William Burke and William Hare sold him 16 corpses over the period of ten months in the year 1828.
Burke and Hare first murdered a Tenant of Mrs. Hare’s lodging houses and took the body to the University of Edinburg. Here, it was where they were directed to the surgeon’s square where they encountered Dr Knox. Without asking any questions, Dr Knox Happily paid for the body from their hands. The second victim was another tenant of Mrs. Hare’s lodging. They then took the body to Dr Knox who happily paid for it without asking any questions.
It was during this endeavor that they saw prosperity in their business and began their murder spree. Burke and Hare then adopted the method of smearing the bodies of their victims with alcohol before smothering them to death. One of the most depressing murders they committed involved a 12-year-old boy whom they murdered by breaking his back.
However, Burke and Hare’s final victim was Mary Docherty, an elderly woman who Burke lured into a lodging apartment (Barzun, p 5-11). The body was later found the next day by two guests who had lodged the same room. The body was found beneath the bed. After alerting the police numerous investigations began and the body was later found in dissecting rooms belonging to Knox. Soon the news about Burke and Hare reached the public, who mobbed them but were later saved by the police. Hare, his wife and Burke’s mistress managed to escape from Edinburgh. Burke was later convicted of his crimes and hanged in front of 20,000 people and body was later dissected publicly in Knox surgery squares.
Later on, his skeleton was displayed at the Anatomical Museum at Edinburgh University (Caroline et al., 166-168). Burke and Hare left a legacy where it became clear that medical institutions were in clear demand for bodies to conduct medical research. This led to the passage of the Anatomy act of 1832, where teachers of anatomy, doctors and boa fide medical students were given freer licenses to dissect bodies which were donated.
Work Cited
Barzun, J. (1974). Murder for profit and for science. In J. Barzun (Ed.), Burke and Hare: Resurrection men: A collection of contemporary documents including broadsides, occasional verses, illustrations, polemics, and a complete transcript of the testimony at the trial (pp. v-xii). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
McCracken-Flesher, Caroline. “Scottish Medicine and Literary Culture, 1726–1832 ed. by Megan J. Coyer and David E. Shuttleton.” Scottish Literary Review 7.2 (2015): 166-168.