William Burke

Case record: William Burke

Background

William Burke (1792 – 28 January 1829) was born in Urney, near Strabane, in the west of County Tyrone, part of the Province of Ulster in the north of Ireland. After trying his hand at a variety of trades and serving as an officer's servant in the Donegal Militia, Burke left his wife and two children in Ireland and emigrated to Scotland about 1817, working as a navvy for the Union Canal. Burke met Helen M'Dougal there. Burke worked afterwards as a labourer, weaver, baker and a cobbler.

Burke and Hare were serial murders in Edinburgh, Scotland, from November 1827 to 31 October 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants Brendan "Dynes" Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their 17 victims to provide material for dissection. Their purchaser was Doctor Robert Knox, a private anatomy lecturer whose students were drawn from Edinburgh Medical College. Their accomplices included Burke's mistress, Helen M'Dougal, and Hare's wife, Margaret Laird.

The word "burking" came from the method of killing used by Burke and Hare, meaning to purposefully smother and compress the chest of a victim.

Before 1832, there were insufficient cadavers legitimately available for anatomy study and teaching in British medical schools. The University of Edinburgh was known for medical sciences. As medical science began to flourish in the early 19th century, demand rose sharply, but the only legal supply of cadavers—the bodies of executed criminals—fell due to a sharp reduction in the execution rate in the early 19th century caused by the repeal of the Bloody Code. Only about 2 or 3 corpses per year were available for a large number of students. Body-snatching (also called resurrectionists) gave rise to particular public fear and revulsion, and there was a short step from grave-robbing to anatomy murder.

The offence

Burke and Hare sold corpses for medical dissection and were described as profiting from providing dead bodies to the anatomy students of 19th century Edinburgh.

Burke and Hare were reported to have used a method of purposefully suffocating their victims so that their bodies were left undamaged for students. Their victims were described as ranging from sickly lodgers to old prostitutes.

Investigation

The evidence against Burke and the Hares was not described as overwhelming at first. Lord Advocate Sir William Rae offered Hare immunity from prosecution if Hare confessed and agreed to testify against Burke.

After a newspaper wrote about disappearances on 6 November 1828, Janet Brown went to the police and identified her friend Mary Patterson's clothing. An anonymous tip led to Knox's classroom where Docherty's body was found and later identified by James Gray.

Arrest

Ann Gray became suspicious the next day when Burke would not let her approach a bed where she had left her stockings. When the Grays were left alone in the house in the early evening, they checked the bed and found Docherty's body under it. On their way to alert the police, they encountered M'Dougal, who tried to bribe them with an offer of £10 a week; they refused.

Burke and Hare had removed the body from the house before the police arrived. Under questioning, Burke claimed that Docherty had left at 7:00 a.m., while M'Dougal claimed that she had left in the evening. The police arrested them.

William and Margaret Hare were arrested soon thereafter. Burke's testimony and the Hares' testimony were described as leading slowly to uncovering the real reason for the disappearances in West Port.

Trial

The trial followed Burke and Helen M'Dougal being charged with Mary Docherty's murder, with Burke also charged with the murders of James Wilson and Mary Paterson.

The trial began on Christmas Eve 1828. Both the Hares testified against the Burkes. Several witnesses told of victims they had seen with Helen or Burke before their disappearance.

On Christmas Morning, after 50 minutes of consideration by the jury, Burke was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Helen M'Dougal was freed.

During the month between Burke’s sentencing and his execution, Burke made two thorough confessions detailing 16 murders that he and Hare had committed, though the order was inconsistent. Burke swore in his confession that Knox had known nothing of the origin of the cadavers.

Sentencing

Burke received a death sentence by hanging.

Outcome

Hare was offered immunity from prosecution and was released in February 1829. M'Dougal was released because her complicity was not provable.

Burke was hanged on 28 January 1829 in Edinburgh.

After Burke was hanged, he was publicly dissected at the Edinburgh Medical College.

The dissecting professor Alexander Monro dipped his quill pen into Burke's blood and wrote:

"This is written with the blood of Wm Burke, who was hanged at Edinburgh. This blood was taken from his head."

Burke's skeleton, death mask, and items made from his tanned skin were displayed at the college's museum.

Knox was not prosecuted despite public outrage at his role in providing an incentive for the murders. Knox kept silent about his dealings with Burke and Hare and continued to employ Edinburgh body-snatchers while lecturing on anatomy. His applications for formal positions in the Edinburgh Medical School were rejected, and he later moved to the Cancer Hospital in London, where he died in 1862.

Aftermath

M'Dougal returned to her house but was attacked by an angry mob. She may have returned to her family in Stirling. She was rumoured to have left for Australia where she died around 1868.

Margaret Hare also escaped lynching and reputedly returned to Ireland, with nothing more known about her. Hare was released in February 1829, and popular tales described him as a blind beggar in London who had been mobbed and thrown into a lime pit, though these reports were not confirmed. The last known sighting was in the English town of Carlisle.

The murders highlighted the crisis in medical education and led to the passing of the Anatomy Act 1832, which expanded the legal supply of medical cadavers to eliminate the incentive for such behavior.

A Lancet editorial stated:

"Burke and Hare ... it is said, are the real authors of the measure, and that which would never have been sanctioned by the deliberate wisdom of parliament, is about to be extorted from its fears ... It would have been well if this fear had been manifested and acted upon before sixteen human beings had fallen victims to the supineness of the Government and the Legislature. It required no extraordinary sagacity, to foresee that the worst consequences must inevitably result from the system of traffic between resurrectionists and anatomists, which the executive government has so long suffered to exist. Government is already in a great degree, responsible for the crime which it has fostered by its negligence, and even encouraged by a system of forbearance."

Victims and modus operandi (as described)

Burke and Hare were attributed to the murders of 17 victims.

Burke and Hare’s first sale for dissection was described as being from a tenant who had died of natural causes, an old army pensioner who owed Hare £4 rent. Instead of burying the body, they filled the coffin with bark and brought the cadaver to Edinburgh University to find a purchaser. A student directed them to Surgeon's Square where they sold the body for £7.10s to Dr. Robert Knox.

Burke and Hare’s first murder victim was described as Joseph the Miller, a sick tenant whom they plied with whisky and then suffocated.

In February 1828, they invited pensioner Abigail Simpson to spend the night before her return home. They served Simpson alcohol to intoxicate her and then smothered her. They were paid £10.

Hare’s wife Margaret was described as inviting a woman to the inn, plying her with drink, and then sending for her husband. The next victims described included Mary Patterson and Janet Brown; Brown left when an argument broke out between M'Dougal and Burke, and Patterson was taken to Dr. Knox’s dissecting rooms. The two women were described as prostitutes in contemporary accounts. The story later arose that Knox's students recognized the dead Patterson.

The next victim described was Effie, a beggar woman. Burke and Hare were paid £10 for her body.

Another woman described was “saved” from police by claiming that Burke knew her, and Burke delivered her body to the medical school just hours later.

The next two victims described were an old woman and her blind grandson. The grandmother died from an overdose on painkillers. Hare took the young boy and stretched him over his knee, then broke his back. Both bodies were ultimately sold for £8 each.

The next two victims described were “Mrs. Ostler” and Ann Dougal, a relative of M'Dougal. Another victim described was Elizabeth Haldane, a former lodger who asked to sleep in Hare’s stable. Burke and Hare murdered her daughter Peggy Haldane a few months later.

The next victim described was a mentally retarded young man with a limp named James Wilson, called “Daft Jamie,” who was 18 at the time of his murder. The boy resisted, and the pair had to kill him together. When Dr. Knox uncovered the body the next morning, several students recognized Jamie. His head and feet were cut off after Knox had shown his students the body. Knox denied that it was Jamie but began to dissect the cadaver’s face first.

The last victim described was Marjory Campbell Docherty. Burke lured her into the lodging house by claiming that his mother was also a Docherty, but he had to wait to complete his task because of the presence of lodgers James and Ann Gray. The Grays left for the night, and neighbours heard sounds of a struggle.

Other individuals mentioned

Helen M'Dougal was described as Burke's mistress and one of the accomplices in the murders. She was freed at the trial.

William Hare was described as Burke's partner in the murders and was offered immunity from prosecution if he confessed and agreed to testify against Burke.

Margaret Laird (Margaret Hare) was described as Hare's wife and an accomplice. She continued to run the lodging house after Logue died and was described as continuing to reside at the lodging house.

Doctor Robert Knox was described as the purchaser of the corpses and as a private anatomy lecturer. He was not prosecuted.

Alexander Monro was described as the dissecting professor who wrote with Burke's blood.

Joseph the Miller, Abigail Simpson, Mary Patterson, Janet Brown, Effie, “Mrs. Ostler,” Ann Dougal, Elizabeth Haldane, Peggy Haldane, James Wilson (“Daft Jamie”), Marjory Campbell Docherty, and James and Ann Gray were mentioned as victims or individuals directly involved in the case events.

Lord Advocate Sir William Rae was mentioned as offering Hare immunity from prosecution.

Media portrayals and cultural references (as included)

Folk tales about “Burkers” attacking travelers, especially children, to sell cadavers were described as still common in Scotland.

The Burke and Hare murders were referenced in Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story “The Body Snatcher,” which portrayed two doctors in Robert Knox's employ as responsible for buying corpses from the killers.

The 1945 film The Body Snatcher, directed by Robert Wise, starred Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

The murders were adapted into a 1948 film with the working title Crimes of Burke and Hare; however, the British Board of Film Censors deemed its topic too disturbing and insisted that references to Burke and Hare be excised. The film was redubbed with alternative dialogue and characters and released as The Greed of William Hart.

Dylan Thomas’ 1953 screenplay “The Doctor and the Devils” was described as a retelling of the Burke and Hare story with altered character names. A film realization in 1985 starred Timothy Dalton as Dr Rock (Thomas’ characterisation of Dr Knox) and was directed by Freddie Francis.

The 1960 film The Flesh and the Fiends starred Peter Cushing as Knox, Donald Pleasence as Hare, and George Rose as Burke. The following year, The Anatomist featured Alastair Sim as Knox.

A 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone titled “The New Exhibit” featured Burke and Hare along with several other historical murderers as exhibits in a wax museum.

A 23 November 1964 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour titled “The McGregor Affair” featured Burke and Hare as characters, with Andrew Duggan as McGregor, Arthur Malet as Burke, and Michael Pate as Hare.

The 1971 film Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde transported Burke and Hare into the late Victorian era and portrayed them as being employed by Dr. Jekyll. Burke was played by Ivor Dean and Hare by Tony Calvin.

The 1972 film Burke & Hare starred Derren Nesbitt as Burke and Glynn Edwards as Hare.

A 2004 Doctor Who audio drama Medicinal Purposes placed the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) amidst the events of the murders. The play featured Leslie Phillips as Dr. Knox and David Tennant as Daft Jamie.

A film loosely based upon the historical case, Burke and Hare, starring Simon Pegg as Burke and Andy Serkis as Hare and directed by John Landis, began filming in early 2010 and was released in the UK on 29 October 2010, with a North American release date described as forthcoming.

The American death metal band Macabre released an album in 2011 entitled Grim Scary Tales, featuring a song entitled “Burke And Hare.”

A 19th-century Edinburgh jumping-rope rhyme was included:

"Up the close and down the stair,
But and ben with Burke and Hare.
Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief, Knox, the boy who buys the beef."