West Port murders
Encyclopedia
The Burke and Hare murders (nickname West Port murders) were serial murders
perpetrated in Edinburgh
, Scotland, from November 1827 to October 31, 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish
immigrants William 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 McDougal, and Hare's wife, Margaret Laird. From their infamous method of killing their victims has come the word "burking", meaning to purposefully smother and compress the chest of a victim, and a derived meaning, to quietly suppress.
s legitimately available for the study and teaching of anatomy
in British
medical schools. The University of Edinburgh
was an institution universally renowned for medical sciences. As medical science began to flourish in the early nineteenth century, demand rose sharply, but at the same time, the only legal supply of cadavers—the bodies of executed criminals—had fallen due to a sharp reduction in the execution rate in the early nineteenth century, brought about by the repeal of the Bloody Code. Only about two or three corpses per year were available for a large number of students. This situation attracted criminal elements who were willing to obtain specimens by any means. The activities of body-snatchers (also called resurrectionists) gave rise to particular public fear and revulsion. It was a short step from grave-robbing to anatomy murder
.
, in the very west of County Tyrone
, part of the Province of Ulster
in Ireland
. After trying his hand at a variety of trades and serving as an officer's servant in the Donegal
Militia, he left his wife and two children in Ireland and emigrated to Scotland about 1817, working as a navvy
for the Union Canal
. There he met Helen McDougal. Burke afterwards worked as a labourer, weaver, baker and a cobbler.
Hare's (born 1792 or 1804) birthplace is variously given as Poyntzpass
near Newry
, or Derry
, both of which are also in the Province of Ulster in Ireland. Like Burke, he emigrated to Scotland and worked as a Union Canal labourer. He then moved to Edinburgh, where he met a man named Logue, who ran a lodging-house in the West Port
. When Logue died in 1826, Hare married Margaret Laird, Logue's widow. Margaret Hare continued to run the lodging house, and Hare worked on the canal.
[Note on the origins of Hare from the Newry Telegraph, 31 March 1829]
In late 1828, Burke and McDougal moved into Tanner's Close, in the West Port area of Edinburgh, where Margaret Hare kept a lodging-house. Burke had met Margaret on previous trips to Edinburgh, but it is not known whether he was previously acquainted with Hare. Once Burke arrived in Tanner's Corner, they became good friends. According to Hare's later testimony, the first body they sold was that of 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, looking for a purchaser. According to Burke's later testimony, a student directed them to Surgeon's Square where they sold the body for £7.10s (2010:£731 US$1,130) to Dr. Robert Knox, a local anatomist
.
Burke and Hare's first murder victim was a sick tenant, Joseph the Miller, whom they plied with whisky and then suffocated
. When there were no other sickly tenants, they decided to lure a victim from the street. In February 1828, they invited pensioner Abigail Simpson to spend the night before her return to home. Using the same modus operandi
, they served Simpson alcohol with the intention of intoxicating her, and then smothered her. They were paid £10.
Hare's wife, Margaret, invited a woman to the inn, plied her with drink, and then sent for her husband. Next, Burke encountered two women in the section of Edinburgh known as the Canongate, Mary Patterson and Janet Brown. He invited them to breakfast, but Brown left when an argument broke out between McDougal and Burke. When she returned, she was told that Patterson had left with Burke; in fact, she, too, had been taken to Dr. Knox's dissecting rooms. The two women were described as prostitutes in contemporary accounts. The story later arose that some of Knox's students recognized the dead Patterson.
The next victim was an acquaintance of Burke, a bigger woman called Effie. They were paid £10 for her body. Then Burke "saved" a woman from police by claiming that he knew her. He delivered her body to the medical school just hours later. The next two victims were an old woman and her blind grandson. While his grandmother died from an overdose on painkillers, Hare took the young boy and stretched him over his knee, then proceeded to break his back. Both bodies were ultimately sold for £8 each. The next two victims were Burke's acquaintance "Mrs. Ostler" and one of McDougal's relatives, Ann Dougal.
Another victim was Elizabeth Haldane, a former lodger who, down on her luck, asked to sleep in Hare's stable. Burke and Hare also murdered her daughter Peggy Haldane a few months later.
Burke and Hare's next victim was an even better-known person, 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. His mother began to ask for her boy. 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 he apparently began to dissect the cadaver's face first.
The last victim 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 murderous task because of the presence of lodgers James and Ann Gray. The Grays left for the night and neighbours heard the sounds of a struggle.
Burke and Hare had removed the body from the house before the police arrived. However, under questioning, Burke claimed that Docherty had left at 7:00 a.m., while McDougal claimed that she had left in the evening. The police arrested them. An anonymous tip-off led them to Knox's classroom where they found Docherty's body, which James Gray identified. William and Margaret Hare were arrested soon thereafter. The murder spree had lasted twelve months.
When an Edinburgh paper wrote about the disappearances on 6 November 1828, Janet Brown went to the police and identified her friend Mary Patterson's clothing.
The evidence against the pair was not overwhelming, so Lord Advocate
Sir William Rae offered Hare immunity from prosecution
if he confessed and agreed to testify against Burke. Hare's testimony led to Burke's death sentence
in December 1828. He was hanged on 28 January 1829, after which 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." His skeleton, death mask
, and items made from his tanned skin are displayed at the college's museum.
McDougal was released, since her complicity to the murders was not provable. Knox was not prosecuted, despite public outrage at his role in providing an incentive for the 16 murders. Burke swore in his confession that Knox had known nothing of the origin of the cadavers.
and reputedly returned to Ireland. Nothing more is known about her.
Hare was released in February 1829, and many popular tales tell of him as a blind beggar on the streets of London, having been mobbed and thrown in a lime
pit. However, none of these reports were ever confirmed. The last known sighting of him was in the English town of Carlisle.
Knox kept silent about his dealings with Burke and Hare, and he continued to employ Edinburgh body-snatchers while lecturing on anatomy. After the Anatomy Act was passed in 1832, his popularity among students decreased. His applications for formal positions in the Edinburgh Medical School were rejected. He moved to the Cancer Hospital in London and died in 1862.
, which expanded the legal supply of medical cadavers to eliminate the incentive for such behaviour. About the law, an editorial in The Lancet
stated:
The Burke and Hare murders are referenced in Robert Louis Stevenson
's short story, "The Body Snatcher
", which portrays two doctors in Robert Knox's employ responsible for buying the corpses from the killers.
The 1945 film The Body Snatcher
, directed by Robert Wise, stars 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 was released as The Greed of William Hart.
Dylan Thomas
' 1953 screenplay, The Doctor and the Devils, is a retelling of the Burke and Hare murder story, in which the names of the characters were altered. It was realised as a film in 1985 which 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.
The New Exhibit, a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone
, features Burke and Hare along with several other historical murderers as exhibits in a wax museum tended by curator Martin Balsam
.
The 23 November 1964 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "The McGregor Affair" featured Burke and Hare as characters. Andrew Duggan
starred as McGregor, a man who hauls items for Burke and Hare. Burke was played by Arthur Malet
, and Hare by Michael Pate
.
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.
In the 1989 children's show Tugs, two scrap dealers are known as Burke and Blair, a parody of the two corpse dealers.
In 1999 a novel inspired by Burke and Hare, Grave Robbers, was written by Robin Mitchell
and published by Luath Press, Edinburgh.
The 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.
I Sell The Dead
, a 2008 comedy horror film, has pub patrons claiming career grave-robbers Willie and Arthur are successful rivals for Burke and Hare's notoriety.
Burke and Hare
, a film loosely based upon the historical case, 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. A North American release date is forthcoming.
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
perpetrated in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland, from November 1827 to October 31, 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses
Cadaver
A cadaver is a dead human body.Cadaver may also refer to:* Cadaver tomb, tomb featuring an effigy in the form of a decomposing body* Cadaver , a video game* cadaver A command-line WebDAV client for Unix....
of their 17 victims to provide material for dissection
Dissection
Dissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components....
. Their purchaser was Doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
Robert Knox
Robert Knox
Robert Knox was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist and zoologist. He was the most popular lecturer in anatomy in Edinburgh before his involvement in the Burke and Hare body-snatching case. This ruined his career, and a later move to London did not improve matters...
, a private anatomy lecturer whose students were drawn from Edinburgh Medical College. Their accomplices included Burke's mistress, Helen McDougal, and Hare's wife, Margaret Laird. From their infamous method of killing their victims has come the word "burking", meaning to purposefully smother and compress the chest of a victim, and a derived meaning, to quietly suppress.
Historical background
Before 1832, there were insufficient cadaverCadaver
A cadaver is a dead human body.Cadaver may also refer to:* Cadaver tomb, tomb featuring an effigy in the form of a decomposing body* Cadaver , a video game* cadaver A command-line WebDAV client for Unix....
s legitimately available for the study and teaching of anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
in British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
medical schools. The University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
was an institution universally renowned for medical sciences. As medical science began to flourish in the early nineteenth century, demand rose sharply, but at the same time, the only legal supply of cadavers—the bodies of executed criminals—had fallen due to a sharp reduction in the execution rate in the early nineteenth century, brought about by the repeal of the Bloody Code. Only about two or three corpses per year were available for a large number of students. This situation attracted criminal elements who were willing to obtain specimens by any means. The activities of body-snatchers (also called resurrectionists) gave rise to particular public fear and revulsion. It was a short step from grave-robbing to anatomy murder
Anatomy murder
An anatomy murder is a murder committed in order to use all or part of the cadaver for medical research or teaching. It is not a medicine murder because the body parts are not believed to have any medicinal use in themselves. The motive for the murder is created by the demand for cadavers for ...
.
Burke and Hare
Burke (1792 – 28 January 1829) was born in Urney, near StrabaneStrabane
Strabane , historically spelt Straban,is a town in west County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It contains the headquarters of Strabane District Council....
, in the very west of County Tyrone
County Tyrone
Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...
, part of the Province of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. After trying his hand at a variety of trades and serving as an officer's servant in the Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
Militia, he left his wife and two children in Ireland and emigrated to Scotland about 1817, working as a navvy
Navvy
Navvy is a shorter form of navigator or navigational engineer and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working on major civil engineering projects...
for the Union Canal
Union Canal (Scotland)
The Union Canal is a 31.5-mile canal in Scotland, from Lochrin Basin, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh to Falkirk, where it meets the Forth and Clyde Canal.-Location and features:...
. There he met Helen McDougal. Burke afterwards worked as a labourer, weaver, baker and a cobbler.
Hare's (born 1792 or 1804) birthplace is variously given as Poyntzpass
Poyntzpass
Poyntzpass is a village on the border between County Armagh and County Down in Northern Ireland. It is within the Armagh City and District Council area. In the 2001 census it had a population of 1987 people....
near Newry
Newry
Newry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...
, or Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
, both of which are also in the Province of Ulster in Ireland. Like Burke, he emigrated to Scotland and worked as a Union Canal labourer. He then moved to Edinburgh, where he met a man named Logue, who ran a lodging-house in the West Port
West Port, Edinburgh
West Port is a street in Edinburgh's Old Town, Scotland, located just south of Edinburgh Castle. It runs from Main Point down to the south west corner of the Grassmarket...
. When Logue died in 1826, Hare married Margaret Laird, Logue's widow. Margaret Hare continued to run the lodging house, and Hare worked on the canal.
[Note on the origins of Hare from the Newry Telegraph, 31 March 1829]
Hare the Murderer.
On Friday evening last Hare the murderer called in a public house in Scarva accompanied by his wife and child and having ordered a naggin of whiskey he began to enquire for the welfare of every member of the family of the house, with well affected solicitude. However, as Hare is a native of this neighbourhood, he was very soon recognised and ordered to leave the place immediately, with which he complied after attempting to palliate his horrid crimes by describing them as having been the effects of intoxication. He took the road towards Loughbrickland followed by a number of boys yelling and threatening in such a manner as obliged him to take through the fields with such speed that he soon disappeared whilst his unfortunate wife remained on the road imploring forgiveness and denying, in the most solemn manner, any participation in the crimes of her wretched husband. They now reside at the house of an uncle of Hare’s near Loughbrickland.
Hare was born and bred about one half mile distant from Scarva in the opposite county of Armagh and shortly before his departure from this country he lived in the service of Mr Hall, the keeper of the eleventh lock near Poyntzpass. He was chiefly engaged in driving the horses which his master employed in hauling lighters on the Newry Canal. He was always remarkable for being of a ferocious and malignant disposition, an instance of which he gave in the killing of one of his Master’s horses, which obliged him to fly to Scotland where he perpetrated those unparalleled crimes that must always secure him a conspicuous page in the annals of murder.
[Correspondence of The Northern Whig]
Murders
Pensioner
In common parlance, a pensioner is a person who has retired, and now collects a pension. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom and Australia where someone of pensionable age may also be referred to as an 'old age pensioner', or OAP. In the United States, the term retiree is more...
who owed Hare £4 rent. Instead of burying the body, they filled the coffin with bark and brought the cadaver to Edinburgh University, looking for a purchaser. According to Burke's later testimony, a student directed them to Surgeon's Square where they sold the body for £7.10s (2010:£731 US$1,130) to Dr. Robert Knox, a local anatomist
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
.
Burke and Hare's first murder victim was a sick tenant, Joseph the Miller, whom they plied with whisky and then suffocated
Suffocation
Suffocation is the process of Asphyxia.Suffocation may also refer to:* Suffocation , an American death metal band* "Suffocation", a song on Morbid Angel's debut album, Altars of Madness...
. When there were no other sickly tenants, they decided to lure a victim from the street. In February 1828, they invited pensioner Abigail Simpson to spend the night before her return to home. Using the same modus operandi
Modus operandi
Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "mode of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning...
, they served Simpson alcohol with the intention of intoxicating her, and then smothered her. They were paid £10.
Hare's wife, Margaret, invited a woman to the inn, plied her with drink, and then sent for her husband. Next, Burke encountered two women in the section of Edinburgh known as the Canongate, Mary Patterson and Janet Brown. He invited them to breakfast, but Brown left when an argument broke out between McDougal and Burke. When she returned, she was told that Patterson had left with Burke; in fact, she, too, had been taken to Dr. Knox's dissecting rooms. The two women were described as prostitutes in contemporary accounts. The story later arose that some of Knox's students recognized the dead Patterson.
The next victim was an acquaintance of Burke, a bigger woman called Effie. They were paid £10 for her body. Then Burke "saved" a woman from police by claiming that he knew her. He delivered her body to the medical school just hours later. The next two victims were an old woman and her blind grandson. While his grandmother died from an overdose on painkillers, Hare took the young boy and stretched him over his knee, then proceeded to break his back. Both bodies were ultimately sold for £8 each. The next two victims were Burke's acquaintance "Mrs. Ostler" and one of McDougal's relatives, Ann Dougal.
Another victim was Elizabeth Haldane, a former lodger who, down on her luck, asked to sleep in Hare's stable. Burke and Hare also murdered her daughter Peggy Haldane a few months later.
Burke and Hare's next victim was an even better-known person, a mentally retarded
Mental retardation
Mental retardation is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors...
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. His mother began to ask for her boy. 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 he apparently began to dissect the cadaver's face first.
The last victim 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 murderous task because of the presence of lodgers James and Ann Gray. The Grays left for the night and neighbours heard the sounds of a struggle.
Detection
The next day, Ann Gray, who had returned, became suspicious 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 ran into McDougal 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. However, under questioning, Burke claimed that Docherty had left at 7:00 a.m., while McDougal claimed that she had left in the evening. The police arrested them. An anonymous tip-off led them to Knox's classroom where they found Docherty's body, which James Gray identified. William and Margaret Hare were arrested soon thereafter. The murder spree had lasted twelve months.
When an Edinburgh paper wrote about the disappearances on 6 November 1828, Janet Brown went to the police and identified her friend Mary Patterson's clothing.
The evidence against the pair was not overwhelming, so Lord Advocate
Lord Advocate
Her Majesty's Advocate , known as the Lord Advocate , is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved powers of the Scottish Parliament...
Sir William Rae offered Hare immunity from prosecution
Prosecutorial immunity
Immunity from prosecution occurs when a prosecutor grants immunity, usually to a witness in exchange for testimony or production of other evidence. It is immunity because the prosecutor essentially agrees to never prosecute the crime that the witness might have committed in exchange for said...
if he confessed and agreed to testify against Burke. Hare's testimony led to Burke's death sentence
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
in December 1828. He was hanged on 28 January 1829, after which 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." His skeleton, death mask
Death mask
In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person’s face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits...
, and items made from his tanned skin are displayed at the college's museum.
McDougal was released, since her complicity to the murders was not provable. Knox was not prosecuted, despite public outrage at his role in providing an incentive for the 16 murders. Burke swore in his confession that Knox had known nothing of the origin of the cadavers.
Aftermath
McDougal 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 lynchingLynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
and reputedly returned to Ireland. Nothing more is known about her.
Hare was released in February 1829, and many popular tales tell of him as a blind beggar on the streets of London, having been mobbed and thrown in a lime
Lime (mineral)
Lime is a general term for calcium-containing inorganic materials, in which carbonates, oxides and hydroxides predominate. Strictly speaking, lime is calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. It is also the name for a single mineral of the CaO composition, occurring very rarely...
pit. However, none of these reports were ever confirmed. The last known sighting of him was in the English town of Carlisle.
Knox kept silent about his dealings with Burke and Hare, and he continued to employ Edinburgh body-snatchers while lecturing on anatomy. After the Anatomy Act was passed in 1832, his popularity among students decreased. His applications for formal positions in the Edinburgh Medical School were rejected. He moved to the Cancer Hospital in London and died in 1862.
Political consequences
The murders highlighted the crisis in medical education and led to the subsequent passing of the Anatomy Act 1832Anatomy Act 1832
The Anatomy Act 1832 was a United Kingdom Act of Parliament that gave freer license to doctors, teachers of anatomy, and bona fide medical students to dissect donated bodies...
, which expanded the legal supply of medical cadavers to eliminate the incentive for such behaviour. About the law, an editorial in The Lancet
The Lancet
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...
stated:
In media portrayals and popular culture
Folk tales about "Burkers" attacking travelers, especially children, to sell their cadavers are still common in Scotland.The Burke and Hare murders are referenced in Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
's short story, "The Body Snatcher
The Body Snatcher
The Body Snatcher is a fictional short story by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. First published in the Pall Mall Christmas "Extra", in December 1884, the story is based on characters in the employ of Robert Knox, around the time of the Burke and Hare murders.-Plot summary:The story...
", which portrays two doctors in Robert Knox's employ responsible for buying the corpses from the killers.
The 1945 film The Body Snatcher
The Body Snatcher (film)
The Body Snatcher is a 1945 horror film directed by Robert Wise based on the short story The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film's producer Val Lewton helped adapt the story for the screen, writing under the pen name of "Carlos Keith". The film was marketed with the tagline The...
, directed by Robert Wise, stars Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
and Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
. The murders were adapted into a 1948 film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
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
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
with alternative dialogue and characters, and was released as The Greed of William Hart.
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
' 1953 screenplay, The Doctor and the Devils, is a retelling of the Burke and Hare murder story, in which the names of the characters were altered. It was realised as a film in 1985 which starred Timothy Dalton as Dr Rock (Thomas' characterisation of Dr Knox) and was directed by Freddie Francis
Freddie Francis
Frederick William Francis BSC was an English cinematographer and film director.He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer, including winning two Academy Awards, for Sons and Lovers and Glory...
.
The 1960 film The Flesh and the Fiends
The Flesh and the Fiends
The Flesh and the Fiends is a 1960 horror film starring Peter Cushing as medical doctor Robert Knox, who purchases human corpses for research from an obliging pair named Burke and Hare.-Cast:*Peter Cushing as Dr...
starred Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
as Knox, Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
as Hare and George Rose
George Rose (actor)
\...
as Burke. The following year, The Anatomist featured Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim
Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two St. Trinian's films...
as Knox.
The New Exhibit, a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
, features Burke and Hare along with several other historical murderers as exhibits in a wax museum tended by curator Martin Balsam
Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
.
The 23 November 1964 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "The McGregor Affair" featured Burke and Hare as characters. Andrew Duggan
Andrew Duggan
-Career:During World War II, Duggan was in the 40th Special Services Company, led by actor Melvyn Douglas in the China Burma India Theater of World War II. His contact with Douglas later led to his performing with Lucille Ball in the play Dreamgirl. He developed a friendship with Broadway...
starred as McGregor, a man who hauls items for Burke and Hare. Burke was played by Arthur Malet
Arthur Malet
Arthur Malet is an English actor.Arthur Malet was born in Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, England in 1927. He emigrated to the United States in the 1950s, starting out onstage and winning two Drama Desk Awards in 1957. He came to some prominence in the 1960s, starring in films playing characters much...
, and Hare by Michael Pate
Michael Pate
Michael Pate was an Australian actor, writer and director.-Early life:He was born Edward John Pate in Drummoyne, Sydney...
.
The 1971 film Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is a 1971 British film directed by Roy Ward Baker based on the short story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film was made by British studio Hammer Film Productions and was their second adaptation of the story after their 1960 film The...
transported Burke and Hare into the late Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
and portrayed them as being employed by Dr. Jekyll. Burke was played by Ivor Dean
Ivor Dean
Ivor Donald Dean was a British stage and television actor.With his lugubrious demeanour he was often cast as world-weary police officers or butlers, and indeed it is for the role of Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal in the 1960s series The Saint, opposite Roger Moore, that he is best remembered...
and Hare by Tony Calvin.
The 1972 film Burke & Hare
Burke & Hare (film)
Burk & Hare, sometimes called Burke and Hare or The Horrors of Burke and Hare, is a 1971 horror film, directed by Vernon Sewell, and starring Derren Nesbitt, Harry Andrews, and Glynn Edwards. It is based on the Burke and Hare murders, and was the last film to be directed by Vernon Sewell...
starred Derren Nesbitt
Derren Nesbitt
Derren Nesbitt is an English actor. Possibly his best known role was as SS Major von Hapen in Where Eagles Dare.In 2008 he was writing a book on "biblical myths and falsehoods".-Acting career:...
as Burke and Glynn Edwards
Glynn Edwards
Glynn Edwards is a British actor.Edwards was born in Malaya and trained as an actor at Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. He is probably best known for his role as Dave 'the barman' Harris, owner of the Winchester Club in the TV show Minder...
as Hare.
In the 1989 children's show Tugs, two scrap dealers are known as Burke and Blair, a parody of the two corpse dealers.
In 1999 a novel inspired by Burke and Hare, Grave Robbers, was written by Robin Mitchell
Robin Mitchell
Robin Mitchell, born in the village of Letham, Fife, Scotland on the 27th May 1963, is a Tour Guide, Writer and Film Producer.-Education:He attended Parkhill Primary School in Leven and Buckhaven High School. At Edinburgh Napier University, he studied Hotel Catering and Institutional Management...
and published by Luath Press, Edinburgh.
The 2004 Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
audio drama Medicinal Purposes
Medicinal Purposes
Medicinal Purposes is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:Edinburgh, 1827...
placed the Sixth Doctor
Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
(Colin Baker
Colin Baker
Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...
) amidst the events of the murders; the play featured Leslie Phillips
Leslie Phillips
Leslie Samuel Phillips, CBE is an English actor with a highly recognisable upper class accent. Originally known for his work as a comedy actor, Phillips subsequently made the transition to character roles.-Early life:...
as Dr. Knox and David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
as Daft Jamie.
I Sell The Dead
I Sell The Dead
I Sell the Dead is a 2008 comedy horror film, the feature film debut from Irish director Glenn McQuaid. The film is a period horror comedy about grave robbing and stars Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman, Larry Fessenden and Angus Scrimm.-Plot:...
, a 2008 comedy horror film, has pub patrons claiming career grave-robbers Willie and Arthur are successful rivals for Burke and Hare's notoriety.
Burke and Hare
Burke and Hare (film)
Burke and Hare is a British black comedy film, loosely based on the Burke and Hare murders. Directed by John Landis, the film stars Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as William Burke and William Hare respectively. It was Landis's first feature film release in twelve years, the last being 1998's Susan's...
, a film loosely based upon the historical case, starring Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...
as Burke and Andy Serkis
Andy Serkis
Andrew Clement G. "Andy" Serkis is an English actor, director and author. He is popularly known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he earned several award nominations, including the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Two Towers...
as Hare, and directed by John Landis
John Landis
John David Landis is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for his comedies, his horror films, and his music videos with singer Michael Jackson.-Early life and career:...
, began filming in early 2010, and was released in the UK on 29 October 2010. A North American release date is forthcoming.
Further reading
- Leighton, Alexander, 'The Court of Cacus, or the Story of Burke and Hare', 1861.
- Roughead, William, ed., 'Burke and Hare' (Notable British Trials), Wm Hodge & Co., Ltd., Edinburgh, 1921.
External links
- Buried secrets of the city murder dolls
- Newspaper clipping of the notice of execution of Burke
- Searchable collection of printed materials from the New York Academy of Medicine, related to the murders, trial, and execution of Burke
- The Worlds of Burke and Hare
- The Resurrectionists: Burke and Hare
- Echoes of the Scottish Resurrection Men