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The '''Burke an Hare murthers''' (or the West Port murthers) war serial murthers committit in Edinburgh frae November 1827 tae 31st October 1828. The killins wur attributit tae [[Erse fowk|Erse]] immigrants '''William Burke''' an '''William Hare''', who sauld the [[Cadaver|corpses]] o their 17 victims tae provide material for [[dissection]]. Their purchaser wis [[Fisician|Doctor]] [[Robert Knox]], a private anatomy lecturer whose students wur drawn frae [[Edinburgh Medical College]]. Their accomplices includit Burke's mistress, Helen McDougal, an Hare's wife, Margaret Laird.
{{cite web |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/burke/foursome_2.html |title=William Burke & William Hare}}
Frae their infamous method o killin their victims haes come the wird "burkin", meanin tae purposefully smother an compress the chest o a victim, an a derivit meanin, tae quietly suppress.
{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Burking |title=Definition at dictionary.com}}
{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/burking |title=Definition at Merriam Webster}}
The '''Burke an Hare murthers''' (or the West Port murthers) war serial murthers committit in Edinburgh frae November 1827 tae 31st October 1828. The killins wur attributit tae [[Erse fowk|Erse]] immigrants '''William Burke''' an '''William Hare''', who sauld the [[Cadaver|corpses]] o their 17 victims tae provide material for [[dissection]]. Their purchaser wis [[Fisician|Doctor]] [[Robert Knox]], a private anatomy lecturer whose students wur drawn frae [[Edinburgh Medical College]]. Their accomplices includit Burke's mistress, Helen McDougal, an Hare's wife, Margaret Laird.
{{cite web |url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/burke/foursome_2.html |title=William Burke & William Hare}}
Frae their infamous method o killin their victims haes come the wird "burkin", meanin tae purposefully smother an compress the chest o a victim, an a derivit meanin, tae quietly suppress.
{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Burking |title=Definition at dictionary.com}}
{{cite web |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/burking |title=Definition at Merriam Webster}}
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==Historical backgrund==
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{{Main|History o anatomy in the 19t century}}
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Before 1832, there wur insufficient [[cadaver]]s legitimately available for the study an teachin of [[anatomy]] in [[Great Breetain|Breetish]] medical schools. The [[University o Edinburgh]] wis an institution universally renouned for medical sciences. As medical science began tae flourish in the early nineteent century, demand rose shairply, but at the same time, the anerlie legal supply o cadavers—the bodies o executit creeminals—haed fawen due tae a shairp reduction in the execution rate in the early nineteent century, brocht aboot bi the repeal o the [[Bloody Code]]. Anerlie aboot twa or three corpses per year wur available for a lairge nummer o students. This situation attractit creeminal elements who wur willin tae obtain specimens bi ony means. The activities o [[body snatchin|body-snatchers]] (cried resurrectionists an aw) gave rise tae pairticular public fear an revulsion. It wis a short step frae grave-robbin tae [[anatomy murther]].
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==Burke an Hare==
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[[File:Old Surgeon's Hall, Edinburgh.jpg|thumb|Old Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh]]
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Burke (1792 – 28 Januar 1829) wis born in Urney, near [[Stràbane]], in the vera wast o [[Coonty Tyrone]], pairt o the Province o [[Ulster]] in the north o [[Ireland]]. Urney, a sma destrict whaur the veelage o [[Clady, Coonty Tyrone|Clady]] is locatit, lees on the eastren bank o the [[River Finn]], juist athort frae [[Coonty Dunnygal]]. Efter tryin his haund at a variety o trades an servin as an officer's servant in the Dunnygal Militia, he left his wife an twa childer in Ireland an emigratit tae Scotland aboit 1817, wirkin as a [[navvy]] for the [[Union Canal (Scotland)|Union Canal]]. Thare he met Helen McDougal. Burke efterwairds wirkit as a labourer, weaver, baker an a cobbler.
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Hare's (born 1792 or 1804) birthplace is variously given as [[Poyntzpass]] near [[Newry]], or [[Derry]], baith o which are in the Province o Ulster in Ireland an aw. Like Burke, he emigratit tae Scotland an wirkit as a Union Canal labourer. He then muivit tae Edinburgh, whaur he met a man namit Logue, who ran a lodgin-hoose in [[West Port, Edinburgh|the West Port]]. When Logue dee'd in 1826, Hare marriet Margaret Laird, Logue's widae. Margaret Hare continued tae run the lodgin hoose, an Hare wirkit on the canal.
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==Murthers==
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In late 1828, Burke an McDougal muivit intae Tanner's Close, in the West Port aurie o Edinburgh, where Margaret Hare kept a lodgin-hoose. Burke had met Margaret on previous trips tae Edinburgh, but it is no kent whether he wis previously acquaintit wi Hare. Ance Burke arrivit in Tanner's Corner, they became guid friends.
{{cite book|last=Howard|first=Amanda|coauthors=Martin Smith|title=River of Blood: Serial Killers and Their Victims|publisher=[[Universal Publishers|Universal]]{{dn|{{subst:DATE}}|date=August 2012}}|year=2004|chapter=William Burke and William Hare|isbn=1-58112-518-6|accessdate=2008-10-11|page=50}}
Accordin tae Hare's later testimony, the first body they sauld wis that o a tenant who haed dee'd o natural causes, an auld airmy [[pensioner]] who awed Hare [[Poond sterling|£]]4 rent. Instead o buryin the body, they filled the coffin wi bark an brocht the cadaver tae Edinburgh University, leukin for a purchaser. Accordin tae Burke's later testimony, a student directit them tae Surgeon's Square whaur they sauld the body for £7.10s (2010:£731 US$1,130) tae Dr. Robert Knox, a local [[anatomy|anatomist]].
{{cite book|title=West Port Murders|publisher=Edinburgh: Thomas Ireland|year=1829|chapter=William Burke, Confessions}}
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Burke an Hare's first murther victim wis a sick tenant, Joseph the Miller, whom they plied wi whisky an then [[suffocation|suffocatit]]. When thare wur nae ither sickly tenants, they decidit tae lur a victim frae the street. In Februar 1828, they invitit pensioner Abigail Simpson tae spend the nicht afore her return tae home. Uisin the same ''[[modus operandi]]'', they servit Simpson alcohol wi the intention o [[Alcohol intoxication|intoxicatin]] her, an then smothered her. They wur paid £10.
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Hare's wife, Margaret, invitit a wumman tae the inn, plied her wi drink, an then sent for her husband. Next, Burke encoontered twa weemen in the section o Edinburgh kent as the Canongate, Mary Patterson an Janet Brown. He invitit them tae breakfast, but Brown left when an argument broke oot atween McDougal an Burke. When she returned, she wis tauld that Patterson haed left wi Burke; in fact, she, too, haed been taken tae Dr. Knox's dissectin ruims.
The twa weemen wur describit as prostitutes in contemporary accoonts.
{{cite book|title=West Port Murders |publisher=Edinburgh: Thomas Ireland|year=1829}}
{{cite book|title=Trial of William Burke and Helen McDougal |publisher=Edinburgh: Robert Buchanan|year=1829|chapter=Preface}}
The story later arose that some o Knox's students recognisit the dead Patterson.
{{cite book|last=Lonsdale|first=Henry|title=A Sketch of the Life and Writings of Robert Knox, the Anatomist|publisher=London: MacMillan|year=1870}}
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The next victim wis an acquaintance o Burke, a bigger wumman cried Effie. They wur paid £10 for her body. Then Burke "savit" a wumman frae polis bi claimin that he knew her. He delivered her body tae the medical schuil juist oors later. The next twa victims wur an auld wumman an her blind grandson. While the grandmither dee'd frae an owerdose on painkillers, Hare teuk the young boy an stretched him ower his knee, then proceedit tae break his back. Baith bodies wur ultimately sauld for £8 each. The next twa victims wur Burke's acquaintance "Mrs. Ostler" an ane o McDougal's relatives, Ann Dougal.
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Anither victim wis Elizabeth Haldane, a umwhile lodger who, doun on her luck, askit tae sleep in Hare's stable. Burke an Hare murthered her dochter Peggy Haldane a few months later an aw.
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Burke an Hare's next victim wis an even better-kent person, a [[Mental retardation|mentally retardit]] young man wi a limp, namit James Wilson, cried "Daft Jamie", who wis 18 at the time o his murther. The boy resistit, an the pair haed tae kill him thegither, though later each blamit the ither for takkin the main pairt in the creeme. His mither began tae ask for her boy. When Dr. Knox uncovered the body the next fore-nuin, several students recognisit Jamie. His heid an feet wur cut aff efter Knox haed shown his students the body. Knox denied that it wis Jamie, but he apparently began tae dissect the cadaver's face first.
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The last victim wis Marjory Campbell Docherty. Burke lured her intae the lodgin hoose bi claimin that his mither wis a Docherty an aw, but he haed tae wait tae complete his murtherous task acause o the presence o lodgers James an Ann Gray. The Grays left for the nicht an neebours
heard the soonds o a struggle.
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==Detection==
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The next day, Ann Gray, who haed returned, became suspicious when Burke wad no let her approach a bed whaur she haed left her stockins. When the Grays wur left alane in the hoose in the early fore-nicht, they checkit the be an foond Docherty's body unner it. On their wey tae alert the polis, they ran intae McDougal who tree'd tae bribe them wi an affer o £10 a week. They refused.
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Burke an Hare haed remuivit the body frae the hoose afore the polis arrivit. Housomeivver, unner questionin, Burke claimit that Docherty haed left at 7:00 a.m., while McDougal claimit that she haed left in the fore-nicht. The polis arrestit them. An anonymous tip-aff led them tae Knox's classruim whaur they foond Docherty's body, which James Gray identifee'd. William an Margaret Hare wur arrestit suin thareefter. The murther spree haed lastit twal months.
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When an Edinburgh paper wrote aboot the disappearances on 6 November 1828
, Janet Brown went tae the polis an identifee'd her friend Mary Patterson's clothin.
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The evidence against the pair wis no owerwhelmin, so [[Lord Advocate]] [[Sir William Rae, 3rd Baronet|Sir William Rae]] affered Hare [[Prosecutorial immunity|immunity from prosecution]] if he confessed an greit tae testifee against Burke. Hare's testimony led tae Burke's [[Caipital punishment|daith sentence]] in December 1828. He wis [[hanged]] on 28 Januar 1829, efter which he wis publicly dissectit at the Edinburgh Medical College.
{{cite book|last=Howard|first=Amanda |coauthors=Martin Smith|title=River of Blood: Serial Killers and Their Victims|publisher=[[Universal Publishers|Universal]]|year=2004|chapter=William Burke and William Hare|isbn=1-58112-518-6|accessdate=11 October 2008|page=54}}
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The dissectin professor, [[Alexander Monro (tertius)|Alexander Monro]], dippit his quill pen intae Burke's blood an wrote "This is written with the blood of Wm Burke, who was hanged at Edinburgh. This blood was taken from his head."
{{cite book|last=Rosner|first=Lisa|title=The Anatomy Murders|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press|Penn Press]]|year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8122-4191-4}}
His skeleton an [[daith mask]] are displayed at the University o Edinburgh's Anatomical Museum.
{{cite web|url=http://www.anatomy.mvm.ed.ac.uk/museum/explore-spotlight.php |title=Anatomical Museum |publisher=Edinburgh University|accessdate=2 March 2012}}
Items made frae his tanned skin are displayed at Surgeon's Hall. A cawin caird case made oot o Willliam Burke's skin is on display at The Police Information Centre in Edinburgh's Royal Mile.
{{cite web|title=Burke's skin pocket book |url=http://www.scotlandandmedicine.com/site/CMD=PICDETAIL/PICID=248/838/default.aspx|work=Scotland Medicine|accessdate=11 October 2008|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bUW8rrX2|archivedate=11 October 2008}}
{{cite web |title=William Burke|url=http://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst354.html|work=Gazetteer for Scotland |accessdate=11 October 2008|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5bUWKr0cS|archivedate=11 October 2008}}
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Wallets supposedly made frae Burke's skin wur affered for sale on the streets.
David H. Freedman, "20 Things you didn't know about autopsies," ''Discover'' September 2012.
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McDougal was released, syne her complicity tae the murthers wis no pruivable. Knox wis no prosecutit, despite public ootrage at his role in providin an incentive for the 16 murthers. Burke swore in his confession that Knox haed kent nothin o the oreegin o the cadavers.
==Notes==
==Notes==
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[[Category:Fowk frae Coonty Tyrone]]
[[Category:Fowk frae Coonty Tyrone]]
[[Category:Scots serial killers]]
[[Category:Scots serial killers]]
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